Strung Out

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Sandeep and Marty talk from the backyard about the twists and turns in what is proving to be a contentious and dangerous election for the United States. 

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Just days away from the election.  Marty and Annie talk about Halloween in the bubble.  They take a look at some of the last ditch efforts to throw a spanner in the election process.  Also the latest covid news in the heartland is not looking that good.  This podcast is reflective and also filled with that feeling of foreboding before all hell breaks loose. 

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

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Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
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On this show, Marty and Annie discuss Covid coming to their child's school, the debates, the upcoming election and delve into what it means to be an artist.  They especially look at what it takes to maintain  a proclivity of productivity.  In other words, how to serve the Muse.  A  look at Paul McCartney and John Lennon's songwriting skills is explored as well.  A wonderful episode for those who are struggling during the pandemic to get their inspiration moving.

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

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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

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We welcome Marc Kelly Smith to back to the microphone. We have the chance to hear Marc describe poetry as "A music of words," and he gives advice to young artists about how being an artist revolves around service.  We also get to hear about the origins of the Poetry Slam and hear some of his more famous poems. 

Marc Kelly Smith is creator/founder of the Uptown Poetry Cabaret. As stated in the PBS television series, The United States of Poetry, a “strand of new poetry began at Chicago’s Green Mill Tavern in 1987 when Marc Smith found a home for the Poetry Slam.” Since then, performance poetry has spread throughout the world exported to over 1000 cities large and small.

Chalking up more than a 2000 performances in nightclubs, concert halls, libraries, universities, and on top of the occasional hot dog stand, Smith continues to host and perform every Sunday night at the Green Mill to standing room only crowds. He has staged a multitude of poetry related productions including Chicago’s 1991, 1999, & 2002 National Poetry Slams, Slam Dunk Poetry Day at Chicago’s Field Museum, Summer Solstice Poetry Shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Poetry Hot Dog Cart for Chicago’s 2005 “Stirring Things Up Festival”, Looptopia 2007, and scores of high school and college events.

 He has a collection of poems Crowdpleaser and his CDs It’s About Time, Quarters in the Juke Box, and Love & Politics.  Marc recently released a new collection of his poetry, called Ground Zero, a must have book for anyone who is serious about poetry, but especially the "roll up your sleeves to your big shoulders" poetry that this pioneering artist champions.

We will get to talk to Marc not only about his poetry, but also examine his perspective on the life of a performing artist during these trying times. And, we get to hear some of his most famous poems.  Those who wish to watch Marc on screen can view Marc on the Mr. Marty Show, the October 15, 2020 episode. 

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Published: Oct. 11, 2020 @12PM Edit

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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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We welcome Marc Kelly Smith to the microphone for one of two podcasts here on STRUNG OUT. 

Marc Kelly Smith is creator/founder of the Uptown Poetry Cabaret. As stated in the PBS television series, The United States of Poetry, a “strand of new poetry began at Chicago’s Green Mill Tavern in 1987 when Marc Smith found a home for the Poetry Slam.” Since then, performance poetry has spread throughout the world exported to over 1000 cities large and small.

Chalking up more than a 2000 performances in nightclubs, concert halls, libraries, universities, and on top of the occasional hot dog stand, Smith continues to host and perform every Sunday night at the Green Mill to standing room only crowds. He has staged a multitude of poetry related productions including Chicago’s 1991, 1999, & 2002 National Poetry Slams, Slam Dunk Poetry Day at Chicago’s Field Museum, Summer Solstice Poetry Shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Poetry Hot Dog Cart for Chicago’s 2005 “Stirring Things Up Festival”, Looptopia 2007, and scores of high school and college events.

He currently guides and directs Chicago’s  Speak’Easy Ensemble an innovative performance poetry troupe that specializes in One Poetic Voice performance interpretation, a new style of poetic translation that presents two languages simultaneously in dynamic performance. He collaborated with Mark Eleveld to create Spoken Word Revolution volume one and Spoken Word Redux, two of the most important and best-selling book/CD anthologies of spoken word artists and performance poets. His has a collection of poems Crowdpleaser and his CDs It’s About Time, Quarters in the Juke Box, and Love & Politics.  Marc recently released a new collection of his poetry, called Ground Zero, a must have book for anyone who is serious about poetry, but especially the "roll up your sleeves to your big shoulders" poetry that this pioneering artist champions. 

We will get to talk to Marc not only about his poetry, but also examine his perspective on the life of a performing artist during these trying times. And, we get to hear some of his most famous poems.  Those who wish to watch Marc on screen can view Marc on the Mr. Marty Show, the October 15, 2020 episode. 

