Author: Matthew Ussia

Episode 75: She Will Never be Quelled

Barbara Barrow is a professor and novelist. In this episode we discuss her wonderful new novel The Quelling at length, and her academic monograph Science, Language, and Reform in Victorian Poetry briefly. Along the way, we extend this podcast’s already extended conversation about human dignity, we also touch upon the potential monstrosity of medicine, the meaning of classroom spaces, and Barbara’s sentimentality for Legionnaire’s Disease.

Folks who dare to listen to this podcast will want to buy The Quelling from Lanternfish Press. Sure you can buy it from the online monopoly that ruins everything, but buy it from the Lanternfish Press website, or if you are in Pittsburgh, you can find it at independent bookstores like White Whale and City Books, or you can do what I did and have the nice folks at the Mystery Lover’s Bookshop in Oakmont order you a copy.

For those folks looking for a deep dive, check out Barbara Barrow’s book Science, Language, and Reform in Victorian Poetry from Routledge, and be sure to stay up with her Facebook Page and her website barbarabarrow.com.

I swear because I always do.

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Episode 74: Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

For the last 45 years, Hemingway’s has been the host of a summer poetry series. Founded by the late Jimmy Cvetic, the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series has been a place where academics have met street poets and shared their voices, and the series has become a foundation of the Pittsburgh literary community.

Joan E. Bauer and Kristofer Collins stop by to discuss the legacy of Jimmy Cvetic, what it takes to keep a series running for 45 years, we make a damn good case for why poetry is for everyone, and they even offer sage advice to those of you who really should start your own damn reading series (seriously, you really should). Step 1 is you should sign up for Joan E. Bauer’s email blast by sending an email to JBauer103w [AT] aol.com.

The Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series can be found at Hemingway’s at 3911 Forbes Avenue , in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The series runs every year from the first Tuesday in May to the last Tuesday in July. You can find out more from the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series Facebook, and a photo and audio archive from the last 8 years can be found on the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series Blogspot Page.

I don’t remember if we swear or not, but I think I did.

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Episode 73: Music and/or Lyrics

For this episode, old friend and repeat guest John Charney and I muse in a graveyard about how words and music do and do not get along as means of artistic expression. This is the continuation of a conversation we’ve had for about 20 years now, and I’m not convinced this podcast is the final statement.

John is an incredibly talented musician. He had never even heard of an Omnichord before I put one in his hand, and by the time I had set up my netbook and microphone, he taught himself how to play it, composing a new intro and outro for this episode, as well as playing throughout our conversation (all while perched precariously on the hood of a Toyota Camry). You should check out his new album A Drop of Love in an Ocean of Hate on YouTube and buy A Drop of Love in an Ocean of Hate on CDBaby. He also has a fine solo acoustic album called Far Away from Today available on Bandcamp.

As always we swear, and maybe background music will become the new normal.

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Episode 72: Taylor Grieshober’s Off Days

In this episode, Taylor Grieshober stops by to discuss her wonderful new collection of short stories entitled Off Days on Low Ghost Press. Also, I mispronounce her name 4 of the 5 times I say it, you’re going to have to Google “interregnum” if you don’t already know what it means, and like all good Pittsburghers in 2019, we discuss gentrification.

If you are in Pittsburgh, you should buy Off Days at White Whale Books, City Books, City of Asylum, or Caliban Books. You non-local folks should buy Off Days straight from the publisher or buy Off Days from the big gigantic online monopoly of everything.

And as always, we worked for our explicit tag.

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Episode 71: The Dreamers Anthology

In this first new episode in a while, Janette Schafer, Cedric Rudolph, and I discuss a new collection of creative writing entitled The Dreamers Anthology that celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Anne Frank. During our conversation we discuss the process for editing creative works and we read some of our favorite pieces from the anthology. Finally, we explore the distance between hope and despair, and I swear twice to earn the iTunes explicit tag. Buy the anthology on Amazon, come to our celebration of Anne Frank’s 90th birthday at the Carnegie Library in Carnegie, PA.

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Episode 70: It’s Weird to be Alive

John Villegas is alive and addicted to creating and discovering.  I know him best as the proprietor of Cruel Noise Records, but he also is in 4 bands: Drug Lust, Peace Talks, De Rodillas, and Detainees.  The Cruel Noise podcast teaches people all over the world about punk. He also writes some great cassette reviews on Instagram.

During the course of our conversation we pause several times because we are drinking beer.  This is also our longest podcast, so there’s no way I can explain everything we talk about.  You’re just going to have to dive in.

We didn’t have to try hard to earn our explicit tag.

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Episode 69: Party Line

In an attempt to forge new frontiers of podcastdom We’re All Gonna Die tries our hand at podcasting over the phone, and I’m sorry about the constant hum.  I ran noise reduction and the compression software multiple times, and well…it’s at least an amusing conversation between myself, Stephanie Brea, Jason Baldinger, and all the way from a U-Haul parking lot in Kansas City James Benger.

During our talk we discuss the holiday season, why labor and poetry go together, James and Jason’s great new book Little Fires Hiding, the 5th Annual Bah Humbug:Writers Wrestle with the Holiday Spirit reading, and James has to get out of his car and explain why he’s talking on the phone in a U-Haul parking lot

At this point, I try to earn the explicit tag on every single podcast.

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Episode 68: Rhinestone Busboys are My Only Friend

Old friend Brook Pridemore and new friend Jake McKelvie stop by to discuss their life as artists in gentrifying Brooklyn.  While I go all academic Marxist on them, they offer pragmatic advice on how to find platforms for art at this moment in history.  We discuss venues, physical media vs. downloads, and of course, Freddie got Fingered.

Pre-orders for Brook’s new album Metal is My Only Friend are available on Brook Pridemore’s Bandcamp page.  And while Jake keeps saying that his EP Rhinestone Busboy is old, I think it still sounds pretty fresh.  You can also find out more about Jake McKelvie and the Countertops at their website.

As always, the explicit tag is earned.

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Episode 67: Far Away from Today

For this episode John Charney of The Saturn Plan hangs out in a gazebo on a beautiful summer evening to discuss his new solo acoustic album on Until the Quasar Cassettes.  During the course of our conversation we grapple with the problem of how do we assign worth to memory and we listen to a song that is no longer called “Ice Cream Party.”

John’s playing is intricate and melodic as evidenced by this cover of Laura’s Song, familiar to all fans of Twin Peaks.  Come to think of it, you should really go to the album release party at The Windber Hotel on August 24, 2018.  You can score a tape (very soon) at the Until the Quasar Cassettes Bandcamp if you don’t want to buy one directly off of John.  Digital cretins can find Far away from Today on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

We always earn our explicit tag.

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Episode 66: Shannon Norman is the King of the Worst

For this episode the excellent comedian Shannon Norman stops by to promote his new comedy album Human Raccoon.  In the process we discuss racist Beatles songs, the exact moment Dennis Miller lost it, and a surprisingly serious conversation about the general absurdity of the human condition.  Also, Shannon coughs a lot because he’s “just getting over a thing” and how if I cared about you the listener I could easily edit them out.

Go to shambonez.com for all things Shannon Norman.  Buy his CD at one of his shows, especially the release party at Brillobox on August 24, 2018, but if you can’t make it, Human Raccoon will be available via CDBaby, iTunes, and Spotify among others.

As always, I try to earn the explicit tag.

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