Corporate Prime: The Making of

This week we have a special "behind the scenes" discussion of Corporate Prime with writer Kevin Bayhouse, April Hoy, Robert McMinn, Gwen Sanchirico, Jeremy Sinkinson, and Khalil Linane. We'll discuss some of the philosophy and details behind the story, as well as speculate on some of the characters. Next week, we'll premiere the new serial play, The Benjamin Franklin Cipher.

Anacreon in Heaven

Here are the lyrics to one stanza of the English drinking song on which the Star-Spangled Banner is solidly based:

The news through Olympus immediately flew;
When Old Thunder pretended to give himself Airs
If these Mortals are suffer'd their Scheme to pursue,
The Devil a Goddess will stay above Stairs.
"Hark! already they cry,
"In Transports of Joy
"Away to the Sons of Anacreon we'll fly,
"And there, with good Fellows, we'll learn to intwine
"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine.

Visit the link above for the full lyrics.

Apparently, it was de rigeur in colonial days to write new lyrics to existing songs. And in 1812, Francis Scott Key concretized that characteristic American tendency to plagiarize in our national anthem.

Click here for a midi file of the song (which sounds exactly like our national anthem).

From Bucky Buckaw: Show Links

This week's Backyard Chicken Broadcast is another sagebrush piece on transgenics but my first. Here's a link to the article on Creating Transgenic Chickens that got me started on the topic. As you can see the link is to a web reprint of the article on a website I thought I should plug Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering (NW RAGE)

RadioBoise website is back

Things are back to normal for RadioBoise, so our website is now up to date and you can catch up on downloads/podcasts. Good times, good times.

RadioBoise.org Server Is Being Quirky

For the record, we've been updating our website but the changes aren't coming up. RadioBoise's host changed their servers recently, so until tha issue is resolved, check this blog for the latest info!

This is what's on this week (June 13):

-part 6 of the current serial drama, Corporate Prime, written by Kevin Bayhouse
-the latest Sagebrush Variety Show Farm (cilantro)
-Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast on chicks
-a special edition Sagebrush Pollution Report on the Atlanta Gold mine proposal
-a rant from Kevin on the current governor
-a new Suburbia Watch

Don't forget you can listen to Sagebrush on Tuesday at 4pm PDT on Radio Free Moscow 92.5 FM

Oh, and most of the guitar in the scene transition music in Corporate Prime nowadays is played by Khalil (with tweaking by Gwen).

That Thai "Pesto" Recipe

3 tablespoons peanuts 3 tablespoons lime juice 4 tablespoons lime juice 1 tablespoon red chile paste or fresh hot peppers (optional) 1 1-inch square piece ginger, peeled, grated 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon brown sugar 2 tablespoons water Put all ingredients in food processor and buzz till creamy. You can play with the proportions and quantities easily.

The Secondmen

We pull a few local Idaho references in addition to ridiculing the Minuteman border project: aged rocker Paul Revere, ex-Governor Dirk Kempthorne, and ne'er-do-well Phil Pimpleslot (actually one of the Simplot clan who we really did watch nearly sideswipe every other parked car in the supermarket parking lot on State Street, famous for terrorizing the town on his hawg).

Essay of the Week: Subtitle D Landfill Burial

It's been months since we've recorded an Essay of the Week! This one is based on a memo we found on the Idaho DEQ website [PDF]. Joanne Sheepsley-Peasey makes a disparaging remark about Howard Lyman, who's got a great website, and is one of our greatest influences. (Can you tell?)

Khalil's Band in this week's BW

Khalil Linane, who plays the lead role of David Ortega in the Corporate Prime drama series, can be found in this week's Boise Weekly. His ensemble, the Wilson Street Pub and Sluthouse Band, is interviewed in the Noise section. Too bad the photographer caught him smirking in the photo. He looks better in person. Some of the Sagebrush Players used to play music with Khalil regularly, and we're proud to see him moving on to bigger and better things, musically. We're also trying to get him to record some music for Sagebrush. Maybe if you send him some fan mail he'll be inspired to do that sooner rather than later.

Energy in Corporate Prime

The "corpytown" in New Arco City lies on nuclear energy from two surviving reactors at the INEL site, while in the Treasure Valley energy is mostly decentralized. By decentralized, we mean there's no major power grid. Most neighborhoods or areas have their own combination of solar panels (all structure surfaces), wind-based generators, and geothermal (shallow and deep), depending on local availability. Sure, the hydrodam generators are still functional, but that's just icing on the cake, and in the event of a drought or some other disaster, there's enough locally generated electricity to keep everyone comfortable. Wind designs such as this, or this, or even ... there ar eso many design possibilities. The solar tree mentioned in one of the episodes is a design conceived by Gwen Sanchirico and Michael Tilbrook when they were PhD students in New York. Starting with the space-saving natural design of a deciduous tree, which contains on average an acre of surface are in its leaves.

