Initial Conditions
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(This is a sticky post, please find current news items below) in General |
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Note from the editor
Welcome to blogsoma, your virtual vault for self-discovery. We here at Soma Space are excited to have a forum to demonstrate how the images we focus on impact our social identity. Throughout history, pictures have shaped our personal and collective awareness. The visual medium of language serves as the evolutionary envelope of human nature. This blog will take you to the places words cannot express. You’ll be able to look at everything from pop culture to your most intimate relationships in a new light. The tools we’ll be sharing here are from the heart of the somatic worldview, which delivers you to what’s been called Level 3 Consciousness. This is where the world of ideas meets the world of action.
We’re here to chronicle the conversation. Welcome to the party! 
Travel Light,
Dr. Mark Filippi, Human Performance & Communications Expert
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Symptoms Of Self-Destruction
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Sunday, 28 June 09 - 01:40 AM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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Matter of Fiction...
The fact that we've become a highly self-indulgent culture isn't such a big deal. But when you consider how often we are asked to complete surveys, fill in our on-line profiles and make comments on everything from the new flavor at Baskin Robbins to the coroner's report for Michael Jackson, it does tend to convince us that our opinion is just short of gospel. It's only when our physical bodies 'editorialize' on our behavior that we realize how far off we are from our true self. That conversation often gets muted since we're conditioned to dismiss, deny, and pacify ourselves when faced with symptoms that attempt to slow us down and allow us time to reflect.
We're all telling ourselves a story. Whether it's serving us or not is the question. Tune in WED and take a look between the lines with us.
Stay thirsty my friends...
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome back Arlene Taylor, world class researcher and educator, to help us see the human heartbeat in all those brain waves. She's in the midst of a study on PASS (Prolonged Adaptation Stress Syndrome) which is landmark data in the field of psychophysiology. Arlene is gathering information that may help us align our lives with our brain's inherent strengths so we can avoid the pitfalls of burnout and the years it takes to unlearn self-limiting behaviors. If you want to more on her work visit her site now: http://is.gd/1hhZ5
The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
The Litmus Test Of Living Well
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Saturday, 20 June 09 - 11:55 PM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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True Blood, Sans Fangers!
What you're looking something really cool. It's an alkaline iodized water crystal. It's snowflake-like fractal structure captures the intricate level of coherence and complexity this kind of water possesses. It's the 'product' of the work our guest this week on Soma Time, Dr. Robert O. Young. But what it really illustrates is the tensegrity we all possess if we live within the harmonic awareness of the alkaline lifestyle Dr. Young advocates. To get there, we need to develop a deeper sense of personal ecology and use the acid-producing events of life as raw energy to refine and respect, much like we all do on some level or another with fire. Life may burn us, but we don't need to burn ourselves out because it. Cool off with us WED.
Get ready to swap some spit stories. I have some bones of contention.
Stay thirsty my friends.
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome Dr. Robert Young from PHMIRACLELIVING.COM to discuss his work in the arena of something called an 'Alkavorian approach' to life. We'll get into the role of emotions, attitude, memory and many other factors that influence our body chemistry. Feel free to call in during the show and toss some of your challenges at us...this dude's a certifiable genius!
The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
The Beningo Brain Factor
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Monday, 15 June 09 - 11:55 AM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in NY Baseball Digest - Soma Style |
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I went to the Met-Phillies game last THURS and for the first time I noticed a clear difference in the tone of the CitiField crowd that is distinct from the crowds I've been in at Shea. Maybe it's result of the last three seasons; a tragic 7th game loss in the NLCS, and two consecutive game 162 home losses to the @#$% Marlins to miss the playoffs. If you factor in the real world strain of the economy, this home crowd arrives at a Philly-Met game with a lot of baggage already. Add in an 11-inning loss the night before when they left 16 runners on base. So OK, this THURS crowd was primed for blood. And here are the Mets blowing another late game lead. And here's Jerry Manuel, leaving in a pitcher with no business pitching to the NL homerun leader in a big spot. It was then that the distinction was obvious. These Met crowds seem to root against what they dread and not for what they want. I saw it in hybrid form on FRI too.
