With Podcasts I Ride

I work for a courier service.  I drive almost 300 miles every workday.  I listen to music.  I listen to news radio during rush hour for the traffic reports.  I listen to nothing but the whistling wind.  I listen to podcasts.  These are the podcasts of my driving week.  Maybe you’d like to listen to them, too.

I listen to all of these via iTunes, but they are also streamed from their respective sites, which are linked within the images below. 

WTF with Marc Maron
Post Day: Monday and Thursday

Marc Maron is a comedian.  He is also an excellent conversationalist. After nearly 400 episodes, he has talked to most comics you can think of.  Old, new, some he has history with, some he’s only recently met.  Over the years, he has collected an oral history of what it’s like to be a working comedian. Whether you’ve heard of the person Marc is talking with or not, it will be worth your time.

As the podcast has grown in popularity (and possible exhaustion of the list of comics willing to talk), he has been speaking with more musicians, actors and directors.  All just as engaging as the conversations with his fellow comedians.  Marc has a natural fascination of how people get through life.

Every episode starts with an open monologue.  He uses this time to set some background to the particular interview and whatever else is on his mind.  He has an anxious and aggressive personality.  I've heard it’s not for everyone.  There is a fast forward button.  The talks are great.

Where to Start
Episode #398 - Danny Lobell.  Not only a great conversation with someone who had a comedians podcast before he did, but Marc greets new listeners in the opening and explains how to get the older episodes.  iTunes only has the last 50 episodes.  Here is a list of past guests. 

The Sign-Off
 “Boomer Lives!” One of Marc’s cats left and never came back.

The Firewall and Iceberg Podcast
Post Day: Monday or Tuesday. 

Dan Fienberg and Alan Sepinwall are the Siskel and Ebert of TV criticism. Every week they give you the straight poop on what's airing. They preview coming debuts and review finales.  Do you like Breaking Bad or Mad Men? You're in luck, because they talk about every episode as they air.  And, when the opportunity arises, they will analyze the business of television and the thinking behind programming.  

New content dries up during the summer, so they give themselves a summer project.  In the past, they have re-watched the entire series of Undeclared (episodes #19-26) and the first seasons of Twin Peaks (#77-79, #81-83, #85, #87) and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (#131, #132-#137, #139-#142). 

This year, however, they are doing something different (and if you ask me, a lot of fun). They will be revisiting TV pilots. They will pick shows that can be found streaming online (Netflix, Hulu, TV.com, HBOGO, etc.) to make watching them a little easier.  The Sopranos kicked things off a few weeks ago (#185).  Taxi, Cheers (both #186) and Veronica Mars followed (#187).  Watch the pilots for The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show for next week's conversation.

Where to Start
It's a current events show, so the most recent. Or #185, if you want to get in on the pilot fun.

For in-depth discussions of Breaking Bad and Mad Men episodes:
Breaking Bad, season 4: #85-91, #92-94, #96-98
Breaking Bad, season 5, part 1: #139-142, #144-147
Mad Men, season 4: #27-31, #33-35, #37, #39-42
Mad Men, season 5: #121-128, #130-132, #134
Mad Men, season 6: #176-181, #183-present 

And, if for some reason, you still need more discussion of the final season of Lost, Dan and Alan can get you through that, too (#2a-13, #15-18)

The Sign-Off
 “See you in the next life, Jack.” Midnight Run is Alan favorite movie.

Fight for Comics
Post Day: Wednesday

I started reading comics about a year and a half ago.  I looked for podcasts that reviewed the weekly outpouring of product every week and could clue me in on the vast history of the world I was getting to know. There aren’t many weekly comics podcasts, and this is one of the few (that I found) without Comic Book Guy snark. Oh, they can be sarcastic and frustrated about the comics industry at times, but it’s done without the eye-rolling and attitude of someone who read it all and can’t be impressed anymore. They love comics and it shows.

It took a few episodes to “get to know” these four friends, to fall in line with their patterns. But now, I look forward to their blathering. They are funny guys.  The fact that one of them sounds like somebody I know makes it that much more entertaining.

