Audio Chimera

In my life I have spent many hours listening to music, as many of us have. My experiences began with an old Japanese-made AM transistor radio (that still works!) and continue in the digital realm--though I still have my original vinyl. Can't see surrendering them just yet!

The easiest way to put it is, "I do believe in ghosts!" I have experienced strange sensations in various locations that suggests that spirits do exist and can remain or haunt a place. But none of my pre-disposed beliefs prepared me for the moment when someone seemed to be possessed by an evil spirit right in front of me!

It turns out, my affinity for the Victorian era fed into a desire to get into Steampunk. And then I even created my own costume, and even entered my first costume contest at the age of 59. And the 10 year-old boy who lives inside me? He tried to stop me. Listen in and find out if he succeeded.

People in York, PA still talk about those days. The unrest happening around the country came to us. Fires, shooting, National Guard...how quickly a place can devolve into a war zone. And for what--ridiculous outmoded ideas that we are somehow so different. Let's take another, closer, better look at others.

I attended the University of California, Berkeley for my PhD. Besides a solid education (and some real academic cred), I retained many memories of my time there--street people, social protests, and wild times.

Yes, Thom McAn and the Pneumatic Tubes sounds like a band. What it was, however, was a fun workday. This is what happens when the manager of a shoe store decided to take a young employee in a tour of the building to check out the old pneumatic tube system. And no, that's not a euphemism. That's exactly what happened.

Coffee beans and human beans were meant to be the best of friends! While I had long flirted with the effects of caffeine in soft drinks, it wasn't until coffee that I truly solidified my relationship with the Bean. Note that I take my title from Stanislavsky's work, "My Life in Art," but what life is there without caffeine??

When you find love, it can be amazing. When your love then no longer cares, it can be devastating. Why did this delightful and intelligent young woman think I want to shackle her in marriage, to be my "Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Baby Machine," when we hadn't even had our second date yet?

In 1972, my city experienced flooding from Hurricane Agnes. Hardly as devastating as more recent storms (Katrina, etc.), for me personally it was quite the upheaval. Inches of water in the basement, a day of bailing, news of flooding up and down the Susquehanna River. These events stay with you.

Water conservation! New topic? No, I figured out that it was a good idea back in 1966. My city was experiencing a drought, and behaviors that started then are still with me today—in case we have more problems with water. And, with global climate change, that seems like it just might be an important issue...

The Key Theatre was a second-run movie theatre in Hazleton, PA. For $1 you could see movies that you had missed not that long before. It was a great time--but what added to the experience was trying to decipher the marquee. With missing letters, sometimes titles were difficult to figure out, when they weren't downright incendiary!

They say you can't go home again. It's worse when you go back to visit somewhere and your favorite place to hang out is no more. This happened to me with Bernie's Bagels, where I spent many...okay, let's say interesting hours.

Even though I am a theatre guy, I love music. Okay, some music. But I have attended a few concerts where I have had remarkable and, in one case, what I would consider to be a transformative experience. And this is why I force my students to go to theatre and music events.

I have always exhibited some OCD-like tendencies. My wife has a cure for certain symptoms, but I am not sure it's done everything SHE hoped. In the meantime I revel in my glory as a completist. Is this OCD that I'm experiencing? Let's examine the symptoms and manifestations, and laugh at myself at the same time.

You look at the title and say, "How do I pronounce it? What's it about? How did he have time, as a busy academic, to make a podcast?" These and many other questions are answered in this, the first in the series.