Welcome to The Mountain: An Adoration in a Multitude of Parts

An adventure in storytelling

Hello my friends.

I’ve begun an experiment in old style storytelling - the rollicking meandering tale told to a small circle that have gathered around, or perhaps the slow voice intended to lull a tired person into a comforting sleep.

I’ve telling a story—a long and perhaps really weird story— that will be available on Spotify, the only streaming platform that has allowed spoken word interspersed with entire songs.

This story doesn’t fit into any genre.

It’s also about some god stuff, along with other things that are not suitable for the ears of Ladies and Children, and so I’m guaranteed to offend at least some, if not all.

This story is about a long walk I took decades ago and about the things that were encountered along the way.

It's a story about San Diego and the neighborhoods of Mission Hills and Golden Hills in the 1990s. And about life and death and all manner of travails. It's about the AIDS epidemic. And the Spanish Entrada into North America. And the Middle Ages. And dogs and Lewis and Clark and a Coke machine. And about some paintings and some statues and a small chapel in Southern California.

It's about America. Consider it a meditation on faith and death.

Some episodes, of course, will be a complete miss — this is a high wire act so there may be some pretty spectacular falls. And it may very well please both narcoleptics and insomniacs alike.

I will caution that because of circumstance, some episodes are lo-fi concoctions. And since I can’t go back and edit anything, the inevitable recording glitches remain. Thank you for your patience and I hope that the stumbles add to the charm. ChatGPT, after all, never makes mistakes.

If you think you might be interested in any of that then I encourage you to sit back, get comfortable, and get ready to listen. Subscribe here to be notified each time an episode drops.

And then go to The Mountain: An Adoration in a Multitude of Parts and click the Follow button.

To experience the episodes as intended, you will need a paid Spotify subscription, otherwise you will be limited to hearing just small snippets of the wonderful songs.

And if for some reason you happen to be picking up in the middle, remember that this story is serialized, so you best go back to the very first episode (1.0) and start from there.

—

This is also a big experiment in monetizing my writing in a different way - basically telling stories for tips. All listeners are invited to sign up for a paid subscription to The Mountain. It won’t be much — perhaps a buck a week. Most of the episodes will be free, but every so often an episode will be locked and be available only to paid subscribers.

Lastly, if you really like a particular episode, by all means throw some coins in the tip jar on the Substack episode page.

But most all (and I really mean this), if you enjoy, please, please, please share with your friends. If everyone recommends to at least one person, eventually I’ll be big in Japan.

I hope this works for folks. I’d like to make as much of the content available for free as possible, but am a little hamstrung by the technologies, so it is what it is.

I would love to hear any suggestions or questions or comments. Please feel free to drop a voice message within the Spotify app, or you can send an email to AnAdoration@gmail.com, or add comments to an episode.