Hello, Terrans, and welcome to another Between the Seasons interview.
Guess what?
You are in so much luck because today we are interviewing sci-fi podcaster, Trekkie extraordinaire, Joe Dove.
Well, hello.
uh
So, my gosh, you have, speaking of being the podcaster of all things sci-fi, you have the Captain's Quadrant, you have Disc Dungeon, which I hear has a bunch of things underneath
it, and more.
You wanna just talk about that?
All right.
So I'm Joe Dove and I want to say thank you so much, Holly, for having me here in the CHIRP and between the seasons.
It's a lot of fun.
Just sitting and reflecting on what you did the first time in the first run of your season and then going back and meeting people in the space that have been drawn into the light
that is the Mysterious CHIRP Show.
So I just want to say, appreciate that.
um Yeah, I'm a nerd.
I was birthed into sci-fi through Star Trek through my mother.
Like she had me and then when I was old enough, she had me sit in front of Star Trek.
And that all started with the uh silly episode called Way to Eden, but that's going to be later.
I have the Captain's Quadrant, which is my love of Star Trek and some other sci-fi where we now have wormholes, which is a subsidiary.
And we dive into different um
realms of science fiction like uh Doctor Who now.
ah did um The City of Death, which is a favorite.
It was written by Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame.
Yeah, it was so much fun.
ah And then we go into cyberpunk and like real obscure stuff that my co-host Jason Ragastin puts me onto like.
Benji Zaks and the Alien Prince, which is so random, but it was cute.
That all came together from my time at To Be Seen, the number two B-E-S-C-E-N-E, like to be seen like a movie.
To Be Seen uh was my longest project and it was my biggest desire to be the aficionado for all things reviews for music, movies, and TV and comics.
Uh, and different iterations and different times, different people came into my life that had talent or were interesting to talk to.
So I gave him the mic and said, let's go.
And, uh, we dived into the console room, which was all Dr.
Who.
And then that kind of faded.
And now we're doing shedding light on ghosts, which is the podcast subsidiary of this dungeon.
So it's the dis dungeon music podcast, which gets into all things music where my cohost is a music.
Uh, per.
producer as well as singer and what happens there is we put each other onto musics from any type of time any genre and we find out that there's a lot of connective tissue between
albums.
I'll give you an example we looked at an episode called the Flower Gods which was this beautiful Mexican singer from like a folk uh
type of music and we connected her with Santana, which was one of my favorite Spanish musicians.
and we found out that there were a lot of similarities.
There was a lot of DNA that started the same way and just led to different outcomes.
So there's so much connective tissue between music that you don't even realize.
Another example, one of my favorite albums was Lyricless that we did, one of my favorite episodes rather.
And that was J Dilla, which is hip hop and Mike Oldfield.
tubular bells, which is sci-fi because that's the exorcist.
Yeah.
And then you're like, how does that connect?
They're both obviously lyric lists.
There's no lyrics in either album.
Not, uh you know, coherent lyrics.
There's like a caveman in tubular bells, but that's neither here nor there.
There was a lot of like, Hey, these guys took a lot of time to build this one project.
Mike Oldfield was the band guitarist.
for the Virgin Studios and he did the gig as long as he could make his magnum opus, which is Tubular Bells, and didn't have to pay studio time.
You know, the head of Virgin said, sure, and here we are with Tubular Bells.
And he spent, I want to say like months at 17 years old, just making this masterpiece.
And then J Dilla at the same time was like, hey, I don't want to pay for these records.
Can I come in and I'll DJ?
And you know, they had the same story, the same beginning arc and both.
made their perspective record companies a lot of money because people sampled the samples of J Dilla and Tubular Bells was such a huge hit on the Exorcist album soundtrack and it's
henceforth album that it just financed Richard Branson's entire empire.
So yeah, there's a lot of DNA that starts out the same and flourishes into what is the end result.
So it's the mystery and the majesty of what you least expect becoming the biggest thing in the world.
So it's a mystery of how it gets there and the majesty of the end result is just unbelievable.
So, so yeah, so that's to be seen.
And then what ended up happening was there was a group called pop culture spreads, two guys, a duo, wonderful gentlemen, Rick and Jace and Jace is a mastermind of organizing
podcasts.
