Notes from a Brooklyn Bunker #5: “Uppity Little Children”
In our latest episode, Ed Champion answers the first batches of listener mail, reacts to the news from Germany that the infection rate is up after lockdown restrictions, and riffs on capitalism, smug politicians, CO2 emissions, Bananarama, the Broadway shutdown extending into Labor Day, the grim future of the job market, the Liberate protesters, and
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Notes from a Brooklyn Bunker #4: “The Slimy Hubris of Rand Paul”
This morning, Senator Rand Paul falsely claimed to Dr. Anthony Fauci that COVID was mostly a New England problem and asked for humility. Well, Senator Paul, you want the facts? You want humility? I’ve got this for you. Be Sociable, Share!
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Notes from a Brooklyn Bunker #3: “The Violent Jeff Goldblum Fantasy”
In our third episode, Ed Champion speculates on why violent videos — particularly videos with stylized moves — have been all the rage on the Interwebs as we are all holed up at home. It started with a drop kick at the Cumberland Mall last week. And it continued this morning with a video of
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Notes from a Brooklyn Bunker #2: “The Strength in Being Kind, The Myth of Being Nice”
In our second episode, Ed Champion discusses the difference between being kind and being nice, why honesty is a far more important pathway to empathy and compassion and connection, combating artifice, seeing the beauty in people even when they are difficult, pandemic breakups, illusory paradise, leaving Brooklyn for a month, the importance of social routines,
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Notes from a Brooklyn Bunker #1: “Media-Proof”
This is an off-the-cuff series of thoughts of a Brooklyn writer and audio dramatist. A show that will be released every Tuesday and Friday until something close to normality returns. In this premiere episode, I discuss hope, how being part of something bigger on a quotidian basis is lost, certain sounds that are “media-proof,” abandoned
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5. Compassion Fatigue (The Gray Area)
Emma is a top-notch psychiatrist who can change the lives of the most difficult patients imaginable. But there’s a great personal cost to her formidable talents that she’s not telling anyone about, an internal torment eating away at her inner life that she’s hiding from her patients and her professional peers and that a quiet survivor of an abusive relationship may just have the answer for. (Running time: 25 minutes)
(This story contains intense and emotionally disturbing scenes that may unsettle some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.)
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4.5. The Waiting Room (The Gray Area)
Virginia Gaskell finds herself on the other side of the portal that lured her in, greeted by an extremely exuberant (and strangely familiar) receptionist, some squawking avians that aren’t quite okay with her love of chicken fajitas, and further mysteries about how the universes rupture into each other. (Running time: 7 minutes)
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4. Loopholes (The Gray Area)
As a thriving empire faces war with ferocious barbarians, a mischievous scholar named Minerva hopes to bring law and civilization to a great realm populated by talking birds, giant rats, gregarious knights, elemental gods, and menacing malasanders. An unanticipated dispute among the knights gives Minerva an opportunity to uphold the doctrine of moral principles, but Minerva finds herself testing her loyalty to her aide-de-camp while helping others to learn what honor, empathy, and identity really mean. (Running time: 32 minutes)
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3. Fuel to the Fire (The Gray Area)
An artisanal mustard retailer from Astoria finds herself in a strange realm with the ability to set things on fire. Meanwhile, Ed Champion continues his investigation into Miss Gaskell’s disappearance, meeting a woman in mourning who may hold the answer to his own strange curse. (Running time: 19 minutes)
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2. Brand Awareness (The Gray Area)
Joanna loves Eclipse Ale. It’s the best beer in the world. She has boxes of Eclipse memorabilia. She regularly wears Eclipse baseball caps. But on one rainy night, Joanna discovers that this happy relationship (along with the relationship with her boyfriend) is not what it seems. Why can’t she remember what her boyfriend gave her on their second anniversary? And why doesn’t anybody know about Eclipse Ale? (Running time: 28 minutes)
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1.5. Dissociation (The Gray Area)
Greg Sutton, a fidgety young man who is a little too fixated on selling himself, sees his psychiatrist for the first time in months, hoping to find answers about his lost childhood and how to get back the woman he loves. But his own quick fix solution to his problems is not quite what the psychiatrist had in mind. (Running time: 5 minutes)
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1. Hello (The Gray Area)
A man wakes up in his apartment with a hazy memory of the night before. He’s greeted in bed by a mysterious woman who keeps saying, “Hello.” But she seems to know far more about his life than he ever could have told her in one night. And as the rats gnaw mercilessly from within the walls, she has a few bold and shocking answers as to why he’s so afraid. (22 minutes)
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