6.4: Christina Ward: Punk Rock Publishing, Outsider Literature & the Secret Revolutionary History of Food

I love Christina Ward. And I love the work she does.

I am lucky enough to know some really brilliant and wonderful women. Christina? She is absolutely top shelf.

As an author, she does outrageously cool writing on food and food history. Canning and food preservation? She’s got you. The relationship between food, cults and class? Read her work. It will blow your mind.

Christina also has another gig: she is one of the primary folks at a publishing company known as Feral House. Around since 1989, FH has certainly courted controversy, being one of the very first publishers to release texts on such taboo subjects as black metal, punk, death culture, conspiracies and cults. But FH does not center itself on shock; it works on examining outsider perspectives and the work that Christina and the team there do is vital to our thorough understanding of the world.

I invite you to listen to my conversation with Christina Ward in which we discuss all these things and more. The books and writing that they platform place them solidly against misogyny, colonialism, capitalism and classism, making them an incredibly valuable publisher in this day and age.

As usual, bio is below the podcast link. Links to various subjects from our conversation are embedded in the bio so be sure to click on those and check’em out!!

Christina Ward is an author, editor, and seeker. She had the distinct pleasure of riding around town in the Wienermobile with Padma Lakshmi on the hottest day in July of 2019 for “Taste the Nation.” Her newest book, Holy Food: Recipes and Foodways from Cults, Communes, and New Religious Movements, will be published in early spring of 2023. Her previous book, American Advertising Cookbooks-How Corporations Taught Us To Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O, earned positive notice from Florence Fabricant in the New York Times, Christopher Kimball of Milk Street Radio, and numerous other journalists and readers.

Christina makes regular guest expert on Milwaukee television programs and public radio stations across the United States, delighting in ‘working blue’ before 8 am. She is also the Vice President of Feral House, a publisher noted for their books on outré topics. She contributed to and edited the 2021 book Bawdy Tales & Trifles of Devilries for Ladies and Gentlemen of Experience under her nom d’amour, Lady Fanny Woodcock. She has guided, edited, contributed to, and in a few (unnamed) instances, rewritten, over fifty books.

She has an interest in the lives of forgotten “difficult women” and bringing their stories to readers. Christina regularly contributes to academic and educational conferences on the topic of transgressive art. In her spare time, she is the certified Master Food Preserver for South East Wisconsin and always picks up the phone to answer pressing questions about jelly that won’t set and soft pickles.

Christina’s book on food preservation: Preservation The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation and Dehydration

Book on Maila Nurmi aka Vampyra!

As mentioned, Four White Horses and a Brass Band – the story of Violet McNeal!!!

Definitely check out Dirty Helen Cromwell in Good Time Party Girl

Great book- You Can’t Win by Jack Black (no, not THAT Jack Black)

As mentioned, Roving Bill Aspinwall

Also- for those punks out there like me who are interested in punk crime lore and thorough about their history…I think this looks interesting and it’s got Raymond Pettibon art… Disco’s Out…Murder’s in!

S6.2: Raphael Rashid: Human Rights Journalism, Twitter Activism & “Agendas”

My friend Raphael is remarkable.

It’s hard for me to properly describe what he does except to say that he writes wonderfully about all the truly problematic areas in Korea.

You should just listen to the episode. It’s a really great conversation.

Do I love Korea and living in Korea? Sure. There’s a lot to love. But no country is without its problems. And what I know is that what Raphael is doing is critical to my survival here. He keeps me updated and informed.

I know that I’m not alone in this. While (as we discussed) some (a “vocal minority”) may think that his twitter feed has an “agenda,” his only agenda is providing real, honest journalism. It’s mostly human rights-related information but his work spans all kinds of topics in Korea and that’s why reading him is really great.

No one is doing what Raphael Rashid is doing and I feel so lucky to know him.

Please enjoy our conversation and follow him on Twitter. And if you don’t have Twitter, just go there every so often to see his posts!!!

And if you read Korean….he’s got a new book out!! Let’s hope that it gets translated into English *crosses fingers*

As usual, links and bio under the episode….

