Episode 32: Podcast Si, Brevedad No

Show Notes:
Recorded Saturday, March 10 2007 (6:30 PM – 12:00 AM), at Casa de Schmoe, Dearborn MI
    “This week’s episode is dedicated to C.E. Smith.  Another Saturday Night podcast, although the music under review is Don’t Stop the Carnival. Mickey, Mike, and Schmoe are present, with Scott reporting in on video chat; and with Schmoe’s and Mike’s kids in the background playing basketball.

    Did I get my Spanish right?
    We were all assembled on Wednesday yet we were still unable to record. The lounge at Zodiac was very full and, like we said during the episode, we were unable to reserve our usual recording studio room. Even if we’d chosen to record in the main lounge, it would’ve been much too loud for decent audio. Thus, we quickly scheduled a backup recording date for the following Saturday, at Schmoe’s domicile. It turned into a nice little party, with plenty of beer, tequila-based Schmoetails, and lots of food. In fact, you can hear me munching away on chips as the show begins. (I also change places many times, in the stereo spectrum, because I didn’t want to chew too closely to the microphones…and I also enjoyed moving around.) Scott was unable to attend in person, but managed to spend a little time with us through iChat.
    Why the talk about Daylight Saving Time? First because it’s a sham, but mainly because prepping and installing the patches for it ruined two days at work that week. (Fortunately the actual time change went smoothly.)
    The Feedburner page for BuffettNews.com’s Buffett news podcast can be found here or you can subscribe here in iTunes.
    While checking out the winner of Radio Margaritaville’s contest, Mike took a liking to this avatar in the BuffettNews discussion boards. It might interest Mike to know the owner of said avatar is described as a “grumpy old man”.
    Here’s the article proposing Jimmy Buffett’s material for Florida’s state song. This is Mike’s link to learn about Wicked. And by the way, it did not play the Fox Theatre when it was in Detroit; it was at the Masonic. And near the end of our tour dates discussion, it sounds like Schmoe is paraphrasing Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.
    By Scott’s request, we review Don’t Stop the Carnival this week. A quick overview of Herman Wouk’s work can be found in Wikipedia. The one thing that struck me most when reading Don’t Stop the Carnival was how episodic it was, with a hotelier’s worst-case-scenarios cropping up one after the other like a weekly sitcom. It almost reads like a precursor to Fawlty Towers. I was thus interested, when doing my research for the podcast, that TIME Magazine had noticed the same thing, in their review from 1965.
    We have a Best Buy promo CD called Calaloo but nothing from Target. (I seem to recall something from Target though, but maybe I didn’t get it since it had nothing unique or original on it.) Scott mentions “Cairo”, from the Best Buy CD, which is also available on Club Trini’s Margaritaville Cafe New Orleans: Late Night Live. And the character I was trying to remember from South Pacific is of course “Bloody Mary”.
    My iMix of Buffett covers can be found here [iTunes link].
    Where is Joe Merchant? was approximately six years old when DSTC came out. And by “revolutionize” I meant “revitalize”.
    Wikipedia has this to say about “calaloo” as a food. This episode’s excerpt of “Calaloo” comes from August 9 1997. (Jimmy mentions “Miami” because the preceding song was “Everybody’s Got a Cousin in Miami”.)
    “No DRALS” was the slogan of the 1991 Outposts tour.
    Hear the noises off to the left that sound like a basketball game? That’s Schmoe’s kids outside. My microphones picked it up with almost three-dimsional Holophonic™ quality — and it drives me crazy! (Later on you can hear Schmoe’s kids on the right side, playing video games.)
    In our defense, the connection between G.E. Smith and Jimmy was established in 1994, when they collaborated on “Six String Music”, hence our natural assumption that “C.E. Smith” was simply a misprint in the liner notes. And I don’t want to point fingers, but we’re not the only JB fan site to have made this mistake. I’m disappointed it took us so long to make the correction, that the “Kinja Rules” vocalist is not only really C.E. Smith but that he was also part of the original theatrical cast; but my PowerBook was being used for Scott’s audio which prevented me from doing any web searches while we recorded.
    Here’s my page on my 1064-step climb up Mt Saba.
    Norman Paperman needs H2O but some people actually want to ban it.
    Here’s more about the wandering comma in “God, Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. The noises Mike is making are an ode to the inimtable Victor Borge and his invention of Phonetic Punctuation. (There’s another cute clip of the routine here.)
    I promise to digitize my “Green Flash at Sunset” video but until then here’s a cruder copy (in RealVideo) plus some other images from that Antigua trip of mine.

