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Welcome to a psycho delicious conversation on mental health issues and trends from two local mental health professionals in the greater Lansing area. I'm Michael Stratton, lmsw.

And I'm Morgan Bowen, dnp, pmhnp. And we're here to provide you with a deep dive into the human experience of consciousness and beyond. Our aim is to be educational and entertaining. So just kick back and open your ears and your minds.

Hey, I'm Mike Stratton.

And I'm Morgan Bowen.

Let me just start saying I'm Dadalion Lowry.

Does that.

Yeah, yeah, Okay.

I just started doing that.

And.

And Dalian is our producer, producing, and we're here to talk about mental health.

And.

And we. Please listen to the first part of this episode which was on stress. And we're going to talk about solutions to stress or ways to manage stress or deal with stress.

Stress management.

Right.

How do you do that, Mike?

That's it. That's the show. There are so many ways to deal with it. I think about working from it outside in, like, can you change the thing that's stressing you out? Is there anything you can do about that? Sometimes you can. You can, you know, slow down your work, for instance, or I'm going to take this responsibility off of me and give it to someone else. Or I'm going to. I'm going to change that relationship. I'm going to get out of this relationship that's very stressful, or I'm going to make more money if it's financial, or I'm going to seal it. So there's all of those external things you can do. I mean, I think that's one of the first things to look at is can I change the thing that's stressing me out?

Now, as a therapist, would you ever say, I think you need to quit your job or I think you need to get out of this relationship?

It would be more reflective. It seems like that job is causing you a lot of stress.

You know, hopefully that they would come to their own conclusion.

Yeah, it's like, have you ever changed jobs before? What do you imagine that would be like? Or what keeps you at this job? It sounds like it's really stressful, but at the same time you really feel like you so. So much of therapy is also providing that tension of providing the two sides of a dilemma and letting the person kind of work through it. Well, let's talk about what if you don't leave the job? On the other hand, what if you do leave it? What would you imagine that would Be like going through that process, you know, I think can be helpful thing.

It can be. There's a problem solving aspect to it. Sometimes people come in and there is an identifiable stressor and they need help kind of working through what that looks like to possibly change something about it.

It's problem solving, but it also reveals, like, values. It reveals their own narrative of like, I can't quit my job. My dad would hate it if I quit a job. You know, it unveils something about them that it's a rule that they're living under. And sometimes internalized rules are things that get people stuck and lost.

So.

Let'S talk about divorce again. In my family, people had not been divorced, and so I was the first one to get a divorce.

It's the American way.

I had to wait till my parents died, and then it felt okay to get a divorce. Really.

My family was complete opposite.

It was all divorces.

You get married to get divorced.

I genuinely. I didn't get married until my 30s, and I genuinely didn't because. Because I didn't want to get divorced. I didn't want to go through that because I watched all my family members go through it. And then I got, you know, waited until 35 and still got divorced.

So I was like, all right, whatever.

There you go. There you go. That's that. That's it.

What is the divorce rate these days? Two thirds from.

Is it two thirds?

I don't know.

I used to be 50 or.

Well, our producer is gonna check it out.

You guys keep talking. I'll look it up. Yeah, but there's other stress management things. You got some ideas, don't you, Morgan?

Well, you know, in my world as a clinician, people come and they want immediate. Well, I shouldn't say that sometimes there's. What's the word? Management of expectations. Because immediate relief is a. Sounds like a good thing. And so medication.

Is there a chemical solution to this?

No, there is not. There is none. It can be helpful with symptoms of stress. So sleeping. A lot of times people are not sleeping if they're incredibly stressed. The brain goes haywire as people lie down. So I feel very tired, but then I lie down, and my brain goes in a million different directions about all of the problems that I have or could have. You know, there's certainly things that we can do to assist with that type of thing, but it doesn't take away whatever, you know, whatever is happening.

I'm messing with your.

ADD.

I'm looking at the.

So 2.5 divorces per 1,000 people. This was in 2021.

And then compute them.

Almost 50% of all marriages in the United States end in divorce or separation. This doesn't give us a year, though. And then it says 41% of all first marriages end in divorce.

So when I see people and they are looking for that immediate answer, it tells me something about just the level of stress that they're at. If they just want it done, they're on the brink. Things are in a red zone area. Whereas somebody maybe who's coming in for therapy, and I'm sure you see people in crisis coming in, but it's always better to try to address these things before they reach the crisis, the crisis stage, because you can intervene and do things. So one of the things that I really like to talk about is meditation with people as a stress management technique. And there's two camps. One is I've tried meditation and it didn't work for me or I could not meditate. So there are some people that answer in the affirmative. But meditation is not something that you can just start. And as a tool, it's going to work. When you're super stressed out or having a panic attack, you can't sit down and deep breathe and meditate your way into calm. It is a practice, and it is a lifestyle practice. So the secret to stress management, as far as I see, is maintenance of a practice of life that lends itself to ongoing stress management rather than crisis to crisis to crisis. Certainly I have lived crisis to crisis to crisis before in my life, and I think a lot of young people do, and a lot of adults do, too. But at a certain point, personally, I was frustrated with. I called it the house of cards. I'd build the house of cards up, and then something would happen and it all blow down and I'd build that house of cards up. So when I sought a way to try to address that, it was about building a foundation that was sustainable, that could withstand the winds that would blow down my house of cards. So for me, meditation was a helpful tool for me to maintain a stress level. It doesn't take away my stress, but it does allow me to withstand the stress that comes my way. And I am not perfect at it. I just recently started meditating. I'm remed.