The word in the cultural literature is Schadenfruede; said shad-en-frad. It roughly translates to having more invested in someone else failing than your own success. On the inside, it's more about avoiding an impending misery than it is about approaching a desired result. When the old Shea crowds would sing "Larry, Larry" at Chipper Jones, they were not dreading him getting a hit. They were defying him! It was meant to whip the crowd into a frenzy in anticipation of getting him out. It wasn't used to ward off Chipper getting a hit. That's a good thing, since he regularly did...LOL. Now this CitiField crowd just murmurs in a big spot, even after the roar of relief died down after Takahashi struck out Ryan Howard in that fateful 11th-inning. They've learned to root from their fears. I found myself being pulled into it, literally. Your body folds forward. Your head cranes out like a telescope zooming in. Your back tightens and your knees lock. This is the 'position' most of my fellow fans had at key moments all game. Multiply that dread by ~40,000 and you a lot of fear in the air...
Why does any of this matter? The exciting research done by Rick & Joel Leskowitz shows that fan energy or intent tracks closely with peak moments on the field. Their movie, The Joy of Sox details how the focused attention maybe the biological key to the so-called 10th man...
Now constrast that to the surly, dread-filled crowd at CitiField, which is so saturated with defeat, it has lost it's ability to focus it's attention at all. Instead of a coherent crowd - like the ones we saw in Philly last Fall or the ones going to Red Sox games these days, we see cowardly crowd that is uprooted from it's own influence. If we take our role seriously, just like the players, we need to take our position and be ready to shed the dread.
Here's my simple suggestion; find your feet. Rooting is an old practice that many martial artists do to literally 'ground themselves' before they compete. It aligns you with a more powerful source of coherence, the planet Earth! LOL. We are being conditioned to root from our heads and that leads to ungrounded fans who shout at the enemy out of fear and boo as a reflex to vent their frustrations. It's an angry mob, not a crowd anymore. I didn't notice many fights in the stands THURS but I'm sure there were some. The Philly fans were loud and plentiful thanks to StubHub and fleeced season-ticket holders willing to sell at any price...
In the aftermath of LeBron snubbing the Magic players, Sid the Kid being late to the handshake, K-Rod & Bruney having a flame war, and Laker fans doing the typical 'celebration' destruction, are we so different from the other cultures where a soccer match can serve as a local bloodletting? I watched with soothing happiness how genuinely joyful and peaceful the Garden crowd was in the aftermath of the Cup winner in '94 last night as the 15th anniversary rolled by under the radar. We want the Cup was the unifying desire. That focused attention was palpable all these years later.
All that aside, I still HATE the Yankees, Phillies, & Braves with a passion. The difference is I LOVE the Mets more, even Looie, the poor sap. When I noticed myself getting caught up in the dread-ness THURS, I found my feet and when Ibanez hit that 3-run shot about 9 miles into the mist, I vented quickly and then re-set myself, and my focus on the Red Sox-Yankee game, which gave me something to root for...and that ended well.
When the whole Castillo debacle went down on FRI, I was in my usual spot, kevetching with other Met fans in the Hot Foot Chat Room under my alias Jesse47. I was able to keep my Zen state through what was a very painful and permanent baseball wound. What's interesting is how You Tube documented that moment from a Yankee fan perspective. That same dread was evident, yet the Yankee vibe of decades of dominance and this year's late game heroics prompted many fans to video A-Rod's at bat in anticipation of a game-winning hit. Take a look at the way it played out and how one Yankee fan's mixed emotions shifted from before to after.
For some Met fan perspective, a little Seinfeld moment may help out now. In this case, it was ball that was not caught that was the obstruction!
On to Baltimore sapiens, MRF 06.15
For a little more on the Subway Series and my short interview (last 5 minutes) check out Mike Silva's NYBD SUN show here: http://is.gd/12YM8
Listen back to my interview with Rick Leskowitz from JAN '08 : http://is.gd/12GtC
Sprecken ze Soma?
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Sunday, 14 June 09 - 04:28 AM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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Brain, Brain, Grow Away...
Next weekend is Father's Day so I figured I'd mention someone you probably don't know - Vint Cerf. Who's he ya say? He's credited with being the papa bear of the internet (sorry Al Gore). But the real back story is that the impetus to even have computers 'network' arose during the Cold War as a technology potential capable of surviving nuclear war. But to me it's just another example of human nature at work. Read this.
"While the human potential for discovery and innovation is great in times of peace, humans are proven to be much quicker to act when working to defend themselves." (a)
Now ratchet that down to yourself. Most of us live with rolling tides of self-conflict that compel us to search for peaceful solutions. In the process of achieving self-preservation, we discover greater self-awareness. If we're lucky, we internalize that for the next time we're in need of it. This individuated cycle expands in scope and scale when you examine the conflict carried within a relationship, family, community, and culture. Within every shift from valley of alienation to the peak of integration there's potential for metastrophe and catastrophe. If the Cold War can yield the internet, which connected more human beings than any war will ever divide, how can you learn to use your social friction as a spiritual fuel for self-growth? Peace isn't found in isolation; nothing ever is.