Where to Start
The last two weeks have been particularly good. Episode #195 is a regularly structured show, while this week's show is all Superman, featuring discussions about Superman Unchained (the new comic series), Superman Unbound (the latest animated movie) and Man of Steel (the latest live-action/computer-animated motion picture).

I Seem Fun: The Diary of Jen Kirkman
Post Day: Wednesday

Jen Kirkman is a comedian. Her drunk history made me laugh. Her albums made me laugh.  Now her podcast makes me laugh every week with her daisy chain stream of consciousness and storytelling. 

(If you're one of those folks who like to read words without pictures, her book, I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids, is very good. )

Where to Start
It’s just a few weeks old; start from the beginning.  But, if you want to jump to some great ghost stories and my new favorite expression, dovetail water slide, go straight to episode six.

Broken Projector
Post Day: Friday

This podcast for FilmSchoolRejects.com is hosted by Scott Beggs and Geoff LaTulippe (screenwriter of Going the Distance). They interview filmmakers, largely independent creators and veterans of the industry, and engage in lively debate on movie-related topics, like which sequel is better: Temple of Doom or The Last Crusade (episode #1)? 

Where to Start
 Hitchcock vs Spielberg (posted January 24, 2013)
What the Hell is Happening to VXF? (March 8, 2013)
Kickstarter for Millionaires (March 15, 2013) 
or the most recent one

And if you want more interviews of independent and veteran filmmakers, check out this podcast's predecessor, Reject Radio.

The Sign-Off
 "See you next Friday" is a riff on John Landis's recurring joke, See you next Wednesday. 

The Empire Podcast
Post Day: Friday

It's the movie magazine for your ears! Hosted by members of the Empire magazine staff, this is a weekly podcast full of answers to listener's questions, movie news, interviews and reviews of the latest releases. Once in a while there will be bonus episodes, which are either extended interviews or spoiler specials. They speak with British and Irish accents, making you a classier person for listening to them.

Where to Start 
The most recent regular podcast. As for the specials: 
The British Board of Film Classification Ratings Special (posted June 6, 2013) is a great look into the how films are rated in the UK with an interview of the BBFC’s executive director. 
The extended interview of Danny Boyle (March 27, 2013)
The extended interview of William Friedkin (June 29, 2012)

Doug Loves Movies
Post Day: Thursday or Friday (the regular show)

Doug Benson is a comedian. And he loves movies. Every week, he guides a group of guests (comedians, actors, directors) though a conversation that usually sticks to cinematic topics and a game or two. It's light-hearted and fun. If you take it too seriously, you are a shithead.

The Leonard Maltin Game is the star of the show for me.  It’s like Name That Tune but with actor’s names and movie titles instead of musical notes and song titles. Since it isn't always explained, here's how it's played:

Once a category is picked, Doug gives the panelists a few clues from Leonard’s review and the number of names listed in the cast. The panelists say how many names they need to guess the movie title. The number is whittled down until someone says “name that movie!” Then, the names are read from the bottom of the cast listing, up, so that the smallest roles are read first.

Panelists can also bid zero names or negative names. With zero names, only the movie title needs to be named.  With negative names,  the panelist must name the movie and the cast listing from the top, down, as Leonard has them listed.

If the panelist gets it right, he or she gets a point. If the panelist gets it wrong, the challenger gets the point. The first person to two points wins.

Where to Start
Scroll through past episode and find guests you've heard of then go from there. There are different lengths of episodes. Start with the ones in the 45-60 minute range.  Those are the regular, weekly shows. Last week's episode with Rory Scovel, Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis is very good.  iTunes doesn’t have much before this year.  The rest can be purchased here. 

The Sign Off
The panelists play for members of the audience. The losing audience members get to have Doug call someone a shithead.

So concludes my podcast week.  

The Sex Pistols "The Filth & The Fury" Gateway Film Series by Ricki C.

