PODCAST

: lower black pain.

Jd Michaels - The CabsEverywhere Creative Production House

Life’s lemons into rich, dark chocolate. lowerblackpain.substack.com

society & culture performing arts

All Episodes

5:16

Rusted Yet Untarnished.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/05/29

I left work yesterday whistling a sea shanty. I do not know many; I understand they are a quite popular genre in some circles. One of my first “favorite songs”was “What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?” which for some reason we sang in Montessori - an odd choice given our landlocked position in Kansas City and lack of experience with alcohol.I don’t know that I can categorize the song I sang yesterday as a proper shanty, as it was written by John Denver, a very popular folk and country artist of

5:01

That. There.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/05/22

I have been called a maximalist, by both absolute strangers as well as people with whom I share the same silverware drawer.I’m forever “cleaning up”, “straightening”, and “organizing”. The trick is to just put things “back where they belong”. Most things have “a place to go”… books, for instance live on the bookshelf, vertically. Except for the few that are too large for the case, which have to go on top of it. And then the ones that don’t necessarily fit and have to be placed atop the others,

6:05

We've Only Just Begun.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/05/15

There I was, after work, standing at the front door looking out at the pouring rain, feeling all misty-eyed and wistful. So as the soundtrack for my two-and-a-half block walk to the subway, I played a song called “Rainy Days and Mondays” by The Carpenters.[Note to youth: The Carpenters were an incredibly popular brother and sister band in the 1970s, like Billie Eilish and Finneas.]The song is indeed kind of a wistful one, written by the same man who composed “The Rainbow Connection” for Kermit the

4:21

all of the buildings that used to be bookstores.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/05/08

“…hey. pal. how do i get to town from here?”“…well, just take a right where they're going to build that new shopping mall, go straight past where they're going to put in the freeway,take a left at what's going to be the new sports center,and keep going until you hit the place wherethey're thinking of building that drive-in bank.You can't miss it.”* Laurie Anderson [Big Science]If I was, and I’m not going tobut if I was to attempt to summarize 12 monthstie it in a bowwith a pithy phraseor twee

6:17

Content.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/05/01

The penultimate column of the third year of lowerblackpain. I never saw it comin’. But here we are, together. Thank you for your time.There is a popular internet trend where two photos are displayed next to each other, the first labeled “how it started” and the second “how it’s going”. The juxtaposition implies that between the first image and the second a great deal has occurred:First image:a summertime photo of two kids in overalls sitting by a lake on a dock, laughing.Second image:a summertime

5:30

Next Stop, 145th St.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/04/24

Dear Grandpa,I haven’t been up to much: went to a new dentist this week because our old one stopped taking our insurance. The hygienist took 45 minutes to survey my mouth, racking up a list of potential things they could charge for: I felt like a car on the rack at a disreputable mechanics shop. You could almost hear the “ca-ching” sound of an old cash register every time she poked and prodded something. My teeth are actually fine – our old dentist just examined them.The family’s doing well, but the

4:23

Light Verse.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/04/17

April in the US has been officially designated National Poetry Month. April in the US has also been officially designated National Brunch Month, National Jazz Appreciation Month, and National Welding Month. Not wedding; WELDING.April is also Stress Awareness Month as well as National Cannabis Awareness Month, two Awarenesses which seem to entirely offset one other.It’s a lot of things, April - a time when quite a few incredibly important issues are annually commemorated, and in this mix is “National

4:34

From Great Grandpa.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/04/10

Ok, the world is nuts.I never really write about how crazy the world is because I’m always writing to The Future. I don’t want to be too time-specific in order to be relatable to my great grandchildren, who will read aloud my quips and jibes in their blue reflective jumpsuits, marveling at the simplicity of the writing (“…perhaps Great-Grandpa took a sharp blow to the head as a child?”) and the universal themes which somehow still ring true to them, even though I lived so long ago and never had even

3:35

Sesquicenntennialish.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/04/03

In 1976, my family celebrated America’s bi-centennial with red, white and blue Jell-o™ parfaits that used Cool Whip™ for the white part. These fancy desserts represented the United States of America. I knew from the flag that the white represented the states, and because my mother was a teacher, that the red was courage and the blue was justice.The ad with this recipe had been printed in nearly every magazine as patriotic inspiration.Those currently prone to over-analyzation might make gentle fun,

3:54

Chances Are.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/03/27

This was the first year I forgot to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. I knew what day it was, and I did have a clean green shirt in the closet, but I rocketed through the house getting ready in the morning and it just didn’t register. Hours later, I’m sitting in a meeting and realize what’s happened. There wasn’t even green on my socks… I had the blue ones with the little clouds on.I’m not Irish. My grandmother-in-law was, but I don’t think that’s really close enough to claim any kind of identity

