From Point Conception to the Mexican Border...
Nathan Callahan's subversive and thought-provoking essays offer a lively deconstruction of Southern California's contemporary culture at its most profoundly absurd. The rich and powerful, the sexually challenged, the religiously restricted, dogs, dopes, dreamers, the famous and infamous all come to life as Callahan encourages listeners to peer into the center of the dream and snicker.
Circumstantial Disabilities
A Guide to the Accidentally Challenged
Dylan Thomas once said that “A born writer is born scrofulous (scruffulous); his career is an accident dictated by physical or circumstantial disabilities.” I’m not sure whether or not I’m a born writer, but I do know that I’m scruffulous — or as my parents used to say, morally degenerate and corrupt. Maybe Dylan Thomas was right. Maybe my degeneracy is related to a disability. It hasn’t gotten me a job. But I’ve always believed in hiring the disabled. Let them suffer like the rest of the world.… more
Permalink
First Broadcast September 3, 2010
Gas Powered Recreation
Thoughts on Human Ignorance
It was the front page headline in Los Angeles Times and dominated the local news channels for days. On August 14th, an decked-out off-road Ford Ranger with “Misery Motorsports” painted on its doors went airborne at the California 200 desert race and smacked into a crowd of spectators killing eight and injuring 12.… more
Permalink
First Broadcast August 27, 2010
One Year, Two Summers
Real Life Seasons in Southern California
In the summer of 1970, Washington, D.C., turned ugly. Ugly not because of the war in Vietnam, or political scandal, or urban riots. Ugly because it was hot—101 degrees perspiration-gathering-on-the-tip-of-your-nose and in-the-small-of-your-back hot. The heat wilted trees on Eye Street and visually bent the brownstones.… more
Permalink
First Broadcast August 20, 2010
My First Air Show
One Source of My Fear of Flying
There's a thump at the back of my head — on the wall. Then, I'm in the soup between awake and asleep. Was the screen door slamming?. Frank and Bettilou — my parents —— run into the back yard. With a new moon sky Mom trips, sails and hits the ground. Above, in the silence, a Cessna's engine starts.… more
Permalink
First Broadcast August 13, 2010
The Big Reason
Legends, Mantras Battle Cries and Truth in Advertising
As my grandmother Elizabeth aged, nearly all her statements became mottoes or slogans or platitudes. “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken,” she said right after we sang her birthday song .… more
Permalink
First Broadcast August 6, 2010
Little Beasts
Child Rearing in an Adult World
I am not myself today. It isn’t because I am awash in all variety of ruination — that my 17 year-old dog, Luna, died in my arms last Wednesday or that my 100 year-old senile grandmother — of whom I am the only grandchild — called me Herman (her long deceased brother’s name), and told me to milk the cows (I consented, hundreds of miles from the nearest bovine utter) .… more
Permalink
First Broadcast July 30, 2010
Heat Is Murder
On Sunscreen and Serial Killings
The sun does unsettling things to people. I’m always amazed by the number of us basking on Southern California’s summer beaches still trying to roast our skins and minds.… more
Permalink
First Broadcast July 23, 2010
You Don't Deserve This Home
Joseph Eichler’s Mass Market Architectural Conceit
While there's nothing cooler than the slope of a 1957 Chevrolet's tail fin, that same car is a smog-spewing, gas-guzzling metal coffin with functional flaws aplenty. In the same vein, don't let the clean, distinctive lines and mass-market appeal of an Eichler designed home fool you — it's the '57 Chevy of real estate… more
Permalink
First Broadcast July 16, 2010
Heaven and Earth
Thoughts on Baseball, Art and Other Altered States: Mystery
The nameless is the beginning of art and baseball. While the named is the mother of statistics, the nameless is the gateway to the mystery of everlasting hardball truth… more
Permalink
First Broadcast July 9, 2010
The Legend of the Dancing Goat Society
So the Goodness May Flow Through the Liquid
I grew up a coffee drinker in Southern California. By 1992, I was a member of The Dancing Goat Society. Let me explain. On a morning in Ethiopia, some 1200 years ago. Khaldi, a goat herder well known for his laid back manner, awoke to the sight of his flock behaving extraordinarily. The natty beasts were dancing a dervish, standing on hind legs and bleating a Dionysian rhapsody as if primed by the goat-god Pan. When Khaldi noticed some of them munching on branches of bright red berries he took it upon himself to do the same. Enlightenment was at hand. The berries tasted bitter, but soon Khaldi found himself exhilarated, clear-thinking and wonderously joyful… more
Permalink
First Broadcast July 2, 2010
Big Picture People
It's a Binary Shakedown. Here's Their Scam
I draw a salary to work with Big Picture People. In spite of the self-ascribed grandeur of their visions and the sincerity of their altruistic posturing, I really can’t handle their crap without compensation. Sometimes serious compensation… more
Permalink
First Broadcast June 25, 2010
Broadcasting Fridays at 9 am from KUCI 88.9 fm Orange County, California
