Peculiar Journeys

From the bit about the Mormons or the old Native American to D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, the perplexing problem of unreliable storytellers, especially via phone screens, is the subject of today’s podcast.

Culture is defined by a set of values but my values tend toward the heroes of Marvel comics.

Every year since I was thirteen, I spend some time reflecting upon the year I just completed on my birthday (February 3rd). My 55th year has been an interesting transition and I hope you find my lessons illuminating.

A trip through four thoughts including the reduction of each other to the level of idiot children, the idea of agreement in discourse, the failures of GenX, and the angels of our better nature.

A reflection on the themes of Cobra Kai and the closing out of the casino world via the Nevada Gaming pamphlet “When the Fun Stops”.

A night of unusually panicked casino, modeling behavior off of Derek Stevens, CEO of the brand new Circa Casino & Resort, and the reality of the Conspiracy Theorist Cosplayers. Wrapping up 2020 and, Christ, I hope 2021 holds a few better days and less pointless death.

A little bit of casino madness, a little bit of social commentary, and why “The Fisher King” is a go-to totem for me.

Ah, nostalgia! And what better than nostalgia connected to lessons we can learn about today.

Losing doesn’t seem fair so why not stop playing?

Ah! Dealing with ‘pandemic fatigue’ with willpower and booze. All roads lead to the same place.

My grandpa and Mother Theresa offer some advice.

A bit of Casino Life, a taste of storytelling philosophy, and a show I produced in Chicago that challenged the notion that we are intractable different rather similar from one another.

An ape of Ginsburg’s “Howl” and the realization that while so many of are lonely, we Gen Xers were practically built for pandemic.

In these times of cultural, political, and environmental upheaval, keeping ourselves in check and optimistic might be the difference between “getting busy living or getting busy dying.” Me? I’m going to be living.

What do you wear for the End of the World? And a quick character sketch of a casino guest from hell.

Reflections on how wrong I so frequently am about life and culture as well as a bit of analogizing of how we speak to once another as a kind of music.

The sense of being overwhelmed in a world with so many people and so many opinions is somehow more palpable these days.

A quick update on Las Vegas in the world of pandemic, a reflection on the concept of polarized fear mongering, and the idea that trauma can either be a learning experience or a crippling experience depending upon how one views pain.

The Catch-22 of social media, a trip to the north of the state, and the optimistic belief that COVID will not stop Vegas from rising.

With the planet spinning increasingly out of control, I share a quick trio of takeaways I’ve concluded (at least for this week). A bit of “tough love” philosophy, a look at the recent looting in Chicago, and a direct comparison of the the PRMC of Tipper Gore and the Puritans of Social Justice.

A bit of casino management plus a story about growing up being bullied and how that taught me that words, no matter how hateful, are ever the same as actual violence.

New format ideas explored. Having fun with interstitial. Plus two shorts that deal with our brutal American past and dealing with those weaponizing our need for constant affirmation.

In a new shift, the PJ podcast is expending some to include something truly specific to me — my thoughts on the day’s news and culture at large. Questions to ponder: do the Woke and White Nationalists actually agree fundamentally? Are the protests becoming less about black lives and more about unhappy Bernie Bots? Plus a piece about one of the oddest days in the casino I’ve encountered in over a year.

A bit of advice to those involved in the service industry and a disclaimer that being a Traditional Liberal ain’t a bad club to belong to.

A kid gets shot in the neck and bleeds all over the casino floor and, after acknowledging obvious white privilege the question remains — what’s next?

Just following the Fourth of July, Don relates another anti-masker and then discusses the case of Colorado’s Kindness Yoga, a business destroyed by faux activists using the current civil rights movement to put a true ally in his place.

Shysters and con men are as Las Vegas as are sequined thongs and half-drunk cocktails. Today Don gives a quick triptych of scams he’s had to field on the casino floor.

As we weather both the pandemic and the civil rights protests, the same tactics used by McCarthy in the fifties is rearing it’s pernicious head plus a few moments of the re-opening of Las Vegas from the Wild Wild West.

