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August 27, 2008

Thankfully the FCC Agreed With Me, That Satellite Radio has Tons of Competition

By: The Dude on the Right
Sure, this blog "Title" isn't really that timely, but as I am planning a boatload of hours in the Dude-Mobile over the next couple of weeks, and even though said Dude-Mobile has Sirius Satellite Radio in it, I am actually putting together an iPod "During My Travels" playlist, for me to be able to listen to songs I totally love while I am in my car, via, well, my old iPod.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my satellite radio, am looking forward, thanks to the merger approval, of being able to get "Oprah Radio," or whatever it was called when XM was only XM, but sometimes, even with a boatload of commercial-free music channels, (and yes, Howard Stern being on vacation while I'll be in my Dude-Mobile does influence my listening choices), I still am a chronic channel-hopper, and the minute a song comes on Sirius Hits 1 that I don't like I switch to Alt Nation 21.  Bad song on Alt Nation, I'm off to Faction on Channel 28.  Sure, sometimes I'm in a country music kind of mood, so I head for New Country on Channel 60, but when I want a laugh, I know I can always hit the quadfecta of comedy at Blue Collar Radio on 103, Raw Dog (where they actually have a cat named Oscar hosting a show) on 104, clean comedy on 105, and The Foxxhole on 106.  But the satellite radio folks still have normal radio programming issues because the last time I was trying to impress my BFF, that satellite radio was way cool, Classic Rewind on Channel 15 seemed to be stuck in a Genesis/Phil Collins mode, and as much as I'm down with "Sussudio," I can only take so much Genesis/Phil Collins over the span of three days, and I was really getting bummed with her saying "Is that another song by Genesis?"

For me satellite radio, normal radio, HD Radio, and internet radio, all have one, major adversary of competition, especially now, and their competition is simply a person wanting to listen to only songs they want to hear.  And thanks to the likes of the iPod, iPhone, Zune, or wherever you portably bring your music, can someone please reiterate to the FCC that music competition is a playing field that no longer lives over their precious airwaves?

So, for me, I've already popped some Flo Rida into my "During My Travels" playlist, I'm digging the song "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. so that is there as well, and, I know, it's kind of cliché for this summer, but "I Kissed a Girl" is also in there.  Fine, I'll admit that I have some Hannah Montana songs to listen to, but as I play the playlist on random mode, I'm so looking forward to singing, speaking, and remembering the first time I heard Bruce Springsteen's version of "Growin' Up," from the Agora, for WMMS, and "seeing" Kid Leo prayin' for more watts, and as a boy from the Cleveland area, you can bet some Michael Stanley Band, or even just Michael, will be on that playlist.

Sometimes you hear new songs on the "radio," but thanks to technology, now you don't always have to go pressing buttons in your car to find them.

That's it for this one!  I'm The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 7:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2008

What's New? Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up! The Democratic Convention, Dancing With the Stars, and Disney Disappoints a Gotz.

This podcast episode of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up!" isn't really about The Democratic Convention, nor The Olympics, but during this podcast there's a trip to the Old Country and peeing. Sure, other stuff is associated with this podcast, but doesn't that quadfecta explain it all?

Podcast wise, well, Stu ruins some "Dancing With the Stars" talk, and the reputation of shows with Ted McGinley is subtlety talked about, but more talked about is a Little Gotz having his birthday ruined thank to the folks at Disney thinking "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" should be released in October rather on the Little Gotz birthday.

Summer is almost over, women giving Labor is upon us, and pretty soon the leaves on the trees will tell us that the end-of-the-year holidays will lead us to a new year that will probably influence us in ways we can't control, no matter if Barack Obama or John McCain is our new President.

In the end, we can only control our boat.

Posted by Rightdude at 8:57 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2008

What's New? Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up! A Long Life, Beautiful People, Car Crashes, and More!

This podcast episode of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up!" is about living a long life, and putting yourself in danger.  The Dude on The Right put himself, and the life of his BFF, in danger, by going to see the Chicago Air & Water Show, where, at any time, planes could have come crashing down on them, or more likely, they would have been sunburned beyond belief if it wasn't for the level-headedness of The Dude's BFF.  Stu didn't actually put himself in danger, but he did take the Gotz family to an event of others putting themselves in danger, namely a Demolition Derby, and he also found out that as cool as the iPhone might be, it does have a stupid limitation that Stu's Sprint Instinct might want to exploit a little more in commercial advertisements.

Both of the boys are almost sick of The Olympics and the coverage of Michael Phelps, Stu is still watching shows like "Psych" on Cable TV, and The Dude realized that the nightly light and music show that accompanies Buckingham Fountain in Chicago is pretty cool.

And, oh yea, they also talk about "Tropic Thunder" and upcoming movies.

Posted by Rightdude at 6:55 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2008

What's New? The Chicago Air & Water Show, "Tropic Thunder," Mark Your Calendars, and The Olympics!

The Dude on the Right flies solo for this podcast, though talking about flying is exciting him about seeing the "Chicago Air and Water Show" this weekend with his BFF.  Hopefully that will go well, and Monday's podcast will be all about fun at North Avenue Beach in Chicago.

The Dude also does a large rant on The Olympics with Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz, the Chinese deceiving us, and his loving Fencing and not Women's Beach Volleyball.  He is also strangely fascinated with the Norwegian weightlifter who blew out his arm during his competition.

"Tropic Thunder" talk also is in the podcast, though The Dude is worried that if you don't see the movie, well, you must be a reta$#, though, never mind, he doesn't want to get boycotted.

