march rabble rouser of the month winner & some march sell-outs

still recovering from an amazing treefort weekend!
i mean to post a blog/podcast of the festivities, see what i can come up with!
the interviews i played on tonight's show were definately a hit.

for now though, we have come to the end of another month, which means in this case that april fool's day is upon us... but also so is time for the new rabble rouser of the month crown. it is hard to be better than punki mcnamee. i thought about scanning the wonderful letter she wrote me, but considering that one of this month's nominees got fired for doing such things, i will assure you that punki wrote me a lovely card & was appreciative of being february's rrom. for march...votes are in & it's practically a landslide, the first month that a nominee won by more than one vote.

nominees for march were...
1. jon (raliegh, nc) - waiter gets fired from job for posting pic of peyton manning's more than generous tip

2. josh thompson (michigan) - consumer files lawsuit against amc movie theatre corp. for price gouging on concessions

3. tim blood (moscow, id) - buys 9 birthday cakes with food stamps. plus he's a rabble rouser approved rock and roller.

and the winner is...#3, tim blood. i think playing the interview with him on the air helped sway the vote, but then again the other two guys have been sulking from media attention too...buying yourself birthday cakes with food stamps is just hilarious. and then there was the part about on his birthday where we drove to pullman & yelled random angry things at people. but let's just keep it "clean" how about? congrats to tim blood. another month of hard rabble rousing work is complete!


part deux of the blog.

somewhat random, but i just wanna gripe a minute about sell-outs. now i know people have their price and all, but there comes a certain point when one has acquired so much material possession that going further seems to tarnish the great reputations they have built.

recently back from boise, i provide the exemplary model of chris petersen as a non-sell out. even though i am anything but a boise state broncos fan, and petersen does readily admit the possibility of leaving bsu someday. he recently renewed his contract as the broncos football coach for 5 years, $12 million. boise state gets an incredible deal because he loves the treasure valley and stays loyal to those who gave him his first shot to run his own program. over the winter break, ucla and penn state were two storied football programs in desperate need of a quality head coach. no doubt petersen topped their wish list. he turned them both down, and probably many others, without even interviewing. and be sure that they would have paid at least double, if not triple, quadruple what boise state pays. in short, life and legacy means more to chris peterson than a big paycheck.

now, lets take on the other hand a couple stars that could use better career advice: george strait and johnny depp.

george strait is a country music legend. he has done everything, a no question hall of famer. the benefit for him is that he has, for a musician, an uncommonly clean public profile. but for all he has accomplished, he seems to want too much. for the last three months, every time i use my phone to go online, the display page asks me to purchase the ringtone for the george strait song "here for a good time". if that doesn't already scream too much... i start to wonder why he would even record that song, much less let it be shoved down my throat for so long. maybe it's a fine song, but it's quite poorly titled. because earlier last year, calgary country star terri clark unearthed a lost classic, "we're here for a good time", by 70s vancouver rock band trooper. maybe it's hard for george to have any originality after he's charted nearly 100 singles, but if george strait can't get better ideas maybe he should take the garth brooks career path. and most certainly, he shouldn't let his work be prostituted to such a degree. does he really need that exposure? i guess a better question is, is he the one even making all the extra money off such silly things as that ringtone? not sure i wanna even know.

johnny depp takes the situation one step further. he has just released a duet with marilyn manson, a cover of "you're so vain". to start with, the song itself is awful and carly simon herself was one of the weaker links in the 70s rock scene. marilyn manson himself only ever really sounded good in comparison to other mainstream rockers of the late 1990s and 2000s. so maybe it's perfect that he does a cover of that song? but johnny depp? i realize that manson needs the publicity right about now. but depp would be better off without the publicity. looking back, depp joining a band with gibby haynes was an awesome idea. it was novel and refreshing. but getting together with manson at this point, is like five too many pirates of the carribbean films. go live with your booty happily and quietly for a while.

that is all. i will go back to compiling the tree fort goodies. thanks for listening.

greyhound ~ miffed!

Dear Greyhound

I am not sure what to say about your services.

Three times so far in 2012, I have taken the local route from La Grande, Oregon to Pendleton, Oregon. I have had three different drivers and had three different experiences. The only thing consistent has been that the bus was late 30 or more minutes each time. In all three cases, I did not purchase a ticket beforehand because the stations at my point of departure and arrival were closed and I had no way to know sooner that I would be taking the bus. Each time, I arrived with cash to pay the driver.

The first time, the driver said the fare was $19.50. He refused to touch the money and handed me an envelope. I placed the money inside and the driver watched me slide it under the office door of the La Grande terminal. Three weeks later, another driver said the fare was $22. He took the cash and said that, since both stations were closed, he would purchase the ticket in Portland later that day. In both cases, the drivers took cash from other passengers as well. My experience has always been that we can pay cash to the driver. The third time, this past Sunday, after I waited 59 minutes past the scheduled departure time, the driver said he wasn’t allowed to take cash and that I was out of luck. He also said he didn’t even know how much it cost. I told him it was $22 and that I have paid cash the other times. He asked me if I was sure about that, although I am not sure why he would ask if I was sure considering I provided a rather specific amount and had exact change. That would seem to indicate that I was quite confident and familiar. Besides, there is a list on the window at the terminal that shows local fares so that other drivers may be able to collect the proper amount. When the driver this last time finally agreed to take the money, he said that other drivers were just doing me a favor and that I owe him one. I really don’t know what that means. What do I owe him and when will I see him again to get him back? And, honestly, it would have been a bigger favor to not allow me on the bus. Either I would have gotten the day off work, or I would have gotten a cheaper and faster ride by hitch hiking.

Today, I have noticed that the price has now raised to $22.50. Not sure if one of those drivers was wrong, or if the price has raised twice in the last two months. Do I need to pay Greyhound an extra 50 cents? On second thought, the day the driver said the cost was $19.50, I paid with a $20 bill and received no change, so that about makes it even. A big concern here about here is why should this cost $22.50? I have other options for commuting, including driving my gas guzzling Ford F150. A one way trip in that only costs me about $16 when gas costs $4 a gallon. Why would each passenger have to pay $6 more than it would cost one of the most fuel ineffecient cars on the road? The costs of operating the bus can in no way justify such an extreme amount of money, especially when considering the bus is at capacity everytime. Considering that the same stop has a free bus that runs three times daily on weekdays, I really feel ripped off. And that free bus usually runs with me as the only passenger. In comparison, I can get a free ride with front door service on a shuttle that is consistent within a few minutes even on the worst snow and ice over the pass - versus - I walk for twenty minutes to get to the Greyhound station, where I wait for a perpetually late bus just to find out if I will be lucky enough to pay $22 to get home depending on the driver’s “favors”? That makes no sense. Please explain why you need to extort riders for so much money and why your driver’s are not trained equally on how to accept passengers?

My guess is that you cannot provide a clear and acceptable answer for what is such a rediculous hassle of a situation to begin with. I am quite sure I will just hitchhike next time, considering the drive takes less time than I spend waiting for the bus and I could give another driver the same $22 that would pay for their gas most of the way to Portland. Sounds like a better plan. Thanks for not encouraging people to use public transportation.

daniel “kid” yoshida