I think that's one of those things where when you start it, you kind of drift sometimes and then you come back to it again if you found it to be beneficial. Because I do the same thing. It's like I have periods of my life where I'm pretty good at it. I can do it on a daily basis. And then other points where I'll stop for a good month or two if return, not knowing when I'm going to return, and then get stressed out about the fact that I'm not meditating.

It's true. And that can in and of itself create stress, keeping it doable. So five minutes a day, ten minutes a day. There's definitely gurus and practitioners on insight, Timer and calm and Headspace who make a full living and being some type of. I don't know if it's not a spiritual guide, but a type of life coach or then they seem to meditate all the time.

Transcendental meditation. Whether you have a mantra that you repeat for 20 minutes twice a day, there are people who love that. That's what.

Paul, do you have a mantra? Does anyone have a mantra?

I had a mantra at one time. I do not have a mantra. But I didn't do the not for meditation. I had one that I found online, actually, and I used that for a while and it was okay. It was all right. But when I meditate now, I use a little bit of a guided imagery where someone does just a few minutes of it, and then he'll have a long period of time where he's silent and it'll seem like a long period of time. And then he'll say, if you've noticed yourself thinking about something. And invariably I'm thinking about something, you.

Know, I'm making a plan, which is okay. It's unrealistic to think that you are not going to think about something.

I do have. Yeah, I usually do the guided meditations, and I think the ones that crack me up are when I am doing a pretty good job and then the personal talk. And I'm like, I wasn't thinking.

My mind was blank. I was there.

Well, this guy will occasionally think, say, you know, when did you decide to have that thought? And you realize, like, oh, my God, I. I never decided to have that thought. It just came up that our thoughts just emerge. And one thing that the meditation has done for me is to recognize both. You know, what's my internal narrative? What fires together, wires together in your brain? What are you thinking of almost all the time? And so much of what I think about is, what's next? You know, what do I got to do? What's the next plan? When is this going to happen? You know, it's so much of it is future tense as opposed to living in the moment. Like, isn't this Fun.

That's the American way. I mean, the three of us.

Who could have imagined the three of us sitting around just shooting it about meditation. Meditation and dreams and stress.

And I always think it's important when. Like when. When you talk about meditation, because I. The most common thing that. When I talk to people about meditating is, oh, I can't clear my mind for that long. That's not the point. It really isn't. The point is just to be able to recognize what's going on through your brain.

I start to see a meditator today.

Again, not always great at it, though. I have periods where I'm really good and then other times I'm not.

You should have known him before.

I guess with a name like Dadalion, I mean, you gotta.

You gotta.

Well, the meditator and then exercise is a big stress management technique. You know, your body will create its own endorphins if you. And dopamine, if you put it through some amount of stress and you get to that point. I always. So I did two of these short. They call them sprints, these triathlons, you know, so where you swim for a quarter of a mile and then you bike for 10 miles and then you do a 5k at the end.

Did you do the Hawk Island?

Yeah, I did that twice in my 50s. I did that in my 50s. And so, you know, what I always say is, as you come out of the trees, you know, for the 5K, and you can see the finish line, you know, it's about a half mile away, but you can see it. And I just say that the sky's open and you can see your ancestors, you know, call the power. It's. It is that endorphin rush that you get at that point. It's like, oh, my gosh, this feels great. But just doing anything where you're moving your body on a regular basis, even just walking. And these days I'm a walker more than anything else because I don't know if I've got another. I don't think I have another triathlon in me. I probably could, but I like.

Really?

Why? Why would I do another one?

You'd be meeting your ancestors.

I would meet. Come on up, Mike.

Seeing you guys a little closer than I wanted.

Yeah.

Yes, exercise, absolutely. The research, the evidence base really does bore this out. So in mental health, mental health management. Stress management is a mental health maintenance approach. Primary care mental health. So if you maintain the mental health, it provides protection from the spikes that happen when you encounter a stress or A car accident, an angry person at Meijer. That's you out in the line and all sorts of things. Road rage. Oh, man. Feel like I am very worried that people are in a constant state of road rage. And I feel like I need to be aware of that so that I can protect against it. This is kind of off topic, but when I was driving. Not really because this 127 into. Well, I guess it's 127 where the 496 interchange when you're going north and then it goes.

Yeah.

Down to like one lane. But it's terribly marked.

Yeah.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer, whoever's doing the construction.

In Lansing, she's not doing that.

Don't put it on horribly, Mark.

She's.

She's out there all by herself.

I love Governor, you know, a super fan, but. So there was almost this accident and then there was like a road rage response between the two drivers. And I'm just trying to pivot around what's happening so that it doesn't, you know, impact me. It's stressful. I mean, that driving is stressful.

Yeah, definitely.

That's what I don't like is that it's the other people and you can see it and feel the stress build around those cars that are doing that.

You know, that it triggers me a little bit because when Covid hit and.

People were driving like 80 miles per hour everywhere.

Well, I went to Meijer at a point when they said, we're going to be closing down the stores. They're only going to be open certain hours and stuff like that. And I went to the store and I saw this wild look on some people's faces, you know, and their carts were just jam full like, this is it. This is the end of the world. There it is. You know, you could just see like, you know, I was just coming to get some stuff for the weekend, and there were other people that had this kind of sense and no telling what they're going to drive like, when they get out.

Well, it's such an important point because we have culturally had just so much of a higher stress point, maybe, you know, a set point for the stress levels. I would say, since probably Covid, maybe before. I mean, all this is debatable. But when there is just this higher stressed out point, the ability or the possibility of spiking to a high, high point is much greater. And that is. That happens in the individual. If you are stressed, then something that happens, you are going to have a much more erratic or unpredictable response to than if you have maintained the ability to absorb a stressful impulse or a stressful situation. So. And it's on all of us individually to be able to manage that in ourselves so that our stress does not become a reaction or a response to somebody else. And that is a real. It feels like a real danger in our culture at the moment. I don't know. I think a lot of people feel that, and I don't know how real that is, but I'm very wary of when something like this road rage thing happens, that it could become something big. Whereas. I don't know if I really felt that way before. No, you know what I'm saying?

