Strung Out

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STRUNG OUT has now had over 3500 downloads and we are starting into the fourth year of having the weekly podcast without missing a beat.  In addition to STRUNG OUT, Martin McCormack maintains his art website and has a weekly blog there as well as the Buy Me A Coffee website.  His channel on YouTube has hundreds of episodes of the Mr. Marty Show as well as original kid video cartoons from his Miss Rack's Zoo album.   He is also working on the next Switchback album and people can join the fan tours he has been organizing for the band by going to the Switchback website as well. 

So, it is understandable that from time to time Martin has to give a bit of a report on everything that is going on with his ALL THINGS MARTY.   Lot's of new art, new intereviews on STRUNG OUT,  new music both for Switchback and Martin are discussed. 

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

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Sandeep and Martin talk about the topics of the day, including how the ministers of Ireland, England and Scotland are either Indian or Pakistani.  An interesting development.  Oh, and we have a theory why Biden would not sleep in the same bed the late Queen slept in, and it's not having anything to do with being Irish.  Tune in. 

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

The work being done on the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral's-stained glass has a great metaphor for our podcast.  The people cleaning the glass mentioned that now was the opportunity for them to remove over 200 years of people's breath residue, smoke from candles and the fire itself.  Our own homes and our very selves have such residue, especially from a long winter.  Not only the physical detritus of the last season, but emotional energy residue as well.  Anne de Courtenay talks to Martin about how to identify, eliminate and restore our own energies and our home, too. 

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

Just as the Abrahamic religions celebrate the significant festivals of Passover, Ramadan and Easter, we get into that age old discussion on whether or not God exists.  What is it about Atheists that irk believers?  And what is it about people of faith that irk Atheists?  On some deeper level perhaps, those groups think the other group has it all wrong.  But still live and let live right?  Some day someone will know.  However, in the meantime, human knowledge expands with science.  Religion itself becomes unwieldy when confronted with science.  Can the two exist?  Let's find out.
Marty and Sandeep discuss Sandeep's Atheism and Marty's Catholicism.  It's probably the worst show they've ever done.  Or perhaps the best. 

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

I never knew that I would learn a valuable lesson at the Potawatomi Park's "Dog Friend Zone" or what people call a dog park.   The dog park was tucked away in a corner near the railroad tracks.  And at my first visit,  I noticed that a lot of the park looked like it had been built by hand, from ramps and benches and even the home-made box for poop bags.  It wasn't anything like a city project that I had seen.  And it turns out that it wasn't.  It was the participation of ordinary, dog-loving people who decided to band together and bring to that part of Rogers Park something that was desperately needed.  They brought their requests to the Rogers Park Participatory Budget to bet some funding.  And when the budget for buying materials and accessories was not available, they took it upon themselves to make it happen.   

The result was that people created a community based around participation and volunteering.  And that community is reinforced by celebrations of holidays with their pets, like Christmas and Halloween.  

Every group needs a good leader and the person who is helping lead is the person called the Grandpa of the Dog Park, or Dan Raven.   Dan takes some time to talk to Martin not only about what it takes to build community from the ground up. but how volunteering is a ministry in itself.  Grandpa of the Dog Park is a lesson in how humility and love for fellow man and dog can do more to create community than any public works project.  The lessons in this podcast are there to glean and use in your neighborhood, too. 

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

Perry Miller is a singer-songwriter journeyman.  Living in Waterloo, Iowa, Miller has had to wear a lot of hats to pursue his passion.  He has hosted a long-running open mic at Jameson's in downtown Waterloo and has been the go-to man for creating and managing festivals and events in the region, most notably the College Hill Arts Festival.  All this while holding down a job and playing music.  Perry met with Switchback some years ago and has been part of their songwriters' weekend sessions in the past.  He recently joined Switchback for an experiential fan tour to Tamarindo, Costa Rica.  The interview was conducted outside, poolside on a warm windy day, so some apologies for the audio. More importantly, a person curious about the music business and any musician in need of a pep-talk should listen to the ebullient and positive attitude that Miller exudes.  We also feature two of Miller's original songs on this podcast As Good As You and Right Next to You.   You can also catch a video of Miller performing from Costa Rica on the Mr. Marty Show for March 30, 2023 at 7:45 CST.  Subscribe to the YouTube channel here.

