BZ Listening

I'm giving away two tickets to see Curtis in Cleveland on Saturday, July 15th at the Wizbang Circus School and Theater. To enter, just share this episode and follow Curtis on social media and send a link to your post or a screenshot to bzlistening@gmail.com. All Patreon supporters will automatically be entered. The winner will be announced on July 12th.

Links to follow and support Curtis Eller:

https://www.curtiseller.com/

https://curtiseller.bandcamp.com/

https://www.patreon.com/curtiseller

https://twitter.com/CurtisEller

Songs used in this episode:

P2Chill Links: https://linktr.ee/ProgrammedtoChill

Unedited episode available to Patreon supporters: https://www.patreon.com/bzdouglas

In part 2 of my interview with Philip Fairbanks we discuss Walking the Wire,  a new podcast series releasing in April that will re-examine  David Simon's groundbreaking series, "The Wire", episode by episode.  This Friday at 9pm EST Philip will be joining me for a livestream Q&A on YouTube, Facebook, or via Twitter Spaces.

Follow Walking The Wire on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/walkingwirepod

Q&A Livestream Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8WjQH5Zq4M
https://www.facebook.com/236989935076585/posts/333705115405066
https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1vAGRkbkWPyJl?s=20

If you're a Patreon supporter, a PDF copy of Fairbanks book is available for you at https://www.patreon.com/bzdouglas. 

FOOTNOTES:

Original Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swh9G2qxlsc

*** PANELISTS ***

Contraband
https://www.thecontrabandwagon.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoqBnhnfqzB6GFPdode6pbg

Progressive American
https://progressive-american.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheProgressiveAmerican
https://twitter.com/conor_politics

Brenton Lengel
https://twitter.com/BrentonLengel
https://www.youtube.com/user/Despanan

Mustache Bob
https://twitter.com/MustacheBob2
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUYQqszpbFSIvFKWPNcE9pg

My guest today, the first of the new year, is Nico Walker, author of the novel, Cherry. The book is a fictionalized account of an unnamed character who follows a path very similar to Walker’s own life story. He joins the army at 19, serves in Iraq as a medic, spirals into heroin addiction as he deals with crippling PTSD, and finally sets off on a spree of bank robberies.

This interview actually came about because Nico reached out to me a few weeks ago following the publication of my investigation into Tony Viola’s wrongful prosecution. Walker was Viola’s cellmate a decade ago, and the two have kept in touch over the years.

On today’s show, Walker and I discuss Iraq, the spirals of addiction, the futility of the drug war, and the frustrating tragedy of Viola’s case.

+++ SUPPORT  +++ 

Likes, Shares, and Subscribes are free, and they help with the Algorithm gods! 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bzdug  
Substack: https://bzdouglas.substack.com
PayPal: https://paypal.me/bzdouglas

This Friday I’ll be doing a livestream year in preview and Q&A on YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter Spaces. I’ll preview some of the stories I’m looking into, and share some ideas on other projects I’m hoping to produce. 

Please support my independent journalism by becoming a paying Substack subscriber or Patreon supporter.

Visitors of FreeTonyViola.com will find a much different story. It’s a scrappy but fairly polished little website managed by Viola himself, setup with the express purpose of providing journalists and lawmakers with evidence of Viola’s innocence by exposing the flagrant prosecutorial misconduct he has endured.

Several local and national journalists have quietly taken an interest in his case, but have either been intimidated by the possibility of litigation, too busy to thoroughly vet Viola’s claims, or stymied by editors and publishers.

Visit https://bzdouglas.substack.com to read the full story.

I covered a Shontel Brown campaign event this weekend, and captured her having a "Please Clap" moment all her own.

(This audio is from the YouTube report, which provides more detail, but functions perfectly as a podcast. https://bit.ly/shontel-brown)

Joining me is Dr. Richard Montgomery, who shares his reactions to Shontel Brown's stump speech.

Dr. Montgomery former mayoral candidate for the city of Euclid, as well as an activist who follows Cuyahoga county politics very closely.  

