Category: The Not-a-Podcast Show

A Hot Flow with Madison

Madison is a new yoga instructor based in Orlando, Florida. Her practice has become a core aspect of her life and she will very likely make it a larger aspect of her livelihood. We met through an online community.

Over the last seven months, we’ve developed a long distance friendship, and she is truly an honest person, logical and compassionate at once. She prefers not to discuss topics or expose more details about her personal life than what I’ve given, at this point. Maybe another time.

I ain’t gonna lie. This was a tough session. I turned off my AC because on a summer evening it converts into a hot yoga room in no time, but actually because I was afraid of the noise in the background.

I was correct. And I needed to mix my mic down, but not turn it off. To hear the breath of the student is a good thing, if they are breathing well. I am pretty good. The big problem I had was mic quality. It was atrocious.

I apologize for the audio on this video.

However, if you can get used to it and follow Madison’s lead, then we have provided a valuable document. You can come back to this and master the lesson. I haven’t yet, but I plan on it. Of course, I learned from it, and she offered pointers after the session.

Again, it is a tough session. I am an intermediate yogi and I fell apart on the last pose. Part of that is trying to do this with bad perspective to the computer and her camera I guess was mirrored, but really, she brings a complex series of poses together with a lot of double work.

She said that I wanted a power workout but I never actually said that. This is my blog and I’m going to say my side. I told her what I have learned and stressed that she do what she does, no more. When she rehearsed this flow, she told me it went fast and easy. So that’s a lesson as a teacher.

I love to learn and I am willing to air my mistakes. This blog is all about that.

I hope you enjoy it.

August 5, 2022
Holding it Down with Chris Neff

Live Interview Recorded June 11, 2022

It is always fun to get on a live interview with someone whose podcast I listen to, such as Cash Daddies, where I like to pick up both humor and financial information. That program is co-hosted with comedian Chris Neff.

He was the third host to come on the show. Like Lebowski’s rug, he ties the whole thing together. The other hosts are former Goldman Sachs trader and Manhattan-based comedian Howie Dewie, and Sam Tripoli, whose conspiracy podcast Tin Foil Hat remains one of my favorites.

Chris has been performing in Los Angeles for many years, sharing the stage with the best of them. Early in his life, surely he was chasing the illuminati dream, and landed himself a lucrative career in commercial acting.

With the internet era, the sort of checks put out for a relative select number of actors for television royalties eventually waned. The career dried out. And in the process of all that, he started operating a small business pretty much out of his home, which remains successful today.

As a stock trader comedian business owner, his perspective is unique and fits snug in the comedic styles of Dewie and Tripoli.

It was great chatting with him for the hour in this interview. We talk about life in Los Angeles, the markets, creative careers, and of course the biographical stuff mentioned above.

July 22, 2022
Career and Karma with Emily

Emily is a Los Angeles based yoga instructor and much more. She runs a fashion startup for athletic/dance/yoga gear. She has developed a complete internet persona that promotes her virtual teaching and coaching as well.

Despite all of these things typically associated with liberal communities, she is more conservative. She is like myself however, kind of post-liberal and definitely post-post Republican.

Libertarians are not MAGA. Sometimes they intersect, but there is a major distinction, and from my experience, they have much more alignment with the traditional liberal.

In this discussion we talk about finding our careers, loving all people and respecting a diversity of views, growing up in California, and living in communities where our views could be taken the wrong way.

Her following on Twitter @astateofEmily became a phenomenon because she was courageous enough to speak defiantly about what many of us have considered a scam these last two plus years. Like myself, we are growing there within the conservative side of things, but she being independent in thought has to take shit from all sides.

As it is becoming more typical of my approach, I tried to dig into her biography and get to know her.

Our talk is what I would call sweet. It was like getting lunch with someone new in your life. I suppose that I set that intention with the original title of the livestream.

I thank Emily for joining me on the Not-a-Podcast Show and I hope we can to work together again soon.

The easiest way to discover all of her projects is via Link Tree.

June 18, 2022
Ego and the Artist with Christian Ricketts

Talking with comedian and mystic of the world, Christian Ricketts.

Blaze Trailing with Christian Ricketts

In Portland around 2011, I looked up to Christian Ricketts. He was beloved by comedians and did well with random audiences. He knew how to run a straight comedy set to satisfy an industry room. He also knew how to surprise his own scene, his fellow comics, and give them something they wouldn’t forget.

Like many talented and sensitive artists, he hasn’t taken well to that level of admiration. He needs to run off and discover himself outside the identity of comedian. He wants to be sure his ego cannot take control over his life, especially in the unfortunate event of critical acclaim and financial success as an entertainer.

We have lived parallel lives, I suppose. Only he voluntarily curbed his ego, I’ve always had to let the universe kick the shit out of me.

Nonetheless, we might be coming back to our senses and finding success in our own ways from here out. The ego work has been huge.

That is what makes this a compelling conversation between myself and Christian Ricketts. Sometimes the trailblazer finds themselves behind the very blaze they lit.

Enjoy our talk.

June 15, 2022
The Baton Has Passed with Twin Balance

We are standing at the foot of the bridge preparing to cross, pontificating on the possibilities of the other side. Mesmerized it may appear, but this is just theater. Promotion is an illusion.

What is happening is the universe exerting its will through its honorable vessels, that is us. Twin gets into right away, discovering we both have arrived at the place of letting go and letting God, as it were.

Twin is ready to let go of his business, Held Gear, and rather than take an offer from an investor, he decided to hand it off to a friend, which turns out to be me. I am humbled that he would observe consistency in my behavior and bestow the honor of trusting his integrity with mine, in essence.

All he wants to do is vibe on his land, make it an expression of sustainability, transmitting good vibes through the only FM signal in Why, Arizona, at 106.9. It is not a commercial operation, it is anarchy.

I am a former radio engineer. I could build a radio station on his property from scratch, given the time and budget, all with my hands and standard power tools. This is only one way that my life path intersects in a way that I can benefit him by leveraging Held Gear.

We discuss the brand, its ethics, its concept and his life story in the first hour. In the second hour of this talk, it is more like another casual livestream. We get into old Portland and anarchistic cooperative artist lifestyles we lived. It’s a good talk.

And the internet held.

Exciting as this project is, it is always a grind, but it can be joyous. Much more will be written and published here, but the real place to follow Held Gear is heldgear.com.

April 28, 2022