“I Suffer from Vegetarianism” by Joshua Bizley

I Suffer from Vegetarianism

I suffer from vegetarianism.
It’s not the worst disease, it’s true.
But the epidemic has some 7.3 US-born stricken.
All affected every day, all day through.
I’m not asking for benefits or sympathy;
I don’t want to get famous for this.
But perhaps I might get this disability,
Classified as a chronic illness.
The trouble isn’t with an unstable diet,
Or mockery from insensitive friends.
I’m not missing protein, iron or zinc,
And don’t care to be following trends.
The problem is an uncertain ethic,
Yet compulsory as most that I keep.
With a logic that can never be certain,
And a risk that is far-flung from cheap.
It may be that I donate to the death-knells,
Of Majority Worlders whose livelihoods are torn,
By narrow-minded westerners valuing their cats,
On a par with the sentient-born.
But as you’ll have figured that’s exactly my problem,
I can’t say for sure that that’s wrong.
I can’t know for certain the ratio of worth,
From sentient to non-sentient King Kong.
But what of the livelihoods dependent,
On westerners buying livestock?
I simply can’t know, can’t know, can’t know.
Argh – this moral-grey path that I walk.
So I’m left with an unstable conviction,
And given a nebulous vote.
Knowing as if in a horror film,
My wrongness would murder by rote.
But the disease is not in any particular decision.
It strikes as soon as the choice presents.
A victim can only acknowledge the options,
And make a choice in the absence of sense.

By Joshua Bizley
To all my fellow vegetarians – my condolences.

Episode #5 – World Rank-Society Class

Seeking blog content for Episode #5: World Rank-Society Class.

The topic is:

World Rank-Society Class

(Original photo by Kujtim Pllana)

Any original writing (fiction or non-fiction) or art, original and inspired by the topic will be accepted.

E-mail your submissions to onceuponapodcast@gmail.com

“Press-button-receive-bacon” by Jonathan Payne

Press-button-receive-bacon

by Jonathan Payne

“Press-button-receive-bacon”,

The sign said,

And I gave it the look cows give cars.

What could it possibly mean—

Inside this silver-bullet dinner

Where talk may cost you more

Than a button’s worth of bacon?.

Naturally, I pushed it

And certainly was not struck

By anything near natural

In the bacon-in-a-bap;

But it kept me alive.

As what must be described as

Basics bacon – 63% meat –

Crawled down my throat,

I thought:
What if it was all this easy,

Every wait in life that short?

Just buttons lined up,

With a sign for its treat.

I’d press the one that Promised

Love:

“Push-button-receive-girlfriend.”

But surely a decent bacon sandwich

Should take more time…?

“Delinquent” by Joe Love

Delinquent

by Joe Love

As a child, the white mid-western father figure would, in his authoritarian Sunday-school-best voice, tells us kids, as we watched the nine-inch black and white television, what a delinquent was: “Johnny is a delinquent. Notice his black leather jacket, his white T-shirt and his aloneness. Notice the good boys and girls sipping on straws sunk deep in floats and perched upon the drugstore stools, smiling to the white trumpet on the jukebox and smiling at the soda jerk wiping the counter repeatedly. They know better than to even look in the direction of the evil loner—that solitary boy who stays out late and is often disrespectful to his parents. Avoid him. Give him wide berth. He is an anathema to the well being of our highly structured and obedient society.” And thus, the media became the Sunday School Teacher, spreading its biased and controlling ethics with the sweet syrup of Cherry Cokes and Big Band music. I was lucky and saw through the narrow-minded restrictive politics of the controlled behavior. I knew Johnny was far more interesting than the sipping friends or the jerk behind the counter, and when I entered the stream of teen-hood, I made friends with every outcast that came along. Who were these people? Many were musicians and artists and poets whose grand vision of society was anything but the great white way. They were trying to mount the endless influx of good old boy waves bombarding the hearts of Americans for decades. They could see firsthand the oppression of their mothers, their minority friends, the artists, the other outcasts, those who didn’t bend down on one knee before the voice of the Omniscient Media Father. I didn’t seek out these people. I was instinctively drawn to them. I was one also. And I didn’t steal from stores or old ladies old arms where purses dangled. And I didn’t taunt the police or plan to kill any politicians or seek evil. I simply refused to take their rule as absolute because I knew there was no absolute. A delinquent knows that there is no absolute: that is what makes them dangerous. That is why “The Great Society” is afraid of us. And they are still afraid. So how do they deal with what they fear? Make them famous. Pay them lots of money and then they will be in their own little world, out of the realm of everyday life where dwell those-who-do-only-good. The media is a dangerously adaptive control device—and its cool handling of America’s outcasts is one of its most powerful weapons. So bend to the television. Get down on one knee. It will tell you how to act. And good luck living your delinquent free life.

