MMA fighter wins Smack-Off XVIII

The Smack-Off is an annual competition on The Jim Rome Show, (heard in Castoropolis on PMBC-1152, and on several other affiliates throughout Patria) in which select listeners are invited to provide their best "Smack Talk," with Jungle Party house leader Jim Rome and his show personnel determining the winner. The 18th annual contest was held on May 18th and it's a way to recognize the best callers to the show, as well as a means of determining the "Best Caller of the Year." The Smack-Off also helps to determine Jungle Party representation in the next Congress, as previous Smack-Off winners and veteran Smack-Off participants are placed on the Jungle Party's list and will be awarded seats in Congress after the 2014 election.


2012 Official Results

• 1st CHAEL SONNEN
• 2nd Mike In Indy
• 3rd Iafrate
• 4th Vic In No Cal
• 5th Doc Mike DiTolla
• 6th Mark in Hollywood
• 7th Brad in Corona
• 8th Dan in DC
• 9th Dave in St. Louis
• 10th Trapper in Dana Point

Other 2012 Participants

• Gino In San Antonio
• Mike In Wichita
• Joe In OC
• Jolene In Farmington (2012 Hack-Off Winner)
• Isreal In L.A.

Mixed martial artist Chael Sonnen claimed the title of King of Smack for 2012, winning a massive prize package - tickets to any regular-season sports event, a 46-inch flat-screen TV, and more - narrowly edging out Mike in Indy, who won a set of steak knives for second place. For the week prior to the show, Rome had been pimping an "un-named pro athlete" as one of the Smack-Off participants, who would be making his Smack-Off debut to boot. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a UFC fighter instead of an athlete playing a real sport, i.e. a Major League baseball player, NFLer, NHLer, NBAer, golfer, boxer, or even a pro soccer player. Mixed martial arts, aka Ultimate Fighting, is regarded with disgust in Patria, considered to be little more than two shirtless, barefoot slobs in a bar fight.

For everything you always wanted to know about the Smack-Off, including audio clips of virtually every Smack-Off call, visit Smackoff.net.

Parvati launches new Yoga in the Nightclub

Honorary citizen of Patria Parvati Devi (not "Pavarti" as Cashbox Canada's copy editor seems to think) is launching a new album entitled YIN: Yoga in the Nightclub.

The album contains re-worked versions of songs that appeared on Parvati's original Yoga in the Nightclub CD released in 2008, as well as some new compositions. Listen to samples of the new tracks.

Parvati says of her new album:

In this album and show, I weave together my love of yogic consciousness with my love for electronic dance-pop music. “YIN: Yoga In the Nightclub” is about yoga being everywhere. The art of Yoga reaches far beyond the impression most Westerners have as being a series of bendy physical exercises. Yoga is a systematic body of knowledge and a practice that teaches us integrated living, while being rooted in the fullness of who we are, living our highest good, following our deepest joy.

“YIN: Yoga In the Nightclub” reminds us that our potential to awaken to the divine is available to us in every moment, no matter where we may be. It celebrates our Earth, the sacred feminine, the Divine Mother and explores an ancient message in a modern world. It taps into our deeper, multidimensional knowing, which touches and stirs the quiet soul-wisdom that is already present in each of us, that is simply waiting to be switched on. 

“YIN: Yoga In the Nightclub” is a nod of gratitude to the yoga community for the support I have received over the years, and of recognition of my deep spiritual roots there. Taking my independent hit single "Yoga In the Nightclub" as a point of departure, the album brings together traditional Sanskrit chants, original pop songs, anthemic dance tracks and expansive, spacious soundscapes that allow listeners to rest in the lap of the Divine.

I feel like I am in a creative cave in my music studio as I create sounds to produce songs and soundscapes. For me, it is a fully engrossing and surrendered process, witnessing a force unfold and move through that is so much greater than the ego. In this way, the creative process feels mystical at it’s core. Our whole universe is sound. One of my favourite books, “The World Is Sound: Nada Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, explores this idea deeply. If you have not read it, it is truly sonically and creatively inspiring.