Bio: Raphael Rashid is a freelance journalist in Seoul and has been based in South Korea for over a decade. His writings have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, and Nikkei Asia, with a focus on societal issues. He is the author of a recently published book examining conformity and unhappiness within South Korean society.

Raphael’s recent book can be found here: http://kyobo.link/vaZR

AND HIS AMAZING TWITTER CAN BE LOCATED HERE: https://twitter.com/koryodynasty

S4.7: Ferrin Evans : Queer Loss, Marginalized Experiences and Demanding a Seat at the Table

Once again, I must apologize for the long period it has been between recording this and it going live.
I fear that the entirety of Season 4 is going to have some…bumps…in it because there were many moments in the last 6 months where I did not feel comfortable posting a new episode and having any attention taken away from a) what was going on in the news (the protests, etc) or b) lessen the wonderful words of my guests. So you’ll have to just sorta deal with the fact that some of the topics on here are a little dated but it’s interesting to consider them in light of what then occurred AFTER this conversation, for better or worse.
Whatever life is, it is far from boring….

I will also apologize for myself. I got far too excited during this podcast episode and I think I spoke over Ferrin too much and I regret that because while editing it, I realized that there was so much more I wanted to know about and wanted to ask him but I was having such a good time with the kind of energy that he exudes, even over a vocal virtual communication system that I almost forgot what we were there for.
I will have him on again and I promise to be a much better listener next time. Wow am I embarrassed! But it just goes to show Ferrin’s charisma and brilliance. What an incredible human being. I hope you all can get a feel for the groundbreaking work he is doing, the passion he has for life and living and the way he conquers his (and the) world. It’s stunning. Like him.

As usual, bio and links under the podcast!

Ferrin Evans is a Master of Information candidate at the University of Toronto.  He currently has two media archiving contracts at the university: at the Media Commons Archive and at the Sexual Representation Collection.  In the past, he has worked with the Gay Archives of Quebec, Inside Out Toronto, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Cinema Politica, and the MIX New York Queer Experimental Film Festival, where he served on the Board of Directors.  He is currently completing an oral history-centered thesis about risk, desire, and loss on Fire Island during COVID-19.

LINKS:

Article related to my most current media archival work at University of Toronto:http://sds.utoronto.ca/news/new-acquisitions-at-the-sexual-representation-collection/
SAA Community Reflection on Black Lives and Archives (June 2020):https://www.pathlms.com/saa/events/1996/video_presentations/162192
“Treat Them with the Reverence of Archivists”: Records Work, Grief Work, and Relationship Work in the Archiveshttps://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13699

S4.6: Shannon Devlin: Emotional Investments, Good Relationships & the Trouble With Graduation

My utmost apologies for the lengthy time between last podcast release and this one. Things have been a little busy and then just a little wonky around here. I’m sure that everyone can understand that, considering the Pandemic is pretty much making our lives which may not have been stable before…very much less so.

However, I am quite sorry to any listeners who like listening regularly if they missed having stable show “ness” and to the guests whose episodes I recorded before my brief few week break.

However, now I’m back in action and diving right in with my wonderful, talented and eloquent friend Shannon. I wish so much I could give her a hug right now. She’s so sweet and just has the best energy. I think you will hear it in our conversation. What a great asset to media archives and preservation and (for me personally) what a great pal to have!

As usual, here’s the podcast, and bio and cool links are below! Check out those links!

Shannon Devlin (she/they), is a film and media archivist, and recent graduate of the Master of Library Science program at Indiana University. While there she specialized in Archives and Records Management, and worked both for the Indiana University Moving Image Archive as well as for the Mass Digitization Preservation Initiative as an assistant to the Audiovisual Specialist. She was the 2019 Roselani Media Preservation Intern at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu’s ‘Ulu’ulu Moving Image Archive, and is currently working in the film lab at Memnon Archiving Services as well as continuing her role at the Indiana University Moving Image Archive.

Links:

IU Moving Image Archive

MDPI

Memnon @ IU

‘Ulu’ulu