DSTC Phone Card, from Best Buy

 

    Our big finish was blatantly stolen from comedian Todd Barry.

 

       Download Episode 32

CabillitSchmoe™

North Coast Concoction of the Week

CabillitSchmoe™
2 oz. Best Damn Tequila You Own (Patron is good),
1 oz. Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice, chilled,

Pour tequila into a cabillito. Top with chilled lime juice. Drink. Have another. It is even better if the tequila is chilled. Quick. Easy. Smooth. Effective. Starts the night out right. Enjoy before entering a concert or movie.

Episode 31: Multivacillic Cabalitschmoes

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, February 21 2007 (9:00 PM – 10:30 PM), at the Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
    “Scott, Schmoe, Mickey, and Mike talk about the new video and tour rumors. Appearances by Hud, Jacob, Don, Jennifer, and Lee. With a pre-taped appearance from Brett. (The Roger Clyne podcast starts at approximately 14:42.)

    Birthday wishes can be given at Schmoe’s son’s MySpace page.
    A Day Away Design’s website can be found here.
    As you probably already know, you can get Jimmy’s Sports Illustrated video from iTunes [iTunes link].
    Jimmy’s AFC Pro Bowl play was mentioned in this USA Today article.
    Paczkis? Here’s what About.com has to say and what Wikipedia has to say about these tasty and filling treats.
    Here’s the Detroit Free Press’s brief mention of Buckwheat Zydeco’s bus accident.
    Roger Clyne’s album, No More Beautiful World, is out March 20, but with these e-cards you can preview the three songs we talked about.
    It was Listener Barbara who told us to listen to Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen.
    Our Michael Scott reference is from the “A Benihana Christmas” episode of The Office.
    Choose Your Own David Wilcox Adventure: click here or go Canadian. (Hint: the second link is the one Scott used.)

      >  Download Episode 31

Happy Valentine’s Day

    Following up on the last episode, here are a couple more selections for favorite Buffett love songs, to help shape the soundtrack for tonight.

Schmoe says:
“Steamer”. But since he didn’t write it, I will add “Come Monday” as my #2. “Lady I Can’t Explain” is #3.

Mike says:
“Come Monday” is still the greatest. “Survive” off of Volcano is my runner up.

Episode 30: 8° and the Super Bowl’s On

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, February 7 2007 (9:30 PM – 11:00 PM), at the Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
    “Scott, Schmoe, Mike, and Mickey are joined by newcomer Brett, for our first ever weather, Super Bowl, Steve Jobs, BNL, Prince, Elizabeth Mitchell, Roger Clyne, contest giveaway, and Jimmy Buffett podcast. (Appearances by Jennifer and Lee.)