So what ended up happening is Jace went in and said, Hey, I like your podcast.
You have a really good personality, but your imagery sucks.
And I was like, you're right.
Cause I'm not an artist.
I could talk, you I can connect people.
I do all those types of things.
I can do a lot of technology things, but I can't draw.
It's not my gift.
And he said, Hey, you know, let's team up.
Let's collab.
And we ended up doing Captain Squadron.
It was a different name at the beginning, but that's what stood out the most.
And he and I started that off and I invited a TikToker that rated Star Trek Starships and he never left.
And that's Jason Roy Gaston and ended up being, you know, not paying attention, but he's very popular on
Tiktok, he has over, I think, almost a million followers there.
Yeah, he's got a massive following.
And it's justified because he's very funny.
He's got it.
And one of those voice actor people who's got a great voice.
He's got a great presence and they're both really kind and wonderful, upstanding gentlemen.
And I have the pleasure of calling them both friends now because they've gone through a lot of my life's turmoils in this current storm and helped me weather through a lot of it.
So they've become support systems inadvertently.
So sci-fi leads to great friendships, leads to supportive people.
And I'm honored to have both of them in my life to get all this through.
That's fabulous.
And also, like, I think of when I listen to your interviews and the way that you both talk about shows on Captain's Quadrant, there's so much heart.
And hearing you talk about uh Disc Dungeon and those are also heart-driven stories that...
where people are reaching artistically, but really, really heart forward.
You know, it's not out of a, I wanna be rich, hey, I wanna have power.
And I think that that's one of the things that makes your podcasts so wonderful to listen to or watch is because you have a real, the listener or the viewer feels really taken care
of and feels included and feels inspired and.
I just think that's a really special gift.
Thank you.
Yeah, I definitely not doing it for the money because I never made any.
These are all love projects.
We do have a Patreon now, as everyone does, and that's been kind of able to handle some of the things financially that I have to pay for for distribution.
But other than that, you know, it's out of love.
I have such a great time talking about Star Trek.
And one of the big voids in my life is other people to talk to Star Trek about.
And
Once I got into the community and there's a gentleman named my figure universe, we kind of opened up the door to other connective tissues and so many people I did through the star
Trek podcast.
ended up going to several conventions and I hosted panels uh at Trek, Long Island for two years in a row, which has been phenomenal.
And the wonderful woman there Stephanie, she just
Said, hey, here's your moment, go for it.
And Matthew Kapowicz, who was the director, said, okay, you're gonna get this person.
And it was Ethan Phelps from Voyager.
then last year, yeah, last year, okay, you're gonna get Andrew Robinson.
I'm like, what?
Andrew Robinson?
So I had to like not, you know, fan boy.
And then he said, by the way, you're also gonna get Iona and Phil Morris and Susan Doyle.
I was like, are you serious?
It's so.
I was just like, this is like Star Trek royalty and quantum leap royalty.
So I was just like, this is all my sci-fi blankets coming into one place and giving me that comfy moment.
So just amazing, amazing days there with the Captain's Quadrant in Trek Lion.
So I'm super grateful for all those things.
So though I'm not paid in, in oodles and oodles of money, or I could live in a big Freudy mansion, I'm in a tiny condo, very happy recording with you in a closet.
uh
and just loving every minute.
And I think it was at the Long Island Convention this year that you had the opportunity to interview J.G.
Herzler, isn't that right?
Okay, yeah.
I got to, and that's how I found you guys because JG, during the interview, I just went back on his IMDB page and I saw the Mysterious church.
like, I love that.
That sounds like it's something right on my alley, because I love mystery.
So when I got to talk to Nicholas Meyer and that was amazing because he was uh Sherlock Holmes and the...
Seventh Percent Solution, which was a movie that I loved because I happened to love that a lot of the actors that he chose for that movie, which he later directed.
But J.G.
was somebody that I admired from Star Trek Deep Space Nine for decades.
And I got to meet him a few times, but I never got the connection.
then luckily, Stephanie, different Stephanie, connected us and we were able to interview him.
And I was able to find your show, which was amazing because I have a 45 minute bus ride to and from work every morning.
So.
You know, I blew through your show in a couple of days, but it was great.
And he is hilarious, hilarious and so kind.
so kind, so on the right side of history always.
just to, you know, when you, when they say don't meet you heroes, I got to meet several of mine and they've all been heroic and he's no different.
