Impressionistic audio collages. Reflections and meditations on American culture, news, and events. Released monthly.
A college of where are we this Memorial Day. How's everybody doing? Let's just sit back and take stock. I'll be sad anyway on Memorial Day. All the plans that I made have all withered away and turned into light. No one here knows anything about me. I'll be sad anyway on Memorial Day. All the choices I made turned my friends into strangers and turned into light. No one here knows anything about me. I'll be sad anyway on Memorial Day.
I was honored, privileged, and humbled to attend the Communities Over Highways summit in Minneapolis/St. Paul last week. Thank you to Our Streets and America Walks for the opportunity. I left inspired, resolute, and quite overwhelmed at the immensity of the task before us. And just today the House of Representatives moved to rescind $3 billion for reconnecting communities divided by highways from the Biden administration's infrastructure bill. The work continues. Resist.
As the train rolls by like our conscious lives. I can kinda swallow and breathe again and Ibuprofen is starting to put a dent in it. Even the Daily show says they made Covid in a Chinese lab now. Joe Rogan was right all along? I don't mean to hop on a trend. I don't need to see Adam Duritz stirring up a glaze in a bowl and talking about it. The ravages of time. You're looking at something that does not exist anymore. It's not there. It's gone. A conscious social break slash detox. Everything that's old has become new again. The human experience is a quite diverse quilt of sparkling madness and sadness. President Trump is back and the golden age of America has most definitely begun. We gotta stay and fight for it. The storms of outrage and fury and anger blow right by. Rosie O'Donnell is a coward.
I know it's just late stage capitalism hunger games lord of the flies squid game out there. It is all good. Acquiesce. The rebirth of humanity. No thing at all can avoid the changes coming. Rule 1: Don't Panic. Rule 2: Don't Take Anything Personally. To put on my pants and pull it together, schedule my eating so I'm not crabby, and really go out there…you gotta give me a reason to be out there, man. Funny.
2025: Still Alive! Totally failed in getting an Audiode out in December. This thing is going to be embarrassingly and impossibly out of date. Happiness vs. Fulfillment. Get through it because it will and does get better and can get better. December is a real humdinger of a month. How about gratitude for what you have? Elections have consequences and the people have chosen. I have been wrong before.
The Way It Is Now: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City closed certain public streets to private motor vehicles, reserving the streets as public open space for recreational purposes. These closures included the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard (Upper Great Highway), adjacent to Ocean Beach. In May 2022, the City replaced the pandemic restrictions on the Upper Great Highway with a pilot program closing the Upper Great Highway to private motor vehicles on Friday afternoons, weekends and holidays. The closure does not apply to emergency vehicles, official government vehicles, intra-park transit shuttle buses and similar vehicles authorized to transport people. This pilot program is scheduled to end on December 31, 2025. When the pilot program ends, the Upper Great Highway will be open to private motor vehicles. The City's General Plan sets objectives and policies for land uses within San Francisco, including streets. The California Coastal Act guides land uses along the California coast. Changes in use to the Upper Great Highway may require amendments to the General Plan and approvals under the California Coastal Act. The Recreation and Parks Commission has jurisdiction over most public parks and other recreational facilities in San Francisco, including the Upper Great Highway. Under the Commission's direction, the Recreation and Parks' General Manager oversees the use of those recreational facilities. The Proposal: Proposition K is an ordinance that would allow the City to use the Upper Great Highway for public open recreation space, permanently closing it to private motor vehicles seven days a week, with limited exceptions. It would continue to allow emergency vehicles, official government vehicles, intra-park transit shuttle buses and similar authorized vehicles to access the Upper Great Highway at all times. The General Manager of the Recreation and Parks Department would have the authority to determine an emergency exists and allow private motor vehicles to use the Upper Great Highway. Proposition K would require, within 180 days of voter approval of this measure, the City to seek any other approvals necessary to permanently close the Upper Great Highway to private motor vehicles. Those approvals may include amendments to the City's General Plan and approvals under the California Coastal Act. If Proposition K is passed by voters, the current pilot program would remain in place until all necessary approvals are obtained and permits granted, or, until the pilot program is scheduled to end on December 31, 2025. A "YES" Vote Means: If you vote “yes,” you want the City to use the Upper Great Highway as public open recreation space, permanently closing it to private motor vehicles seven days a week, with limited exceptions. A "NO" Vote Means: If you vote “no,” you do not want the City to make these changes.
