The Todd Donald Show

In the fellowship of those who’d fall into the “arty kid” category, I’d like to present L.A.-based Chris Baldwin, a Visual Development Artist at Dreamworks TV and one heck of an indie musician. We met online as is with most of my West coast friends (I mean acquaintances, but I do heart all of’m) and in a post-Channel 101 event thing.. I could tell already that we’d have a rad convo about making shit. I give full credit to Chris, on the rad-ness.

In the immortal words of Blackstreet, “East side to the West side”, Patricia Tscharskyj (a trained & experienced photographer and assistant camera for tv/film) moved from New York to the south and ultimately to Los Angeles and fairly recently. MOST recently, Patricia’s found herself making dope shit for Frequency 101, with the show “Stripper Squad”. We met, as I have most of my fellow Freq’shows, over Zoom conferences and she was kind enough to grace TDS with her talented self. What more can I say? It was a delightful chat! Listening to it, that’s where YOU come in!

California’s Jim Garrett is a fellow 101’er whose relatively new work I was already digging upon whatever you could call my entry point.. I take it that we recognized each other immediately as creatives and Channel 101 fans and now we’re talking about EACH OTHER’s work in present tense, which is a nice trip. He’s a great fella, whose Channel shows “Quarantine” and “Being Jason Whetzell” are knock-out punch classics and who’s audio-only Frequency shows are top notch as well. This is really a big discussion about making stuff, pop culture, and the 101-iverse. It was a lot of fun.

Treephones is an artist’s artist and the “musical moniker” as it’s been written, of Stephen Trothen; though better described in our conversation. He’s putting out a beautiful concept album this Friday (May 7th) that you can listen to in any dimension and it will make you fall in love with music again.. PINK OBJECTS. If you’ve become jaded with music, I offer this to you as an example of someone at least STRIVING for genius, even if unintentionally. Now that I’ve let my emotionality set the bar super high, let me conclude this album description by adding that it’s something you can put on and enjoy and it will only ask of you what you give it, it will only give you what you ask of it and it’s really nice. You’ll hear us talking in this and it’ll feature some songs from the album. If you’d like to know more, simply click the ‘Play’ button for this podcast episode.. seriously. Ontarian Stephen Trothen, is also a good friend whom I haven’t been in touch with until a few months ago, but have always kept a fondness for. We met as solo singer/songwriters in the late ‘00s during the death rattle of Myspace.. and I’m pretty sure I saw The Hangover with him. He’s as sweet a friend as his music is ear candy.

LA native Diana Wright is a writer among other things, a fantastic one to boot, who's work you can hear/read in such popular mobile games as Star Trek: Fleet Command and The Simpsons: Tapped Out aka made-for-mobile iterations of my childhood.. wonderful! With a background in improv and sketch comedy, my guest's more recent contribution to Frequency 101 (the audio only version of Channel 101) was a kick-ass show she co-created with Annie Girard, called CAVEMAN COVE.

I'm honoured once again to chat with Actor, Writer, Director and so much more..Amy Walker. This time around (continuing from our chat on episode 91. re: short film 'Into Light') we took a deeper dive into the film-making process as well as the heart and mind of Soulfire Creations. I'm very glad I had the chance to explore with Amy: Where does her drive and passion come from? How does she approach doing such a wide variety of projects, roles, tasks? How many accents/dialects is she willing to grace my podcast with, right now?. This all gets answered, and then some, here on TDS. While you're listening and enjoying, please check out Amy's portfolio on the links/sites below; like, follow and share. Please consider supporting all of the artists showcased on this episode, which includes tracks by Amy, Nipun Nair, Dana Debolt & Stephen Trothen.

Minnesota-raised/L.A. based, singer/songwriter Sonja Midtune is a fantastic artist (Folk, Indie, Americana) who at the time of this podcast drop, is on the EVE of releasing her new EP “Dreams Melt Away” and having an interesting time releasing new music during Covid, as many can relate to. “Dreams Melt Away” will be available on all streaming platforms this Friday (April 2nd), you can get a unique physical music experience by ordering the CD and/or 4 candles, each a scented reflection of a song on the EP, all by visiting sonjamidtune.com or following @sonjamidtune on IG. Enjoy hearing us chat about the EP, growing up, teaching a new generation of singer/songwriters and touching on her experience with brother’s documentary ‘The Way North’!

Part 1 with Abed (March 4th) if you haven’t heard it, was recorded on Feb 20th and I think it was a super fun chat to have about the pop-culture that astounded established our love of creating things, as well as the first instances of performing or recording those ideas. Going into the panel for Frequency 101 we agreed to re-convene on Feb 28th - where like a better podcaster, put a focus on Abed. We did a deep dive into his creative journey both in and out of career, and did a little reflection on the hows and whys of it all. You could say we pick up with the short “Friends & Lovers” and take you all the way to Frequency 101’s “Enter the Dark”.

Kitchener/Waterloo’s Clarissa Diokno is a class act who’s payed many dues on the cover band stage, the kareoke stage (as both host and singer), has pursued acting and all matters of performing; I couldn’t be happier to chat with her after releasing her fantastic first original song. It just so happens that her debut single “Confusion” is a JAM, and naturally we discuss this. There’s a bit of a narrative starting in the dog days of Chainsaw nights in Uptown Waterloo, through the cover circuit, working in Los Angeles, and then back to KW, where in quarantine, this seasoned, silk-voiced and very down to earth ARTIST is still set on taking over the world.

Creator, writer, actor, phone-sexxer.. Abed Gheith (Los Angeles) is a lifelong story-teller (“Streetside” 1990s, Channel 101, Frequency 101) whose work in, and knack for story-telling, sense of humour, fusion of influences and more, I find undeniable. Just look at “Groove Fighters”, “Phone Sexxers”, “The Pop” and “Toon Wolf”… look at the Steve Perry character in “Yacht Rock”.. what about unforgettable pilots like “It’s Twissleton” and “The Muhammads”!? deny that!? I think NOT. As a not so un-remarkable footnote of course, his likeness and pop-culture library of a mind were loosely the inspiration for the NBC show ‘Community’s Abed character (see GVP ep. 6 for that story).