If you’ve been occasionally a reader of this reportedly monthly Home Page, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted here for seven months, since November of 2024. Yikes! What the heck happened? Well, I’ll tell you.

365 days ago, on June 1, 2024, I began, advisedly or not, a 12-Month Video Fast, which ended at the stroke of midnight this morning. In addition, either to document the fast or force myself to do it, I began a podcast of the same title, the first episode of which was published a year ago today, and the 33rd and final went up yesterday. It was an amazing and in many ways very fulfilling project which I recount in this post. I also allowed it over time to consume most of my creative word-brain, praxis, and writing time, so the Home Page Posts (and much else) fell (or were placed gently) to the side for the interim. The podcasts ran every Saturday for two months, at which point I found myself gasping for breath (and time to get anything else done), and I switched it to Odd Saturdays (the first, third, and fifth when there was one). Even that schedule was challenging,  partly as I found myself spending a bit more time on each episode, so they became in general somewhat (or somelot) longer, and also better edited.

The episodes tended to be in a monolog format, somewhat from my initial intent of reportage on the fast, and also from my tendency to like to talk a lot history of spoken word and performing monologs in the past. That trend was broken just a few times, with a couple of mixtapes (one music and the other spoken soundbites from films, poetry, and politics) in July and April, an original song for the Winter Solstice, and three lengthy episodes in January in which I interview two creatives in each about the challenges of making art in America.

After a few episodes focused on the immediate effects of the fast, I took off into a broad variety of topics (because who wants to listen to someone complaining about having no TV week after week), pretty much deciding after each recording what I wanted to address next. I kept some notes with ideas, but mostly followed my intuition. That led me to writing last summer mostly about experiences and adventures I’d had in the past that had nothing to do with televised and film media – often from my 20s when I didn’t really watch the tube at all. I think these functioned as a kind of escapism for me, allowing me to spend time on the road, hiking up mountains, playing music, etc., rather than thinking about the media I was missing. After a few months I felt like I’d covered those topics pretty thoroughly, and decided to wrap up the first thirteen eps under the heading of Chapter 1 with a theme of looking back, and start a Chapter 2 about being in the present. That ran for ten episodes from September through January, ending with the interview eps, after which, starting in February, Chapter 3 would be about looking forward. Those final ten episodes ended up being unexpectedly influenced by the severity of recent politics, and while each episode had other thematic foci as well, about half of them addressed moving forward as a matter of self-care and resistance. 

As I said, this long post is devoted to a recap of all thirty-three episodes, for those who are curious to check out the podcast and effects of the fast in an orderly, almanac format. As the episodes were mostly introduced by their titles and logos, and a brief teaser and Facebook post that I tended to keep a bit cryptic, these summaries will list more explicitly the topics covered in each. I’ll also highlight what went into the individual logos, which I crafted myself (you can see a larger version of each by clicking on it), and may also include a few additional remarks on each, easter eggs, and so forth. As this info will be imparted somewhat matter-of-fact here, the reader will unfortunately miss out on the humor and the many details and tangents that run through and ground most of the episodes. Then again, you can click and listen to each one. I provide a link that will take you to each episode, and you can also go to the Podcast page above (or by clicking the word here) to access a player that includes all of the episodes. If you’re listening for the first time, I recommend taking in in the first episode or two before hopping around if you like, to give you a little more context.

Note:  As of this posting, the podcast and episodes reside on buzzsprout.com, so the links currently take you there. At some point I may move them elsewhere, at which point I’ll need to edit all of that here. If you have any trouble opening them, please let me know by writing to hello@richardloranger.com.

Enjoy the fast!

Podcast Logo
The background is just a photo of a corner in the hallway outside my apartment. I liked its lighting and 60° angle.
I really like the plaster texture on the walls, which comes into play in a few of the other logos.
The TV and Time-Out sign are snatched from the internet (sorry it’s not actually mine).
I wrestled with the font (not my forte) and settled on Tuna, which was a download.

You can click on any of the logos to see a larger image.

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Episode 1 – Week 0:  The Time-Out Corner  (18:57)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15175102

The teaser: “In which the podcaster explains his motive and purpose for putting his television in the Time-Out Corner for a year, and suggests why that might be of concern to you. “

This first episode is, I guess, a Statement of Intent (whatever that is). I wasn’t really sure what I was doing with the fast or the podcast, and had only recorded on Audacity minimally – though I did spend about five days doing intensive tutorials provided by Buzzsprout, the podcast host. In it I start by describing the unplugging of the umbilicus, then introduce myself, what I do, and tell a bit of my history, especially in regard to watching tv, which in younger years was not much and more recently way too much. I try to account for how it got so out of hand (or I got so addicted), starting with my first VCR as a gateway drug, juxtaposed with how very much I love film and video (funny, I actually say, “Insert three-month diatribe here,” not realizing that in a way I was about to do much more than that). I express my concerns about the medium as a mesmerizing form of social control and its potential for ideological implantation, and pose a number of scary questions regarding what it might have done to my brain and myself over the course of a few decades.

Episode 1 Logo
Originally it only said “Week Ø” until I started titling them a couple of weeks in. I used the Danish letter to distinguish from a capital “O” as in mathematics.

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Episode 2 – Week 1:  Meet the Joneses  (22:13)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15214809

Teaser: “In which the podcaster sketches his first reactions to life without television and worries about falling off the wagon.”

Here I bid a fond (and damn near tearful) farewell to my video games and shows, all the characters who had become my friends, and TV itself and the components, even the dust that had accumulated behind the system.

The episode contains the first mention of dopamine, which becomes an important topic throughout the podcast. This came up through the reading I was doing to explain the unexpectedly strong withdrawals I was going through. I compare them to other withdrawals I’ve experienced, and wonder how long they’ll hang around. 

This leads to the first of many longer memories, this of my attempt in the 90s to quit smoking cigarette via performance art – along with how I eventually did. (I kid you not and it’s quite funny.) Stories of crazy shit I’ve gotten into become a staple of the podcast, especially in Chapter 1 but really throughout.

Episode 2 Logo
Originally it only said “Week 1” until I started titling them after this episode. At that point I also went back in and added the ashtray to the bottom left of the screen. Seemed only appropriate. 

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Episode 3 – Week 2:  Status Report  (20:59)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15253177

Teaser: “In which the podcaster foists a recap, gives you a status report, and plays with dolls.”

This episode has just about the least inspired title, slapped on because I realized how confusing having Episode 3 be titled “Week 2” would become – and this more than a month before I decided to do them less frequently. After uploading this episode, I went back and titled the first two, and never bothered to title this one any more interestingly. 

