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I'll Follow You

I'll Follow You

By Allison Felus

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013 “A Nice Way to Think About One’s Relationship with Time and Objects”–A Chat About Perfume with Shiamin Kwa

I'll Follow YouMar 30, 2020

00:00
01:09:45
Third Season Finale!

Third Season Finale!

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

I just wanted to pop in here quickly and let all you lovely listeners know that you’re not going to be seeing any fresh episodes in your feed for a short while so that I can turn my attention to some other creative projects that I’ve had simmering on the back burner. And honestly, I just want to give my podcasting muscles a proper rest, rather than inadvertently burning myself out, so that I’m refreshed and ready to rock with a fresh batch of episodes for you sooner rather than later.

Thank you for joining me on the journey through this third season of I’ll Follow You. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you again very soon.

Mar 04, 202404:06
035 On the Energy of Creativity with Film and TV Editor Jeanette Elaine Dubois

035 On the Energy of Creativity with Film and TV Editor Jeanette Elaine Dubois

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

Today I am simply delighted to be in conversation with Jeanette Elaine Dubois.

Jeanette is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild and has 25 years of experience cutting a wide variety of projects for film and television. She’s worked on the Emmy Award-winning shows Super Soul Sessions with Oprah Winfrey and Artbound on PBS, as well as Emmy-nominated documentaries including The Day My God Died. Recently she’s worked for Steve Harvey’s Steve on Watch and has just completed editing her second season of Married to Real Estate starring Egypt Sherrod on HGTV and MAX. Elaine is also often called upon for voiceover work, and has written, produced, directed, and edited her own short films as well.

At the end of 2019, Jeanette self-published her first book, the memoir Things My Father Never Knew He Taught Me: Seven Lessons from a Life, which is available on Amazon now. And be on the look for the audiobook version to be released on Audible later on in 2024.

Feb 19, 202401:08:38
034 Chatting with Michael O'Donnell About His Debut Novel "Above the Fire"

034 Chatting with Michael O'Donnell About His Debut Novel "Above the Fire"

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

This week I am absolutely thrilled to share my conversation with the writer Michael O’Donnell.

Michael is the author of the novel Above the Fire. Published by Blackstone Publishing in December 2023, Above the Fire crystallizes the relationship between a father and son as they survive a winter of isolation. The book has received starred reviews from Booklist and Shelf Awareness, and the audiobook edition recently won the AudioFile Earphones Award. Michael’s nonfiction writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and other publications. He has been a member of the National Book Critics Circle since 2005. An attorney by profession, he clerked for Judge Ann Claire Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and now practices law in Chicago. He earned his bachelor’s degree with distinction from Indiana University in 2001 and his law degree magna cum laude from Boston College in 2004.

Feb 05, 202401:03:32
033 On Scent and Soap with Hayley J. Croom of Paintbox Soapworks

033 On Scent and Soap with Hayley J. Croom of Paintbox Soapworks

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

This week I am absolutely thrilled to be in conversation with Hayley J. Croom of Paintbox Soapworks.

Queer, witchy, feminist, and leftist-owned since 2009, Paintbox Soapworks is devoted to making small batch soaps, skincare, and bath products in unique and irreverent scents. It’s a one-person show, and each product is made by hand using vegan friendly, coconut-free custom formulas with no SLS, parabens, or phthalates. Their goal is to get you clean and smelling amazing, and to work a little magic with every blend they make to transform and transport you.


Jan 22, 202401:33:39
032 A Chat with Hollywood Costume Supervisor Sara Walbridge

032 A Chat with Hollywood Costume Supervisor Sara Walbridge

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

For this first episode of 2024, I’m really excited to share my conversation with Hollywood costume supervisor Sara Walbridge. Sara is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago and has been steadily working in Hollywood for over 20 years. Some of her best known TV projects include Love and Death, Barry, GLOW, and True Blood, and her film credits include Don’t Look Up, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Vice, and Beautiful Boy.

In our chat today, she gives me the lowdown on how costume supervising is like solving a puzzle; how the immediate aftermath of 9/11 inadvertently shaped the trajectory of her career; why if you don’t notice the costumes in a movie or TV show, that actually means they’ve been executed really well; what the most pressing concerns about AI are for costume departments; the kinds of questions that get tossed around in the group chat of the so-called Costume Mafia; why working as a costume supervisor is secretly kind of a blue-collar job; and why she nerds out about making scale maps of changing tents for huge groups of extras. Plus, since we’re well into awards season now, Sara highlights some of her favorite costuming moments from the year gone by that she hopes will be recognized by voters.