And there's, you know, there's yet another shooting that just took place down in Florida State. You know, Michigan State, of course, had that a year ago. Or was it two years ago? I don't know.

I mean, it's time to record the Parkland shooting, right? That was the high school one, because a lot of. Some of the students who were involved in this one had been at Parkland during the. Once you were in high school. I know. Isn't that crazy?

So people, if they. If they have a consciousness about stress and how to de. Stress or how to build a sustainable practice, you know, like, I'm just going to walk, I'm going to try to meditate, I'm going to give myself some quiet time. Going to try to get myself some good sleep.

Sleep. Sleep is the number one most important thing you can. I'm trying to plug this to everybody. Sleep is the number one thing you can do for physical health, mental health and stress management is sleep.

It's how you fix a computer. You turn it off and you turn it back on.

Reboot consistent sleep. Consistently sleeping connection. Consistently sleeping. Enough hours for you. That can vary, but your body likes consistency. The body as an organism likes consistency.

And another thing is community of having friends, being able to connect with a community of people, being able to plug in with people and doing fun things that you like to do. I mean, I think there's a high association of happiness. I think one thing that's very stressful is when people feel really isolated. And there was a book I read a long time ago, the Pursuit of Loneliness. And I think it's. We've only gotten even more lonely over time. And we have all these, you know, we all have this device that we feel like we're plugged in with everybody. We're not, you know, we're. People are less happy with using their phone.

What are some unhealthy ways to cope with stress.

Michael, your phone. Eating. A lot of compulsive behavior. Tv.

Just sitting around watching TV all the time.

Overeating. Just. Yeah. Interacting with a screen. Mainly isolating.

Tell us about your ice cream consumption, Michael. Why did you have a decent approach?

Morgan's passive aggressive anal expulsive tendency.

What?

I share it. Well, I think.

Do I know about your ice cream?

It's not terrible. I think you have a pretty good approach to it.

I have. I do. I. I have three to spoons of Ben and Jerry's every night.

All right.

Yeah.

I mean, you.

Moderation. Moderation, Moderation. I did not know this about you. Yeah, well, I do that. I do that. Yeah.

Do you feel like it's a stress management technique or it's a habit at this point?

It's a habit. I can skip it.

I was just thinking about when I smoked. So I used to smoke cigarettes. And when I would feel very stressed out, I would say, I need. I need a cigarette. I gotta go outside and smoke a cigarette. Add to your.

Your heartbeat.

Turn it up.

I don't know what it.

I.

People have postulated. I don't know why that word just came to mind, but gives you endorphins, right? The deep breathing. So when you're breathing, you know, when you're inhaling, the deep breathing. I don't know if that's true, but I've heard people say that before.

So I think one thing that we should talk about a little bit is when do people know that they should get help? Because stress is something everybody experiences. When is it so big that someone feels like they need help when they're.

Eating three to five scoops of ice cream?

Not scoops. Small spoons. Small spoons.

Look, I will admit, if I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm hungry for something, I get.

Sweets almost every time. Yeah. Isn't that funny? I don't know why your body is craving sugar or something, so.

Leave them alone.

Morgan.

Yeah. Let the man have his ice cream. Well, that's a good question. When do you know? And is it that you know, or is it when somebody else recognizes somebody, maybe around you?

Well, if someone around you recognizes it or suggests that you get it, it's worth looking into to say, like, oh, my gosh, if other people are noticing this, I think if you feel really overwhelmed, if it's ongoing, if there's no break in it, if you notice physical symptoms starting to pop up as a result of it, I mean, I think all of those things are possible little indicators of like, oh, maybe I should try to get some therapy. Because therapy can help as well. Just having someone that you can talk to, who can help organize and notice what your triggers are and pull in the idea of like, well, have you tried this? Have you tried that? It could be problem solving, but it could also be restructuring your whole narrative of what you feel like you have to do in the world versus what you need to do.

And it's a plug for connection, support, network, community engagement. When you're around other people, they notice things about you and maybe say something to you when you seem off or you seem stressed out or you're acting like a real big whatever.

Having a cat, cats can help.

And that's a good barometer for some people. And isolation removes you from that and removes you from the input from others. For me, you know, if you do develop a stress management lifestyle protocol that, that you feel good in and then move forward in your life, you. You almost build a memory, a somatic memory to that. So if you begin to feel or go through a period some, you can stop hopefully and say, I don't like feeling like this. I don't want to feel like this anymore. I don't want to feel like crap anymore. I got to do something different.

And that's the bottom line. If you do something and you do notice that it makes you feel differently, then you can habituate around that. So there's certain things that I do that I know I'm going to feel better as a result of this. I talked about yoga in the first episode of this, of just doing a yoga class that I know I'm going to feel better after doing it.

Did you ever do yoga in the 70s? Like back in the kind of more hippie, dippy 70s, I think I started.

Geez. I used to walk by the studio where people were doing yoga and I thought, that looks like that's not even exercise. They were just standing there holding poses and it's like. So I went in to do it one time just to check it out, and 30 minutes into it, I'm like every. I'm just shaking all over and sweating. It's like, this is a lot harder.

Than I thought it would be.

All of your little stabilizer muscles.

Do you find it a meditative practice or more of an exercise?

