Origins

The concept of "Hometownville"  originated on "The Overnightscape Central", a PQ Ribber-produced and hosted podcast on the Overnightscape Underground.  The Underground is run by Frank Edward Nora.  If you don't know, Mr. Nora is one of the Internet's audio pioneers, even if no credit for such is given online or in other publications.  The man has been podcasting regularly since 1993.  I won't even attempt to name everything he's done, but rest assured, his volume of work speaks VOLUMES (that's a triple pun if anyone is counting!)  His own show is The Overnightscape, where he spends about half of the show "rampling" (touching on subject to subject) and the other half of the show he fills in with audio clips from various pop culture.  Mr. Nora has graciously allowed me to post my shows at his Underground website, even though when I began I really knew little about podcasting.

PQ Ribber is special too.  He is a published author, a tremendously talented artist, musician and also the producer of  "The Overnightscape Central"!  "The Central" is a place for anyone who wants to - to put up an audio piece along with others on a corresponding subject each and every week.  This incredible show has been around since 2010, and to my knowledge, there isn't another show like it anywhere.  Certainly, there is no show like it that's been around for as long as this one has been.

I submitted a little audio sketch about an ancient Eskimo named "Nanook", back in July of 2016.  Although I had been podcasting a while, I was still experimenting with sounds and placements and really, everything.  The Nanook idea was actually a silly one but after a while I felt like that I had kind of hit on something.  I foresaw possibilities of a character who lived in the past but had some modern problems with modern technologies along with the ancient problems still in his way.  This made the stories flexible and whatever wasn't flexible I could make it that way by using the so-called "Mandela Effect".  [In case you missed it, on one Jimbo skit in an episode of the ONS Central, mountain goats were put in a circular ditch and they rammed heads, similar to actions in a Large Hadron Collider.]

The "Mandela Effect" is in full swing at this time of this writing and people (including myself) are just becoming fully aware of it.  I thought it would be "fun" to incorporate this into the skits.

The wisest thing I did was to get other hosts of the Overnightscape Underground to be a part of Nanook's crowd on audio. These hosts are crazy-good.  They are talented, generous and I am thankful to know them in the way that I do.They are all just as responsible for Hometownville as anyone.

 During these early days of production, I spaced their voices carefully in stereo, kept track of continuity in my head, came up with goofy stories that matched the ONS Central subject of the week and had a blast for a couple of months.

It then hit me that Nanook really needed his own show - his own world.  This would ramp up the enthusiasm for everyone involved, including myself.  The continuity would become tighter yet broader.  So, I began this blog/website, expanded everyone's roles (if they were game), invited more friends to be a part of the fun, I began writing my own original and corny music - and we just had fun.  This would be my project - since I was putting it all together, but so many others would be involved - it would be their project too.  Doing it this way, with a quality product, could not fail, at least as I envisioned it.

I also had collected (and still am) a bevy of groans, grunts and phrases on audio, all that can be found by me by bookmark.  Though a 10 minute production can take several hours to produce, it's well worth it.  And I find myself getting better and faster at it each time.  I am excited to see what "Hometownville" will bring, rather than my rudimentary skits from "The Overnightscape Central".

Something I look forward to in the Hometownville show is having the townspeople step up and do their own monologues and tell their own stories.  Some of the group are just too stupid and rudimentary to talk (they are like cavemen, for goodness' sake) but some are able to be very articulate.

Another part of the show will involve the nosy, greedy -but dumb - town mayor. Also Nanook's work and his work relationships will be explored.  Last, but not least, there will be looks at the multi-tasking sledsman who terrorizes Hometownville in his own unique way.  I look forward to working with everyone involved!

Having put together the mammoth "The Crazy World of Vic and Sade" website, I know the value of the written word, pictures, continuity, etc. that a website can bring.  I hope this place serves in the same manner.  And I hope that we will all use this as I plan to keep it updated for at least as long as the show has an audience.

Thank you for reading!

Jimbo