For my Letterboxd users out there, I’ve created a list featuring all the films we talk about in this episode. Links to that and other show notes will be available on my blog QueenofPeaches.com.

Jan 10, 202401:11:48
A Christmas Passage from Paul Weston's Book Atargatis

A Christmas Passage from Paul Weston's Book Atargatis

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

Rather than release a normal interview episode today, I thought I’d just put a little audio trinket in your stocking, so to speak. I’d like to read a short selection from a book called "Atargatis," which is by the English writer, lecturer, hypnotherapist, and Reiki Master Paul Weston. Featuring original musical accompaniment by Brian Cremins.

Dec 24, 202305:58
031 On the Intersection of Science and Spirituality with Allison Clark

031 On the Intersection of Science and Spirituality with Allison Clark

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

Today I’m incredibly psyched to share with you my conversation with science writer and medical intuitive Allison Clark. Allison is a heart-centered, holistically-minded healer who takes into consideration all aspects of a person—not just their body and not just their soul. Her approach is an alchemy of years of training, scientific research, and personal mind, body, and spirit work. She’s studied clairvoyant and energy healing techniques for well over a decade and has learned from experts including Cyndi Dale, Kelly Meehan, Bruce Lipton, and Robert Moss. She also graduated with honors from the Open University of Catalonia with a master’s degree in nutrition with a focus on clinical nutrition and nutrigenomics and is also triple-certified as a functional nutritionist, a culinary nutrition expert, and a holistic health coach. Her current mission as a healer is to help women learn to trust their intuition and embrace their unique spirit so that they can live a fulfilled life.

Dec 11, 202301:14:22
030 On Papercraft and Feminism with Sadie Teper

030 On Papercraft and Feminism with Sadie Teper

Show notes are available at ⁠QueenofPeaches.com⁠.

I’m delighted to be in conversation with visual artist and graphic designer Sadie Teper.

Sadie is the founder and owner of Twentysome Design. Twentysome is a lady-powered feminist stationery and gift brand. Sadie’s design background enables her to create bright and colorful hand-lettered designs that empower and inspire others to spread the message of positive change while still encompassing cheeky wit and feminist fun. We talk about the origin of her brand name; how the text on her first greeting cards was really just an extension of her own inner monologue; how her art classes in college taught her how to not take personal criticism too seriously; the reason why the stationery industry isn’t particularly cutthroat; and the big difference between someone suggesting a topic for a card and someone suggesting the exact wording for a card.

Nov 27, 202301:10:53
029 On Problem Solving and Process with Jerome Pohlen

029 On Problem Solving and Process with Jerome Pohlen

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

Today on I'll Follow You, I am super excited to bring you my conversation with the author and editor Jerome Pohlen.

Jerry has written 23 books for both adults and children, including Oddball Illinois (which is the flagship title of the larger Oddball travel book series), The Apollo Missions for Kids, Albert Einstein and Relativity for Kids, Gay & Lesbian History for Kids, and Chicago Baby, as well as articles and op-eds for the Los Angeles Times, Advocate, and the Chicago Reader. Since 2001, he has worked for publishing house Chicago Review Press where, as an acquisitions editor, he signs up adult nonfiction in categories including US history, LGBTQIA, nature, popular science, and DIY, along with children’s nonfiction and activity books. Our wide-ranging chat is roughly broken up into three distinct sections: we talk about his work as a writer, his father’s work as an engineer on both the Apollo and Viking space missions, and Jerry’s run for Congress as a Green Party candidate in Illinois in 2008.


Nov 13, 202301:26:32
028 On Music and Healing with Marta Johnson

028 On Music and Healing with Marta Johnson

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

Today I am delighted to be in conversation with pianist and healer Marta Johnson.

Marta’s first career was as a professional pianist, mostly working in the classical and musical theater worlds in Chicago. However, a crisis of performance anxiety brought her to the world of inner healing and spiritual growth. And now she uses Internal Family Systems and AuraTransformation in her own life as well as in her professional practice with others. If you’ve never heard of Internal Family Systems, much less AuraTransformation, don’t worry—they’re both a big part of what we’ll be talking about today. You’ll be getting a whole crash course on not just what they are, but also why and how they can be super helpful for addressing a range of psychological and spiritual concerns.

Oct 30, 202301:19:53
027 Behind the Scenes with Cemal Ozdemir

027 Behind the Scenes with Cemal Ozdemir

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

I am so excited to share with you my conversation with my very dear, very funny, and very brilliant friend Cemal Ozdemir.

