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Greydon Square – The Kardashev Scale
About two years after The CPT Theorem, atheist rapper Greydon Square comes roaring back with his third opus… The Kardashev Scale. I ordered the CD and got the digital immediately for free. If you only want the digital, it’s priced right at only $8.99. It’s excellent – gonna be in my best of 2010 list!
http://greydonsquare.bandcamp.com/
“Its title comes from the Russian Scientist, Nikolai Kardashev, who in 1963 Kardashev upon examining cosmos came up with the idea that some galactic civilizations would be perhaps millions or billions of years ahead of us, and created the Kardashev classification scheme to rank such civilizations. With the Kardashev Scale, Greydon employs creative samples from respected astrophysicists like Michio Kaku and Carl Sagan, a feature track with Canibus, and 19 new songs to add to his expanding catalogue of music.”
~Dan – np: Greydon Square – The Kardashev Scale 
REVIEW: Bill Maher @ the Hult (Eugene, OR – 11/13/09)
I don’t have HBO, but my love for Bill Maher has grown exponentially in the past 2+ years with the advent of podcasts. His HBO show, New Rules, gets released for free in audio version about a few days after it airs (iTunes link). He’s right alongside Keith Olbermann & Rachel Maddow (both from MSNBC), George Hrab’s Geologic Podcast (not about geology), and Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier’s SModcast in my “must listen once they get downloaded” queue.
OK, enough podcast talk… I also love what Bill Maher did last year with his comedy / documentary Religulous. It was more comedy than an actual documentary for me, and it was quite entertaining from a non-believers point of view. While I don’t think it’ll change (m)any minds, I still enjoyed it quite well.
When Bill gets time off from his show, sometimes he hits the road. When I found out about his Eugene date, I already had tickets to go see Cincinnati band Over the Rhine up at Portland’s Doug Fir Lounge. I was torn. I mean, I’ve seen Over the Rhine fifty times (no lie), but I really love them. Well, my wife had a Eugene art community show conflict the same night as OTR; so I sold our tickets and opted for Maher instead (sorry, Karin & Linford, we’ll catch you next year).
There was no opener, and Bill Maher hit the stage right around 8:15 and did a solid hour and a half of his crude but poignant comedy. He touched on many topics and comedic bits from New Rules… the economy, politics, religion, and food culture in America.
Some of my favorite bits were on religion, specifically the Mormontology bit, the Muslim Dior fashion show, and the Pope’s Facebook relationship status (“it’s complicated”).
Some of my favorite lines:
“Crocs – for people who find flip flops a little too dressy.”
“Those liberals, always wanting to get across the river in one piece.” (sarcastic re: the politics of spend, i.e.- wanting to build crazy things like infrastructure)
“The Republicans have looked to the future for their political leadership and found… radio.”
“Ronald McDonald has killed a lot more people than Osama Bin Laden.”
I don’t agree with all of Bill’s stances, specifically some of his thoughts on medicine. I don’t think he’s being all too scientific in his vocal stance against vaccines, for example. However, he really didn’t bring those topics up last night.
Overall, I think Bill Maher’s stand-up is a lot like George Carlin – many of the same topics – crude, cutting, and powerful humor.
The Appropriate Linkage:
- Bill Maher’s Official Site
- HBO’s New Rules
- Bill Maher on MySpace
- Bill Maher on Facebook
- The Hult Center
~Dan – np: A Perfect Circle – Mer De Noms
Greydon Square, Ani DiFranco & Steven Wilson
Atheist rapper Greydon Square comes back strong on his latest album, The CPT Theorem. This is his third album, though his debut (Absolute from 2004) is long out-of-print… so it’s only the 2nd album of his that I am lucky to own. His album The Compton Effect was one of my favorite albums in 2007. This album branches out more beyond the primarily atheist lyrics, more about his life and other topics (to some extent). I’m on my 2nd time through, and I’m diggin’ it. Fav track thus far… “Cubed.” The album is on some internet stores, specifically iTunes. Give it a listen… as well as his last one (The Compton Effect), too…
In non-atheist rap news, Ani DiFranco‘s got a new song posted to her MyScpae page*. The song is called “Smiling Underneath.” I dig its more “band-oriented” sound. Her new (20th studio) album, Red Letter Year, comes out on 9/30/08.
Yep, 20 albums in, what, 18-19 years?! Crazy… but I dig just about all of ’em.
Regarding Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson, of whom I posted a news bit 2 weeks or so ago, there’s a YouTube trailer for his upcoming solo album, Insurgentes:
Coming up this weekend for me… King’s X and Extreme playing on the same stage. Woot! How’s that for diverse music in one post: atheist rap, hipster folk, progressive rock, the founders of grunge, and a hair band. :)
~Dan – np: Jude – Cuba
*– MyScpae is a new networking site for people who can’t tuckin’ fype.
-Eyvind Kang
-Frank Zappa
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