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

Sandeep and Marty finally get that second round of testing Irish whiskeys in the $30 range.  Slane, Eire Gold are tried out against the choice of the first round, John Powers.  All three are similar in alcohol content, two are blended and one, Eire Gold is a single malt.  There are some surprising results in this tasting for the lads.  Saint Patrick's Day is not over yet on STRUNG OUT. 

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

The song Danny Boy is considered an Irish Song.  Like a lot of Irish songs and the Irish themselves, it is complicated.  The melody being an ancient bardic tune, it was collected by well-meaning publishers of Irish Airs back in the 17th and 18th Century.  
However the words came from Fred Weatherly, a lawyer who lived in Bath, England in the county of Somerset.  Those words were written prior to WWI and they contain what seems to allude to a person going off to war.  Or does it?  The fact that Weatherly's son, Danny, does go off to war and never comes home in WWI seems to give the lyrics a chilling sense of prophecy.  Yet, the lyrics weren't married to the melody until Weatherly's sister-in-law, Margaret sent him the melody in her own hand from the Neosho mining operation near the Ouray, Colorado in the San Juan Mountains.  That the origin of the song itself has such an emotional background to its creation is one thing.  The song resonating with the diaspora of Irish in North America was another.   It is a song that is both revered and reviled.  Mainly because the challenge of the song itself makes a beautiful delivery something than can go off mark in a crowded boisterous pub.    We hear on this podcast, courtesy of the Library of Congress, the original first recorded version of the song, sung by Ernestine Schuman-Heink in 1915.  The second version was recorded by Jim Sundberg of Martin McCormack singing Danny Boy at the Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall almost a century later.   

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

Our series continues with an interview with Arik Mendelevitz.  Arik represents the face of independent entertainment:  He wears not only a performer's hat, but an agent's hat as well.  To succeed in a world still recovering from the pandemic, it takes a lot more effort to create success and usually that means by handling everything that comes with performing.  Mendelevitz has created Raphael Entertainment,  which specifically focuses on performance art. Having studied circus entertainment, Arik began booking his own gigs prior to the pandemic. He found that in order to pay bills, it took some experimenting with the world of agent as well.  Drawing on colleagues who loved to perform, but were not adept at booking, Mendelevitz now has a business that is known for quality performances by reliable artists.  Not bad for a fire-breathing juggler!  

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...

Send us Fan Mail

We are now a year into the fight for the main territory of Ukraine by the forces of Vladimir Putin.  Putin, a dictator, ruined what little democracy was trying to take root in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.  His decision to invade Ukraine's Crimea in 2014 was met with what appeared to be a tepid response by the West.   At the time, the West, especially Europe had attempted to appease Putin by economically tethering itself to Russia's gas supplies.  Much like the United States economically tethered itself to Communist China in the hopes that capitalism would eventually foster a fundamental change in the political landscape that exists there.   That experiment failed on February 24, 2022. 

A new change has taken place in its stead.  It is the realization that totalitarianism, that is present not only in Russia and China, but has reared its head here in the United States, Brazil, Italy and India to name a few democracies is a disease that has to be stamped out.   The war in Ukraine was the bold roll of the dice by Putin, who dragged China into the fray as well as some well-worn foes of democracy, such as Iran. 

On Fox Business News, Robert J. O'Neil, a member of the SEAL team that killed Osama Bin Laden (O'Neil claims to be the one who killed Bin Laden) was interviewed about the anniversary of the war in Ukraine.  He asked the question of every general and military pundit alike:  WHAT IS WINNING?   In other words, will the West, esepcially the US have a clear goal of what should happen not only with securing Ukraine's freedom, but establishing Democracy in the vacuum that will occur if Putin's regime is removed? 

Several links are well worth viewing in order to appreciate the thinking behind this podcast:

1) Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden challenges military chiefs on victory in Ukraine: ‘What is winning?’ (msn.com)
2)(1) “Russians fell victim to their own propaganda” | @StarskyUA - YouTube
3)Update from Ukraine | Ruzzian Forces were cut from Bakhmut on the north - YouTube

Support the show

We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT.    Here are some important links:

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK

MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM 
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)

MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify

MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube

FACEBOOK
Facebook...