This episode is written by Riles Raubacher and Keurim Hur, who met each other at the bottom of a pit where they fought off demons and ghouls for four days and five nights through the power of song.

Keurim went from Korea to New York to Boston to Indiana to Los Angeles to New York and intends to never leave again. Still technically a Korean citizen due to US immigration laws that defy all sense and reason, she is currently accepting queries for both job offers and marriage proposals.

This story, "The Grave of Johnny-Jake" is based on a true story Keurim and Riles discovered in a journal that was wrapped in newspaper floating down the marshes near Riles' homestead. After reading the story once, Keurim burned the journal out of fear and confusion. Together, Keurim and Riles continue to piece together what they remember, and what follows them in their dreams...

Popcorn and Ghosts: The Grave of Johnny-Jake

For this month’s Centerfold Artist, our first since Trop’s post-Labor Day return to glory, we’re trying out a new format. As ever, we’re building our artist interviews around a Playboy-style datasheet; we figure if centerfolds get to answer questions about their favorite colors, artists should too. But while in the past we built a podcast around the unveiling of this datasheet from the secrecy of its big, brown envelope, in the privacy of our studio, without the artist present, now we’re adding an in-person interview to the mix, which we’ll run <a href="http://tropmag.com/?p=11643">on the Trop website</a> to complement our podcast.

Our artist for this first edition of our expanded format is Ms. September, Hedieh Javanshir IIchi. Hedieh is a resident at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA, and she is currently exhibiting a solo show, A Leaf from My Rose Garden, at the Southern Center for Contemporary Arts in Winston-Salem, NC. Born in Tehran, Hedieh’s paintings depict both American and Iranian culture, and fuse western abstraction with ornamental, traditional Persian art. She confronts feelings of intrusion and invasion in the context of historical and contemporary sociopolitical conflicts. To learn more about her work please visit <a href="http://www.hediehart.com/">her website</a>.

To learn more about Centerfold Artist, please visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Centerfold-Artist/404147233007554">our Facebook page</a> or follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/CenterfoldArt">@CenterfoldArt</a>.

Centerfold Artist: Ms. September, Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi

This is the opening song in a future hit musical called Sweatpants Wedding.

Sweatpants Wedding: Sweatpants Opening

Please enjoy this extra special episode of Popcorn and Ghosts while drinking spiced mulled cider, and perhaps it would serve you well to open your front door and allow all your furry friends to come in and have a listen as well.

Popcorn and Ghosts: Peanut

Centerfold Artist’s multimedia format continues, and we are pleased to introduce the one and only Mr. October: Bradley Chriss. We picked Bradley out special for the spooky holiday season. We hope his drawings unnerve you. And we think it’s important to note that Bradley’s work also includes meat poems, in which he recites poetry with raw meat in his mouth. His recent shows include sausage hairball at Transformer Gallery in DC and SUPERNOVA in Rosslyn, VA. He currently teaches at Montgomery College in Tacoma Park, Maryland. If you want to know more, listen, read, and visit <a href="http://www.bradchriss.com/">his website</a>.

To learn more about Centerfold Artist, please visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Centerfold-Artist/404147233007554">our Facebook page</a> or follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/CenterfoldArt">@CenterfoldArt</a>.

Centerfold Artist: Mr. October, Bradley Chriss

Centerfold Artist is happy to present Mr. November, Larry Cook. Larry is a D.C.- and Maryland-based artist who focuses on video and photography portraits. This year, he has been a finalist for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize and was awarded the Hamiltonian Artist Fellowship. He currently teaches photography at George Washington University and Project Create, an art development program for impoverished youth in Washington D.C. And he has a solo exhibition coming up at Hamiltonian Artists Gallery in January 2014. To learn more about his work visit <a href="http://larrywcook.com/home.html">his website</a>.

To learn more about Centerfold Artist, please visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Centerfold-Artist/404147233007554">our Facebook page</a> or follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/CenterfoldArt">@CenterfoldArt</a>.

