Audio Chimera

This is the final installment of the audio drama Kid Again. Mike's friends are getting suspicious of his behavior, and we find out if he's managed to cover up the truth well enough.

This is Episode 9 of the audio drama Kid Again. The episode is entitled "Termination, in which Mike helps his friend Abigail at Planned Parenthood, and finds himself at a crossroads with his girlfriend Susie.

Mike discovers—or re-discovers—some upsetting news both from his new friend Abigail and from his mother.

Mike finds himself back in high school in this time traveling audio series. This is Episode 7, "The Exchange Student."

Some spectator  behavior has been so bad that it has stuck with me for years and  decades. Some of the stories became cautionary tales that I told my Intro to Theatre students to suggest poor theatre etiquette in hoping they'd be better. Here are those stories.

Kid Again is an audio drama about a person named Michael who suddenly realizes he is in his 9th grade classroom in Catholic school. This is a surprise because, before he went to bed, he was 39 years old and packing for a move with his pregnant wife. Is he dreaming? Did he actually travel back in time? And for how long? And…if he is going to experience those years again, knowing everything that he knew when older, how careful does he have to be to not effect great changes while at the same time having more fun than he did the first time around?Mike finds himself with a girlfriend who seems interested in having a very physical relationship with him.

Kid Again is an audio drama about a person named Michael who suddenly realizes he is in his 9th grade classroom in Catholic school. This is a surprise because, before he went to bed, he was 39 years old and packing for a move with his pregnant wife. Is he dreaming? Did he actually travel back in time? And for how long? And…if he is going to experience those years again, knowing everything that he knew when older, how careful does he have to be to not effect great changes while at the same time having more fun than he did the first time around?In this episode, Mike makes a new friend: Joey, who may in fact be attracted to him.

My religion—Catholicism—was presented to me as Holy Armor, to be worn as protection against the evils of the world. But armor tends to rust, as mine certainly did. So I see the world through the lens of secular humanism. Also, pop quiz: what does a bodhisattva and an escapee from Plato's Cave have in common?

People will sometimes ask others, "What are you afraid of?" Here's my answer, which includes heights and public speaking. Well, I got over that one. Listen to find out how.

The audio series Kid Again continues with Episode 4 with Mike, once again a teenager, finding himself presented with new opportunities to use his adult experience at a makeout party. How far will he go to make his second time around a lot more fun? You can listen to the other Kid Again episodes by checking out:AC Episode 44: KA Episode 1AC Episode 49: KA Episode 2AC Episode 57: KA Episode 3

As a young undergrad snob new to academia, I was pretty full of myself about that. I denigrated mere laborers. And that's odd since I came from such humble beginnings, and had many not-great jobs. Luckily, with age comes wisdom and tolerance, at least in my case. 

People love that Christmas classic stop motion animation version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and watch it annually. But for me, it embodies so many terrible ideas. Pro-conformity, anti-environmental, anti-union, anti-individual...it's the embodiment of so many things I value.

The Christmas photos provide distinct evidence for my Huckleberry Hound doll. He, along with my GI Joes, vanished into thin air, and I wonder where they got to.

I loved cars when I was a kid, and even contemplated going to Vo-Tech to learn auto mechanics. But my experience being unable to work a model car suggests that that was a serious strange and misguided thought.

Was I abducted by aliens? Well...I have a long history of reading conspiracy theories about aliens. And I've used this research into creating several plays about aliens. Take a listen to learn more about those plays, and to answer that abduction question. (The link to "proof" is on my blog at https://musofyr.org.)

So many people say they strive for perfection. But I say unto you: perfectionism's a false idol. Too often it leads to things not getting finished because the things will never be perfect. (And sometimes it's just an excuse not to finish something.) So I propose an alternative: abandon perfection, and strive for excellence instead.

I have a great network of friends around the country and some acquaintances abroad. And yet I still lament the loss of friends with whom I have lost touch, in one way or another. I'm a very loyal person and try to stay in contact, perhaps beyond when I should. Here are some reminiscences of three particular lost friends.

People are always making New Year's Resolutions that add things to their lives and busy schedules and I once read an article that suggested we reduce what we do. So that's my resolution: which I am making on the eve of the arrival of  a new kitten. Follow my blog at musofyr.org for more on that! Incidentally this concludes Season 5 of Audio Chimera; I'll be back in 2023 with Season 6!

I may be retired but it's not stopping me from reflecting on those years of teaching and talking/sharing some success stories. One of the problems I had was science majors telling me they didn't know how to write an "arts paper" since they didn't write research papers but rather lab reports. To address this, I added a new way of looking at my research paper through the lens of the scientific method.

