Disability Studies, Temple U. lectures will now be distributed through IOD website

Disability Studies, Temple U. lectures beginning Fall 2009 will be available to our readers through the Insitute on Disabilities website. Allison Carey's September 9 lecture, the first of the the semester, is now available in print and audio formats - enjoy! Since this is a new effort of the Institute, we certainly appreciate your patience as we post them after the lecture. And we welcome your feedback and further suggestions.

New: The Dismodern Bodcast

The universe of disability blogs used to be fairly easy to tour with some sense of coverage--now it's grown far beyond that possibility (for me, anyway). The same is true for podcasts about disability issues. I mostly manage to keep up with the Ouch! podcast (now in its fourth year, after 37 monthly episodes), but there are so many others, and new ones start often.

But maybe you're still looking for more audio content, maybe something less newsy or more theory-minded; then I'll point you to the Dismodern Bodcast, created at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Here's their blurb:

The Dismodern Bodcast examines contemporary issues of the body, including normalcy and difference. The Dismodern Bodcast examines representations of bodily difference in order to understand how dominant culture uses rhetoric about the body for ideological and political purposes. This methodology disrupts what is often static, essentialist thinking about the human body in order to generate new ways of conceptualizing the body that are perhaps more inclusive and democratic.

Two episodes are already available (one discusses bodybuilding, and the other anorexia); subscribe through iTunes if that works for you.

Committed to Parkview

Ever have one of those days, where your projects follow you around? It's a nice day out, so I went for a walk, after a morning of writing disability history encyclopedia entries (on Blind Boone and Anna Klumpke, in case you're curious). But disability history followed me out the door anyway. On my iPod, a recent episode of the podcast Coverville noted Porter Wagoner's recent passing with his rendition of Johnny Cash's "Committed to Parkview"--a striking country song, originally released in 1976, about being institutionalized in Nashville (both Cash and Wagoner had spent time as patients at the Park View facility in the 1960s).

Kay at Gimp Parade sometimes posts videos and song lyrics with disability themes, but I don't think I've seen this one in that series. (It is, however, in this list.) After the video, I'll include the lyrics.



Video Description: Wagoner is singing almost a cappella, with brief, silent, sometimes slow-motion scenes of institutional life interspersed. Wagoner is in some of the scenes.

Committed to Parkview
Johnny Cash

There's a man across the hall who sits staring at the floor
He thinks he's Hank Williams hear him singing through the door
There's a girl in 203, who stops by to visit me
And she talks about her songs and the star that she should be
There's a lot of real fine talent staying in or passing through
And for one thing or another, committed to Parkview

There's a girl in 307, coming down on thorazine
And a superstar's ex-drummer trying to kick benzedrine
There's a real fine country singer who has tried and tried and tried
They just brought him in this morning an attempted suicide
There are those that never made it, those that did but now are through
Some came of their own good choosing, some committed to Parkview

There's a girl who cries above me, loud enough to wake the dead
They don't know what she has taken that has scrambled up her head
There's a boy just below me who's the son of some well-known
He was brought in by his mother 'cause his daddy's always gone
There's a bum from down on Broadway and a few quite well-to-dos
Who have withdrawn from the rat race and committed to Parkview

They wake us about 6:30,just before the morning meal
While they're taking blood pressure, they ask us how we feel
And I always say fantastic there ain't nothing wrong with me
And then they give me my injection and I go right back to sleep
The days are kind of foggy and the nights are dreamy too
But they're taking good care of me, committed to Parkview

Disability Podcasts Roundup #2

Our first disability podcasts roundup (back in March) took note of the brand new Ouch! podcast... so now that Liz and Mat have posted their eighth monthly podcast, we're clearly due for another look around the world of disability podcasting.

The news from Disability Nation is that they've gone to a weekly, half-hour podcast schedule; the latest episode discusses visitability with Eleanor Smith of Concrete Change (that's her at right), accessible voting, Medicare and wheelchairs, the Church of England and severely-disabled infants, and more--great coverage of current events and excellent interviews are the hallmarks of Disability Nation--and they post a transcript of each episode, too.

There's a new disability podcast out of Ireland, named Outside the Box, produced and presented by Olan McGowan (shown at right)--there's only one episode up at iTunes so far, but it sounds good (as you'd expect, it's a radio show on RTÉ). I'll look forward to finding more of those.

Other disability-related podcasts that are currently posting new episodes (as of this writing) include:

Cripcast--by a 30something Florida man named Dwight
Disability 411--by Beth Case, a college disability counselor based in Houston
ssdRadio--by Jonathan Ginsberg, a Social Security lawyer based in Atlanta
Handimobility--Philippe, Gabrielle, and Mony are podcasting in French--which I don't follow, but it sounds cool
Autism Podcast--by Michael Boll; lots of interviews and discussions
Blind Cool Tech--by Larry Skutchan; frequent new episodes are posted
Blind Access Journal--by Darrell Shandrow
The Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show--by Dave and Mike in Australia

If you produce a disability podcast, or you hear a good one, let us know, and we'll add it to the list.

News From Liz Carr: Ouch Podcast Saved - Thank You!

Yes, yes it's true... thank you to all who signed the 'Save the Ouch! Podcast' petition.

I delivered it today to Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC and he was 'expecting' the petition. He said to thank everyone for the support of the podcast and there was no way that they were going to get rid of it.

Oh, how they've changed their tune! Did warn them about the petition last week and know they were getting anxious... Apparently they thought a bunch of us crips were going to storm the meeting and throw flour bombs at the DG.

*snigger* Ehhh no... and no need!
People power can work... Thank you! Your support and comments much appreciated and really endorse what we're doing...

Keep listening and keep supporting us at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/podcast

crip liz x

A Parade, and a Podcast

Go check out the Patient-Consumer Parade #1, for some familiar faces from our our Disability Blogs Roundup (The Gimp Parade got the gold medal, but there's also Rolling Rains, and A Letter to My Children). This is planned as a weekly event, so submit your "best writing about being a medical patient or healthcare consumer." The criteria must be fairly broad: for example, I'm not really sure how Scott Rains' travelogue at Oregon's Lithia Park counts as a "patient" experience (using a wheelchair, by itself, doesn't give you permanent and constant patient status, right?), but it's always good to see him linked anyway. Thanks to Gimpy Mumpy for pointing this one out.

And while I'm making referrals, the new BBC Ouch! Disability Podcast (#4) is available for download. Hear about Mat Fraser's encounter with the Queen (no kidding), an interview with performer Laurence Clark (pictured, left), and an on-air adoration ritual, with megaphone, at the Trafalgar Square statue of Alison Lapper Pregnant.