Peter Alsop‘s SONGS TO CHEW

    Our 'Song To Chew' today is IF I WAS IN CHARGE.  Have you ever seen someone do something, and you thought to yourself, "I think I could do a little better than that!" Even when we were kids, we could see grown-ups around us messing things up.  We could have handled it!  Except that when we grew-up and we finally had a chance to be in charge, we found out things are a lot more complicated and d...

    Today's SONG TO CHEW is written and sung by Amy Fix. 'YOU ARE MY SPOON' is part of my "Ebenezer's Make Over" album; a feminist version of Charles Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol". His story is actually a 'make over' about how crochety Ebenezer Scrooge changed his stingy ways after being visited by three spirits during the night.   I use that story along with songs from the feminist men's...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week is "I NEED A HUG” from my “UH-OH!” album.  When we get older, we're not supposed to need as much 'emotional support' as we did when we were kids, but there are lots of us walking around who 'just need a hug' to help us keep going!  It's a physical message that we're loveable, and that we're doin' okay!  It's called reassurance.  All over the world different cultures...

  Our SONG TO CHEW this week is 'ROOTS AND WINGS' from my “Grow It At Home” album.  I took the imagery from watching trees and birds in nature.  In order to 'stay in balance' as we move through our lives, we need to be 'realistic and grounded' at times, (roots), and still be creative enough to sail out on the wings of our imagination.  Of course, it's only possible to pass these skills on to our c...

    This week our SONG TO CHEW is from my “Pluggin’ Away" album.  It’s called I CAN IF I WANNA.  The chorus is 'call and response' with a little character we call the 'Neggy'.  It's that little 'voice' inside us that undermines our self-confidence and says "you'll never accomplish what you're trying to do!"  It's different than hearing 'an opinion' from someone who thinks we ought to change someth...

    Our SONG TO CHEW today, SHOULDER TO THE WHEEL, was written and performed by Geof Morgan, from my “Ebenezer's Make Over” album.  It came out on his Flying Fish recording, "Finally Letting It Go" in 1981.  I named this podcast 'SONGS TO CHEW', because if we listen to a song and just 'swallow it' without 'chewing it' a bit, we don't really get to 'taste it' or savor its nuances.  I heard Geof sin...

  Today's 'Song To Chew' is "I LOVE MY FAMILY" from my 'Grow It At Home' album. Many kids say they're "embarrassed by their parents", or "my brothers and sisters are soooo annoying!", and yet after all the complaints, they still love their family!  When a family has a healthy sense of humor, we laugh WITH each other about some of the ridiculous things we do as human beings.  This helps us see a 'b...

This week’s SONG TO CHEW was written by Geof Morgan.  It's known as THE PENIS SONG or IT'S MY PENIS.  I met Geof many years ago at one of the National Association of Men Against Sexism Conferences.  He's one of the main voices of the feminist men's movement.  We toured together a while through California with Kate Wolfe and Nina Gerber.  His songs are wonderful and insightful.  I do my 'sing-along...

    This week’s SONG TO CHEW is the title cut from my “Pluggin’ Away” album.  It's a song about, 'having persistence'; about finding the will to 'keep on trying' when we want to accomplish our goals.  The hard part of persistence is figuring out 'how long should we keep on trying', before we decide that we're beating our head against a wall?!  As the song says, "People who keep pluggin' away, they...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week is written and performed by Joe Jencks.  It's on my “Ebenezer’s Make Over” album, and it's the 'title cut' from his album, "WHAT KIND OF BROTHER ARE YOU?".  Joe's song models how men and boys do not have to make jokes at the expense of women and girls, just to 'fit in with the guys'.  That stuff's been going on for thousands of years, and it is way past time for a ch...

    Today's SONG TO CHEW is called COURAGE.  We'll listen to the version I recorded for my live “Wake Up!” video with John Ritter, and my friends Irene van der Zande and Timothy Dunphy from Kidpower.  They have an organization that teaches kids and families how to keep safe, and out of dangerous situations.  We need 'courage' to face something or someone who scares us.  'Courage' comes from the fr...

    This week’s SONG TO CHEW is SLAP HANDS, from my “Wha’D’Ya Wanna Do?” album.  Giving someone "five"; slapping hands with them is an extension of the more formal 'handshake' between two people.  It comes from the age-old practice of offering another person our hand, empty and extended in friendship, to show that we're not holding a weapon and have no intent to harm or injure them.  We 'shake han...