Cemal spent nearly 30 years with the firm Dauby O’Connor & Zaleski (DOZ), a leader in affordable housing and real estate accounting, starting there as an intern in 1993 and ultimately becoming Chief Executive Officer in early 2020. He stepped down in 2022 to focus exclusively on his newest project, Ozwell Fitness, an elevated wellness studio that combines the two core elements of wellness–fitness and recovery–into a single, seamless experience. He has a degree in business and accounting from Indiana University and has also taken over 2,000 group fitness classes, with Orangetheory, CycleBar, Fit Flex Fly, Shred 415, Peloton Tread and bike, Flywheel, and SoulCycle as well as several hundred hours of personal training.

Oct 16, 202301:21:44
026 In Conversation with Ed Bialon and Don Graves of the Terry Felus Trio

026 In Conversation with Ed Bialon and Don Graves of the Terry Felus Trio

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

Today on I’ll Follow You, I’m in conversation with two of the most influential people in my musical life, Ed Bialon and Don Graves.

Ed and Don were members of my dad’s band, the Terry Felus Trio, for about ten years, from the early 1970s through the early 1980s.

The Terry Felus Trio was known and loved around Northwest Indiana as a great party band, getting hired to play for wedding receptions, milestone anniversary celebrations, and New Year’s Eve shows, though they were also frequently booked at local venues like Mama Puntillo’s in Highland, Indiana, and Sarti’s Restaurant and Lounge in East Chicago.

I wanted to sit down with them and get the scoop on how exactly they did what they did. I wanted to dig into the history of how they all knew each other, where and how they all trained as musicians, and get a glimpse into this now mostly bygone era of live bands who didn’t try to sound like anyone but themselves. 

Oct 02, 202301:35:43
025 A Chat with Author and Journalist Saga Briggs

025 A Chat with Author and Journalist Saga Briggs

Show notes are available at QueenofPeaches.com.

Today on I’ll Follow You, I’m super excited to share my recent conversation with author and journalist Saga Briggs. If you’re listening to this on the day that the episode initially goes live, Saga’s first book will be officially published tomorrow, Tuesday, September 19. It’s called How to Change Your Body: The Science of Interoception and Healing Through Connection to Yourself and Others and, as you’ll hear me enthusiastically state at the top of our chat, I really think everyone should read it. 

Beyond the book, she’s written articles for Scientific American, Aeon+Psyche, and DoubleBlind magazine and has worked as an editor for both the MIND European Foundation for Psychedelic Science and the digital magazine InformED. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest but is currently based in Berlin. 

Sep 18, 202301:11:45
024 A Chat with Francesca Kritikos about Poetry

024 A Chat with Francesca Kritikos about Poetry

Please visit QueenofPeaches.com for full show notes.

Francesca Kritikos is the author of the chapbooks It Felt Like Worship (published by Sad Spell Press in 2017) and Animals Don't Go to Hell  (published by Bottlecap Press in 2021) as well as the forthcoming full-length collection Exercise in Desire (which will be published by Vegetarian Alcoholic Press in early 2022). Her poetry has also appeared in the Des Pair Quarterly, Ghost City Review, and Witch Craft Mag. She completed the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of East Anglia in the UK in 2017. She is on Instagram @fmkrit.

Oct 11, 202101:02:40
023 I'll Follow You: A Chat with Pascuala Herrera about Self-Publishing

023 I'll Follow You: A Chat with Pascuala Herrera about Self-Publishing

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for full show notes.

Pascuala Herrera was a Professor and Accessibility Specialist at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, for almost 30 years and was selected as Distinguished Faculty, the highest honor given to a faculty member, in 2019 and is now faculty emeritus. She is currently also a full-time consultant and author of Not Always a Valley of Tears: A Memoir of a Life Well Lived. Pascuala received her BA in Sociology and M.Ed in Reading and Learning Disabilities at DePaul University in Chicago.  She is a frequent local and national presenter on the topics of disability awareness, motivation, and the importance of education for individuals with disabilities and Latinx students. Pascuala contracted polio at nine months old, and has spent her career assisting thousands of students with disabilities both in and outside the classroom. As a disabled Latina woman, she inspires and motivates others in working towards achieving their aspirations despite any challenges they face. I was very excited to get to talk to her about her experience as a first-time self-published author. We go deep talking about purchasing ISBNs, hiring a freelance design team, and the ins and outs of marketing yourself, as well as touching on her fascinating experiences as a disability advocate and as a parent.

Aug 16, 202101:12:46
022 My Writing Is How I Connect with People: A Chat with S. Elizabeth of Unquiet Things

022 My Writing Is How I Connect with People: A Chat with S. Elizabeth of Unquiet Things

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for complete show notes.