The kids call 'em discs. I can't have the whining. It's not acceptable behavior. It's so hard being a person on this planet. Try to eat the couch and then get upset about that. The cost of vinyl. The human supremacist toll of touring with burning fossil fuels a quarter of the way into the 21st century. The Pacific Gas and Electric bills which keep going up inexplicably. There are some positives to being in America. I voted for Ronald Reagan in the school election in first grade and we won by a landslide. Collaboration. Long Pause. Off The Charts. Bandcamp. Decoding.https://longpause.bandcamp.com/album/off-the-charts
The more signs you have, the more ugly it is. Yes We Kam? Production collaboration? Unknown unknowns. Recording Tour? Diddies for Dads! Lunchtime. 100 Audiodes? Steve Miller Band + Journey + Def Leppard concert review. Millions and millions of listeners. Overinflated Capitalist Cathedral. Human Supremacist. Love bites.
What a month in American politics! Whew. Here's how it all unfolded.
https://johnelliott.bandcamp.com/album/it-doesnt-matter-why-it-is-it-doesnt-matter-if-its-wrong-vAudio liner notes to accompany the release of the fifth episode in the "It Doesn't Matter Why It Is, It Doesn't Matter If It's Wrong" series! Only on Bandcamp (for now).
“When I pay the money I pay these days to go to a movie I hope it's got a lounger. Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Ask, Seek, Knock. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.”Theologian guest Pierre Bourgeois talks Jesus and the gospels and provides context for my mom's favorite bible verse.
I watched the Super Bowl and I don't think there's anything healthy about that. It's just not how most of us are experiencing our time on this planet. We're these privileged, fat, wealthy, bloated, greedy, plastic-eating monsters…and also just beautiful lights of humanity dancing through the cosmos. The contradictions of America are so fraught with conscious ridiculousness. I'm almost finished mixing a new album: the fifth in the quadrennial series “It Doesn't Matter Why It Is, It Doesn't Matter If It's Wrong.” I'm going to honor the instinct of honest creation that brought about this collection of songs, but I'm very conscious about the content and the fact that it might be quite alarming and offensive to some people. Nothing's gonna stop us now. Being a self advocate. Different strokes for different folks. Let freedom ring. We do what we want to do in this life that we all love so dearly. We are free. There are other ways of doing things besides just one way. Other avenues, other doors.
2024: Back For More. I wish I knew how to quit you, Audiodes. Pot committed. Every man or woman has his or her or their own cross to bear. Dad is the deliverer of karmic reply to what we've given. Every place in the world has something to say about dragons. Dragons are real. We're never gonna see it unless we believe it. Do not react. Take a pause, take a breath, take a thought. Think from your heart: what would my wisest and most capable person state right now? Tune in to what your truth is. Get excited. We're truly on the planet of possibilities. Get stoked. Everything you asked for is what's coming this year.
As we transition to the new year and Audiodes transitions into whatever it is going to become, here is a conversation with one of my oldest friends who had a different name and gender when we were kids. I share this with wishes for peaceful and gentle transitions to whatever comes next and whatever comes after that.
I'm changing my mind. We're still in Audiode 66 here. I've really been reflecting on the previous Audiode. I've thought about deleting it. I'm fine. I'm not in a hospital in Gaza so what do I have to complain about? It's getting ridiculous. I have to retreat and reassess. We're all complete failures and we're all complete successes. I've decided to pivot and pause. Be an Emptiness Provider? Comforting vacuity. When will we meet again? I don't know. Thank you and goodbye. The audacity of hope. How do you let go and release the Audiode? I totally think it makes sense to pause this. Gotta figure out something else. Gotta keep it fresh. Gotta keep it moving. I was a young man. You could slice cheese on my jaw. I'm changing my mind again. I'm gonna make an Audiode for December. I love this world, crazy. Sponsored by maybe. It's ruining me. Maybe.
Big news! Some decisions have been made. Audiodes as we have known them are going to undergo a fundamental change. I want to connect with people. I miss the livestreams. Character is destiny. Is enough enough? I have failed by nearly every possible metric humankind can conceive of to measure success. I still might succeed if I don't quit.