    I know we just quoted “Boat Drinks” in a recent title, but we just couldn’t resist.
    Scott has already quashed the whole windchill debate in the comments below, so there’s no point in prolonging it. (And here I thought he was saying “windshield” the whole time.) The day after we recorded, Jimmy explained the whole Sports Illustrated video in his pre-show interview with Savannah on Radio Margaritaville. He wrote the song with Mac, the video was shot in St Barths, and it will be available on iTunes on February 13.
    [Update: iTunes link to “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2007” page. iTunes link to Jimmy’s video. SI‘s link to sample the video for free.]
    (I also just discovered a video of “Cheeseburger in Paradise”, from the Live By the Bay days, is available on iTunes too [link to iTunes]. Could this be a precursor to a DVD release?)
    Schmoe suggests you look hard at this photo. You see, it’s an optical illusion. If you stare long enough, you’ll eventually see Jimmy somewhere in the photo.
    These are the CMT Wide Open Country Video of the Year nominees I mentioned:
        Alison Krauss & Union Station: “If I Didn’t Know Any Better”
        Jack Ingram: “Love You”
        Jimmy Buffett: “Bama Breeze”
        Johnny Cash: “God’s Gonna Cut you Down”
        Pat Green: “Dixie Lullaby”
        Sheryl Crow & Sting: “Always On Your Side”
        Shooter Jennings: “Gone To Carolina”
        Willie Nelson: “You Don’t Know Me”
    I forgot to add the awards will take place April 16.
    Here’s more about the norovirus Brett mentioned; and here’s our weekly link for Grand Turk Island. This is Steve Jobs’s open letter on DRM. You can see more on BNL’s stance on non-copy-protected music at the Canadian Music Creators Coalition site and BNL themselves can be reached at their own site. See if you can spot Brett in BNL’s “Ships & Dip – Day 1” video.
    “U2 just played.” What the fuck!?
    Seriously, are we overdoing the homophobe jokes?
    Should I link to images of Elizabeth Mitchell nekkid? What about one of her taking off her underwears. Aw, what the heck, here are more screen grabs from Gia [NSFW, and possibly not safe for your AV software]. “Tryst as a cracker” joke courtesy of Sam Malone of Cheers. Joshua Radin’s link is in the previous entry, but here’s Schuyler Fisk‘s. I said “Martius Islands” in regards to our t-shirt sweatshop but what I meant to say was “Marianas”. Sorry about that ladies, now quit yer bitchin’ and get back to stitchin’!
    Sorry also about the slight audio problem near the end of the show — I told the guys to mind their cellphones!

      >  Download Episode 30

Episode 29: Saucy!

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, January 24 2007 (9:30 PM – 11:00 PM), at the Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
    “Schmoe is back, Mike brought a trivia book, Scott sings some songs, and Mickey nurses some beers. Guest appearances by Jennifer and Lee.

    First, a commercial announcement. Remember, our t-shirt contest ends with our next episode, on February 7! Play along by telling us your least favorite of our podcasts. E-mail us at podcast@northcoastcast.com, Skype us at northcoastcast, or leave voicemail at 1-774-221-7346!
    And now back to our show notes. The Jim Mayer Time After Island Time interview is hosted at Buffett News. The Fore-Skin Golf League site is at FSGL.net. The Neil Finn comment comes from his article in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Here’s an HSUS press release on Jimmy’s announcement; and here’s some Canadian coverage of the story. Once again, here’s Margaritaville.com’s page for their Turks & Caicos Café. Here’s Mike’s story on the guy caught smuggling 500 parrots (although the story isn’t much longer than the headline).
    The Ark, which Schmoe mentions, is located in Ann Arbor MI. The show he would be seeing was Joshua Radin on January 30. While we recorded, the TVs were showing the NHL All-Star game, and Scott was transfixed by a 2nd intermission performance by The Wreckers. Schmoe and Scott mention they are looking for suggestions on other artists to listen to. They are quite serious. If you want to pass some names onto them, write them at broadenyourhorizons@northcoastcast.com. Currently they get most of their leads from the I Am Fuel, You Are Friends site and similar MP3 blogs.
    Our proposed night out would have been “Parrotheads of the Caribbean” on January 26 [scroll to middle of page] at Uptown Dinner Theater in Southfield.
    You can blame the second half of the show on Mike’s trivia book [Amazon link]. By the way, Steve Zahn played “Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr” in Happy, Texas and October 4 1979 was a Thursday.
    You can blame the finale on Listener Roger. Ben Folds tells a similar joke, ironically as part of an “anti-piracy” message. And “Maeby Tonight” is a deliberate Arrested Development reference.

      >  Download Episode 29

Episode 28: Can You Tell Me Some More, Mr Scott?

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, January 17 2007 (9:30 PM – 10:30 PM), at the Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
    “Mike, Mickey, and Scott engage in a rambling conversation, reminiscing about last year’s concert, ticket sales, opening acts, and announcing our t-shirt giveaway! (Guest appearance by Lee.)