WWP's Katie Fite interview

Desert ecologist Katie Fite (Biodiversity Director of Western Watersheds Project) is this week's guest on the Sagebrush Variety Show. She explains some of the problems with the Boulder-White Clouds bill (CIEDRA) and the Owyhee Initiative. Here are links to some of the sites she recommends:

Western Watersheds Project
RangeNet
Waste of the West: Public Lands Ranching
Alliance for the Wild Rockies
Owyhee Initiative: A Quick Overview

Bucky's Supplementary Links for Episode 37

http://homefront.silverwarethief.com/ http://www.boggycreekfarm.com/pages/the-hen-house.php which I discovered while researching shows but which never made itheir way into this week's episode

Bucky's Episode 36 Links for

Heres the link to the NY Times article Migrating Birds Didn't Carry Flu that inspired my spoof of the week. Of course you have to sign up as a free member to view it although I've been told that if you google the title of their articles you might get a direct link.

Whenever I mention any bird flu link I always do an obligatory shout out to the master of all bird flu (and public health) blog, Effect Measure. He's kinda soft on factory farming compared to me but he really knows his science and is one of the few people who actually understands the concept of "objectivity" so I figure if I'm not contradicting Effect Measure I'm probably being pretty reasonable.

Arugula

The variety we grow at Sagebrush Variety Show Farm is called selvatica aka wild arugula. It takes a little longer to germinate than the cultivated kind, but once you plant it, it'll easily self-sow itself year after year. Even though it's supposed to be an annual, it perennializes, which means the roots don't die in the winter and grow leaves again every spring.

A good way to eat it is in a salad--by itself or with other greens--with a dressing made of olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and grated raw garlic. For a creamier variation that sticks better to the leaves, whip some applesauce into the dressing.

Arugula is also good in sandwiches or chopped into pasta salads. You can make a pesto out of it, too.

Here's a link to groovy arugula nutrition facts.

Sagebrush Resource

On a previous edition of the Sagebrush Variety Show we featured an interview with Alan Durning, President of Northwest Environment Watch on sustainability issues and trends in the Northwestern region known as Cascadia. Podcast Sagebrush Variety Show #30 to hear it.

Just a few weeks later the Sagebrush players received an an email from Alan Durning explaining that after 14 years as Cascadia's sustainability think tank, Northwest Environment Watch has changed its name to Sightline Insitute. (they say the name Sightline better reflects what they do in helping us see a clear way to a better future for us all).

The name change is just an opener to the big news that they’ve revamped their website Sightline.org to make the most of the institutes comprehensive research, statistics, news and dialogue.

There are some excellent new features.

Like the Maps and Graphics Center with close to 100 maps, charts, and animations illustrating trends such as gasoline consumption, changes in human health, and pollution in northwesterners. All available for downloading and printing or computer vieiwng. The graphic maop of clearcutting in the Central Cascade forest is a real eye-opener ad is the chart showing the increased levels of PBDE levels in blood and tissue samples of north american humans since the 1980’s. PBDE is a flame retardent chemical used in many priducts that can cause neurological and reproductive damage.

The publications section features Sightline books and reports available in full text pdf, on each of the issues that they track--such assprawl and transportation, energy, health, and economy.

An active blog—called the Daily Score—with running commentary on the latest news. Some of the latest entries include Alan’s frankly funny yet inspiring diary of his families attempts to live a year in Seattle without owning a car, a report on the latest scientific findings regarding bird intelligence (Sagebrush’s own Bucky Buckaw already knows birds are at least as smart as humans but it’s nice to see the scientific com muntiy catching up), and a really great explanation of how “booming conomy” can mean different things depending on who’s talking and that GDP doesn’t necesarilly mean good for working schmoes.

The name Cascadia refers to an ecological, economic and cultural region including British Columbia, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon which is most instructive to look at as a whole. However, the new website function that allows viewers to browse or search for Idaho-related information only, for example, is a useful way to manage the wealth oif information Sightline offers.

Sagebrush Variety show highly reccomends our viewers make use of the website. There’s an incentive to join as an emailsubscribers in that subscribers get special features-such as complete access to Sightline’s work, including free pdfs of books and reports; and downloads of high-quality maps, charts, and graphics, their email newsletters, and the abilty to add your own comments to their blog.

Plant sales and planning for the season

Listeners who heard our interview with Diane Jones of Draggin' Wing Farms might be interested to know that there will be a native plant sale this weekend.

Saturday & Sunday, May 13 & 14, 9 am to 3 pm at Castle Drive and Hill Rd. The farm is just off that intersection on Stinger St but there will be signs directing you there.