S. Elizabeth is a writer, curator, and frill-seeker. Her essays and interviews about esoteric art have appeared in Coilhouse, Dirge Magazine, Death & The Maiden, as well as on her own occulture blog Unquiet Things, which intersects music, fashion, horror, perfume, and grief. Born of the strange and fraught relationship between an astrologer and an artist, S. Elizabeth draws upon the magic in her blood and a lifelong passion for the visual arts to explore her obsessions through her writing. She is the co-creator of The Occult Activity Book Volumes 1 and 2 and is a staff writer at Haute Macabre. She lives in the Florida swamps with a Viking named Ývan and an imaginary corgi named Cheese Tray.

Today we chat about being the avenging angel of properly crediting supposedly anonymous artwork found online, why intros are the hardest part of the writing process, the arcane expectations of the publishing industry, being terrified of academics, reining in the tendency to be clever at the expense of kindness, and her Taurean ability to become more of herself while staying cozy at home.

Jul 19, 202101:13:53
021 A Conversation with Tim Clarke, the Translator of IN MAY

021 A Conversation with Tim Clarke, the Translator of IN MAY

Complete show notes are available on QueenofPeaches.com.

Tim Clarke has performed throughout Europe, North America, and the UK, including close to 1,000 appearances on London’s West End stages. He’s had leading roles in productions including Jesus Christ Superstar, Blood Brothers, The Buddy Holly Story, Dusty—The Musical, The Glenn Miller Story, and The Demon Headmaster. Tim’s television roles have included Sir Richard Byngham in The Spanish Armada, fireman Mick Foster in Emmerdale, and Detective Inspector Goodman in Canary Wharf, as well as numerous TV commercials.

As a musician, he’s written and recorded the albums Life Changes and To Love and Be Loved and was the winner of the Netherlands International Song Festival and a finalist at the Isle of Wight Song Festival.

A highly competent German and French speaker, Tim has also translated into English the German musicals A Touch of Colour and Scrooge—A Christmas Tale as well as project managed the critically acclaimed musical theater piece In May, which features all original music by Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy. Which is what brought us together.

In the spring of 2017, I wrote a long, loving post on my blog, Queen of Peaches, about the recording of In May that appeared as a bonus disk on the 2016 Divine Comedy album Foreverland. In the years since, it’s become one of the most highly trafficked pieces on my site. Fans of Neil Hannon are nothing if not devoted to his music. Tim himself found and read the piece and reached out to me about it, and the rest, as you’ll soon hear, is history. I was so excited that he was willing to spend a solid 90 minutes talking me through the ins and outs of his extremely varied career, as well as the creation of this breathtaking set of songs, which have meant so much to me over the past few years.

Jul 05, 202101:33:47
020 Hilary Webb: We Breathe Together

020 Hilary Webb: We Breathe Together

Complete show notes are available on QueenofPeaches.com.

Today, I’m in conversation with my very dear friend, singer Hilary Webb.

Originally from Schererville, Indiana, Hilary began studying voice at the age of 13. She earned her bachelor’s from Ball State University, where she studied with Mary Hagopian, and she earned her master’s in vocal performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has worked with John Rutter, Dan Forrest, Beverly Sills, Barbara Hahn, and The King’s Singers and has been soprano section leader at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, since 2011 and has been part of the Bel Canto Company since 2003. Hilary has also performed with the Greensboro Opera, Capital Opera Company, and The Choral and Oratorio Societies of Greensboro, and has made guest appearances with The Triad Pride Men’s Chorus. A two-time National Association of Teachers of Singing Great Lakes Auditions finalist and Mu Phi Epsilon scholarship winner, she competes throughout the country and performs in the U.S. and Europe.

In our chat today, we talk about how we first met thanks to the robust community arts scene of Northwest Indiana in the 1980s and 90s (and how the secret origins of the very name of this podcast go back to my days as piano accompanist for many of Hilary’s solo performances), seeing Placido Domingo live on stage the first time she ever went to the opera in Chicago, hanging out with Beverly Sills, how women and men’s voices come to maturity in different ways, the spiritual dimensions of choral music and the challenges of choral singing during these days of Covid and social distancing, and why she’s specifically chosen not to live in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago in order to pursue music professionally.

Jun 22, 202001:08:02
Black Lives Matter
Jun 14, 202010:02
019 “It’s Not About Where You Are That Makes You Safe, It’s About How You’re Connected to the Earth”–A Chat with Myan Binder

019 “It’s Not About Where You Are That Makes You Safe, It’s About How You’re Connected to the Earth”–A Chat with Myan Binder

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for complete show notes!

