Lundon Calling

Getting Skype is easy as pie!

Skype is the premier software for making free internet phone calls to people you want to talk to. If you don’t have Skype on your computer yet, Skype is free, easy to get, does not contain spyware, will not bog your computer down, and will not take up much room. Want a great endorsement? Oprah uses Skype to phone her guests in! If you want to be on Oprah, but can’t make it to Chicago, you got to have Skype! Just think–if you get Skype all set up for your guest visit to Lundon Calling, you’ll be all set when Oprah calls!

To use Skype you will need a microphone in your computer, or one that you can plug in. Radio Shack, Best Buy, Wal-mart, Staples, Meijer, and any electronic store will be able to provide a very simple microphone for you, if you need one.

visit the following address: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home/ and follow the download and installation instructions. Skype looks a lot different on Mac than on PC, but its still the same–you can make and receive free internet calls on it.

After you’ve installed Skype, and you try to load it for the first time, you will be asked to create an account. When you do so, make sure you tell Skype to save your information by clicking the check-box that says “remember me.” If you do so, you won’t need to recall what username and password you signed up with every time you log in.

Just in case, clearly write your username and password on a piece of paper and store it near your computer for the night of the recording.

You can try a few test-calls once you’ve logged in and have Skype up and running. Skype automatically adds their test-call number to your contact list. All you have to do is press the green “call” button that looks like a phone, when you’re viewing their contact information. You can check to see that you’ve properly set up Skype, your microphone and your headphones this way.

For the show, we will need your username, and we will have to have added one another in our contact lists in advance (at least you and our producer will have had to add one another) in order to connect. This is actually very easy–its a matter of our producer adding you, you accepting and clicking the option to have our producer also show up in your contact list. You can do the same with the hosts as well while the recording is in session, if you so choose!

At sound-check time the day of the show, we will merely need you to be logged in and “VISIBLE” on Skype, and set up with your microphone and headphones about five minutes prior to the scheduled call. Don’t call us, we’ll call you!

Why do we use Skype? We have found that our clearest sound, our best connections, and our smoothest shows occur when all participants are on Skype. In addition, Skype provides is with a text-based chat room for our call so that we can type to communicate important information to one another that does not need to be broadcast on air during the show–for example, you forgot to bring up a topic and was wondering if we could get back to it so you could discuss it, or you quietly need to step away from the call for a minute, but don’t want the audience to notice.

Land-line calls on non-cordless phones are also acceptable, though the sound-quality is greatly diminished in this case. If Skype is not an option for you, this is the next option. Usually call connections are just as steady as on Skype in this case, though we loose text chat capabilities and we have a “phone” sound to the interview.

Cell-phones or cordless phones with land-line numbers are not acceptable for this purpose. We could go to the archives and present you with shows of dropped call after dropped call after dropped call, but we won’t because they’re frankly a pain to listen to–and that’s the point. In order to give your audience the best listening experience, we need to be able to keep you on the line the entire time, and that is only acheived by using Skype (best option!) or a land-line phone with a corded receiver.

Any questions?

Last night on Lundon Calling, Ace, Lance and I interviewed Col. Grethe Cammermeyer–the highest ranking member of the military to ever be discharged under the military’s ban on gay and lesbian servicemembers. She was the subject of of the 1995 Emmy-award winning TV movie, Serving In Silence, starring Glenn Close, and after winning her case in the US Appellate Court, she went back into the military and served as an open lesbian until 1997.

Our 90 minute conversation in Episode 73 focused mainly on the issue of lesbian and gay discrimination in the military, but we discussed a wide range of topics from her run for United States Congress to her parents’ participation in the Nazi resistance in WWII-era Norway, to political parties to religion. You should know by now that no topic is off-limits for this show!

Most important to consider about interviewing Col. Cammermeyer, however, is that this interview gives us perspective on the eve of a Senate Armed Services Committee vote to approve the Military Readiness Enhancement Act’s language, and attach that language that would end the law banning gay and lesbian military service to the “must pass” Defense Department Authorization bill.

Experts say votes to attach the bill to the authorization are imminent in the House and Senate this Thursday morning, and–barring any Republican motion to recommit–we may see an end to the US law banning gay service members this year.

As we discussed on the show, the ball would move to the Executive Branch’s court. The compromise reached Monday morning does not include all of the pieces that activists had pushed for. Gone is the nixing of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the end of the ban on sodomy, and nowhere is there the addition of gays and lesbians to non-discrimination policy.

What does exist, however, is a clear path to a full repeal by empowering the Pentagon to enact these changes when Secretary Gates’ study group concludes and reports its findings in December. Further pressure being put on Secretary Gates’ boss–the President of the United States–would not be ill placed at the moment, since there will be no one in Congress to blame anymore if the discharges do not end.

Please listen to our intriguing and informative interview with Col. Cammermeyer and leave a comment!

