Otis Brown's Podcast

In this week's Otis Brown Podcast, I explore the new Questlove film Summer of Soul, which makes visible, for the first time to a large audience, the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. Dubbed the "Black Woodstock," the HCF was truly its own unique thing and its invisibility in the American cultural landscape has been a tragedy. The podcast is intended as a primer for the film and doesn't really contain any spoilers and, I hope, it also offers some useful insights to those who have already seen it.

Enjoy.  

The Louis Armstrong of your time might be living in your town right now, and if you don't find him, you will still come out more than conqueror (just to be clear, a reference to Zora Neale Hurston and the great song of the same name by Estelle!) . In this week's episode of Otis Brown Podcast, I think about Ralph Ellison's assertion that there was a Charlie Parker in every town. I also encourage my listeners to embrace local music and discuss a painting by the NOLA artist Todd Lyons.   

An ad for Popeye's classic chicken sandwich? A rant about the Toyota Prius? No! It's this week's Otis Brown Podcast, wherein I think about my life behind the wheel of a pickup and the contemporary "list" country songs about trucks. 

Keywords:
Blake Shelton "Boys Round Here"
Tim  McGraw "Truck Yeah"
Jerry Jeff Walker/Ray Wylie Hubbard "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother"
Steve Goodman/John Prine/ David Allen Coe "You Never Even Called Me By My Name"
Jefferson Airplane "We Can Be Together"
Amiri Baraka "Black People" 
Patty Hearst 
Popeye's Classic Chicken Sandwich 

This week's Otis Brown Podcast borrows a title from the great fly fishing essayist John Gierach's 1999 book of the same name. Gierach's humorous and insightful writing casts a long shadow over the podcast and his 1986 book Trout Bum provided a practical handbook for much of my early life. The text I engage most this week, though, is Richard Brautigan's wild and scenic Trout Fishing in America. I hope I do justice to my passion for catch-and-release fly fishing by translating it into something edifying or at least enjoyable for you.

As always, thank you so much for supporting the podcast! 

James Joyce's great novel Ulysses is set on today's date 1904; the date is observed around the world in what are called Bloomsday celebrations. In this week's Otis Brown Podcast, I reflect on my experiences with Bloomsday and wonder out loud why so many people celebrate a novel that so few read. 

In this week's Otis Brown Podcast, I think about why I get hung up on assessing my hobbies in terms of economics or A though F grading. I reflect on the toxicity of allowing academic or professional standards to rob us of the simple joy of doing something for its own sake. I also discuss the circus, Bob Ross and paint-by-numbers paintings.

I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for sticking around for Season II of the Otis Brown Podcast.