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Does this mean I'm part of the MSM?

I should be on the Rick Jensen Show (1150AM WDEL) in about 5 minutes to talk about the Japanese Newsweek cover.

FOLLOW-UP:
Well, that was an intense experience. Rick is an easy guy to talk to, but being on the air cranked up my nervousness dial to "11". It amazes me that talk radio hosts can calmly chat away, live, for up to three hours at a stretch.

I think I did a good enough job of explaining why I was upset by the Newsweek cover without seeming like a fire-breathing demogogue. I also tried to make the point that if Newsweek runs a story overseas, it should run it in America, too, so Americans can know it's there and respond to it. And it was funny hearing someone call me "GaijinBiker" out loud. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

Nevertheless, in my stress, I forgot the Japanese word for courage, yuuki, which Rick pop-quizzed me on when it came up in the conversation: "It looks like Newsweek lacked the courage — hey, how would you say that in Japanese, Gaijin? My brilliant reply: "Uh... I'd just say "courage."

I also intentionally misidentified my motorcycle as a Honda CB1300, not an X-4, which is similar. I figured that since Honda never sold the X-4 in America, no one would know what I was talking about. But I forgot that Honda doesn't sell the CB1300 in America either. And I also forgot that it doesn't matter, since most people aren't going to know one model number from another, anyway. Bleh.

Toward the end of the segment, I started to drift into a misbegotten analogy comparing beach vacations and ski vacations to democracy and socialism, when Rick mercifully dragged the conversation back on topic. Hey, made sense when I was thinking about it. Really.

When I write a blog post, I can edit and re-edit my words countless times (and I usually do) until they say exactly what I want. And even then, sometimes I still wish I'd said something different. On radio, you say something, and BAM! That's it. That's what you said. So I definitely felt pressure to get things right and not say anything too stupid — but at the same time, it was a lot of fun.

Thanks for having me on the show, Rick.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't get a chance to listen, but congrats on hitting the big time. :) 

Posted by Dave Justus

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I won't forget where I came from. :-) 

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!

But how could you forget yuuki? I remember it from a catch phrase in an early-90's anime (Ai yo! Yuuki yo! Kibou you!) 

Posted by Greg

Anonymous said...

I'm telling you, my mind went completely blank, man. It's freaky.

I actually thought "yuuki " for a second, and then I told myself, "no, wait... that means snow (yuki)." Bleargh. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean. I had a similarly unnerving Jeopardy episode a few years back. Congrats.

 

Posted by Bojack

Anonymous said...

GB:  So you weren't the radio version of "Smoove B". Big deal. I'm often inherently skeptical about people who are too slick when on the air: something tells me they're too practiced in the 'art' of spin. You're a smart guy - I'm sure people who were able to listen in were persuaded by what you had to say, especially since you aren't someone who gets paid to tell a particular viewpoint, as so many TV and Radio pundits are.

Seriously, though: first part of this week I could not get on your blog for all the extra traffic coming over from LGF, etc. You're going to be a big as Godzilla soon, and forget about us, lol! 

Posted by langtry

Anonymous said...

Bravo Gaijinbiker! Is the program archived anywhere on the Internet? Also, I think you honed in exactly the key issue. Why didn't Newsweek print the story in the U.S.? Is it because too many Americans can't tolerate criticism, because the magazine is afraid of retaliation by people in government like Donald ``Watch what you say'' Rumsfeld, or both?  

Posted by bunkerbuster

Anonymous said...

A question for the Amnesty-haters: are there ANY sources of valid criticism of the U.S.? All I ever see on this blog are denunciations of organizations that dare to criticize. It raises the question: Is the U.S. perfect, beyond criticism? Or if not, where do you go to find appropriate, in your mind, fair, criticism? 

Posted by bunkerbuster

Anonymous said...

langtry:  Really? You couldn't get through to my site for several days?  That is not cool on Blogger's part! I wonder how many other people that happened to...

bunkerbuster: I can't seem to find it on the net but if I do, I'll post about it.  

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Gaijinbiker! You have "yuuki" !!! You're my hero! I kept saying the word "Gaijinbiker" around here, and when too many people said what? what? I finally looked up "gaijin" ! Your name has become a household word! I'm sure not only in my household and local Starbucks! 

Posted by BR

Anonymous said...

GB:  Several days is aactually longer than the period of time where I couldn't get on to your blog. More like a day and a half or so, you media mogul! 

Posted by langtry

Anonymous said...

I hear Blogger was actually having some accessibility issues during that time.

So it may have been not a traffic overload, but just Blogger's regular spotty service that made my site inaccessible to some people.

I wonder how many visits I lost out on because of it. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

Gaijinbiker, did you see the 5/26/05 coverage at Investor's Business Daily on your Japanese edition exposé? Unfortunately the writer didn't credit you, only mentioned RickAdams.org. Their article entitled "News Weak" was linked by Powerlineblog.com, but that link now leads to their current page only. I found the "News Weak" article again in Google's cached version  of investors.com. 

Posted by BR

Anonymous said...

Btw, Belmont Club had such trouble with their site's server that they've had to go to a new site altogether, and lost their Archives. Hopefully, it's just temporary. Their new address is: fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com . 

Posted by BR

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing, BR. I saw the IBD article... I don't mind that they didn't mention my site; I got enough coverage out of this post already! And Rick did a lot of good work.

I do think IBD should have noted that the photo they used was Rick's photoshopped translation, not the actual cover.

Also, yeah, Blogger has been acting up again. I have plans in the works to switch Riding Sun over to another blogging and hosting company, but I'm not sure when that will be. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

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