I do give a fairly detailed status report, which I thought was appropriate, but it was also here that I realized I had to switch it up and keep that information present if sometimes minimal. So in some ways this ep was a turning point. I was getting my footing and considering how to shift content while keeping on track, or figuring out what that track might be. I did so soon enough, and those concerns even pop up right at the start of this one in an amusing and deconstructive manner.

I get into how my time is opening up and how I could use it, with lots of video and film references throughout. I was getting in more social time while finding the podcast to be more work than I’d expected; though enjoying that, it serves as a foreshadowing for letting up on it a bit.

Finally, I test the waters by watching a very pink film with a friend, which we’d planned to do for some time, and discovered that it was too soon in the fast to do so, and suffered the consequences. This also led to a little epiphany about distinguishing addiction from my passion for the media.

Episode 3 Logo
Decided to differentiate this one thematically by painting the walls Barbie pink, 
which led me to add to the previous logo and to really individualize the designs in the future.

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Episode 4 – Week 3:  Book Report on Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television  (46:03)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15295356

Teaser: “In which the podcaster gives an in-depth report on the 1978 text Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander, to see how well the book holds up in the contemporary environ, how well the listener’s patience holds up through a longer episode, and how well the podcaster’s voice holds up through a full day of recording.”

In this episode I give the listener a break from the monolog format, or as I more precisely phrase it, “from all that electronic naval-gazing.” I’d been intrigued about this book since mentioning it in Episode 1, and felt it was my podcaster’s duty (is there such a thing?) to read and report on it. So I spent about a week and a half going through Jerry Mander’s 350 page argument, making notes and using tons of post-it tags, and wrote this 40+ minute explication of it as concisely as I could. This was the first time the podcast had me working my ass off, and I was happy to have something so detailed to focus on. 

I was afraid of making such a “long” episode (little did I know),  so I taught myself various ways to capture soundbites/audio clips from various media to use as amusing palate cleansers between sections. Learned a bunch and I love the way it came out, but it turns out I likely didn’t need them as it was one of the most popular episodes of the ‘cast because – duh – the content was so engaging. It is, I have to say, a really interesting read, despite a few bits being outdated. Want to know about it yourself? Have a listen. You may end up picking up a copy.

I won’t tell you much here about the book (it’s all in the episode!), except to say that it was considered both harebrained and prophetic upon its release in 1978. I tend to see it more as the latter. Mander was a 60s adman who became horrified at how well the medium of TV controlled people’s minds. He never put out a second or revised edition, so this text stands as a pillar of its era, and a righteous cautionary tale.

Episode 4 Logo
Didn’t seem to need to say it was a book report; the cover says it all.
Also after this I left these “plain” logo designs alone for a while.

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Episode 5 – Week 4:  Sound and Silence  (28:13)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15331701

Teaser: “In which the podcaster falls into a memory hole and establishes palaver with a throng of angry instruments in order to find a way to improve his current situation.”

This was the first fairly cryptic teaser. I wanted to intrigue people without giving too much away, in hopes that the content would drag them right in. Did it work? The teaser didn’t really discourage, though there was a bit of a drop-off after this episode, in which I pivot to broader topics and don’t always mention television right away. Truth is, I didn’t want to be thinking about it all the time, so I started escaping into the past. So people who dug the stories, dug the episodes. And it was still, in essence, about the video fast.

Here I take a deep dive in another direction with an episode about my relationship to music and to silence. Let’s just say that neither is exactly normative. I start by anthropomorphizing my collection of instruments who have fallen into disuse, then travel back in time twice, fist to ponder experiences that led me to love quietude, then a second time to show my parallel growth as a musician, leading to a strategy for getting past the media addiction.

I also included bits of sound that I recorded with those sad instruments at home, figuring out new ways (for me) to use the microphone and layer tracks in Audacity, including a complete piece of music using the kalimba.

Episode 5 Logo
This is the first to take us out of that Time-Out Corner with an actual photo of the myself in 1980 stepping into the world via the meadow in what is now known as Olympic Valley, CA, which is mentioned in the episode. The scan is a little awkwardly inserted in Photoshop,  (which I use for all the logos), but I’d later figure out how to insert an image behind the floor and in front of the wall, which you can actually see faintly behind the pic in a close up view, though you can also see some of the doctoring I did to make the photo fit correctly. Alter and learn, I guess. 

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Episode 6 – Week 5:  Intentionality and the Blackhawk Blues  (27:32)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15371466 

Teaser: “In which the podcaster sees a ghost of his television, escapes from nuns, and gets unintentionally lost.”

This episode introduces a second voice or character to the podcast who I refer to as “Critical Voice” (the reasons will be clear). Though a bit of a bit player, C.V. barges in occasionally to interject their opinions or objections. Keeping me honest!

“Intentionality”, which comes up at the end of the previous episode, is meant specifically as looking for ways to change my wiring for the better.

I give a bit of an overdue update regarding my ongoing withdrawals including hallucinating my TV, and discuss the books I’ve been reading and things I’ve been writing, a nice refocus away from aching for media. I also discuss experiencing guilt after going to a movie theater (which I’m allowed to do), and inappropriate and misdirected guilt and shame in general…which leads to a story from my 20s of going on a vision quest of sorts to Mount Diablo (about 20 miles east of the SF Bay Area) to rid myself of a shame-struck depression, with very unexpected results both magical and scary.

Episode 6 Logo
Shows a topographic map of Mount Diablo State Park in Northern California where part of the episode occurs, placed carefully so that the town of Blackhawk, where the story ends, fits both in the title and exactly where it exists on the map. I actually pasted the rectangle with the town name separately on top of the TV image, but it is in the right place. Feel free to map the area to see for yourself.

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Episode 7 – Week 6:  In the Middle of Nowhere  (31:03)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15406987

Teaser: “In which the podcaster takes you for a ride, makes a movie, and recalls living on the planet.”

This ep focuses on road trips and photo and video documentation, though after a cute opening analogy of the podcast as a vehicle (your choice which), I make a point of letting the listener know that the ‘cast is taking up a bit too much time and I’ll likely shift away from a weekly format. I note that I felt the previous episode was too rushed and I was disappointed in how it turned out (though curiously I now think it’s one of the best).

I start with a quote from On Photography by Susan Sontag on how tourists’ photographs function as an intermediary between them and authentic (unmediated) experience, comparing that to remarks by Jerry Mander in Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. This springboards to a discussion of my passion for road trips and hitchhiking in my 20s, when I found being on the road as the purest form of living. Those two topics combine in a 10,000 mile drive of which I made a minimalist documentary on Hi-8 video,  and a discussion of ways in which the camera mediated the experience.

