A Little Faith Healing

It's a cold, blustery night here on the Lost Moon of Jupiter, but here inside my interstellar radio booth, the aliens and I abound with warmth and gratitude.  Why, you might ask?  Because this past week, Lost Moon Radio made its triumphant return to commercial FM radio!

Those in my erstwhile hometown of Los Angeles probably heard a familiar voice when scanning past SoCal's favorite praise-rock station, KRST, between midnight and 1 am.  Yep, that was yours truly preaching the gospel of rock 'n roll on Christian radio, and I think it was a big success-- my inextricable agnosticism notwithstanding.

We heard tracks about karma and tracks about fate... tracks about God and about the Devil... about long-dead Greek deities and about a living one named Leroy.  I also learned that my late mother's relationship with Catholicism makes Madonna look like the Pope.  And I got more information about Dave Chappelle in a three-minute phone call than Viacom's private detectives have gotten in the past four years of searching his trash bins.

Now a bit of sad news.  Despite a highly fulfilling evening back on the commercial airwaves, I won't be returning to KRST.  My station contact, Pastor Gary Thompson, and I agreed that Lost Moon Radio wasn't quite the right fit for Christian radio.  Specifically, Gary objected to the content of some of my more mind-expanding records, and (privately) I objected to the station's policy of playing Creed at 5, 25, and 45 minutes past each hour.

So the odyssey continues.  Lost Moon Radio won't be back on KRST, but it will find a permanent home even if that means DJ-ing a test of the emergency broadcast system.  Or even worse...  working on AM.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Lost Moon

Well folks, I had a blast this weekend subbing in as host of the popular romantic call-in show Love Notes with Veronica. For a thrilling hour on Saturday night, I calibrated the Lost Moon's radio transmitter for Southern California's KUPD and beamed down a line-up of my all-time favorite love tracks. It felt great to be on FM radio again, even if just for one evening, and the whole experience only heightened my resolve to get Lost Moon Radio back on the air in a permanent way in 2011!

I took some listener calls between the tracks (boy, have I missed those!) and while dispensing a bit of encouragement to a Lonely Heart in Encino, I ended up relating an anecdote about my old friend Mary Jankowski and our personal Valentine's Day tradition.

It all started back in the 8th Grade when I decided to ask Mary to the big dance with a homemade Valentine: a picture of Rod Serling glued onto a construction paper heart, upon which I'd written, "Submitted for your approval: will you go to the St. Michael's 8th Grade Cotillion with me?" I slipped it under her desk during morning roll call. At the end of the day she told me she was already going to the dance with Kevin Donnelly, but that my card was the weirdest thing anybody had ever given her.

Preparing for a One-Night Stand

Friends, Valentine's Day will be here before we know it, and as such, it's time for me to reveal a lifelong crush of mine...

I'm talking about commercial radio. And I'm not ashamed to admit it. True, commercial radio is the beast that brought us shock jocks, Rush Limbaugh, and the ludicrous concept of a Top 40. But she also brought us War of the Worlds, Wolfman Jack, and Jim Ladd.  For 30-some odd years, I was proud to call her my special lady.

But as my regular Lost Moon Radio listeners know, this love affair has been on the skids since this past June, and it's been a humbling experience. Sure, I've had my dalliances in the meantime, broadcasting from a high school basement, ruminating into a dictaphone up here on the Lost Moon ... but they're just not the same. Just as Dick Burton couldn't stay long away from Liz, I can't resist the siren's call of wide-band FM. A love as grand as mine can only be measured in megahertz! I've gotta channel my broadcasts through the most powerful transistor towers outside of a U2 concert!

Well, I'm happy to say that I'm finally getting my chance! That's right, in just a few days, I'll be making a one-night stand with commercial radio.

On Saturday night, February 12, I'll be filling for my old industry buddy Ronnie Krantz (better known to many of you simply as "Veronica") on the home of Southern California's softest love hits, KUPD: The Cupid. Ronnie's got an unmissable date that night and she asked me if I could sub for her. Obviously, Love Notes with Veronica's usual blend of easy listening and power ballads is a little different from my regular format, but I'm confident that her base of female adult contemporary fans ages 25 to 54 will adapt comfortably to Lost Moon Radio's brand of psychedelic freeform rock. In the spirit of the approaching holiday, I'm building a set around the theme of "Love."