The subject of being slowly basted to become a turkey for Jesus Christ is on the docket today as well as a breakdown of the attempted new American narrative frame being crafted by #BLM.

The world is on fire (as it has so many times before) and I’m taken to naval-gaze at my own complete obsolescence in American culture as well as a quick couple of stories complementary to the fallout of massive protests against police brutality.

As Vegas approaches re-opening after just over two months of shutdown, I’m looking to temper my desire to win the argument and instead communicate. It’s harder than it looks.

As the COVID shutdowns are relaxing, the need for sleep and perspective is more pressing than ever

In a belated episode and following the death of a loved family member, I walk through my battle with grieving and the peculiar steps it takes to close the book on a tragic end.

This week, I dive into the aspects of discriminating between your “personal truth” and reality as well as taking a quick zoological view at the defense mechanisms of animals.

In a moment nostalgizing “essential jobs,” we take a look at a night janitor position held back in the dark ages of 1980 and a bit of philosophizing about the concepts re-conceptualizing our place in the coming economic downfall.

Avoiding the traps of disaster politic when it comes to art, embracing failure, and a few lessons on how to sell ideas from a training on window sales.

Working in a casino has plenty of potential to take advantage of the unwary. It also provides plenty of opportunities to be fucked even when you’re the manager. That plus a thinly veiled metaphor about dog shit.

On this aptly numbered episode, I share a few moments that involve the bizarre intersection of my former freelance work with that of the many prostitutes I encounter at the casino. Plus some updates on life in Pandemic.

Yes, it’s been a hiatus that borders on sabbatical or simply neglect but the podcast train is leaving the station again. Updates (brief) plus a couple of quick stories to get things rolling again. Pandemically motivated art is grand!

Just like the title of the episode states.

Three quick stories from my day-to-day walk managing the casino floor. It is a complete change and yet strangely familiar.Complete with an interruption by Siri that I intentionally left in to give you a moment of insight to the process of self podcasting. As I listened to it, it made me laugh harder each time so I left it in for you.

In this belated episode, I confront my lifelong inability to subsume my own life to prop up those desperately in need. It ain't pretty and I'm not exactly proud but it is what it is...

And here we go. Truly stories that could only be told from the casino floor (plus my latest toe-dip into the now divested public media landscape).

In this episode, I take you down the odd rabbit hole of finding and becoming a part of a Live Lit scene that is so small, so insular that only an asshole from Chicago could think he could walk into it with any fanfare whatsoever.

My career path (if that’s what you want to call it) is all over the place: professional jazz trumpeter, public school music teacher, part-time construction worker, gas station attendant, non-profit theater director/producer/actor, retail tobacconist, massage school facilities manager, NPR house manager, public radio Director of Events, Millennium Park House Manager, freelance events consultant. It makes sense, then, that my assumption of continuing on in the events field (specifically in the public media sphere) was probably misguided. I mean, it’s never worked that way before so why would it work that way now?So, if not public media and not specifically events, what the flying fuck was I supposed to do for employment in my new city?

With traveling to a new city, the inevitable task at hand is gainful employment. This episode follows both Don and his wife Dana as they navigate the hustle required to get work in a city with no one who knows them.

Moving a couple thousand miles across the country is trying in the best circumstances. When you do the same but with a roommate with some serious hoarding issues, it gets…complicated.

“Ten percent of stuff moved across states will be damaged or lost,” he said. Ten percent sounds abstract but the loss of my grandfather’s WWII dispatch box with the treasures of personal stage contained within comprised a far higher price.

This week’s episode concludes my epic 32-hour trip from Chicago to Las Vegas. We join me at around 4AM in Oklahoma and, frankly, I’m starting to lose the tightest control of my mind...

After thirty years as a Chicagoan, Don has moved 2,000 miles away to sunny Las Vegas. In this first episode of Season Five, Don has recorded his random thoughts as he drove the full 2,000 in his Prius in a thirty-two hour Cannonball Run.

Wrapping things up, we have both Peggy Martino and Tanya McMorris.