Alright, alright. I’ve been gone again for a long time. But this time for good reason! I have my own radio show! It started toward the end of December when I was talking to my friend Tony Colombo about the weekend programming at NewsTalkSTL. I asked him, “How does one get a radio show?” Really, it was more out of curiosity. I mused about having something of my own similar to the paranormal themes I used to be a guest for when I worked with Tony at other stations. I thought it would be fun to do free readings for callers so that listeners could understand what a tarot card reading with me was like (and to help others for free). I loved the idea of being able to promote kindred spirits and help authors I respected sell books. And maybe I’d sell a few of those too!

Well, Tony thought it was a great idea. Next came the name, because, as we know from spiritual teaching, nothing (good or bad) is real until it is named! Tom and I wandered the mall trying to get our steps in on bitter cold nights, trying ideas out. Too many of them sounded like bad band names. Souler Coaster, anyone? The best ones were already taken, like Beyond Belief. I saw a cellphone fix store and that’s when Mystic Fix came to me. Fix has a lot of good meanings: to situate, to repair, and to satisfy a craving (We will leave out the castration definition). And so, naming the show was part of its conjuring.

NewsTalkSTL, meanwhile, had a pipe burst over the Christmas cold and lots of damage. The station co-owner suggested that my show start January 21st, but I bumped it to February 4th to be safely out of Mercury Retrograde’s shadow and to let NewsTalkSTL recover. The energy had to be good!

Most importantly came the matter of finding a sponsor to pay for it. I spent the last days of December and the first week of January pitching the idea of the show that did not yet exist to businesses I thought might have interest. It felt very much like when I started Night Times magazine in the 1990s, getting my first check from Streetside Records–God Bless them–which was the $900 that changed my life. Here I was selling a dream again, with the same kind of energy of creating something, or maybe letting the something create me since I wasn’t entirely sure of what I was doing.

Then, one of my dearest regular clients came through to promote his pet project, Kamaflight, which is a fascinating, therapeutic, and dare I say, sexy amalgam of yoga, meditation, and massage. Next, I needed a producer to be assigned to me, and I lucked out with the wonderful Leah Almstedt. We are becoming fast friends. Because I do nothing halfway (or maybe because I tend to go too far) I decided that I wanted this show to also be videocast and podcast. Radio is a one-shot communication; you have to be in the area at the right time to tune in. But podcast and videocast last in perpetuity. Truth is, creating any of it is out of my wheelhouse, but I wanted a way for my family and friends on the east coast to tune in/see me, as well as clients around the world. To get the station to do videocast would be an extra cost that I didn’t have, so I figured I’d do it myself. How hard could it be, right? (Ha ha. I’ll be getting to that).

I had to plan the show(s), of course. Which meant finding good guests who could be available for the time we were pre-recording, synchronizing everyone’s schedule with producer Leah’s and the station’s studio availability. I wanted some kind of theme, so of course, I picked tarot. Every show has a tarot card theme assigned to it, in order of the cards. There are 78 tarot cards, so when I get through that many shows I can either repeat the themes with new guests, choose a reversed meaning of the cards, or try something new altogether. I’ll worry about that later.

There were (are) lots of other moving parts. I needed a website for the show. And a social media presence outside of my posts of my cats, my family, and Plath. I needed a YouTube Channel (and all the others). Thank God next for my sister-in-law, Anne Peters, my web ninja who has been behind the scenes creating logos, making social network reels, and launching my website www.mysticfix.com.

Recording the first show, I was a little shaky. I was not in full voice and unsure of what to say and when as I was not yet accustomed to being the one directing the whole thing (I did have a radio show of my own, The Writer’s Voice Hour, way back in 1994 and 1995 on KYMC community radio). Since then, though, I’ve always been a guest who could just smile and let the host go to commercial or whatever. I only just learned–the hard way–you don’t say the POINT in 101.9, and they don’t say FM anymore (we used to always say both in the 1990s). Being prerecorded has both challenges and benefits: The biggest benefit being, obviously, that if you screw up you can do it again. But with prerecorded, I’m cued to stop for commercials and news I don’t hear because it’s not there yet! I had to imagine introductory music that had not yet been created for me. Acting skills are involved. I’m learning.

We’ve recorded three episodes and tonight is the show’s debut! 8:00 pm on NewsTalkSTL 101.9 and 94.1 FM. I set the video camera up and just let it go. The first episode’s video initially disappointed me because 1.) I was too far away from my guest,  2.) I sounded too shy and quiet,  and 3.) my hair was a little wonky. My friend Garrett Enloe came to the first recording to take pictures for my website and be some moral support. My friend Tyler Kiwala was a fantastic first guest, and I interviewed a wonderful author in Great Britain, Rachel Patterson, on her occupation as a kitchen witch.

