From Chicago and the great American midwest, I bid you all good morning… wherever you may be in this great land of ours, from the Hawaiian and Tahitian islands in the West, eastward to the Caribbean and the U.S. Virgin Islands, south to the Antarctic, north to the Pole, and worldwide on the Internet, THIS is the long-awaited revamp of The Computer Room.
The Computer Room has existed in one form or another for about 3 years now. It started off under a different name as a show deconstructing Obama-era culture, hosted by a childhood friend and myself. When that friend's work responsibilities meant she had to leave the show, it became a show about Internet culture.
Like the rest of this blog, The Computer Room has always been a little bit haphazard. It’s posted inconsistently. Episodes vary in length. I have a vault of content that easily amount to around 40 hours of audio.
I believed in the stories we were telling, but I was skeptical that I was telling them the best way.1 And then Taylor McMahon reached out to me.
He helped me produce this episode. It’s more polished, more dynamic, and the audio quality has massively improved.
We decided that this first episode should be about Art Bell because, as every social media profile I've ever had for the last decade or so has said, I'm a big Art Bell fan. Before I was Default Friend, I hosted Poast to Poast AM. During lockdowns, I moved to the High Desert. In Texas, my ex and I would often take long drives to nowhere just to listen to Coast to Coast. And one of the best things I've ever written was a screenplay about Art Bell—this was back before he passed away in 2018, when I still had designs to be in film.
But other than that, I’ve never told a good Art Bell story. I never knew how to do him justice.
I decided this was the perfect format to change that.
So, travel back in time with me—back to my computer room—and with the help of Taylor McMahon, Leah Prime, John Steiger, and Joseph Matheny, I'll tell you all the story of Art Bell.
Visit John Steiger’s site, Art Bell Files here. Read the Art Bell biography here.
Visit Joseph Matheny’s site here and learn more about Ong’s Hat here.
Subscribe to Leah’s Substack here.
And if you remember nothing else about me, remember I’m a big Art Bell fan. If you feel like you’d be one too, here are some episodes to get you started:
If I interviewed you a while ago and nothing came of it, hopefully you understand why I didn’t want to rush it now!
First Time Caller: An Art Bell Tribute