DadJack.com Blog

I have always enjoyed making my opinion known… On the radio, on the podcast and on the occasional survey.  I participate in one of those online survey companies which offer rewards for filling out surveys (I’ve been with the same one for about 5 years and it’s actually a pretty good deal… I’d give you the link, but they’re currently not taking new members).  The surveys always start the same way… How old are you, where do you live and relationship status.

The options are usually: Married, Widowed, Divorced and Single.  I have been clicking “Divorced”, but I am also “Single?”  Is there a mourning period where you click divorced and then get to transition to single?  And if so whats the time line?  I changed my status on Facebook to single long ago at the urging of friends, but seemed kind of like denial to me.  Although, there has to be a point where you consider yourself simply single right?  Although, I did come up with a plan to break the cycle… I need to get into a serious relationship and then break-up, then I’m technically single and not divorced because the divorce was not my last official relationship – But that really seems a lot of work, so I’ll stick with checking “divorced” for now.

Lucy has her “Spring Sing” today… Which is always fun, well if you can actually get into the auditorium.  We live in So. Cal. I’m not sure why they don’t do these things outside so everyone can see?

We announced on the Pod this week that we will be recording live in Orange County later this month.  Stench and I will be at Farrell’s in Mission Viejo on Wednesday June 22nd from 6-8pm.  I will once again participate in the ice cream eating contest (You can go head to head with me, it’s only $20 and proceeds benefit Children’s Hospital of Orange County) and experiencing the pain that is an extreme ice cream headache.

The job search continues… it has been very discouraging, I have applied at so many places and have had no response.  I need to find something quick!

Rock on, Jack

Last Thursday I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, the kids playing with Grandma in the living room, knowing the next day would be my last at work. As I tried to drift off I thought about past “lasts” and how more often than not we don’t know they’re coming. Some arrive quickly, without warning, others slowly evolving.

I don’t remember the night before we were fired from the morning show, I know we were on Christmas/New Years vacation, but I didn’t lie in bed knowing I would be fired the next afternoon. I don’t remember my last night truly being married… I remember the night before my marriage legally ended, I prepared a shirt and tie, gathered all the necessary papers and tried to sleep knowing the following morning it would, with a few words from a judge, be over. A marriage is one of those things that disintegrates slowly, so pin-pointing the last night we were truly a couple is almost impossible.

Some lasts are exciting, the last day of high school, knowing that when you wake the next day your whole life will change.  That energy of the unknown and hope is something I will never forget.  And there are those planned lasts like actually planning on changing jobs, the last night of being single before getting married or the last night in a home before you move.

So as I lay there in the darkness, kids laughing and running around, I know that would be the last night I go to bed as the Executive Producer of The Insana Quotient and hope that it will not be long that I am resting my head preparing for something new.

I have been using some of this unwanted down time to get caught up on some recent releases I hadn’t had time to watch, this week Red Box has a great deal, each day you can text DEALS to 727272 and they will send you a special offer… so far I have received a free rental the last two days, you can’t beat that.

Stench is out of the hospital and back on the pod!  He was in the hospital almost all of last week suffering from diverticulitis.  He seems to be recovering well and is back to true form.  Alina has been having medical issues too, so we wish her a speedy recovery… Without Alina who would we torture on the pod?

Have a great rainy spring day (If you’re in L.A.).

Rock on, Jack

Have a Corona for me, I still have a little more than a week of getting up at 1:30am so no fiesta for me!

It been weird being at work this last week knowing I won’t be here much longer.  People treat you differently, they try to be very positive even though you can tell they’re thinking “oh, crap. what is this guy going to do.”  I’m trying to look at this a positive development, hopefully I will find something with slightly better hours and I can live a more “normal” life.

The podcast is chugging along.   With over a 1000 shows under our belt it continues on.  We just created a new hotline to send texts and voice mails  916-67-BACON… So if there is anything you ever want us to know hit the bacon line!

It seems to me that it is lining up to be a weak movie summer, as I look through all the summer film previews there is not much to be excited about…  I do want to see the Hangover 2 and I hate to see it, but Cowboys v. Aliens looks like it might be interesting.  I’m hoping we get some surprises and there is a reason or two to go to the movies, there is still something more enjoyable about seeing a great film in a theater instead of just popping on the Blu-Ray while the dog barks in the other room and the kids jump on you.

Rock On, Jack

Stench and I are going to celebrate making it to 1000 podcasts by recording the big 1K show live in front of a studio audience… Or at least some people at a bar!  March 19, 2011 starting at 5:30pm we will be at Cafe Tutu Tango at The Block at Orange.  We’re hoping to get some special guests out there!

