Leia Weathington joins Dawn for almost 90 minutes worth of pleasant conversation: Why she’s a writer, why she created Bold Riley, Why Pringles are a scientific marvel, and why numbers are the devil. And then the heat takes over, and the emotions start to roil, and the show’s theme is best summed up by this phrase: “No, F*** you.” People who treat waitstaff like peons. Bath water. Know-it-alls. Public Knitters. Ukelele players. It’s pretty impressive. Also discussed: The merging of Ham-Fisted with Dawn Taylor on the Air, Ham-Fisted’s new schedule, and why these moves had to happen.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
1) I grew up with mushroom soup. Not as a classmate or neighborhood friend, but my mom opening up the can of soup would be a regular occurrence, but we would always have it with a scoop or two of rice. These days, while there are many soup options I can have, there are times when I’ll buy a can and have that for lunch of dinner. I’ll put in some pepper or maybe some curry powder. Then there are the gravy options, where the mushroom soup can be used over corned beef hash patties or my mom’s specialty, what she called “3-in-1″ which involved mushroom soup, ground beef, and a can of corn over egg noodles. Talk about lo-fi but if need be, I have no problem in putting that together.
2) I prefer “Whoot There It Is” over “Whoomp! There It Is”
2a) I’ve never been involved in any disco orgies that involved “Love To Love You Baby”, but I can’t imagine what would happen if a DJ played Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park Suite” (17 minutes for the preferred version) or Village People’s “Macho Man”. It would be a hideous looking dry hump (“ooh look, a walrus!”)
3) I related to what was discussed in the second half about the struggles as a writer, that battle between wanting to write because you love it vs. wishing to write crap because it pays and it can lead to a potential life of luxury. I have never been into writing or reading fan fiction, and yet people can write that stuff like crazy and somehow become a success. Yes, I would love to have the movies, the merchandise, the offshoots, all of that. I primarily do music reviews but I have done a small bit of fiction and even made an attempt at doing a children’s book. I thought “yes, if I can get that to Nick, it might be turned into a series, there will be action figures, there will be a box of cereal, I want all of that.” It becomes something that will be in the back pocket. I also think if one ever obtains that “lucky break”, it will lead to less complaining about the struggles as a writer.
3a) I had taken radio/TV production that was part of high school but at a local vocational skills center. I believe Rick Emerson may have attended the same class, but a few years before me. That was my escape from the BS I dealt with at high school, because being a radio DJ was my biggest goal in life. It got to a point where the friendships in that class were better than what was happening at my high school, which was nothing. I was failing in other subjects, and it got to a point where I pretty much skipped English or social studies for that entire year, very much not attending 140+ days. I wanted to leave not only that school, but that town, but I kept at it until the end of the year. I had went to a local community college in the hopes of making up the credits I didn’t get at high school, but I was already somewhere else. The following year, I went in to get my GED and that was that.
I’m still writing to get myself out of this town due to my bad decisions but… the writing keeps me going until I leave here for good. Here’s to integrity.
I listened to Dawn’s rant about how she’d stab herself if she had to sit in a cube, typing away, surrounded by “office people” while I was sitting in my cube, typing away, surrounded by “office people.”
I have one advantage unavailable to Dawn. I can listen to Ham-fisted Radio to make my cube life more pleasant.
I’m all for following your dreams, but shouldn’t the first priority be some kind of financial stability? You can always pursue your poetry/indie comic/ pet painting dream while holding down a 9 to 5 that pays the rent.