Are disasters better than catastrophes? Absolutely. But are disasters disasters? Absolutely still. We Didn't Start The Fire. The American people are hurting right now. We're all in this together. Kids from small towns they know how to work, they know how to get stuff done, they know how to solve problems. We've got a country to save. What difference at this point does it make? The plight of the poor, the near poor, and the afraid of becoming poor is a national crisis. You know that it's not all peaches and cream out there.
"Are you trying to do this pro, though?" You gotta really wildly open your expectation to how much money and the sliding scale. "You live very simply and I've done that for years..." Pros and cons to everything. RPG odyssey. Reflections, thoughts, feelings. The touring without motor vehicles and airplanes has continued to be when-in-Romed. "America has been great ever since it first hatched." We'll see what happens. Well, I'm back.
April 2023: Waco, San Francisco, San Antonio, Ukiah, Austin.
This very special Audiode contains the audio liner notes to accompany the new album, After All This Time. It features voice memos, early demos, and alternative versions of the album's songs. Perhaps these recordings should remain unheard. But in the spirit of the journey being the destination and honoring the process and oversharing...here it is: me making my particular brand of song sausage. Warning = if you google "how the sausage is made," you get this: “The process by which something is created or conducted away from public view. Typically refers to something that the average person would find unpleasant or unsavory, in the same way that making sausages might be off-putting to some.”
Love and joy and happiness all around. Full-sized Ziploc bag of several pieces of chocolate cake. Might as well. Use small squeezes of dish soap because it'll last you longer. There is not an inch of rust on Titanic. 2023, the place to be: Water Rabbit. Hope in life, longevity, peace, prosperity, a luck year. Quiet, elegant, quick, skillful, patient, kind, and above all else very responsible. I know that I probably make too many albums. Stop at two. What's really cool about making the next thing and finishing it is that it always clears the way for the next thing. Let's transform into whatever's next: a new life and then a new life after that.
2022: How did it go? It's way more powerful than you'll ever be. So much let go. So much surrender. Consciousness of sensitivity. Sedentary, end of the year, solstice, dark, cold, hearth fire moment. I never want to leave a three mile radius again. Tidings of comfort and joy. After all this time. Time got away from me so easily, running wild and free so easily. Deep rest. Continuing to exist.
Herschel Walker. Knocking at the door of December. A Flilogy? A Flilogy of Flaudiodes? 0-6. End of a unit. Defeated Dow Chemical Heiress. Off the charts Amtrak experience. Financial energy. Coziness & blueberry pie.
Flaudiode follow-up + midterm election special! The Obama Hug. In America, capitalism is not going away. Charlie Crist vs. Ron DeSantis. Bernie supporters are responsible for the end of Roe v Wade. Ebola. Losing is not fun. After reviewing all of the facts, we are going to rate this thirty second ad as: Mostly False. China? Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis. You have to believe in trying to reconcile things. We take the good and the bad and we deal with it.
A very special Audiode...a Flaudiode. Travelogue of the Florida tour: Miami, Deerfield Beach, Ft Lauderdale, Ft Myers, Orlando, Gainsville, and Pensacola. Register to vote at vote.gov.
Emily D. Jones. The Wellness Center. Second grade was the pinnacle of existence. Communal consensus-building experience making rules for the slide. We're so much more interesting than a list of symptoms. Identity. Bruce Springsteen is a successful musician. Ambition vs. Contentedness. The Middle Ages. It might just come down to what you feel like doing at any given time. How to stay alive and make decisions to strategically not collude with the power system.
June gloom. Pride. Anti-Freedom/Freedom. There are a lot of folks that are full of love. What's wrong with this? Why is this threatening? (Huntington Beach interlude). What's the problem? Fabulous people of all ages, colors, income brackets...it's a sliding scale. Ten years. 70 square feet. Eleven or so naked men. It's okay to be alone. I'm gonna last, last for awhile, awhile at least. Gratitude for the fight and for the perseverance. Peace is a privilege of the dead. Are we having fun yet? I've got a PhD in Common Sense.