It can be both. I mean, that's the nice thing. It's yolks. It yolks together both the meditative kind of quality and also what's going on with your body. So there's some things that build strength, there's some things that increase flexibility and there's some things that improve balance. And the older I get, the more balance in particular is really important to me. So that's, you know, to be able to do the tree, to be able to stand on one leg, that kind of thing. There's other things that people in that class can do that I'm like, there's no way I'm going to do that. There's no.

Right. Some people, yeah. Now, what about substance use? So a lot of people find a glass of wine relaxing, stress relief with marijuana. What do you think about that?

What do you think about it?

Well, I don't know. I mean, for some people it is. I do know. I mean, for some people it is a glass of wine with dinner. So you come home definitely from a chemical perspective, lowers or addresses central nervous system as a depressant, alcohol in particular. So there is that. It can get dicey. When your stress relief or stress management is based on a substance and it's not something that you are able to do or to induce on your own and then you rely on something and begin to see it opens up the door. Beginning to see that as the gateway to stress relief and that can set up a problematic relationship, I would say, with the substance.

We have episodes on different substances as well. So people can look into that and that's good. I think we're done here. A Psycho Delicious conversation is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is no substitute for therapy and should not be treated as such. If you feel a need for real therapy, you should consult your local provider, Google Therapy or therapists in your area. Check with community mental Health or a suicide hotline if you are feeling suicidal.

Mike and Morgan welcome your questions, feedback or dilemmas. Feel free to send us an email at a psychodelicious conversationmail.com that is a psychodelicious P S Y C H O D E L I C I o u s conversationmail.com the views expressed on.

This podcast are solely the opinions of Mike Stratton and Morgan Bowen and do not reflect the views or opinions of any site broadcasting this podcast. Replication of this podcast without written permission is strictly prohibited. Connecting you with lansing community college. This is lcc connect.

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This is Bob Myers from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan History Moment. There's chicken in Frankenmuth fudge on Mackinac island, pasties in the Upper Peninsula, but muskrat? Yes, muskrat, the swamp dwelling rodent has long been a popular item on the menu in some Michigan locales. Native peoples and early European settlers ate muskrat, but it was apparently the War of 181812 that made it a common food item. In 1813, United States troops moved against the British at present day Monroe, Michigan. The army were requisitioned food and supplies from the area's ethnic French population. After the Battle of the river raisin in late January 1813, the British and their allies destroyed much of the settlement. The war left little for the civilians to eat. Famished people ate anything they could, and the plentiful muskrats helped them survive the emergency. Local lore has it that the famous Catholic priest Father Gabriel Richard granted permission for the people to eat muskrat during Lent. The concept of aquatic animals as fish dated back to the 17th century when Francois de Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, inquired of theologians at the Sorbonne about eating beaver meat during Lent. They replied that beavers could indeed be considered fish, especially their hindquarters. The wartime famine eventually abated, but not the public's taste for Muskrat. By 1890, Monroe was nicknamed Muskrat City. In 1897, people in southeastern Michigan successfully petitioned the state legislature to expand the hunting season for muskrat. People dubbed it the muskrat Legislature. The Monroe representative responded by treating his fellow legislators to a muskrat dinner at the Hudson House in Lansing. In 1902, the Monroe yacht Club hosted the first of several annual muskrat dinners. Other nonprofit groups followed suit. Politicians knew to attend these affairs lest they show themselves as too snooty to partake of the common food. Area restaurants put muskrat on the menu in 1987 the Michigan Health Department banned muskrat from the restaurants. People were furious. A campaign ensued calling on Monroe residents to rally round our muskrat. In 1988, the Michigan legislature passed Senate Control Current Resolution 501 stating that county health departments should not ban wild game fundraising dinners sponsored by charitable organizations. In 1988, the Smithsonian Institution featured Monroe Cooks at its 21st annual American Folklife Festival. There, on the National Mall in Washington, they proudly demonstrated the best ways to prepare the Michigan delicacy. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.

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Hello everyone and welcome to Now Spinning, the official podcast of the Lansing Community College Vinyl Record Club. We meet twice a month to listen to vinyl and talk about music. Stay tuned to learn about how you can get in touch with us and attend our meetings. Hello everybody. Welcome back to Now Spinning. In the Room. With me today I have Jacob Zocvic, Noah Miller. I am still Simon Medina as far as I know right now, and today we have a very interesting topic. It's a little bit different than what We've done before, but the theme of this meeting was Crime and Punishment or Law and Order, whatever you want to say.

It's an interesting theme mostly because I feel like just the kind of general rebellious nature of music tends to push musicians into writing songs from one side of the law. And it's not the law side. And that's cool. You know, everybody. Everybody loves rebellious music. And stay tuned. There. There might be one pro law song on here. Maybe it's a stretch, but yeah. So we start with the theme from Twin Peaks.

I haven't really watched this show, but listening to this theme, I almost hear like Chet Baker singing over this. It's got that kind of like real like ballad jazz from like the 50s kind of thing.

Spooky, even some. As Chet Baker added an amount of like, echo and reverb in. In his songs that I think was a bit different from the time, at least in the guitar parts. Like you can hear it in the guitar parts. It's a vibe.

Yeah.

And the Twin Peaks is a wild show, so it fits the vibe well, I think.

Rest in peace, David Lynch, Shout Out.

Great friend of the show. Following that one up, we have April 29, 1992, parentheses Miami by Sublime. I'm just gonna say we should. We gotta do a meeting where we just do, like, songs that are just places or just like times of the year or something. I don't know.

That'd be so easy. But yeah, that'd be a good one. Sublime, classic counterculture band. Obviously they're on one side of Law and order in most of their stuff. Yeah, I knew some miscreants growing up that loved Sublime.

Ne' Er Do Wells. Yeah.

