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The Enchant Me Podcast has moved to Substack!

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New episodes, new content, new home.

I’m excited to introduce The Enchant Me Podcast’s new home…

Now don’t get me wrong, I still love WordPress, but I’ve just been spending a little more time over on Substack lately. My new(-ish) Substack is called kimchantment, an offshoot of, and actually inspired by, The Enchant Me Podcast. Turns out, there’s a lot more that I’m enchanted by, and now it all lives happily together.

And the good news is that there’s a lot more to see over there. I’ve been posting original short short stories (Exactly 100), some audio content in addition to The Enchant Me Podcast (Origins of the Muse), cool things about New Jersey (NJ Musings), food (Let’s Eat!) and working on telling a longer story about surviving the Indian Ocean Tsunami that happened on December 26, 2004 (After the Waves).

As I progress, I plan to add new sections as I find more enchanting topics.

Thanks for stopping by this site. I’ll still be updating posts here (written only, no audio) and I welcome you to come on over and subscribe to kimchantment.

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Enjoy this post? Check out Kim’s full Substack, which includes other episodes of
The Enchant Me Podcast and other fun stuff.
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© 2024 Kim Selby, The Enchant Me Podcast, Enchant Me Productions & Storm Your Brain, LLC. All rights reserved. All photography © Kim Selby unless otherwise credited.

Ep 108: The Old Man and the Pool

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The Enchant Me Podcast Episode 108: The Old Man and the Pool. Thinking about time on a Sunday in January.

In this episode, I take a walk through New York City during the holiday break, contemplate time, buy a babka, go to a museum, and see a show.

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Enjoy this post? Check out Kim’s full Substack, which includes other episodes of
The Enchant Me Podcast and other fun stuff.
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© 2024 Kim Selby, The Enchant Me Podcast, Enchant Me Productions & Storm Your Brain, LLC. All rights reserved. All photography © Kim Selby unless otherwise credited.

Photo credit: Playbill.com.

Ep 107: Reintroduction to a Mic

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Once again, I attempt to restart and reinvigorate something I started a long time ago.

This time, it’s The Enchant Me Podcast.

I started this podcast back in 2018 when podcasts were gaining popularity as a medium, but before they exploded and everyone and their grandmother had one. Come to think of it, if my grandmother was still around, I would love to have had the chance to podcast with her. She was a hoot.

I remember sitting with two friends in a restaurant in Austin, Texas in April 2018 when I got the email from Apple Podcasts that my show had been approved and posted. It was a huge thrill, and I think they thought I was nuts because I am prone to getting very excited and very into new topics and then losing interest when something else catches my attention. Back then I had a folder full of ideas and a head full of new inspirations.

Fast forward, and here I am again, planning to restart something that I lost sight of, but never forgot about. Here’s what I originally wrote about the show and where the idea came from, and here’s what I wrote about myself as the host. I’m feeling pretty rusty and self-conscious talking into a mic again, and my ears hurt when I re-listen to those first half-a-dozen or so episodes. But, no pain, no gain, right?

This episode is just a short wave hello again. I’m looking forward to taking myself on more artist dates and posting more recordings.

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Enjoy this post? Check out Kim’s full Substack, which includes other episodes of
The Enchant Me Podcast and other fun stuff.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

© 2024 Kim Selby, The Enchant Me Podcast, Enchant Me Productions & Storm Your Brain, LLC. All rights reserved. All photography © Kim Selby unless otherwise credited.

Photo credit: Vika Strawberrika, Unsplash.com.

A New Collaboration Begins!

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In my last episode of The Enchant Me Podcast (which has on a bit of a hiatus), I told the story of attending my friend, T. Reilly’s, book signing. Now, he’s become a collaborator on a new, yet-to-be-named podcast.

After realizing how similar not only our love for books, music, and film were – really creativity of all kinds – we also realized that our days of growing up during the 80s and 90s were also similar. Growing up in the South Jersey area, spending time in similar areas like Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore, and discovering a curiosity for independent artists were also throughlines for both of us.

Now, we’ve decided to explore those creative beginnings in a new podcast. While we are still in the beginning phases of development – we still don’t have a name! – we’ve decided to share one episode while we work on recording others and getting our act together to get it published and out into the podcast world.

In Episode 1, we explore a fabled and storied place. A place you could spend hours and get lost in its racks and aisles. A place that sadly, no longer exists. Have you made your guess? If you’ve guessed the video store, you’ve guessed correctly.

You can listen here below or you can check it out on his site.

Ep. 106: “Grayscale: a novel” Book Signing

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Writing and publishing a book is no small feat, so when my friend announced that he was doing a book signing for a novel he had written, I knew that not only would I go to show support for his accomplishment, it was also a perfect artist date to take myself on. Full cover

A book can be many things to many people, and this book is the tangible result of a writer setting a creative goal and sticking to it. Not only did I enjoy the book – which, by the way, is a page-turning modern gothic mystery – I was so proud and happy for him for being successful in his journey to finish it.

I’m even happier to let you know that he was gracious enough to agree to my request when I asked him to record an excerpt for this episode. So, without further ado, please take a listen
below to the full episode and the excerpt.

 

Buy Grayscale: a novel on Amazon.

Read more about T. Reilly, the author.

T. Reilly will also be appearing at the Collingswood Book Festival on October 6, 2018 in Collingswood, NJ.

A transcript of this episode can be found here.