Just having the time to sit with him and laugh and, and hear the stories between Highlander and uh Deep Space Nine and Zorro and your show.
And it's just like, this is great.
This is exactly what I wanted today.
Just that.
that uh experience to hear the stories from one of my favorites.
And he has such a presence.
he, when the first time I met him in Trek, Long Island, he was on stage with someone else, cause I was getting my name out there, it's Captain Squadron, name.
And then he was loud enough where you heard him and stood out.
like, that sounds like Martok, you know what I mean?
And he uh just totally commanded the room, you know?
And I like that you guys named him Bartok.
I thought that was really, it's like, okay.
That's easy.
I couldn't help it.
And the funny thing is, he didn't pick up on it right away.
He's like, Bartok, like the Hungarian composer.
And I was like, yes.
There it is.
I wanted to see what that meant.
And I mean, for those of you who have heard him be Bartok, he just has leapt into this character.
And we have a long, we've been friends forever.
yeah, we have been friends for, oh gosh, 20 years or something.
And been in each other's projects or both been cast in a project together.
And it's at that point,
where I can ask him to do anything, anything.
So I was like, JT, do you wanna do some Shakespeare in season two?
And he was like, yes, I want to do Shakespeare.
And then I was like, and then I decided it would be hilarious if Bartok wreaked havoc during the rehearsal.
So that's what happens in episode two.
It's all accidental.
He's just having a great time.
And I was like thinking to myself, what's the most ridiculous song that this giant character, because his character is a giant.
Yeah.
A favorite.
I'm not gonna lie.
uh and so he gets to sing, Yes, We Have No Bananas, because it's in the public domain.
So for those of you who haven't heard the show, uh and season two doesn't come out until next year, yeah, like try to imagine General Martok singing, Yes, We Have No Bananas in a
Hungarian accent.
But I would love to hear more about, uh you were gonna tell our listeners more about the Trekkie story, how you became a Trekkie and what sci-fi means to you.
so as I was saying, my mother birthed me and then birthed me into Star Trek because when I was, when I first moved to New York in 1986, I was about five.
This is what I can remember.
I don't really, remember little things about Rhode Island and we may, I think I saw Star Trek Wrath of Khan in Rhode Island with my uncle and my dad, but I really remember Star
Trek on a bigger scale.
on the television with my mom because we watched what we joyfully called space hippies.
And, and they used to have, I think it was called TV land back, back in the day.
Yeah, it was TV land, right?
And they would sometimes do like four or five or six episodes in a row of Star Trek.
So, you know, I'm just starting school, getting accustomed to and acquainted to New York life.
They moved from Rhode Island to New York.
My mom's like, well, you know what?
I know it's tough to transition.
Let's watch Star Trek.
Then what?
She was like, yeah, we're going to watch the Way of Eden.
It's one of my favorites.
then, you know, for I think over a month, that was Herbert.
All right, Herbert, sit down.
But I guess remember now I'm five, six or whatever.
And my mother had a 19 inch television.
And at the time, 19, because we had everywhere in the house with these tiny 12 inch tubes.
And we had this giant tube television.
It was like a it was like a dresser.
It was huge.
And you're like, wow, look at this TV.
They're never going to make anything bigger than this.
And I just remember her going, all right, so I'd sit in her lap and I just remember going, why is that guy's ears like that?
And it wasn't Spock.
It was the the aliens.
And just immersing myself into like, oh, so they went to a planet that had.
acid plants and they all died because they ate the fruit and just getting into the psychology of space exploration and how strange new worlds and new lives and civilizations
are totally different from our own and that blew me blew my mind and ever since then I was like I want to know more and we watched more and more and I just consumed so much Star
Trek as a kid that I
I couldn't stop and to this day I'm 44 now and I'm running a Star Trek podcast because I just have this connective tissue with it.
When I was, we finished it probably right when the next generation came out in 87 or it might've been running at the same time.
And it became a ritual that back then it was CW, but it wasn't CW, was like WPIX, that's what it was.
Pix11 would run Star Trek The Next Generation.
So as I'm in elementary school, Friday was get your homework done so we can watch The Next Generation, Star Trek's back on.
