Tuesday, April 28, 2020

BLASST 109: COVID CALLS 2

TRACKLIST:
1. Al Green - "Tired of Being Alone"
2. George Clanton - "Warmpop"
3. Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers - "Old Love"

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NOTES:

Today's episode is a heavier one. Our guests are all healthcare workers from different areas of the field - all based in the Rio Grande Valley - and all with stories to tell. 

Our opening conversation is with a good friend of mine, Evy Rendon, who up until the arrival of the pandemic had been embarking on a new career as a speech pathologist. Evy tells us about becoming unemployed, and shares her experiences navigating the increasingly complicated unemployment benefits system. On top of speech pathology, Evy also DJs under the name Ojitos with the Rio Grande Valley's chapter of the world-class Chulita Vinyl Club. You can find the RGV chapter's recent pandemic-inspired "Dancing With Myself" mix online at the club's Soundcloud page along with other mixes from various CVC members.


Our second conversation is with John, a developmental health case manager with Tropical Texas Behavioral Health, a mental health clinic in Edinburg. He shares how his job has changed under the current stay-at-home orders - under normal circumstances he would be able to make home visits to clients to assess the progress of their rehabilitation through the services of the clinic - with social distancing measures in place, he's had to adapt to maintain the same level of support for his clients. This, as you will hear, is not without its own challenges.


The closing conversation of today's broadcast is with Briana, a Registered Nurse at the Edinburg Children's Hospital who has personally lost people to the virus, and who shares experiences from working on the frontlines. From the rise in potential COVID-19 patients to the lack of available personal protective equipment (PPE) for her and her coworkers to the lack of support from superiors, Briana's time at work has become more challenging than ever. She talks about a rise in child abuse cases coinciding with the arrival of the pandemic in the Rio Grande Valley, which is likely a result of current shelter-in-place orders keeping children at home with abusive family members - similar to the reported rise in domestic abuse cases in which people have had to stay home with their abusive partners. We also talk about best practices for minimizing spread of the coronavirus including but not limited to: using proper PPE, minimizing travel outside your home to essential activities, and doing our best to disinfect and isolate items and clothing that could potentially carry the virus after being out and about.


Since these conversations happened almost a month ago, I reached out to Briana for updates on what we talked about, and will share those follow-ups below:



AS: So when we talked, the time it took for testing results to arrive was about 3 days. Has that changed?

B: There have been improvements from the length it got to get results back. It actually was closer to 5-7 days in the beginning. Then it went to 3-4. Now we’re at about 1-2 days. We finally are able to test in hospital so the turnaround is much quicker. 

AS: You mentioned at the time that y’all had been reusing gowns and masks for extended periods of time, and that there was a limited supply of PPE in general. Are either of those still the case?

B: We reuse the masks still. We went from using the masks for a week, to a month, back to a week, [and] we now have them for one shift. Our gowns and eye shields are allowed to be thrown but the eye shields we have a low supply of so we’ve had to resort to placing [them] in paper bags and putting our names on it... same with our N95s, surgical masks, and cloth masks.

AS: You had also mentioned that cloth and homemade masks are at best minimal protection against the virus. Is this still your position on them? I know they’ve become very prevalent now and some folks believe they serve a better purpose for reducing the spread of droplets from infected people. Would you agree with that, or would you still recommend folks try to use something better than homemade masks?

B: Hm, this question is weird for me to answer. I don’t hate cloth masks, and I’m definitely not against them. I mean we all wear one at the hospital until we go into a patients room, or a heavily populated area of the hospital. It’s better to have something than nothing at all. I think my point was to compare the lengths and differences between what health care workers do to protect ourselves and what the community is told. It’s very different and I think because they’re vastly different it almost feels like we’re not telling the community the best information.

AS: Have your patient numbers gone up/down since we spoke?

B: They’ve been fluctuating. In adults and pediatrics. We go up and then go down. Today (4/27/20) I had a full and heavy load of patients while last week I breezed through the day.

