S3 E13 - True at First Light

Outro S3

E13

Hello my survivor friends. How are we doing on this fine day? And welcome back to the Apocalypse.

For those of you who are playing along it is the ides of February 2023, and this is Season 3 Episode 13.

If listening to voice of ‘Chris the producer’ in these segments makes you so angry you ram into the car in front of you and try to push them off the road, you can just skip to the finish after the Robert’s narrative ends with the closing music and midroll break.

I won’t be offended. Unless someone tells me.

And I don’t know you…

I don’t know where you live…

…or do I?... Just Kidding…Siri Dim the Lights!

First let me give you some updates.

We are cooking along in our 3rd season. The plan is still to do 5 seasons of 20 episodes each.

I write and produce the show. Robert does the professional audio read. And I have a team of 3 friends that help me with the editing and story ideas.

We have a nice sustainable 2-week production schedule cycle going.

Why do you care? Because this is the cadence you can expect, unless life gets in the way.

As of this morning we are running at about 23,000 downloads a month.

And why do you care? Because a) you’re not alone – the solid downloads numbers means that we are serving up an interesting and compelling product and b) I get ad revenue to pay for the production costs – not a lot – barely breakeven – but at least I don’t have to explain to my long suffering wife why I’m wasting the milk money.

So, here’s your call to action. Recruit 3 friends. Forward the show to three people who you think will appreciate it. That’s my ask.

And you can share it on social media, just post the link on your feed and say ‘Hey this is good, give it a listen!’

The other thing that really helps is when you do a positive review or like in your podcast app. Whether it’s apple, or Spotify or something else – they will have a facility in there for you to rate the show. Doesn’t cost you anything and helps us find people. The algorithms are always looking for content to recommend and they figure this out by your activity and your likes.

We are over 300 members in our Facebook group. We talk about all the stuff we like, old movies, new series, books, and other content that people are listening to. You can search for OldManApocalypse in Facebook to find it.

I have also successfully finished loading all these episode notes with their links up to my website OldManApocalypse.com. So if you’re looking for the link for something I was talking about in these outro pieces or want to contact me – go there.

…

That seems like enough practical show ditch digging for one session so let’s transition to this week’s ‘what is Chris reading and watching?’

I’ve been finishing up a Hemmingway book called ‘True at First Light’. It’s Hemmingway’s journal from his last safari in Africa in 1954 – 53 edited into a book by his son Patrick.

I picked it up in the used bookstore in the Milwaukee airport. Which is something I love. That the universe decided to put a good used book store in an airport. It’s been there as long as I’ve been traveling for work, 20+ years and is obviously a labor of love for someone.

This Hemmingway book is a bit controversial. The manuscript was donated to the JFK Library in Boston by his 4th wife Mary. They let his son Patrick Hemmingway edit it up into this book.

It’s an up and down read. You’re never sure which parts are the author and which parts are the editor. That being said there are some Hemmingway nuggets in there.

What really struck me is how ‘of its time’ it was. Hemmingway was, back then, the same years he was on this safari, 1953 he won the Pulitzer Prize and, 1954, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

He was famous and America loved him for his literary talent but also for his brand. He was proof that America could produce great artists as the country struggled to find its place in world-culture before and emerging from WWII.

He had this great image of a hard-drinking tough guy who liked to womanize and hunt and fish and go to bullfights. I feel for him because that is hard image to live up to as you get older.

I have read Hemmingway but not his whole catalogue. This book has renewed my interest to go back and learn more about this man and his art.

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The only other piece of noteworthy content I consumed since we last talked was “This Island Earth” a Universal Studios sci-fi movie from 1955 based on a 1952 novel of the same name. It was the first sci-fi films to be produced in Technicolor. Amusingly it was released as a double feature with Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy.

It is not a very compelling movie. I think the Mystery Science Theater 3000 the Movie parody of it is entirely more watchable.

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I hope you are all doing well. My team and I are scurrying around trying to figure out how to get out of season 3 – 6 Episodes to figure it out!

If you can contribute to the show, if it has addd to your happiness, we have patreon, Acast subscription and buy me a coffee options as well as a page for various merch in our TeePublic store. Give me some money and I’ll send you a patch!

Links are in the show notes and on the website.

Don’t; forget about the story contest we’re running, get those entries in for a read into audio. Details posted on the website and pinned in the Facebook group.

And whether you are hunting lions in Africa, traveling to distant planets after being kidnapped by aliens or simply hanging out in your bunker…don’t forget - What ever happens, we’ll handle it -keep surviving.