As some of you may have figured out by now, our radio show is currently on extended hiatus.
This has been a depressing development, but necessary.
The Occupy the Microphone crew is currently regrouping and trying to figure out what to do next. We are thinking about a group-oriented show (modeled on some of our very successful shows with Traci Fant) ... or maybe just concentrate on delivering a regular podcast? Over the past two and a half years, our show has been broadcast at three different time-slots on three different local radio stations. We need to step back and figure out what we want to do and the most economical way to get it done.
It's great to broadcast the news that no one else here in South Carolina will cover. We pride ourselves on having done that, but we also know that talk-radio tends to be a right-wing medium. We knew that our nationally-oriented shows were downloaded most often on the internet (as podcasts), and were far more popular than our local broadcasts. By contrast, our regionally-oriented shows got us a lot of local attention but didn't get the internet downloads that the big national-stories did. After awhile, we didn't know if we were (basically) a national or local show? Should we lead with one or the other type of story first? We dithered, argued, worried ... and unlike rich Republicans, we don't have marketing analysts and suchlike, to definitively tell us what to do. (sigh)
If we go back on local radio, it is likely we will need a flurry of advertising to keep us afloat this time.
Our hiatus is also due to a variety of other factors, in addition to our ongoing collective dithering over radio-show goals. These factors include my untimely and unnerving car accident, as well as the loss of a major advertiser ... but most important: Our producer, Gregg Jocoy, is dealing with his mother-in-law's extended illness. She is near death and is dying at home, not in a hospital. Gregg's family has the help of professional caregivers and hospice care, but caring for a terminally-ill person is still an enormous, overwhelming task. (Our last show talked about how most people die in hospitals now and not at home, and asked: Has this been good or bad for our culture as a whole?) Such work is emotionally draining as well as physically trying. Our best wishes are with Gregg and his family.
Meetings are scheduled, things are being cussed and discussed (as my grandmother used to say), and I will surely keep you updated.
It was a great show, and you must go listen immediately.
Below: 1) Jeffrey talks about the cultish environment of Bob Jones University; 2) me interviewing Jeffrey; 3) Daisy, Jeffrey and fabulous co-host Double A, the rock and roll diehard.
Broadcasting every weekday from WOLI studios, McAlister Square, LIVE AT FIVE. (You can livestream us daily at 5pm HERE. Friday's show can be found here, here and here.)
Daisy listens in earnest to one of our radio callers at WOLI studios in McAlister Square, home of the redoubtable Occupy the Microphone.
Yes, pardon the cheesy Xmas mom-shirt. I was trying to deck the halls and all like that. It used to be my daughter's shirt when she was young, and her grandmother has a Christmas video of her playing the clarinet while wearing it. Christmas nostalgia! (((sheds predictable mama tears over her baby being all grown up now)))
I therefore find it impossible to get rid of, and I usually end up wearing it at least once every yule season.
~*~
I hate to admit when the Consigliere is right, but yes, he is.
Gregg thought we'd get lots better at the radio thing, by doing the show every day, and we have. Practice makes perfect, and it really has made a huge difference to do the show daily for drive-time radio (LIVE AT FIVE!). The main thing: I am no longer afraid. I am often at a loss for words (what? me?) but that's the great thing about having two co-hosts: they bail me out with regularity, and I do the same for them.
We now have time to cover all the news that isn't fit to print (and subsequently gets ignored, especially around here), and we are committed to doing it from a lefty political perspective. Although Double-A is our resident Democrat, we don't hold it against him. We are determined to make a Green Party member of him, yet!
Ours is the only left-leaning talk radio show for hundreds of miles.
Thank you to everybody who has taken the time to talk to us and our listeners! WE LOVE YOOOOOOU!!! (blows kisses)
~*~
On or around World AIDS Day, one of our guests was Tracey Leigh Jackson of Piedmont Care, which provides local resources, prevention and treatment for HIV. (HI TRACEY!) After the show, we chatted a bit and suddenly, everybody in the studio was peppering her with sex-questions, LOL. She promised to send our engineer, Jonathan, a box of fancy (did she say they were EDIBLE?) condoms. She also mentioned lube, and I asked her if she had ever heard of Liquid Silk. She had, and promised to include samples of Liquid Silk (or something very similar in quality) in our promised box of goodies.