Ep. 105: Open House

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Revisiting the past can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Reminiscing about the good old days is something we all do, but what if your “good old days” weren’t so good? Are our memories an accurate representation of what really happened, or do they, over time, become the stories that we’ve told ourselves so many times that they’ve become our reality.

That’s the answer I was after when I decided to attend a realtor Open House at the house where I spent my teen years. Decades later, I categorize that time as the most challenging time of my life, so why would I want to go back? What would I find? What could I possibly find that could be considered inspiring?

As it turns out, maybe our memories are a bit faulty.

Stories, the ones we tell each other and the ones we tell ourselves are powerful. Can they be reshaped with a little distance and a little wisdom? Take a listen below to find out.

Open House Collage

Luckily, somewhere between 13 and 16, I must have started to turn it around.

Learn more about Steven Pressfield here.

View the Zillow Listing here. (I can’t guarantee how long this link will stay active).

A transcript of the episode can be found here.

Ep. 104: Hidden Beauty on West 28th Street

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Hidden gems are everywhere if we keep our eyes open.

Today’s excursion takes us to New York City’s Flower District: one single block in Midtown Manhattan that guarantees to impress and to likely transport you to an outworldly place of beauty and surprise.

Tucked on West 28th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, we went looking for inspiration for color and DIY ideas where everyone “in the know” goes for anything floral or greenery-related. We spent the morning among florists, wedding and event planners, anxious hosts, excited brides-to-be and helpful shopkeepers all with one goal in mind: explore the thousands of species of flowers and plants to find just the perfect flower. Perfect shade of pink and purple. Perfect blooms for the perfect event.

So scroll down, take a listen, and visit the mentioned links below to learn more.

Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York

Fast Company’s “A Beautiful Ode to NYC’s Dwindling Flower District”

The New York Times‘ “A Spin Through the Flower District with Susan Orlean”

The New York Times’ “War of the Roses”

A transcript of Episode 104: Hidden Beauty on West 28th Street can be downloaded here.

Ep. 103: Chair Yoga with Carolyn

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Hi guys. Today marks a very special day – Episode 103 Day! Thanks as always for checking us out, we know you have a lot of choices in podcasts and we are truly appreciative that we chose to listen.

In this episode we decided to try something a little different than most of the artist dates we have lined up and escape the cold winter weather that we’d been experiencing. As the title of this post gives away, our time today was spent in a Chair Yoga class with a very interesting and mysterious octogenarian, Carolyn.

So scroll down, take a listen, and hear how we were reminded to keep always keep our minds open to new experiences and people. You never know what you might find.

A transcript of Episode 103: Chair Yoga With Carolyn can be downloaded here.

Ep. 102: Going Slow at The Barnes Foundation

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One of the unexpected benefits of this little adventure into podcasting has been happening since I have started chronicling my artist dates. Being a bit of a planner, it’s been interesting to see how many cool things there are to do in just a couple of hours and that was definitely the case with this episode.

I’m no stranger to Philadelphia’s The Barnes Foundation, but I was a stranger to Slow Art Day, which as it turns out, is a real thing. It seems we now have a “day” for everything: National Chocolate Cake Day (January 27), National Postage Stamp Day (July 1), even the appropriately-time National Doorbell Day (October 31).

But Slow Art Day was new to me. According to the Slow Art Day website, their mission is simple: to help more people discover for themselves the joy of looking at and loving art. The rules are also simple: sing up at a local museum or gallery, attend and look at four pieces of art slowly, discuss your experience with the host.

Turns out, going slow has some real advantages, when looking at art, and when doing other things too. The Barnes Foundation has a wonderful collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modernist artworks. A trick to making the most of its many rooms and numerous sights to see: go slow…

From the top left to right, the four works viewed during International Slow Art Day: Edouard Manet’s Laundry, Jules Pascin’s Cuban Hospitality, Henri Rousseau’s Scouts Attacked by a Tiger and Henri Matisse’s Dishes and Melon.  Details of each of the four paintings, and a portrait of Dr. Albert C. Barnes by Giorgio de Chirico. All paintings are oil on canvas.

Read the ARTnews article about the beginning of International Slow Art Day.

A transcript of Episode 102: Going Slow at The Barnes Foundation can be downloaded here.

Ep. 101: Downton Abbey: The Exhibition

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Hi everyone, and thanks for stopping by. This marks the very first episode of The Enchant Me Podcast and I’m super excited to be here and to get started.

Before I dive into the premiere, I want to mention that you can read all about how the
podcast came to be here. In a nutshell, each week I’ll be going on a different excursion that is meant to keep the creative juices flowing and to help me live a more creative life.

The first episode takes us back to post-Edwardian England as my mom and I visited a live exhibition of the beloved PBS show, Downton Abbey. We day-tripped to New York City to experience the Downton Abbey: The Exhibition, which is running through September, 2018.

Part museum, part memory lane, and all dramatic enjoyment, the exhibit showcased many
aspects of the show including sets, costumes and behind-the-scenes info and trivia that is sure to delight the many, many fans the show collected over its six year run.

So take a listen to get the full scoop, and below are some photos that I took to accompany the episode.

From the top left, clockwise order: the kitchen, the bell board, the formal dining table, Lady Mary’s evening dress, Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson’s wedding dress and suit, a selection of dresses including one of the wedding gowns, and Lord Grantham and Henry Talbot’s formal wear.

A transcript of Episode 101: Downton Abbey: The Exhibition can be downloaded here.

Music credits:
Enchanted by PunkCatMusic

Gaena by Blue Dot Sessions
from The Free Music Archive
CC BA NC