Learning the video processing software was a bit challenging, but thanks to Tom, I got the basics down fairly fast and decided to use all that extra space between me and my guests! The videocast of Mystic Fix is now like a spiritual version of VH-1’s Pop-Up Videos (Yes, the 90s again. It was my favorite decade for so many things). I feel exceedingly creative and haven’t had this kind of energy and enthusiasm in a long time. It’s hard work, but it’s a blast.

So, when and if you watch the first show, know that I wish I had been better. But my guests are fantastic. I really mean that. They save the show, and I still think, while I am not great, the first show is good. The second is even better and by the third, I found my footing.

If you can’t listen to the radio tonight, I’ll have links posted on www.mysticfix.com and all my social networks on how and where to find us in podcast and videocast. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts. xo

The post Announcing… Mystic Fix! (Or, How to Start Your Own Radio Show) appeared first on Julia Gordon-Bramer.

Hello and Happy New Year!

On this first day of 2023, we have a symbolic blank page on which to write our hopes, fears, prayers, and creative energies. All of these create our experience of this new year. Today, I hope that you celebrate possibilities and empower yourself to attract them. This is that “manifesting” buzzword you hear so much in spiritual circles.

For me, it’s been another year of neglecting regular blog entries, but let’s get real: We all have too much to read and spend too much time anyway! I only want to write if I have something worthwhile to say to you. If you want the micro-blogging stuff, check out my Twitter @jgordonbramer.

I am astounded to say that 2022 is over. And I’ve done some things! Manifesting is real! The highlights are:

• A book contract and finalizing the manuscript for Tarot Life Lessons (formerly The Tarot Diaries) with Destiny Books, a subsidiary of Inner Traditions (and a publishing home to the tarot genius Alejandro Jodorowsky! So honored to share his label!). Release date should be announced VERY SOON. The cover is beautiful!
• A book contract for The Magician’s Girl: the history and mysticism of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, with Inner Traditions. The title could change, and it may be on another imprint of Inner Traditions–I’ll hear soon.
• In May 2022, I became the proud owner of Sylvia Plath’s (hand-carved by her) Hermetic Caduceus with provenance papers. Additionally, I’ve acquired a November 1952 photograph of Sylvia, autographed by her mother Aurelia to friend Richard Larschan and his wife, as well as a copy of the very rare “Last Encounters” memoir of Plath by neighbor Trevor Thomas, inscribed and signed by the author.  Many thanks to Richard Larschan for all of these things, but most of all, for his friendship!
• At the end of June, I lost my dear friend, literary mentor, writing teacher, surrogate father, and friend of Plath and Hughes’, Zulfikar Ghose. I’m not over it yet. I began writing him a memoriam, but nothing can do him justice. We shall see if I ever finish it.
• I toured Sylvia Plath’s childhood home in Wellesley, Massachusetts with the Larschans; I had a blast traipsing across Cape Cod with my friend Margaret following Plath and Hughes’ footsteps (if you’re going to the Cape, stay at Margaret’s beautiful historic Bursley Manor); and I had some time visiting family in both the Boston area and Ocean City, Maryland.
• I watched one of my besties and his wife, Garrett and Stacy Enloe, put out the coolest book ever about Mississippi Nights, of which I was honored to help with and even more honored to be in (along with Tom). I’m in for Night Times magazine, which started as a Mississippi Nights publication, and Tom is in the book with his old band Radio Iodine. Our 30-year-old pictures are in it too! Garrett and his work have reunited me with so many dear friends from the St. Louis scene and I’m so proud that his efforts have made it a best-seller in St. Louis this Christmas season.
• I fully immersed myself in a return to music and saw some great shows: The Cult with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Jack White; The Who; Jane’s Addiction and Smashing Pumpkins; Gin Blossoms; Local H; the Eagles—and those were just my favorites, there were others!
• Finally, I am going to have my own radio show on NewsTalkSTL 101.9 and 94.1 FM! I am still figuring out some of the details: studio time, who my producer will be, sponsorships and advertisers, etc. As soon as I have a start date, I will post it here. But I can tell you it is called Mystic Fix and the show will focus on mind-body-spirit topics–everything from yoga to Qabalah to the paranormal. Should be a lot of fun! If you have a business that wants to help support this program (and of course, get lots of publicity on STL’s fastest growing station) PLUS it’ll be podcast so all those outside of the area can hear at their leisure and ads will last in perpetuity–give me a holler and we will talk!

OK. Back to manifesting! Hope you have a fab 2023! xo

The post The End of An Exciting Year; The Beginning of Even More appeared first on Julia Gordon-Bramer.