    This week’s SONG TO CHEW, from my “Chris Moose Holidays” album is 'I BELIEVE YOU'.  It models how to be a safe place for loved ones and anyone else who might need 'a good listening to'!  Did someone ever say to you, "Don't be scared!"  Did that really help?  It never worked for me!  I just knew that person wasn't a 'safe person' to talk to about my fears.  I certainly want to be a safe place f...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week, USE IT AGAIN, is from my “Grow It At Home" album.  Scott Walker, a social activist from Santa Barbara, called me to see if I had any songs about 'stopping the use of plastic bags in stores'.  The City of Santa Barbara wanted to pass a law to eliminate the use of plastic bags, and encourage shoppers to bring our own cloth shopping bags to the store.  Waste from plast...

    Today’s SONG TO CHEW is “YOU’RE OKAY!” from my “Stayin’ Over” album.  Each of us have been teased and told that we have something ‘wrong’ with us.  Usually when people say "wrong" they mean "different".  Most of us want others to like us, but we're afraid that if we're different, other people will avoid us.  We'll be ridiculed and isolated, so we try to hide our differences.  It's wonderful to...

    This week’s SONG TO CHEW from my “Stayin’ Over” album is BIGGER, BIGGER, BIGGER.  In our families, the ‘big’ people are the adults, and the ‘little’ people are the kids.  ‘Big’ people have more power and we often use it to make the ‘little’ people do what we want.  But before long, all ‘little’ people get to be ‘big’ people, and we start pushing the new ‘little’ people around.  More and more t...

    This week we'll ‘chew’ on a song from my “Stayin’ Over” album, I WANNA TRY IT.  This song was prompted by one of my ‘parental learning moments’.  It was a holiday, and I’d purchased a toy for my daughters, who tore off the wrapping paper, but they couldn’t get the box open.  It was stapled shut.  I heroically took out my Swiss Army knife and told them to “Stand back!”  I removed the staples, o...

    This week’s SONG TO CHEW comes from my “Family Roles” album, recorded live with my daughter Willow at our presentation for about 600 human service professionals at a national “Laughter & Play” conference.  The song is called LOGICAL.  Us parents do our best to use this with our children, but sometimes, us ‘logical thinkers’ get carried away trying to convince others that our ideas are the best...

   For our SONG TO CHEW today, Alan Arnaboldi sings CHROMASOMA PHOBIA, written by my old friend Bob Blue.  It’s from my “Ebenezer’s Make Over” album and it gives us a glimpse into Bob’s creative ability as a songwriter.  He weaves specific scientific information into a poetic description of how our chromosomes determine our biological gender.  Us humans are ‘very interested’ when we see someone wh...

    Hello there!  This week’s Song To Chew is BORED, BORED, BORED from my “Wha’D’YaWanna Do?” family album.  Feeling bored can be very painful.  When our daily ‘distractions’ recede, any painful feelings we might have stuffed away because we didn’t want to deal with them, seize the opportunity to step up front and demand our attention!  Sad, scared and angry feelings get our attention!  And ‘bored...

   Today we’ll listen to MY BODY’S NOBODY’S BODY BUT MINE.  It seems our Supreme Court doesn’t realize that when there’s an embryo developing inside a woman’s body, that it’s her choice and nobody else’s, to decide if she wants to give birth to that embryo or not.  The supporters of eliminating Roe v. Wade are the same people who sit in their “love thy neighbor” churches, mouthing platitudes like...

    This week we’ve ‘chewing on’ my most popular song, “I AM A PIZZA”!  Other than the normal toppings, this song does not offer lots of complicated philosophical flavors, but there are a few.  There’s the importance of using imagination in our lives; the concepts of ‘playfulness’, ‘childlike fun’,  joy and the awareness that the health of our bodies depends on our ‘state of mind’.  When we let ou...

    This week’s SONG TO CHEW was written by my old friend Geof Morgan, one of the main musical voices of the feminist men’s movement in the 70’s and 80’s.  His song, THE MATADOR, is sung by our mutual friend and well-known singer-songwriter, Charlie Murphy.  This song emphasizes how some men feel the need to prove our bravery by taking life-threatening risks and performing violent acts.  Many of u...

    Today’s SONG TO CHEW from my ‘Fan Club Favorites’ album, is called ERICA LEVINE.  It was written by my dear old friend Bob Blue.  Throughout history in many different cultures, women have been treated like property.  Fathers would have to pay a certain amount of money or make a gift of property as a "dowry" to a young man, who would be willing to marry his daughter and take her as a wife.  Soc...

    Our ‘Song To Chew’ today is a classic children’s song from my “Uh-Oh!” album, ITSY SPIDER.  Many children’s songs have deep and lasting effects on us though out our entire lives. My version of this song is kind of an ‘up-grade’.  I learned the original Itsy Spider song in pre-school 70 years ago.  Back then we did hand motions; our fingers became Itsy spiders walking up the drain pipe, our wig...