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Electric Arc Radio
Electric Arc Theme
Song Book (Requires Adobe Reader)

Audio Bios

Sam
Sam's personality is built on his days working as the trash boy at Casual Corner. There he encountered divorcees who fawned over him and kissed him. He has the biggest bedroom, containing a hot tub. He worries no one takes his writing seriously (stupid cookbooks).

Herbach
Herbach's bedroom is on the second floor and contains a closet full of shiny thongs and a princess bed. He used to live in the dumpster behind McDonald's and considers himself a great success. Herbach writes legal thrillers (Fartenbräu in the Garden of Seduction).

Brady
He's a dandy man with a closet full of ascots. But don't be fooled, Brady lives in the basement, where he is often dark and sad (exept for brief moments while wading in his wading pool). Brady writes inspirational fiction and loves the sound of Alan Greenspan's clarinet.

Steph
She's the only female in a house full of males. Her respite is an octagonal cubicle that was built on the landing between two floors. At night she finds answers at the bottom of a box of blush wine. She writes fiction with a talking Naked Lady pen.

Dave
Dave is not sure how he got here. One morning he woke to find himself with a guitar in a tiny bed in the Lit 6 Project's attic. Haunted by his housemates' dreams (which he narrates), he doesn't leave the room, just writes down words and sings his songs.

Dr. Bushy
Clerky - Owner of Clerky's Liqour Store
Mark (Not Mohammed)
Punk-Poet Paul Dickenson
Mrs. Ronald Dickenson (Old Lady D)
The Electric Arc Radio Show aired from Jan. 6 - 27, 2008 on The Current

January 27, 2008
Hart to Hart of Darkness

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Isn't Alan Greenspan just a man? The weather has gone haywire. Herbach has gone crazy with fever. Steph has gone wild with greed. Sam has gotten into the advertising game. Brady cowers in the basement because at last night's supper in Greenspan's tree house (nice meal of Greenspan Quesadillas and Greenspan Wine), Greenspan made a dire prediction: Brady would betray him. Joined by Youtube superstar Tay Zonday and the great band The Owls, this episode of Electric Arc Radio tells the story of Alan Greenspan's fictional demise. Isn't Alan Greenspan just a man? Yes. But his death could bring a new epoch of peace in the Electric Arc Neighborhood.


January 20, 2008
Hart to Hart of Darkness

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Up the deep, dark river to the wooded north. This week's very special Electric Arc Radio Show takes us into the very soul of fear. Herbach, made sick from contact with the slickly mass-cultural and plastic Robert Wagner (star of TV's Hart to Hart), stows away in Mary and JG Everest's station wagon to go far north to a land of fat squirrels and mulleted teenagers. In Robert Wagner's Mercedes speedboat, Sam, Steph, and Brady pursue Herbach. Sam wants to stab Herbach, because Herbach ruined his chance at being a star (via his delicious relationship with Wagner). Steph rides the river to her country homeland, remembering murderous loves and hot hair metal in the back of shiny black pick-up trucks. Brady knows there is something terrible inside him. He believes that something is a Herbachian state of dis-ease. He goes to north land to rid himself of it (if he can manage to get off the speedboat - nature terrifies him). The Punk Poet Paul D spouts poetry. Mary and JG Everest sing. This is the most terrifying episode ever.


January 13, 2008
Inexplicable Light Rail

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Due to the corrupt and blind-drunk neighborhood councilman, Rod King Polmgrenson, a light rail stop is erected in front of the writers' house. The house is nowhere near the light rail line! This new station prompts so many emotions: Sam fears that the shut-in women he's been courting through social networking websites will show up at the house (one does). Steph sees people going to work and also notices carpenter ants working and is prompted to make something (salmon loaf) by the Old Lady Dickenson. Brady (who would like to be an adventurer) decides to take the train to see America and finds he does not like America after eating a Cinnabon at the Mall of America. And, Herbach, who is afraid to get on the train, learns the true meaning of love when Clerky the Liquorstore Clerk, gives him a pair of metal roller skates (tiny light-rail cars). Finally, in the mist of early morning, the Punk Poet Paul D pulls up the rails, sells them for scrap and buys beer for the neighborhood. Great joy flows like Courvoissier, and the workers walk to the bus stop a block away to head downtown. Special guest Mark Wheat sums up the theme of the show when he asks, "Can't we all get along?"


January 6, 2008
The Detritus of our Souls: Commodore 64

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My Commodore Computer
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This week's broadcast of the Electric Arc Radio Show starts and ends with the ancient Commodore 64 computer. When a mysterious "sponsor" donates four Commodores to the house, each of the writers is sent on a terrible, emotional ride. Steph remembers grade school, when her Commodore 64 was her only friend. Everything was so confusing back then, but the Commodore spoke BASIC. Sam, who's insensitivity has driven away his girlfriend, Gyrl, is taught a terrible lesson when he glues a beard and a pair of googly eyes to his Commodore. Herbach multi-tasks through the black night, using two computers (his lap top and the Commodore), only to realize as the sun rises, he has no job and no prospects and his computerized efficiency is all for naught. Finally, in the tradition of Shakespearean tragedy, the Commodore serves as a "memento mori" for Brady. Indeed, Brady must one day die, just as the Commodore Business Machine Company did. Brady plans for his funeral. Aren't computers simple tools? Machines that make our lives a little easier? Oh no…they are fully loaded symbols of our multidimensional failure. Special musical guest Storyhill stops by to sing us a song.

About the Show

Taped live at the Woman's Club Theater in downtown Minneapolis, The Electric Arc Radio Show is the radio equivalent of a television sitcom. The four writers of the show, who are also the main characters, have created an entire universe in their 'fictional' neighborhood in Minneapolis, where their shoddy, dilapidated home is said to be located. This universe, narrated by a mysterious man who lives in the attic and creates the soundtrack of their lives includes a magical hot tub, a wading pool in the basement, a closet full of thong underpants, Federal Reserve Chairman-cum-clarinetist Alan Greenspan, who lives in a tree house in the backyard, and a neighborhood full of unusual characters, including infamous punk poet Paul Dickinson.

Fall 2007 marks the first season for the Electric Arc Radio Show at The Woman's Club Theater. Previous seasons were performed at the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis, where the troupe sold out all of their shows last year. Audiences of the live performance can expect to experience a house band, a narrator (who lives in the attic and plays piano), a theme song, live original scores, special musical guests, a raucous audience, and an occasional surprise guest. Musical guests slated for the fall include Little Man, Haley Bonar, StoryHill, Mary and J.G. Everest, and a surprise guest for their season finale, to be announced.

"The shows are like big parties. I go every time," says Paul Taylor, a longtime fan of the show, "but I always download the podcasts later and listen for things I missed. They're hysterical."

"Finally, someone has succeeded in uniting literature and rock 'n' roll," wrote Graydon Royce in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in January 2007.

89.3 The Current and the Electric Arc Radio Show want to share smart entertainment with the public radio audience. Their partnership will bring some of the area's most important young creative voices to the air for the first time ever. "The Electric Arc Radio Show is both groundbreaking and rooted in the deepest traditions of radio," said The Current's Program Director Steve Nelson. "Plus, it's funny."

(Photos: James Larkin)





Program Schedule
The Electric Arc Radio Show aired from Jan. 6 - 27, 2008 on The Current
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