WDEK Podcast Ep. 56: Mike Stuto, Jennie Reilly Romer & Chaney Sims - Oct. 24, 2017
Episode 56 is a momentous occasion, with the news that HiFi will close at the end of October 2017, this is the last time we will tape our show in our beloved home space. Currently we are looking for another home and expect to return to a new space live in front of an audience in January of 2018. Christian & Shonali open the show with quality conversation about bunions, butts and adult day care. Our first guest is lawyer, environmental activist and national carryout bag expert Jennie Reilly Romer. After helping San Francisco and Los Angeles enact laws on plastic bag policy, Jennie moved to New York with the mission of doing the same thing here. She came really close! Jennie explains why these thin plastic bags are so problematic, what we can do to help (plasticbaglaws.org); who is lobbying against the policy and how Christian did the wrong thing by putting the plastic bags in the recycling bin. We salute Jennie on her work and look forward to her to running for New York City Council! Go Jennie. With the news that HiFi will close at the end of October, we are excited celebrate the man who created this safe haven for indie rock n roll bands in the mid 90's, East Village neighbors in the 2000's and podcasters and comedians in the late 2010's. Here is a special interview with the owner of HiFi (formerly the legendary East Village rock club Brownies) Mike Stuto. Find out about Mike's time as a club owner who had do idea what he was doing. There were good times (David Bowie, Debbie Harry, Mel Brooks) and bad (Sugar Ray, Milemarker) but Mike has always managed to this day to bring together a community that is heavily indebted to him for giving them a space to create, learn, unite, celebrate and collaborate. After listening quiz: What band made Mike want to work in rock n' roll? Our final guest is Grammy nominated singer and storyteller Chaney Sims. Like Mike, Chaney is a native New Yorker and the East Village was her playground. She is the daughter of a great blues musician, Bill Sims Jr. with whom she performs with in the Grammy Nominated Heritage Blues Orchestra. Her recent solo performance of songs written from her Haiku 365 project at Joe's Pub was with a string orchestral accompaniment by Root Stock Republic. The performance will be released as a live album recording soon. Listen to Chaney blow you away with her performances of Leadbelly's Go Down, Old Hannah and Nina Simone's C-Line Woman. Have a great rest of the year and until our next show, do yourself a favor and binge on the many earlier episodes of We Don't Even Know.