Misfits. Hip hop. The American Dream.
Misfits. Hip hop. The American Dream.
It's all happening on Aug 24 in Seattle and you're invited.
ROCK PAPER RADIO is a dispatch for misfits & unlikely optimists by your favorite hapa haole, beet-pickling, public radio nerd. It’s a weekly email newsletter and podcast that shares three curiosities every Thursday - something to hold on to (that’s the ‘rock’), something to read (that’s the ‘paper‘), and something to listen to (you guessed it, that’s the ‘radio’). Themes include but are not limited to: rebel violinists, immortal jellyfish, revolution. Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. Learn more at RockPaperRadio.com.
SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO (a whole playlist, actually)
Are you still looking for your hot summer playlist to go with this current inferno after nine straight months of having to wear socks with your sensible sandals? Seattle’s original hip hop scholar Dr. Daudi Abe has you covered.
Dr. Abe is the author of Emerald Street: A History of Hip Hop in Seattle. He’s also an old friend who I once went on a tour with around Washington to talk about why it matters that students and teachers have things in common. In the process, we learned that we were both single parents and big fans of bread and whiskey. But that’s for another story.
From Lighthearted Boy, here’s Daudi Abe's Playlist for His Book "Emerald Street."
Are these tracks making you feel cool and nostalgic? Do you want more of Daudi’s sharp insights into all things hip hop? Do you wonder what it’s like to come up in the hip hop scene as an Asian MC who once talked to God in jail? Are you close to Seattle?? YOU’RE IN LUCK. Join us! Daudi and I will be at Nectar Lounge on Wednesday, August 24 to kick off the launch of ROCK PAPER RADIO’s podcast, Odd One In. Ready…WOOO HOOOOOOOO!
Daudi and I will be talking misfits, hip hop, and the American Dream, and I’ll be sharing how it took me one million months to produce a 25-minute podcast episode I love with my entire oddball heart. And—at last!—we’ll be debuting Old Chingu’s fascinating story of how music saved his life.
Here’s where you can RSVP. Here’s the Facebook event page. Here’s a little square flyer I hope you share far and wide on your socials with a link to the RSVP page:
I hope to see you on the 24th! It’ll be RPR’s first party—like a newsletter issue but for real life. Does that sound fun? Or just nerdy? Either way, I hope you’ll be there. Please bring your mask. 21+. Doors at 7:00pm. Proceeds to benefit brave youth storytelling through The Bureau of Fearless Ideas.
SOMETHING TO READ
I had a birthday recently, which means I had the opportunity to sit with two important realizations: 1) ROCK PAPER RADIO is now two years old! and 2) time is a real thing that keeps ticking by and leaving me clutching onto my skinny jeans for dear life and asking The Teenager how to work the apps.
If you too would like a reminder that it’s been over TWENTY YEARS since R. Kelly and Celine Dion joined forces for the duet nobody asked for, read this by Shoshi Parks for Atlas Obscura: The Last Public Payphone Kiosk on the Streets of New York. Spoiler alert: they took that last payphone and literally put it in a museum. Happy reading, fellow Olds!
SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO
My favorite creatures are paradoxes: Geniuses who can’t spell. Owl parrots that can’t fly. Artists who are science nerds at heart. For example: Tarun Nayar who ventures into Vancouver’s old growth forests to plug his synthesizer into mushrooms.
This week’s SHOT is here to convince you that mushrooms are even more magical than you already knew. From Nayar on his process:
“I use various techniques to harness the bioelectricity of the plants and Earth’s natural resonance that is beyond the audible spectrum of the human ear.”
Arman Khan has the story for Vice: This Guy Makes Music Out of Mushrooms and It’s a Trip.
SEE YOU ON THE 24th!
That’s a wrap on issue 88, friends. Thanks for listening, reading, holding on. And thank you for spreading the word about our Odd One In launch party! I hope to see you there. It’s always so cool to meet RPR subscribers IRL.
Shout out to The Slants Foundation and 4 Culture for believing in this podcast and supporting this misfit movement. It takes a village and I’m feeling especially surrounded by ours right now. Thank you, all. For real, for real.
See you next Thursday.
K.