Education. The real owners. Truth seekers. Horrible crime. A racist according to his own writings. "I can't breathe." Statistics. Optical illusion. We turn our eyes away. Replacement. "Legacy Americans." A twilight zone of misinformation and disinformation. "Election integrity issues." Open question. Let's hope that it doesn't take place on our watch. (Please note: this Audiode was finished and scheduled to be released the day a horrific story broke of another shooting, this time at an elementary school in Texas. I'm going to resist the urge to update the Audiode to reflect this new news since it is a developing story and there will likely be another shooting in a couple days so...on and on it goes).
Content Warning: This Audiode contains discussions of suicide and depression. Car-free JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park! Bobby Jo Valentine. Tell me about your gallbladder. Storage facilities. Mistranslations. Earthbound. You're so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. Pancakes. Fear is the heart of love. The clothed homo sapien. Shame on you. The bunker. Illness vs. wellness. Labels. Twelve hours of Seinfeld. Are you still in love with the world?
Content Warning: This Audiode contains discussions of suicide and depression. Car-free JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park! Bobby Jo Valentine. Tell me about your gallbladder. Storage facilities. Mistranslations. Earthbound. You're so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. Pancakes. Fear is the heart of love. The clothed homo sapien. Shame on you. The bunker. Illness vs. wellness. Labels. Twelve hours of Seinfeld. Are you still in love with the world?
The back fifty is the new back nine. Matt the Electrician. "We Imagined An Ending." Each person involved in a co-write has to give up a little bit for it to work successfully. Objectivity. Bruce Springsteen and U2 are objectively awesome. "When It's Time To Go." Experience absolutely affects the way that we relate to art. Wes Anderson. Remembering that Pearl Jam exists makes me angry. Best of lists. It's just a belief, it's just an opinion. Is there room for the opinion that Purple Rain is not great?
Content Warning: This Audiode contains audio that some listeners may find disturbing. Golden anniversary. Exclusive Bonus Content: patreon.com/johnelliott. Re-imagining, Re-engaging, Re-committing. Kitchen table issues. Time Machine to 2000. We must reverse the silent, rising tide of global warming and we can. John Mayer Thoughts. Von Rhodes checks in from Montana. Election Day: the day to choose a new President for a new century. Too close to call. Alice in Wonderland. Recount. Concession. We're under attack. There are no words. The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. To stand for principle, to be reasonable in manner, and above all to do great good for the cause of freedom and harmony. The chair will advise that the rules do care.
No hurries or worries. The Water Tiger. Clown World. Viral sensation. Insanity. Success is ours. Let it be and set yourself free.
Confused. Conflicted. Chaos. Travel. Months and months and months. Giving thanks. Gratitude lists. "Are you good enough to go to heaven?" 2022 social media diet? "All Too Well (Jake's Version)."
0:00 Strophe / 6:54 Antistrophe / 17:11 Epode...Videodes?! Videodes. Sunday sermon on the train platform in El Paso, TX waiting on the Sunset Limited train. Four men discussing politics on the Coast Starlight train somewhere between Los Angeles and Emeryville, CA.
This is a conversation about whiteness and privilege in the cycling community with Bay Area raised Interaction Designer Alexis Bustos (alexisbustos.design). Alexis has spent many years on her bike and, as a mixed race queer woman, aims to challenge long standing systems of oppression one community at a time.
What is next? The Greta Thunberg of folk music? No cars, no airplanes. Keep it open. The call of the wild. Public Executions. I am not the I in the next song. Suburbia. This is yours, this is mine, but we're still all the same.
This Audiode is an echo of Audiode 33, checking in with the same people one extraordinary year later. It features very special guest contributions by: Agent Lead, Julia Ragen, Otis Ragen-Andrews, Elam Blackman, Andrew Blair, Sonya Burke, Asher Buskirk, Ned Buskirk, Chris Chandler, Anthony DaCosta, Amie Dorsey, Rebecka Digervall, Shelby Gold, Mike Herz, Wiekbe Hoefkens, Megan Keely, Wilson Marks, Kelly McFarling, Matt the Electrician, Ax Prince, Raina Rose, Ida Wenøe, Dylan Wise, and Steve Jobs. I am grateful to them all for once again taking the time to share and reflect.
The Golden Ox. A sunrise revelation. Talkin' grandpas with Bill in Texas. A Presidents Day rally in Florida.
Audiode 34 is a four part series reviewing the first 23 Audiodes, which are not on any podcast streaming sites and are only available to subscribers at patreon.com/audiodes. This is Part 4 of 4.
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