We can open our ears and being to the worlds of sound both within and without. We think of sound as frequencies we hear with our physical ears. But there are also unstruck sounds, frequencies that are subtle yet still can be sensed. For example, we hear the thoughts that pass through our head, that inner chatter, even though no object is vibrating to create that sound frequency.

The voice of the Divine is like this to me, everywhere, in all things, pulsing, flowing, alive. When we learn to listen, life is resonant with an orchestral vibrancy that is nothing short of awe inspiring. This lush orchestration arises from and moves us to stillness. Sound can inspire an inner quiet that feels vast, expansive and infinite. When we open our ears, our heart, our body and our mind and truly listen, we can hear the wondrous pulsating sounds of Life itself.

Following the official release of this album on Friday, May 11, Parvati begins a ten-week tour of the United States, beginning in Seattle. A percentage of all proceeds on the tour will go to the environmental efforts of Amma's charitable organization Embracing The World.

Canada's shortwave voice about to be silenced

Barring some kind of last-minute stay of execution, Radio Canada International (RCI), the international service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada since 1945, will leave the air for good on or about June 24, taking the transmitter site in Sackville, New Brunswick with it. Unlike in 1991, when the Mulroney-era CBC's budget cuts only killed off half of RCI's languages and programs, this cut is real and will end Canada's shortwave presence once and for all.

From the RCI Action Committee, here are a few of the key facts in point form:

• RCI’s budget has been cut by more than 80% – from $12.3 million to $2.3 million
• RCI newsroom will be eliminated, all newscasts cut. Note that newscasts intended for an international audience should not be re-broadcasts of CBC's domestic programs. For example, a news item in a broadcast intended for Canadians may simply reference "NDP leader Thomas Mulcair", but listeners outside Canada, who may not even know what "NDP" stands for, will likely need some further explanation or context: "Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the leftist New Democratic Party, the official opposition..."
• RCI will no longer be a radio broadcaster, whether on shortwave or satellite. They might as well call it ICI ("Internet Canada International") because it sure isn't radio!
• Chinese audience will be cut off from uncensored news from RCI because only shortwave reaches the Chinese, the RCI website is blocked by China, as are many websites originating in First World democracies or that dare question China's stellar record of respecting human rights and tolerating dissent.
• Important potential trading partners such as China, India, Russia, Brazil (the so-called BRIC countries) will be cut off from news from Canada, because the RCI website is blocked or the Internet not as accessible as in North America
• Russian and Portuguese services will be eliminated (there goes half the BRIC!)
• For the language services that remain, English, French, Arabic, Mandarin and Spanish,there will be some kind of website presence, still undefined, and far less effective than radio transmissions.
• People in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America still have spotty Internet access, and depend on our broadcasts for Canadian news. In fact people in many countries don't even have reliable access to electricity, let alone high-speed internet access, assuming they could afford to buy a computer. Their only connection to the world may be a battery-powered, solar-powered or wind-up portable radio.
• As Canadians we feel it’s essential Canada have a Voice to the World producing programming tailored for an audience not familiar with Canada, or for potential immigrants to Canada, or even just a familiar voice from home for Canadians traveling abroad.
• RCI’s uniqueness is not that we broadcast in a number of languages, but that we explain Canada to the world in those languages
• Because of RCI’s contextualized programs for people with little or no information on Canada, trade, tourism, and immigration has been helped
• With the layoffs, Canada will lose people with decades of expertise at representing Canada around the world
• Canada’s Voice to the World has been a respected source of journalism for the past 67 years

See also The Terrible Cost of Cutting International Radio by Thomas Witherspoon. (An American explains why Radio Canada International should have been spared in the recent round of CBC budget cuts.)

Will Stephen "give me a decent haircut or this kitten dies" Harper let RCI die? The whole world is listening, including Patria!