Episode 7 Logo
One of my favorite logos because it was so much fun placing the TV on a midnight stretch of highway clearly lit by headlights. Just a pic nabbed from the internet, but such drama!

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Episode 8 – Week 6.5:  A Musical Interlude  (22:33)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15442364

Teaser: “In which the podcaster gives you a break from his relentless wit and presents you with a mixtape based on the first seven episodes.”

This was meant to be a quicker episode (to create, at any rate) because I was short of time. I called it “Week 6.5”, which now seems an odd choice, because I meant to cover the events and thoughts of both weeks 7 and 8 in the ensuing ep (which I do).

It’s basically a mini-DJ set of music that came up in earlier episodes. I provide chapter markers for each of the five selections, which include songs by Eskimo and Baldo Rex (which I played in) from late 1980s San Francisco, a secret guest track, and a song from a 1930s Merrie Melodies cartoon.

At this point in the podcast I was playing it by ear in terms of topics for each episode, and in retrospect I think that Episode 10, “The Purpose of Rash Action”, would have fit better thematically in this spot rather than later, and would have give me another band to add to this set (Big Black). But I simply didn’t think of it for another two weeks. More in the notes to that ep.

Episode 8 Logo
This logo contains images representing each of the musical selections in one way or another. I was attempting for it to resemble a teen’s room with band posters and various detritus. Had a great time cutting out the two cartoon puppy figures Ham and Ex with the magnetic lasso in Photoshop, which I did a lot more of in later logos. Though the images didn’t turn out perfect (zoom in and see), I love that I managed to perch them mischievously on the TV.

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Episode 9 – Weeks 7-8:  AI-YAI-YAI  (30:52)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15483560

Teaser: “In which the podcaster jousts with Theodor Adorno, takes a digestif with Jerry Mander, and loses patience with certain techn(olog)ical difficulties.”

Tried out a new tone with this one: serious and academic (with compulsive humor thrown in). 

Initial discussion is of the denunciation of popular music in the mid-20th Century by social theorist and musicologist Theodor Adorno of the Frankfurt School. My purpose was to compare to Jerry Mander’s position on eliminating television and to illustrate a history of rejections of new technologies and their similarities.

I give some background on the Frankfurt School who devoted themselves, among many other things, to the study of oppressive regimes and cultures and how to suppress them before they get started. (Nice try, guys.) I also go into Adorno’s stance on popular music as causing a decline of critical thought and culture in general, and as it being co-opted by Capitalism as a control mechanism. Yes, very Mander, and I do give details in the ep.

I mention a few other rejections of tech, leading to my main point about the oppression and deleterious nature and effects of current technologies with a laser sighting on AI, which has seriously affected my livelihood. 

Episode 9 Logo
A familiar and comfortable logo but for the presence of the ever-watchful eye of HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, who actually has a line in the episode.

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Episode 10 – Week 9:  The Purpose of Rash Action  (32:57)

Link:  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15523222 

Teaser: “In which the podcaster travels back to a snarkier time, performs strange rituals in the underworld, and witnesses a life-changing moment of physics.”

I found myself short of time again for this last one-per-week episode (for a while), and this time resurrected a funny, punky, 35-year-old monolog about stopping in Chicago amidst a road trip in the 80s and staying for five months, during which time I garnered income by doing temp office work (the eponymous “Rash Action”).

As I mentioned in the notes for Episode 8, thematically this might have been better placed at the end of the “adventure” and road trip stories, if I had thought of it sooner. But it also segued well from the previous episode in that it involves having to find tolerable employment in America.

I think that’s enough summary. Having been written in younger years, it does have a distinctly different tone – and a few startling moments.

Episode 10 Logo
The background is a collage from the inside cover of the chapbook version of this piece, combining parts and icons from the maps that I reference therein.

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Episode 11 – Weeks 10-11:  The Final Fantasy of Commander Shepherd, Nora Witcher (34:30)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15599474

Teaser: “In which the podcaster takes you down a rabbit hole but doesn’t guarantee he’ll lead you back out. But don’t worry, it’s not a real rabbit hole, not really. Or is it?”

I worked on this episode for weeks, which jumps back big time into the main theme of the fast, and was also meant to test the limits of what I could do with Audacity (the recording app) at this point.

It’s a big, spectacle-filled episode on gaming, and is designed to give the listener a sense of how engaging and joyful (and addictive) they can be. I focus on a number of representative games, some of which are among my favorites – the Final Fantasy series, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3, The Uncharted series, and the Mass Effect trilogy. (I describe and explain each one in the episode.) I captured tons of music from each of them which is layered with narrative to bring across the experience of playing each game in an attempt to make the listener say, This is great!, so that my social criticism in the second half hits hard.

I still love the games and love listening to this ep through which I experience them vicariously, which might explain why I’m afraid of going back to them far more than video and film: the itch remains.

Episode 11 Logo
Featuring images of four of my favorite characters to play, clockwise from lower left: Geralt of Rivia in Witcher 3, Aloy the Nora in Horizon Zero Dawn, Commander Shepherd (female version or FemShep) in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

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Episode 12 – Weeks 11-12:  Drink the Light  (36:16)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15672817

Teaser: “In which the podcaster takes you on a Fantastic Voyage into the wilderness of the brain to discover the roots of the hit song “Dopamine Jones” (c.f. Episode 2).”

This is The Dopamine Episode, since everything I read seems to indicate that it’s responsible for compulsive pleasure-seeking. My primary impetus: Stop the Scrolling!

I read two books about how dopamine works: one based on neuroscience (The Molecule of More) and one from a psychological standpoint (Dopamine Nation), along with articles, wikis, etc. for background and to fill in around the edges. Found tons of interesting info that provides potential explanations for various behaviors, and lots of perspectives and conclusions from all sides, most of which were in agreement. One point that the books’ authors completely agreed on which is very relevant to my inquiry was that dopamine evolved in the brain as a survival mechanism, but we’ve evolved  so much faster culturally and technologically that its most powerful and pervasive functions often now do much more harm than good to both individuals and the species. There’s a lot more to it, really, making this a particularly detailed episode, especially in the first half where I focus on the books. Recommended listening!

In the second half of the episode (after 19:00) I analyze my experience of a movie, a video game, and a book through a dopaminergic lens, and posit that reading books is ultimately more beneficial because it’s a whole-brain activity. I also conclude that stopping the habit of phone scrolling is much harder than it sounds, since it’s designed specifically to affect your dopamine circuitry.