Colin Gawel and Brian Phillips’ “Reelin’ & Rockin’ Film Series” at the Gateway Film Center on Wednesday (happy hour at 7 pm, film at 8 pm) is the Julien Temple-directed documentary on The Sex Pistols entitled “The Filth & The Fury.”  It’s a pretty cool rock & roll movie about a band I never really liked.

My problem with The Sex Pistols was that I always found them more of an Art Project than a Rock & Roll Band.  Anytime a rock combo gets assembled by a Manager, rather than built from the ground up by Rockers, I’m immediately suspect.  And The Manager in this case, Malcolm McLaren (who had already run The New York Dolls into the ground, dressing them up in red patent leather and having them appear in front of a Soviet flag backdrop; quoth David Johansen, “We proved that you can be transvestite homosexuals in America, but you CANNOT be Communists.”) was a lot more interested in Art than Rocking.

In their roughly 26-month existence The Sex Pistols pulled off a lot of publicity stunts – disrupting the headliner’s sets when they were still an opening band (including Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash pub-rock band The 101-er’s), trashing their first record company’s offices (EMI) and, pivotally, going on an afternoon British TV talk show and being goaded into swearing at host Bill Grundy, which led to tabloid headline “The Filth & The Fury,” giving this documentary its title.

I have always wondered how punk-rock would have developed if it had been allowed to evolve as a musical movement rather than as a Cultural Phenomenon, as it was forced to after The Sex Pistols’ media debacle.  Musically, I rate the Sex Pistols as having two GREAT songs – “Anarchy In The U.K.” and “God Save The Queen” – and two good songs – “Pretty Vacant” and “EMI.”   “Holiday In The Sun” is an okay song but, crucially, rips off its main riff from The Jam’s “In The City,” a song that’s superior and (obviously) much more original in every way.  That’s not a good count for a band with The Sex Pistols’ cachet, and their legend.  They only ever recorded one album – “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” which would have translated in America as “Never mind the bullshit, here’s the Sex Pistols,” which, I admit, is kinda brilliant, but oh-so-Arty, and oh-so-British.  (And whose Bright Idea was it to fire the only member in the band capable of writing songs, bassist Glen Matlock, before the album was released and before the band ever “toured” America.)  (Don’t even get me started on that nightmare of naivete masquerading as a rock & roll tour, that’s a whole ‘nother blog in itself.  Great book about it called “12 Days On The Road – The Sex Pistols and America” by Noel Monk & Jimmy Gutterman, published in 1990.)      

I’ve always likened The Sex Pistols Story to that of Elvis Presley’s.  With the original four members, including Matlock on bass, The Sex Pistols were a MUSICAL unit, a rock & roll band that played gigs and made records that got LISTENED to, analogous to the lean, mean Elvis in 1956 with Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D.J. Fontana rocking behind him.  When Matlock was booted-out and non-musician Sid Vicious was drafted in (by all accounts at Johnny Rotten’s insistence) The Sex Pistols became a Pure Media Spectacle, a Malcolm McLaren Situationist Art Piece Fantasy, something to be LOOKED AT and WRITTEN ABOUT, a Rupert Murdoch Wet Dream, like Fat Elvis in 1976 Las Vegas, prancing around in sequin jumpsuits doing karate moves and slinging ballads like they were hash.

You should see this movie, you really should.  Julien Temple knows his subject matter and genuinely CARES about his characters (as he also amply demonstrated in the Joe Strummer documentary “The Future Is Unwritten”), but give me The Ramones or The Clash over The Sex Pistols on my stereo any day.  – Ricki C. / June 17th, 2013.

Kindergarden Karma

Wednesday’s may be “hump day” for Joe Lunchbox, porn stars and drive time radio DJs, but around our house it is known as “Daddy Owen Day”. The tradition started six weeks after the birth of our son, Owen when my wife went back to work. The combination of a desire to embrace a ‘hands on’ parenting experience along with a lack of sufficient funds to pay for daycare thrust me onto the frontlines of the battle to shape the youth of tomorrow. We would juggle the little man around our work schedules the other days of the week, but Wednesday was always my day to go solo. Open to close as it were.