I'm like, Star Trek's back on, you know, because my mother explained to me, yes, what you saw was what's called a rerun.
I like, it's not in real, you know.
So was the wall between reality and make believe, but had coming to a close there.
But I was like, bet, I love Star Trek, let's get it.
And it became a bonding experience between my uncle and my mother and my grandmother because my grandma was like, I'll watch that Star Trek, baby.
Let's sit down and watch Star Trek.
So if my mother had to work late, Star Trek was on and my uncle and my grandmother were watching.
It was just this family.
love my aunt, not into sci-fi.
She's into mysteries.
So she's like my true crime.
So I see true crime.
Excuse me.
If I watch a true crime show, I'll call my aunt and be like, hey, this is on, you gotta check it out.
But yeah.
like um mysteries that are fiction as well?
Yeah, she'll check those out.
So I'm gonna put her on your show too.
um She's gonna be here tonight, so that'll be good.
Yeah.
So, um, yeah, so was a family bonding thing, but the, what I love about Star Trek is it's not just a show that take you out of your own reality because I, coming up, I was the
young child and everybody was much older and unfortunately would pass like a year by year from 1990, actually 1989 to 1996.
I'd lose a relative every year, sometimes two in a year.
And it was a very difficult time.
And Star Trek was always there to like remind me, hey, there's, there's a possibility in the future people will live longer.
Cause there was an episode where I think they had an immortal person that was on a planet because the planet made them immortal.
But if they left, couldn't keep that mortality, which is a Dorian gray.
Don't look at yourself.
But I felt like I could, the scape ism was more than just a uh
pull out of my own reality.
was an entryway into
stories, metaphors, um tact and ways of life and messages of positivity and life lessons that would also help me mold into the person that I am, aside from my parents teaching.
So it was multi-layered for me.
It was always something that I look forward to because not only would I be entertained, but I would be provoked to thought and also in a world of seeing kindness as key.
rather than obtaining a bunch of money.
I was always in the understanding that money is finite.
You can't take it with you.
But kindness, you leave behind kindness, it'll linger longer than many years after you're gone.
think I have a deep love of Star Trek and Star Wars and various Star whatevers.
um But in terms of the Star Trek movies, there are some that I can say using my analytical mind, oh, this one is beautifully crafted.
But I love the dorky whale one, number four, because it's just a giant piece of kindness.
It's just one hug after another.
And that it was uh basically the brainchild and directed by Leonard Nimoy to me is no surprise because he was, you know, known for being kindness forward.
Yeah.
And it was written by Nicholas Meyer.
So it was just so many.
Yeah.
He wrote two, four and six.
I remembered he wrote two and six, I had forgotten he wrote my favorite one.
he directed two and six.
So that's why those have I've always loved those two.
It's always a is it two, six, four, or is it six, two, four?
It's always that those numbers.
It's like it's some iteration of those three that are the best.
then.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
This means it's not just numbers.
What?
So Star Trek II is The Wrath of Khan because in the 1960s they did an episode where they met augmented peoples.
They were a ruler named Khan, Nguyen, and Sung.
And they put him on a planet because, you know, he was, he basically took over the ship and they had Kirk Fu and the Jeffreys tube.
And they had to kind of call them and stop them from taking over because who knows what they could do with such a powerhouse as a Starship Enterprise.
In the universe, it could be galaxy conquerors.
So they put them on a ship, a uh planet called city alpha five.
And it was a life living planet, a class M, which is kind of like earth.
So they were good.
But in Star Trek to the route, the con turns out they weren't good because the planets rotated and it became like Mars, like a desert planet.
And uh Khan wanted revenge and they were going to use city alpha five to test the Genesis weapon.
So I can go deep into these star trek.
So that's two.
Star Trek four.
We skipped three, even though my boy crew, it's a great one.
It's still really, really good.
And I I got to meet Kathy uh Sheriff Forstman, who was Valkyries, the bad ass first on screen on the movies Klingon.
And it's the main villain is Krug, who was played by Christopher Lloyd, who happens to have the same birthday as me, which I later found out was kind of But.
There's something about four and it's love-lettered to the earth.
Like we have to be more coexisting with not only each other, but the animals that dwell on this planet.
And that's why I love that.
And that's the voyage home.
So two is the, so it's the motion picture.
