Well everybody, we didn’t have time to interview an official guest because Josh is heading to Spain with Virginia to hang with her badass family. But we did get some excellent Mellencamp stories from our friend, Angie Cannon, who is a real-deal townie. Other than that, unfortunately for you, what you are getting here is the kind of episode that gives podcasts a bad name: a couple of dipshits talking about nothing and having the audacity to invite you to put your earbuds in and enter their void of absurdity. That said, we twa hae run about the braes, and pou'd the gowans fine; But we've wander'd mony a weary fit, sin' auld lang syne. So, we've tales to tell ye, auld and new.

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

Maria Douglas is one of those people who really holds down the fort for Bloomington. She is badass social worker-community servant-activist, currently serving the Monroe County Women’s Commission, NAACP Youth Council, and Hoosier Asian American Power, which she helped found. During all of this, she has been on an intense journey, making sense of her experience as a transracial Korean adoptee. Last but not least, if you were around in the 90s in Bloomington, you may have wandered around town drunk with her, probably smoking too many cigarettes.

Episode links:

• South Korea Adoption Reckoning
• Hoosier Asian American Power
• Maria contact info: [email protected] 

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

We highly recommend that you go back and listen to our episode “Hello, Hello, Hello Jon Wurster” if you have not already. Jon Wurster is the drummer for The Mountain Goats and Bob Mould. He was the drummer for Superchunk for over three decades. He is also a comedy writer and performer, known best for his hilarious characters in The Best Show, including Ronald Thomas Clontle, the fictitious author of the book, Rock, Rot & Rule. Clontle claims that his book is the ultimate argument settler when it comes to deciding whether famous bands and musicians rock, rot, or rule. This interview brings to a close a story that has been over thirty years in the making.

Episode links:

• Best Show
• Rock, Rot & Rule
• A Really Strange and Wonderful Time
• Superchunk
• Mountain Goats
• Bob Mould

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

We spent September putting our lives on the line, hunting for ghosts. We made Instagram posts. We texted people. We stopped people in hallways at work. We even slid into DMs. We almost went to a haunted train tunnel. We did this all for you. And now, safe and sound from the netherworld, we’re delivering four ghost stories right into your earholes. Enjoy tales from Kate Crum, Aaron Brewington, Leigh Henderson and Blaine Rothrock,and the one and only Misha Bridavsky.

Episode links:

• Kate's digital book and her recommended student project
• Scary movie that permanently damaged a young Josh: Black Sabbath (1963)
• Sammy Terry!
• Check out Silver Lingings Rescue “We envision a world where all senior dogs and cats live in healthy, loving, and supportive environments.”

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

Do you have a ghost story? Do you have a haunted bicyle? Is there a lil witch in your closet? Want to share your spooky story on the podcast? Just record it on your most cherished recording device and email the file to us at [email protected] mmmmkay?

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Transcripts

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

Dian Krumlauf is our eldest interviewee to date, but don’t get all ageist on us, ya bitches. By the time you finish listening to this one, you’re gonna wish you were as badass as this Bloomington hippie who we got to sit down with at a nursing home two days before she moved to Fort Wayne to be closer to her family. Not only did she share her circuitous life adventure but she also dropped some serious wisdom on us. Enjoy.

Thanks to Andrew Behringer for sharing his Mellencamp Moment!

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Transcripts

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

On Josh’s 50th birthday, BadkneesTs’ Jim Beck hosted a grand reopening for his new location on West Kirkwood across from Rose Hill Cemetery, forever home of Hoagy Carmichael and so many other seminal Bloomington humans. (In fact, just the other day, Chris’s son pointed out how many Hinkle headstones there are. If you eat burgers and haven’t had a Hinkle’s hamburger, go visit Badknees then head west a few blocks for lunch at Hinkle’s.) Anyway, Josh and Chris set up a mobile recording tent at the event because If You Pitch It, They Will Talk. And they did. We chatted with Andrew Kupersmith, Max Chestnut from Columbus, Benedict Jones, Eli McCormick, Camryn Greer and Mallory Elver, and Bloomington cornerstone, Tim Clower. The filling in this donut is a recording of Beck’s moving and historic speech commemorating the unveiling of the Bloomington monolith.

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Transcripts

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

Joel Washington is one of those superheroes of Bloomington who walks among us like he’s no big deal. His artistry is his superpower. In fact, for his decades of making colorful–sometimes almost psychedelic–pop art, he received the City of Bloomington Living Legend Award in 2021. We also found out that he’s not too shabby on a skateboard either, and he's been doing it long before the the City decided that skating was rad. Joel’s skater pal, Jonathan Prather, came along too. Jonathan is the owner of Rhett Skateboarding and an all-around awesome dude.

Episode links:

Presenting to Quincy Jones

Skater Dater

Skateboard (trailer)

Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Transcripts

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

Our guest, Asher Waite-Jones, greeted us in pajamas and immediately began making Josh feel slightly nervous–before we could even start recording. While we can never predict how successful an interview will be, this was certainly an auspicious beginning.

You might expect a certain degree of decorum from a Staff Attorney in the Bloomington Office of Indiana Legal Services who, according to a Maurer School of Law blog, “runs the Expungement Help Desk, working alongside Maurer students to represent hundreds of low-income Hoosiers impacted by the criminal legal system.” But, as you know, we happen to specialize in bringing out the worst in people—even local saints like Asher. And he brought his A game: gossip about the ex, all kinds of sex jokes, and a real doozy of an imitation of one of our hosts.

Thank you to our newest sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and Bloomington Rentals and Realty for their support of the pod.

And thanks as usual to badknees

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Transcripts

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.

Today’s story is about a band, a song, and a brush with fame that’s more cringe than cool. Thirty years ago, Bloomington danced to the electronic beats of Situation Grey, a college band known more for their covers than cutting-edge originality. Their lead singer—one of our hosts—dreamed of being an indie music maestro, but instead became the king of campus karaoke.

Then, one fateful night in the early '90s, some indie rock royalty walked in. What followed was not the stuff of dreams, but the kind of anecdote you reluctantly share at parties. We're talking about the kind of story that gets trotted out at every party, the one guaranteed to elicit a polite chuckle and a sympathetic head tilt.

Fast-forward three decades, and that same celebrity brings the story full circle with a digital-age jab that reignites a moment our singer wishes he could forget.

In this episode, we peel back the layers of a memory marinated in both mortification and time, exploring the unexpected ways our past populates our present. Stay tuned, as we dissect the enduring echo of fifteen  minutes of shame that lasted thirty years.

WE HAVE MERCH! Designed by Chris Mott and sponsored by badknees. Check it out!

Transcripts

Support: 

Support Bloomington Stories

Contact & Follow:

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Threads

[email protected] 

Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.