So join me WED and get ready to ride some new waves.
Dance on the volcano, not in it. Stay thirsty my friends.
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome Dr. Sung Lee, the research director for BR Consulting. His work focuses on revealing the psychoneurophysical mechanisms behind the Brain Education System Training (BEST) work of Ilichi Lee. He's an expert in the cross-cultural aspects of brain development. So this is a have brain, will travel show. Feel free to call in during the show and toss some of your conflicts at us...we can take the heat!
The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
, MRF 06.14Connect The Don't's
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Sunday, 07 June 09 - 02:21 AM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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Build A Brain...Bust Some Chops
Before the emergence of Prozac and Ritalin Nation, the brain was a subject that rarely showed up on the radar at most kitchen tables and definitely most adjusting tables in chiropractic. But the so-called "Decade of the Brain" in the 90's put a lot of fresh and functionally-oriented neuroscience on the book shelves of a new generation of chiro's. They got the big idea that maybe they could impact the way the brain and nervous system developed and wondered what kind of impact that would have on people's lives. But the profession at large was still locked into a 90 year battle for old turf with the mainstream clinical world. That internal intellectual rejection of applying neuroscience to chiropractic care continued well into this decade, which is when more brains have been delayed, diagnosed, drugged and discarded by that same mainstream. Well as one of those 'uppity' chiro's from the 90's I'm happy to say some of my ilk got out...all the way out. And now they have the mainstream's attention. Why? Because it turns out you don't need chiroprac-TIC to change a brain. All you need is few dedicated chiroprac-TORS who aren't willing to wait another 90 years for their own profession to support them.
So join me WED and get the story straight from them.
Because before you can change your brain, you have to make your mind!
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome Drs. Robert Melillo and Peter Scire from "The Brain Balance Program™ to discuss the almost meteoric success they've created in the lives of 1000's of children and families through their application of that same neuroscience that was rotting on the bookshelves. Now it's alive and well inside the neural networks of what Dr. Melillo called these formerly 'disconnected kids' who were scheduled for a life on the developmentally delayed spectrum. The best part of their program is that in involves the whole family, which gets us into the concept of 'social brain coherence', which we yap about a lot here in Soma Land. So if you know a family searching and searching for a way out of the darkness of conventional approaches to neurobehavioral disorders that honors the intelligence of both the child and their future, get your circle's ears to this show as we retrace the steps they took.
The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
Conduit Toolbar - Holy S! + Be The Media...seriously, BE THE MEDIA
3rd Eye Kind
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Sunday, 31 May 09 - 01:43 AM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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Brain Fog & Nerve Bridges...
Some people ask me where Soma Space is, like I have it's address. If we have to get really detailed and literal here (two things I dread doing) it's easy...the synapses. Our nervous system is governed and regulated by what gets exchanged in the gaps between the nerves. I tend to call that synaptic stuff, signal transmission. But we've also got another dimension of Soma Space, where there's non-synaptic exchange - a more diffuse form of communication, which I like to call noise transmission.
It's that signal-to-noise dance that provides us with a context to orient ourselves in the totality of Soma Space. The brain is no different. We are all shrouded in a dynamic broth of neurological background noise that our faster, more accurate synapes exchange information in. The trouble is no one gives a way to address the fog, so when we can't cross the bridge, we get stuck and lose our rhythm. In order to restore balance, we need to be able to blend both forms of internal communication into a coherent whole. To do that, we need to better understand what that fog offers us.
So don't burn your bridges!
Let's shed some light on the dark side of the brain...
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome Al and Marilyn Sargent from Success Design International to the show. Their work in Hemispheric Integration helps people see what Al's book calls "The Mind's Other Eye". We seems to be on a theme of eyes and brains lately! LOL. The Sargents are sweeting the pot and offering our listeners an opportunity to download a free report about Hemispheric Integration and NLP+ by signing up for our contact list at mail@nlpla.com, or they can purchase a DVD of either the Sargents Phobia Release Process or Driving Directions: Creating a Well-formed Outcome Plan to reach your Goals - regular price $79 today's only 1/2 price for listening to the show - $39.
For more on SDI and Hemispheric Integration visit... http://www.nlpla.com/hemispheric.htm
So tune and hear a conversation that'll make it well past your watercooler at work. The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday...
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Saturday, 23 May 09 - 08:55 PM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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Not So Funny Money...