Two is the Rathicon.
Three is the search for Spock.
Four is the voyage home.
Five is the final frontier.
And six is the undiscovered country, which I love.
that one.
Klingons quoting Shakespeare.
You can't go wrong.
And also, I don't remember when that one came out.
um
one.
Yeah, that came out, I think that was 89.
Let's see.
wondering, because I said to myself, I bet that came out with like the metaphor for afterlife in the frickin' title.
Around the same time that you were really experiencing this cascade of loss.
Yeah, 1991, that's when it came out.
The undiscovered country.
So it was right around that time.
Because I started the movies in the theater with my mom's best friend and I, starting in Star Trek V.
And then we would see every Star Trek movie up until the Kelvin timeline.
And I saw that with my mom until her disability overtook her ability to walk.
So I used to see all, was our go-to.
It's like, remember that show that we, that you loved, The Way to Eden?
Yeah, they made a movie.
A movie about The Way to Eden?
I was like, well, no.
uh So that's when I got, really got into the movies.
I know I'd seen two in the theaters, but I wouldn't remember it because I was really, really little.
uh
So it was just a great, great moment.
off the cuff, are you enjoying um Strange New World as much as I am?
I mean, especially the most recent season.
I'm like, wow, I love that they gave themselves permission to do whatever they wanted.
Yeah, I found that to be interesting and also, like, they got into a genre that I love and that's zombies.
And we never really got zombies in Star Trek before.
And I spoke with Dan Wu, who was the director of that episode, Shuttletoe Kenfuri.
And what I loved about that episode especially, that's my height of the season, was Shuttletoe Kenfuri.
And I mean, there was a lot of fun episodes in the season.
um
But that one really stuck out to me because you got to see the friendship that Mbenga and uh Pike had that we really didn't know much about.
It's like they're, yeah, he's his, he's his CO, his ship's doctor and everything, but you didn't know how close they were and they weren't on missions together.
And there's a whole lot of backstory that we got, including a follow-up to um the episode from the second season where
Um, and Banga kills the Klingon ambassador.
So.
What I love most about that particular episode are the risks they took in shots, like the cinematic shooting they did because, yeah, Batala had that, you know, chain whip, that
skull looking metallic whip.
But instead of just being like your typical whip where she's like, ah, I got a whip.
They shot like knees up.
So she.
takes the thing off, splashes the whip, and it's in a way that you really haven't seen anybody in a whip situation shot before.
So it really stood out to me and the need for honor in the Klingon Empire.
There was just so many levels and layers on that episode.
was just, I loved it.
And then.
things that I love also about this series is that they are answering questions that we always had.
Why did all of a sudden the holodeck come into existence and it wasn't there before?
Why this, that, or the other thing?
Why, you know, and I just, find that to be very nerdy, very nerdily satisfying.
Yeah, I like how they brought the holodeck in TAS because TAS was a gift that we got, I think that was the 70s when that came out, the de-animated series.
Can't remember.
Yeah, there's the animated series.
Definitely watch it because it's just Jane.
It's the cast.
then I think sometimes it's actually check off.
then there's sometimes it's some guy imitating check.
It's really fun.
But it's the cast doing all these other voices.
So like you have William Shatner, James doing especially James.
He's doing like four or five different aliens every week.
And it's just such a hoot.
But they had the holodeck room, which is the rec room as it was in T.A.S.
So the standard was there for Kirk's time to have it.
And it was like a normal thing to be on the, in the rec room.
But that episode kind of led up the step before.
And I like how they called it holodeck.
It's like, just to make it so that the people in TNG know what it is.
We'll kill the holodeck room.
It was a smart move and a lot of fun.
Which was your favorite episode?
It's a question back.
from this past season.
You know, the one that you were talking about as your favorite is definitely one of them.
um That one and I'm trying to think, because I loved so many of them.
um There were some I wanted to love more that I was like just the tiniest bit disappointed.
um The one...
I thought the one where they went back to like the 70s was freaking hilarious.
I was just laughing my butt off.
um So it wasn't necessarily like a deep favorite, but it was funny to me.
And again, like a nerdy history kind of a way, like the messaging and stuff.
Maybe my other favorite, in addition to the one that you love with the zombies, which I think is in my top two.
My other favorite was the one where they became Vulcans.
