Beezy Listening

Today my guest is writer Christopher Johnston, and we’re discussing his book “Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice”. Chris also has a new play with Playwright’s Local, Live Bodies for Sale. The show premieres tomorrow Friday November 22, and will run until December 15th. You can find more information and tickets at playwrightslocal.org. Additional links: Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Greater Cleveland’s Coordinated Response to Human Trafficking The Joyful Heart Foundation Human Trafficking at Human Scale in Live Bodies for Sale 5 Must-See Productions: Fall Theater Preview 2019

My guest today is actor and musician, Ben Paul Williams. I first met Ben about 10 years ago at a little open mic in Astoria Queens. We chat a bit about his stage career, the recent pull he’s been feeling to getting back to performing original music, and play a little catchup since the last time we spoke. So suffice to say, Ben has been one of my favorite people for quite a while. If you are in the Milwaukee area or have friends thereabouts, be sure to catch Ben at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn this Sunday, November 24th. After that, keep an eye on https://www.benpaulwilliams.com/ for more shows.

Today my guest is Cal Folger Day, a singer-songwriter that’s a bit hard to pin down genre-wise, but if I had to slap a label on her, it’d probably be “Avant Folk”, similar the band Cutleri, who I had on earlier this year. Cal is based out of Dublin, Ireland, but I met her around 2010 back when we were both living in New York City. We chat a bit about her early days in the thrall of classical music, her time in NYC, the differences between Ireland and the US, and her latest endeavor writing and performing “verbatim pop operas”, which I didn’t even know was a thing until I started doing background for this interview. I highly recommend checking out this audio documentary by “The Lyric Feature”. It chronicles the process of creating one of these operas “The Woods and Grandma”, which is based on stories of Lady Gregory, Yeats and George Bernard Shaw as told by the Gregory granddaughters Anne and Katherine. Just a reminder that this Wednesday November 13th is the deadline to sign up as a Patreon supporter at any level for a chance to win a signed copy of “Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse” by Brenton Lengel, my Halloween guest. This is the latest patron perk that I’m calling these “Swagstakes”, where once a month I choose a supporter at random to receive some swag from a guest.

Today my guest is playwright and author, Brenton Lengel. Brent and I go back nearly ten years, when I first met him at an open mic in New York. In this episode we spend a bit of time catching up and tracking the arc of his writing career, but the main reason I invited Brent onto the show was to talk about his new comic “Snow White Zombie Apocalypse”, published by Scout Comics. I’m going to quote the synopsis from Scout’s website now since I never pass up an opportunity to save myself some time writing these intros: Snow White awakens to True Love's Kiss... twenty-eight days after the zombie apocalypse! With the Seven Dwarves dead, the quintessential fairytale princess must join forces with her polyamorous Prince Charming and his tough-as-nails paramour, Rapunzel, to wage a losing battle against death itself. Bound by love and driven apart by jealousy, can this unlikely trio find a way to put aside their differences, or will they be devoured by the reanimated denizens of their once enchanted kingdom? Based on the hit play by the same name, Snow White Zombie Apocalypse is a story of deep woods and old magic mixed with a healthy dollop of blood, sex, kung fu and gender politics. Y'know, fairy tales as usual. The comic is now available in shops all over the country, or you can order it online at scoutcomics.com. Brent was also gracious enough to sign and donate a copy that I will be giving away to one lucky Patreon supporter. If you’d like a chance to win, sign up to support the show at any level at patreon.com/bzdug before Thursday November 14th (two weeks from today). At that time I will print out all the supporters names, toss them into one of the many hollowed out skulls I have lying around the house, and select the winner.

Today’s guest is “Doom-Chip” performance artist, N6664, aka James Barney. I had heard chip-tune music before (for those who haven't, it's a style of synthesized electronic music generated using the sound boards from vintage gaming consoles), but never anything like this. It was discordant, disturbing, and disorienting. My first thought was, “This might not be a good fit for the podcast, shit, he seems like such a nice guy!” However, over the last year I’ve gotten to see James performing live several times, and that re-contextualized everything for me. James’ intention with N6664 IS to sow discordance, disturb, and disorient. Aside from his music, James and I also discuss his new podcast, ToddCast, a show devoted to celebrating Todd Rundgren. I have to admit I’d never listened to Rundgren before, but after hearing James’ passion for Todd in our interview, I’m definitely going to go back and correct that omission. You can find his show on iTunes or Spotify by searching for “ToddCast Cleveland”.

