Digital Flotsam Blog

This couple, married 62 years, are in a lobby atrium waiting on an appointment, and they spot a piano.  Try not to tear up with pure joy.

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Memories of a lost place and time, and the confession of a dubious honor I share with my late father.

This is a re-issue of a show I did in 2007. My original intention was to also release a video version, but I only got about a third of it done when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to come up with enough footage to complete it. So I abandoned it. However, I think that 1st third came out pretty good so I have decided that for this reissue I would make the unfinished video available for the first time.

Video Flotsam: Greetings From Coney Island from P.W. Fenton on Vimeo.

Only one bit of music to credit and link to. I was doing all kinds of searches trying to find songs about Coney Island. There were slim pickin’s… nothing I liked. Just for the heck of it I searched on “cyclone” thinking maybe I could find something that might fit. Much to my amazement I found a song called “On The Cyclone”… and it was only 23 seconds long. It was perfect… it had to be about THE Cyclone… and it was short (because this will also become a video I didn’t want to play any whole songs). When I played it for the first time I was dumbfounded. The lyrics reflected the exact experience I had just related when I recorded this show. I still don’t believe it. I want to meet this guy. His name is Casey Holford and it’s from his album “All Young And Beautiful”

The rest of the music is of course the theme provided by 3 Blind Mice, and a bunch of mechanical merry-go-round music I collected in the past. I have no idea who to credit.

As promised, here is a picture of a guy doing the "stand up" in the front car of the Cyclone.

Here is a birds eye view of some of the sights mentioned in the story. On the right is the "Parachute Jump". The large building on the lower left is "George C. Tilyou's Steeplechase Park". The roller coaster visible on the left is the "Thunderbolt".

Me and my dad at Busch Gardens. He was in his 70s and I was in my 50s. That was our last roller coaster ride together.

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Use player above or click HERE to download the show.

I’ve never told anyone this story…. until now.  You’ll understand why.

Loads of good music in this one.  Some of it fit astoundingly well despite that it all pre-dates the show.

You heard…
My Theme Music by 3 Blind Mice
A tiny bit by The Beau Hunks
On The Nod by Jimmy Griswold
“What? Not Another Greasy Spoon” by the late Hank Marr
“Professional Slacker” by Jimmy Griswold
“When A Man Gets In Trouble” by “Philadelphia” Jerry Ricks
and…
“The Lies We Tell” by Munk

This show was released on the date of my very first Digital Flotsam… FIVE years ago.  What a long strange trip it has been.

David Plouffe and the organization called “Organizing for America“, a project of the Democratic National Committee… just asked me to participate in a “survey” which was actually just a fund raising effort disguised as a survey.  Fortunately they left a space where I could offer up my own words.  This is what I told them…

I feel used.  I expected change.  Nothing’s changed.  The Democrats have the majority in both branches of Congress and they’ve done nothing but bow to corporate interests.  Banks, that used to pay me for the use of my money… now pay nothing and CHARGE me to withdraw my own money.

Forcing people, by law, to buy health care insurance from private companies that are only motivated by profit is NOT health care reform. It’s government sanctioned extortion.

Obviously, neither party is interested in the welfare of the people.  They are interested in the welfare of the wealthy corporations that actually own the parties.  Obama offered us the illusion of reform… the illusion of representation… the illusion of hope.

My unemployment compensation expired last month…  and you have the nerve to ask me for more money?

I don’t see ANY branch of the federal government that puts the welfare of the human beings that live and work in this country ahead of corporate profits.  Not one.  My government passes laws that won’t go into effect for several years?  Why on Earth would they do that?  To help the American people?  Or to help the businesses they are pretending to regulate?  “Pretend regulations” that will be repealed by a future Congress before they ever go into effect.

I thought I voted for change.  But my vote didn’t count.  The government I elected gave corporations, that HAVE NO VOTE, all of my money, and all of my grandchildren’s money, to save the banks that no longer pay interest on deposits, and are no longer required to pay any interest on the money they get from the U.S. government.  Banks that have reaped record profits this year.

Change I can believe in?  Smoke and mirrors.  I used to get angry with people who summed up all government as “just a bunch of crooks”.  That was before I got a year’s worth of change I could believe in.

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I revisit the story of my very different Thanksgivings.

“Ham For The Holidays” by Lynn Julian aka Cookie Cutter Girl
“The Tarantella”… Traditional
“Three Tables” by The Core

Brought to you without commercial interruption  :-)

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I believe it was Thomas Wolfe who said “You can never go home again”.  Essentially, this edition of Digital Flotsam is about the process of me discovering that for myself recently.

This is a very special Digital Flotsam in that there is music heard in this episode that was created expressly for this show.  I contacted several musical artists and gave them a few sentences describing what the episode was going to be about (I hadn’t started work on it myself), and 4 people… one duo, and two solo artists… agreed to take on the challenge of writing, performing, and recording something for the yet to be created show.  I think the results of their efforts are outstanding.  The three songs created for the show, in the order they appear, are:

“Finally Forever” – by Smitten Bayou (Dawn Micelli & Paul Blann) – Lyrics

“One By One” – by Munk – Lyrics

“Count To Ten” – by Mike Errico – Lyrics

There is also instrumental music, not created for the show, but from some of my favorite instrumentalists…

Troy Donockley

Rob Costlow

Shaun Hopper

Beau Hunks

…and of course my theme music created by 3 Blind Mice

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After a long and mysterious absence Perfect Head, my eclectic music podcast, has returned.  I stuck this “return” show in the Digital Flotsam feed so that any listeners who may have figured it was gone, and unsubscribed, would realize it again lives.  It shall appear much more regularly now.  If you want to subscribe, or re-subscribe, go to http://perfecthead.com

Right click to download, click arrow below to play…

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This is a very special Digital Flotsam for two reasons. First, it will feature a guest story teller, something that has only happened a few times in the history of this show, and second it will be the first Digital Flotsam in a long time not associated with Mevio, formerly known as Podshow. I used to work for them, and my show, Digital Flotsam, used to be under contract with them. But that is all over now. I’d really like Digital Flotsam to be a success some day, so it was clearly time to move on.

This episode got it’s name from a very moving scene in the movie Blade Runner in which one of the main characters, facing his own mortality, ponders the fleeting nature of existence, and speculates that all traces of his life will soon be lost forever… like tears in rain.

This story reminded me of that scene because it has to do with a man whose life’s record had been similarly diluted by the much more notable circumstances that surrounded his death.

After I made the association with Blade Runner I couldn’t resist sticking with it. So just about all of the music is from the excellent Blade Runner Soundtrack. As always I include the wonderful theme music provided for me by one of my favorite bands… 3 Blind Mice. And the story ends with a reprise of one of my own songs… Above The Clouds.

If you haven’t listened to the show yet, please do so before you examine any of the material that follows.

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