But good stuff. After that, we have New York City Cops by the Strokes, which is a song I played, which, yeah, as you might have guessed, disparages New York City's Cops a little bit. It was on their first album, very briefly. Most releases of the album don't have it on there. You can figure out why. And right after that is not a song I played, but one that I really enjoy. Firestarter by the Prodigy. Electric dance type band. I don't know how best to describe them, but Europop, Britpop, something like that, they're awesome. Especially if you're looking for something unique and a little bit different. They're great, the Firestarter. You know, I think it's. Whoever played this intended to be like, oh, it's like a criminal. But if you listen to the lyrics, like, Prodigy is so cool and they seem like hard guys. You Know, but you listen to the lyrics, they're kind of silly, you know, Like, I'm the twisted firestarter. I'm the punky fire starter. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't actually. Like, it doesn't actually seem all that sinister when you actually listen to it, but the vibe of the song is so sinister that it. It really pulls it back up into, like, an intense.

Yeah.

You know, banging track, you know, I.

Also want to shout out the album cover, which is just like, a picture of a crab, but, like, the pictures, like, distorted so it looks like it's, like, in motion, like, the crab is coming at you. I think that's powerful.

Yeah.

Interesting cover.

Yeah. And then next up, we have Dangerous Liaison from Black midi. This is one that Simon and I actually got to see played live.

Yes. Recently.

About a month ago. Yeah, we went and saw Jordy Greep in Kalamazoo. And, yeah, this was actually concert. This was a. This was an interesting poll. I was pretty close to the front, so I saw the set list and I saw a DL on there, and I had no idea what that would have been, but then. Oh, yeah, yeah, it was real close to the front.

You're right. It was right up.

Was it just a piece of paper laid down? Yeah, I mean, it was all typed.

Out and stuff, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it was like. Yeah, it was like Kalamazoo, you know? You know, the venue and then it had, like, the list and. Yeah, no, it was really cool.

Nice.

But, yeah, really cool song. A farmhand getting recruited by the devil to perform murder.

Oh, yeah. This is a. All of Black MIDI songs are, like, interesting lyrically, but, like, this one has one of my favorite. Just like, my favorite lines of any song, which is a. And some people really are awful. He said this. You can't deny some people are as useless as lids on a fish's eyes, Dude.

Yeah, I love that line.

Clever.

And then, like, at, like, the climax of the song, it's just like the songs about, like, getting Rick recruited to, like, kill a guy by the devil. But then it's just like, he realized that he's not coming back to, like, give him his reward, and he's like. And then, like, halfway through the song is like, a line. It's like, no mob justice. There's, like, no pain. It's like, no gang affiliation. No mob justice. He just, like, screams murder. And I was like. In the concert, I was giving me chills. It was so awesome. Like, everybody in the crowd just, like, screamed murder at the Same time. And it was a. It was a surreal experience.

Yeah, this was actually a pretty cool. Because I actually saw him out in North Carolina, too, before I knew that the Kalamazoo date was coming up. And thank you to the drummer, Charlie Sheft, for getting my girlfriend and I in on the list for the Kalamazoo show.

Friend of the show.

Yeah. Closest friend of the show that we've actually, like, probably had, maybe. But, yeah, no, he didn't even pull that out for North Carolina. So that was a really, really welcome addition to that at the Kalamazoo show. It was a really good show.

One last thing before we move on. I follow that guy on Instagram, and his, like, Instagram handle is chefboyardee.

Yes.

So that's. That was beautiful. I thought, jumping down the list a little bit. We have a couple. Couple country songs, actually, and we have here a Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash from the album Live at Folsom Prison. It's. I guess that's the place for it. If you're gonna play that song, you're gonna play it at the namesake.

Yeah.

And this is a. Just a fantastic version of this song. Like, if you listen to the studio version, it's just like. It's. It's fine, but the energy's not there. This one, you can, like, feel it as, like, you know, then, like, he's really into it. They're all really into it. Like, the crowds cheering. There's, like, one bit I know, actually in the song where they said, I. Like, I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. They. The crowd did not cheer for that. They had to edit that in because they were afraid they were gonna get, like, harassed by the guards if they cheered for the line that's about killing a guy. Yeah. But this is just a fantastic. This is my favorite. I'm not really a big country guy, but this album is definitely one of my favorite country albums. Probably my actual favorite country album in general. Johnny Cash, classic. Awesome album.

Real. Real OG Kind of country, outlaw country.

That kind of stuff.

Yeah.

Hopping down to the other country album that got played. This is another one that. Another Crime and Punishment album, really, like, it's called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins. And the song is El Paso, which is another one of those songs that's like telling a story of. I think that's an interesting one. It's a very interesting storytelling song.

Yeah, It's. It's two guys kind of fighting over a woman, and if. If I. I wasn't at this meeting. So I was just kind of, like, listening through, getting ready for the podcast. And I believe our, like, protagonist, like, kills the other guy.

Yeah.

And then he's getting hunted by the law, and then, you know, he, like, go. He, like, goes back to the. The bar or whatever, and then he gets shot. But interesting thing about this is that the woman's name they're fighting over is Felina. And tangent warning. This is going to go into something a bit different than Wreckers right now. But I've been playing a lot of Dark souls recently, and one of the characters, Lautrec of Carim, he has golden armor that has a design on there that looks like he's being embraced from behind.

Okay.

And then he also has this ring called the Ring of Favor and Protection, which in the item description explicitly mentions Felina and how she's kind of a fickle God. And that this ring gives you a boost to your health, stamina, and equipment load. And if you take that off, the ring breaks and you cannot re. Equip it. So once you put it on, you have to keep it on for as long as you intend to have that extra health, stamina, and equipment load.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It just kind of represents the fickle nature of. Yeah. So tangent over.