    Schmoe is sick this week, but we carried on without him (over his objections, in fact). Not only did his illness affect our podcast panel, the guys didn’t even play wallyball or racquetball beforehand. Instead, Scott & Mike & Don just sat around drinking beer and eating pizza until I showed up. I was contemplating making a show out of last week’s outtakes (since I cut almost an hour out of it), but I figured I could at least record a new intro. Instead, we got a full show. Not a lot of news, but, as usual, we still managed to talk far too much.
    With this show, we’re announcing our t-shirt giveaway. Tell us your least favorite episode — and be honest (we can take it) — by e-mailing us at podcast@northcoastcast.com or voice mailing us at 1-774-221-7346 or Skyping us at northcoastcast [our new account] or using the Mobatalk interface to the lower right, and win a rare and handsome North Coast Cast t-shirt!
    The auction for Jimmy’s 1963 ford Falcon will be ending soon but you can still see the photo of it on Buffett News.
    We encourage you to listen to Time After Island Time on Radio Jimmy Dreamz.
    Our ticket adventures were already discussed in Episode 6, but now Scott gets to tell his side of the story. I believe this is the concert he talks about, where Jimmy (and Fingers) started the show on a B-stage. My records show the last time Jimmy had an opening act was in 1993. The pronunciation of “Ne-vile” is deliberate. The cable special I mentioned is available on DVD [Amazon link], but evidently my memory is sketchy and “Some White People (Can Dance)” was not performed. I still have the feeling I heard the song before we saw it live in 1989. The Ladyfingers Revue toured with Buffett in 1991. The Zachary Richard concert at Sully’s in Dearborn was in 1990.
    Mike cut me off, but the end of my story involved the accordion guy begging so much to duet that Zachary Richard lost patience and only let the guy play an unmiked washboard. And the guy was very ticked off. It was funny to see him go from hero worship to resentment in only about fifteen minutes. Reminds me of the time I saw Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band, the year John Entwistle toured…but that’s another story…   Later on, the guy had me take a photo of him and Zachary, using Mike’s camera, and then was irritated when I wouldn’t agree to see him perform in Detroit. I wanted his address so I could just send him the photo but he insisted on my coming to one of his shows and dropping the photo off. End result, the photo is still in Mike’s archives. Why is my photo with Zachary Richard so horrible? Because right before Mike took it, Zachary muttered the word “Orgasm”, which caught me offguard and resulted in some stupid expression frozen in time forever.
    We’ve been mentioning Schmoe a lot in the episode names, but this week we’ll give Scott a shout-out. Alternate titles included: “And We’re Schmoeless, Baby”, “No Schmoe on Wednesday”, “No Schmoe, No Cry”, and “Trying to Reason with Cold & Flu Season”.
    P.S.: we’ve been giving our Skype name as shortfatguyonline but I decided to keep things all in the family and create a new username. Our new Skype name is northcoastcast. This should make things simpler. Add us to your contacts and send us some voice mail — we’d love to hear from you and add you to the show! (The previous name still works, so even if you use it you can still contact us.)

      >  Download Episode 28

    P.P.S.: Shall I tell you about my Internet outage? We’d be warned about snow and ice storms over the weekend — that after a month in, Winter would finally be hitting the North Coast — and on Tuesday morning, shortly after 10 AM, I lost my Internet connection and cable TV. I did not reach a Comcast representative in the time I had before work, but their recorded message explained how there were several outages and they had no idea when service would be restored. I was extremely upset to find cable was still out when I got home that night, but at least I had enough stuff backed up on my DVR to occupy the time. I was even more upset the following morning to find that cable was still out, twenty-four hours earlier! This time when I called I stayed on the line until I could talk to someone … and found out there were no outages any more — despite their not having changed their recorded message — and that mine must be an isolated incident. When the repairman showed up, we found that the cable leading to my house had been disconnected and was hanging on a neighor’s fence! It turns out another neighbor had switched from Comcast to the Dish Network recently, and when Comcast had come out yesterday morning to disconnect him they’d disconnected me! And I’d spent a whole day thinking the outage was weather related and would get fixed on its own!

Episode 27: Auld Land Shark

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, January 10 2007 (9:30 PM – 11:00 PM), at the Zodiac Racquet Club in Southgate MI
    “Schmoe, Scott, Mike, and Mickey discuss the latest headlines and look back at 2006.  With special appearances by Hud, Jacob, Lee, Dino, and a bunch of vocal single women. (FYI: the Roger Clyne Podcast starts at 23:26.)