5:38

with the blast shield down i can't even see

: lower black pain. ·

2025/03/20

I was going to write a poem, but quickly learned that nothing rhymes with the word “avoiding”. The line I was trying to rhyme with was “…all the news that i’m avoiding”Often I begin writing poems in the middle, and then branch outwards, like a pre-school child distributing a glob of finger paint on a large sheet of construction paper. This line was my glob of paint, and would not properly spread without a rhyme to match it somewhere. The closest I came was the non-word “reccognoiting”, which was

7:24

Contented.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/03/13

During this time of year, I always try to learn something new. This year I have once again approached my guitar, dedicating myself to learn one scale well enough to be able to play Frank Zappa inspired solos atop lydian chord progressions. It’s going well.I made an apple crumble from scratch yesterday morning before I left for the office. That worked out.I am still attempting a chin-up and pull-up regimen, though my recent bout of both COVID and Flu A (combined) made that goal much more challenging:

6:27

Choose Your Own Adventure. NOW.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/03/06

When I was 13 years old, I wanted everyone to call me “Han”. And to speak fluent Latin. Just admitting that up front as research material that’ll be helpful in a few minutes. Also, I knew I wanted to make music, but my favorite album was a toss up between the Star Wars Original Soundtrack and Barry Manilow: LIVE. And then… disco.Ok.The local Board of Education just wrote us an email asking our opinion of their high school selection process.We had opinions, and suggestions, and even the lightest of

7:06

Whatdyaknow?

: lower black pain. ·

2025/02/27

Dark physics are occurring in our spice cabinet.My research has been extensive and the results undeniable; when opening the cabinet, none of the labels, on ANY of our spices, EVER point FORWARD.A simple need for marjoram immediately necessitates a complex fingertip ballet, where jar after jar is delicately turned around to view its label, which covers about half its surface, but never the half facing me.And yes, I heard you:“It’s the way that you put them back in the cabinet!” you said. “You must be

6:23

The Treachery of Images.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/02/20

Subways are concrete tunnels containing smaller concrete tunnels, with the only sound absorption provided by the organic objects which move through them (on two legs or four). Thus the full-throated voice of a child careens about the place, bouncing off everything, naturally amplified to a level matching the screech of a mythical banshee.Of course we all look around to make sure there isn’t some emergency, which thankfully is rarely the case… just another toddler losing their mind over a dire life

5:49

Custom Packaging.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/02/13

My mother would find “her shade” of stockings by holding a large plastic egg shaped container upside down to see the color swatch printed on the bottom of the paper sleeve it was in. They all looked brown to me, just various browns, like the multi-tone color cards in the paint section.She would hold the container next to the back of her other hand and kind of tilt her head to the left and narrow her eyes a little. I realized that they were supposed to match somehow, like her makeup did, but I wasn’t

7:14

One To Grow On.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/02/06

During the Pandemic I had the opportunity to work with a group of black artists to produce an event during February, which naturally became associated with Black History Month. But since the event’s content focused on science fiction, it was decided we would celebrate Black Future Month instead, telling stories that focused on what might be rather than what had been.This appealed to all the artists, but not all of the organizers, who were confused at what they considered a wasted opportunity for us

6:18

Surprise.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/01/30

My body is way fancier than me.It simply HAS to have the latest flu, while it’s still pret-a-porter, before those knockoff hags get their greedy little paws on it and shovel it everywhere. But I’m not a heartless Cruella DeVille about it, I share it freely with my family. Why, just last weekend we were all in the car for a Saturday drive, zombielike and gently wheezing, simply dizzy with designer disease. How jealous the people passing us looked in the grocery store parking lot, with their clear

6:10

Quadrennial.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/01/23

I bought another chin-up bar. The category is actually listed as “pull up bars” now, I guess you don’t have to make it all the way up with your chin. Maybe that’s too much pressure, like calling push-ups “full body straight arms” or sit-ups “nose touching knees”. It’s still a valid sit-up even if you aren’t sitting ALL THE WAY up, though mine are kind of “lean-ups” now, when I try to do them.( Ahem. I apologize. Give me just a second. I’m just a wee bit… distracted.)Observant viewers may have

2:49

Go.

: lower black pain. ·

2025/01/16

For all that we’re about to see I’m ready as I’ll ever be.I don’t know if I’m really brave but I can face the facts(if we’re still doing that)I persevere and think I’ve learned to subjugate my fearsomewhatI’ve tried to save a little here and there just for emergencies andkept in shape or, in a shape – I walk enough to fill the red ring on my watch most days if not the green oneI can recognize the super blatant crazy lies but who can say what’s really wha beyond that with AI and allI call my Momcheck

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