Episode 12 Logo
The image you see of flowers shaped like a brain is actually taken from the cover of The Molecule of More by Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD and Michael Long (designed from stock images by Pete Garceau) – except to make it look more three-dimensional, I layered a smaller version in front of the original. Despite that being easily visible once you know it, I don’t think it detracts from the 3-D effect.

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Episode 13 – Week 14:  Memory and the Green Door  (34:17)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15713091

Teaser: “In which the podcaster lays down some tracks of extended and deleted scenes, explains why you can trust him, then ties up all the episodes to date with a pretty green ribbon, kind of like the writers of 24 accidentally wrapped up the plot of Season 1 halfway through, but unlike them pledges to actually provide new plotlines instead of just repeating the same one twice over.”

As suggested cryptically by the teaser, this episode wraps up what is essentially Chapter 1 (of 3) for the podcast, focused on taking refuge in the past. I start with a status report in which I recount ongoing cravings for movies, though the physical withdrawals had abated after about a month. Especially regarding the habit of scrolling for short video, I wonder whether small doses that inject optimism into my day might be healthy (or whether it’s controlling me). 

Having reviewed all of the episodes to date, I clarify a couple of details and add a few bonus scenes for the record. I also discuss what methods I use to confirm memories and achieve accuracy in memoir pieces. This leads me to one final and particularly wild tale of serendipity and coincidence from the 1980s that ties together a lot of the stories I’d told previously.

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Episode 13 Logo(s)
This is the only logo that I replaced after a while, because I just didn’t like the vector drawing that I’d originally chosen (on the left). It just looked bland next to the other photo-based logo images, despite my efforts to make an “intriguing” “golden” light from behind. Finally I pulled a pretty image from the internet that just looked better (I think).

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Episode 14 – Weeks 15-16:  Cycle  (25:12)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15790437

Teaser: “In which the podcaster starts a new chapter with blank pages, makes a foul shot, and has an in-body experience.”

The start of Chapter 2 on being in the present, this ep focuses on my relationship to physical activity. Having an innate dislike of team sports and being not very physically intuitive, this focus narrows, as the title suggests, to hiking and biking as favored activities, mostly as ways of seeing the world while being part of it. These days, however, I only ride on a trainer in my apartment due to a bad knee, so I take you on a bike ride to nowhere: we go into my breath, and muscle use, and body memory, which brings thousands of rides from the past into the present, tying many points of time together. We ride through a history of my bicycling, from being kids in the woods to a professional bike messenger in San Francisco, and boy do you get a ride. I discuss the difference and relationship between body memory and mind memory, and how we use the body to allow ourselves to be in the present, literally cycling the past into the future.

Episode 14 Logo
This is one of my favorite logos, using a photo I took in my apartment of one of my bike wheels (on end) posed in front of a large metal clock face that I have. It’s just one image cut to a circle with Photoshop, and I invite you to look at it more closely to discern how the parts of the wheel and clock face merge and interact. My fave detail of it, if you look very closely, is that the wall behind the central photo has the same plaster work that’s in the main corner pic that’s in all the logos (both from my apartment), though the wall behind the wheel is flat and dimmer, suggesting a portal of some sort.

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Episode 15 – Weeks 17-18:  Re-re-re-re  (26:21)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15872293

Teaser: “In which the podcaster regresses, confesses, and redresses.”

This is the big backslide episode, which was inevitable, I guess. Which makes it also the Episode of Chastisement.  😊

I open with the dance of stress and self-medication that is America, but way of saying that I had been doing okay biking and putting together new resumes, though anxiety kept me scrolling and scrolling and running out to movie theaters till something put me over the top and I doubled down on everything and watched a few at home as well – totaling eleven movies in a month (though I do give a brief review of each).

The chastisement commences with a total ban on any movies anywhere for a month, and all the naughty seductive streaming apps exiled from the home page and replaced with (many) Kindle app icons to that I’ll click through to books instead (see logo). There’s also a bit of lashing.

I wrap (and lighten) things up with a couple of book reviews.

Episode 15 Logo
Based on a screenshot from one of the pages on my phone illustrating all the new Kindle icons that I used to replace the more compulsive apps. Full disclosure: this one is actually a mockup to display a few more interesting icons, though I don’t think it’s a very good logo and I’m not sure why I moved around the title words. Probably my least fave.

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Episode 16 – Weeks 19-20:  Get-a-Job & Other Misnomers  (22:56)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/15951861

Teaser: “In which the podcaster plays Telephone Games with prehistory, breaks down the industry of Western tradition, and leaves you with a pile of bacon. Mhe!“

This is one of my favorite episodes,  which falls into the niche genre of etymology humor. It’s also one of the less listened-to eps, which might be a failure of the title, since its not actually about getting a job.  It sprang from me busying my brain whilst trying to ignore social media and the scrolling demons (band name in there somewhere?). I became mystified as to what “get a job” even meant so I decided to look it up.

Thereupon I giddily tunnel into language with a lot of ludicrously poor mispronunciations of older languages, head-spinning connotations, phonemic twists and turns, and well-wove-as-I-can etymological cradles (and a lot of grunty sounds). Included in the fun, word-by-word and phrasal junkets with:: “Get a Job,” “Make a Living,” “A Living Wage,” “Make It in the World,” and the classic “Bringing Home the Bacon.” This ep is guaranteed to amuse word-nerds and haters alike. It does, at times, get a little sticky; don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Episode 16 Logo
The background here is actually a photo I took of the pages from my ancient copy of The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary which contain the entries for “job”. Looking closely you’ll see a few of the older and original meanings that I relay, at least those that aren’t obscured by the graphics, which of course are more important.

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Episode 17 – Weeks 21-22:  Tree  (35:01)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16034756

Teaser: “In which the podcaster defends asymmetry, antagonizes Buddhists, and takes you on a journey somewhere very close you’ve never been.”

This began as an episode about trying to decide what the episode should be about, my thinking process itself, and ended up in a really beautiful place. Trigger warning: this episode contains a few poems. (lol)

I note that the strict ban on watching anything for a month was more successful than I thought, leaving me noticeably without the craving for films and video. Yay etc. Which leaves me wondering about next steps. “Grounding” sounds like a good idea, leading me to “mandala” and a discussion thereof, but when I decide to design one, all I can think of putting in it is a tree.  So “tree” it is.

