The Time Has Come: Podcast Adventures » Podcast Feed Josh Dobbin

Every Father's Day, I usually share a storytelling event story I did a while back, about my dad. The story I tell there is one part of three, from a thing I wrote, shortly after he died, called "Three Pictures of My Dad."

But this past year, over the pandemic, I've been sharing stories with a friend and I find it to be a really good thing to do. To share stories, as people.

And it occurs to me that I should maybe "tell" the other two pictures, there in that work. So here they are.

If you have the time, I'd absolutely love to know that you listened to them, to know that the idea of Joel Dobbin managed to animate a bunch of thoughts in the world, these 12 years after he left it.

If you knew him and loved him, I hope these little "audio portraits" bring back the reality of him to you, for just a little bit. You can kind of see him, there in your mind's eye and hear his voice and identity assert itself in the narrative. Trust me, it's always nice when he "shows up" like that.

If you DIDN'T know him, but love me, then please-- listen. By the end, I'm pretty sure you will love him and wish you did know him. He was a really good dad.

Happy Father's Day, everybody.

The podcast WILL ride again... maybe! If it suits Keith's fancy. In the meanwhile, to tide you over, here's a bonus bit of content: I recorded an audio-book style version of a story from my book OF LOVE AND SNACKCAKES for a friend.

Longtime listeners will remember this as the story of "The Polka Dot Ninja." This is the more extended telling of the tale.

I'm putting it up here so they can download it on Spotify for a plane ride, which is a roundabout way of getting past the iPhone's fucked up inability to download and store mp3s natively. If you're still subscribed to the podcast, this means you get it, too. All for the low, low price of FREE.

Slaughter the fatted calf! Light the celebratory bonfire! Punch a nun full in the face! Keith "America's Favorite Boy" Field has crafted a purchasable piece of podcast merchandise that you, the loyal listener, can (AND SHOULD) purchase. For less than the price of a steak, a little bit of capital H History can live in your house: TRUCK ZOO BLOOD WAR 2000, the most fun you could have with tiny wooden toys.

Also in this episode: listener feedback (sorta). And if you thought the crisis hotline idea from last episode was perhaps ill-advised, hoo-boy. This episode features the introduction (and hopefully the last appearance) of a certain figure from the fictional Steadman College. It is... WHAT IT IS.

What's in a name? William Shakespeare seemed to think "not much," in that a rose by any other name would still be rose-flavored. But he was kind of a dick who wrote a play about an evil Jew, hellbent for leather on carving out a section of Christian flesh from the belly of a guy who owed him money.

We tend to think in more Old Testament terms; that the power granted to Mankind was the power of naming.... And the power granted to America's Favorite Boy, Keith Charles Field, is the power of NICKNAMING. Like a carpenter whose own home is left unmended, Keith reveals his secret longing for a true nickname, and the hateful ones saddled on him by classmates.

Also: The delightful casual racism of the 1960s DICK TRACY cartoon, the dread fate of a criminal midget of an indeterminate name at the hands of his grotesque bride and the worst idea for a crisis hotline to ever be recorded in audio format. IN THIS EPISODE: You will hear a genuine and real-life, honest to goodness, THREE'S COMPANY Jack Tripper style **SPIT TAKE** as Josh makes the ill-advised move to sip a cold beverage while Keith is in full swing.

Laugh along with Josh and Keith as they lose it, Harvey Korman/Tim Conway style, but also cry... cry tears for a baked midget.

On the nature of expressions of grief or mourning for strangers, both genuine and performative, Josh and Keith have differing opinions, but manage to find some common ground.

In this episode, find out who Josh hates most in all the world of celebrity, and shriek in terror at the continuing and unrelenting evil of Hector Boyardee. Also: WAKE IN FRIGHT, the movie you've never seen, and never should see, but you probably will see now, even though I just clearly told you you shouldn't see. Keith sees and was disappointed with the new BILL AND TED, which he calls a "corpse parade."

This episode has it all: Kangaroo slaughters, Wacky Packages, odes to fallen heroes of the past including John Saxon (who never gets as much love as he should) and Donald Pleasence, who really wanted to kill those Witch Mountain kids. Josh and Keith discuss COBRA KAI, binge-watching, being covered in mites, celebrity break-ups, and much, much more.

Join us, won't you?

The great poet Robbie Burns once said that the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang-aft-a-gley. Which is a classy Scottish way for saying "get f****d up."
Here's a little peek behind the curtain into how the magic happens at THE TIME HAS COME studios: Josh and Keith will hang out for a bit, get the computer set up to record, and go over a loose plan of a topic to eventually settle upon for the episode, so that it has some sort of thematic arc to it. From there, it's a freeform conversation that goes where it goes, with a mind to somehow wind it's way topic-ward.

That was the plan for this episode, but that plan gang-aft-a-gley'd in the most delightful and horrific way. Equal parts delightful and horrific.

You see, for this taping, the whimsical character of Little Boy Boyardee, the waif who would become chef to a nation, Hector Boyardee, hailed and lauded as a hero for the ages in our previous episode, took a dark and unexpected turn.

GASP! in amazement and surprise as his villainy is revealed!
CHOKE! back tears of laughter and revulsion!
MARVEL! at the sinister and reality-bending nature of dastardly time travel and skulduggery!
SPEND! somewhere around an hour and forty minutes exploring an episode we can only call....

HECTOR, NO!