It will just be great to spend an evening with all the people who made this possible.  When we started, after being fired from STAR 98.7, we were a joke in the radio community… Now all of the people who publicly mocked us are also off terrestrial radio and podcasting.

The food is great at Cafe Tutu Tango, it’s a restaurant so kids are welcome (But they do have a full bar).  They are reserving tables near our “broadcast” so call ahead to guarantee you get a good seat.  ( 714-769-2222, mention The Jack and Stench Podcast)

YOU RULE!!!!!!

This is it, make it good!  Fall starts on Wednesday.   It really never felt like summer this year… And not only because of the weather.  It seems like the failing economy caused many people to scale back (or even cancel) vacations.  A lot of the fun was sucked out of summer this year… I can only hope that things start to improve soon.

The kids and I had a nice weekend.  We spent some time with friends, did some cycling, made homemade pizza and went to a car show.

Lucy seems to be enjoying school (At least after week one) and likes her teacher… Hopefully this sentiment lasts all year!

I continue to feel just kind of Blah… It’s great when the kids are over, but things just kind of drag during the week while they are away.

The podcast is chugging along… No one can stop the pod!

Give the kids a drink!  Summer is still going strong in AZ!  Hey guys, She’s single.   It doesn’t feel like it ended.    Gnome amber alert canceled.   R.I.P.    OK, now I feel lazy! Don’t let your kids catch fat!  You mean you can’t recycle these!?!?

Rock On, Jack

I’m excited, the show I produce, The Insana Quotient, launched in Los Angeles this morning on KGIL 1260am …  If you are up between 4 and 6am check it out.  I’m not going to lie, it’s vastly different than Stench and my show, but if you’re interested in finance and politics it’s very interesting… And Ron truly is a great guy.

The kids and I had a fun weekend.  We did some cycling with Angela Channel, Lucy learned to start by herself (Up to this point I had to give her a push to start)…  Bing rode in the trailer which he now dislikes because he wants to ride his “Big Boy Bike.”  On saturday night we went to The Valley Cultural Centers movies on the green and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (A Bing Fave) with Angela and Ethan, Mike in GH and Kids, and small other friends… It’s really a good time, the kids loved watching the movie outside and having a picnic.  I highly recommend it and Up is screening in a few weeks!  Yesterday we tried to fly our kites, but there just wasn’t enough wind.

I can’t believe it’s already August, kids start going back to school locally in a few weeks… This summer just kind of breezed past.  Lucy and Bing have already starting discussing Halloween costume options… Lucy is leaning towards whale and Bing wants to reprise “Bowling Girl.”  I want to try and make a “Baby” costume for myself this year fashioned after the monkey blanket of that name Bing carries around everywhere.

Kids leave the end of this week for their Mother’s wedding, luckily I miss read an earlier email and they’ll only be gone a week and then I get them for two weeks (We’ll my Mom and I get them, since she’ll be helping while I’m at work).

Stench and I will be taking a vacation from podcasting the end of August, so you will be dorkless for a week!

Lindsay is free!  I think we all already know this.  Not at my work.   And I thought I was hard-up.  This is gonna piss some people off. I’m going on a diet right now!  But she’s such a good girl?  Everything old is new again.  Congrats Miss Chubby!

Rock On, Jack

These are things that have been important in my life this week.  Lucy’s school ended their candy bar sales drive today.  On my end we did pretty good (I’m not sure how many her Mom moved), thanks to Angela and My Mom we sold 100… I don’t think I ever sold that many when I was a kid. I remember going door to door, by myself, trying to sell my candy bars… I wouldn’t let my kid do that in a million years!

Lucy had her “progress report” yesterday, her Mom and I attended, she did great.  It’s always great to hear good stuff about your kid… But I already knew she’s a super star!

We always have baked goods at our house, I whipped up a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies before the kids came over… Lucy declared them better than McDonald’s cookies, I almost cried, It is quite a honor in kid world to be better than Mc Donald’s!

I am kidless for half this weekend, I’m going to stop by Carey and Teresa’s going away party… For those of you who don’t know them, they are long time pod supporters, great people and resident’s of the porn capital of the U.S., and they are moving to Texas.  They will be missed, I wish them the best on their new adventure’s!

The Pod in my opinion has been rocking lately… We are really having fun doing it!  The new two-level system is in the works, there have just been some technical issues… But Angela Channel is all over it!  Her dog, Edison,  has been ill, so she’s been busy with that… Luckily her good dog, Emma, is doing fine! Feel better Edison.

Speaking of Angela, she would totally do this.  Pitcher thrown curve ball.  Less than 10 ladies loved him.  At least he tried!  Bing will fight him! It’s OK with me if they kill this guy! I happy he got a star, sad that he’s sick… he’s one of my favorites.  Ladies love Iceland.  Scary!

