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Mar 19, 2009




The Show Notes


Richard Saunders' Fridge
Intro
Hot Ukrainian Action
Demos
Slau's Dad’s Malapropisms
Meeting Milton and Pat Martino
The Rubin Museum
Brain Stuff
Ask George 

- Playlists?  from Larry in Texas
- Unintended Praying?  from Maria Myrback
- Emotionally Charged?  from Seth
- Sarcasm?  from Gary P.
Recording Session Video Taping… maybe
Show Close

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Mentioned in the show: Richard Saunders at Skeptic Zone; Milton Mermikides; Pat Martino; Trinity Church of Boston; the Rubin Museum; Sessions with Slau; Sunday, March 15 at the Rubin Museum of Art.

Sign up for the mailing list: Write to Geo!

Score more data from the Geologic Universe! Get George's music at CD Baby and iTunes, and Non-Coloring Book at Lulu, both as download and print editions.

Have a comment on the show, a Religious Moron tip, or a question for Ask George? Drop George a line and write to Geo's Mom, too!

Ms. Information says you can follow Mr. Mermikides on twitter at @miltonline.


Peter Sosna
over fifteen years ago

Whoopee!! I just got to spend a lovely evening with George. I think the best part was that I met him in a church. After the concert, I dared him to get up in the pulpit and say something, but he said he would only do it naked.

I can report that George is friendly, personable, witty, charming, and definitely not an asshole. In fact, I don\\\'t know how he shits because he appears to be completely asshole free. Also, the concert was a wonderful marriage of classical cello and technology.

Fred Kiesche
almost fifteen years ago

What? It\\\'s April and no Geologic Podcast? And now we have the \\\"Runescape Gold\\\" spammers? Sigh...

stePH
over fifteen years ago

Two things:

1: Pat Martino may have forgotten everything CONCEPTUAL about music theory and guitar technique, but his fingers almost certainly retained the skills he developed over the years prior to his mishap. I think this sort of \\\"muscle memory\\\" is what was meant when it was said that he didn\\\'t have to start again ENTIRELY from scratch.

2: Being particularly fond of (though not a member of) the Church of the Subgenius, I like to say \\\"for Bob\\\'s sake\\\" and \\\"What in Bob\\\'s name\\\" and such. (I don\\\'t think I\\\'ve ever said \\\"Oh my Bob\\\" though.) As the Subgenii will tell you, \\\"GOD spelled backward is DOG, but BOB spelled backward is stilL BOB.\\\"

Seth
over fifteen years ago

My opion of using phrases like \\\"Jesus Christ\\\" and \\\"Oh my god\\\" is that theyt are just syllables - like \\\"shitburger\\\" and \\\"gadzooks\\\". It is only the believer that imbues these phrases with meaning. I say them all the time - more lustily now that I know there is no Big Teacher in the sky looking at me askance overa giant pair of spectacles.

Seth
over fifteen years ago

Obviously, that should read \\\"My opinion\\\".

Lauren Cocilova
over fifteen years ago

I still have some trouble with the “goddamnits” and the “jesus christs” but I’ve trained myself to say “gesundheit,” and I’m working on using “blast!” or “oh hamburgers!” and I tend to type “Omfsm!!” instead of religious expletives, so I’m trying. Coital exclamations, though, are pretty dull without god, eh?

Oh, and I’m with Dan about the Periodic Songs. Want. Of course, I want it all,

Seth
over fifteen years ago

I am going to make my own set of mp3s from the podcast (audio snippage, tag updates...) but I would MUCH rather have a \\\'fishul version.

George Hrab
over fifteen years ago

Kids-

The elements WILL be available some time in the future. Once the next record is done, I\\\'ll re-record them (fixing all the mistakes that Carrie caught... sheesh...). This version will be available late 09 early 10. PLUS- the original \\\"as posted with mistakes\\\" version might ALSO be available even sooner from your friends over at PodDisc. Details to follow. (They\\\'re in the process of compiling two \\\"Best Of the Geologic Podcast\\\" discs.)

By the way- my show at TAM7 will be a multi-media presentation of the \\\"BEST OF\\\" the Occasional Songs. Get tix now.

OK. Back to work.

Geo

Podblack
over fifteen years ago

Richard, stay out of the fridge!

Firstly - I hope you got a hug around about the point of 37.00min of this show, George.

Secondly - you said at 16.15min - re: brain injury:

\\\"Do the characteristics of a particular hemisphere influence those traits that it\\\'s taking over? So, if a left-brain function, let\\\'s say artistic appreciation or some kind of artistic thing is taken over by the right side, does the right side impose its right sided-ness upon those functions? And conversely, does the left side (if the left side needs to take over) does it impose a left-sidedness to those characteristics?

\\\"We do have asymmetrical brains, and this is a fact of considerable interest and importance. However, our brains are also highly symmetrical, the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolution in a world where the difference between left and right is virtually of no consequence... the most likely explanation for our asymmetrical brains is that certain complex computations are inefficient if constrained by symmetrical circuits, and are better accomplished within a hemisphere than by circuits straddling the hemispheres... It is extremely unlikely that the incremental processes of natural selection somehow managed a rewiring of the cerebral hemisphere so that one became specialised for the complex temporal sequence required for language, whilst the other was adapted to complementary spatial, intuitive and emotional functions. This is not to say that there are no asymmetries in the way these different functions are represented in the brain; the problem lies in the simplistic notion that the two hemispheres somehow embody opposite ways of thinking, and that the right hemisphere\\\'s talents have been subjugated. To understand how the mind works, we need to consider how the brain works as a whole, and it will not do simply to throw our different mental capacities in to those convenient bins, the left and right brains.\\\"

[Reference: Tall Tales About the Mind And Brain - Separating Fact From Fiction

Seth
over fifteen years ago

\\\"Firstly - I hope you got a hug around about the point of 37.00min of this show, George.\\\" - Podblack

He got one from me, even if he didn\\\'t know it.

And not in a gay way.

Weeeell, maybe just a bit.

POSTY McPOSTERTON
over fifteen years ago

Hey, Geo... can you put the Periodic Songs up on iTunes? Maybe not $99/song, but I\\\'d totally buy the whole album for $20+ or something...

~Dan

Dr. Dim
over fifteen years ago

When I turned my life over to no God, I, too, found it difficult to drop the \\\"My God!\\\" type phrases. But then I received help from Monty Python\\\'s Flying Circus.

In one episode, Terry Gilliam is playing a Soviet guard and he sees something that frightens him. He cries out, \\\"My lack of God!\\\" You see the Soviets were godless Commies, so it was fitting that he cry out that way. Funny, too.

I have tried to incorporate that phrase into my exclamatory phrases.

Nicole
over fifteen years ago

Holy heck, that\\\'s a lot of songs. *Exciting!*

I\\\'ve worked to switch my \\\"oh my god\\\" to \\\"oh my gosh.\\\" It makes me sound more like a prude I guess, until I come out with something like \\\"Holy heck balls.\\\"

I\\\'ll be driving to Philly then to central PA this weekend. I\\\'ll make sure to yell \\\"vibraphone\\\" out the car window.

Seth
over fifteen years ago

Don\'t worry, Geo - your answer to my question was the opposite of boring. It was, in fact, thoughtful, detailed, and fascinating. In short, exactly what I hoped for.

And if you know any musicians who want to look at sappy lyrics, let me know. :D

Richard Saunders
over fifteen years ago

You see I left my socks in my fridge. They are now too cold to put on my feet.

Podblack
over fifteen years ago

... I think we at the Skeptic Zone podcast are going to get dreadfully egotistical with all these references too us... or more likely, very flattered! :)