Strung Out Episode 183. END OF YEAR REVIEW

This podcast looks at some of the statistics Martin received regarding STRUNG OUT on Buzzsprout, the platform we use.   It's gratifying to see that the show has listeners in other countries, and a great shout out to our listeners in Germany.  Danke!   Martin's daughter, Aine reads out the stats, and we listen to her wishes for 2024.  We end the year playing two cuts from Miss Rack's Zoo, an album Martin recorded with Aine.   Happy New Year Everyone!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Martin McCormack: Welcome to Strung Out, the podcast that looks at life through the lens of an artist. Your host is the artist, writer, and musician, Martin Lawrence McCormack. Now here's Marty. Hey, great to have you with us, and welcome to Strung Out. This is the end of the year special, or whatever you want to call it. I guess wrap up of 2023.

[00:00:27] And I have with me My daughter, Anya McCormack, and Capers, the Wonder Dog. It's a pretty down home kind of show here. Welcome, Anya McCormack. Say hello. Hello. Great to have ya.

[00:00:44] Sitting there in the copilot's chair. I hope everybody out there has had a good holiday, a good Christmas, and a great I'm wishing you a very happy New Year's. We've had COVID, right? You've had COVID for a little while, 

[00:01:00] Aine McCormack: right? Yes, and I'm pretty sure that's actually the first time I've ever got it.

[00:01:04] Martin McCormack: Yeah? And how did you feel when you had it? 

[00:01:08] Aine McCormack: Terrible. I felt like I couldn't stand up, and I couldn't move at all. I could just lay there. On my bed. Like a slug, and I couldn't even get up. Oh, yeah. Sunshine beaming in through the 

[00:01:22] Martin McCormack: window. Yeah, it was tough. And then, unfortunately your mom got it, right?

[00:01:30] Mama? Yes, but 

[00:01:32] Aine McCormack: she He is healing. 

[00:01:35] Martin McCormack: Yeah, mama's getting a lot better, but COVID has hit the McCormick household and So we're doing things backwards, right? We're having Christmas Actually, we're having Christmas tomorrow had New Year's the week before where we Celebrate each year for New Year's we do a little tradition in our family where we have crab legs and a little champagne and that sort of thing to wrap up the end of the year and look forward to next year. 

[00:02:12] Let's look at what happened with Strung Out this year because it's fun to just recap Buzzsprout sends me statistics and The one thing with Strung Out is that you can listen to it on Buzzsprout, you can listen to it on several other different platforms. This is just from Buzzsprout, as far as I know.

[00:02:38] This is not the total recap, but anyway, for myself, I'm very happy about this, and Let's look at the first statistic. Anya, do you want to read? How many episodes did we do? 

[00:02:52] Aine McCormack: 52 episodes That's right. And we averaged one episode per week for the whole 

[00:03:02] Martin McCormack: year. And we started Strung Out back in May of 2020 and since then we have continued along Each week doing a podcast and we have learned the art of traveling and doing a podcast on the road.

[00:03:24] I've done them over in Ireland. I've done them over in up in the mountains of Colorado and up in Door County, Wisconsin. And all over, just all over the place, interviewing people. Again, the theme of Strung out for those of you that are listening for the first time is just looking at life through the eyes of an artist and yours truly is that artist, but also it can be any kind of artist, any way that an artist looks at life.

[00:03:56] And so I would say a majority of our interviews, at least for 2023 were spent interviewing and talking to artists. And I'm especially with an emphasis on Chicago. Artists. I feel that the Chicago music scene is fairly fractured. When it comes to we just don't have a, a real rock solid scene.

[00:04:22] We don't have a unified radio station. We have a lot of unsung heroes, and maybe you feel that way in your hometown. But that's how I feel about Chicago. There's so many great names and just unsung heroes that are out there right now performing and they need to be interviewed. You need to hear from these folks.

[00:04:41] And that's what I really emphasized for 2023. And I'm pretty happy about how that turned out this year. One of the things that Buzzsprout will give you is the ranking of cities. And Anya, why don't you tell everybody what the most popular city for listening to Strung Out is.