If you've ever been on the short end of a business deal, been hustled by a used car dealer or fleeced by some internet Ponzi scheme, you're not alone. At the other end of the spectrum, if you've been going around the sun enough, you may remember when the "Mom & Pop" stores ruled the planet. You knew them, their family and they knew yours. You felt like you were part of each others lives, whether it was the local grocery store, gas station, barbershop, deli or pizza parlor. Somewhere along the way that world gave way to the enormous and furiously 'convenient' Costco's, Home Depot's, strip malls, mini-marts and Netflix. We don't know who works there. We don't care. We just want our stuff. Why is too much not enuf?
The reason is that's exactly the way it was designed. If you've ever seen footage of people trampelling the security guards at Walmart during the holidays or watched a bus full of seniors filing on dutifully for a day trip to the casino, the need for material gain has seeped into our cultural DNA. Even our more sacred outlets, like spiritual and self-development practices are set up with the same tactics that hooks you on the cereal you 'love' and the shampoo you 'swear by'. Hey, I made a Markaphor; swear by. Quick, someone run to Go Daddy and see if the URL is available! Ugh..
Lucky for us, I have an old pen pal to sort this out for us...
and all before the sales are over this weekend!
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome a man who has lived in a parallel universe that is about to make a sharp turn into the one we call home. Author and social media icon, Douglas Rushkoff has 'spent' the last three years writing his new book 'Life, Inc.' in full anticipation of the economic crisis, which he sees as the rare and overdue opportunity...
right now than obsessing over how to save them." (Rushkoff, Life Inc, page 233)
So tune and hear a conversation that'll make it well past your watercooler at work. Get to know Douglas more at RUSHKOFF.COM - The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
Have You Ever Seen The Brain?
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Sunday, 17 May 09 - 12:22 AM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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Windows Of The Soma...
As long as I've wandered the somatic terrain (which is getting close to 20 years now), I've been fascinated by the progress in vision science. If you think it took forever to get the conventional wisdom to connect the mind and body, it took the scientific community another generation to admit the eyes are extensions of the brain. Just as chiropractic ignored both the skull and the brain and presented a headless dead spine model for nearly a century, science kept an academic boundary between the eyes and the brain. Phooey! So in my never-ending effort to find more ways to bring this world to your doorstep, we'll saddle up the soma sub for another fanastic voyage and plunge into the world of Brainspotting this week.
BYOB sapiens...bring your own beliefs 
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome David Grand, Ph.D., developer and trainer of Brainspotting and one of his prize pupils, Cynthia Schwartzberg, LCSW to the show. We'll get to know the process of seeing how the eyes can used to perceive the world from both the inner window of somatic self-awareness and the outer window of somatic social-awareness. This is something we talk about a lot within the realm of The Somatic Method (TSM) two main practices; SIMPLES and PROFILING. The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
The Alpha Soma
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Sunday, 10 May 09 - 10:24 PM (GMT -05:00) By Mark R Filippi in Dr. Mark |
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Entraining Day...
I've had a lot of original ideas. You're reading one of them here with BLOGSOMA. But there's a difference between giving birth to a blog and inventing an entirely new science. Well that's just what Thomas Hanna did in 1976 when he coined the term somatics. Now, almost 20 years after his death (btw, was 1990 that long ago?!), his work has carried on and developed, mostly outside the public eye. That's the trouble with originality. There is no second act for it. What we create in the moment is novel in this moment alone. The eureka rush we get when we feel that wave coming over us is unmistakeable. Harnessing that aha experience is the deeper work that the daily practices of modalities like Hanna Somatics and it's prodigy, Prime Somatics bring about. It's a trip worth making.
As we say around here, travel light!
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This week on Soma Time: Beyond The BS we welcome the kahuna supreme of Clinical Somatic Education, Steven Aronstein from Somatic Systems Institute. I recently finally got the chance to meet Steven after having about a 13 year game of phone tag. His vision for the future of somatics as a science and how the culture can embrace it as lifestyle resource is empowering and radical, even within the somatic world. So grab your favorite bodyworker's ear and send them this link so they can get started on their somatic path. The rest of you can help add to the the live show. Feel free to call or submit your questions in advance by e-mailing us at nakedsoma@gmail.com .
If you've ever wondered why people do the things they do, we're waiting to tell our side of the story each week. The landscape has been changing on SOMASPACE.ORG too. Get your mouse over there and check it out our new S-List Primer page. It has everything you'd ever want to know about profiling in one place (1)
For a preview of this week's show, click here (2)
Get the on-demand replay of last week's show, click here (3)
Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 9pm-10pm EDT
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