It’s been so long, we actually forgot how to upload a podcast (and, at times, how to create one). But, hey, Black Guy Fawkes is off the road and back in the studio, recording album number five (5!) and back with his own personal project 2520, Ed, to put out a new slate of episodes before getting back out on the road--Pittsburgh 8/26 with Littlefoot, and Winchester 9/27 with Joey Harkum and Meager Kings, and others to be announced. This episode is a special one–their very first non-musician guest.

Ian and Ed met Alex Stein at Lost Evenings in Anaheim last year and were blown away by his spoken word performances on the Cowboy Chords open mic stage (I think Ed’s actual reaction on the Saturday was “we… we have to follow him?” after Alex did his piece “Rock and Roll Manifesto”). Alex sits down with the guys to discuss his creative process, the community of punk rock (and this specific subset of punk rock in particular), how dyslexia can be a challenge and a benefit in terms of approaching art and creativity, and, of course, some Mount Rushmores at the end that, as they often do, go pretty far off the rails.

Photo credit: David Fang, we're pretty sure

Alex M. Stein is an award winning writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He has devoted his entire adult life to stories and storytelling and is a mainstay of the Los Angeles storytelling community. He ran a weekly storytelling show for two years. He has won the Moth multiple times and is the author of the personal essay collection “No, Mr. Bond, I Expect Your Dreams To Die” and the short-story collection “Tales From the Trail: Short Fiction About Dogs, Mushing, and Sled-Dog Races.” He recently won an Art of Creative Unity Award from the International Human Rights Arts Festival for his personal essay “Black Water.” He has worked extensively in film and television development and works as a story consultant for production companies, studios, individual writers, and more. For more Alex Stein, you can find him all over the internet and the world, but specifically at alexmstein.com Echoes of Iceland is available at echoesoficeland.com and at Patreon at patreon.com/echoesoficeland. Twitter or X or whatever is @coldfootfilms and he’s on Blue Sky as well at alexmstein.bsky.social.

For more Black Guy Fawkes, check out Music | Black Guy Fawkes (bandcamp.com)or https://asbestosrecords.bigcartel.com/. He’s also on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, etc as Black Guy Fawkes–spelling is extremely important here and, not surprisingly, he’s on music streaming services as well: Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon. You can probably find Ed drinking in a karaoke bar or in the crowd at a punk show. The show also now has a playlist of music from guests that have appeared, and guests who will be appearing, and you can check that out on Spotify as well: Fawkes & Friends: The Playlist - playlist by Ian Robinson | Spotify