Okay, maybe it's not that spectacular. Growing up there were always arguments about decorating, which made no sense to me. But that translates into conflicts in the world, and maybe we should just stop fighting and enjoy the season.

This is the third episode of my audio drama series Kid Again, which is what I am calling Autobiographical Speculative Fiction, about a man who suddenly finds himself back in high school. What he can he change about himself and his experiences that will make this time more fun? Having been a total nerd before, he now decides to go to a high school dance and actually interact with females. Episodes 1 and 2 are in Audio Chimera episodes 44 and 49, respectively.

How does a terminally shy introverted child became a theatre person? It does appear there were inklings of it along the way... But then, a college theatre professor helped me on the right path to a successful career in the performing arts.

Why do some toys become obsessions? This was true of the Cabbage Patch Dolls, the craze during the time I worked at Toys 'R' Us.

The transition from College Professor to retired college professor takes in more than the addition of the word "retired" and the subtraction of the capital letters in the title. One's life may downsize—but how does a creative artist maintain professional and creative work without the resources one had before? Here's my take.

Mrs. Malaprop is a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals. She attempts to sound intelligent and sophisticated but uses the wrong words. This is something that comedians, such as Norm Crosby, have used successfully, but it also happens to real people. Here are some of the malapropisms that I presented to my Intro to Theatre students when talking about Restoration Theatre and Mrs. Malaprop.

A tale I've often told—the problems of getting my PhD from the UC Berkeley Department of Dramatic Art. I truly became a scholar and director as a result of being in the program, but as I explain, it could have gone a lot more smoothly.As I was recordoing Episode #51, I kept talking and talking... It went long, so I broke the story up into two parts.And this is another experiment in non-scripted storytelling. Let me know what you think! 

A tale I've often told—the problems of getting my PhD from the UC Berkeley Department of Dramatic Art. I truly became a scholar and director as a result of being in the program, but as I explain, it could have gone a lot more smoothly.This is another experiment in non-scripted storytelling. Let me know what you think!

I recently found out where the term "Poster Child" started (hint: polio). Then I wondered what I might be a poster person for, and realized there are three health issues I automatically try to get people to deal with" So here they are! (Spoiler alert: Colonoscopies, Retinal Detachments, and Skin Cancer Checks.)

Season 5 includes new intro and outro music composed by John Rust; find him on YouTube as soundofrust. This episode of Audio Chimera contains episode 2 of Kid Again, my audio drama series that debuted in AC episode 44. Mike has suddenly found himself 14 and back in Catholic School, and pushing the boundaries of what he can say and do since he remembers his adult life. He meets Abigail who is intrigued by his questions about abortion as expressed in religion class.After the KA episode, I have a few comments about my own views on abortion, which oddly enough, echo my own.

People in academia often get asked, why are you retiring? What will you do with yourself? But there is more to life (and academia) than teaching, and I felt the need to enumerate them. I once thought I'd work till 67, like my mother did, but now I'm 65 and making room for the next person. How things have changed since I was a student, both with students and with academia in general. Now if I could just be sure that I am not retiring into a front row seat for the apocalypse and the end of the world.

So frustration will quickly send me into an angry outburst. But for me, the important thing in that I recover quickly. Step on my tail, I yowl, and then life returns to normal. How do I know I've mellowed over the years? I can tell by the way I have changed in my attitude toward directing and rehearsals. Sometimes, you just have to laugh—and other times you just can't stop it!

The topic of migration has been hotly debated. Let me weigh in, with my opinion informed by visiting some Central American countries on a cruise with the new love of my life, Joyce. (This also suggests moving from widower status to committed relationship status, courtesy of online dating.)

Yes, I get all professorial and linguistic on my audience in a background discussion of pronouns, what they are, and why the use of preferred pronouns are a source of confusion for me in the new century.

I wrote an audio series called Kid Again, about a man who suddenly finds himself 14 and back in his 9th grade classroom. He's not sure if he's dreaming or time traveling, but decides that he can have a lot more fun this time around if it is real. We put the episode together by having the actors record their lines and then assembled the dialogue with added sound effects. My hope is that this will help with the GoFundMe so we can continue to create the rest of the 10 episode series.

I've always been interested in audio drama (once called radio drama). During the pandemic, I chose the audio drama format for my usual university theatre production, and am also working on a series called "Kid Again." After some background info on those, I  include the short play "In the Refrigerator" which I have subtitled "A Comedy of Revenge." Since the pandemic has chased all back into our homes, we have to find new ways to collaborate. So I cast this piece with people I knew, and asked them to send me recordings of their lines. (I recorded one person using Skype.) I then put it all together in GarageBand, adding music (composed also in GB) and sound effects, many from a free site called Soundjay.com. So here it is, another of my written works, rescued from the filing cabinet of time.Note that during the podcast I call this episode #44. #43 is in script form and I need to record it AFTER I take my recording studio out of storage post-move.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, I offer some observations on people's behaviors during such an event, relaying personal reactions (yes, my anxiety), people's responses (yes, hoarding), and some suggestions for proper behavior (like, let's treat this like we're all in it together!).