Hello and welcome to an especially schmultzy episode of BZ Listening. Today is my seven year wedding anniversary with my amazing wife Deb Zep. Unfortunately, she’s not here to celebrate with me because she is off on a 10 day vacation in Italy with her sister. So I am role-playing the life of a single father for the next week, but what could be a better anniversary gift for a full-time mom than time away from her kids? Well, I figure dedicating my 40th episode to her is a nice cherry on top. Kicking things off will be a storytelling show we write and first performed as part of the Pandemonium festival at Cleveland Public Theater. The recording is from our second time taking the show out, to the Akron storytelling show “Bigger than a Breadbox” produced by Wandering Aesthetics. In the show, we tell the story of how we first met, with bits of our songs peppered throughout. Following that will be some of my favorite covers and originals listed below. Deb Zep Online: http://debzep.com  https://www.facebook.com/debzepmusic https://www.instagram.com/dzdebzep/ https://soundcloud.com/debzep Tracks: BZ & DZ: A Musical Love Story (performed at Wandering Aesthetic's Bigger Than a Breadbox) Here With Me (feat. Marbar on guitar) Stand By Me Hound Dog (BZDZ) Don’t Let Us Get Sick Without You (BZDZ) Home Just Be You Astoria Shore

The podcast will be returning in September, but I wanted to share the new audiobook “The War on Everyone” by former guest, journalist Robert Evans. This is the second half, Chapters 1-3 are in the previous episode.  Robert is the host of one of my favorite podcasts, “Behind The Bastards”, where he profiles some of the worst people in history. The work he has done to catalog the history of White Supremacy in America provides so much essential context for our current political climate. So with his permission, I am republishing the entire book in two parts this week. You can also find the book at http://thewaroneveryone.com Chapter 4: How to Build an Army Louis Beam was once a normal American soldier. But in the wake of the Vietnam War, he would painstakingly craft a vicious fascist insurgency. When Beam’s ground-level activism met Pierce’s propaganda, the result was the birth of a terrorist movement that still stalks us to this day. Chapter 5: The Hidden Civil War Inspired by Beam and Pierce, a young man named Bob Mathews attempted to spark a Second American Civil War. Whether he succeeded or failed is still up in the air. Chapter 6: The Perfect Soldier In his life and death, Timothy McVeigh represented the best-case scenario for the kind of warriors Louis Beam wanted to inculcate through his “leaderless resistance” strategy. His story is a tale of triumph for American fascism. Chapter 7: The Digital Reich This is where we are now: an era where a distributed network of individual extremists are able to radicalize each other and inspire acts of violence worldwide. This is not the result of an unhappy accident, or an unforeseen consequence of the digital era. It’s the result of decades of careful planning.

The podcast will be returning in September, but I wanted to share the new audiobook “The War on Everyone” by former guest, journalist Robert Evans.  Robert is the host of one of my favorite podcasts, “Behind The Bastards”, where he profiles some of the worst people in history. The work he has done to catalog the history of White Supremacy in America provides so much essential context for our current political climate. So with his permission, I am republishing the entire book in two parts this week. You can also find the book at http://thewaroneveryone.com Chapter 1: The Eternal Fascist There is nothing new under the sun. In this chapter, you’ll learn about “Ur-Fascism”, and how humor and irony have historically been used to enable its rise. Chapter 2: An American Fascist Faith The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting, the Poway Synagogue shooting, the Olympic park bombing and dozens of other terrorist attacks all have one thing in common- Christian Identity. In this chapter, we delve into a cultic belief system at the heart of American fascism. Chapter 3: The Apostle of Fascism William Luther Pierce is the most important Nazi you’ve never heard of, and his work has helped inspire a generation of terrorists- right up to the present day.

