Awesome Awkward Angsty Angst...

I've heard it said that blogs are kind of dead if you want to make a living from them (Whew! Pressure is off for meeeeeee!), but that Podcasts are moving or have moved into the blog slot.  And I've already mentioned my growing affinity for podcasts. I love them so.

There is one I found recently, called the Mortified Podcast. There is a whole Mortified 'thing,' where people go to stage venues stand up in front of a microphone and read their journals, diaries, or other writings from childhood or adolescence. Deliberately and on purpose. They have stage shows in lots of cities, and over the years they've compiled the audio from some of them, and sometimes added follow-up interviews, into a podcast. These are people from all walks of life, so it's a bit of a mixed bag which episodes you might find the most interesting, but it seems to me that there must be something for most everyone.

I'm trying to decide how much of an introduction to give before sharing this episode with you. I mean, I want as much as possible for you to understand how I ended up in the parking lot at work, having to stop the episode early and pull myself together from a serious ugly laugh-cry before I went inside, and needing to stifle a few escaping giggles for the next half hour or so. Then again if I explain too much...well, I don't want to ruin it, is what I'm saying.

 These are the things you should know going into things:

--You'll need about 20 minutes, and it's not for little ears (unless your kids are sailors like some of mine. AHEM).

--The first half was fun and sweet in a sassy way, but it was the second half that sent me into hysterics.

--There are F-bombs. I really don't like the F-word, but in this context it is kind of hilarious. I think you'll see why, even if you wince a little bit like I did.

--I was born and raised in Phoenix, but two big parts of my heritage are solid Midwestern values and nerdiness. Nerdery. Nerd-dom.

--This podcast perfectly exemplifies the struggles of adolescence that transcend all. In other words, farm kids can have attitudes too.

So listen. Enjoy. Have some earmuffs on hand for the F-bombs. Maybe cotton ones...

 

Merry New Year--2016

Dear Friends,

I would like to say nice and inspiring things about the new year, but instead I'm going to talk about Dr Who, because right now I'm a little bit wrecked over it.

I've watched Dr Who from afar for a couple years now, if by "watched" you mean "caught a few random episodes, thought 'I would really like this show,' but also thought 'I'm not sure I want to get into it, because I'll never get out again.'" My first episode was the one where he meets Amy Pond, so I suppose that would make the Eleventh my first Doctor, or "my" Doctor, as some are prone to say.

This summer/fall though, our friends the Pastors T (and family) came to visit over a few weekends. The Pastors T (and Family) are hardcore, die-hard Doctor fans, and the ninth season happened over several of their visits, so we all ended up watching on the couch together more than once. And, as expected, after an episode or two I told the Cat Daddy to go ahead and leave the series recording on the DVR for me. 

The biggest problem is that Dr Who is wonderfully silly and irreverent a lot of the time, but then they go and put in moments of great poignance and beauty, and then I start crying, and maybe spend a week or two grieving when a key character dies, and/or there is some sort of big goodbye to be made (or maybe all of the above within a 3 episode span). It's terrible and beautiful, and I kind of hate it. Sort of exactly like the tail end of the Christmas special, when the Doctor makes River practically burst with love and feelings, and she's crying all over the place and tells him "I hate you." So I guess in that way I'm kind of like River Song, and I could do worse than being similar to River Song. Dr Who gets me, and it's the WORST.

I haven't decided yet if it is good or bad for me to get into a show that brings out ALL the feelings. My feelings get kind of big for their britches sometimes, and I've historically done well to stick to mostly lighter fare. On the other hand, I have friends who say when they're feeling emotionally, um, stuck, watching a good feelings show and crying it out does them good. So there's always that angle.

In the meantime, my current project is going back and starting with the ninth Doctor in order to catch up on some of the back story. Because it is all connected. And by "some" of the back story, I mean "10 of the 50 or so years Dr Who has been in existence, and not including the books, spinoff shows, and audio stuff that has all contributed to the Dr Who universe." I'm hoping that getting a broader perspective will ease some of the heaviness and depth of this past season. For now it helps that the earlier episodes were not the extensive production quality they have now, and it feels a little easier to stay emotionally detached. For now. 

In conclusion, stupid Peter Capaldi and his stupid good acting are the worst, and the show also makes occasional references to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I also happen to really like, and so I think I might be done-for.  

Happy New Year...