Myan Binder is a healer, clairvoyant, animal communicator, and spiritual  teacher. She has studied painting at the University of Wisconsin and art  direction at the Miami Ad School and has taught everything from  preschool to ESL to adult refugees. Currently, she teaches classes on all things psychic, including energy awareness, how to turn on your own abilities, how to heal yourself through working with your own energy, how to use your psychic abilities in your everyday life, and how to  communicate with other animals.

She is also the creator of the campaign Clean Your Energy, which engages people in becoming more aware of their own energy and the energy around them.

In our delightful chat today, we discuss why it’s harder to feel safe  when you get pulled out of what you know, how personal it is to create a grounding connection to the earth, the difference between knowing what safety is intellectually versus actually feeling and experiencing it, the magic of using your imagination, how not cleaning your energy can lead to stagnation and miscommunication, why cleaning your energy is more involved than just sitting quietly in meditation, and how the current increase in animal adoptions is giving us a chance to relearn that we’re all animals too.

And speaking of animals, throughout the conversation, we’re very actively joined by Myan’s cat Galaxy, who you will probably hear purring  into the microphone at several points.

May 11, 202001:00:29
018 "My Path Was Just Sort of Chosen for Me"--A Chat with Brian Westfall of Rare Birds Musical Oddities

018 "My Path Was Just Sort of Chosen for Me"--A Chat with Brian Westfall of Rare Birds Musical Oddities

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for complete show notes!

Today I’m delighted to be in conversation with Brian Westfall. Brian is the proprietor of the shop Rare Birds Musical Oddities.

Rare Birds is a shop dedicated to those elusive, beautiful, and  lovingly weird pieces that will bring character and vibe to your recording dates, home studio, and performances.

Vintage guitars, basses, and synths; cowbells once owned by real  cows; Casio keyboards once owned by real 1980s kids; maracas brought back from a great aunt’s college trip to Mexico; drum machines that used to sit on grandma’s organ; toy pianos from Christmas 1958; wheezing chord organs; middle school band orchestra glockenspiels, and much more  await you when you visit Rare Birds Musical Oddities.

As Brian and I nerd out about all things gear related, we also  discuss why this is a great time to be a musician streaming performances online, how nostalgia plays a part in the Rare Birds shopping experience, the frustration of how elusive the really cool stuff can be, why he actually encourages his customers to resell the gear they’ve bought from him, and why he’s more interested in what you’re doing with  your gear rather than what gear you have.

May 04, 202057:22
017 “Traveling with the Ghost of Someone He Admires”--A Conversation About Music Books with Brian Cremins

017 “Traveling with the Ghost of Someone He Admires”--A Conversation About Music Books with Brian Cremins

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for complete show notes!

Today I’m welcoming back to the show my first repeat guest--who also  happens to be the human I’m sheltering in place with--the writer,  musician, and scholar Brian Cremins.

Brian’s joining me today for a recorded version of an ongoing conversation we’ve been having basically since we first met a little over a decade ago, all about our favorite books about music.

Because we’re both writers and both musicians, it turns out we have a lot of thoughts about the intersection of those two disciplines!

We both chose a small stack of books that are important to us individually, though of course there’s a lot of overlap between our lists, and of course there were dozens of other books that came to mind during the course of this conversation.

In talking about those books, we also discuss the way music critics listen to music versus the way musicians listen to music; how descriptive language can mystify what a musician is actually doing in a way that might not be helpful; how the best books can feel more like traveling companions rather than destination points; and spending time imagining what certain albums sounded like in the days before everything was instantly available to us online. Plus, Brian finally goes on the record with his comparison between the Hall and Oates song “I Can’t Go for That” and Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place.”


Apr 27, 202001:09:41
016 “I Have Something I’d Like to Say, But How Do I Best Say It?”–A Chat with Yuval Taylor

016 “I Have Something I’d Like to Say, But How Do I Best Say It?”–A Chat with Yuval Taylor

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for complete show notes!

I’m delighted today to be in conversation with my very good friend and former colleague Yuval Taylor.

Yuval is the coauthor of the books Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop and Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Antioch Review, and the Oxford American, among other publications. His most recent book, as a solo author, is Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal, which was a finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. It’s a deeply researched look at the  six-year-long friendship, and eventual bitter falling out, between Zora  Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. The book, which will be released in  paperback in July 2020, has been praised by NPR as having “a vivid anecdotal style,” by the Wall Street Journal as “compelling, concise and scrupulously researched,” and by the New York Times Book Review as “a highly readable account of one of the most compelling and consequential relationships in black literary history.”