I was first referred to Dr. Montgomery while working on the documentary series State of Injustice, about the systemic abuses of the Euclid Police Department, and the failures of that city’s mayor and city council to hold them accountable.

+++ SUPPORT MY WORK +++

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bzdug 

Substack: https://bzdouglas.substack.com 

PayPal: https://paypal.me/bzdouglas 

### FOOTNOTES ###

"What Cuyahoga County Residents Need to Know about Shontel Brown and her Campaign for Congress" by Keith Wilson

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown1 

"Shontel Brown outraises, outspends the field in Cuyahoga Council District 9 Democratic primary" by Andrew J. Tobias, Cleveland.com

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown2 

"Former Cuyahoa County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora Convicted of Racketeering" - FBI.gov

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown3 

"Marcia Fudge issued Hatch Act warning over political remarks at White House" by Sabrina Eaton, Cleveland.com

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown4 

"Fudge reprises Friends for Fun at Frederick’s" by R. T. Andrews, realdealnews.com

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown5

“Former deputy of Cuyahoga County auditor sentenced to prison for bribing Frank Russo and Jimmy Dimora” By James F. McCarty, The Plain Dealer 

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown6

“Shontel Brown must resign as Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chair” by Editorial Board, Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown7

“Shontel Brown Approved Major Contract, Then Contractor Backed Her Campaign” by Matthew Cunningham-Cook, Sam Allard for The Intercept

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown8 

“Nina Turner Opponent Shontel Brown Is Low-Key Pleading for Super PAC Support”

by Ryan Grim, The Intercept

https://bit.ly/shontel-brown9 

Armond Budhish on Racism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Oq18AbSMI

Shontel Brown YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCARuPiqBoGzDt0cYfKYJKGg

Secretary Marcia Fudge Visits Lock 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d29iyW8_EWg

Peanut Butter Jelly Time on Green Screen

https://bit.ly/pbjellytime

Please enjoy this unscripted, unedited, emergency episode announcing the release of my new documentary series State of Injustice!

Our Indiegogo Campaign to fund the pilot season ends on Wednesday 3/24. For the last day, I'll be co-hosting an all day stream-a-thon from BLM Cleveland. You can catch that stream via one of the links below. We're going to have some pretty incredible guests and discussion throughout the day, so please pop by and say hi! I never hear from you lovely listeners enough.

Stream-a-Thon Links

The stream will also be running concurrently on BLM Cleveland and BZ Listening pages, but I'd really rather drive up likes and subscribes on the doc's channels.

My guest today is John Bonifaz, the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People.  He previously served as the Executive Director and then General Counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, an organization he founded in 1994, and also served as the Legal Director of Voter Action, a national election integrity organization.

John joins me to have a discussion about the hot topic of impeachment. We go through the arguments in the book Bonifaz co-wrote with Ron Fein and Ben Clements, THE CONSTITUTION DEMANDS IT: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump.

Follow John and FSFP:

Today’s episode is taken from a video report I posted on Wednesday. It’s the story of the Cleveland Warriors, a semi-professional football team in the National Public Safety Football League, and how their management snuck Tamir Rice’s killer, Timothy Loehmann, onto the team. When black players found out and complained, they were pushed out themselves.

I am very happy to report that this morning I awoke to learn that the president and vice president of the Warriors have both resigned in the wake of this scandal.

State of Injustice
This documentary series will examine Ohio city by city, in order to expose all of the ways that the state's law enforcement departments and judicial systems are failing its citizens. The series will begin in Euclid, Ohio, with the death of Luke Stewart.

Support BZ's Work

Watch this episode on YouTube

My guest today is Dr. Joel Schwartz, a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with adults with childhood trauma, neurologically diverse children and adults, and is a strong proponent of the neurodiversity paradigm.

I share a bit about my experience living as an ADHD'r, and learn about how understanding has evolved in the 30ish year since I was diagnosed.

Articles:

Links:

A few weeks ago I assisted the People's Archive of Police Violence in Cleveland in setting up and conducting an interview with Emanuel Franklin, father of Desmond Franklin.  

