Season 26: Personal Highlights

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. This week it is a review of my own personal highlights from Season 26. I will go through them in no particular order and there are many.

Homer learns to play bass and plays in a cover band called Cover Craft:

Marge opens up a sandwich Franchise chain:

Homer becomes Bart’s new friend, as he has been hypnotized to have the mind of a 10-year-old boy:

Bart and Lisa write their own anthem for Springfield cold Why Springfield: Why Not:

Marge gets a job driving taxi:

The Simpsons and Futurama team up in a cross over episode:

Homer nearly gets eaten by a race of Aliens on Kang and Cotos’s home planet:

We flash back to when Bart was 4 and Lisa was 2, to explore how and why they fight:

Krusty’s Father dies:

Bart has a new psychopathic fourth-grade teacher named Jack Lassen voiced by Willem Dafoe.

It’s not a complete list of everything that has happened but that’s the point… this is all about the highlights for me. Actually, the last one I mentioned probably scared me the most. I had some strict teachers but nobody as frightening as Mr. Lassen.

On the birthday front, Danny Elfman, who composed the Simpsons theme song cellebrated a birthday on Friday. He turned 62 and has done other composing for film and television. He was also in the new wave band Oingo Boingo. Remember them? I should be perfectly honest and say that I never really listened to them because I grew up mainly a rock and metal fan and still am to this day.

Well, that’s about it for this week. In the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
I also recommend checking out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
I should also mention Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com

Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
It is new so, give it time to grow.You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. I would much prefer getting an email so I can reply directly to you, but that’s just me.
One final thing to mention is that you can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4, along with Mike Reiss.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

Retirement Of David Letterman

Hi folks and welcome to another Weather Wednesday. This week I’m going to acknowledge the retirement of The long-running late night TV talk show host David letterman. Wait… What? Yes… I mean him and I will explain why.

Before he was even noticed as a standup comic he worked at various radio and TV stations. One of his jobs was a weatherman and from what I’ve read he has done some crazy things. For example: he congratulated a tropical storm for being upgraded, he predicted hail stones the size of canned hams and possibly many other humorous stuff. Of course, he later went on to host his own late night TV talk shows: The Late Show With David Letterman and Late Night With David Letterman.

It’s funny, before he died John Belushi did something equally as crazy on a Saturday Night Live Weekend Update segment talking about how March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. He had all sorts of combinations of animals before he went nuts at the end of his segment.

Well, we can all just sit back and enjoy the summer post-Letterman and wait to see what Stephen Colbert will do, post-Colbert Report. I think it will be very interesting to watch what happens and I don’t think any crazy weathermen will be guests on the show. All though I’m sure that Al Rocher may have been a guest with Letterman a few times. I’m just curious why not Jim Cantore? Maybe because he has other things going on at The Weather Channel. Then again, Al Rocher did make a brief guest appearance on The Simpsons.

Speaking of The Simpsons, they also payed tribute to Dave on his final episode. I have talked here about their own weather related episodes and well, I’m not going to repeat it here.

Anyway, thanks Dave for all the many years of enjoyment and for all the crazy stupid segments, with both people and pets doing their “Stupid Human” and “Stupid Pet Tricks.” Sadly, I can’t come up with my own Top 10 List because their are so many highlights of his work and it wouldn’t be my place to do that, out of respect for Dave.

Well, that’s it for this Weather Wednesday.

Slipknot: One Year Later

Hi folks and welcome to this Slipknot Sunday post. Today is all about the band Slipknot and how things have progressed for them, since my entry last year, 1 year ago today on the 4th anniversary of bass player Paul Gray’s death.

Since last May 24th the band has released a new album, in the form of .5: The Gray Chapter and went on tour with Korn. They also have 2 new temporary members who are filling the bass and drum slots in place of Paul Grey and Joey Jordison respectively. I won’t name them here because as they are temporary there really isn’t any point in doing so. But I will say that the drummer is the son of a former band leader for Conan O’Brien’s former late night TV show band, before he replaced Jay Leno and has his current late night show.

In August 2014 the band released The Negative One as the first single from the new album, before the title was revealed. The second single was The Devil And I and it was also the first single released to radio at the end of August 2014. Then in October .5: The Gray Chapter came out on the 21st and it went to number 1 on the Billboard charts. Unfortunately, it was knocked out the next week by Taylor Swift and her new album 1989. However, they had their 2nd number 1 and that is what counts.

They went on tour with Korn, which was a move that even I didn’t think would happen. This is despite that both bans worked with Ross Robinson on their first 2 albums and members of both bands played with each other over the years. However it still seems weird mentioning the two bands on the same bill, unless it is a music festival gig.