Apr 20, 202001:04:34
015 "Respect What It Is That's Going On Inside of You"--A Chat with Erin the Psychic Witch

015 "Respect What It Is That's Going On Inside of You"--A Chat with Erin the Psychic Witch

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for show notes!

In my attempt to bridge the gap between not wanting to add to the noise about the coronavirus situation, but then also not wanting to ignore its presence in our lives either, I thought that a conversation with my brilliant friend Erin the Psychic Witch might be unique and helpful.

Erin is a gifted psychic teacher and healer with two decades of experience in the healing arts. With a substantial and wide-ranging background in bodywork, natural skin care, holistic and functional nutrition models, energy healing, and psychic development, she brings physical and energetic modalities together to create a practical path toward healing. Her work is nothing less than facilitating the healing, liberation, and multidimensional maturation of all beings, with the ultimate goal of full creative expression. She teaches and offers various containers for healing work online through her website erinthepsychicwitch.com.


Apr 13, 202001:01:49
014 “No, But We’ve Seen It Done”--A Chat with Paul and Angie Lowe about Jesus Christ Superstar

014 “No, But We’ve Seen It Done”--A Chat with Paul and Angie Lowe about Jesus Christ Superstar

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for show notes!

Paul and Angie Lowe were teachers for many decades at Lake Central High School in St. John, Indiana. During the weekdays, Paul taught speech and Angie taught French, and then on afternoons and weekends, they were heads of the theater program, known as the Lake Central Theatre Guild. As you’ll hear them elaborate in the course of the episode, they expanded LCTG’s program in the early 1970s to include former graduates and members of the local theater scene in their summer community theater productions. Nearly a quarter century after they first directed "Jesus Christ Superstar" in 1979, they revived the show in the summer of 2003 as one of the final productions in the old high school theater. Today, many years now after their retirement from teaching, they retain the LCTG initials by way of their new company, L’arc en Ciel Theatre Group, a dinner theater based out of Great Oaks Banquet Hall in Cedar Lake, Indiana.

Apr 06, 202001:05:22
013 “A Nice Way to Think About One’s Relationship with Time and Objects”–A Chat About Perfume with Shiamin Kwa

013 “A Nice Way to Think About One’s Relationship with Time and Objects”–A Chat About Perfume with Shiamin Kwa

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for show notes!

Welcome to the perfume episode!

Today I’m in conversation with my dear and brilliant friend Shiamin Kwa.

Shiamin is Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures  and Comparative Literature at Bryn Mawr College. She is the author of  three books, the most recent being Regarding Frames: Thinking with Comics in the Twenty-first Century,  which was just released by RIT Press in February of this year. Her  written work explores relationships between form and content, text and  image, self and self-presentation, surface and depth, and the conflicts  between what we say and what we mean. Her research interests include  theater and fiction, food studies, graphic narratives, literary studies,  cultural studies, comparative and world literature, and literary and  narrative theory.

She also contributed an amazingly funny and tender essay about the band Wham! to my most recent zine The Last Band of My Youth.

In today’s deep dive on perfume, we talk about how smells can seem so  much richer in our memories when we don’t have access to them anymore,  the quiet spaciousness of perfume as object, how we’re meant to interact  with perfume on a time scale, how wearing Frederic Malle’s “Portrait of  a Lady” is like having to do self-promotion as the author of a new  book, and the difficulty of imposing order on things you love.

Mar 30, 202001:09:45
012 "The Guiding Light Is Surprise"--A Chat with Tony Trigilio

012 "The Guiding Light Is Surprise"--A Chat with Tony Trigilio

Visit queenofpeaches.com for show notes! 

Today, I’m incredibly pleased to be speaking with my friend, neighbor, and former bandmate, the poet Tony Trigilio.

Tony is the author and editor of 13 books, including, most recently, Ghosts of the Upper Floor (published by BlazeVOX [books] in 2019), which is the third installment in his multivolume poem, The Complete Dark Shadows (of My Childhood). His selected poems, Fuera del Taller del Cosmos, was published in Guatemala by Editorial Poe (translated by Bony Hernández). He is editor of Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments (published by Ahsahta Press in 2014), and the author of Allen Ginsberg’s Buddhist Poetics (published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2012). Tony coedits the poetry journal Court Green and is an associate editor for Tupelo Quarterly. He is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.

Today we discuss his origin story as a poet, the possibilities that  get unlocked by asking a student “tell me more of what you mean by  that,” building bridges between the hemispheres of the brain, how  playing drums professionally helped Tony unite his practice as a writer  with his work as a scholar, and why the best art feels like a friend  saying to you, “I’m going to tell you something but it’s hard to say.”