Interesting tangent. Lcc.

Dark Felina. Not a. Not a.

Not a common name, but I think.

I've heard it other places.

The song, like, in the song, there's a line that's like, wicked and evil were the eyes of Felina. So he said he knows that this woman is, like, evil, but he's still like, I need her. Like, it's so funny.

Yeah. Also interesting little thing. Felina kind of comes from, like, Feline, So cat. You know, cat eyes, maybe. Maybe a little connection there. But yeah, nice little kind of sort of Latin guitars and, like, kind of mariachi sort of sound to it with the sort of waltz feel. But, yeah, really good track.

Yeah. I was gonna say, since we haven't had any, like, law songs on this yet, if someone like this album, you know, Big Iron is on this album, that's probably the most popular, like, law song. One of the most popular songs. That's from the perspective of the police, I think. I don't know. With police, sheriff, whatever. Arizona Ranger. Arizona Ranger.

Arizona Ranger, Yeah. Hasn't been too long in town.

Exactly. But now for something a little bit. A little bit different. Somebody played Night on Disco Mountain. Not entirely sure what the charge is here, but we're working on that.

You know, Hey, I love disco. Might as well, get some disco in there every once in a while. I'm glad somebody played it.

Liking disco used to be a crime.

Exactly. I don't know if there's any, like, crime disco out there. If there is, send it to me. I would love to hear it.

Yeah, but Night in Disco Mountain, David Shire, really kind of interesting interplay of different genres. There's the disco, obviously, but then there's.

Also.

Some theatrical strings, almost dramatic string sections, and then this kind of funk bass as well, or this funk setup as well. Just very interesting kind of intersection of those.

It's a good one.

So I think we're gonna real quickly talk about somebody played 365 by 365. I don't know. I don't know what he. However you want to speak it out. But Charlie xcx, so Charlie xcx, I just want to point out, did not know even about them before this album it came out. Everybody lost their minds. I was like, all right, I'll listen to it. I listen to it. And, yes, it's pretty good. It's pretty good.

Yeah. Like, I'd heard her name around a little bit. She did, like, some collabs with, like, some bigger pop names, I think. And then, yeah, a lot of people were really kind of losing their minds over this one, and I. This is the only track that I've heard from Charlie, so I need to kind of dig into her stuff a little more.

The whole album is really complex. Like, it goes to so many different places and styles. Well, you know, still remaining that sort of kind of dirty pop sound. But it's.

It's very. It's. It's.

No two songs are quite the same, and it. It really works well as an entire album. You know what I mean? Like, it's great to pull singles off of it and stuff, but as the whole thing, a pretty good listen. Front to Bend, you know.

No, I've been digging. I dug that track from what I heard.

Yeah, Good one.

Great album cover, too. Yeah, I think. Yeah, Very interesting.

Love the minimalist design.

Yeah. It probably took them six months to find that perfect shade of green.

So next up is a song that I played, Wanted by Peter Tosh. I think we've talked about this on an episode.

Yeah, we definitely talked about it, I think. Yeah.

This song once, but we're gonna lead it right into the next song, which is by the Wailers, famously Bob Marley's band. So Peter Tosh and Bob Marley were actually friends. They grew up together. And famously, Peter Tosh taught his Friend Bob how to play guitar. So there you go. If you're a big fan of Bob Marley, you have Peter Tosh to thank. And go listen to some Peter Tosh because he is incredible. Easily my personal favorite reggae artist.

Nice.

And then just want to touch on that. The song I Shot the Sheriff, this is definitely the best version of that. Compared to like the Eric Clapton version, that one's. Yeah, it's fine, but you can't beat the original.

Fine is about right where you're like, yeah, this is a good song. But yeah, the full reggae feel definitely gives it a stronger vibe.

Absolutely.

Jaco Pistorius actually has a recording of I Shot the Sheriff. It's with Borelli Legren, like a French guitarist. And then I'm forgetting the drummer's name. I know his first name is Thomas, but I forget the rest of his name. But this was like a show back in like the 80s or 90s or something like that. But yeah, just instrumental. I Shot the Sheriff. Really fun. Just kind of little three way jam.

I'd have to check that out actually. Yeah, I've listened to that guy a lot. Like not a lot, but like a little bit recently. Jacob Atorious, but yeah, he's amazing. Oh yeah. Not to go on a tangent, but I did listen to a self titled album. I think like this is the first time I've like, I've listened to his work on like other people's albums, like Hashira by Joni Mitchell. He's all over that and he's fantastic. Really adds just like a layer of like. Like it's a very like jazzy album already. But he really like brings it to the next level. He's like, oh yeah. All over that.

Yeah.

And then his solo albums, really, really good as well.

One of the, one of the primary kind of early drivers behind that like jazz fusion bass movement. Yeah, very prominent now, but like not a lot of people are doing at the time.

Yeah, I mean he pretty much died broke. I think he died with like.

Oh yeah, yeah, I've heard about that. Yeah, yeah.

Don't do drugs, kids. It's not good for you.

Yeah, that, that, that was part of it. He kind of did start, you know, losing his mind. It was like some bipolar I think, and he just wasn't medicated. But yeah, it's too bad. Yeah.

Common story. Common story for musicians, unfortunately.

If you are looking for more like jocko stuff, I definitely recommend like Weather Report. I'm. I want to try and get black market. I want to try and get that Album on vinyl. So if that pops up, you know who play that.

I've seen their self titled, like a dozen thrift stores before. I haven't picked it up yet. I might.

Yeah, there's. Yeah, there's heavy weather. Heavy weather with like Teen Town and self titled. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Close enough, close enough. Yeah.

But anyway, Bob Marley.