So set your dial to KUPD this Saturday, Angelenos! Or, if you prefer a communal listening experience, head down to Café-Club Fais Do-Do, where I know they'll be tuned into the broadcast. They charge a small admission, but I have it on good authority that all proceeds from the evening will go to benefit the advocacy and outreach organization Autism Speaks.

I hope you catch the show. While I'm only preparing for a one-night stand, I could be ready for a relationship in the right situation.  I'm putting myself out there.

Farewell Roosevelt High School

Well friends, I had a highly memorable Monday broadcasting psychedelic radio to the wonderful students and faculty of Torrance, California's own Roosevelt High School.  (Go Mascots!)  It was truly a pleasure to spend a morning riding the signal from 87.5 FM: The Sound of Roosevelt High.  If you'll indulge me half a pun, the experience was truly educational-- from the radio booth to the principal's office and back.  Many thanks to the day's co-pilot, Josh Redman, and to my niece Chelsea, who made the entire broadcast possible.  After three months spent off the radio, it was just a blast to be back on the air.

Granted, the Roosevelt High station has a pretty low wattage, so I believe my transmission was mainly confined to the school campus, most of its parking lot, and a couple of adjoining Torrance side streets.  (Although I was told later that apparently they'd been able to tune into my broadcast, with just a bit of static, at Café-Club Fais Do-Do, a full 13 miles away, a stroke of reception luck I chalk up to the vagaries of the FM band and to the conductive power of Fais Do-Do's aluminum superstructure.)  But I've never been one to quibble over the size of an audience.  As I don't currently have a 50,000 watt tower of corporate power to disseminate my broadcasts, I welcome any group of listeners with open arms.

I made a rare return trip to Earth for the show, and it was great to see Chelsea face to face (she's really growing up!) as well as to join my brother David and the rest of the family for dinner at the Olive Garden.  But now it's time to pack up my microphone and turntable, hop into my little rocket, and head home to the Lost Moon of Jupiter.  As fun as it was to be back in high school for the day, I'm eager to get back to the moonbase and resume my job hunt.  Three months is a long time for a disc jockey to be out of work.  I really should be sending out some more CVs, making calls, pounding the pavement, that sort of thing.  I mean, the Lost Moon may be a Jovian utopia where the idea of money is as foreign a concept as table tennis -- you wouldn't believe how many times I've tried and failed to teach the aliens ping pong -- but that doesn't mean I don't have bills to pay.  It's more expensive than you might think to maintain a functioning space station, and if you want to hit the really good vintage record sales around the gas giants, you've gotta spend an arm and a leg on rocket fuel.  Plus all the major carriers really screw you on cell phone coverage in the Outer Solar System.

But I'm confident that with a little bit of ambition and leg work I can definitely find a station to carry Lost Moon Radio by December.  After all, my annual Holiday Show is one of my favorite broadcasts of the year, and I can't imagine this temporary unemployment hiccup getting in the way of that tradition.

In the meantime, if anyone reading this works for the City of Torrance and can do something about a citation for parking in a school zone, please contact me directly.

I've Found a New Frequency

As my loyal listeners know, I recently had to disconnect from the satellite that was beaming my broadcast down to Earth every Thursday night from 12-1. That's right, I resigned my slot at KTSH-FM, and I've spent the summer wandering the cosmos, looking for that magic new frequency.

Well I'm here to announce that I have found one. Now I'm going to warn you it's a little untraditional, but hey, so was Chunga's Revenge by Frank Zappa-- the first and only LP named for a vacuum cleaner. Remember that scat-vocal "drum solo"?

So if you happen to be in Torrance, California, this Monday morning, tune your radio to 87.5 FM and sample my latest transmission via this unorthodox conduit.  I'll be meditating on a theme appropriate to the locale: Childhood.  Will the broadcast be as ground-breaking as Zappa? No, but then again neither was Devo. And unlike them, I can live with that.

Happening NOW: All-New Lost Moon Radio at the Hollywood Fringe Festival

Thanks to everyone who caught my sold-out live broadcast at the Hollywood Fringe Festival last Friday. We made beautiful music, we made beautiful comedy, we made dirty comedy, we made abstract expressionist music.   It was a wonderful night.

And now we're going to do it again! And again after that! And then again still! And then one more time for good measure!