Also, singer Corey Taylor’s other band Stone Sour released their EP Meanwhile In Burbank in April 2015, with 2 more titles to come out in the coming months. All 3 EP’s consisting of cover’s of classic songs the band grew up with and played on tour from time to time.

Of course today is also the 5th anniversary of the death of Slipknot’s basest Paul Gray and I met him once, along with the rest of Slipknot back in 2000 at and autograph session at a record store. Remember when we used to go to them to buy stuff like CD’s, t-shirts and other cool stuff? ):

In closing, I hope that slipknot will continue to keep making the best music they can make for a few more years and hopefully, they can reunite with Joey Jordison on drums. He is as important a member as all current surviving members and I really hope they can patch things up.

Thank You

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday post. Today I would like to say thank you to Harry Shearer for all the years of laughter he gave us, while voicing his characters on The Simpsons. Of course we all know he vvoiced: Mr. Burns, Mr. Smithers, dr. Julius Hibbert, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Kent Brockman, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Ned Flanders and many other minor characters.

He was asked to be a part of the show by Sam Simon because Matt Groening was a fan of his radio show. He was reluctant at first but then decided to do it. We know how that worked out!

Last week, Harry has decided to leave the show and I won’t get into it here because I don’t know all the details of the departure. However, I would like to say a very big thank you to him for making me and millions of us around the world laugh, along with the other cast members. He will surely be missed as a destinktive voice for his characters that probably nobody can replicate.

Well, that’s about it for today, except that I should also say a big thank you to David Letterman for his own way of making millions laugh, on his TV shows. I think the most and during memory of his show will be The Top 10 list. It has been repeated on morning radio the morning after each previous nights episode and has had many guests doing it, including Dan Castellaneta in character as Homer Simpson. Of course The Simpsons used him in a couch gag at the beginning of one of the episodes too.

Thanks Dave for all the haha’s over the years. If it is true that you are a ham radio operator now, I hope to work you one day.

That’s it for today. in the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
I also recommend checking out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
I should also mention Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
For some strange reason everyone I know hasn’t heard of them yet. Hopefully I can change that.
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
It is new so, give it time to grow.You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. I would much prefer getting an email so I can reply directly to you, but that’s just me.
One final thing to mention is that you can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 15

Hi folks and welcome to another Weather Wednesday. Last Friday I released the 15th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter, to all who are on the mailing list. In it there is a lot on Weather Radio and being prepared for severe weather, when it strikes.

There is an article on the use of the alert siren on most Weather Alert Radios and i agree with using it. Unless you have pets, that is a different matter. The siren could frighten them and they will either flee or run into another part of the house and hide.

As usual I mention the problems with Weatheradio Canada that I have caught and some that have been told to me. On a few occasions I have inserted comments from myself and others on specific outages. I even went to Twitter and Facebook for some of them and they fit quite nicely.

Also, the usual report on both CANWARN and SKYWARN is in there and they have been a part of the newsletter since Issue 4. Not much different besides the listing of training sessions that have happened and will happen this spring. I may have missed a few events outside Ontario and I am very sorry to have done that.

Well, that is basically what is inn the new issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. If you would like to join the mailing list just email me at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com and I can put you on the mailing list.

Well, that is it for this week. Talk to you next Weather Wednesday.

Nine Inch Nails On The Simpsons

Hi and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. Today it’s all about Nine Inch Nails!

Okay, you may ask why Nine Inch Nails? when they haven’t even been guest stars on the show? Well, I ama fan and they were referenced in the episode Homerpalooza, when Homer was at a record store and saw a Nine Inch Nails album and thought there was no such band. Well, actually, it isn’t really a band but a project which is really one guy, Trent Resnor. He calls all the shots on everything to do with the group, including the NIN logo and even plays all or most of the instruments on the albums. My favourite album is Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral is my second favourite. Of course he assembles a backing band to play with him on tour, which is ever changing and sometimes some of the other musicians will play on an album.

I also like Trent Resnor’s remixes too, especially his treatment on David Bowie’s song I’m Afraid Of Americans back in 1997. They actually toured together in 1995, as a part of David Bourie’s tour to promote his new album at the time, Outside. This album was nothing like what his mainstream fans would be into and more electronic and at times, sounding like Nine Inch Nails. Trent even remixed the first single The Hearts Filthy Lesson too.

