Soviet Kitsch

One of my goals for my (temporary?) unemployment period was to finally get the moonbase a little more organized.  This project started ambitiously enough.  I spent the first week taking all my records down from their shelves.  Then I spread them all out on the floor of the largest cargo bay and spent most of August trying out different cataloging systems: alphabetical (by artist), chronological, thematic, philosophical, reverse chronological, alphabetical (by title), by genre, by run time, by record label, by album sleeve color, Dewey decimal, folksonomic, analytico-synthetic, and alphabetical (by feeling).

I have yet to decide on a cataloging system.

These last couple of weeks I've spent a lot of time wandering the moonbase corridors, digging out various odds and ends: galactic bric-à-brac I've accumulated in my time on the Lost Moon, keepsakes from Earth I brought up in my rocket, etc.

Yesterday, in a broom closet under the starboard solar array, I found a shoebox containing a handful of postcards from my old broadcasting buddy Graham Fernwood.  Graham had done the news and weather reports at KTSH for a few years before I got a job at the station.   By the time I was introduced to him, however, he was mostly living in Munich, working for Radio Free Europe, sneaking the U.S. government's feel-good message about democracy and capitalism under the ol' Iron Curtain.  He and I only met a couple of times, but we hit it off.  (I used to ask him if he could hook my show up with any secret CIA funding.)

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.

And So I Quit the Police Department...

Well folks, if you missed last week's broadcast, I should probably catch you up.  Still reeling from the abrupt rescheduling of my annual Independence Day Show -- which had been moved to make room for the four-day programming block dubbed "Larry and Munch's Fart of July Extravaganza" -- I ended up making a few unplanned departures from my set list.  One of those departures involved calling KTSH's media conglomerate owner, Corporacorp, and leaving the CEO a voicemail message, the content of which probably fell somewhere between thoughtful list of grievances and vitriolic personal attack.  Much to this spacefaring DJ's surprise, the CEO called me back -- via the satellite phone on her zeppelin -- and offered to reward my apparently marketable insubordination with an improved timeslot and probable syndication opportunities.  After a brief and unsettling chat, I politely declined her thirty pieces of silver and handed in my verbal resignation.

That's right, friends.  I quit.  I joined the ranks of Edward VIII, Patrick McGoohan, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar in requesting that my employer kindly take this job and shove it.  (R.I.P. Johnny Paycheck.)

Quitting takes its toll, folks.  I got off the air, marched straight down to my lunar storage module, dug out an old bottle of Christian Brothers brandy (a gift from Harry Nilsson with the instructions "For Emergencies Only"), drew the curtains, threw on a Billie Holiday record, and set to nursing my wounds while the lady sang the blues.  I had some reflecting to do, and reflect I did.

Was leaving the station that's broadcast my signal for the better part of four decades a momentous decision?  Sure.  And like most of the momentous decisions in my life, it was made impulsively just before one o'clock on a weeknight.  But that doesn't mean it was a bad decision.  Of course there's some nervousness and uncertainty that comes with stepping out into the unknown.  Even now, days later, I've got my share of butterflies flapping around in the ol' kettle drum.  But I'll tell ya, in the week since I packed up my proverbial cubicle, I've also felt an exhilarating sense of liberation.  The stars above the Lost Moon haven't looked so full of possibility in a long time.

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