Thirty episodes ago, that week's guest discussed with me the notion of this podcast being a one-man weekly endeavor.
"That's a grind, man," he said. "That's a grind."
He was right when he made that comment, and it made me realize that that was a good summation of what the thing had been to that point. And it hasn't changed. It really is a grind to do the outreach and the scheduling, the interviewing and the editing, the prep and the getting the thing to the places it needs to be.
There are five essential components that make it all worthwhile:
1) meeting new people and hearing their stories
2) getting exposed to music I've either never heard of or listened to before
3) having guests tell me that they've enjoyed the interview
4) experiencing real-life, there's-still-good-in-the-world moments with each interaction
5) personal weekly pride in task completion and productivity
So, when I sit in the chair across from a total stranger like DINKC, and I get to learn about him, his family, his culture, his story, his wishes and dreams, and I then get to put it out there for whoever might be interested in sharing that same experience with me, it's worth it. You cannot put a price tag on the opportunity to meet a guy like DINKC. Now, I only sat with him for a couple of hours, and -- who knows -- we may never see one another for the rest of our lives. As DINKC says and lives and is, Death Is Not Knowing Certainty. It doesn't matter, though; my life and my time on this planet are richer for those two hours, and nothing can change that.
So, please check out our conversation. DINKC is a son and a brother and an uncle and a father and a husband and an artist. He's a businessman, a dreamer, a friend to many, and an asset to the Kansas City metro area.
We talked about his upbringing, his culture, his values, his art studio -- DINKC Studios (600 Ohio Ave. in Strawberry Hill), and we also talked a little bit about some of his favorite records, which were these:
Ritchie Valens (1959), Ritchie Valens
Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die (1994)
Barrio Bravo (2001), Celso Piña
You can give DINKC a follow on Instagram here and here, and you can check out Zoe Strohm's The Pitch article on him here.
copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the audio samples featured in this episode. They are clips from a track called, "Slow Jam" by Vieux Farke Touré off of his 2009 album, Fondo (c/o Six Degrees Records).