On April 9, 2020, plainclothes Cleveland Police officer Jose Garcia, badge #2168 shot and killed Desmond. Garcia drove in an unmarked car, fired five shots into Franklin's moving vehicle, killing Franklin, whose car crashed into a cemetery wall. Special prosecutor Daniel Kasaris, from Ohio Attorney's General Dave Yost's office has taken the case and is currently considering whether to present to the Grand Jury. Meanwhile, Garcia remains on paid leave.

How You Can Help

If you live in Ohio, call the Ohio Attorney General's office (1-800-282-0515), and urge them to take this case to the Grand Jury to seek indictment of Officer Garcia.

If you are a Cleveland resident, call City of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (216-664-2000) and demand the firing of Jose Garcia by Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams for the murder of Desmond Franklin.

Don't stop there, demand that Calvin Williams be removed, and in 2021 vote Mayor Jackson out of office.

Today’s guest is technically me, as I’m re-broadcasting an interview I gave with Brenton Lengel on his YouTube channel a few weeks ago about an article I published at the end of October: "Euclid officer Matthew Rhodes and officials throughout Ohio facing charges of homicide, dereliction of duty due to non-compliance with state-mandated training"

Most Recent Video Report:
Caught on Body Cam: East Cleveland Commander Attempts to Steal Drugs Seized as Evidence

Support my work on Patreon

Subscribe on Substack

48hr Virtual Music Festival Event Page

Livestream will be broadcast on my Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter

Snow White Zombie Apocalypse Issue #3 Kickstarter

My guest is Mariah Crenshaw of Chasing Justice LLC. According to her research, a significant portion of officers in the state ("40-60%" in her opinion), are currently operating while designated as "cease function" according to Ohio Revised Code 109.803 and Ohio Administrative code 109:2-1-12. 

Crenshaw has widened her focus to EVERY DEPARTMENT IN THE STATE. Requesting 10s of thousands of records, cataloging, annotating, organizing, databasing, and preparing materials that could be used in lawsuits all over Ohio.

This episode contains tracks from Jadon’s brand new album, “Late to the Party”, along with some audio from Train Robbers circa 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqAkm5Tx4jI

Today I am interviewing members of the People's Archive of Police Violence in Cleveland. I first learned of them while covering a Black Lives Matter Cleveland "Defund the Police" protest on the fourth of July, where volunteer Emily Forsee spoke about the importance of documenting police brutality. In this episode I’ll be speaking with Emily and two of the creators of the archive Carol Steiner and Keith Wilson, to discuss some of the work they've done, why they're doing it, and how you can help.

When I interview musicians, I typically intersperse four or five songs throughout the interview. Today I'll be doing the same thing but using stories from the archive, specifically the 2015 People's Tribunal on Police Violence collection. You will hear the stories of Alicia Kirkman, Brenda Bickerstaff, Clarence Jones, and Bernadette Rolen.

Visit archivingpoliceviolence.org or @policeviolence_cle on Instagram for more info.

Support my independent journalism:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bzdug

Newsletter: https://bzdouglas.substack.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bzdug

Here's a teaser of my very first guest appearance on another podcast: Stoner Morning Show.

The host, Shawn Wickens, is an old friend of mine from my improv days in NYC. Last year he mentioned on Facebook that he wanted advice on how to start a podcast, and I told him everything I learned in exchange for him being a guest on my show. 

I can’t thank him enough for returning the favor so that I can talk a bit about the work I’m doing now, how I came to do it, how I will be doing it, and why I think it’s important.

Support my work:

A lot has happened since my last episode. Let’s see: Bernie dropped out, a global pandemic broke out, which caused the economy to fall off a cliff, a national uprising against the police is in full swing, and on a personal note, as of last Friday I am officially a published journalist. For the story behind that story, check out my interview with Brent Lengel on his YouTube channel.