Also, it is Trent Resnor’s 50th birthday today and he is still active with Nine Inch Nails and is now a Dad. If you have ever watched the movie The Social Network he does the musical score for it, as well as the score for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I’m not surprised at all because he has done musical soundtracks for video games such as: Quake and produced the movie soundtracks for movies such as: Natural Born Killers and The Lost Highway. Could he do something like that on The Simpsons? Probably not but it would be very interesting if he was asked to write a musical score for a dark episode.

In other news, I found out on Thursday that the voice of such characters as: Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns, Smithers, Dr. Hibbert, Seymour Skinner and other male characters on The Simpsons is leaving. Harry Shearer has announced that he is leaving the show, for the freedom to do other things. After all, he does have a radio show and he does other TV work, along with supporting his wife Judith Owen, who is a singer and songwriter. For those who don’t know, Harry is also a musician and he plays bass. If you would like to know more about him and all his work over the years, just look him up on Wikipedia and you will see that he has done a lot and continues to work hard. I would also like to thank Harry for all the years of laughter he has given us on The Simpsons and I certainly wish him well in his other present day work. If things work out that he is not leaving the show, well, all the better for everybody.

On another and sad note, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the passing of blues legend B.B. King, at the age of 89. As a guitar player myself, I like his playing style because I heard it through other players such as: Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and many… many others. I guess if I had to find a Simpsons connection it would be with the band U2, who guest starred on the Season 9 episode Trash Of The Tightens. He appeared on their 1988 album Rattle And Hum on the single When Love Comes To Town and that brought him to the attention of the 1980’s generation of music fans such as myself.

His music has also been sampled by many artists such as: Kid Rock, Primitive Radio Gods on their 1996 hit Standing Outside A Broken phone booth With Money In My Hand, which appeared on the soundtrack to the movie The Cable Guy, starring can Canadian actor and comedian Jim Carrey. In fact, the song that was sampled as the main chorus was How Blue Can You Get? with the words “I’ve Been downhearted baby… Ever since the day we met.” I think that was cool that he allowed this to get on a song by a new alternative band. It has been said that he was probably one of the nicest guys in the music business who played the blues and I believe it, even though I never met him. RIP B.B. King and thanks for all the great music for your loyal fans.

That’s about it for this week. In the mean time, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
I also recommend checking out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
I should also mention Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
For some strange reason everyone I know hasn’t heard of them yet. Hopefully I can change that.
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
It is new so, give it time to grow.You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. I would much prefer getting an email so I can reply directly to you, but that’s just me.
One final thing to mention is that you can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

Get Ready Too Rumble And Tumble

Hi folks and welcome to another Weather Wednesday. This week it is all about the fight between winter and spring, throughout North America.

It is now severe weather season in parts of the US and it is also summer severe weather season here in Canada too. Though in some parts of the continent winter is still hanging on for dear life.

In far Northern Ontario they had freezing rain warnings in affect last thursday and snow even fell in parts of the US this weekend. Contrast that with parts of Southern Ontario being under several severe thunderstorm watches and or warnings in the past few days.

This fight usually ends in late May or early June and it starts again in September, when the weather gets cooler for the coming winter. I’m sorry to bring up that word again that starts with a w… I won’t mention that again, until it is that time of the year.

Well, that’s about it for this week and I’ll talk to you next Wednesday.

“ha Ha”

Hi and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. First of all, happy birthday to James L. Brooks who turned another year older yesterday. He helped create The Simpsons along with Matt Groening and Sam Simon back in the days of the Tracy Ullman shorts and is still a part of the crew today. Let us not forget about his other work. Most notably in my life, The Mary Tyler Moore show. My parents watched it back in the day and I mentioned this last year but, I always thought that cats plaintive meow at the end of the closing theme was actually a doll. You know, one of those dolls where you press on its chest it makes a crying sound. Anyway, I still think fondly about the show and the theme song and I’m also glad that it was a part of my life.

This week I want to talk about Nelson Muntz. You know, the bully who laughs “ha ha?”

At first he was one of the main bullies at school, terrorizing most of the child population of Springfield. At first Bart and Milhouse were among his main targets and Martin too. However as the series progressed he became more rounded and showed other sides to him.

He went out with Lisa and at one time, even went skating with her. He even became friends with both Bart and Milhouse, even though he still has his bullying tendencies being shown on occasion. In contrast to his personality he enjoys Andy Williams and Snow White. Yes, Nelson does have a soft side to him too, but he can probably throw a punch if you make fun of him then laugh “ha ha.” Also, he won’t hurt blind people, as he protected a blind boy named Kevin, and tought him to be a bully like him, even getting him to laugh at Bart.

In short, Nelson is one tough bully but he does have a good natured side and will protect those who need protection from others who could be a threat to them.