I delve into my relationship with trees and foliage in general, then go into depth about a novel I’d recently read – The Overstory by Richard Powers, which follows a disparate group of people who become involved in the eco-activism movement of the late 1980s and through the present day, but is really about how trees communicate and develop their own culture. I share a few quotes that really bring across the life and consciousness of trees (researched, not imagined). Back to my own history, I make first mention of my Post-Humanist stance and rejection of the conceit that humans are separate from and superior to other life forms. I come around to noting that trees are literally “grounding,” my initial idea here, and treat y’all to a vivid guided meditation on a tree. Be prepared to close your eyes and chill.

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Episode 17 Logo(s)
Made two versions of this logo, both from nabbed images, which I liked about equally. I chose the one on the right, I think because it represented a more typically tall branched tree as in the meditation, but thought I could at least show you both.

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Episode 18 – Weeks 23-25:  My First Disillusionment  (25:05)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16145315

Teaser: “In which the podcaster finally reveals where and when his beef with the televised world began, and uses that to try to light a way forward through darker times.”

As in Episode 10, “The Purpose of Rash Action,” I rely here on a monolog written in the 1990s, though in this case I expand on the themes quite a bit in the second half. This one, “My First Disillusionment,” was posted on my 64th birthday and the original monolog takes place on my third birthday, when I experienced my first glimpse of the true nature of television by being traumatized on the Happy the Clown Birthday Show in Philadelphia, which as chance would have it (or not) coincided with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Though I recite this as written, I’ve since realized that there’s an historical inaccuracy in the piece, and offer a brand new $3 bill to anyone who can tell me what it is.

Reflecting on the story from the present, I consider the idea of a more “innocent” (or naïve) time from the perspective of both children and  adults back then and now, and speculate on the differences between those of the White middle class and Black and Brown citizens. The main topics: ideology and representation in the media. I also wonder whether Howard Jones, who played Happy the Clown for 13 years, was aware of his place in the machine.

And as this episode was written in November of 2024, I note that we’re looking forward to darker times, and wonder whether the disillusioned among us will retreat into escapist media or step forward. I think we have an answer to that at this point, six months later. I also ask the listener two questions directly, to which some might have answer today. “What media do you think you’ll seek out? What might be healthiest for you?” This is my first mention in the podcast of self-care in a turbulent time, a topic which will assert itself come February.

Episode 18 Logo
Easily the most complicated and time-consuming logo (also one of my faves), this one collages photos at the top from the Happy the Clown show with a lower image of JFK departing from the Dallas Airport to his demise on Nov 22, 1963. In the center, of course, is a 3-year-old moi, happily oblivious of, well, everything. You might notice an odd detail of that photo, taken in a studio fairly close to my birthday, that being my hands and legs are considerably darker than my face. I think that’s the result of the copy I have being taken on a phone of an old frames photo on a table, partially in shadow. Or something. I found my basic Photoshop acumen challenged in an attempt to lighten them. If you look very closely, you’ll see the date scrawled in pencil on one of the “magic wand” images, as mentioned at the end of the monolog.

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Episode 19 – Weeks 26-27:  “Clean”  (38:30)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16239094

Teaser: “In which the podcaster jumps up and down, makes an argument for impurity, and reveals his true desire.”

This episode marks the midpoint of the Video Fast and the podcast, and was coincidentally the first week that I felt really done with cravings for streaming and gaming. I felt “clean” – and began to wonder what that really meant.

The cleansing seemed spurred by a series of music shows that I was drawn to by happenstance in November. Besides having an amazing time at each (described in the ep), it brought me to a broad circle of community I hadn’t seen in years, elevating me tremendously. Was also lifted by doing a deep clean of my apartment for a visit from my mom, and noticed that watching a few movies, mostly for research, didn’t result in a dopamine high: the experience was adopaminergic. Finally!

Noting that I felt “clean” even after viewing films, I begin a ponder as to what makes one clean and if you’re ever fully so. Having been born while my mom (thus I) was on ether, then raised on commercially produced baby formula and high-sugar foods, I can’t claim my body has ever been clean of substances. I mark “clean” as an ideal, a driving force to achieve, like many other ideological carrots that can never be fully reached, though many spend their lives attempting to.

I end up reevaluating the purpose of the fast as not one of getting “clean” but of reclaiming agency, clarity, and presence regardless of encroaching media.  The fast goes on, but with an eye to self-care rather than chastisement.

Episode 19 Logo
After trying a bunch of water images, I embraced this simple and immediate image which, you might notice, replaces the Time-Out Corner sign. Though it had been left out of logos previously, after this point it only appears once, in Episode 31, “The H-Word”.

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Episode 20 – Weeks 28-29:  Solstice Song  (7:17)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16319198

Teaser: “In which the podcaster sings to you a composition of his own design, humbly made and humbly offered.”

NOTE: This episode comes across much better with headphones or earbuds. A medium volume may serve it well in any case.

As promised, for this episode I put together a piece of music for the Winter Solstice of 2024 in particular, with universal themes that are pertinent to the current moment. Writing in imperfect form and structure for voice, balafon, and djembe, I laid down the drum track first, which proved initially  frustrating because the 10+ minutes I recorded were not perfectly timed or rhythmic. Though I made some adjustments later on, it helped to give the piece the feel of a folksy in situ dirge-to-release that works much like I’d imagined. I recorded the vocals second, which is when I decided to vary the lengths of segues and interstitial measure. Finally the balafon was scored and recorded stanza by stanza using numbers taped to the keys (see pic below). The score varies in each stanza, but since the balafon is fixed-key, it always and easily returns to the same bass notes.

It was posted early morning of December 21 at the exact time that the Solstice arrived in my time zone.

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Episode 20 Logo
Just used a background photo from a search for “winter solstice pics”, so I’m assuming (hoping) that’s the case. I do like the image of the TV sitting in the snow. Also pictured is the balafon taken during recording.

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Episodes 21-23 – Weeks 30-33: How Artists Survive in America  (a 3-part series)

Having spent so much time giving my views on the difficulties of being a creative in American culture, I decided to test my perspectives by interviewing six artists on how they support themselves and their art while carving out time to do it. This tested me as well insofar as my ability to put together a different type of podcast. Though a format that’s commonly done, I set out to make three episodes of interviews (two in each) without seeking anyone’s advice on how to approach them. They turned out well, after putting in about sixty hours on each. 

Basically I sat down either in person or online with each of these folks and a series of potential questions, and had a conversation. I thought they’d be fairly quick, but each convo lasted between 45 and 65 minutes. I then learned how many uhs, stutters, and half-started sentences we all speak in (especially me). Though I can see the value in doing a less formal edit, I wanted to see how clear and concise I could make them.  

