This is tonight at 9 PM Pacific.

Here

or here

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-belligerent-years

Comments (0)

Comments (0)

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-belligerent-years

9PM Pacific. Tonight.

Comments (0)

We lost Josh Nilsson seven years ago today, these are some memories of my friend.

Josh Nilsson lived half a block from me in Central Park for a few years. I used to see him walking in a long black leather trench-coat early in the morning so he could catch a city bus that he rode all the way to Hoquiam so he could go to high school. I remember wondering why someone would go to all that trouble, but Josh was a Hoquiam guy through and through. We did hang hang out once during high school. It was the fourth of July and he was setting off fireworks by Central Park Elementary with his sister. I don’t remember what we talked about, but I do remember Josh accidentally set his sister on fire.

I met Josh again when we both worked on the Grays Harbor Community College newspaper, “The Timberline”. I will always cherish my memories of spending Friday nights with him, his wife Angie, Jason Davies, and Jerry Riemann at the Aberdeen Denny’s, laughing till tears streamed down my face. So many great memories. He was sweet and caring, and somebody you always wanted in your corner.

My tribute to Josh is reprinting his Timberline review for The Beastie Boys “Check Your Head” from May of 1992. Josh Loved the Beastie Boys. Click on the picture to enlarge it for reading.

(Josh and I on the GHC Forensics Team – He wasn’t there the day they took the pic, so they “photoshopped” him in)

Comments (0)

Live video by Ustream

You can watch it here or here. I mean listen. This is an audio show, dude.

Comments (0)

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-belligerent-years

Comments (0)

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-belligerent-years

Comments (1)

“Honey, do you think that they would eat coffee cake?”

“I’m not sure they have mouths, babe.”

“If you had to make a guess—totally off the cuff—would you say that
they would like an apple pie?”

“Why don’t you go out and ask them?  They are unloading their
transport out front.”

“I don’t want to bother them.  Maybe you should ask them if they need
any help.  I am sure they would appreciate it.”

“I hope that they aren’t going to park that thing on the curb.  Oh
hell—they’re tearing up the grass in front of the sidewalk.  I should
go out there and give them a piece of my mind.  Who do they think they
are?”

“You should go out there and tell them how you feel.”

“I just might.”

“When you are out there, could you ask them if they eat snickerdoodles?”

“God damn it–that takes the cake.”

“What? What?”

“They’re dripping.”

“What do you mean, ‘dripping’?”

“There is some kind of goo, dripping off of their tentacles.”

“Barb Swanson says that’s how they sweat.  She says it’s perfectly harmless.”

“That’s good, because they seem to be ‘sweating’ all over your rose bushes.”

“They are?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Shit.”

“Yup.”

“What should we do?”

“I think we should go talk to them—maybe later in the evening.  It
looks like they are setting up a Freon dispenser on our fence line.
That won’t do.”

“What should I make?”

“I don’t think it matters, babe.  It’s the thought that counts.”

“I’ll make chocolate chip.  Everybody likes chocolate chip.”

“You’re probably right.  What are we going to talk about to break the ice?”

“I’ll talk to the wife about the schools.  You can talk to the husband
about football.”

“I think they’re hermaphrodites, babe.”

“Shit.”

“Yup.”

This was the other story I submitted.  I still think it’s funny.

Comments (0)

“I do not understand rust jokes.  I am over ninety-four percent composite plastic and five percent organic tissue.  Less than one percent of my construction is metal and that is triple Teflon coated and 100% rust-free.”

“I heard that Teflon can cause birth defects,” the woman said, pouring a cup of coffee.

“Mother, please,” Julie said, tightening her grip on her companions arm.  “You’re embarrassing him.”

“I’m sorry, Kitten, but I agree with your mother,” The man said as he folded the sports page into increasingly smaller squares.

“It’s not that were bigoted, Mr. Hannd.  I mean, Bill served in robotic maintenance during the war.  I was friends with a learning droid in college.  We honor your right to exist, but—”

“We worry about the ramifications of your marriage to Julie,” Bill finished. “Can you even have children?  In what faith will you raise the children?  Julie was raised Methodist, and we hope that she would continue that tradition with her own children.”

“My organic material can be used for reproduction.  I was programmed Asimovian Orthodox.  Any faith that Julie or our offspring decide to follow will be adequate—as long as it does not contradict my logic protocols.”

Julie rocked the engagement ring on her finger back and forth with her thumb.  “I know this is going to hurt, but there is no easy way to say it. Mom—Dad—I’m converting to Asimovian Orthodox.”

Julie’s mom covered her face and began sobbing.

Bill began to tear his sports page into little pieces.

Mr. Hannd’s servos whirred.

“I’m having my brain downloaded next week,” Julie said.  She took a sip of her coffee.  “After that, you can keep my body here if you want.  I won’t need it.”

I wrote this back in 2007 for a contest.  The contest was for a Sci-Fi Fiction podcast and the requirement was a story under 300 words. Two of my stories made it to the early semifinals. I was heavily criticized for leaning on humor by reviewers.  Someone claimed I cribbed the idea of “Asimovian Orthodox” from a certain utilkilt-wearing writer, I will not name.   Ugh.  I was bummed that neither of my stories made it the next round, but when I saw the stories that were picked,  I realized I was in the wrong business.

Comments (0)

It should be appearing here.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-belligerent-years

Ustream has been changing their “terms of service” ever so often, but I am confident that we still have a place to do our shows.

Cheri is really excited about the subject and is reading up on Norwegian Black Metal. We will do our best to cover most of the heavy metal subgenres.

Hope to see you there.

Comments (0)