For more information about Tony, you can find him online at starve.org.

Mar 23, 202001:11:20
011 "I Don't Want to Be an Expert"–A Chat with Keiler Roberts

011 "I Don't Want to Be an Expert"–A Chat with Keiler Roberts

Visit queenofpeaches.com for show notes!

Keiler Roberts has been writing autobiographical comics for ten years.  Her six books include Sunburning, Chlorine Gardens, and, most recently,  Rat Time, all three of which were published by Koyama Press. Her  self-published autobiographical comic series Powdered Milk received an  Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series in 2016, and in 2019 Chlorine Gardens received Slate's Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of  2018, which was selected by The Slate Book Review and The Center for  Cartoon Studies. Her work has been included in The Best American Comics in 2016 and 2018 and was mentioned on their Notables list for 2014. She  has taught at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago since 2013 and  lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband, the artist Scott Roberts,  their daughter Xia, and perhaps the most famous cartoon pet since  Snoopy, their dog Crooky.

Mar 16, 202001:05:04
010 “I Would Always Say Yes to a Spiritual Experience”–A Chat with Angie Yingst

010 “I Would Always Say Yes to a Spiritual Experience”–A Chat with Angie Yingst

Visit QueenofPeaches.com for show notes!

Today on the show I’m incredibly pleased to be in conversation with Angie Yingst.

Angie is a published writer, a sacred artist, a Usui Reiki Master Teacher, and an Earth Medicine Practitioner specializing in shamanic and crystal healing techniques.

Angie has been reading Tarot for thirty years and is a member of the American Tarot Association. She has also trained through the Hibiscus Moon Crystal Academy as a Certified Crystal Healer and an Advanced Crystal Master, and she now serves the school and its community as Curriculum Specialist and Crystal Coach. Angie has also been studying since 2012 with Pixie Lighthorse and has completed all four levels of her training through SouLodge Earth Medicine School.

Angie offers both in-person and distance one-on-one healing sessions that combine crystal healing, shamanic healing, Reiki, drum and rattle, breathwork, and plant medicine to facilitate healing in her clients, balancing her work with the moon cycles and seasonal energies to maximize healing potential. Angie teaches tarot, crystals and crystal healing, shamanic work, psychic development and intuitive work, creative and art workshops, and offers group healing sessions through the Alta View Wellness Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Today we dig deep to talk about grief, addiction, perfectionism, and the dangers of spiritual bypassing, as well as the difference between being a guru and an effective space-holder.


Mar 09, 202001:14:06
009 "Luckily Theater Saved Me"--A Chat with Paul Storiale

009 "Luckily Theater Saved Me"--A Chat with Paul Storiale

Click here for show notes!

This week on the show, I’m delighted to be speaking with a very dear friend, the theatrical impresario and President of NoHo himself, Mr. Paul Storiale.

Paul is the Artistic Director for the Defiance Theatre Company, the President and Founder of the Valley Theatre Awards in Los Angeles, and creator of the award-winning stage play The Columbine Project. He’s also the creator of the web series Gossip Boy, which you can stream on Amazon Prime, and a successful comedic actor in his own right, having performed for many years in the dinner theater phenomenon Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding and having recently toured the country as part of the cast of My Big Gay Italian Wedding.

And if that’s not enough of a full plate, Paul is also a Los Angeles elected public official, currently serving as president of the NoHo Neighborhood Council, an advisory board created by the Los Angeles City Charter to provide improved access to government and make government more responsive to local needs in the North Hollywood community.

Today we chat about how to create a little bit of healthy antagonism among your cast during rehearsals, establishing a container for catharsis in a live theater space, and the secret of never having to audition as an actor ever again.

Mar 02, 202001:06:20
008 "Everything Is Interdisciplinary"--A Chat with David Higgins

008 "Everything Is Interdisciplinary"--A Chat with David Higgins

Click here for show notes!

Today I’m pleased to have on the show one of my all-time favorite humans, David Higgins.

David teaches English at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota. He is a specialist in 20th-century American literature and culture, and his research explores transformations in imperial fantasy during the Cold War period and beyond. His article “Toward a Cosmopolitan Science Fiction” won the 2012 Science Fiction Research Association’s Pioneer Award for excellence in scholarship. He has published in journals such as American Literature, Science Fiction Studies, Science Fiction Film and Television, and Extrapolation, and his work has appeared in edited volumes such as The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction.