AS: Lastly, any thoughts on what the upcoming reopening of the economy will mean for people on the frontlines? Rise in case numbers, etc?

B: We are actively preparing for an influx of patients. Passing COVID-19 is as easy as a parent going to buy groceries with a cloth mask and coming home and infecting their child. Which we’ve seen. It was also really surprising because they didn’t have the symptoms were constantly told to look out for. So, we’ll see what happens. You definitely won’t see me out and about though. I recently had a COVID 19 scare - just recently finished my 2week isolation - and the not knowing if I passed it on to anyone else was terrifying. I don’t want to go through that again.

Thanks to all of the brave healthcare workers doing their best to keep us healthy and safe! Thanks to you, dear listener, for taking the time to listen to these stories. Stay vigilant and stay home, even if your local government wants you to leave the house to buy things and risk getting you or those you love sick. It's. not. worth. it.

Once again, the intro and background music was made by yours truly, and the artwork for each episode was designed by me with the use of Swiss Typefaces fonts, licensed exclusively for this mini-series.

See y'all next week.

AS

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

BLASST 108: COVID CALLS #1

TRACKLIST:
1. Пожар - "Цвет"
2. Sick/Sea - "Slow Poke"
3. Dua Lipa - "Love Again"
4. Ozzy Osbourne - "Dreamer"

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NOTES:
Introducing BLASST's first mini-series, COVID CALLS, where we center the narratives of people from the Rio Grande Valley and highlight all of the different ways we as a region have persevered in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each caller also gets to select a track to play on the show, which is perhaps our favorite part of the whole thing. 

This is our first episode in the series, and doubles as episode 108.

In our first episode of COVID CALLS, we speak to five different individuals (two shared a call) about how their lives have changed over the last few weeks. The impact the Coronavirus pandemic has had on our society stretches beyond our economies,  burying itself deep within our minds. Things have changed, and will continue to change, and I think with this series, we at Universal Punk can perhaps offer a glimpse at our community, and how despite our separation, we are actually closer than ever. The callers we speak to in this episode, like many others throughout the series, express their anxieties and challenges, and reveal the way they view the world by what it no longer resembles to them today.


I hope you are able to find something in this episode within yourself, and that you feel encouraged to share it with others in your community. 

Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Swiss Typefaces for donating licenses to use their fonts in the promotional materials for this project. Their support for COVID-19 initiatives is commendable, and if you wish to learn more about their work, visit their website.

As always, thanks for tuning in. See y'all next week.


AS

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

BLASST 107 - So Long Bernie, and Thanks For All The Wishes

TRACKLIST
1. Arto Lindsay - "Livestream for ESS"
2. Amyl & The Sniffers - "Control"
3. The Panik - "Modern Politics"
4. OK BOOMER 
5. Gang Starr - "DWYCK feat. Nice, Smooth"
6. Yaeji - "IN THE MIRROR"
7. Yves Tumor - "Dream Palette"
8. Slift - "Ummon"
9. RMP - "4'33'"
10. Einsturzende Neubauten - "Ten Grand Goldie"
11. Fugazi - "Waiting Room" (Ohio Mix)
12. Protomartyr - "Processed by the Boys"
13. Opian - "Opalescent Sands"
14. Jasper Lotti - "Sword"
15. Los Cadetes De Linares - "Palomito"
16. Herbie Hancock - "Watermelon Man"

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NOTES
Well, I imagine a lot of people are pretty upset with Bernie Sanders now. He's gone ahead and played along with the game of politics the way he did in 2016 when he endorsed Hillary Clinton after being denied the Democratic nomination by the DNC - that time. You could argue that it's a long-game move, he's still a state senator after all, and if he wants to expect any kind of cooperation on the legislative floor, he has to play ball in some way. It doesn't make it any less disappointing to see though. The 'movement' he built over the last 5 years has lit a fire under people's butts to engage the political systems of the United States. Hot enough to get them into the streets? Perhaps not just yet, especially considering our need to stay home to curb community spread of COVID-19. Even the cops are involved now. We'll see how things unfold as the election draws near. People want mail-in ballots so they can vote from home - a sensible thing to want, if you ask me - and the Trump administration is refusing to bail out the post office. If the foul play isn't apparent to you by this point, I don't know what to say to you. Both candidates in the presidential election are alleged rapists. Thousands upon thousands are dying of a respiratory illness due to a complete neglect for the country's medical infrastructure. This is America 2020. 

