Iggy Pop chats with Dinah Shore, 1977

How George Carlin Made Legal History

How George Carlin Made Legal History

Robert Anton Wilson
from Quantum Psychology

Here is an interesting article by Robert Anton Wilson about the concept of why certain words are considered "dirty" and others are not. This subject has been somewhat fascinating to me ever since I started working in broadcasting. It was of particular relevance when I started supervising college student radio announcers.

WARNING: Contains dirty words.

"One cannot dismiss this mystery as trivial. When comedian George Carlin made a record ("Occupation: Foole") discussing, among other things, "The seven words you can never say on television," WBAI radio (New York) played the record, and received a fine so heavy that, although the incident occurred in 1973, WBAI, a small listener-sponsored station, recently announced (1990) that they have not yet paid all their legal costs in fighting the case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Eight Wise Men (and One Wise Woman) thereon upheld the Federal Communications Commission.

The highest court in the land has actually ruled on what comedians may and may not joke about. George Carlin has become something more than a comedian. He now has the status of a Legal Precedent."
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Here is a link to information on Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation; the supreme court case referenced in all of this.

Here is a link to the text of the ruling.

Keep in mind: I studied this in college.

Flight Of The Conchords - Foux Da Fa Fa

More Conchords. A great opportunity to brush up on your french.

Mirror - Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

This brief haunting sequence is from the movie "Mirror" by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky.

All of his films I have seen (Mirror, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, The Sacrifice...) have this amazing visual style to them. The experience of watching these movies seemed to me almost like looking into someone else's dreams while they sleep.

After Stanley Kubrick, Tarkovsky may be my favorite director.

This clip is just a minute long. This isn't like when I posted the entirety of "Day of the Triffids" a few weeks back. Here is a longer clip from "Mirror" to give at least a little context to the above if you feel the need.