[00:05:10] Aine McCormack: Number one, Chicago. Most popular city. Ninety two downloads made in Chicago, Illinois. A hot spot on your listener map. 

[00:05:22] Martin McCormack: And Capers likes that too. She's shaking her collar. Let's look at the other notable cities and They rank in this order, and this was a surprise for me. A couple surprises here.

[00:05:34] Portland, Oregon. Bless you capers. Portland, Oregon He had a bunch of downloads, And then It's the Chicago area. Elmhurst, Illinois. And then, What really got me was The Frankfort on Mon, in Hess. That's in Germany. So Frankfurt, Germany. That's great. I'm very excited about that. That that there's people out there salute to you guys in Germany for listening to Strung Out.

[00:06:13] And I hope you keep spreading the word and I hope we get more people from Europe listening to this podcast. And then last but not least, as far as the top five cities. Petoskey, Michigan. We got a lot of downloads from there. There you go. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like in a year's time, but those are the ones that listened the most, or downloaded the most podcasts.

[00:06:41] Why don't you just walk through the top five countries, as far as who listened to Strung Out from around the world, okay? 

[00:06:52] Aine McCormack: United States, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. That's right. 

[00:06:59] Martin McCormack: OK. And I wonder what the other twenty the other fifteen countries are that listen. But obviously people are cruising around trying to pick up And let's have you read these, Anya.

[00:07:19] We can read the top episodes for 2023. So start with the first one. 

[00:07:26] Aine McCormack: 1. Strung Out Episode

[00:07:31] 144. The Falafel Philosophy of art with musician Perry Miller. 

[00:07:38] Martin McCormack: Now, do you remember where that was made in Costa Rica? That's right. You were, we were did that right by the pool. It was pretty cool. Perry brought his guitar and it was a just a beautiful day. We were on tour with Switchback, right?

[00:07:55] Yes, we were. That was fun. Okay, number two, 

[00:07:59] Aine McCormack: strung out, episode 1 35. What is the SCA? 

[00:08:07] Martin McCormack: That's right. And we talked to Mike Mandelovitz there about that. And that was The SCA is the Society for Creative Anachronism. And that was a lot of fun. Again, we just, we had a great time with that interview.

[00:08:28] And continue along. Anya. Strung 

[00:08:32] Aine McCormack: Out Episode 134. The Philosophy of Art. Interview with Dorothy 

[00:08:39] Martin McCormack: Scott. Dorothy Scott is a great musician, singer songwriter. She was a person that played with and knew Jeff Buckley. Later on she moved from New York out to, of all places, to our county, Wisconsin, where she found a home a great place for her to practice her art, and I just love her because she's the real deal.

[00:09:06] She just is very genuine and I enjoy her music quite a bit. Alright, continue on, Anya. 

[00:09:17] Aine McCormack: Strung Out Episode 169. The Philosophy of Art Series, Nicholas Barron Artist. 

[00:09:25] Martin McCormack: Nicholas Barron lives in Rogers Park, Illinois. Nicholas is a great painter. His family he comes from a family of artists painters.

[00:09:36] And he's also a tremendous finger picking guitarist. And if you're going to go back and listen to 169, you definitely gotta listen to 168. Because he does some wonderful jobs wonderful songs for that podcast. I highly recommend you listen to 168 and 169 Nicholas Barron. And, last but not least in the top five.

[00:10:07] Strung 

[00:10:08] Aine McCormack: Out Episode 170, Part 1. Interview with movie maker and artist David Rocco Ficini. 

[00:10:17] Martin McCormack: That's right. David Rocco Ficini is an artist. He's makes creative art. First of all he does found object art. He doesn't do that as much as he's doing movie making these days. He has a movie that's coming out called USA to Z USA to Z.