“Delincuencia Moral” por Angélica Potes

Delincuencia Moral
por Angélica Potes

Un delincuente, un delincuente… ¿qué es eso? Una persona malvada de películas americanas con antifaz negro y una bolsa en la espalda, un señor de cuello blanco con la cabeza llena de ideas para robar dinero. Una persona que la sociedad aparta por no ser un ejemplo responsable, un vago, un vivaz, un sutil, un perspicaz? ¿Qué es eso? ¿Algo malo, algo bueno? Definitivamente creo que son personas enajenadas, sin amor propio, mucho menos respeto social. Un delincuente, alguien sin escrúpulos, rodando en la sociedad y tomando lo mejor de ésta para convertirlo en basura. Dando miedo, creando inseguridad. Un delincuente, un delincuente. No es verdad. Creo que todos tenemos adentro ese ser que todos decimos repudiar. Todos alguna vez pensamos en que podríamos hacer si se presentará la oportunidad. Todos, en está maldita sociedad, estamos programados para no ser uno de ellos, supuestamente carentes de lo que se necesita para serlo. ¿Y entonces, no estaríamos ya programados para ser uno de ellos? Somos algo que nos impide ser lo otro. Por carencia tenemos el potencial de ser lo malo. Somos bondad según sabemos, la bondad es carencia de maldad, pero sabemos qué es ser bueno porque sabemos qué es ser malo, y lo malo ya lo sabemos, no lo somos, según algunos, pero lo sabemos. Sin embargo, en esa carencia de bondad, podemos demostrar que algo de maldad al menos conocemos. Y es interesante llamar al delincuente por ser un ser que arruina nuestra sociedad. Pero creo de nuevo, que todos podemos llegar a ser un delincuente sin necesidad de apartar de las personas algo material. Se es malo cuando se toma algo material, un delincuente, lleva en la bolsita, las pertenencias de otro ser, porque tal vez, necesita comer. Pero en general, llevamos en nuestras almas el padecimiento de los demás. Somos capaces de ignorarlas, de pasar por encima, de no actuar coherentes, de no aportar a la humanidad. Somos capaces de respirar alivianados, sin tener en el pecho la idea de la carencia de los demás. Somos delincuentes, porque no arrancamos de las manos sino del alma la bondad de los demás, somos delincuentes porque nos aprovechamos de lo que está puesto y servido , así sepamos que no nos pertenece. Somos delincuentes por querer lo de los demás. Somos delincuentes por simplemente, ser humanos. Delinquir, Qué delicioso bienestar. Y es más por esa risa graciosa, burlona que nos produce el malestar del otro. Somos deliciosos, satisfechos en nuestros deseos. Somos delincuentes, y no nos importa, porque sólo juzgamos a quién ha sido capaz de llamar la atención de la policía para ser atrapado en una jaula. Sin embargo, todos tenemos algo de ese demoniaco ser. Todos delinquimos, así no queramos. No es material, entonces no se ve. Pero siempre delinquimos, y nos molestamos por ser llamados así: Delincuentes, delincuentes de lo moral.

OUAP on Facebook

There are two venues on Facebook for Once Upon A Podcast.

1)  The Facebook group:  meant as a place for past, present and future participants.  This is the main source of contact (other than the blog) to those interested in being a part of OUAP.

2)  The fan page: to show support for OUAP.

Please take part as you see fit.

Episode #4 – Press Button, Receive Bacon

Seeking blog content based on the episode topic.  It does not need to include or directly reference the topic.  Works simply need to be original and inspired by the topic.

The topic has a picture associated with it.  Please look at it as well.

E-mail your submissions to be included on the blog.

Episode #3 – Delinquent – Credits

Hopefully, you’ll listen to the whole episode, but if you need to go back for one of the specific pieces, you can cue it up to the times below. You can find the episode on iTunes or by clicking above.

Jung and the Spork, written by Matt Bernhard (starts at 0:48)

Freud:  John Bell

Jung:  Michael Rosenblum

Waiter:  Mark Turetsky

The Delinquent Gentleman, written by Matt Langford (starts at 5:43)

Mrs. Hutch:  Alexia Hodgson

PC Gibson:  Gordon Allan

Elderly Gentleman:  Ken Cohen

Be Yourself, written by Danielle Vioux (starts at 13:03)

Nancy:  Sandy Shaughnessy

Len:  Ian Hayes

Marianne: Donna Vetters

The Ongoing Adventures of Tammy Jackson, Part Time Janitor:

Part 1:  Delinquent Delicatessens (starts at 20:08)

Tammy: Seri Johnson

Ron: A.J. Teshin

Original song “Story of A Kid” by Dan Olmschenk (starts at 26:39)

Executive Producer: Roni Weiss

Special thanks:  Tav Ammu, Dan Bontempi, Sharon Burian, Amanda Purnell, David Tabaczynski, Mistina Willmaser.

Episode #3 – Delinquent

With pieces written by Matt Bernhard, Matt Langford and Danielle Vioux.  ”The Ongoing Adventures of Tammy Jackson, Part Time Janitor”, written by Steven Thomas.  Original music and theme by Dan Olmschenk.

“Procreationally Delinquent” by Michele D. Solano

Procreationally Delinquent
by Michele D. Solano

I grew up in a very small town.  My high school experience looked like
something straight out of Dazed and Confused.  Just swap out the 70’s
bell bottom pants, big lappelled shirts and long haired boys for
Hammer pants, Big Johnson T-Shirts and Caesar hair cuts.  It was the
late 90s, and being a teenager in Kennewick, WA left not a lot to do
with all the spare time we had on our hands.

Weekends were spent at one of two locations:  Beer falls or Hover.
Both outside.  Both deep in the woods.  Both complete with kegs and
bonfire.  Both the perfect place for overly-intoxicated, ridiculously
bored teenagers to do what they do best:  Drink and have sex.

Most of these encounters led to children.  Call it stupidity, call it
lack of condoms, call it karma, but regardless, there are quite a few
people I graduated from high school with who have 12 or 13 year old
children.