Anyway, last Wednesday we were hanging out at the Columbus Zoo on a picture perfect fall afternoon when an interesting subject arose. Snacking on PB & Js, just a smell’s distance from the penguins, a ladybug landed on Owen’s shirt.

 He said, “Dad! A ladybug! This is good luck!”  I replied, “yup, it sure is” 

“What if I put it in a spider web for a spider to eat? Would that be bad luck?”

“Yeah, that would probably be bad karma” 

“What’s bad karma?”

“Well, if you do something bad, bad things will happen to you, if you do good things, one day something good will happen to you.”

Owen clarified: “So if I hit you in the arm, something bad will happen to me?”

“That’s the idea.”

Owen then reared back punched me in the arm. And said, “Let’s go smell the Komodo dragon’s breathe.”

The very next day we are driving somewhere listening to Judas Priest on Boneyard when he says from the back seat, “Dad, I hit you in the arm yesterday and nothing bad happened. Maybe Karma doesn’t exist”

Thinking on my feet, or seat in this case (snicker, snicker) I cleverly respond, “Sometimes you do a bunch of little bad things and eventually they add up and some big bad thing happens to you”

“Oh……” he ponders for a moment “so, I could punch you in the arm 10 days in a row, but, then one day,… someone will come up to me on the playground and punch me in the nuts”

Having never heard my six year old son use that particular expression, I blinked for a long second and said, “Excuse me?”   

He said, “Come on dad, you know what I mean” 

He had me there. I did know. 

 “Two things Owen. First, yes, that pretty much explains karma and second, please don’t use that expression around teachers, or grown-ups that don’t come over to our house to watch football with me"

“OK Dad. Can we stop for a milkshake at Old McDonald's?”

Colin Gawel is a Dad who plays music, sells coffee and writes at Pencilstorm. He will be spending Father's Day watching Owen play little league baseball trying not to have a nervous breakdown because it's just little league baseball after all. You can learn more about him and other Pencilstorm contributors here.

Why the World Needs Superman... by Johnny DiLoretto

Why the World Needs Superman...

I hate when people say they don’t like Superman. It’s like saying you don’t like Elvis. You might as well say you don’t like the first, best idea of something. Every rock and roller who came after Elvis has a part of Elvis in them – they couldn’t exist without Elvis. There are no Beatles without Elvis, no Springsteen, no nobody. Likewise, there are no other superheroes without Superman.

Superman, where superheroes are concerned, was the first best idea. Two guys from Cleveland said, hey, what if there was a dude who could do almost anything? They created Superman. The very next best superhero idea was Batman, who is the exact opposite in that he doesn’t have any powers at all. Every superhero creation thereafter was, is a variation of Superman or Batman.

But what’s really galling are the people who don’t like Superman because he’s not… dark; because he’s earnest, honest, and pure.

This is the why of Superman.

Superheroes are spurred to action, driven, or compelled by some motivating event or force. Batman is motivated by the murder of his parents and Spiderman is motivated by the murder of his uncle, but Superman – he’s merely an orphan from another planet. Here on Earth, he just happens to be extraordinary. He was raised and loved by two adoptive parents. There’s no vengeance lurking in his character, no deep seated need to set things right.

So, why does Superman do good, why does he save people? You ready for this one? Because he can. He could rule over the Earth, make little puny, chump-ass, Superman-butt wiping slaves out of all of us, but he doesn’t. He’s motivated only by benevolence.  He doesn’t have to lift a superfinger, a finger by the way that could effortlessly flick our heads off, but he does.

And what makes him all the more extraordinary, is that he does this in spite of human beings being total assholes.

When I was a kid there were two moments in the first Christopher Reeve movies that are seared into my brain that I believe formed, partly, who I am today - or, at least, who I'd like to be.

The first comes in the great scene in which Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane interviews Superman on her balcony. The no-nonsense reporter asks Superman why he’s here, meaning on Earth, and he walks right into it: “to fight for truth, justice, and the American way,” he says. She rudely snickers at this seemingly naive answer. Superman turns suddenly very stern, locks eyes with her, and replies, “Lois, I never lie.”

