Episodes

Thursday Jan 09, 2020
222: Displeasure
Thursday Jan 09, 2020
Thursday Jan 09, 2020
To our shame, our society still tends to teach women to separate themselves from their sexuality, treating pleasure as something regrettable while looking the other way with a "boys will be boys" shrug about men pursuing pleasure. Even within committed relationships, this has unfortunate and unnecessary consequences. Wise women have spoken against this, and their counsel is well worth considering.
Different Drummer: Ruth K. Westheimer

Monday Sep 02, 2019
218: Why We Watch
Monday Sep 02, 2019
Monday Sep 02, 2019
Spoiler alert regarding Avengers and Marvel Cinematic Universe. One of the Life In Hell strips Matt Groening wrote years ago featured his criticism of film critics. One-liners included newspaper critics writing tight capsule reviews and more serious magazine critics wearing sweaters and giving away endings. I don't often wear sweaters, but I do struggle with how to openly discuss subtext without spoilers. For the movie The Sixth Sense, I ended up writing two reviews, one for before you've seen the film and one for after. That seemed to work. At the #p48EXPO #p48NOLA #p48LIVE event this year, I didn't have the time to offer such a dual perspective. If you are behind (as I was until this summer) on Infinity War and Endgame, you've been warned.
The primary focus of this episode was looking more deeply at what draws us into the popular art we consume. With movies, for example, the impetus seems to be different for comedy, horror, documentary, etc. What occurred to me about the draw of characters, regardless the actor or director, seemed most significant within the superhero genre. The tie-in with the Different Drummer seemed obvious.
As a live show, the format of this one is appropriately different. We dive right in, for one thing, with introduction and theme music coming along the way. For another, I've bookended this file with interstitials from the podcasting suite. Since it takes a few minutes to move one podcast off-stage and another one on, these interstitials tend to focus the audience toward something other than headphones being plugged in and drinks-of-choice being poured. The opener is the intro to Inappropriate Conversations this year, and the closer is one from the next day when I was invited to participate. There is more after the #IC live outro music.
Thanks to Taylor and Taffy from Pod Is My Copilot. Bookends, indeed.
Different Drummer: Stan Lee
"Life's an essay test; we're obliged to give essay answers." (The Author)

Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
215: Parental Controls
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
The concept of parental control, even censorship, was clearly a part of my upbringing. I could cite numerous examples of inconsistencies, though:
Three's Company, Soap, American Graffiti, National Lampoon's Animal House, Queen, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Harold Robbins (The Betsy), Xaviera Hollander (The Happy Hooker), Hermann Hesse (Siddhartha), Alex Comfort (The Joy of Sex, More Joy of Sex), Bari Wood & Jack Geasland (Twins).
Different Drummer: Dolly Parton

Tuesday Dec 25, 2018
TalkBack 155: Twelve Days
Tuesday Dec 25, 2018
Tuesday Dec 25, 2018
Wrapping up the TalkBack series for November-December, I'm putting the 12 Days Of Christmas podcast on Christmas Day, which is when that concept actually starts. Only part, a large part, of the Christian world celebrates the holiday in December. The rest have 12 days to go. The wise men have yet to deliver their gifts, after all. Only shepherds have appeared on the scene at this stage.
I plan to continue TalkBack with a new series in January, but it will feature only one prior podcast -- delivered again in parts.

Tuesday Dec 11, 2018
TalkBack 135: Nestor the Audio Commentary
Tuesday Dec 11, 2018
Tuesday Dec 11, 2018
AMC is televising "Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey" for the 2018 holiday season, with (sometimes very early) morning broadcasts on December 12th, 21st, and 24th. It isn't a Rankin-Bass classic, but it is worth the time to look back at the 1977 half-hour special. So far, the only commentaries of this sort I've done have been for Rudolph and Nestor. Make of that what you will.

Tuesday Oct 02, 2018
214: Proud To Know You 3 - Beyond Superdome
Tuesday Oct 02, 2018
Tuesday Oct 02, 2018
Looking back at the 2018 Pride48 Podcast Expo in New Orleans with great memories of how the event went, looking forward to next time.
Also, an attempt to take recent SCOTUS nominee testimony before the U.S. Senate judiciary committee seriously, and where that ultimately leads.
Different Drummer: Yvette Nicole Brown
The JV Club #25

Monday Sep 03, 2018
212: Intersections in the Neighborhood
Monday Sep 03, 2018
Monday Sep 03, 2018
Live from Pride48 New Orleans Podcasting Expo 2018:
Allies
Intersections
Different Drummer(s)
Loving someone as they are, and hiding who they are
Rogers' message: you are not a mistake
Understanding the quiet gay activism of Mister Rogers
Vanity Fair interview with Francois Clemmons
Different Drummer: Francois Clemmons and Fred Rogers
Special thanks to Nicole Villacres from Greetings From Nowhere and Pride48.