Although you wouldn’t know it from reading this blog, recently the interwaves have been awash with interviews, interventions, and other interaction of my various web-projects outside or our beloved Comma.*

And so in a last minute attempt to wrap-up the year and perhaps atone for a certain deficit of attention applied to this site, please allow me to bring you all gently up to date on the activities of various Ominous characters outside these hallowed screens.

Kicking things off with a bold experiment in bad judgment as well as bad taste, was the infamous LOBO who interviewed Doctor Harold Toboggans over at Predator Press.

Not to be outdone, the intrepid Justin and Jerod also interviewed the Doctor (as well as the DangerCouch crew) on their Shut Up and Listen podcast,

And last but by no means least, Dave Barger and the Lunaweb crew interviewed me on the Social Media Expedition podcast.

I won’t lie, I was really excited about my first face-to-face interview. But sadly even this brief moment in the sun was clouded by the seemingly unavoidable presence of Dr Toboggans.

Unbelievably, he stormed the building, confiscated my microphone, and proceeded to cast aspersions far and wide.

He even stole my photo op.

I was lucky to escape with my sanity.

I had thought that kicking him over to drtobggans.com would free me from the curse of contact with that walking testament to narcissism.

I was so naive.

Fortunately, I found solace in the 9+1 Songs of Christmas, hosted and performed by DangerCouch.

Otherwise I might have ended up much like Guy Cobb, left to the minuscule mercy of our devious Doctor.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But I guess that’s enough commiserating for now.

Here’s wishing you a happy and Toboggans-free New Year.

Cheers

-Brent

—-

*Yes friends, its your Comma too. Speaking of which, have you seen its grades?…

Here’s a little something I’ve been working up for DangerCouch fans or anyone who enjoys less-than-serious Christmas music:  the 9+1 Songs of Christmas.

Here for your watching/listening/giggling pleasure are 8 songs (9 tomorrow) and 1 poem from 2006 Christmas concert. It’s a playlist, so feel free to just click on it and YouTube will do the rest.

Some songs are regular Christmas carols, some are extra-crispy. Enjoy them all.

More info on DangerCouch here.

In which psychiatric pestilence Doctor Harold Toboggans, verbally assaults Guy Cobb of the Tennessee SuperLab Show on the topics of invention, reinforcements, and Glockenspiel Syndrome.

Witness it for yourself:

Mind Over Memphis – Tennessee SuperLab

About this time last year I wrote a couple of posts, Save Your Christmas and Bring a Light, in which I suggested that if christians were really dissatisfied with the way the Christmas story was being told by our society, they wouldn’t waste time with protests, but instead tell a better story.

I also introduced readers to the Advent Conspiracy and the growing idea of opting out of Christmas Incorporated in favor of smaller, saner, and more personal expressions of love and community.

This year my friends at Lifelink Memphis have really embraced the concept, and together we are spending all month exploring Christmas and ways to make it more meaningful, enjoyable, and fulfilling.

I believe we are on the trail of a better story, not just one more worth telling, but one more worth living.

Oh, and I’m leading one of the classes.

So if you find yourself in Memphis this December, join me Sundays at 9:30 for a closer look at the ideas of Advent Conspiracy and stay for service at 10:15.

The story is just getting good.

Lifelink Memphis
1015 Cooper
connect. cultivate. co-mission.

map

In which Doctor Harold Toboggans, scourge of Memphis, interrogates Ken Steorts about Visible School, the pursuit of dreams, and other delusions of adequacy.

See it now.

Mind Over Memphis – Visible School

I woke with a start, my sleep shattered like a fortune cookie in a sledgehammer factory.

Wiping the crusts from my eyes, my mind filled with the usual questions:

How long had I been out?

Where did October go?

And worst of all…

Why were Doctor Toboggans‘ clothes strewn all over my house?

I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers.

….Unless of course I could somehow blame LOBO.

I don’t want to write right now.

And of all the many things I don’t want to write at this moment, I think what I most not want to write is this sentence right here.

I hate this sentence.

Everything about it.

Its length, its wording, that fact that it’s coming from my keyboard.

I despise it all.

And if there is anything on this entire planet that I hate more that that sentence up there, I think it must be this one right here.