Click Here to Donate!  Welcome to a special episode of BZ Listening. The podcast is officially on vacation, but I wanted to help spread the word about a fundraiser for The Footlight, a venue in Ridgewood Queens that is very near and dear to my heart, as are its owner Laura Regan, and her husband Tim. The Footlight opened just as I was departing New York for Cleveland, but I got to produce the very first show that graced its stage, the finale of my variety show, The BZ Douglas Carnivale. On today’s episode, Laura and I discuss the genesis of the Footlight, how it has become an artistic incubator and a space that fosters community, and finally the financial troubles she is facing due to a landlord that is not honoring his obligations, and the systemic problems that the city has with regulating building owners.  Beloved Ridgewood Bar and Music Venue Struggles with Landlord's Negligence [Bushwick Daily] Follow the Footlight: Instagram Facebook

On today’s episode, at the top I announce a brief break from the show, and some state of the podcast reflections as the show nears its first anniversary. There may be a surprise episode or two, but no regularly scheduled music until September. Today’s guest is Jane Arnoff Logsdon. I met Jane randomly last year when we were both cast in a play as part of the Marilyn Bianchi Kids Playwriting Festival. As castmates do, we became friends on Facebook, and before long Jane started inviting me to Stand Up to Trump CLE events, but I wasn’t able to make any of them.   On July 12th, the family and I attended “Lights for Liberty”, which was in coordination with events across the country, organized by Cleveland Jobs with Justice, Indivisible CLE, the Immigration Working Group of Cleveland,  Action Together Lakewood Area, Women’s March Northeast Ohio, Stand Up to Trump CLE, the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, Cuyahoga Democratic Women’s Caucus and the InterReligious TaskForce on Central America. The purpose of the event was to call for an immediate end to immigrant detention and family separation and to defund ICE. To my surprise, the MC for the event was my old castmate Jane! A few days later, I reached out to ask her to be on the show, and I am very excited to share our conversation about activism, organizing, and just how fucked we are under Trump.

Justin Curry has been playing violin since he was 16, and has performed all over the US, and internationally. We talk about how he started playing following a severe injury (content warning, if you can’t handle graphic stories about kneecaps going where they shouldn’t, then be sure to skip the 13-14minute mark), and then get into much more pleasant stuff like how he taught himself to play, the intractable problems of racism, and the rocky relationships behind some of his songs. Visit justincurryviolin.com for shows and to hear more of his music.

Henry Black was born in Medicine Lake, Montana before the turn of the last century. Upon moving to New York City in late-2015, he rose to prominence among the acclaimed singer-songwriter scene. In 2019, he formed a seven-piece group comprised of two guitars, three keyboards, a backing vocal section, and a rhythm section in order to recreate the swirling, thunderous ambience of his classic records.  Official Website Spotify Facebook Instagram

Today’s guest is one of the first musicians I befriended in New York City, Pat Hull. Pat is a singer-songwriter from Connecticut currently based out of Chico, CA. He has a unique finger picking style, but what really sets him apart is his counter-tenor vocal range.  Be sure to swing by pathullmusic.com for all his music, merch, and upcoming tour dates.

Today, my guests are Amanda Nyx, a painter, teacher, and installation artist, along with former guest of the show, musician Michael McFarland. I’m such a huge fan of the work Amanda and Michael do in the Cleveland area, especially their work on the McFarland Manor shows, so I wanted to have them on to help spread the word about their new project for Ingenuity Cleveland, entitled “Zen Soundscapes” In our chat, we go over the purpose of Ingenuity Cleveland and how getting involved with that space took Amanda and Michael in new directions as artists. Amanda goes deep on the history and purpose of zen gardens, and Michael explains how their project will be taking the traditional zen garden and enhancing it with technology. Most importantly, the reason I recorded and am releasing this today is to help Amanda and MIchael spread the word about their fundraiser for this project.  All donations made before August 1st will be 100% matched by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Match Fund through a partnership with a new crowdfunding platform, ioby, which worked with Michael and Amanda to secure these matching funds. Zen Soundscapes Fundraiser on ioby

Today, my guest is Killy Dwyer, who bears a lot more labels than simply musician. Killy is an actor, comedian, performance artist, MC, and ultimately deserving of her invented label of “mockstar”.  I met Killy about ten years ago at Penny’s Open Mic (now the Open Mic Under St. Marks), just as I was starting to play music. It was because of the love and support from people like Killy, that I found the confidence and ambition to go further into this music thing I discovered so late in life.  Killy is the host of “Mock-u-Mental”, a bi-weekly show on RadioFreeBrooklyn.com that airs every other Friday from 8-10pm. Mock-u-mental is a tasty comedy music treat for your ear holes, served up with a healthy dose of live jams and interviews with comedic musicians AND their moms, topped with listener questions, comments, requests and hate mail and paired with a feel good Friday drinking game. Killy's Official Website Mock-U-Mental on RadioFreeBrooklyn.com