Sonic Café, that was Nerf Herder with “Mr. Spock” from their 2002 release “American Cheese”. Hey, welcome to the little radio café that changes everything—from way out here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I’m your host, Scott Clark, and this is episode 488.
This time the Sonic Café drops a music mix we really dig—spanning 41 years from 1984 to 2025. You’ll hear great stuff from Mt. Joy, a killer blues pairing with Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal, plus the Gin Blossoms, The Replacements, Jesse Welles, Aerosmith, Brick + Mortar, Tessa Violet, Pulp from ’95, and lots more.
Also stopping by, comedian Josh Johnson tells us about the AI response that terrified him. We'll also revisit the back story behind Steve Perry’s 1984 hit “Oh Sherrie”, and in another wild installment of “Crazy Music Facts”, find out about that time Grace Slick of Jefferson Starship tried to spike President Nixon’s coffee with LSD.
So let’s get rolling. From 2018, here’s the band is Parquet Courts, the tune is “Tenderness”, and we’re the Sonic Café.
On June 12th, the first of 25 defendants faced trial and were sentenced to prison for breaking into an Elbit Systems factory and helping destroy drones that could have been used against Palestinians. Palestine Action activist Zoë Rogers, who was previously acquitted of criminal damage after spending 18 months in custody, joins the Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley to discuss the growth of support for direct action against complicity in genocide as government repression continues.
The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah breaks down what we know about the Memorandum of Understanding between Iran and the U.S.
The Electronic Intifada’s contributor Roqayah Chameseddine reports that despite the newly announced U.S./Iran deal, which is intended in part to halt Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Israeli forces have sustained a campaign of aggression and colonial landgrab across southern Lebanon.
Qasem Waleed El-Farra’s article Our futures are shrinking shows how the Israeli “yellow line” has subsumed a neighborhood in eastern Khan Younis.
The transcendent experience of street basketball is the topic of two conversations with Onaje X. O. Woodbine, author of “Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball.” Woodbine grew up in the inner-city of Roxbury, Massachusetts, became a skilled street basketball player and attended Yale University on a basketball scholarship. After two years as a star player on the Yale team, he chose a different life path and quit.
After graduating from Yale, Woodbine earned his Ph.D. in religious studies from Boston University. His book, “Black Gods of the Asphalt” presents a social-anthropological view of this inner-city sport where coaches often assume the role of father, mentor and friend. He contrasts the lessons learned on the street basketball courts, with those learned at the predominantly white basketball courts and locker rooms of Yale University.
Onaje Woodbine visited with Radio Curious by phone on August 13, 2016, from his home in Andover, Massachusetts, and began by describing his relationship with his father, Dr. Robert Woodbine.
The book Dr. Onaje Woodbine recommends is “Jesus and the Disinherited” by Howard Thurman.
Join Patricia Fraser and Celt In A Twist at SCOTFEST BC this Friday, June 19th and Saturday June 20th, under the big tent for The legendary Barra MacNeils, The Whiskeydicks and Pat Chessell along with other drop in guest performers@scotfestbc.com!
Dervish draws deep from the well of Irish tradition on their latest collection from The Great Irish Songbook Volume 2. Meanwhile The Ollam take trad someplace else entirely, featuring John McSherry and groovemonster Joe Dart. This hour features fresh track from Trouz Bras, North America's keepers of Breton music heritage and Newfoundland's Rum Ragged take us down The Road To Lushes Bight. Lard Tunderin', it must be Celt In A Twist!
Hope springs eternal and Angelique Kidjo drops Hope, a new album with an impressive guest list. Introducing A-100s two-tone ska, CDN guitarist Mike Murray with Ecuadorian singer Arianna Reda. Galicians Carlangas and Neboa launch new singles and Tablatronics wizard Karsh Kale is back. More musical optimism this hour from World Beat Canada Radio!
A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet. With times, frequencies, and websites for listening at home. 3 files- Highest quality broadcast, regular broadcast, and slow-modem streaming. Germany, France 24, Japan, and Cuba.
Imagine a capitalist paradise. An island utopia governed solely by the rules of the market and inspired by the fictions of Ayn Rand and Robinson Crusoe.
Sound far-fetched? It may not be. The past half century is littered with the remains of such experiments in what Raymond Craib calls “libertarian exit.” Often dismissed as little more than the dreams of crazy, rich Caucasians, exit strategies have been tried out from the southwest Pacific to the Caribbean, from the North Sea to the high seas, often with dire consequences for local inhabitants.
Based on research in archives in the US, the UK, and Vanuatu, as well as in FBI files acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, Craib explores in careful detail the ideology and practice of libertarian exit and its place in the histories of contemporary capitalism, decolonization, empire, and oceans and islands.
Adventure Capitalism is a global history that intersects with an array of figures: Fidel Castro and the Koch brothers, American segregationists and Melanesian socialists, Honolulu-based real estate speculators and British Special Branch spies, soldiers of fortune and English lords, Orange County engineers and Tongan navigators, CIA operatives and CBS news executives, and a new breed of techno-utopians and an old guard of Honduran coup leaders.
This is not only a history of our time but, given the new iterations of privatized exit—seasteads, free private cities, and space colonization—it is also a history of our future.
Our Hosts are back on the road and head to the thrift store DVD shelf to review the soundtrack from "Barnyard" we will forgive you if you don't remember it, who knew heavily metal music makes great sleepy lullaby music and a celebrity slip up from one of Hazzard County's finest....who crashed a few cars in his day, sings about cars, but at least doesn't crash the one he's singing about.
Raven Schwam-Curtis is a Black and Jewish content creator, advocate, and speaker. An academic turned content creator, Raven is an alumna of Cornell University and Northwestern University, and her work uniquely blends personal storytelling with social justice advocacy. She elevates important conversations around intersectionality, political activism, and systemic change. Her contributions have been featured in major outlets like Glamour Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, POLITICO, and Buzzfeed. And She is our guest today!
U.S. Iran Peace Deal Announced: Is it Real this Time?; Israeli Voters May Oust Netanyahu in Oct. Election, but the Brutal Repression of Palestinians Likely to Continue; The Pentagon's Dangerous Rush to Adopt and Deploy AI into Military Missions.
Defeating fascism – before it's too late. Deadly measures in the Big Ugly Bill. The Refuse Fascism Declaration of Independence from Trump's fascist America. Voices from recent Refuse Fascism protests in DC. Bob Avakian on Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is Your Fourth of July? From REVOLUTION #121, “To those engaging in unprincipled attacks: Is your goal defeating fascism, or just slandering those working for this?” American Crimes: the faces on Mount Rushmore & the US history of genocide.