LOST MOON RADIO @ THE HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL

remaining dates

WEDNESDAY June 23 (8pm)

THURSDAY June 24 (8pm)

FRIDAY June 25 (11pm)

SATURDAY June 26 (4:30pm)

Reserve your tickets online today! The theater has a strictly-enforced capacity, and I always keep one seat reserved for Grace Slick, in the event that she and I ever decide to visit Earth on the same day.

All performances are at:

Theatre of Arts

1625 N. Las Palmas Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA

(1 block south of Hollywood Blvd.)

http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/project/view/105

Moon Units Rock R Bar

To those of you who saw my favorite band, The Moon Units, rock R Bar in Koreatown last night, thanks for visiting my page!  I'm Jupiter Jack, rock n' roll DJ, and I want to let you know about my mainstage act, Lost Moon Radio.

It's going up at the Hollywood Fringe Festival from June 18-June 26.  All relevant information (including ticket reservations) can be found here: http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/project/view/105

If you're wondering just what Lost Moon Radio is, here's a description folks have used in the past.  (I don't endorse it.)

Lost Moon Radio is a one hour "radio show" from DJ Jupiter Jack, who claims to broadcast from outer space, but actually is stuck on a tasteless Top 40 station in the San Fernando Valley.  When Jack spins tracks, what we hear are comic sketches and songs, performed live by a team of actors and a genre-jumping band.  To Jack, they're profound; to us, they're hilarious.  Lost Moon Radio, now in its 6th installment, won Live Comedy LA's Show of the Year for 2009.


So come check it out... I guarantee an evening of fun and laughs.
Or if you're just looking to book The Moon Units, you can do so here.

Follow Me On Twitter

As my next live show draws near, I've been pirating high speed bandwidth from the Hubble telescope, so I can update my Twitter feed regularly.

NASA really could have picked a more creative password than tomwolfesucks.  I guessed it on my third try.

Anyway, check out my feed: http://twitter.com/lostmoonradio

Live Comedy LA Sends a Love Rocket to Jupiter

Well friends, I'm pleased to report that my latest dalliance with my erstwhile home planet (Earth) was a rousing success.

I brought my live show from the Lost Moon of Jupiter to the upstairs theater at St. Nick's Pub, and all the love and awesome rock power made me feel like I was back in the glory days of yore. I couldn't have had more fun if I'd been necking with Barbarella in a wood-paneled basement with Jefferson Airplane on the hi-fi.

I want to particularly thank the good people at Live Comedy LA, who named Lost Moon Radio their Show of the Year for 2009! Critic Brendon Mulvihill writes...

Show of the Year.

And Lost Moon Radio ran away with it on Friday night at St. Nick’s Pub. I see a lot of comedy and this was by far the most creative show I’ve seen in 2009...

The writing was off the charts. A show like SNL should just scoop up the entire cast of Lost Moon Radio. It would be 100x better.

Thank you, Live Comedy LA! Praise like that puts a Great Red Spot on both my cheeks. You can expect a signed copy of my ill-fated 1968 demo tape for KROQ in your Christmas stockings.

The Daily Candy Is On To Me

Earthbound friends, I stopped subscribing to the Daily Candy back in 2006, when my local delivery boy cut his route short at Io. Just couldn't justify the commute to pick up a copy, as much as I do love candy.

But thankfully the good people at the Daily Candy haven't punished me for my failings. To the contrary, they've made my live show their top pick for a weekend music outing in Los Angeles.

So come join these veritable Willy Wonkas for my ongoing run at St. Nick's Pub. Last night was yet another sellout, so reserve your seats online. It's live comedy, rock n' roll and a heaping holiday helping of yours truly. Plus live band karaoke after every show.

I'll see you there tonight 12/11, Saturday 12/12, Wednesday 12/16, Friday 12/18 and Saturday 12/19!

-Jupiter Jack

A Christmas Carol

You know friends, up here on the Lost Moon of Jupiter, nothing warms my heart more than gazing down at the spinning blue marble we call Earth, and thinking that somewhere, at any given moment, a messiah is being born.

So light up your hearth, take a quaff of glogg, and carol along with me:




And then come join me at St. Nick's Pub's Cabaret Theater for my much-anticipated holiday show, running December 10-19. Tickets here!