BLMCLE:
https://www.facebook.com/BLM216/
https://www.paypal.me/blmcle

Other orgs that need support:

If you have any extra cash to spare, please consider supporting me on Patreon. I’ve decided to take the leap and quit my full-time job as a web developer in order to pursue journalism as a new career, and the only way I can pull it off and remain completely independent is with your support

Go to events.berniesanders.com to join the movement, take our government back from the wealthy, and make some history.

Find a Bernie event near you: http://events.berniesanders.com/

That show will be going up on Saturday, February 29th at Negative Space from 4:30 to 7:30. For more info, click here.

Happy 2020! 

:party-hat: :mushroom-cloud: :fire: :fire:

I believe the official slogan is "Worst Year Ever"

I first saw Justus performing a couple weeks ago at the McFarland Manor November show. On today's episode, I chat with him about his creative process, how he became "big in Algeria", his terms of success, and the lessons he's learned navigating Spotify's playlist algorithm.

Justus has a new track Risky debuting today, December 11th, on Spotify. Listen thru until the end of the episode to hear it, and be sure to add it to your playlists if you dig it!

Follow Justus Online:

Today I’m bringing a new thing to the show with my guest Shawn Wickens, who will forever hold the distinction of being the first comedian on the podcast. I met Shawn about twelve years ago, back when I was going through my improv comedy phase. He happened to be passing thru Cleveland a couple of weeks ago on his way to play a show in Louisville, Kentucky, and swung by the house to catch up.

We chat about the improv scene circa 2007-8, how he came to found the Bad Theater and Film festivals, and his latest endeavor co-hosting The Stoner Morning Show with fellow comic Lex Morales, which just kicked off its own podcast this week! Be sure to check out stonermorningshow.com for all the 411 about this 420-themed show.

This show is ad-free, and that’s all thanks to my Patreon supporters. I recently updated some of the benefit tiers, and anyone donating $3 or more per month is supposed to get a shoutout on the show’s footnotes for that month. Since it’s Thanksgiving this week, and I’m way overdue on the shoutouts, I’d just like to take a moment to thank my first two BZ Backers: Michael Hornsby (this months winner of the swag giveaway) and Michael McFarland (a former guest and incredible musician, artist, and producer). And lastly, my boss at Blackbird Digital Pat Walsh, who kicked in $12 month to earn himself a BZ Producer credit, and includes a plug.

It’s not even hard for me to talk up Blackbird as an agency. I’ve been a web designer and developer for over twenty years, working at over a dozen international and local agencies, and Blackbird is far and away my favorite. Blackbird combines award-winning web design, acute knowledge of technology, and marketing savvy to help your organization. We specialize in developing for WordPress and HubSpot, but never shy away from working in something new if necessary. The sites we build are always set up with self service in mind, so you won’t have to come back and request help every time you want to make changes. To learn more visit Blackbird.digital, and if you sign on as a client, I'll probably be the one coding your site!

If you would like to become a supporter, just click here!

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:

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.

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”.

Tracks:

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Visit justincurryviolin.com for shows and to hear more of his music.

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

Killy's Official Website

Mock-U-Mental on RadioFreeBrooklyn.com

Today’s episode is the first with a prerequisite. Usually I have musicians on this show, and if you haven’t heard them before, no big deal. Today, however, I’m talking with Roger Hill, director of the film “Huckleberry”, and if you haven’t seen it, then you should save this episode for after you have, because we gonna spoiler.

You can buy or rent Huckleberry on Amazon, or it’s free with Prime, or if you want the full movie experience, you can catch an upcoming screening of Huckleberry followed by another Q&A at the Cleveland Cinema in Shaker Square on Thursday July 18th at 7pm. 

Please do take the time to rate and review the film on Amazon, it really does a lot to help the visibility of smaller indie films like these. If you’re so inclined, do the same for this podcast as well, though not on Amazon. I don’t think Bezos has his filthy mitts in podcasting yet.