He is also the Speculative Fiction Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

In our chat today, we talk about his upcoming book on reverse colonization narratives in the science fiction of the 1960s, how he’s calibrated his own best creative routines, why he congratulates his undergraduate students when they feel like they’ve failed, and the many flexible ways to approach the study and criticism of speculative fiction.

Feb 24, 202001:10:29
007 Learning How to Meet People Where They're At with Michael Sherron

007 Learning How to Meet People Where They're At with Michael Sherron

Go to QueenofPeaches.com for show notes.

Michael Sherron is currently an apprentice docent from the class of 2018 at the Phoenix Art Museum and now leads tours there for adults and school groups. In his day job, he's an engineering manager building large scale cloud hosting solutions for the enterprise.

Mike is one of the most remarkable people I know, in terms of his sheer capacity to tackle incredibly ambitious projects simply for the joy of learning how to do them. That deep focus and insatiable curiosity is definitely at the heart of what led him to commit the past two years to studying really intensely in order to start giving tours at the Phoenix Art Museum.

In addition to talking about what the program was like, in the last twenty or so minutes of our chat, Mike guides me through a deeper look at two paintings from the Phoenix Art Museum’s collection, Lew Davis’s The Rebel and Frida Kahlo’s The Suicide of Dorothy Hale.

Feb 17, 202001:16:29
006 Writing and Recording American Romantic Music with Brian Cremins

006 Writing and Recording American Romantic Music with Brian Cremins

Click here for show notes!

Just this past week, my band, the Felus Cremins Band, released our latest album. It’s called American Romantic Music, and you can stream or download it on Bandcamp.

To mark the occasion, I asked my bandmate and partner Brian Cremins to join me to chat specifically about the making of the title track, the song “American Romantic Music.”

Rather than slogging through a whole boring track-by-track rundown of the entire album, I thought it might be instructive to focus just on this one song. I think the process by which it came to be written and recorded is particularly illustrative of the way that we collaborate.

In addition to our chat, you’ll get to hear how the song progressed from its first demo to its first live performance to the final recorded version that’s the heart of the new album.

Feb 10, 202001:26:13
005 Creating an Underground Awards Show with the Nick Movie Awards
Feb 02, 202001:04:46
004 Going from Point A to Point B By Way of Q and Pi with Gene Kannenberg Jr.

004 Going from Point A to Point B By Way of Q and Pi with Gene Kannenberg Jr.

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Gene Kannenberg Jr. is a cartoonist living in Evanston, Illinois. His comics, mostly abstract with asemic writing, include Qodèxx, Space Year 2015, and The Abstract Circus. His work was included in the Minnesota Center for Book Arts' 2017 exhibit "Asemic Writing: Offline & In the Gallery" and also appears in the book Abstraction et bande dessinée, produced by the ACME Comics Research Group at the University of Liège in Belgium.

Gene received his PhD from the University of Connecticut in 2002, and he has served in the past as Chair of both the International Comic Arts Festival and the Comic Art & Comics section of the Popular Culture Association. His book 500 Essential Graphic Novels was published by Collins Design in 2008.

Gene is currently the Research and Media Assistant at the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University, where he has curated two exhibits on comic art.

You can find him online at comicsmachine.com.

Jan 27, 202001:20:17
003 Storytelling through Resonant Material with Lewis Lain
Jan 20, 202001:02:46
002 Considering Reinvention with Kate Merena
Jan 13, 202056:12
001 Best Movies of the Decade with Casey Andrews

001 Best Movies of the Decade with Casey Andrews

To inaugurate the show, I'm going to be chatting today with Casey Andrews.
Casey is Professor of English at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. He is the author of the book Writing Against War: Literature, Activism, and the British Peace Movement, which was published by Northwestern University Press in May 2017 and has been described as "a highly original, densely researched, and beautifully written work of scholarship." He is also a regular contributor to The Cresset, a journal of commentary on literature, the arts, and public affairs published by Valparaiso University. His most recent piece for The Cresset is on Jim Jarmusch's film The Dead Don't Die, and next up for them will be his reflections on confession and the sacraments in Scorsese's The Irishman. Casey also contributed earlier this year to my zine The Last Band of My Youth with an essay on the Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy.
Casey is married to the writer and pastor Liv Larson Andrews and is also a dad, a pacifist, and one of my best and oldest friends.
Today we look back on some of the most notable films of the 2010s--ranging from the recent works of Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino to Ari Aster and Robert Eggers and beyond.
Jan 04, 202001:31:57
Hello and Welcome--Trailer

Hello and Welcome--Trailer

Welcome to the first (short!) preview episode of I'll Follow You, hosted by Allison Felus.

Dec 26, 201904:07