Because it was really about what does it mean to be a person and personhood and what are your priorities and also it was funny and brilliant and it gave the actors a chance to do
things they didn't normally get to do.
And as a director and an actor, that's something I value.
But also I felt like, I'm gonna just say something that's been on my mind recently.
em I forget who it was, but I was flipping through Instagram and a man was walking and had a cup of coffee and he told this story.
He said that he had a professor that would always start the beginning of the semester saying, oh so you have a cup of coffee and someone bumps into you, what happens?
And people will say, well.
you you spilled the coffee.
And he's like, yeah, and you spill the coffee and you're yelling at the person.
But why did you spill the coffee?
And everybody would always say, because the person bumped into you.
And his response was, because you were carrying coffee.
If you were carrying water, it would have spilled water.
And life bumps into you.
And whatever it is that you have filled yourself with on that day.
when that happens, when you get bumped into metaphorically, is what spills out.
And so he said, right?
And so this person on Instagram was like, so I ask myself every morning, what am I choosing to fill my cup with?
And to bounce back to that episode where half the crew turns into Vulcans, that to me is that question.
What is my cup full of?
That's really deeper than most people would assume because most people are looking at to what the fluid is and not realizing it's a metaphor, not just what the fluid is.
It's what you're pulling, putting out into the universe in your own cup, so to speak, as your soul.
What am I bringing to the world?
If I bump into somebody, is it going to be a mistake and we move on or is it going to be a moment for a connection?
and a positive connection.
And that's what I try to do because I've run into so many people.
I'll give you an example.
I was at an event the other day and because of my personality from years ago, I've been in the shoe business as a nine to five for 19 years.
Now I do leggings.
That's another thing.
But uh one of the board members were on the line.
She stops me.
says, I know you from somewhere.
I'm like, really?
Where?
It's like and I'm thinking maybe they saw the podcast in my big hope And because we do like a live show every Friday, so she's like no She's like, what did you do?
And I was like, oh, you know, I worked in fashion Jesus.
Oh, I was a buyer for Ross, which is a another big company So now okay.
I used to work for a small company go vital great people there and she's like no not by that I was like, okay, what else did you do?
She's like I do construction now.
It's like
Definitely not me.
Not these softly hands.
I said, no, it wouldn't be that.
it's like, where else?
And she's like, I work for Anne Klein.
I was like, oh, I worked for Anne Klein.
She goes, oh, wait a minute.
You worked with the tech guys.
Like, yeah.
She goes, no, remember you was always so nice.
That's why I never forgot you.
was like, you see?
We bumped into each other years later and we were fresh water then and fresh water now, not hot, scalding coffee.
Yeah.
Speaking of your giant heart, your tech ability, um and what you love about sci-fi and creating that sort of sense of kindness, um do you want to talk briefly about your work
for churches, especially during the pandemic?
wow.
So during the pandemic where everything kind of just shut down, I had already been the person, the go-to person for the first church of Newark, New Jersey, which is the oldest
church in Newark and probably in New Jersey.
It was founded by Aaron Burr's father, not Aaron Burr, his dad.
Even older.
Yeah.
And, um, it's truly a beautiful building and it's, uh, predominantly
just full of wonderful, loving people that have been extremely supportive and uplifted me in my times of sorrow.
But during the pandemic, um because of what I knew, I kind of took the reins and said, we can still get the message out digitally.
And I converted everything to online worship.
And it was a huge savings to the church because they were still able to get donations.
They were still able to get the message across from the pastor.
They were still able to get Bible readings and everything, all the music.
No, it was like we didn't skip a beat.
It's just we were no longer in person.
We were just online doing the same thing.
So that led to my years connection with other churches.
said, I wonder if anybody else needs this.
And I reached out to the Episcopal Church where I grew up in New York and like my home church in Westchester, Mount Vernon, first church Mount Vernon.
And they were like, oh, please, we didn't know what to do.
We were going to start asking people.
It's like, no, you got me.
Just call me.
And because I'm one of those people that just loves technology and I learn on my own.
Um, I said, here's what we're going to do.
You're going to record a service and I'm going to add music in the beginning and the end, and I'll put up some imagery.
And each one was a tailored to the kind of the congregation that it was based on.