Follow Huckleberry:

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend and privilege to produce a portion of the first ever ManorFest at the McFarland Manor. The manor is a house venue in Gordon Square that puts on shows the last Friday or Saturday of every month, usually. The fest was an incredibly successful and heroic effort on the part of its producers, Michael McFarland, Amanda Nyx, Cassie Bishop, and Mikey Silas. Apologies to Blindside Avenue for recording diffculties, and to Noon and Daniel J two performers who I didn't get the recorder set up in time for on Saturday.

Apologies to Blindside Avenue for recording difficulties, and to Noon and Daniel J two performers who I didn't get the recorder set up in time for on Saturday.

Follow Lulu on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/lulufriesdat

Visit https://smartelections.us/ to see all the reporting we discuss in this episode, and learn about how you can take action to make America a democracy worth celebrating on the fourth of July.

https://www.mattpless.com/

From his bio:

Combining elements of folk, punk, pop and rock, Matt Pless can lyrically turn a phrase with the best of them and has been compared to some of the preeminent songwriters of our time.

A consummate performer with a high-energy stage presence, Matt Pless travels the road continuously entertaining and astounding his audiences. With guitar and harmonica as his tools of choice and words as his main characters, he has shared the stage with the likes of Maroon 5, Rilo Kiley, Alkaline Trio, Arlo Guthrie, Bad Brains, Fallout Boy, All Time Low and others.

Matt’s extensive touring schedule has taken him to Europe, and across the U.S. multiple times playing venues from bars to boxcars and basements and everything in between...wherever there are people to hear his music. 

And almost anyone can relate to a Matt Pless song. His unique gift for writing lyrics and melodies that appeal to the core of the human condition is, like Matt himself, an experience.

Check out Molly Ruth on Spotify

You can find all of Robinson’s music and upcoming tour dates at RobinsonTreacher.com.

You can find links to Xela’s projects at http://bzdug.com/podcast/xela

McFarland Manor on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/McFarlandManor

For any of you in the area, the next McFarland Manor show is coming up this Saturday April 27th. 

http://michaelmcfarlandmusic.com/

https://www.madelinefinnofficial.com

https://www.facebook.com/madelinefinnofficial/

https://www.facebook.com/thewhiskeyhollow/

Instagram

Spotify

Facebook 

If you haven’t heard part one yet, I highly recommend you go back and listen to that episode where I interview trans-advocate and mother of two trans children, Sara Kaplan. I shared that discussion with Val before we spoke to serve as a primer for our interview. 

This is the most important episode of the show that I’ve produced thus far, because until now, none of my family have really been talking about it. I know mom is very interested in hearing this conversation because Val has always been pretty terrible at keeping in touch, or opening up about herself without a nudge, or sometimes a very aggressive shove. 

This discussion made me so damn grateful for my family. Mom, I love you, and I love that you are probably already looking into ways to support your daughter in her new journey. I also need to give a big love shoutout to Val’s wife N’Lou, who was immediately on board and ready to help dole out makeup tips.

My heart truly sinks when I think of the transgender people who have had to walk this road without support from their families. My hope is that anyone who’s listening this and has less than friendly feelings towards transgender people, especially within your family, you’ll think a bit about all of the difficulties they have to endure and the persecution that the world heaps upon them, and realize you can do a lot to make their life better. I love you all, and thank you for listening.

Footnotes:

Valouria's Website: http://argylebox.com

Goldfish "We Come Together" Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-tNUur2YoU

https://cutleri.bandcamp.com 

https://www.instagram.com/cutleri_band/

Jessi Shaffer:

https://www.instagram.com/littlestbirdmusic

Heidi Harris:

https://soundcloud.com/heidi-harris-1

Vote for BZ Listening as "Best Local Podcast" in Cleveland Scene's 2019 list:

http://bit.ly/vote4bz2019

Today my guest is Michael Rutushin, aka “Larry Elefante”. On the show we talk about Michael’s musical family, his first gigs, his worst gigs, and his new album, “I Get Sentimental” recently released on vinyl by way of a successful kickstarter campaign and now available on Spotify and Bandcamp.