Also, Draggin' Wing Farm neighbors Peaceful Belly Farm will be selling heirloom tomato plants at $4 each.

Don't feed your loved ones a trite tomato - grow your own! (or at least get some decent varieties from farmers markets/stands)

The Sagebrush Players support backyard gardening and xeriscaping. In fact, we've been growing our own tomatoes already at Sagebrush Variety Show Farms. This year's tomato varieties:

Red Brandywine - the king of heirloom tomatoes
Green Zebra - not an heirloom, but still worth growing for its green color with yellow stripes, great flavor, and ease to grow
Paul Robeson - smallish black heirloom from Russia named after the singer, communist, and equal rights activist
Black from Tula - larger black, Ukrainian heirloom
Black Prince - a smallish red-brown heirloom from Irkutsk that does particularly well in Idaho.
(okay, so we have a thing for black tomatoes)
Yellow Bell - a productive, yellow paste heirloom from Tennessee that grows well here. Great for stuffing with hummus on the run, too.
Big Rainbow - large, multicolored heirloom
Orange Banana - prolific, orange, heirloom paste tomato that's also good for eating and drying.
Striped Cavern - orange-striped red tomato that is shaped like a bell pepper and hollow inside.
Evergreen Emerald - largish all-green tomato

Just reading the brief descriptions of this handful of varieties should make you angry about how corporate farming and food distribution has robbed us of the diversity in our produce--and this is just looking at tomatoes.

Sagebrush vs. the Laws of Thermodynamics

Listeners who missed last week's premiere of Corporate Prime, our latest serial drama, can check it out again this week. We lost our regular battle with Entropy this week, so last week's show will be re-broadcast.

April and Khalil have finals, Jeremy was kidnapped by his mates for his birthday, Lea is spending a few weeks on the coast for her health, Curtis is helping refugees plant a community garden, and Kevin, Robert, and Gwen are being their usual overextended selves.

Corporate Prime, written by Kevin, is a straight drama (no comedy this time) about life after Peak Oil, after the corporations succeed in taking over all aspects of our lives, and after the U.S. loses its place as the imperial superpower. All this takes place in Idaho, starting in New Arco City. Okay, well, it has a tiny bit of humor in it.

Some listeners might be disappointed to learn that there are no characters based on Dirk Kempthorne this time, but if you really are looking for entertainment based on the Bush administration's latest cabinet appointment, we recommend that you listen to Snow Blow Hard: Xmas with a Vengeance or its sequel, Eternal Quest, for a character very much based on the public figure, in a very satirical way, of course, using examples from real life to move the story along. Alas, we can't tell you which are true and which are fiction, but just keep in mind that often life is stranger than fiction.

I will give you a few hints, though. Kempthorne is indeed very much preoccupied about being perceived as an important person. And you can read about his dream to travel the nation by selling burgers from a grease truck in any newspaper. And what politician is complete without their very own scandal? As a testament to his cognitive skills, allow me to quote him on CAFTA: "I support free trade and fair trade." And I have repeatedly spotted Dirk in the seasonal crap section of Fred Meyer staring at clearance holiday items, as if they were cultural artifacts on display in a museum. And he did have a pet highway project that could best be described as "cockamamie."

I could go on and on, but you could just listen to the shows. Just download them! And don't forget about the Kempthrone's Castle skits, either, which are fictitious proclamations that take place on the grounds of the former Simplot mansion.

Bucky Scooped Jim Hightower

Just heard a report on that infernal NAIS from Jim Hightower (for my report see archived Sagebrush Variety Show #30). Not to brag too much - I was a bit ashamed that the NAIS was publically released in 2005 and I didn't hear about it until February of this year. Also, Mr. Hightower caught something I missed, the fact that big agribusiness operations get "bulk discounts" on tagging fees.

Sagebrush Week of 4/10/06

We've got another Eye-Opener (there may be only one or two more coming, as the legislative session is about to end); April wrote a rant on the anti-gay marriage amendment in Idaho; Part 3 of The Dolphinarium (the chilling conclusion comes on next week show); Bucky Buckaw further unravels the nefarious secrets and moneydealing behind the avian flu hysteria; an interview with John Barrett, Interim Executive Director of Idaho Smart Growth on transit options in Idaho; and what will no doubt get us some fan/hate mail, a piece by Robert Blurton on composting human excretion. Send us your feedback, good or bad, to sagebrush-at-radioboise.org.

Bucky's April Avian Flu Links

My latest favorite source for information on sustainability, biodiversity and democracy in agriculture, GRAIN. For a mainstream article on Rumsfeld's Tamiflu fortune CNN Chuck Schumer's heroic efforts to insure no Tamiflu is left unsold in his own words And a piece on the Tamiflu-related run on star anise from National Geographic