Sometime during the next show, or possibly a few days later, I reminded Jonathan... my mistake, of course, was in saying this during one of our commercial breaks. No, I wasn't paying attention. I have a hard time remembering how long some of the breaks are (and since our commercial breaks are of unequal length, I never remember!) ... so there I am... saying hey, some of that stuff in the box is supposed to be for ME. He said, what? I answered, Liquid Silk!
"Its supposed to be for me, so don't forget to give me the samples."
"Liquid Silk?" Jonathan wrinkles his brow. The commercial was turned up a bit louder than usual. "The lube!!!!" I shouted, and yes, we were suddenly on the air, and I was not paying attention.
I was shouting over the commercial that was playing in the studio, or thought I was:
"DON'T FORGET TO GIVE ME THE LUBE! I AM SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING THE LUBE!!!"
Yes, I am afraid that DID go out over the airwaves.
The later version was edited, so luckily, it hasn't been saved for posterity.
God knows what our listeners thought of that ... or maybe we picked up a few more?
~*~
Stay tuned, as we learn on the job! And please join us during the next year. We are LIVESTREAMING HERE every weekday, LIVE AT FIVE, and we welcome callers of all political persuasions, which serves to keep things interesting.
This was a major landmark for us; I don't remember having that many people in the studio at once before! Gregg was absent, so it was all up to me and my fearless co-host, Double-A.
[] Worst house you've ever seen. (Curbed) Really! Apparently, it was designed by a pimp, and ... well ... it totally defies description.
It seems to be hemorrhaging money, too, which just makes it all the more incredibly bad.
[] For the two or three of my readers who are theory-heads: Marxist feminism as a critique of intersectionality. (Neo-colonialism and its discontents). I have some issues with intersectionality (the new trend in feminism, and suddenly everyone's new favorite word) and Will Shetterly accurately outlines some of my issues HERE.
[]Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire (Salon) If you've been wondering what's wrong with Sears, and why it looks like a dump these days, here's your answer.
Something else to blame on Ayn Rand.
[] Peter O'Toole has passed on, and here is a pretty good obit. (Los Angeles Times) I loved him in the film The Stunt Man, and if you've never seen it, you might want to hunt it down for a viewing. It's rather surreal, and O'Toole is perfect.
[] And finally: here is your DEAD FROM CUTENESS pre-Christmas video. I've been posting it everywhere, so if you've seen it already, you can probably blame me! (I want that puppy!)
~*~
CAR OF THE MONTH: Buick LeSabre, outside the Publix.
What year? Not sure, but appears to be Third Generation, possibly 1971. If anyone has any better estimates, let me know.
(((waves to car-photo lurkers and wishes you all Happy Motoring Holidays!)))
We need to make the politicians wear suits advertising their commercial endorsements, just like the NASCAR drivers do. The more money contributed, the bigger the logo!
In the case of BigPharma, the logo should be that of the most popular, best-selling drug of any given company. For instance, Eli Lilly's biggest seller last year was CYMBALTA, so that word should be suitably emblazoned on the jackets of any and all politicians who took Eli Lilly's generous corporate donations. (This could well have a subliminal effect: Perhaps people will wonder if the politician-in-question is making them depressed?) I personally can't wait for conservative Senator Tom Coburn, who took $7000 from Purdue Pharma, to wear the giant word OXYCONTIN on his belly, as he addresses his constituents. Likewise, how funny would it be if Obama wore the logo ADDERALL XR at his next press conference? (Would he seem more or less authoritative?)
Here are some fashion-forward ideas I discovered, when I searched the web.
Like I said, no cheating with PFIZER... it has to say VIAGRA, so everyone will recognize the product. (And frankly, this move might not sell the product as well as playing them sexee blues songs on TV commercials, but maybe Pfizer should start thinking about IMAGE?)
The hits just keep on comin, here in DeMint country! At left: anti-immigrant demonstrator in downtown Greenville on Saturday. Photo by my talented radio show consigliere, Gregg Jocoy. (More photos here.)
I forgot all aboutthe right-wing demonstration on Saturday (I'm glad Gregg didn't), but ended up downtown in the early evening anyway, to grab a bite to eat after the Randall Bramblett show (see below). By that time (as I said on our show yesterday), only one brave sign-carrying protester remained. Since she was yelling and gesticulating at the traffic all by her lonesome, I thought she was there individually--all by herself--which always makes one look somewhat unbalanced. (I never do it; although I WILL pass out leaflets by myself.) She was yelling about "the hostile invasion" (i.e. immigration) when I passed her and shook my head in an exaggerated, theatrical fashion, "What a loony tune!" was the body-language message I hoped I was sending.