In my Intro to Theatre courses I like students to DO theatre, and so I include the Making Theatre Project which has them, in groups, create a 5-minute play. There are times when the results are tepid, but sometimes they are terrifying. More frequently, they are just funny.

Memory is a gift the past gives us. And when it fails we struggle. In this recycled episode of my defunct podcast, "A Leg Up for Caregivers," guest Brenda talks about her mother's struggles with memory--and Brenda's eventual solution to deal with her mother's Alzheimer's. This episode suggests a useful technique in dealing with those with this dreaded disease.

Unlike Hank in the Eugene O'Neill play The Hairy Ape, who is clearly i need of belonging to something greater than himself, I am not a joiner. But here are two stories of me joining in, one an organization (Mensa) and another while attending a singles event.

As an AM DJ I played records, did some news and weather, but mostly played a lot of tapes--and Orioles baseball games. In between (and sometimes during them), I took calls from many listeners, including a young woman with, I think, a crush on me, and other strange agents. This is of course while constantly changing formats with each new ratings book and each brand new program director. It was a fun job, but not without its challenges, especially in the midnight to 6am graveyard shift.

After attending a Podcast Movement conference, and scoffing at the idea of creating s second podcast (who has time??), I did exactly that. A Leg Up 4 Caregivers was going to be for sudden caregivers. But then that time issue resurfaced. However, rather than totally abandon that podcast, I am resurrecting parts of it here in Season 4 (which features a shorter intro!).

Eye health is so important, and when we ignore the warning signs, we could lose our vision. When I first had problems, I panicked, but it turned out it was not vision-threatening. And then when it was, I assume it wasn't. What a mistake! The tale of discovering a retinal detachment, and surviving the surgery and an intense bout of despair.

Everyone always says, "But I really want to direct." It's always been true for me. But some of the directing positions I have applied for? These crazy stories deal with chocoholic dogs, chickens (both living and dead), and always crazy theatre people who get involved in one way or another.

Sometimes the ways people speak leave me speechless! In college I took a Voice and Diction class that taught me how to speak properly--ideal for a future podcaster! So operating from that perspective, I am astounded at some people's ways of speaking. Dialects, regionalisms, improper pronunciations...and then let's talk about not reading and just hearing things incorrectly. Like I said: speechless!

In a previous episode, I flippantly suggested that my wife would be late for her own funeral. Life has conspired to contradict me, and she passed away in October 2018. I offer this eulogy in memory of her, and am posting this episode on what would have been our 30th anniversary.

For many, "midnight movie" now means that first showing of the newly-released movie blockbuster tentpole, likely featuring some sort of superhuman creatures. But when the midnight movie idea started, the movies were hardly mainstream; in fact, they were decidedly "out there." Listen to some of my experiences--often with second-hand smoke altering my perceptions--with films shown at the witching hour. Note: Many of the sounds that I don’t record myself come from SoundJay.com. For this episode, the Ricochet Sound is by Grant Evans.

I haven't rubbed elbows with many celebrities, but here are a few of my humble stories about that--and how ridiculous that can be. Whether in a public restroom, me trying to make a witty quip and having it fall flat... And why don't we question why we give some people celebrity anyway?

Ever notice that, for kids, events are boring and time moves so slowly, while for older adults, we suddenly find we lost a decade in there? In this episode I attempt an explanation of this phenomenon, as I deal with time, tardiness, and teleology. (Actually, I have a religious joke in here, which is more theology, but I wanted to be alliterative.)

One image I have for myself is that of storyteller. I wouldn't be in Season 3 of this podcast if I didn't think so. But I'm also a theatre professor, director, and playwright, and all those roles go into shaping my stories as well as those of others. And I think some of the best theatrical stories merge life and performance.

The platonic "love story" of a young woman who I met, had a pretend romantic relationship with (the campers expected no less!), lost, refound, and lost again. It's interesting how paths cross and criss-cross in a lifetime, and how we often hope the cross again.

BIG DATA is watching us, but we don't know why. But we have our suspicions, and it's not to make better products and services for us. Can anyone truly learn anything from all the quantitative data that is being collected? Maybe we need to talk about Quality in Life, stop grazing art, and stop photographing the roses soo we can smell them.