One way to contribute to Diet Soap is to visit the Diet Soap affiliate bookstore at Amazon. Yes, this is rather corporate, but it is also a way to find copies of the books produced by Diet Soap writers and guests from the podcast. You can also buy copies of the print version of Diet Soap from Amazon.

Douglas Lain started publishing regularly right around the time I started reviewing for Tangent, and I remember his stories clicking with me right out of the gates. His first collection, Last Week’s Apocalypse (2006)–is that a great title, or what?–is probably not for everyone’s tastes, but I found it a pretty remarkable book, its stories consistently funny, unsettling, inventive, and full of surprises. I’m not sure I always got the stories, but it never seemed to matter, and ultimately I wasn’t always convinced they were supposed to be gotten–they evoke and provoke, regardless. The prose is effortlessly read, often laugh-at-loud funny, with a singularly quirky tone. Even when the trees obscured the forest, I found myself simply enjoying the trees–its recurring themes and ideas, which include frequent musings on war, drug use, the nature of reality, mental illness, pop culture, marketing, politics, and consumerism, to name a few.
[I was delighted to find a review of my collection "Last Week's Apocalypse" that was written three years after publication, so much so that I'm posting a link to it here.-Doug]

Blogger and author Dennis Perrin of dennisperrin.blogspot.com is this week’s guest, and we discuss the problem of Barack Obama, the impact of 9/11, Perrin’s relationship with Noam Chomsky, and the phenomena of the suburban lawn. Perrin is the man behind such books as Savage Mules: Democrats and Endless War, and Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O’Donoghue. Also mentioned in this episode would be the Evolver Teleseminars from Reality Sandwich, a half remembered news report from the 1993 WTC bombings, and the Titanic. If you are interested in participating in the Evolver Teleseminars for free write me an email. The first two to ask will get to participate for free. Click here to listen to this episode or download from iTunes.

The once-solid core of American life — the cement of loyalty that people tender to institutions, certifying that the current order is going to last and deserves to — this loyalty, in select sectors, was decomposing. . . . People lacking the slightest affiliation with the organized Left were saying to hell with the rules, redefining (as C. Wright Mills had once hoped) private troubles as public issues, viewing old bonds as bondage and snapping them, going public with their varieties of suffering. . . . In Vietnam, while some troops followed orders to the point of massacring civilians, others “fragged” particularly tough officers. Anthropologists declared their independence of the CIA, city planners consulted for community organizations; physicists tried to find work outside the military; graduate students protested requirements. High school students wore forbidden buttons, seminary students joined the Ultra Resistance, wives left husbands, husbands left wives, teenagers ran away from parents, priests and nuns married (sometimes each other), and people who didn’t do these things talked with, and about, people who did. As soldiers confronted officers, so did reporters confront editors; doctors, hospitals; patients, doctors; prisoners, guards; artists, curators. From subversive questions welled up picket lines, sit-ins, a vast entangled web of organizations, collectives, publications, conferences, a great storm of nonnegotiable demands and radical caucuses and participatory democracy and “getting my head together.” [pp. 343-344]

[The question that springs to my mind is this: "How have we managed to continue giving up our loyalties to false institutions of power while simultaneously losing touch with ourselves and our ability to resist what we know to be false?"-doug]

David Lindorff is the guest on this week’s episode. Lindorff is a journalist, a regular contributor to Counterpunch, and a folk musician. His website This Can’t Be Happening features many of his articles including Where’s the Anger: The Wheels are Coming off the Recovery. Also included in this episode are Bob Ferguson’s 1931 hit “Bank Failures” and Miriam’s Titanic factoid. Download the podcast here or at iTunes.

A few years ago I started looking seriously at the story of the 9/11 terrorist attack, trying to figure out why it was that nobody seemed to know anything coherent about what happened. I looked at World Trade Center 7 videos, danced in my underwear to the music of Loose Change, and read David Ray Griffin at my local Starbucks. Then I started blogging in my livejournal about everything I was learning about false flags, controlled demolitions, and the CIA’s connection to Al Qaeda through the ISI only to be told by some of my most respected friends and allies that I’d gone crazy, that I was a liar, that I was getting fat just sitting there in front of the computer screen day and night. What got me through the tragedy of being spurned and mocked by online avatars was finding and watching Better Bad News.

Better Bad News is a mash-up comedy panel that could only spring into existence during the virtual zero years. It is today’s non-corporate Not Necessarily the News. A paranoid’s Week-End Update, and finally it is itself: Better Bad News: 50% true more or less 100% of the time.

I mention Better Bad News because I recently discovered that the BBN crew has now discovered Diet Soap. Over at the Better Bad News website I’ve found some links to some of the more recent Diet Soap podcasts.

So this post is really a reply: Hello to the Better Bad News panel. I’m a fan of what you all do, even though you’re all crazy and weird and obviously not to be trusted.

Allan Antliff is this week’s guest on the Diet Soap podcast. Antliff is the author of the book “Anarchy and Art” and a self described anarchist. We discuss art history and the possibility of an anarchist future. Also included are clips from Negativland, Philip Glass, Noam Chomsky, and a Titanic factoid. Download this week’s episode at dietsoap.podomatic.com or from iTunes.

Jake Kotze of the blob coined the term Synchromysticism, and seeks out sublime connections lost in our kibble culture. A Synchromystic artist Jake exposes hidden connections in his writings and films, and we discussed Surrealism, Robin Tunney, 9/11 as a Stargate, and the Titanic. Also featured this week are the voices of Chico Marx, George C Scott, Marlon Brando, Rip Torn, and Crosley Bendix of Negativland. Plus I respond to listener email. Next week’s podcast may be late. Listen to the podcast here or at iTunes.

For a time Diet Soap had a poetry editor who was competent and good. Camille Alexa, however, has moved on to greater projects including writing her own works. What this means is that, in the last few months, the dietsoap poetry email box has gone unchecked. Sure Camille told us that she was leaving and she reminded us to check the email, but responsiblity tends to spread and given that I didn’t have the password for the email and that MK Hobson, who did have password, is the designer of the print ‘zine and no longer an editor reading submissions, the poetry email box was dormant until yesterday.

And here’s the bad news:

When we logged into the poetry@dietsoap.org email box we found that somehow this address had been corrupted. There was nothing there anymore. It was neither receiving nor sending emails anymore. Something got broke.

So, if you want to send poetry to Diet Soap send it to me at douglain@dietsoap.org, and if you’ve sent poetry to Diet Soap and haven’t heard back from us, send again.

This week’s episode features the final piece of my conversation with Neil Kramer of the blog the Cleaver. Neil discusses the metaphor of the Psychedelic Jetpack, Salvia Divinorum, the Psychedelic Salon, and the book DMT: The Spirit Molecule. The podcast also features brief excerpts from Joseph Nechvatal’s Viral Symph0ny, Lorenzo’s Psychedelic Salon, Lazenbee Industries Delusion Report, Terence McKenna on the Archaic Revival. In the end Miriam gives us our weekly Titanic factoid. Download the episode at dietsoap.podomatic.com or from iTunes. A partial transcript from the interview is available at the examiner.com.