And the church in Neurachal.
because it was such a big church and we could socially distance at the time.
were able to film in the church and they had a daycare.
So I was working for a children's shoe for company.
So I was able to bring the shoes, give them to the children.
They got to get free shoes.
It was just all the symbiotic things that are just working, working, working.
So I got my work done and then I filmed for their Sunday worship and they restreamed it.
So they like kind of live streamed it on Sundays and everybody was just so satisfied because I had really a fancy camera.
at the time and because the church was like, we really appreciate what you're doing and they paid me, I was able to upgrade that camera and then the visuals just got
distinctively better and the sound got distinctively better and then the churches were so pleased with what I did, they sent me to some sound classes so I get an understanding of
how sound boards work.
So now I do the sound and I'm able to upgrade my podcast because now I have a sound board and I know what it does and how to.
you know, use it and utilize these tools.
And it was able to help so many people that were disconnected already because of the aging congregation there, 70s, 80s, 90s.
So now they had links from their grandchildren to kind of watch what's going on in the church so they weren't missing out.
So that's become the lingering effect of a terrible time through positivity of technology.
we were able to utilize this technology and I was able to help many churches consulting or setups to get the word of the Lord to their congregation without being there in person.
And it's one of my, I would say great achievements because I'm able to help a community because it's what a church really is.
It's the community coming together in a building and for the Lord, but also for the greater good of the community because there's food banks then there's
Clothing for the homeless, clothing drives and coat drives and just so many different programs that just help so many people.
There's educational programs, there's financial educational programs at First Church in Newark.
There's just so many things that if we let a disease like COVID kind of overtake and kind of push us away from that altogether, we also lose so much more because of the cultural uh
irrigation, so to speak, of what that leadership does in the community.
So I'm just forever happy that I was able to use what knowledge I had and then get more knowledge to bring back to this community and just keep it growing and going.
So yeah, it's one of the things I love is it just going, Hey, you know, I can do all this stuff with green screen and make it seem like you're in the church or make it seem like
you're somewhere.
That's really cool.
That's some type of religious background.
So it doesn't really seem like it's too strange to the congregation.
So it keeps it that same.
idea without uh being too disjointed for everybody.
And it was a massive hit and everybody loved it and everybody was grateful.
So me too, because it's just one of the things I love doing is being able to help in a way.
I just had the thought too that in your conversation about loving technology and learning technology and using technology for the greater good, that actually wraps back to Star
Trek OG.
There's so many things like I think about, you know, we basically carry around a tricorder.
yeah.
Yeah, a little phones do everything.
Yeah, the greatest foe science became science fact.
Science fiction became science fact with Star Trek and three times, three massive times.
The communicator, which is a cell phone.
iPads, which in TNG Captain McCart had as their data, whatever processors and laptops where they had one on one visual communications with the little computer that was on the
desk.
And all of that's become science fact.
So now I want my transporter.
Let's get that going.
Or at least if we can't have a transporter, can we have a replicator so we can feed the hungry?
Because wow, what a tough time that we're having that they're more willing to build a ballroom than keep snap benefits going so that people can eat.
It, it, that's painful.
it is painful.
It's not kind.
So, before we have to say farewell, do you have a favorite, one of your favorite characters in The Mysterious CHIRP?
Is it Bartok?
Yay.
J.G.'s, what he brings in his presence to any project is a sense of not only camaraderie, I can tell from speaking with him and, you know, talking with him person, but everything
that he's done, his voice and his presence just overtake.
It's subtle, but it's powerful.
And once you get into it, it's like, okay.
This ambassador has got the, before I even knew which character JG was, cause it was like, I know he's in it.
So I'm going to listen to this.
And I fell in love with it.
And before I even knew who he was, I me not read too much about what it says on IMDB.
Let me just listen to it.
And as soon as that like booming voice comes up, that's him.
There we go.
You know, I got hooked and I, I highly encourage everybody listening to go and listen to the first season.
So you can get an understanding.
I love the way that you're, um, I want to give you a.
a big props because the way you're producing this podcast, I kind of feel like I'm with you there because you have the sounds of the ambient sounds of the room.
And yeah, and it's just so well orchestrated.
It's just it's like a small masterpiece.
So I really hope that people get the experience that I got listening to it, because you have great characters, you have a great story.