That’s right!  Its show SIXTY NINE!  You KNEW it was going to be coming!  What did we serve up for this very special show?  We brought transactivist and star of stage & screen: Andrea James!  Andrea has appeared in the movie TransAmerica and the LOGO original series TransAmerican Love Story with the STUNNING miss Calpernia Addams.  Not only has she done all of this, as well as produce and star in the first ever all-trans version of the Vagina Monologues, but she also co-founded Deep Stealth Productions with Calpernia Addams, and runs the tsroadmap.com website to help trans youth sort their way through the complexities of transitioning.

Unfortunately we lost connection with Andrea a few times throughout the show, but we guarantee we will bring the effervescent and brilliant Andrea James back to the show!

Then it was uh-oh time.

As you know, Ace and Spyderman–our producer–live in the (once)Great state of Arizona.  As a second generation American, when it comes to immigration, I feel some strong feelings.  Lance and I had a heated discussion with Ace about his state’s discriminatory new law, and about the dangers of mixing up xenophobia or racism with the goal of stopping crime.  Nobody likes crime except for criminals–and I do think that we need better police protections, and a better investment in police especially in crime-ridden places like the hinterlands of Arizona–but we need to fight crime, not profile people.  What’s going to happen is that ordinary, law-abiding citizens are going to get hassled and get frustrated.  Rather than fight an ethnicity, let’s fight poverty and crime.

I don’t necessarily agree with Lance’s proposal to legalize ALL drugs either.  Though certainly it would disempower the organized crime, I would hate to see the toll it would take on society.  I’d rather see us fight poverty and ignorance with more fervor, invest more in our kids and our schools and eliminate those factors that drive people to drugs in the first place.  What do you think?

Finally, Spydey–our show’s producer–appeared on the show for the first time to announce that we’re receiving over a quarter of a million page views a year, and that he’s putting together advertising and sponsorship packages.  If you’re looking to reach a large, nationwide and politically/sexually diverse population, Lundon Calling is your show.  GOProud?  LogCabin? ActOnPrinciples? Stonewall Dems? Fox Network?

Check out Episode 69 of Lundon Calling!

Bicoastal, bigenerational and bipartisan–and now bi-z… SHOWBIZ NIGHT!  In show 58, we spoke to Hollywood Historian, Laurie Provost–previous guest John Provost’s wife.  This author and comedian shared with us some of the coolest stories from Hollywood history.  It was really fun!

Laurie and Ace discussed her husband John’s time on Lassie as Timmy, and Lance and I asked her about Hollywood’s Haaaaaauuunted Hiiiistory… woooooooo!

Do you know anyone who needs to be a guest on Lundon Calling?  Do you know anyone who’s been affected by the Military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy?  Anyone who wants to come on and talk about LGBT history, or where the movement is heading in the future?  Let us know–we’d really love to talk to you about having them on!

For now, check out Show 58–the RETURN OF PHIL!

OK, so I’m a week behind on blogging, but I have a good excuse.  While Ace and Lance were recording the 57th show, I was off in Dallas, TX at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual LGBT leadership conference, Creating Change! It was an amazing conference!  I met some pretty fantastic people:  I met Matt Foreman, Mike Rogers and Kate Kendell all for the first time, not to mention bloggers like George Cole and Chris Bartlett! I also learned so much at the brilliant workshops, and–of course–loved seeing my blogging buddies Bil Browning, Jerame Davis, Adam Bink, Waymon Hudson and his hubby Anthony and Michael Crawford.  Finally, I had two great roommates–Zack Ford and Adam Taylor.  Both are great bloggers and social networkers and leaders in our movement.

Then I came back to listen to show 57.  All I can say is its a doozy.  And I better NEVER miss another recording because Nathan Treanor of Nathan OUTloud–show 57′s guest–actually had the NERVE to call me 40!  Ana Guerriero–my fill in host, and a friend of mine going way back to 2000 when I started at Central Michigan University–had my back and suggested I’m just a youngin.  Well Ace had it right–I’m actually 27… but don’t tell anybody because I tell everyone here I’m 25.

I’m loving this episode, though, because–even though Ace really gets angry off the top there–it was a lot of fun for the rest of the show.  I wish I had been there!

Nathan, I can’t wait to have you on AGAIN, so I can give you what for for calling me 40!  Why I oughtta…

On the January 27th Show, our guest was Dr. Peter Goldblum, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for LGBTQ Evidence-based Research + Director of the LGBTQ Program at Pacific Graduate School of Psychology.

The following day we received this note from Dr. Goldblum which we share with all of our listeners now.  He wrote: “Ace, I am listening to it (the Show) now.  I am really enjoying the whole program.  As I thought about it last night, I realized how rare your program really is – - funny, intelligent, and topical.  You guys are great and I can just imagine people listening who are not out; realizing that there are people like you exist.  Thanks for the honor of being in conversation with you all.”

