Tonight on Hollow Earth Radio the Seattle Tuba Project will be performing some holiday classics around 8pm! The band features Darrin of Bellinghams Sharpie, Elijah of Seattle/Bellingham band Black Breath, Erik of B-18/Idaho Meth Project and some guy who slings drinks to Phil Ek and John Atkins (of 764-HERO). ;P Tune in online at 8pm for some holiday cheer and hot Tuba action! check out their myspace for a christmas classic as well as a moving rendition of the Incredible Hulk theme song: Seattle Tuba Project

Last night I dreamt that the 90’s Seattle band Flop had a television series back in the early 90’s. The show was similar to ‘The Monkees’, but it was in black and white. In my dream, it had been years since I had seen the show, so I did not remember much about it. However, I knew that I had video taped some of the episodes when it originally aired, and that the video tapes were at my mom's house. I was getting excited to watch the episodes again. So when I awoke from my dream, I was VERY disappointed to realize that there was no such television series. Thanks a lot Flop. You guys should have made a television series! Maybe then you would have received the recognition that you deserved. Just look at how popular The Monkees became. And they weren’t even a real band.

Flop was my favorite band to come out of Seattle during the early 90’s. Here is the song that kicked it all off for me. It was the single from their debut album, ‘Flop and the Fall of the Mopsqueezer’:

...and here's one from their second album, ‘Whenever You’re Ready’ (my favorite Flop album):

This week, I’ll focus on two of the most popular gifts for Christmas: Books and DVDs.

Since DVD movies first hit the market a few years ago, very few movie stars have found their way underneath the Christmas tree as consistently as Tom Hanks. So I’ll start with a review of the Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away:

Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks (2000):

I'll be using UPS from now on.

In this movie, Tom Hanks plays a corrupt FedEx worker who gets his comeuppance after he opens several FedEx packages that do not belong to him while en route to an overseas FedEx delivery. He opens packages and steals the following items from trusting FedEx customers: A pair of ladies figure skates, a volleyball, a dress, and a bunch of video tapes. He ends up delivering only one of the packages that he was supposed to deliver, and it takes more than four years to make the delivery.

I don't want to spoil the ending, so I'll let you find out for yourself how he gets his comeuppance.

Cast Away is a “pretty good” movie. Most people will probably enjoy it.
Unfortunately, I do not approve of FedEx workers opening packages that do not belong to them. It sends a bad message. So I can’t give more than 2 stars for my rating.

Bears (Scary Creatures) by Gerald Legg

The Scary Creatures series of books is specially crafted to teach children (between the ages of 9 and 12) the truth about certain unfriendly animals in nature. Last week, I reviewed, ‘Wolves’. This week, it’s all about BEARS!

Unlike some other bear books, this book places an emphasis on the fact that bears are NOT friendly. One look at the cover of this book tells the whole story.

If you are on the fence about bears, you won't be after reading this book.

The theme of the book is clear from page one; bears are not nice animals. The cover shows a very angry bear ripping its way through white fabric (“paper”). On a superficial level, this is meant to represent the idea that a bear is jumping through the pages of the book out at the reader. But on a subconscious level, I believe it’s meant to plant the idea that a bear could come slashing through the fabric of my tent wall at any moment while I’m camping. If this was the author's intention, I think it's a good idea.

Children need to be on their toes when camping in the woods. Bear attacks are a very real problem. It's not a good idea for a child (or an adult) to lose sight of the fact that a bear could be lurking anywhere, including just outside the tent at night. You don't want to be caught off guard when a bear comes slashing through your tent walls. (This is an excellent example of why ALL children should be taught how to use firearms at a VERY young age.)
(5 Stars)

Animal Farm by George Orwell

A lot has already been written about George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’. But after reading several reviews on Amazon dot com, I feel that most people have completely missed the point of this book. Animal Farm has nothing to do with communism. Animal Farm is about the age-old question: What would the world be like if animals could talk? It's pretty straight-forward. The only problem that I have with this book is that there aren't enough animals involved. Animal Farm limits itself by only including farm animals. I'd like to hear what wolves, bears, camels, and elephants have to say.

Hopefully, when he’s feeling better, Orwell will write a sequel to Animal Farm and include more animals.

(4 Stars)

With the upcoming DIY Holiday Fair we thought we'd post this Surrealist Songmaking compilation we did at last year's event.

Hollow Earth Radio’s Surrealist Songmaking project is a method by which a collection of four recorded musical tracks are assembled to make one song. Participants have a chance to make up a portion of a song on the spot, in a similar way to writing an "Exquisite Corpse Poem."

To do this, we use a 4-track analog recorder with various instrument options. Once an instrument is chosen, participants strap on headphones and begin recording their own track, with the rule that they can only listen to one of the previously recorded tracks. After four tracks are recorded, they are combined together to make a song.

Here are the seven songs from last last year's holiday fair. It was CRAZY GOOD. Come to the fair this year and get on this!!!!!

Listen to them here

Take care of your holiday list this weekend with great local gifts from rad crafters & record labels!

Here's a retrospective from the 2010 DIY Holiday Fair, which was the third year Hollow Earth Radio has hosted, and the second in conjunction with The Vera Project. Both non-profits feature the bazaar as a local alternative for holiday shopping, and to display NW labels and crafters of all mediums and sizes. This clip (by Rachel LeBlanc) features one band who performed, Prawnyxx, and three of the labels who tabled their wares.

We hope to see you there this year!