About

About the writer

Radly “Rad” Jose Phoenix, born to an American mother and a Mexican father, thus began life as he was destined to live it… going in several directions at once. A brilliant neurosurgeon, this restless young man grew quickly dissatisfied with a life devoted solely to medicine. He roamed the planet studying martial arts and particle physics, collecting around him a most eccentric group of friends, those hard-rocking scientists 1209towanda.

About the content
A Short History of the blog
Much of what’s on here used to be composed of everyday happenings and the confused thoughts of a boy in his early 20s, that started to get a little old a few years ago. In fact the “journal” as it were, was more or less on life support for much of 2008 & 2009. Starting in 2010 it was time to turn in all around and have fun with it, thus birthing the podcast 23min of Ska.

23min of Ska
The sharing of music! My favorite genre of music is ska, and I just can’t get enough of it. When looking for a ska podcast I couldn’t find one that had any 3rd wave ska included, so I set out to make one. 23 minutes of ska, twice a month just seemed like the right amount for the first year. In 2011 a once monthly ska band interview episode was added to the mix as well upping the podcast to a thrice a month schedule with new episodes falling on the first, eleventh and twenty-third of each month, this mutated in 2012 into a weekly format with new episodes posting on Thursdays in the following schedule:

• 1st Thursday: Ska Interview: I usually interview a ska band about how they write their material, how they record an album or EP, what it is like to see them play a show and what ska means to them. I also play one of their songs so you can get to know them just that much better. When I don’t interview a band I’m usually interviewing someone who is doing or has done work to further the ska scene.
• 2nd Thursday : Theme Episode: I try to pick a theme and build the songs used in the mix around it. Sometimes it is as specific as songs with spy themes and other times it is as loose as songs from my seven inch record collection. If you’d like to suggest a theme, feel free to email me!
• 3rd Thursday: A rotating show for the most part. These vary from month to month. Sometimes it is me talking w/ a couple of other ska podcasters, sometimes it is a bunch of songs picked by the listeners, sometimes it is more stories from ska artists about the songs they’ve written and recorded. It could be anything, but it is always fun.
• 4th Thursday: Free Form Episode: I pretty much play what ever I want, but with out trying it seems to be a lot of newer bands that I’m checking out and some third wave ska classics. These episodes are usually a good reflection of what I’m listening to at that moment.