They each had a version of this teaser: “In which the podcaster presents the first of three special episodes for the month of January in which he interviews artists and writers about how they manage to support themselves and their creative work while carving out time for it in contemporary American culture.”

Here are the eps, with bios for each artist. NOTE that each episode contains chapter markers that will take you to the start of each interview.
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Episode 21 – Weeks 30-31: How Artists Survive in America – Part 1 with Taneesh Kaur and Ken Paul Rosenthal  (1:29:04)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16383107

Taneesh Kaur is a US-born Punjabi teaching artist whose primary media are writing (poetry, memoir, fiction, essays) and painting. She’s been doing both off and on her whole life. For a long time she was working full-time or freelance in corporate jobs (editing, linguistics, copywriting). Since going back to school, it’s been loans and jobs in education. She is working toward being a full-time artist and educator in post-secondary. 

Ken Paul Rosenthal makes lyrical, character-driven documentary films that explore the spectrum of difference and enrich the world with kindness and compassion. These stories of trauma and transformation are presented against a backdrop of urban and natural landscapes, archival social hygiene films, re-authored home movies, and animated text. In his spare time, Ken stages an emotional wellness pop-up, Your Empathy Stand (Y.E.S.) in public parks, freely offering active listening to one and all.

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Episode 22 – Week 32: How Artists Survive in America – Part 2 with Jennifer Blowdryer and Tammy Melody Gomez  (1:35:57)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16421810

Jennifer Blowdryer is a singer and writer whose songs observe in a somewhat detached manner the underworld of punk rock and regular people. She started as front person for an SF Punk Band, The Blowdryers, in 1978. When JB moved to NYC she wrote for sex magazines and went on to produce and MC Smut Fests at a lap dancing parlor in Tribeca, which toured internationally. Blowdryer has also worked as a columnist for Maximum R’n’R, Downtown, and New York Press, an adjunct teacher, coat checker and every damn thing that kept up with the rent. Today, Jennifer gigs and records alongside some of NYC’s best, most lived-in musicians, has published several books from 1984 – 2024, and is on the last available welfare in the United States. 

Tammy Melody Gomez, based in north Texas, serves as mentor and literary maven to folks circling the DIY/TAZ spaces. She has most enjoyed living as an interdisciplinary artist/performer, while making her rent by: working as a teaching artist (poetry, theatre, language arts); sitting on grant panels; reading “brown people” poetry for city-sponsored events; divining people’s futures using Loteria cards; and assorted other gigs. She also has bicycled to her part-time medical library job since January, 2000. Residencies and grants have figured into her calculus of survival, and she advises all to APPLY because you never know who on the panel might decide in your favor: for something else.  

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Episode 23 – Week 33: How Artists Survive in America – Part 3 with Paul Corman-Roberts and Norm Mattox  (1:42:35)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16467454

Paul Corman-Roberts has been learning how to be an on-the-fly organizer, publisher and all around hustler pretty much since he was able to learn. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books Bone Moon Palace and The Sincere. As well as being a co-founder and co-director of Oakland’s Beast Crawl Lit Festival, he is also the co-founder, co-director and full-time lackey at Collapse Press Books, a boutique indie press for goths who refuse to age gracefully.

norm mattox is a poet and a retired spanish bilingual educator whose poetry tells a story of love and resilience in our times of challenge, struggle, and transformation. norm’s published collections include: Get Home Safe, Poems for Crossing the Community Grid, published in 2016, Black Calculus published in 2021 by Nomadic Press (Pushcart Prize nominated), four crescents published by Collapse Press in 2023, and evaporating rage, published by Black Lawrence Press in 2024. norm’s poetry also shows up in a number of anthologies: Love Letters to Gaia, Letters for the End Times; Vols 1 & 2, maintenant 18, and a shape produced by a curve to mention a few. norm is presently working on a couple of projects for the 2025 season.

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Episode 24 – Weeks 34-35:  The New Flesh  (42:00)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16543275

Teaser: “In which the podcaster recalls talking, derides cyborgs, and examines a chest of survival methods.”

Unforeseen at the start of the podcast, this episode welcomes you to a new country, a new body, a new lunar year, and Chapter 3 of “My 12-Month Video Fast”, focused now on looking forward. This one also has a guest snake traveling with it.

I recap the January interview episodes to shake them off like rain, then address the title of this one, “The New Flesh”, taken from the 1983 David Cronenberg body horror film Videodrome, in which James Woods mutates into a humanoid VCR. I offer two relevant perspectives on this.

First, it depicts the notion of humans merging with machines, known as Transhumanism and sometimes PostHumanism, which some see as the next step in evolution. There’s another meaning for Post-Humanism that I prefer, mentioned in Episode 19, “Tree”, which is a contemporary rejection of Enlightenment Era Humanism and its belief that humans are separate from and above nature and other forms of life, advocating a return to a lost sense of interconnectedness, which might also be seen as a new flesh.

Secondly, Videodrome provides a harsh social critique of electronic media as purposeful mind control, creating assassins to take out opponents of the controlling interests, an all-too-familiar scenario in the present day.

I bring us up to date (this ep was posted on Feb 1, 2025), offer my perspective on the situation, and, hesitant to tell anyone what they should do, suggest some of my own strategies for heading into the coming oppression, setting self-care as a foundation.

Episode 24 Logo
In one of the more unsettling logos, I juxtapose a celebratory toast at a potluck with a zombielike hand with a gun (from Videodrome) emerging from the television to threaten the joyous occasion. Yikes.

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Episode 25 – Weeks 36-37:  Corrode to Joy  (49:43)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16626623

Teaser: “In which the podcaster exposes himself, offers his hand, chases ghosts from a bridge, rips off a few facades, and extols the joys of oranges.”

This is the big self-care episode (with lots of quotes and soundbites). After thinking on my resistancy suggestions from the previous episode, especially regarding holding room for joy, I wanted to address those for whom it might not be readily at hand in these times, especially trans folks. I start with a couple quotes reinforcing that from Ru Paul and Heather Cox Richardson, and recognizing that everyone has to manage their own anxiety and renewal, then decided to make myself as vulnerable as I could to better stand with those who are more so. So I lay everything out on the table about my queer sexuality and gender specifics along with the history of violence I’ve experienced and some loved ones as well. This section runs for several minutes and is both intimate and a bit graphic, and was awkward for me to record, and I was glad about that. Not so much of a trigger warning as an fyi.