As always, if you like the show, please throw the episode a good rating, and like the page on Facebook. If you live in my neck of the woods, you can vote for BZ Listening as “Best Local Podcast” on the 2019 Cleveland Scene Best of Cleveland list until April 11th. If it’s any sign of my commitment to publishing an musician episode every Monday, and I’m recording this intro at 2am in my downstairs bathroom so I don’t wake the fam.

Also coming up on the show, this evening I will be interviewing an old friend from high school who is the mother of two trans children, which has roused her to become an activist for trans rights. This is an issue that has hit home for me recently, but I’ll get into that when the episode airs.

For now, please enjoy my interview with Michael Rutushin of Larry Elefante.

Today my guest is Steve Holecko, Political Director of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus or CCPC for short. This is by far the longest episode I have released, so I will keep the introduction short.

As the seemingly endless marathon that is the 2020 democratic primary gets underway and starts to take up all the political oxygen in our brains, I thought it was important to make sure to keep my ear to the ground more with local issues.

For the first half hour, Steve and I discuss his background in political organizing and the campaigns that first activated him, and talk a bit about our experiences with Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign. From there we move on to discussing CLASH, the Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing, and the work they are doing to force the city to deal with a lead paint problem in older houses and rental units that is causing lead levels to skyrocket in children. Then we spend the last half hour discussing the Green New Deal Town Hall that the CCPC is helping to organize.

The town hall is actually the reason I am releasing this episode today. If you are in Cleveland, and would like to attend, it will be held at the Brooklyn Branch of the Cuyahoga County Library at 7pm on Thursday, March 21st. I would be there, but my wife and I have our first show booked in quite some time. I will be bringing Steve back again regularly, and we’ll hear how this town hall went in a few weeks.

As always thanks for listening! Do all the like and subscribe things, and consider telling someone about the show with your mouth! It's great.

Footnotes:

Green New Deal Town Hall:
https://actionnetwork.org/events/what-do-you-want-from-the-green-new-deal-a-town-hall-meeting-for-cuyahoga-county-2

CLASH:
https://www.facebook.com/CleLeadSafe/

CCPC:
https://www.cuycpc.org/

Today my guest is Robert Evans: journalist and host of the “Behind the Bastards” podcast. I first noticed Robert’s work in 2013 when he was writing for Cracked.com, a comedy site that did a surprising amount of important reporting and political commentary. The piece was entitled “6 Myths About Drone Warfare You Probably Believe”, and it kicked off a long running series that came to be known as Cracked's “Personal Experience” articles. They ran the gamut from Sex Workers (both voluntary and involuntary), Ukrainian rebels, drug dealers and undercover agents, and eventually evolved into a podcast.

In 2018 Evans kicked off a new show, Behind the Bastards, where he profiles the worst people in history along with a comedian, to lighten the mood. Robert’s has also done extensive reporting for Bellingcat.com, a relatively new but important journalistic outfit. He penned an in depth report on radicalization through online subcultures, a topic became incredibly important since I recorded this interview on March 10th. Just five days later, the Christchurch New Zealand mosque massacre occurred. The following day, Evans published a follow up piece on Bellingcat, and was quoted in a Washington Post piece covering the attack.

The subject of Robert’s podcast on the week leading up to the shooting was eerily prescient. He profiled George Lincoln Rockwell, a man Evans calls “the grandfather of all modern fascists”. Over the course of three episodes, Evans lays out how Rockwell is the original holocaust denier, coined the term “white power”, and devised tactics that fascists and their sympathizers continue to use this day. It is highly relevant, and highly essential.

Be sure to follow Robert on Twitter @IwriteOK and consider supporting his GoFundme campaign, "The War on Everyone"

You can find the album that resulted from that challenge, titled “2018”, at katehart.bandcamp.com.

Today’s episode is with another rising star of the Cleveland music scene, Mikey Silas. Mikey’s stage presence is as big as his heart, and is a font of positivity and encouragement, both in person and online. I first heard him at an open mic in 2018 and was instantly captivated by his soulful vocals and passionate performance style. If you dig Mikey’s work, be sure to visit mikeysilas.com and follow Apostle Jones on Facebook and Instagram.