Dr. Goldblum is also the Programming Clinical Supervisor for the University of California – San Francisco AIDS Health Project.

Even though Lance DITCHED us this week on the show, we had a fantastic time without him.  Show 55 was a real sunuva.  I’m not going to give it all away–it was far too electric to miss!  You just got to listen for yourself.

Since Lance was away, Ace invited on Sharon Love as the cococo-host!  Sharon is a fantastic lady from Toronto, Ontario in Canada!  We’ve been bipartisan… we’ve been bi-generational… we’ve even been bi-coastal and bisexual–but now we can officially say we’re bi-national as well!

Sharon helped Ace and I get into the mind of young student activist Steve Lucas.  I see a lot of myself in this fine young man–and for once I don’t mean that in a frat-boy hardy-har way!  Steve and I have a lot in common–I was a young college activist leader in my campus LGBT community and so was Steve. Now if we can only get him to tell us if he wears the gold hanky on the right of left!  Don’t understand?  Give the show a listen!

Do you subscribe to us on iTunes?  If not, you should.  By subscribing, you help the show.  Your iTunes will download us for you, and we can add you to our growing list of listeners.  Boy, it’d be good to get some sponsorships some day so that we can purchase the resources we will need to keep going for a long time into the future.  We need you to subscribe and download the show every week to make sure we can tell sponsors we DO have an amazing fanbase!

You can also subscribe to an RSS feed of our blogs!  There should be a link on the main page–we try and add new content to the site every day.  The more you check us out, the more content we’ll be adding!  Please keep coming back!

For now, check out episode 55–you’ll love it!

This week’s Lundon Calling was a DOOZY!  Maybe its because Lance and I were so BOOZY!  Ha!  Only kidding, Lance only had a jug of wine, and I merely had a case of beer before the show.  That is all.

Do you know the ‘Colon Lady?’  Ace explains his connection to her and the ‘Tooth Fairy.’  Hopefully not in the same sentence because that would not be sanitary.

Have you paid your taxes to James Cameron… I mean seen Avatar yet?  If you haven’t yet seen Avatar, check out what Ace and Phil have to say about it.

This week we talked about the mess our kids will inherit–from health care to a huge national debt to climate change.  What are we doing today to help make this a better world, not worse, than when we came?

Lance thinks he’d be happy hanging out with children all day.  As a former middle school teacher, i gotta say… think about that a little more, Lance. It may seem fun at first, but after a few hours, you’ll be wishing you were on Ace’s desert island with the endangered species.  You know, the journalists. 

What if you were surrounded by tweeters?  Yikes!  Speaking of which, what’s happening to print?  Lance believes print is becoming the medium of the elite.  What do you think.  I definitely have to agree with the Twitter echo chamber comment.  Are you on twitter?  Do you follow people who think just like you, or do you diversify?

We talked a little about the terrible humanitarian disaster in Haiti.  Lance introduced us to Wyclef Jean’s Haiti charity Yele.  Though its come under some fire lately–check out this Washington Post piece–its getting a lot of attention for the good its doing.  I talked about how I gave $10 through text messaging to the Red Cross.  All I did was text “HAITI” to 90999, and the Red Cross adds $10 to my phone bill which goes directly to Haitian relief.

We talked about poetry.  Ace read us a poem of his that ended up on some hippie posters in the Free Love era.  I always knew Ace was a big hippie.  I tried to give it some musical accompaniment in the background, but I was shot down.  Next time Ace reads a poem, I’m banging bongos to spite him!

Glamour is in the eye of the beholder.  Do you believe that?

Prop 8 trial on Youtube?  Nope.  The United States Supreme Court said that we will not be able to see Prop 8 trial footage on YouTube anytime soon.  However, we don’t need it.  Tweeters in the trial have been giving us a really reliable play-by-play.  We’re getting a virtual transcript as it happens.  The Courage Campaign’s Prop8trialtracker.com has been an invaluable resource for me!

Of course by now you’ve heard the the incredibly ineffective government in Uganda is trying to scapegoat gays and want to pass a law that allows them to put us to death, or at least imprison us for life.  The outrageous situation can all be traced back to one very evil man named Scott Lively, who–knowing about harsh anti-gay attitudes in Uganda–thought that a conference there about how evil and dangerous gays are would be perfect.  Of course, he’s shocked about the whole putting gays to death thing.  Really?  Shocked.  When someone has a gun pointed at someone’s head, you don’t give them bullets, Scott.

Scott Lively wrote a book called The Pink Swastika, blaming gays for the holocaust.  So, I’m sure that this guy is real sincere when he says he didn’t mean for this to happen! 

Was Jesus black?  Learn why he probably was.

Health care? Schmelthcare! 