Rock On, Jack

I read some of the comments from the last blog and it started me thinking about what the podcast is… and what it has become.

This is by no means an attack on the people who said they stopped listening when Jamie left (I get that and those people really didn’t cause that drastic a change in the amount of listeners.)  Many people listened to the radio show strictly and specifically for Jamie, and I don’t blame them she is a radio superstar with a unique gift that many have tried to copy (Jillian Barberie, Chelsea Handler), but none do as well.  But lets face it, she was never a huge part of the podcast’s three year history.

I’m not going to lie, the podcast started as an “F” you to big radio… You think you can fire us and make people not care, we’ll show you.  No radio show had done that, no one had taken ownership of their listeners.  In days prior, you got fired, and if you weren’t hired at another radio station, you disappeared.  There was no model, no one to look to to see how to do it, we kind of made it up as we went.  Angela Channel tackled the technical part (With the help of Andrew) and built a system that would work for our subscriber based idea from scratch.  There was trial and error, as those of you who have been here since the beginning know, but we figured it out.

We were a joke in the radio industry, look at those has-beens and their pathetic “podcast”.  “It’ll never work, it’s just sad”, was the sentiment going around the business, but we swallowed our pride… and proved them wrong.  Now, three years later, it is crazy to think of a popular show not podcasting, whether they are on or off “terrestrial”  radio.  The same people that mocked us on their radio show years ago, ran to the podcast format when they were let go.  Ultimately the “joke” has become the standard.

But that is really not why our podcast matters.  What it started as, is not what it has become.  Our pod is not always the most entertaining, technically perfect or even relevant.  Don’t get me wrong, some days it is all those things and more.  The Jack and Stench pod (The name it has had for the majority of it’s existence) is about friendship and dedication, it’s about family and sacrifice, honesty and sharing.  Not just between Stretch and me, but between us and you.

It hasn’t always been easy, for either of us.  I won’t go into the stresses and challenges Stretch has gone through over the last three years, I wouldn’t want to speak for him (We all know he has his own voice!)  Stretches of unemployment,  a mental breakdown, divorce, full time jobs and full time families have all been intertwined through the fabric that creates the podcast.  There were days, when the last thing I wanted to do was record that damn show… I remember recently, coming home from court, my divorce final, sitting down on my couch and breaking down crying, and thinking I have to pull it together, we have to record the pod in a hour.  Or logging onto Skype the day after getting out of the mental hospital, having to confront my demons into that headset.  There are days when I wish we could keep going, a hour isn’t long enough to laugh with my friend and talk about the world and it’s strangeness.

The pod is an inside joke between us and you, it’s good times and bad shared with friends, it’s our secret club that we’d at least like to think others would like to be a member of if they just knew about it. It’s not a radio show anymore, and it’s definitely not the Jamie, Jack and Stench Show.  It’s become about us being loyal to each other through thick and thin, the line between audience and entertainer almost totally erased, you are the pod, we just show up to turn on the mics and make sure they record. Maybe that’s why it can’t survive, something that personal may not have the mass appeal to sustain it’s self.

The Pod Mafia, The Myspace Army, The Silent Listeners and those of you who have not received a title yet, You are the podcast… And no matter what happens (We haven’t given up yet), you should be proud… You accomplished that “F” you and you created a family from a radio show… And that Rules!

In starting to get into the swing of things after completing my second week at CRN.  It has not only been challenging, but a lot of fun being there… I think we’re going to kick some a**!

The kids are coming over after not being here much over the last couple weeks, it will be so good to spend some time with them.  Lucy has already requested that we go to our favorite restaurant tonight for dinner… We have “our” table there and she gets really upset if it’s taken when we get there, we then have to sit somewhere else and move when it opens.

I have had the opportunity to spend some time with old friends lately which has been really cool.  There are reasons your friends are friends, and you realize that when you reconnect and it’s like there was never a gap.

I can’t lie to you guys, the pod is struggling a little bit (Not because of content, I feel like it’s never been better and I have never had more fun doing it!  I actually look forward to my nightly hour with stench and your emails, texts and phone messages)… It has more to do with the subscribers we lost you have not returned and the economy.  So many people have written me to tell me they’ve been out of work for a long time ( I get it!) or just having a hard time financially ( I get that one too!) and have had to cancel.  It breaks my heart that so many people out there are struggling.  Hopefully, we can get through this and rock our third year of the pod!

Alina should look into this.  That’s an expensive lamb.  You do crazy stuff after having a 40!  The cross dressing Pitt.  Alot of bikini’s in the news today.  That’s now much a pillow fight costs!  Don’t throw puppies… Especially into traffic!  It’s Grandma’s fault.

Rock On, Jack