[00:10:39] But the number two and that's going to be hopefully coming out in 2024. Another journeyman artist and has lived a very amazing and colorful life. And just a pleasure talking to him about that and part two continues into the whole movie making bit of it, but part one, you get a great idea of what this guy's all about and his upbringing just it's a, it's an amazing thing.

[00:11:15] So those are the top strung out shows and I should have pulled up, I don't think I got a year end thing from YouTube. I wish I had but that being said I do know that the top listened to song on YouTube is I Lost My Tooth. I like to shout. Yeah, and that was done. I think two years ago now, Anya or more, right? 

[00:11:49] Aine McCormack: Was I seven or six? I think I was 

[00:11:52] Martin McCormack: six. You're six years old and you're going to be ten. Yeah, we're looking about about three years ago then. Or four. Yeah, going into the fourth year. And one of the wonderful benefits of the pandemic was being able to be home with Anya to record that music. And let's listen to that song.

[00:12:11] As we finish out 2023, you're listening to strung out.

[00:14:22] This podcast wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the gifts of support we receive from listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, why not send in your gift of love? Go to martinmccormack. com and click on the donate button. And we're back. Last part of the podcast I just want to talk about just some of the things that did not happen this year, and that was the predictions I the one big prediction that I had was that I thought the war in Ukraine would be over by now, and I remember at the beginning of the year I thought for sure by August we would see The end of the war in Ukraine and we are going into the second winter and who could have ever foreseen the tragedy that's unfolding with the war between Israel and Hamas, just all the civilian lives on both sides that have been involved with that. 

[00:15:31] The world is certainly not at peace, and I Dare not go out on a limb to tell you how long it's going to be with the war in Ukraine. I think I learned my lesson as far as it comes down to predictions. Nor could I have predicted some of the things that happened politically this year. It seems like toward the end of this year especially, a lot of things have just come to the fore.

[00:15:59] The idea of that each state has the ability to say who is on or off their ballot. That is an interesting situation. Of course, that was brought about because of what happened on January 6th. And because of that, and that, that incident has not been properly litigated yet with the people that really put the whole thing together. 

[00:16:35] And that is the former president and his his cronies. And also the lower downs, of course, have been sentenced to jail. The people that actually smashed into the building. But, like any kind of conflict, who were the ringleaders, that has not been litigated because Let's face it.

[00:17:01] It's just it's too politically fraught and that's the way politics is, but eventually it will. My prediction is that won't happen until 2025. But Anya, what do you wish you would like to see happen? in 2024. As a kid, what would you like to see? What would be the biggest thing you'd like to see change?

[00:17:33] Aine McCormack: Probably more people pitching in to stop the pollution and the global warming of our Earth because that's very important. And especially my global warming. Heat is not good for the glaciers. The glaciers are basically disappearing very quickly. At an alarming rate, and it shouldn't be at all. 

[00:18:02] It's scaring me. 

[00:18:04] Martin McCormack: Yeah, I think it's very scary. Do you think there's a lot for little kids to be scared of now? 

[00:18:12] Aine McCormack: Kind of, with all the new tech and stuff, and all the new ways to have different Weird people like talk to you on phones and stuff. But it's still our, Earth is still our home.

[00:18:29] It's still a good place and it's still safe for us. Not. Some people are scared of a lot of stuff. Some people 

[00:18:39] Martin McCormack: aren't. Taking care of the environment would take care of a lot of these other things, don't you think? If people have a good place to live, crops to grow. The ability to feed their families, their abilities to live in good homes, that sort of thing, right?

[00:18:56] Aine McCormack: I also think that we're like, helping out, pitching out for the planet and helping animals. I know that a lot of people want to do this, but they don't have the time. And I think if they did have the time, it would bring a lot of people together. And they could actually like Their greatest foe could actually become their best friend in this way.

[00:19:22] I think it would bring a lot of people together like that are usually very distant helping our planet. 