Blago?  Yeah, so he’s blacker than the President, apparently.

Are our cell phones making our memory obsolete?  I know mine is!

Was President Monroe gay? Maybe it was Madison.  I know it was an “M.”  Maybe Professor POTUS would know!

All this and more in this week’s Lundon Calling!

Make sure you tune in this Wednesday the 20th for Penn State Senior Steve Lucas to talk about his summer interning for the Victory Fund and on the 27th with Dr. Peter Goldblum Director of the LGBTQ Program at the Pacific Graduate School of psychology!  I really can’t wait for these awesome guests–can you?

I just got done listening to our 53rd show. How many have I been part of?  When’s my anniversary?  Where are my fans–when is my anniversary, Phil-heads?

Hey, listeners, how was your new year? How was your holiday?  I had a pretty good Festivus.  I had a decent Christmas too, although I much preferred my Festivus.  Maybe next year I’ll celebrate Merlinpeen.  Wha are you looking forward to in 2010?

Do you smoke and drink? Well stop smoking, and buy me the next round.

Are you as sick of Tiger as I am?  Lance thinks Elin’s been onto Tiger for longer than she admits.  What do you think? Are men naturally monogamous, or is it inevitable that a man with enough temptation going to fall loose his will power?  Are sex addictions bullshit?

Want a full body scan?  I wish I could be a full-body SCANNER!  Should we scan everyone randomly, or do you believe in racial profiling?  I never thought I’d have to school LANCE on racism!  I reminded Ace and Lance about our own home-grown terrorists, that aren’t Muslim, are 100% American citizens, and just as scary as anything on a plane. What about the effigy of Obama that was hung in Jimmy Carter’s hometown?

Is Christianity a way of life?  Duh, no!  Think about a lot of the people you know that call themselves “Christian.” Do they all walk that walk? 

The Proposition 8 trial is to be youtubed next week.  Are you going to be watching?  Check out http://twitter.com/ameriqueer for more information!

Congratulations, Amanda Simpson, President Obama’s first transgender appointee!  Whatever you want to say about President Obama, appointing a transgender person is amazing, incredible and so awesome!  Guess what else: the Federal Government job openings site has added a non-discrimination statement for gender identity!  How great is that?

Are Boise and Olsen of the Federal Prop 8 trial just showboating? Is this trial in our best interest?  What do you think of the Federal Prop 8 case?   Do you know anyone connected to the case? We’d love to interview Boise and Olsen!

Is it inappropriate to mention LGBT people in front of kindergarteners?  Are making such claims just an excuse to silence us?

Do you know who Bayard Rustin is?

Let’s talk about intersexed people.  Ace wants to call them by the older more offensive term.  What about our fans?  Any intersexed people want to put Ace right? Remember the South African runner Caster Semenya’s case?  How does that compare with the claims about Lady GaGa is getting?  What about the terms hermaphrodites v intersexed?

Let’s talk about the spectre of bisexuality. I’m openly bisexual… what do you think of that? Lots in our community think bisexuality is a myth. So what do you think of that? Is it akin to the g-spot–just a rumor?

If bisexuals are real, are they as greedy as everyone presumes? Are they oversexed? Or do they just see DIFFERENT options, not necessarily MORE?

Let’s talk about boxes.  The boxes we put people in. We chatted about the DSM, bisexuals, interracial presidents and stupid Senators.

Labels and boxes..

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Wednesday Lance, Ace and Phil got together to celebrate one year of Lundon Calling with Episode 52!  The talk show that’ll get you high gave you the low down on how it all came together, and where we’re going in year two!  We also announced a short hiatus over the holidays.  We will be back early in the new years.  Ace did let our audience know that his computer problems are a major reason for our need for a hiatus, and we would really appreciate it if our listeners visited our PayPal account and help ole Ace get the show up and running again! (while we’re at it, ole Phil’s going to need a new machine soon… but we’ll cross that bridge later).

What did we talk about in Episode 52?  One of Ace’s favorite topics:  the psychic world!  Do you believe in the psychic world?  Have you ever experienced clairvoyance?  You ever moved something with telekinesis?  Do you have ESPN?

Ace has strong connections to the spiritual world, and talks to us about them in Episode 52.  Where we’ll go next, we’ll never know.  You have any ideas for Ace?  You should email him or post them as comments on our blogs–we love to hear from you.

As today was Transgender Day of Remembrance, I wanted to wish everyone a very peaceful, safe, happy and hate-free weekend!  If you celebrated TDOR anywhere, let me know where, and about what you did.  I spent TDOR with the good kids of Urbana High School’s GSA, here in Urbana, Illinois, and we had a candlelight vigil over at Carle Park.  Those kids were amazing!  I posted a few pics up over at my Ameriqueer twitter account, check them out at http://twitter.com/ameriqueer!

See y’all next week!