New World Notes - Comic Satire for Christmas

This week on New World Notes: radio program #407, December 22, 2015, Tuesday from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. (and on Wednesday from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.), host Kenneth Dowst lightens up for Christmas.

This year's Christmas show bears a certain relationship to last year's Christmas show. The name of that certain relationship is "identity."

The show presents some brief commentary by me, five satiric seasonal songs, and one imitation Broadway "big production number." All take a comic but critical view of American hypocrisies, religiosity, commercialism, class warfare, and other Christmastime traditions.

I'm especially fond of the pseudo- "big production number": Stan Freberg's 1958 masterpiece, Green Chri$tma$. The audio fidelity is very good even by today's standards; the production is rich and sophisticated; the script is witty; and the message (alas) is still relevant.

Other contributions are by Hugh Blumenfeld, Simon and Garfunkel, Anne Feeney, Roy Zimmerman, and Tom Lehrer.

Bah! humbug! and merry Christmas to all!

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "boiler room") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment at both A-Infos Radio Project and (from #90 onwards) the Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chronological listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page; each page has links to the recorded audio; and a handy table of contents will quickly find the installment you want.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want--and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern): 

• Sundays, 12:30 to 1:00 PM, WIEC-LP, FM 102.7 (Eau Claire, WI). Repeats Mondays at noon.
• Mondays, 10:30 to 11:00 AM, WVEW-LP, FM 107.7 (Brattleboro, VT).
• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT); also on WAPJ FM 89.9 and 105.1 (Torrington, CT), WJDW FM 89.7 (Somers, CT), and WWEB FM 89.9 (Wallingford, CT). Repeats Wednesdays at 8:30 PM.
• Tuesdays, 8:30 to 9:00 PM, WWUH FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT). Same time on WJDW FM 89.7 (Somers, CT) and WWEB FM 89.9 (Wallingford, CT).
• Fridays, 10:30 to 11:00 AM, WHUS FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT)
• Saturdays, 8:00 to 8:30 AM, WAZU FM 90.7 (Peoria, IL) & online. Repeats Mondays at 12:30 AM.
• Saturdays, 1:00-1:30 PM, KRFP FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) 
• Various days & times (multiple times per week), KGIG FM 104.9 (Modesto, CA) & online. Same on KHCF FM 89.9 (Gilroy, CA).

Any time: Listen to or download any installment. Just go to New World Notes and click a link to the audio at the top of the page. (Every installment has a page on the Web site, and every page has links to the audio.)