And you know, I won't lie to you: I was momentarily pleased I got a chance to do this to the right-wingers for a change; they are usually the ones doing it to US. In these parts, Occupiers were regarded as either 1) dangerous deluded wackos, or, 2) an interesting sideshow. At least in the case of #2, there was the opportunity to strike up some conversations, maybe win over some hearts and minds.
It was just as I was nostalgically remembering our belated Season of OCCUPY, that the intrepid sign-carrying lady started RUNNING AFTER ME, loudly demanding to know if I was in favor of amnesty for illegals???!!?.
Oh boy.
I realize the proper and nuanced answer is, "What about amnesty for their employers? Why are THEY never arrested?"--but I did not want to hang around and argue with this person, I wanted to eat at the Mellow Mushroom.
At this point, we were right in front of the Carolina Ale House, which has the popular advertising/commercial slogan, "Ale Yeah!"... this catchy phrase is even engraved into the planters out in front of the restaurant. Consequently, all I could think of was, ALE NO!
ALE NO, I do not want to talk to this person.
So I answered quickly, "I think it's a great idea!" I blurted out.
She was ready with a reply, "Do you want the United States to become like a European country?!"
I turned and said very distinctly and loudly, ABSOLUTELY!
That shut her up. Stunned her too. "Umm," she fell back and stopped following me at that point, undoubtedly deciding I was some insane leftist in favor of universal health care. "That's... interesting..." and she then went over and accosted some other poor soul who was trying to decide where to eat.
Jesus H Christ, where do these people come from?! The good news (see linked video) is that they were mostly older white people, the demographic you would expect. No teenagers or twenty-somethings out there.
As I've said here before, the young folks want to date and marry the newcomers, not send them back.
TMI update: my evil ganglion cyst seems to have shrunk to a pinpoint, which I attribute to my feverish consumption of both kombucha and turmeric. It could also be that the steroid shot of a couple of months ago (directly into my finger! aiyeee!) took some additional time to do the job. In any event, in the last couple of weeks, it has become smaller than it's ever been (over the last few years) and stopped swelling up, hurting or (most importantly) bursting open with nasty goo. Perhaps that was all the nasty goo it had? Whatever the reason, when I went in to get it removed, the doctor took a look and said there was no reason for an invasive procedure (and subsequent risk of infection) at this juncture. He said he saw no reason to "dig around in there for it" (Good God Almighty!), for which I thanked heaven profusely.
I was ecstatic, especially when I saw the size of the needle he was getting ready to use on me. Holy shit.
I doubt my fingernail will ever look okay, but that is a small price to pay for a dormant ganglion cyst. Let's hope it stays dormant, and pass the kombucha.
Hope your week is going well. Me and Double A are going to attempt the radio show today BY OURSELVES, without our trusted and capable consigliere... which as you know, is no way for a consigliere to behave, but there it is. Family obligations have intervened, and we must GO FORTH AND DO IT... and I know I don't have to tell you, I am a nervous wreck. Luckily, I can chatter on like nobody's business, so hopefully, nobody will be able to tell that I am freaked out.
Jonathan, our wonderful and insightful engineer, will probably have to bail us out... but that's what engineers are FOR!
~*~
Check out the cool song. I just loved it. Athens folks, of course, know that the Nowhere Bar is in Athens, Georgia.
I can totally imagine John the Baptist sitting there; so it's where we get today's blog post title.
John the Baptist - Randall Bramblett
Hope your week is going well, too. And don't let your consigliere, whoever it is, out of your sight for a minute!
CHAOS REIGNS without a consigliere to maintain order... just ask anybody.
Photos of our local action below (as always, you can click all photos to enlarge). Feel free to copy and share!
It was a gorgeous and lovely spring day, and marching through Falls Park, surrounded by natural beauty, was the perfect backdrop. THIS is what we are trying to save.
Note: The last two photos are of my fabulous radio co-hosts, Double A and Gorgeous Gregg. Make sure to check us out on Occupy the Microphone. Friend us on Facebook and follow me on Twitter! :)
