In the 1990’s I was living in San Diego with my girlfriend in the neighborhood of Golden Hills. There was nothing really extraordinary about this time. Except that we were in our mid-twenties, the AIDS epidemic was unfolding around us and the whole world at that time felt to be in transition. During those years a dear friend of ours had also received a commission to decorate a small chapel in a Catholic Church north of San Diego. And it was also at this time that I woke up one morning and walked to a mountain.
This is a serialized story about that walk, about the sculptures and paintings, and about a whole bunch of stories from that time that have waiting for over thirty years to be told. As I grow older I realize that the time for the telling is growing ever shorter.
It’s also a way to revive an older kind of story telling dependent on a human voice interwoven with the most native form of story telling which is song. For that reason the story has been produced on the Spotify Music+Talk platform: It’s basically the only podcasting platform that allows you to incorporate spoke word with entire songs. Outside of Spotify it’s nearly impossible to do this because of the brutal armature of licensing fees that forces all content producers to be limited to snippets of music.
By playing the entire piece I’m able to share the full breadth of what other musicians have wanted to communicate, while also providing a platform to share and valorize their work.
Unfortunately the Music+Talk platform has been discontinued which means that later seasons will evolve onto new platforms and into new forms. By subscribing you can stay abreast of these changes. And you also encourage me to continue on.
If you are enjoying, I encourage you to both subscribe and to listen now. And if you’re really really enjoying, please let me know via voice message, email, or some other channel. If people are really enjoying I can push the episodes out even faster.
Why subscribe?
I want to keep this story free and available to all. But I’m not getting paid for this, so am basically telling stories for tips. More than anything I would feel touched and moved if you threw some coins my way. There are a couple ways to do this.
You can throw tips in the tip jar on each episode page. Or you can make a donation on the Spotify page. It’s a meaningful way to let me know which stories resonate most with folks. If you have a feeling, or if you had an idea, consider what that feeling or idea might be worth. You can toss in a quarter, or a buck, or five, or more. No amount is too small or too great. And all is appreciated. And every token of appreciation will inspire me to write and tell more.
You can become a Foundation Subscriber on either Substack or Spotify. In addition to really supporting the work, you will also receive some cool schwag (think limited edition t-shirt!). More details on that are forthcoming.
Subscribers will also have access to special content including additional content and interviews.
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