Having found resilience of my own through the era of AIDS and Act Up along with several physical attacks, I express confidence that younger queers caught in all this will find their stances, through their own self-reliance, support networks, and self-kindness. I relate some good experience I’ve had using magical thinking to divert anxiety and create an emotional safe space. Behind all that – and the agency to throw your own mental switches – is the ability to change how you’re seeing things, especially getting rid of false and manipulative ideological perspectives. Rather than peddle my own advice, I pass along some very smart approaches through the words of poets William Blake (whence the title comes) and Adrienne Rich, and current day creators Dean Spade, a trans activist and lawyer, and Halley Lowe, a.k.a. TheOriginalRevThing on Instagram. All words worth dwelling with and shaping into tools. Finally, I do suggest a few very elemental and incremental ways to turn your focus toward being at the moment, likely ones that we all know and forget on a daily basis, and end with an epiphany that I gained from an infant.

Episode 25 Logo
As simple as it looks: a photo I took of an orange on a plate.

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Episode 26 – Weeks 38-39: On Losing Things  (30:45)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16716033

Teaser: “In which the podcaster takes on a tragicomic perspective while shattering glass, misplacing teeth, and taking a joyride through Hollywood.”

With this ep I try to give us all a little break from the politics of the day. The theme takes off from breaking a favorite tea glass to exploring feelings of loss (with a mostly light tone). The question arises: what is sentimental value?

I’d just spent ten days in Los Angeles, shortly after the fires in January when so many people lost everything. I consider how one gets past something like that, especially in a culture that grounds itself in material possessions. I recount on the drive down losing my (removable) top front tooth for a night, and having an unusual episode of vanity since I would be attending a film festival that was showing a film that I helped to write. Though I found it the following morning, this left me to reflect on having lost a number of teeth over the years and what that means. I discuss ways that we can process loss, which we usually don’t expect.

I take a detour to give brief descripts and reviews of films that I liked at the festival.

The tale (and trip) ends with my laptop crashing and me losing a few days of my least favorite thing to lose: time. I wrap with an inspiring quote from Itzhak Perlman.

Episode 26 Logo
I tried to get an image like this from the recent L.A. fire areas but couldn’t get near them, so I pulled this one from the internet. Spent a little time with Photoshop building up the image so that the soil appears to be spilling around the television to increase a sense of vulnerability.

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Episode 27 – Weeks 40-41: That Man Behind the Curtain  (39:39)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16798859

Teaser: “In which the podcaster puts on a classic, takes off some masks, and explains the politics of the moment.”

This theme-of-the-week about masks dovetails nicely with greater concerns in one of my favorite episodes.

I start with the renowned 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, moving on to bring in the large series of books and the many films derived from them (more than you think). The main touchpoint with the original film is the question of which set of characters – those in Kansas or those in Oz, portrayed by the same actors – represent their real selves and which are hidden behind social masks. I also bring in the significant theme of masks in Second-Wave Feminist poetry; the many uses of masks throughout history and culture (including animals); the Ku Klux Klan; tinted car windows; crime using COVID masks; the anonymity of the internet; and cyber-criminals. Then on to the egregious individuals currently attempting to dismantle the United States behind the ruse of leadership, with a longer, more detailed peek at persona, malign purpose, and of course masks – especially those they habitually use to cover for their wildly uncontrolled addiction to accruing wealth and power. All that earlier research into dopamine (see Episode 12, “Drink the Light”) finally comes back to pull its weight and clarify, if not save us from, the horrors of the day.

Episode 27 Logo
One of my fave logos, yet deceptively simple. I looked first for images from The Wizard of Oz showing Toto pulling back the emerald curtain, but none of them looked great, so I just found a curtain of similar cover and threw some sunglasses over it – unexpectedly giving the impression that there’s a face hiding behind it. Serendipity!

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Episode 28 – Weeks 42-43: Pop Quiz  (24:17)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16879390

Teaser: “In which the podcaster gives you an unexpected assignment.”

Welcome to the tough love episode, where I get tired of advocating for self-care and opt to advocate for self-agency instead. Brusquely.

Question: what happens when we run out of peaceable reactions? Feeling under attack? Anxious? Scared? Good. Now stop it. 

Or: How to Remove an Alien Facehugger Without Really Trying. By which I mean, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the Alien movies or don’t want to hear about them, listen closely. Because dismantling fear is an incredibly valuable skill.

Or: How to Dispel Panic in Three Minutes or Less. And because this is a Pop Quiz, you get to figure that out for yourself. I’ve already given you enough examples. And once you decide how best to have no time for fear, to toss that manufactured dread right in the bin, you have three minutes to do it. That’s all you get.

As a courtesy, I provide an illustration of how long three minutes is.

Episode 28 Logo
Besides the snips from the cover of an actual Blue Book (my fave is “Use Your Imagination (TM)”, the cut-up lines are from the poem “Final Exam” by Nancy Lambert, taken from the anthology Practising Angels, ed. Michael Mayo, Seismograph Publications (1986). Are you anxious yet?

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Episode 29 – Week 44: Resistance Mixtape  (1:18:07)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/16920467

Teaser: “In which the podcaster reanimates dialog, disobeys much, and proffers ingredients for an albatross stew.”

Here I step out to DJ another episode rather than rant and ramble. This time I present some stellar and inspiring spoken moments of resistance from film, monologs, poetry, political speech, and documentary. It all in the recordings so there’s not much to say beyond the brief introductions I make to each piece – except to say that you’ll almost assuredly find each of them rousing in one way or another. Here’s a list of what’s in the compilation, and I’ve provided Chapter Markers so that you can jump to each piece easily.

• Two speeches from Network with Peter Finch as Howard Beale and Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen (1975)
• Poem: “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window” by Joy Harjo
• Poem: “tu no eres” by Victor Hernandez Cruz
• Speech from Barbie with America Ferrera as Gloria (2023)
• Speech from Hidden Figures with Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Goble Johnson (2016)
• Excerpts from the documentary Stonewall Forever directed by Ro Haber (2018)
• Comments and poem by Janice Mirikitani, from the film Why Is Preparing Fish a Political Act? directed by Russell Leong (1990)   
• Excerpt from acceptance speech for a SAG Life Achievement Award by Jane Fonda (2025) 
• Poem: “The Course of Meal” by Tongo Eisen-Martin
• Monolog from Episode 1 ofThe Newsroom with Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy
• Excerpt from filibuster on the Senate floor by Senator Cory Bookeron the Senate floor (April 1, 2025)  
• Speech from The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin as The Barber (1940)

If you make it to the end, there’s a bonus track after I make my farewells. Enjoy!