    And now a word from our sponsor. “Southeast Michigan Singles is a group for active, educated singles in the Southeast Michigan area.” Get to know them better at their website — especially if you’re hot (or don’t have a problem with lots of people speaking at once).
    Having trouble with the phrase “They’re dead to me!”? Perhaps this definition from Urban Dictionary.com can help: A phrase used to let someone know they’re dead to you. That should settle it. Note: you might find it helpful to practice the phrase on your own before using it in conversation (cf: “No time to lose!”).
    Mickey’s Encyclopedia Brown-like detective skills can be attributed to clues found on the St Barth’s Talk discussion boards.
    After we discovered the “Feeling Alright” link, Buffett News has found more You Tube links.
    The Landshark Lager webpage.
    Here’s the link to the Mustard/Muenster debate on the Buffett News boards.
    B Boomers is a bar on Southfield Rd in Allen Park.
    Here’s Buy.com’s page for the Jackson/Strait/Buffett Live at Texas Stadium album.
    Once again you can read more about Roger Clyne here. Is this the show Mike and Joe saw?
    Schmoe’s favorite Buffett moment of 2006 references to Episode 11. Scott’s references to Episode 20. Mike’s references Episode 17. And Mickey’s references all of them. The Slate.com article Mickey mentions can be read here.
    That’s Lee singing in the background, at the end. And that’s Little Drunken Schmoe departing, at the end, too.

      >  Download Episode 27

Schmoetails

    As requested, here are the recipes for the drinks appearing in our recent video. We hope to add more to this list as we come up with them.
Cheers!

Christmas Tequila

  • 1 fifth Blanco Tequila
  • 1-2 small boxes Raisins
  • 3-4 sticks Cinnamon Sticks

    Prepare at least three months before you plan on drinking (i.e. you may use Labor Day as a guide to concoct for Christmastime or Winter Solstice or New Year’s or Guys’ Shopping Night or any other of the appropriate December holidays). Use your favorite brand of tequila. Real tequila. The 100% de Agave stuff. Blanco. Silver. Whatever your brand calls it.
    Open the bottle and pour some out into a clean and worthy receptacle to be retrieved in a few moments. Drop in the raisins and the cinnamon sticks. Re-fill the Christmas Tequila bottle with whatever was poured out earlier. If not all fits, it’s your lucky day! Shoot it down in your favorite manner to celebrate the moment. Date the bottle and even number it with the Julian date if you so desire. Close, put in very back of liquor cabinet, and let it rest at least three months. Plan party around the three month mark and share with friends.
    Terrific sipping neat, chilled from a shaker, or over ice. Try rimming your glass of choice with cinnamon and sugar. Fits into a Cinnamon Girl smartly. Also goes great in egg nog, especially the farther down the bottle you go. Try other variations. What the heck? It’s the Holidays!
{Credit for this idea goes to Tequila-Shots.com, since this is where I heard it first.}

Schmoe Nog

  • 1½ oz. Christmas Tequila,
  • 4 oz. Egg Nog (from dairy section of supermarket is fine)
  • ½ oz. Hot Damn Cinnamon Schnapps (optional),

Pour egg nog into crystal cup. Poor tequila into the egg nog and stir. Enjoy this sweet treat.

Cinnamon Girl

  • 2oz. Christmas Tequila
  • 1/2 oz. Orange Juice
  • 1 oz. Rose’s Lime Juice
  • 1/2 oz. Cointreau
  • 1 Cinnamon Stick

Rim glass with cinnamon sugar
Place cinnamon stick in glass
{Credit for this recipe goes to the Cabo Wabo site}

PSA

    Happy New Year, everybody! Thanks for subscribing and thanks for making us the #1 Jimmy Buffett podcast in 2006.
    The group met yesterday, and while eating chicken wings and watching U of M lose it was decided our next episode will be recorded January 10. This took so much out of us we never got around to discussing actual show content, however. That’s the day after Steve Jobs’s keynote at Macworld too, so be warned that Scott and I might wind up turning it into a big tech podcast.
    In the meantime, even though the holiday parties might be over here is an important public service announcement, courtesy of Schmoe (and others).

    (Video originally from YouTube [link] and uploaded by starlightjen.)