Five Questions With...

Here's a bit of fun - I swept up all the bits from the cutting room floor, glued them together in no particular order, and added a bit of production magic (ha!) to give you a bonus episode, to perplex, to entertain or to drive you crazy, whichever you prefer. Don't be surprised if you hate it.

My guest this episode is my good friend Jim "Dr Dim" Fitzsimons from St. Paul, MN. He is a man of many talents and interests, a Who aficianado, host of Dimland Radio on ZTalk Radio, a pedant and sceptic (or is that skeptic?) and a fellow member of Douglas Arthur's Gang Of Occasional Co-Hosts (or G.O.O.C.H. Squad) with several appearances on Doug's Assault Of The 2-Headed Space Mules podcast. I've had evey other G.O.O.C.H. Squad member on this show so I finally got around to getting Jim on the show. What do we talk about besides the 5 Questions? Carry on listening and find out...

Download Dr. Dim on Dimland Radio weekly at https://dimlandradio.podbean.com/ or via the Dimland Radio blog at https://dimland.com/

My guest on this 'lost episode' from December of 2022 is Mark Wood, Author and mental health professional with more than 20 years experience. He and his wife Karen decided one day that they needed to up sticks, put everything they needed into a couple of backpacks and hike around the country. Shortly thereafter, mark was inspired to write "YOU : Universal Lessons For Change & Reclaiming Your Power" which you can find on Amazon, either in paperback or Kindle download.

You can follow Mark, and his wife Karen on YouTube, via their Channel, Hand in Hand together (https://www.youtube.com/@HandinHandTogether1/channels) or follow their progress vis their Facebook page, Mark & Karen’s life-changing adventure (https://www.facebook.com/groups/handinhandtogether).

On this episode I have a good long chat with Brian Curtis, Associate Professor of English at Nashville State Community College and fellow G.O.O.C.H. Squad member. If you remember from Episode One, the G.O.O.C.H. Squad is the acronym applied to the Gang Of Occasional Co-Hosts on Douglas Arthur's great podcast Assault Of The 2-Headed Space Mules! which you can find on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more.

Brian is an awesome fellow, and an awesome professor. So awesome in fact that he scores a 5/5 on Rate My Professors. Yes, it's a real website. Here's a genuine quote from the anonymous feedback. "The coolest dude on planet earth. I never met a Professor so enthusiastic and happy." So basically, he knows his stuff. 

He's also pretty high on the nerd level. An avid Warhammer 40,000 fan, lover of monster movies and monster rock, and old school TV. 

We chatted about TV themes, books, games and many other topics besides, Brian even suggested a new question for a future episode!

On this episode I have a nice long natter with my longtime friend and ex-bandmate and school chum Alastair Sadler. 

We went to secondary school together, and formed a rock'n'roll band in the second year (1978). After a few pub gigs in 1983 we broke up but by then we had formed a lifelong friendship. After school Alastair eventually moved to London, did several jobs and finally met his future wife, Felicity. At their wedding in 1994 they both stunned me by dancing salsa like a pair of professionals, and later went on to become salsa dance instructors and start the Streetbeat Salsa Co. which still teaches people how to dance to this day, even organising floating salsa cruises on the Thames, and creating his own dance known as Mambalsa (see links below). A few years back Alastair got bitten by the comedy bug after having taken a comedy class, and has performed often in London, starting his own comedy club, inventing an improv gameshow called Quillarious and taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe a few times. He is now also a qualified and registered counsellor - in fact he'd just finished on Zoom with a client right before this interview! Oh, and he ran the 2022 Brighton Marathon and raised over £800 for the Nightingale Cancer Support Centre in Enfield where he was a volunteer counsellor. 

Here's a few links to his stuff:

SALSA LINKS

https://www.streetbeat.co.uk/index.html

https://www.streetbeat.co.uk/Thames-Salsa-Cruise

https://mambalsa.blogspot.com/

COMEDY LINKS

https://www.youtube.com/c/AlastairSadler

https://quillarious.blogspot.com/

COUNSELLING

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/alastair-sadler

THE NIGHTINGALE CANCER SUPPORT CENTRE

https://www.nightingalesupport.org.uk/

My guest on this episode is singer-songwriter Fred Clark. Fred is a singer/songwriter from Maidstone in Kent and is a seasoned performer - at the tender age of 31 he has already released 6 albums and several singles and EPs. He's been gigging since he was 15 as well as running the music stages at many events around the county. As if that weren't enough, he also found time to get married and become a dad!

​I first saw Fred play a few years ago at Tentertainment, our local music festival that is sadly no more. I came away with two of Fred's CDs and a 'Long Walk Home' t shirt (that I still have).