Because the only thing worse than a despicable series of phrases, is a second one, drawing attention to the first.

In fact, it wouldn’t be too much to say that this entire article is fully loathsome from beginning to end.

So much so, I can’t believe I am still writing it.

But on I go, in a senseless display of literary self-torment.

I don’t do this merely because I am a sick and twisted individual, addicted to my own pain.

No it’s worse than that.

I do it because I practice a very specific type of masochism, known simply as Writing, and with this particular disorder the only thing worse than to indulge in it, is not to.

Don’t feel sorry for me, I have enough self-pity for us all.

That is all.

For today.

Every so often I like to pause the slow creaking machinery of this publication in order to answer certain burning hypothetical questions which, at least theoretically, could be troubling the minds of readers everywhere.

Here we go…

Yes, I’m still alive.

No, I haven’t been writing here very often.

Yes, I still love you.

No, you can’t move in.

Yes , I’m still busy fixing this site, promoting the Mind Over Memphis videos, and doing all the things I whined about here.

No, I didn’t run out of ideas.

Yes, time and energy are in short supply lately.

42¹

Yes, the Hot Comma Momma is still hot.

No, I will not issue a comment on those awkward burns.

Yes, Little Miss Ominous and her new husband are doing well.

No, I don’t have a counter-point to that statement.

Yes, it’s been a crazy busy year.

No, it’s not over yet.

Happy Monday

In which the bane of my existence, Doctor Harold Toboggans, attempts to cure Kevin Gaiman of Nightshade Manor from the horrible “curse” of donating food to the Mid-South Food Bank.

See it for yourself at:

Mind Over Memphis – Nightshade Manor

Those of you who have reading the Comma for any length of time will probably be aware of my reoccurring struggles with purpose and humor, and how I’ve never really been content to just make people laugh but instead have looked for ways to also inspire and teach and challenge the status quo.

It has taken a while, but with my new Mind Over Memphis project, I think I might finally be on the right track.

In this new video series, I have found a way to highlight social entrepreneurs, not people with start-ups, but rather people who are upstarts, individuals who look around at the people and the problems of the city and say, “What a minute, I see something I can do to help.”

And then do it.

People who penetrate the Someone Else’s Problem field and become someone else’s solution.

The beauty of it is that I believe all of us can be people like that, we often just lack inspiration.

This is where Doctor Toboggans comes in.

In his backwards, fumbling, painfully arrogant way, he illustrates that none of us really need a certificate or a title or a “mandate” to re-imagine our world, just an idea and the determination to see it through.

My DangerCouch partner Dan Baker has joined me on this project and, as always, is keeping production values in line with his high standards and unique vision.

We have started small, just a trailer and three pilot episodes featuring people that I know and trust me and are willing to help me prove the concept.

Once these first episodes air, I am hoping that more and more interesting characters, programs and charities will want to get on board and be interviewed as well, to share their vision and help spread the inspiration.

What I really, desperately need are two things: promotion and suggestions.

First, I need people to talk this up.  To blog about it, tweet about it, facebook-icate about it. (O.K. I made that word up, but do it anyway.) To Digg it, Stumble it, and email it to your grandma. Just get the word out.

If you want to talk about it, great. If you want to repost it, better. If you want to host it (cough cough Live From Memphis ) wonderful.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Trailer

Second, I need suggestions, victims, and volunteers. People with a sense of humor preferably, who are engaged in doing good for the people of Memphis.

Talk them into it and please contact me.

Our schedule so far is:

Trailer  – released on Oct 7
Episode 1 – featuring Kevin Gaiman of Nightshade Manor – Oct 14
Episode 2 – featuring Ken Steorts of Visible School – Oct 28
Episode 3 – featuring Guy Cobb of the Tennessee Superlabs – Nov 11
Episode 4 – is up for grabs…

What I want to do here is huge, it’s way bigger than what I can pull off by myself, so I have no problem asking anyone with any sort of social connection for help.

Here it comes: “Help!”

This thing, I hope, is just getting started. I look for every aspect of it to get better and better as we go along.

Thank you for your time and your support.

-Brent Diggs

See all the episode as they occur on drtoboggans.com and on youtube.