Yeah, yeah, way. Yeah, left turn.

That's all right. I don't know. Everybody knows who Bob Marley is. I'm sure we could talk about him a lot longer.

We'll do the deep dive on these days.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, speaking of people that died too early, Peter Tosh and Bob Marley both.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know if either of them made it to 40.

That's. That's.

Yeah, yeah. Actually, if I can go on another tangent.

Yeah, go ahead. We got time.

This is probably not the best subject material for the podcast, but speaking of Law and Order, Peter Tush was actually horribly murdered by criminals in his home. Oh, no. And in reference to Law and Order, they never arrested anybody in relation to it. And. But definitely some people knew who did it, which is. That's one of those bummer things that happens, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna segue from that. Guns for hands by 21 pilots.

So yeah, this is some. Some older 21 pilots. This was pre Blurryface era. Pretty like influential for its time in kind of the pop sphere. The one like main band that I can think of that really took from. Influence from them is a band called ajr. I don't really always love their stuff, but just kind of going back to the roots of like, what they're drawing from, like this was actually kind of a pretty fun track to go back to.

I am. I work in a. One of my jobs. I work at a kitchen and there I have a co worker. You're a good, great person. Good friend of mine. They love AJR and they will play it whenever they get the speaker in the kitchen. And I cannot like AJR now. It's just. I don't know, I can't deal with it. I've heard. I've heard too much of it.

Well's been poisoned for you.

It was. Yeah. No. Shout out to whoever's playing ajr though. It's not your fault. I'm sorry, but moving on from 21 pilots.

Didn't you say we were gonna to be nice on this episode?

I'm being nice. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You listen to ajr. Moving on from that, we have a king Giz song. Put that on your bingo, mark that off your bingo cards. That might as well be the free space at this point. Yeah. And this was a song. I like this one a little bit. I haven't listened to this album before, but it's a collaboration between King Giz and the Mild High Club. It's more of like a little bit of a jazzy thing than their other side, jazz fusion, that kind of thing. I think this is one of their first times. They really like dipped into that. I mean, they got better at it after this. This one. This album's. This song was alright, but they developed this a lot with. What's that? What's ice, planets, mushrooms, death, lungs and lava or something like that.

Oh, I can't believe you couldn't remember that off the top of your head.

I got that.

Album.

No, I had to dig for that one. That's a great album though. I think people definitely brought that in before I played something off of that. That's a great one. Great jazz fusion thing. I think it's a good band. They have a lot of styles. They jump between like the psych rock thing, heavy metal jazz fusion thing and then the boogie rock thing. I think the jazz fusion part might be my favorite thing they do though. I mean, between those modes they jump in.

You forgot death metal.

Oh, death. Same. I'm not. I'm not educated enough in metal subtitles to even start like speaking on the topic. They'll get me. They'll. It's dangerous.

I did like the narrative of this track though. It's like a religious zealot kind of. Or a book.

The cult songs by the book, by the way. I'm sorry, I didn't mention that.

Yeah, it's called the book, but it's like a religious Zelick kind of indoctrinating people into his cult and being like, yeah, of course I'm this way because I live by the book. But yeah, no, it was a good track.

Following that one up. We have a song that's not really about crime, but it's tied to crime. And that is Baby Blue by Badfinger, which famously played at the end of that one show. Whose name I can't remember. Walter White or something. Anyway, I love this song. Beyond just being in Breaking Bad, this.

Is such a great, mean fixing good.

Fixing good.

Is that what it was?

Something like that. I don't know. I'm not an expert.

It just took me a second. It took me a second. But no, that was a. You know, I do think it was A good joke. Pay no attention to the fact that I didn't actually laugh at it, but I chuckled. You know, you gotta chuckle.

I'm trying.

But this is a. This is a great song. I think Baby Blue is such. Of like. As far as 70s power pop goes, I think that this is probably the gold standard for it. Just this one song. It's definitely like this band Badfinger gets compared to the Beatles a lot. And I think that. I mean, like this song, you can kind of hear it. It kind of sounds like an evolved version almost of what the Beatles are doing in their early days. Like A Hard Day's Night Help. That kind of stuff. This is really pushing that to like. I think it's. I would say it's natural inclusion almost.

But wasn't every band in the 70s doing that? Like, so many 70s bands were just like the natural progression of the different.

It's like different parts of the big thing of the Beatles. I got a lot of sounds. You know, they got like the early pop sound, the psychedelic stuff. I think they said, like John Lennon said that elo. I don't know. Yeah, they were like doing kind of. They kind of continued off where they left off with like Abbey Road and.

Stuff with like, I think openly admits that. Yeah, we. We are exactly doing what the Beatles were doing.

And they worked with the. Jeff Lynn's work with, I think both George and Paul before on different albums. But we're talking about Bad Finger today. I'm sorry, this is the problem with Bad Fingers. Everybody goes off about the Beatles, but nobody talks about Bad Finger. This is a fantastic record.

This isn't the Crime and Punishments or Law and Order podcast. This is actually the Tangents podcast. Well, we're just gonna go on tangents the entire time.

Well, that's.

We like the tangents. There's a lot to talk about, you know, interesting stuff.

And at least they got the. The mixing of the song right. They didn't put the drums off to one side.

Yeah, 70s mixing is a. A lot better than it was in the early 60s.

Listen, they got stereo and they didn't know what to do with it. They were excited, they did their best.

And then people were like, please put it in mono.

I love. Actually I love the old albums. This isn't so common on rock albums, but I love. It's especially common on like, piano and classical albums, jazz albums, that sort of thing. They'll have stereo in bigger letters than the name of the artist because they were so amped about the fact that. That they had Stereo on record.