I asked Fred if he'd like to be subjected to the Five Questions treatment and he agreed, so here's our minimally edited interrogation. Below are a few Fred links!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Cgr9DAHxLEC01ZLzne4D7

https://www.fredclark.co.uk/home

https://www.spiritsongs.co.uk/fred-clark/

https://soundcloud.com/fredclark/

https://twitter.com/fredclarkmusic

https://www.instagram.com/fredclarkacoustic/

https://www.facebook.com/fredclarkmusicuk

https://fredclarkuk.bandcamp.com/

In this episode I have a chat with musician Nick Vivid and ask him the Five Questions... Nick is based in New York City and has to date released four full length albums and an instrumental mixtape album. He's currently touring the US in his fabulous van in support of his current album, No More Secrets, which was released in the fall of 2021. His music has sort of a funky electronic indie vibe, reflecting his upbringing in Buffalo, with a mom who was heavily into glam rock and a dad who was a soul DJ. I first came across his music in 2016 and immediately played a few tunes on my show (Into The Unknown on Mixcloud) from his debut Watch It Fly. Nick let slip that my podcast was actually the first to play his music and I've gotta tell you, I feel deeply honoured to have that distinction because his music is amazing. Here are a few Nick links...

https://nickvivid.bandcamp.com/

https://www.nickvivid.com/

https://soundcloud.com/nickvivid

https://www.youtube.com/user/nickvividshow

https://twitter.com/nickvividrocks

https://www.facebook.com/rockandroll

https://www.facebook.com/nickvivid

https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/10958552

https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/nick-vivid/1149060066?uo=4

https://open.spotify.com/artist/09ZGlhfe6Bb1xLksT8gFEp

https://www.instagram.com/nickvivid/

Clips of music included: Staring A Hole Through You by Nick Vivid, Denim & Leather by Saxon, Doxxed by Nick Vivid.

My guest on episode 5 is Alexander Stewart, a popular TikTok creator and YouTuber (not to mention a spiffing chap) whom you may recognise by his bushy beard, his imposing stature and the catchphrases "First we hydrate, and then we educate", "A bag of spoons", and "You plum pudding of a boy". He's been on YouTube for 9 years or so, and began creating TikTok videos during the first lockdown in 2020. Since that time he has accrued 700k+ followers on TikTok and over 4.000 on Instagram. He talks on his channels quite openly about his autism (he has Asperger's) and loves to educate some plum puddings who ask daft questions, ponder scientific questions and debunk common misconceptions and conspiracy theories. He's a lot of fun to talk to and I thoroughly enjoyed our chat. Here's a few links if you want to catch up with all things Alex:

https://www.tiktok.com/@awrstewart

https://www.instagram.com/awrstewart/

https://www.youtube.com/user/AWRStewart

https://twitter.com/awrstewart

https://facebook.com/fellowpeepsoftheInternet/

https://anchor.fm/alex-stewart13

https://stew-merch.myspreadshop.co.uk/

https://beacons.ai/awrstewart

Today on the show I am joined by my dear friend Marissa Rapier. She lives in Kankakee, Illinois, but when I first met her she was working at Lenscrafters 363 in Gainesville, Georgia, and I was the new guy. She eventually became my boss but it was clear to me from the outset that we were kindred spirits - we had the same daft sense of humour, an ability to laugh at ourselves, and we liked a lot of the same music, movies and TV. A while later she moved back to her native Illinois and continued at Lenscrafters and I followed her adventures on her blogs. Since that time she's worked as a librarian, participated in local theatre productions, and survived a bout with breast cancer (please get yourselves checked regularly, ladies. And gents, get checked out too. Cancer doesn't discriminate.) and now co-owns a vintage store called Bargains & Treasures, where she has become a dab hand at furniture restoration and upcycling. During our chat we talk about bicycles, drinking, Lord Of The Rings and much more. Enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/risscycled

https://www.instagram.com/bargains_treasures

https://twitter.com/MarissaRapier

https://www.facebook.com/bargainsandtreasures

My son Charlie, from my first marriage, is a right chip off the ol' block. We share many passions - cooking, photography, comedy, films, The Muppets, podcasting, music... the list goes on. I invited him to be a guest on the show and we sat down on Sunday evening (my time) and morning (his time) so that I could ask him Five Questions and chat about this 'n' that and the other. If you want to hear more of Charlie, here are some relevant links.

https://www.instagram.com/charliehickmott/

https://www.youtube.com/user/thanksman12

https://soundcloud.com/charlie-hickmott

https://anchor.fm/everyandnot

My guest on episode 1 of this new podcast is my old friend Douglas Arthur - comic book artist and illustrator ("Tales From The Dougside" "Antisocial Lawnmower" and "The Nefarious Nomenclature Of Norman Nigglebottom" to name a few), the man behind the band Flaming Schwarzkopf Experience and host of "podcast of the bizarre and strange", Assault of the 2-Headed Space Mules, a show that looks at the fringes of pop culture. I called him up at silly o'clock on the 4th of July to pose some tricky and not-so-tricky questions and basically just shoot the breeze with him, after which he recorded an interview with me, which you will hear on an upcoming Space Mules episode. 

You can find Douglas and his various projects at the following links:

https://www.facebook.com/flamingschwarzkopfexperience/

https://www.facebook.com/TalesFromTheDougside

https://mobile.twitter.com/flamingschwarz1

https://www.facebook.com/spacemules/

and of course, you can catch Assault Of The 2-Headed Space Mules via Anchor, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your pod fix from. Flaming Schwarzkopf Experience CD's and downloads and Douglas's books are available via Amazon.