[00:19:30] Martin McCormack: Yeah, I think that's a good wish for 2024, A healthier planet. And I'd like to add to that. My wish for 2024 is There goes capers playing with a ball. My wish for 2024 is that that we end the bipartisan acrimony in this country and that we, my wish also for 2024 is that Russia gets defeated in Ukraine, that the War comes to a quick end with Israel and Gaza and that some sort of permanent peace solution finally gets established there that is, offers dignity to both sides.

[00:20:19] Why don't we listen to one more song and then we can give our final thoughts for this end of the year wrap up. And I would like to play Another song from Miss Raksu, which you and I did a little duet and that's called there's always some time to take some time 

[00:20:39] Aine McCormack: and make some time to say, 

[00:20:40] Martin McCormack: I love you.

[00:20:41] That's right. So let's listen to that right now. You'll listen to the 2023 wrap up on Strung Out. Yeah. This

[00:22:56] podcast wouldn't exist

[00:23:01] If it wasn't for the gifts of support we receive from listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, why not send in your gift of love? Go to martinmccormack. com and click on the donate button.

[00:24:40] Hello, everyone. My name is Polly Chase. I am the gallery director of Marty's Online Art Gallery at martinmccormick. com. If you haven't done so already, I invite you to go check out his artwork. He works in several different formats. Painting, illustration, drawings, and a very unique way of doing scratch art, which I think you'll find very interesting.

[00:25:06] So go check it out, martinmccormack. com. Click on the gallery, look at the art, and when you're ready to start your own collection, send me an email at martyfineart at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening.

[00:25:26] Okay, we're back and in this last remaining bit of time next week we'll start in with the regular programming for Strung Out. However, we go to specials for the month of January for the Mr. Marty Show. And the Mr. Marty Show is a video show that also has aired weekly for the last three years.

[00:25:53] And longer actually. It's, it ran, it's been running consistently every week since I believe, I want to say we started the April. 2020 was when we started doing the first live streaming the end of April. And right at the very beginning of the pandemic. And so since then, without fail, we have been able to present a weekly show.

[00:26:22] And we had a great year. On the Mr. Marty show, we've added a lot of great contributors. And we want to thank to the people that are, that contribute to the show. We have the Hawk Neil Driscoll and his wife, Kathy Driscoll. They, they go around the country and they film lots of beautiful scenes Michelle Shubotowski. 

[00:26:50] She presents the roving reporter aspect of things interviews with all sorts of very cool places. We have Takeshi Horiyuchi from Japan. Takeshi faithfully sends in videos of happiness in nature. A lot of journeys across Japan, but other places like down to Texas and Ireland and Jan Crawford, right? 

[00:27:17]

[00:27:19] Aine McCormack: All the way in Australia in Jan's garden with BD and the lizard who likes to eat blueberries. 

[00:27:24] Martin McCormack: That's right. And if you go to the Martin McCormack channel at YouTube, you can get the back episodes of all these shows and Ma Gilmore gives her philosophy every week and we've got several other contributors as well Mary Pappas and Mary Jo Carlson and a lot of other people that come in and present ideas, poems.

[00:27:56] Videos on the corner. So a little bit of places around the world. Katrina Shepard from Scotland. It's a big community effort. A worldwide community effort with that. So between that and Strung Out, we keep ourselves fairly busy. And the art and also the band Switchback for me. But Anya keeps busy with your choir.

[00:28:25] And just being a good student, right? Yes. Okay. We want to thank everybody for listening to Strung Out in 2023. And we're back again next week starting with our regular podcast again. Just going to keep it going as long as we can keep the plate spinning. Once again, thank you to all of you.

[00:28:53] And. If you can't contribute financially, the best way you can contribute to these programs is by just telling somebody or just putting it on your social media page and putting it out there into the ether. None of this stuff is again, we're very organic. We're just running this as a homegrown grassroots project out of Chicago, Illinois.

[00:29:20] And thank you so much for being such great listeners and we'll talk to you again next week. Bye bye. Bye. Thank you for listening. For more information about this show or a transcript, visit martinmccormack. com. While there, sign up for our newsletter. See you next time on Strung Out.

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