Maybe you better just listen to this podcast to find out when "Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince" will be in theaters in 2009.

Posted by Rightdude at 8:08 PM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2008

What's New? A Concert Review of "Scorpions."

The Dude on the Right got to see a lot of spiders at Charter One Pavilion in Chicago, but they weren't nearly as exciting as the band that the Scorpions was for this concert review.  Sure, the Scorpions' dudes, some of whom have been around for over forty years, and had their first concert in Chicago 29 years ago, might be a little older, and some people might question the legitimacy of their new CD, but for The Dude, who has never seen them before, he just felt that they rock.  If you want to see a band that rocks, and remember the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane," you will probably like seeing the Scorpions, well, rock.

Posted by Rightdude at 9:55 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up! RIP Chef, Calliope Music, and Stu Doesn't See "The Scorpions" but Does Eat Tamales!" also A Movie Review of "Pineapple Express."

A long weekend leads to building blocks of newness, so for this Monday The Dude on the Right posts his weekend review of "Pineapple Express," noting that as much as he liked the stoner aspect of the flick, once it turned into a gunfight, well, the movie turned just a little too over the top for him.  The funniness was in the stoners, and all of a sudden they had guns?  The Dude on the Right is so critical, sometimes.  But newness isn't only about a movie review, since postings happen on a Monday it's also time for a Stu & The Dude "Weekend Wrap-Up!" podcast, and they've got a lot to talk about. The boys have a different tribute to Isaac Hayes, The Dude one the Right, again, reviews that "Pineapple" movie, Stu wishes his tamale wasn't so spicy, and The Dude will probably be struck down by lightning soon for his comments of attending mass at Holy Name Cathedral (while it is under construction).

And who knew Stu Gotz actually wanted to see The Scorpions?  The Podcast lets The Dude on the Right know that he doesn't know Stu as well as he thought he did.

Oh well.

Have fun reading and listening!

Posted by Rightdude at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)

August 7, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: The W.G.N. is Here, Football Talk, Paris Hilton Talk, Storms and The Olympics!

For this podcast The W.G.N. reunites with The Dude on the Right to talk about many a thing.  Sure, there's football talk, with wonderings about Brett Favre going the The New York Jets, The Chicago Bears lack of a quarterback issue between Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman, and The W.G.N.'s continued love for Cleveland teams.  But they also talk about Paris Hilton's political aspirations, the desire to watch The Olympics, and stormage down in Houston-town.  There are a few more topics of conversation, but hey, why give a synopsis if you are going to give all of the good stuff away.  Just go ahead and listen to the podcast, they don't talk too long.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:28 PM | Comments (0)

August 6, 2008

The DVD Review Catch-Ups Have Begun!

By: The Dude on the Right
As I work into the realm of getting more DVD review copies to, well, review, I took it upon myself this week to work on catching up on some that I got sent to me in the last month or so.  So, without further ado, DVD reviews have been posted recently of the made-for-TV version of "The Andromeda Strain" (it's so a TV movie, with lots of plot able to be solved in the last few minutes of the DVD and "here would be a commercial break" moments), "The Lather Effect," (which in urban slang mode should have been called "The Shampoo Effect," and has a whole lot of talking and doesn't give you the greatest song ever, though it works for the movie), and "It's A Boy Girl Thing," (a "trading bodies" movie with every cliché you can imagine yet still gives some fun parts).  I've got a couple of horror movie DVD's to finish up, one about traveling that I got out of the blue, and then it's to my Netflix queue and hopefully a return to reviewing all of the CD's and videos I have.

That's it for this one!  I'm The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)

August 4, 2008

What's New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up! Movie-ing, Salespeople-ing, Turtle-ing, Food-ing, but No Twittering (yet).

For this episode of Stu & The Dude's "Weekend Wrap-Up!" podcast, during the written synopsis The Dude on the Right becomes obsessed about Twitter and twittering, but thankfully for the actual podcast he just talks about his weekend - spending some time with his BFF while she did some car shopping, they had dinner at Carnivale, and went to see "Swing Vote."  Stu Gotz's weekend was kind of boring, although he did have a turtling issue, solved with a trip to Starbucks, and tries to corrupt The Dude with a visit to Stu's local Apple Store and some lunch at Ricobene's.  Stu can be a bad influence on The Dude, but Stu is thinking The Dude has found a good influence in The Dude's BFF.

Posted by Rightdude at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)

August 3, 2008

What's New? A Movie Review of "Swing Vote."

The Dude on the Right still hates people, but for his review of "Swing Vote," he doesn't explain why.  His hating people has nothing to do with the movie itself (though somewhat about people coming to see a movie), has nothing to do about voting, and in his own twisted way, The Dude almost wishes he could be the vote to decide the President of The United States because, well, he would also want to see the "War Room" on Air Force One, find out if "The President's Secret Book" is real, if there is a secret treasure underneath Wall St., and, if The President had any chance of wanting to get his vote, The Dude would want full access to Area 51, because, well, who wouldn't?

All that said, The Dude can state, right now, that "Swing Vote" has the funniest/twisted/wrong fake "political commercial" he has seen, that has made him laugh, is a long time, and even though he give it 4 stars out of 5, he still recommends that you just might want to save your money and see it as a rental or on cable.  The crazy thing is that the "political commercials" from the movie will still be topical for years to come, as always, in the wrong way.

Posted by Rightdude at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)