I haven't talked about the Beach Boys today, so I'm gonna do it now. Yeah. If you look at any of their albums from, like, the, like the mid-60s, like Pet Sounds, it says at the very top, it's like, in Do Phonic Stereo.

Oh, yeah.

And like, even I'm. Like, they did the Smile sessions, which is like. They released that in 2011. They still put the giant in Do Phonics stereo at the top because, like, you know, it's all about the immersion. It makes it, like, it looks. Gotta look realistic. They were really proud of that at Capitol Records.

I think so, anyway. Badfinger, Bad Finger.

Great band, Excellent album. Their whole discography is pretty good. I think they do the power pop thing. Really excellent, I think.

Great band, Good song.

Friends of the show.

Not after what you said.

A couple more little songs left to talk about. I know we said earlier that there's not a lot of songs from the point of view of the law. This one is kind of the law, if you count, like, the military as the law.

Stretch.

Ballad of the Green Berets by Sergeant Barry Sadler. It says sergeant in the album in the artist's name. Like, that's. I'm not. I'm not just saying that he's a sergeant. Like, it's in the album. It's in the name of him on the app here.

What if he ranked up and he wasn't a sergeant anymore? And he's like, oh, I got it.

I gotta be corporal.

Idea what comes.

I'm.

I'm Major Barry now.

Barry Sadler. This is an interesting song because people look back in the 60s and, like, obviously they remember all of the counterculture, the anti war songs that were, like, super popular at the time. Not a lot of people remember that. There was quite a few, like, pro war songs going around, and this was probably, like, the biggest of them all. And it's just the guy singing about how, like, how cool it is to, like, die for your country and be in the Green Berets, you know, Good for him.

Yeah, I. I don't really agree, but good for him.

It's a song. I mean, it's. Functionally, it performs all the purposes of a song. I don't know about the subject matter, but it's an interesting artifact of the time.

I think the first lyrics are fighting soldiers from the sky. Fearless men who jump and die.

You're gonna die. The song says, like, if you join, you're gonna die, but it's gonna be super awesome.

A hundred men will test today but only three. Win the Green Beret.

Is this, like. Okay, is this like a. I can't tell if this is, like, pro Vietnam or not. Cause I feel like it's like, the stuff that's, like, you're gonna die, but it's gonna be cool.

Yeah.

Gosh. But I got nothing more to say about the Green version. I'm sorry. A product of its time. It's a very interesting little peek into history. I think that's what the value of it is in, like, the Hysteric Curiosity, I guess, is what it is. But the last song that was played at this meeting a little bit different. This is a. I'll cut you down by Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. It was like a very heavily, like, Black Sabbath influenced. I think this is, like a modern band. I think this is from, like, 2011 or 12 or something. And they. It's a very interesting, like, interesting song. And that, like, they take, like, the Black Sabbath thing and they just kind of bring it back. I don't know what, like, the genre again. I am not a metal genre expert, but it's like, you know, the traditional doom metal kind of thing. It's an interesting sound.

Yeah.

Like, real super fuzzy.

Just like, slow.

Yeah, fuzzy, slow.

It's ominous. It's got, like, the. You know, the fear in it.

Yeah. And this sort of, like, riff heavy. Yeah, riff heavy. There's also this, like, sort of sense of depth, especially with the vocals, too. They're just. It seems like they're kind of pushed a little further back in the mix, but you can still kind of hear them and stuff. May not be able to understand what they're saying, but. No, it's. It's. It's a audible musical element that, you know, adds to, like, the kind of creepiness because they sing in these, like, falsettos kind of thing. A little different than Sabbath, but. Yeah.

No, musically, it's like, Sabbath vocally, somewhat.

Yeah. Adds kind of this atmosphere, ambiance to it.

And I want to say this album cover 2 is very interesting because they, like, purposely went and made it look, like, as retro as possible, but not, like, in a cheesy way. Like, they literally, like, it looks like it's ripped straight from the 70s. Like, it's that, like. It looks like there's, like. They printed, like, the wear onto the record itself to make it look like it's old.

Yeah.

And it's got, like, the. Like, the. Like, the old style of, like, photo editing. It's. You can tell it's not perfect. It's got like a lot of imperfections in it, but I think that's, that's a very interesting way to go about it because a lot of bands, they try and do like the retro thing, but I don't know if a lot of them could pull it off with the design. But this one definitely did.

I think they didn't just go buy a Polaroid and call it Good enough.

Yeah, pretty much. This is a. It's a very nice album cover.

I think it's pretty reminiscent of. Looks like Master of Reality.

Yeah.

From Black Sabbath. The same kind of color scheme.

I think that does wrap it up for the day. I think that's all the songs we want to talk about. If you're interested at all in learning more about the club, attending any of our meetings, or checking out past podcasts, you can check out our website, which will be linked with the podcast. We meet twice a month. Like I said in the intro, it's a very accepting group of people, very interesting music tastes. We welcome anybody and any kind of music. Any kind of music, absolutely. As you couldn't tell from today, we got a little bit of a variety of stuff people were bringing in, but we accept anybody. No matter what your music taste is, as long as you're there willing to listen to new music and you have an appreciation for music. You don't even have to own any records. That's. That is not required to come to the record club. All you just, you just have to have a love for music and a desire to expand your horizons. That's about it for today. Thank you all for listening in, but bye now. We love you. Bye bye.

This has been a presentation of LCC Connect, a weekly program that features the voices, vibes and vision of Lansing Community College. All shows featured on LCC Connect are recorded at the WLNZ studio located on LCC's downtown campus. Each program is podcast based and can be heard anytime@lccconnect.org if you or someone you know would like to be a guest on one of our shows, connect with us by emailing LCC ConnectCC.edu.