But the way it's pulled together, it's almost like close your eyes and you're in this
this world.
Yay, was one of my goals.
was like, I want it to feel.
And when I'm talking with the, um cause each year, because the post production team are sound design majors in college, they're learning.
Yeah.
And they have to, there's so much that they have to think about, but it really helps prepare them for the professional world.
So I'm like, okay.
So think about that the listener is a person.
Who are they standing next to next?
Now they're standing next to a Sammy Love.
Then we have to move at a certain rate that's faster than a person can work, but not too fast so that it still feels organic over to this other group.
As a listener, I'm like, have to imagine that it's really you.
You're really there because that's what it feels like to the audience.
Not the between the seasons, but the regular seasons.
Yeah.
Yay.
I will tell them.
Yeah, big, big claps.
I don't think I can hear that.
Big standing ovation for me.
That's for sure.
And do you have a recommendation of something our listeners should read or watch at sci-fi?
so there's a lot.
have a plethora of things, I always top three.
Okay.
Of course, Star Trek, but, um, the Twilight zone, there are so many stories in the Twilight zone that influenced Star Trek, Doctor Who, and probably even aliens and the
Geiger verse.
like, if you take a step and pull.
pull back a little bit and you watch the Twilight Zone, you're gonna see a lot of the sci-fi that we love today in it.
So definitely the Twilight Zone.
I love a lot of fun stuff and one of the fun stuff that I love is kind of like a teetering thing.
It's ghosts.
It's a TV show on CBS.
It's about a woman that inherits a mansion and she gets hurt and she hits her head and when she wakes up she can see ghosts.
It's always been a fascinating thing, especially you were in the spooky season, you know, or just coming off of it It's always been fascinating to me because of the spectrum of
reality and the dimensions that we live in that the ghosts aren't real to some When you realize hey the plane of life that we live in is only one of many and they've literally
scientists have literally poked holes in reality and found other dimensions there may be
And I get sciencey about things sometimes, but there may be wormholes that lead to an alternate reality of decisions we made differently.
We may be in the Hillary Clinton uh presidency of the United States rather than the Donald Trump right now in that other world because of the decisions that people make.
And I find that to be fascinating.
And I find that ghosts are probably either echoes of something that kind of got stuck in between.
And we're seeing maybe ourselves or alternate
choices playing out and just echoes of it.
Or since I love Neil deGrasse Tyson, I really think people should listen to StarTalk and that's going to be my third.
Yeah.
One of the things that he has always said is matter cannot be created and destroyed.
So if that's the case, and because I lived in a life where so many of my relatives passed away on the way up, I really believe that matter cannot be created and destroyed.
I think that
We either go into instead of avoid another existence where we can either see as someone would be a ghost to the people that are living or we end up going into a space where it's
as a religious person would see the say the world without end and afterlife so to speak with just no suffering, no pain, no heartache.
It's just a existence beyond what we can
fathom in our minds.
Beautiful.
All right, my friend.
I'm going to dare call you that because I feel like, I feel like we're friends now.
It's been a joy to have you on the Mysterious CHIRP between the seasons interview podcast and yay.
I'm so excited to see you soon.
November 7th.
I'll be on your show.
Yeah, it's going to be a fun time talking Trek.
um We may do an agony booth, but uh we've gone and watched all the filler and so-called stuff episodes.
So you're going to be watching something that you probably would have liked or remembered growing up.
yeah, I like this episode.
So you, you, you've managed to get through most of what was once agony.
uh Fabulous.
Well, everybody, we hope that you continue to listen to the Mysterious CHIRP and share these between the seasons episodes because they're all one-offs.
A great way to have like a little Mysterious CHIRP snack.
Thank you so much, Joe.
Thank you.
It's been a great time chatting with you.
And check out the Captain's Quadrant.
Actually, there's no the, just Captain's Quadrant.
Squadron.
don't do the those.
The the.
ah Every Friday, 9pm EST, it's usually myself and Jason Roy Gaston and sometimes VHS Jace from Australia.
Just kind of hanging out, talking about Star Trek.
We have a lively chat room where everybody can come and be a part of the show because we like to be inclusive.
So yeah, right on YouTube.
exactly.
So youtube.com forward slash Captain's Quadrant
Thank you, farewell.
Bye.