On a lighter note, the world is moving forward whether we like it or not, and we may as well make the best of it while we can. Even if that means trying to enjoy an hour's time out of your otherwise chaotic trash fire of a day. Today's selection is eclectic and stimulating, not at all like this tea I made in a hurry to warm up my voice to record the episode. Tracks from the new albums by Opian, Yves Tumor, Yaeji, Protomartyr, and Einsturzende Neubauten. What a mix!

Keep an eye out on the Universal Punk instagram (@_punk) for our new Instagram Lives performance series! We're going to feature one performer from the RGV (and eventually beyond) once every Saturday evening at 7pm starting this weekend - with yours truly! Every artist will be able to raise funds for either themselves or a charity of their choosing during their performance! We're booked up until July now! Wild stuff!

I know I said "DJ" Guru, when I meant to say MC Guru. RIP Guru. To watch the beat battle between DJ Premier and RZA, look no further:

Lastly, our series of call-in episodes featuring community members sharing their stories about how COVID-19 has affected their lives in the RGV will begin airing next week! 

See you then.


AS

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

BLASST 106: Angel Corsi

TRACKLIST:
1. May Erlewine - "Living Well"
2. Zion I - "Coastin' feat. K-Flay"
3. Pigeon John - "Gotta Good Feelin'"
4. Angel Corsi - "How We Survive (live)"


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NOTES:
Today's BLASST features our second guest of 2020: Angel Corsi! Angel is a singer-songwriter from Harlingen, TX with a strong community-oriented MO. He's owned venues, music shops, organized municipal live music events across the Valley, and most notably to me, he also regularly teaches classes on how to write music and be a better songwriter and performer - even from a business sense. His contributions to the RGV music scene have brought him to my attention over the past couple of years, and with the release of his latest EP, In The Quiet Hours, I wanted to bring him on the show to talk about all of it! I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite conversations I've ever had on the program, and I hope you enjoy it too.

One of the aspects of Angel's recent work with the In The Quiet Hours EP is that he's focusing on the processing of trauma. The narratives he puts forth in his music are living and embodying trauma for the purpose of overcoming it, and I think that's a great contrast to a trend in art and music right now where we as artists are defining ourselves by our trauma in such a way that we can never escape its effects on our identity. I think that's a really significant creative choice, and one that perhaps could lead other artists by example. 

You will probably notice that this interview, like my talk with Jacob of Pillowsnake a couple of weeks ago, also took place before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US, and so some of the things we talk about didn't end up happening, but as Raymus Media commented on that episode, it's nice to listen to a conversation that takes place in a world where the novel coronavirus is not at large.

Tune in next week for the first in a series of episodes I'll be doing to highlight different ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted members of the RGV community. I don't have a name for them yet, but all of that will be ready to go by next Tuesday!

To check out the 'mafia folk' music that Angel mentions, go here.

To listen to In The Quiet Hours, go here.

To visit the webpage where Angel has posted all of the lies his fans typed out at his release show, go here.

To watch the video from which the audio I play at the end comes from, look below.

To learn more about Angel's RGV Songwriter School that I mention briefly (and he alludes to later in the show), follow Angel and the school on Instagram!

Thanks again for tuning in, see y'all next week.

Stay home, stay safe, stay healthy.

AS


BLASST 132: C. Diaz

TRACKLIST 1. Björk - "Big Time Sensuality" 2. Ataque de Caspa - "Viaje a Egipto" 3. PJ Harvey - "Is This Desire?&qu...