Arts
Chad Deal won an award from MENSA for his short story on nearly losing his genitals at Burning Man. And that’s not even the most interesting thing covered during this episode’s interview. He also won a blog contest by the San Diego Reader, which got him out of the pizza joint he was working at and landed him in Tijuana. In an ongoing project he calls Tortilla Rituals, Chad chronicles his own personal experiences with the people and places he encounters in the mysterious city he now resides in. He maintains a freelance writing career as well, but expressively discusses the coolness of creative nonfiction and the ways in which journalism can still be lyrical and story-like. Even his poetry is genre bending, with a rambly, Jack Kerouac-esque, prose style. Also discussed: The blog that kept him connected to the world during some worldly travels, a switch from studying mushrooms to studying creative writing, and what bar Spanish in Mexico consists of. Check out some of his writing here: http://palmtreeandmoon.tumblr.com/ and here: http://blogabond.com/chaddeal and his writing for the Reader here: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/staff/chad-deal/. Chad also plays in bands. The song used in the opening and closing of the episode is called Heirloom by his band gravyyard: http://gravyyard.bandcamp.com/.