Centerfold Artist: Mr. November, Larry Cook

This is a song from a future hit musical called Sweatpants Wedding. It takes place in a gym. The lyrics, the dialogue that precedes them, and links to everything we've written for and about Sweatpants Wedding are available <a href="http://tropmag.com/2013/sweatpants-wedding-act-2/">here</a>.

Sweatpants Wedding: The Groom Gloat

We can’t believe it! It’s been almost a year since we <a href="http://tropmag.com/2013/mr-january-ben-kinsley/">launched the podcast</a>. We’ve now introduced the Trop-i-verse to eleven amazing artists. And there’s no better way to end 2013 than with Nikki Painter, our Ms. December. Nikki lives and works in Richmond, VA and exhibits throughout the U.S. Starting with an opening on December 19th, she will be showing Living Working at Civilian Art Projects in Washington D.C. She will also have work at Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA entitled CSA: Forty Years of Community-Sourced Art. That show will open on January 22nd with a reception on January 25th. To learn more about Nikki, visit her <a href="http://nikkipainter.com/">website</a>.

To learn more about Centerfold Artist, please visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Centerfold-Artist/404147233007554">our Facebook page</a> or follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/CenterfoldArt">@CenterfoldArt</a>.

Centerfold Artist: Ms. December, Nikki Painter

Back in the summer, <a href=http://tropmag.com/>Trop</a> went on hiatus, and you missed your August Centerfold Artist. 

We don’t just let things like that go. Today, we go back in time, to present Mr. August, Bonner Sale. Bonner is painter who currently lives and works in Washington, DC. He has shown widely in New York City, Baltimore, and the DC area. His next show will be at <a href=http://project4gallery.com/>Project 4 Gallery</a> on March 29th in DC as part of the Centerfold Artist exhibition. To learn more about his work please visit <a href=http://bonnersale.com/home.html>his website</a>.

And, yes, you read that right. We’re having a Centerfold Artist exhibition. Starting March 29th and running through May 3, we’ll be at <a href=http://project4gallery.com/>Project 4 Gallery</a>, showing all our Centerfolds’ work together. <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/spring-arts-preview-gallery-picks/2014/01/31/5a080e12-82b6-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html>The Washington Post’s Museums blog</a> called our artist lineup “a veritable hipster Who’s Who.” We’re not completely sure what that means, but we think we’re flattered.

As for this last episode, we decided to tear up the rulebook, and we invited Bonner Sale into our studio to discuss his datasheet. Keep an ear out, at the end of the podcast, for special instructions on how to win an original work of art.

To learn more about Centerfold Artist, please visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Centerfold-Artist/404147233007554">our Facebook page</a> or follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/CenterfoldArt">@CenterfoldArt</a>.

Centerfold Artist: Mr. August, Bonner Sale

This song is evidence of the power Sweatpants Wedding has over us. It was written and produced by former child actor <a href="http://www.brianwhaleymusic.com/">Brian Whaley</a>, who hadn't even heard of SW until we interviewed him last week and asked for his advice.

©brianwhaley2014.

Sweatpants Wedding: Sweat

We are pleased to introduce Ms. May, Victoria Fu. Victoria has a solo show, A Cloud is Not a Sphere, opening at Flashpoint Gallery in Washington, DC today, and she has a show, Lorem ipsum, running through the end of the month at Marginal Utility in Philadelphia, PA. If you want to learn more about Victoria, please visit her <a href="http://www.victoriafu.com/" target="_blank">website</a> for more information.

To see this month's datasheet, <a href="http://tropmag.com/assets/miss-may-victoria-fu.pdf" rel="lightbox">click here</a>.

Centerfold Artist is a monthly podcast that features actively showing artists from around the country. We ask the tough questions that cut to the heart and expose inner thoughts and feelings. Each featured artist is provided a datasheet, which they fill out and return in a sealed envelope. Zac and Annette then open the envelope and release an improvisational discussion. To learn more about Centerfold Artist, please visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Centerfold-Artist/404147233007554" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">our Facebook page</a>.

Centerfold Artist: Miss May, Victoria Fu

We're a fiction writing collective, but sometimes we don't write fiction. Sometimes we don't even write. Come see us at <a href="http://tropmag.com/">tropmag.com</a>.

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