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The thing that sticks with Bukowski is this overwhelming desire to create. I'm thinking of his one poem that makes an attempt to explain the urge. And with the wonders of the internet, all you have to do is think of a phrase and type that in and next thing you know there's the poem you were looking for.
'-you know, I've either had a family, a job,
something
has always been in the
way
but now
I've sold my house. I've found this
place, a large studio, you should see the
space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I'm going to have a
place and
the time to create.'
no baby, if you're going to create
you're going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you're going to create in a small room with 3
children
while you're on
welfare.
I guess that's the beginning of the explanation of the urge to create. It's really strong in some people. It sounds like a bunch of malarkey to others. But in the end, when you're really hungry and you need some toiletpaper in the house and there's nothing on TV, there's always the notebook, guitar, camera, microphone, camcorder, and if all else fails, the shower. Everyone sounds good in the shower, whether it's real or malarkey.
you're going to create with part of your mind
and your
body blown away.
you're going to create blind
crippled
demented.
you're going to create with a cat crawling up
your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquakes,
bombardment,
flood and fire.
That's how it goes sometimes. You're sitting around and you wanna have the urge like Bukowski but the Hawks are on and they're down by a goal in the third period. You grab a donut and milk and watch the final seconds tick away.
There are other chances, other possibilities, other open moments to succumb to the urge. But in the end you're a creature of habit. Routine says that you can only wander close to the cage that controls the urge... but you can never enter.
baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don't create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.
Amen. At this point, the three or four of you are probably wondering what the hell I'm talking about. It's nearly the middle of the night again and I'm up typing to oblivion and you. For what reason? What is the goal here?
We can rely on the need to chronicle the final days of radio, to journal through the change to something other than radio. We can agree that there is beauty in the spoken and written word. But in the end, I just wanna write it out to someone. And the three or four of you are as good as any to be that someone.
.... Also, we are making some strides toward something that is beautiful. For the last few days we've been Facebook Living the 12 games from the holiday tournament at Highland High School. A bunch of people like Ryan Walsh, Brian Jennings, Dave Kusiak, Dan Repay, Sam Michel, Jimmy Mullaney, Brendan Hull, Richard Garcia and Ben Cowart have been teaming up to bring something that is pure and clean to your Facebook feed and to the WJOB airwaves. I'm not sure that in the history of broadcasting that
1. anyone has broadcast first to Facebook Live video and then played the audio of that on regular radio.
2. done it for 12 games in three days.
It's not that we haven't made some rather cute mistakes. Tonight, for about half of the Gavit vs. Whiting game, you couldn't hear announcers Ryan Walsh and Dan Repay on Facebook. You could watch the game and hear the crowd and the players sneakers squeaking and you could even hear the public address announcer Sam Michel (the same guy who works for WJOB) say who scored... but you couldn't hear our announcers. That was okay, really, in that this game for fifth place in the tournament didn't air on the radio also. We only did the third place game and the championship game tonight on WJOB. Those came out okay... on Facebook video and on the radio.
Confused? Don't worry if you don't understand "reverse broadcasting." It's basically when you broadcast first to something digital and then secondarily to radio. I like "reverse broadcasting" not only because I thought of it but also because it gives another use to the content that we create. That's key. Recycling content is key.
... Also this week I finally finished designing and building the new website "jedcastradio.com." This is basically another attempt to create content to digital first... and then bring it to radio.
WJOB TV (Reverse broadcasting 1) - create to Facebook Live video and then play the audio of that video live on the radio.
JEDcastradio.com (Reverse broadcasting 2) - record a podcast and then play it on the radio.
There's a ton of really talented people around me who should be doing podcasts... that we can ulitimately play on the radio. I can't figure out why no one's doing this. The best audio being produced these days is not radio. The best audio being produced these days is podcasts. Why don't we play podcasts on the radio?
That's what I'm setting out to do with jedcastradio.com - discover talented podcasters, put their stuff on the internet, and then also play it on AM 1230 WJOB and 104.7 FM. It's a plan, anyhows. Tonight I had to hurry to the station at about 6:30 to turn on the Facebook Live video that could play on the radio... and I ran into Tony Panek and Joe Ramirez. They're doing a podcast called "The Region Ramble." They get it. They get what it means to talk unhurriedly and then just see what happens.
I talked with Tony and Joe for a while, but I was very careful not to give them direction or guidance. I gave Tony enough guidance in the beginning in prompting him to go into the studio to do a podcast. Now that Tony and Joe have found a rhythm with it, it's important to lay off. Pretty soon, hopefully, grasshopper will blow away anything I've ever produced in the audio world.
... I know what the three or four of you are thinking - why would I reveal my strategy about Facebook Live and JEDcastradio? These are business strategies and people could try to steal them. I don't know how to answer this other than to refer to a scene in the Billy Jack movie.
I'm gonna take this right foot, and I'm gonna whop you on that side of your face... and you wanna know something? There's not a damn thing you're gonna be able to do about it.
This is another fine use of the Google search bar. Just type in "Billy Jack I'm gonna" and you got the whole quote right in front of you. The quote, like the Bukowski poem above, speaks to me. Not that I've got this Billy Jack or John Wayne need to act overmasculine. It's just that, as the three or four of you can tell, I lack subtlety. I can't fool the three or four of you or anyone else into thinking that I'm gonna go left when I'm really gonna go right. It's just not me. I do way better when I just tell you what I'm gonna do and if you wanna fight me on it, go ahead. Just remember that I boxed at Berkeley and that I've been writing for 37 years in complete anonymity and that I've been playing my own sport for 22 years alone. That's called "stamina," so if you wanna try to steal my ideas, go ahead. I'm ready.
So is Billy Jack.... I'm gonna take this right foot... That's the line I remember. It's clean and pure and straightforward, just like the podcasters who are slowly joining me on JEDcastradio.com. Tony Panek joined first. And then also this week, Sam Michel joined. To get things going with some of these podcasters, I may sit with them for a podcast or two. That's what I did with Sam Michel. You can listen to it above. You can also listen to the podcast by Tony about when I forced him to cover a court hearing at the federal building.
"You went to f---ing Purdue Cal for five years. Figure it out."
In the end, he described it well. I hope he doesn't read this. I don't want it to go to his head.