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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Not even a week since the debate and we have had a century's worth of news.  So, let's put that aside for this episode and instead, examine the role of a musician in a world that is rapidly changing for live music.  In this episode, Marty looks into the idea of music in its most ancient form served as a political act.  If it wasn't challenging authority, it was in the service of authority.  Only with the rise of democracies does music take on a more nuanced role as being a force that can bring disparate groups of people together.  

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

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Martin McCormack - YouTube

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Whoeee! Welcome to the 13th episode.  If you like contact sports, rodeos, jumping out of airplanes with no chute...well then 'tis a pity if you missed the first (and final?) presidential debate.  As promised, Martin McCormack and Anne de Courtenay give their personal take on the whole WTF of a debate that makes the Lincoln-Douglass debates seem like a Tupperware party.  None of this was not foreseen, and like hurricane Katrina, could be plotted as it plodded its way onto our screens and further damaging our collective resolve to keep Democracy alive.  

Martin wonders aloud on this podcast if those people who vote only on an issue need Trump anymore?  He is sort of the praying mantis male of the Right.  He delivered the nominee to the Supreme Court.  Now, will the McConnell Mantis female finish her duty while dutifully devouring the head of the Trumpian host?  Richard Attenborough?  Where art thou? 

Annie disputes the notion that these single issue voters truly exist and counts them less numerous than Bigfoot families escaping w\ildfires.  We should have seen them by now, she feels and to some degree Martin had to agree, having counted only five people he personally knows that adamantly believe that the leader of the free world must be decided by one topic.  

By now the world wearily had witnessed what happened in America.  It is enough to make Putin choke on his sputum and enough to make a Proud Boy even prouder, we feel. 

So, enjoy the special  tunes on the podcast and revel in the revelation about the debate.  

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

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Want to hear from you about which song should be the title track of an album of music.
Give a listen and then email [email protected] with your pick by next Sunday.
On this episode,  Marty walks us through some of news and how "fairness" is being exploited currently in not only politics, but also music.  

Prior to the pandemic, the music industry was already suffering as live venues had declining numbers of people attending.  Small, rural venues were already being wiped out by a reckless, aggressive means of attempting to license live music at these tiny venues through BMI, ASCAP and SESAC.  The inability of these venues, (that could barely make ends meet), to then come up with a licensing fee meant the elimination of live music or the shuttering of the business.  This meant the end of many opportunities for young people to venture out into the music business and the decimation of already slim pickings when it came to musical venues. Now, the Covid is killing off what already was a diseased animal. 

How does this play into politics? Simply that businesses like the live music business is marginally thin to begin with.  Most musicians cannot afford health care and so the ACA was a godsend, an imperfect godsend to allow many people who could not afford insurance, to have it.  Conservatives rail against the idea of people getting something for "free", but as Marty points out from his experience in the healthcare industry, we are all paying a secret tax for healthcare in the form of Emergency Room visits by those who delay healthcare due to the inability to pay.   This is passed on to all of us in the form of higher insurance premiums.  It is now established that those who are crossing into poverty do so because of medical bills.   

So, this leads to the new nominee for the Supreme Court, who is a good person, a good conservative mind, but will now be taking her place on a court that leans decidedly to the left.  And when one leans too hard left or right, you go around in circles.  All that, more views on the breaking story of Trump's taxes and the upcoming debates.  Plus three big contenders for the title track of the new album.  What's your vote?

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

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Wow. What a tough week.  With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, all bets are off on the SCOTUS.  All is now amplified even more so, as we continue to count the deaths from Covid-19 and the uncertainty that the world is now facing with the upcoming US election. 
Into the this maelstrom of chaos comes the artist. The artist is still the best at looking (as Cervantes said) not as the world is, but how it should be.  We are lucky to have Richard Friedman back with us for another round of talking about the arts, Covid, and how we can continue to stare down those who wish to control the world. 

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
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The first of a two part series interviewing Chicagoan Richard Friedman.  Friedman has been involved in the arts for many decades as a poet, theatre producer and administrator. In the before times he was General Manager at Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana. Based on the Northside of Chicago, he is an anti-fascist trying his best to resist the current tilt towards totalitarianism. He has published two volumes of poetry and formerly ran The Yellow Press, an independent publishing collective and presenter of a writers’ reading series.  Richard embodies the artist who is trying to make the world a better place through his art, his work with the arts and how he ties politics to the arts as well.  In this episode, we delve into some of his history and get to enjoy several of his poems, including an ode to the late John Prine.  

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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