Jim Ladd MySpace Radio

Theme of Conciousness

Jim and Kareem

To understand the Al Bondigas cartoons you really have to understand the context in which they were created. Most of them were done during a weekly radio show: Theme of Consciousness, hosted by legendary LA DJ Jim Ladd and his producer Kareem Aqleh.

Jim is a long time LA rock jock and was immortalized by Tom Petty on his album "The Last DJ." He is the last radio host that runs his show without a consultant produced song list. Jim plays what he wants to play.

The Theme of Consciousness (or TOC) shows were all request shows. Jim and Kareem would pick a word and listeners had to call in requests that used the word in the song or title. From the request list Jim would create sets of songs to play that night. I would create a visual to go along with the theme and post it on Jim's MySpace page. At first I did elaborate photoshop illustrations but soon realized cartoons got more reaction.

Many of the TOC cartoons featured caricatures of Jim and Kareem.