Episode 29 Logo
Features each of the orators represented mostly in order down the left side then right, with an image of the Stonewall Inn in the center. (I switched the order of Janice Mirikitani and Jane Fonda in the upper right for the compositional reasons.)

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Episode 30 – Weeks 45-46: Aye, I, Eye  (49:47)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/17003930

Teaser: “In which the podcaster introduces himself, dissolves all boundaries, and stirs up some weather.”

Had a little fun naming this episode as a homonym of the earlier Episode 9, “AI-YAI-YAI”, thought they couldn’t be more different in most other ways.

The theme or stated purpose of this ep is to introduce myself – but rather than through anecdotes, of which I’ve done quite a bit, I discuss what my “identity” might be aligned with and how I view the notion of “self”.  Since I’ve come to suspect that my perspectives on those (among others) are not exactly normative (including what constitutes non-normative), I thought it’d be worthwhile to go into. I’ll leave the details to the episode itself and just give a general outline here.

To wit:

I discuss why I identify as mammal (among other things).
I investigate and parse the meaning and etymology of the word “identity”.
I do a deeper dive into (all of) my pronouns, including an unusual attribution to “they”.
I consider the idea of a non-static self without boundaries, or unbound by body.
I explore questions of neurodiversity and neurodivergence, and the hazards of defining too discretely.
I settle with a focus on the eye – how we see and are seen – and how a new eye condition and decline of my vision has thrown me into issues of mortality and the failing of the body in general.

With all that in mind, I attempt a description of how I experience my “self”. 

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Episode 30 Logo
This was one of my more ambitious logo ideas that didn’t work out quite as planned, mostly due to my limits with Photoshop, especially when working in a limited time frame. It’s a photo of my right eye from a selfie of just my eyes, taken after getting dilating drops at the ophthalmologist. (The bit of yellow at the bottom eyelid is from the drops, not jaundice, lol.) I’d envisioned it blending much more organically with the surrounding surface, as it it were all an expanse of flesh, but settled on it looking more like peeking through a hole with blurry edges.  Most people find it scary, though that wasn’t my intention.
The second image here shows an interesting detail. I noticed a reflection in my eye and blew it up to see if I could see the room I was in, etc.; but besides a few ceiling lights, the reflection is mostly the camera screen showing both my eyes – meaning that in theory we are looking at an infinite series of reflections of my eyes, which would be the case with any selfie. No wonder they’re so popular!

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Episode 31 – Weeks 47-48: The H-Word  (35:53)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/17094169

Teaser: “In which the podcaster explains the tragedy of humankind and you can’t stop laughing.”

I reveal the rest of my apartment, because a few years ago sitting in my back room I thought of a word of tragic proportions and couldn’t stop laughing: leaving us unsure if the episode is about laughter or h-u-b-r-i-s.

We do laughter first – what science says, what makes me laugh, jokes as my fave survival mechanism, various forms of comedy, how my humor is too odd for some, a brief focus on poop jokes, Nietzsche and Freud weigh in. I suggest that spasms are the condition of being.

Then to the question at hand: why do I laugh so hard at the H-word? We look at its meaning and that in Classical Literature it brings the person’s ruin – so I’m laughing at tragedy, as we do. My sense that folly isn’t a precondition; rather, that lack of insight is trained.

I explore the example of American Consumerism, with the astounding folly of massive waste. A brief intro to the Ecological Footprint, and the suggestion that consumerism might be seen and treated as an addiction.

Materialism as a social control mechanism, all of which radiates the H-word, while laughter clears the mind and wakes us up. Why I like to make people laugh. How I want to take a walk with refreshed minds.

Episode 31 Logo
Not my fave but it does the trick. I searched for pics of people laughing hard, and bonus if they might also be screaming. This human fit the bill well enough. Thank you, human.

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Episode 32 – Weeks 49-50: I’ll Show You the Life of the Mind  (51:49)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/17178551

Teaser: “In which the podcaster gives a bad review, takes you on a walk to nowhere, and advocates ecstasy as a form of resistance.”

I decided weeks before to start with the opening music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Richard Strauss opening piece from Also sprach Zarathustra, which comes into play at the end of the episode.

The theme comes from the end of the previous ep: New Ideas and Where to Find Them. I read a sonnet to illustrate.

The title, though, is a quote from the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink, a dark satire about writer’s block which I don’t like and am happy to explain why. Essentially it’s a film about nothing happening, with a big, surreal creative burst just before the end.

Discussion of where creative inspiration does come from. Who knows, but I vote not nowhere. It’s more important that it comes, regardless. I give a catalog of techniques for coaxing ideas out in writing without knowing where they come from. A few other tools that are useful in the search – honesty, humanity, and humility (more H-words!) – and what functions they can have.

Discussion of the frequent experience of channeling creative ideas from somewhere else. I pose my sense of what that might be, but you don’t have to agree. I give some examples from my experience.

Discussion of how this can help us in the political moment – these techniques as tools of resistance.

Finally, a big synchronicity from the week that ties a lot of this together and summons the Strauss theme from 2001.

Episode 32 Logo
In which the elements of the logo all get sucked into the Stargate, yes, from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bon voyage!

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Episode 33 – Weeks 0-52: What I Learned  (48:00)

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2370172/episodes/17259656

Teaser: “In which the podcaster stops by a diner, tells you what you don’t want to know, tells you what you do want to know, and bids you adieu.”

This final episode is fairly (and unusually) straightforward. It begins with a a last word on the topic of creative process from the previous ep, in a story that takes place in a now-vanished but unforgettable diner.

To review the fast, the podcast, and the year, I first go back to answer questions I posed in the first episode.

Then per the title I catalog what I learned through the course of the fast and the podcast. I’m sure I didn’t catch everything.

I give you a final update on the status of my media addiction and evaluate the success of the fast.

I answer a final question on why I did the podcast.

I posit what’s next.

 I rain thanks on far too many (and not enough).

In a not-to-be-missed post-credit scene, I impart some parting words and song.

Episode 33 Logo
In which you get to see what the television has been staring at all year.

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And that, as they say, is a rose.

As I mention above, I’ll be keeping the episodes to “My 12-Month Video Fast” archived on their original pages for the foreseeable future. Feel free to write me with any questions or inquiries about it.

And for those of you who might be yearning for more of my dulcet tones, check out my BRAND NEW Bandcamp page at https://richardloranger.bandcamp.com. More on that in the next Home Page Post next month!

In light and sound,
Richard

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