55: James Ikeda (the Michael Character) - the Folk Punk Educator

09/27/18 • 76 min

James Ikeda is a high school History teacher, DIY musician, and an all-around brilliant human being. James is the type of person to have a lot of projects and ideas and energy to do cool creative work outside of the classroom. He also does some great work in the classroom - but through a much different approach. That’s the thing about James - he’s able to do both; the bit of being an authentic professional teacher, and the bit of being an authentic punk musician. And as you’ll learn in this conversation, everything is a bit.

So James came over to Craig and Katy’s place to sit down and chat for a couple of hours - it’s a lively, fun, and highly informative conversation that has many twists, turns, laughs, and inside jokes that develop over the course of the chat. We hope you enjoy this one - and know that there is A LOT more! So stay tuned because in a few days, we will share an extra episode that demonstrates what happens when Craig and James left the microphone on.

MUSIC NOTE:
- This week we shared tunes from James’ new LP as The Michael Character called, "That’s Why I Call Him Zachy," which comes out TOMORROW - Sept 27!
- The Michael Character is a brilliant folk punk educator who will play your living room, basement, or laundry room - we played the song, “Go For Broke,” which is off of his previous album, “Fame Swoll,” as well as the song, “28,” which is the single from the new album.
- Also, all of his music already available FOR FREE DOWNLOAD on his bandcamp site, so you have no reason to not download this album right now!

As always, you can CHECK OUT THE NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST!

ADVERTISING NOTES:
- Table-Turned is a DIY record-of-the-month club. Subscribers select from two genre options and receive a record each month for that genre, including some “classics” as well as albums they may have missed.
- The current genre selections are Garage Rock and Ska-Punk, and for the next month, you can start your monthly vinyl subscription for $160, which gives you a FREE MONTH, after that it becomes $175 for the year.
- Table-Turned was recently featured in Paste magazine AND in The Hype Magazine!
- To learn more and/or to start your subscription, visit Table-Turned.com!

And you can now join our Facebook community by CLICKING HERE!

FOLLOW, RATE, REVIEW, SUBSCRIBE, AND SHARE!
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- Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @eduPUNXpod!

Thanks so much for tuning in and we will be back soon with a special extra episode!

As always, you can CHECK OUT THE NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST!

And you can now join our Facebook community by CLICKING HERE!

Thanks so much for tuning in and we will be back soon with a special extra episode!

Previous Episode

54: Dawn Graham & DIY Zine Culture

Dawn Graham is a punk educator, a zine creator and distributor and one of my favorite people! Dawn works with Boston young adults as they interact with and learn more about current technologies. They’re an endlessly talented and devoted creator of zines - and you get to hear all about how they found their gateway into zines at a very young age. So zines are in Dawn’s blood!

Through Stay Kind!, Dawn tables and distributes their own work as well as the work of others that they support and want to share knowledge and creativity of throughout their travels and distribution work.

Craig and Dawn sat down early on Saturday morning to chat about all things punk, zines, and education - there are plenty of laughs, critical analysis of the current political climate, and just overall good hangs. Hope you dig this chat as much as we did!

ADVERTISING NOTES:
- This week we hyped up No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes), which is an organization that is incredibly important right now with the bullshit going on at the US/Mexico Border.
- No More Deaths is a humanitarian organization based in southern Arizona. The group began in 2004 as a coalition of community and faith groups, dedicated to stepping up efforts to stop the deaths of migrants in the desert and to achieving the enactment of a set of Faith-Based Principles for Immigration Reform.
- The group is utilizing volunteers who hike through the desert trails and leave water, food, socks, blankets, and other supplies. Under the direction of our medical team, volunteers provide emergency first-aid treatment to individuals in distress.
- Finally, No More Deaths is currently working on legal defense projects for folks migrating into America, while also documenting the abuse and human rights violations that occur while being detained by US Border Patrol.
- Please consider donating (either money, supplies, or time) to No More Deaths - No Mas Muertes today!

MUSIC NOTES:
- This week we shared tunes from the new Just Friends LP, "Nothing But Love,” which came out on June 13 on Counter Intuitive Records.
- Just Friends is a California-based ska punk band that blends all sorts of genres to ensure that ska isn’t a pigeonholed term for them!
- The LP is currently available FOR FREE DOWNLOAD on the Counter Intuitive Records bandcamp site, so you have no reason to not download this album right now! You can also snag a vinyl copy of the album through the same bandcamp page!

As always, you can CHECK OUT THE NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST!
Don’t forget that you can now join our Facebook community by CLICKING HERE!

Thanks so much for tuning in and we will be back next week with a new episode!

Next Episode

55X: James & Craig left the microphone on and just kept talking

James Ikeda is a high school History teacher, DIY musician, and an all-around brilliant human being. James is the type of person to have a lot of projects and ideas and energy to do cool creative work outside of the classroom. This extra episode features a special look into the friendship and shared sense of humor between Craig and James. The microphone was turned on to start recording the second segment of the episode, and instead they both got distracted just flew into many topics and even some ASMR occurred! Hope you dig this fun bonus episode!

MUSIC NOTE:
- This week we shared tunes from James’ new LP as The Michael Character called, "That’s Why I Call Him Zachy," which comes out on September 27!
- The Michael Character is a brilliant folk punk educator who will play your living room, basement, or laundry room - this episode features the song, “Literally My Masters Thesis,” which is off of his previous album, “Fame Swoll.” And yes, it’s literally his Masters thesis.
- The new LP comes out September 27, BUT all of his music already available FOR FREE DOWNLOAD on his bandcamp site, so you have no reason to not download this album right now!

As always, you can CHECK OUT THE NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST!

Thanks so much for tuning in and we will be back soon with a special extra episode!