When I worked the graveyard shift at one Circle K in Galveston, I passed the night by reading all of the magazines that were sold in the store. I rarely had more than a couple of customers per hour, so I did a ton of reading. I started reading the gruesome stories in the few detective magazines we sold and for some reason or another, I decided to start calling people in the stories in the middle of the night from Circle K’s pay phones. It was partially curiosity, to see if the stories were made up or if the magazines changed the names to protect the innocent. They didn’t.

I brought magazines outside to the pay phone and called directory assistance in the appropriate cities, using my red box to avoid the long distance charges. I took notes in the magazines, writing phone numbers of people related to the case next to their names in the magazine. I bet the people who purchased the magazines were surprised to find their home phone numbers written in there.

I can’t remember exactly what I said to people, but I’m sure I wasn’t entirely creepy about my calls. I mean, I wasn’t all “This is the ghost of ________ _______, and I’m going to haunt you with phone calls!” I’m sure it was still bizarre to get phone calls in the middle of the night about murder and fraud cases. I think I mostly just asked questions about the case to see if I really had the right people, probably posing as a reporter or something.

I still remember this one story about a teenager named Kenneth Glenn Milner, who attempted to murder a bunch of people in his small Texan town. The story was filled with tons of fail, because I don’t think he managed to actually kill anyone. I came across someone with the same last name as him today and suddenly remembered the whole thing, so I Googled his name and found this interview with him.

The end of my job at that particular Circle K ended my hobby of interviewing crime victims in the middle of the night. That is, until 2002 when I started interviewing random people in stories that I saw on Fark. I doubt any of those sound clips on that page still work.

I’m sure Richard Cardo will be noting this entry in his file on me. “Oh, so he has a FASCINATION and a HISTORY with murder!”

I discovered a lot of awesome new music last year, but one artist has really stood out among my favorites and the more I listen to his music the more I like him. That artist is Rappy McRapperson. I think my love for Rappy has gone far beyond just a passing phase at this point. I originally found just 2 tracks of his on some compilation torrent – the Lick Your Own Butthole Party Dance and I’m A Gangster.

Months after being thoroughly amused by those two songs and giving them plenty of airplay on Cacti Radio, I began to crave more. I listened to all of the clips of his music on Amazon, but I was too cheap to pay for them. More months passed, and I eventually found a download link for 8 of his albums. This is when discovered the true brilliance of Rappy McRapperson.

Sure, his songs are funny and they make me laugh, but his music goes way beyond that. His musical style is truly unique and some of the lyrics are amazing. His latest album, For The Kids In Juvenile Detention is a masterpiece from beginning to end and it’s easily my favorite album by Rappy. (That’s his latest solo work, but he’s done an album since then with the frontman for Emergency Pizza Party.) That’s another great thing about Rappy – he’s good friends with all the members of Emergency Pizza Party, which is another band that I happen to really like and I’d discovered them completely separate from Rappy.

Last week I suckered Rappy into giving me his phone number, and after he realized what a huge mistake that was, we made a deal that if he did an interview with me, I would stop screwing with his Sprint wireless account. So here it is! After a 3.5 year hiatus, the Big Beef Bueno podcast is back! And to make up for those 3.5 years that I abandoned my listeners, I’ve made this episode 3 times as long as any of the previous episodes! And as an extra added bonus, the entire episode is filled with Rappy McRapperson’s music and our interview! You can’t go wrong, listening to this…

Eight of his previous albums are available to download for free by clicking on this link. If you like them, you should send no less than $300 to Rappy’s PayPal at mcrapperson AT gmail.com. If you’re not into paying for music, though, consider this amazing investment opportunity… Rappy will draw you blueprints for a spaceship for a mere $10!

Click the Buy Now button to take advantage of that amazing offer!

Rappy writes regularly in his blog at mcrapperson.blogspot.com and occasionally updates his website at rappymcrapperson.com. He also has a YouTube page with lots of homemade videos to his songs and a Facebook. If you’ve ever watched Captain Underpants, you might recognize Rappy’s voice in the theme song:

And here’s one more video of Rappy’s. Go to his YouTube page and watch them all, though.

I’m done with this post for now, but I’m sure I’ll come back and add a little more to it soon. If you want to subscribe to Big Beef Bueno on iTunes, the RSS feed is still notla.com/rss.xml. Subscribe!