As far as his voice, Nancy Cartwright voices him and he started out with not much of a rasp to it. As the series went on it became what it is today, with a rough tone except when he laughs. I find that interesting to hear the evolution of a voice like that and how it continues to evolve.

Well, that is just a bout it for this week. Be sure to check out tonights episode entitled Bully, with guest stars Albert Brooks and Johnny Mathis. In the meantime, I recommend checking out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
I also recommend checking out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
I should also mention Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
For some strange reason everyone I know hasn’t heard of them yet. Hopefully I can change that.
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
It is new so, give it time to grow.You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. I would much prefer getting an email so I can reply directly to you, but that’s just me.
One final thing to mention is that you can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again on Weather Wednesday.

This IS Only A Test Alert

Hi folks and welcome to another entry on this Weather Wednesday. For many years we have had tests on Weather Radio for both SAME and 1050 Hz tone, which have been held on various days of the week and now it is now done on Wednesdays on both NOAA Weather Radio and Weatheradio Canada. Years ago, the 1050 Hz tone test was performed on the first Monday of the month and now it is performed on the first Wednesday.

Also, on TV and radio in the US we had the “Emergency Alert System test”, which also goes for weather and other warnings. In Canada we have just started doing the same thing and yesterday I heard the test performed on a number of radio stations just before 11:00 AM.

I have no problem with it but obviously, there may be listeners who may not understand that it is only a test and not an actuall emergency. I’ve also heard people commenting sarcastically about it and saying “do it again”. I had been waiting to hear what it sounded like ever since I found out about it from people who are in the know. I wasn’t going to hide under something in fear of nothing happpening because I payed attention to the message and I also heard about the test a few minutes before it was performed.

I don’t know how often the test will be performed on our radio and TV but it won’t really bother me, unless I am hearing a new song on the radio and can’t find it on iTunes. It does make me feel good that we are now with another audible alert source, to give us warning when something bad is about to happen with the weather or any other kind of emergency situation.

Well, that’s all for today. I hope you all stay safe and aren’t alarmed by an alarm going off on your radios or TV.

Why We Should All Have Unlimited Data Plans

Hi folks and here is another entry in the blog. This one is not about The Simpsons or the weather; in fact it is about the problem with no unlimited data plans with most Cel-Phone providers.

For a long time now I have lived without a landline because of those pesky telemarketers that call every other day, trying to pressure you into buying something you don’t want… or need. The other reason is that I live in an apartment and sometimes someone would buzz me by mistake and needless to say, it is a bother, especially when you are doing something and you get the call, with a delayed response to you saying “hello?”

So, to put this problem out of my life, I went completely mobile and I love it. All though I had some problems at first, with choosing the right voice and text plan. Eventually everything sorted itself out and I can talk and text to whom ever I want, when I want.

Then, I realized I needed a data plan too and I have a good one now but it isn’t really enough for me. I want the freedom to enjoy all the apps and stuff on our smartphones, without the unpredictability of the dreaded phone bill.

I am using my current phone as: my computer, music player and all around entertainment centre, along with my iPod Touch. I can’t really enjoy everything comfortably because I have no such thing as an unlimited data plan.

Why aren’t all the Cel-Phone providers worldwide, making it mandatory that there is an unlimited data plan in place, for those who need it? In my case it would go hand in hand with my voice and text plan and would relieve me of the stress of having to watch my data each month. By the way, those apps that track your data are also using it up too. Plus, not everyone in the world has their own wifi network. I’m lucky that i know where to go, to use free wifi but I can’t be going there all the time, in order to cut down on my data usage. I only like to use wifi for: backing up my iOS devices and to download content that is too big for cellular data, such as TV shows and movies.

In Canada, there is only one mobile provider that I know of that allows the customer an unlimited data plan and I don’t think that’s right. All companies who provide the consumer with Cel-Phone plans should also include an unlimited data plan as a part of their list of plans for people to get for their phone, tablet or iPad. It seems to me that they want us to go over our plans so they can take more money from us and that is not fair.

I have been asking for an unlimited data plan for the last while, especially with the amount of music and video streaming sites these days, that we can’t enjoy on our own time, unless we either have wifi or live in a coffee shop. I hope that if you are reading this that you call your provider and ask for an unlimited data plan and if they survey you, mention it. I did and so far, I’m the only one who is probably the loudest voice in this movement, but I’m so far the only one and I need more people to join me and make yourselves heard that we need unlimited data plans and not just for the financially comfortable, but also for people on disability and who have problems making ends meet.

I hope that soon this will have an affect on those who provide access to mobile communication and those who need unlimited access to their data, especially those of us who are iPhone users.