Boom! Shut your cig hole Lois!

I’ve never forgotten that. And it still holds true today – that the minute you show people some raw earnestness they’ll try to slice you open.

The second moment is in Superman II during his epic battle against General Zod and Zod’s two other fellow Kryptonians, the three of whom all have the same super powers as Superman. It's three against one in the heart of Metropolis (a thinly disguised NYC) but it’s pretty much a stalemate until Zod stumbles upon Superman’s Achilles’ heel, and no, it's not Kryptonite. “I’ve discovered his weakness,” Zod informs his crew. “He actually cares for these… people.” 

Wow. What a punch to the gut. You can hurt him by hurting people?! Heavy. Again, just because he cares. And, then, in a stunningly dark assessment of human nature, the citizens of Metropolis turn against Superman, calling him a coward when he flees Metropolis to draw Zod away from them. He cares even when he shouldn't.

The Clark Kent / Superman Alter Ego Conundrum

The other thing that gets under my skin is when people say “Who wouldn’t be able to tell that Superman is Clark Kent? He’s only wearing glasses! Blah blah blah, I’m typical blah blah, I don’t think about anything interesting and I have no insight blah blah, I’m a dunce. Blah blah.”

Clark’s “disguise” really shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not that people can’t  see that Clark is Superman; it’s that they don’t want to see it.  His humility blinds them from it. People don’t want to see greatness in the quiet, unassuming guy sitting next to them at work. In fact, they downright refuse to see it.

The very fact that people point to the so-called “lameness” of Clark’s disguise only points up their own lameness.

In Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol 2, David Carradine has a great monologue about Superman in which he, and I’m paraphrasing, observes that “Superman’s costume isn’t a costume. Those are his clothes. Clark Kent is his costume. Clark Kent is how Superman sees us.”

I think that’s great, but not entirely accurate. Clark Kent is Superman’s way of showing us who we should be: honest, ethical, good, humble.

That we can’t see that simple truth is our problem. Each of us needs Superman to remind us to be our best possible self, to be good, to do good without the promise of reward, simply for the sake of good, even when it seems like other people don't deserve it. 

You can learn more about Johnny DiLoretto by visiting our contributors page here.

Your Life Is Closer To Over: The Occasional Week In Review by Brian Phillips

News 

The all seeing eye of our vast unchecked national security state was brought to the fore this week with a couple of fascinating pieces. U.S. based journallist Glenn Greenwald, writing for UK publication The Guardian, made international headlines with his article on a leaked top secret FISA court order.  Phone carrier Verizon was compelled by that court to turn over troves of "metadata" to the National Security Agency. Close behind, The Washington Post piled on with their reporting on the so called PRISM program. The NSA reportedly has back door access to the web. Sunday the stunning news broke that the Guardian's leaker outed himself while holed up in a hotel room in Hong Kong. 29 year old ex-CIA computer wiz Edward Snowden, under the employ of noted defense contractor Booz Allen, became perhaps the most famous leaker since Daniel Ellsburg. (Although Bradley Manning would probably take issue with that. Manning went on trial this week.) 

A Few Thoughts:

1. Is it just me, or does the NSA strategy seem like the Kevin Bacon Game. I'm just a dumb dj, but the idea behind efforts like the Verizon data dump (and believe me, all the  carriers are being compelled to give the feds the same shit) seems to be the use of complex algorithms to establish connections between people. In other words, how many degrees are you or I separated from each other, or a terrorist?  How many degrees and how many connections make a person interesting to them? Dangerous? Is this even efficient? (never mind the moral and constitutional issues.)

2. All this stuff costs billions.... off the books, black budget unaccountable billions. Is it even irony any more when we learn that Mr. Snowden's employer is Booz Allen? Former Booz Allen CEO James Clapper is.... wait for it.... President Obama's current director of National Intelligence. Our entire national security apparatus is a lot like the rest of our government: a revolving door. There's a lot of money on the table, and well connected contractors waiting to take it. All this scary shit the NSA is involved with may not even work. Maybe that's beside the point. Contractors like Booz Allen are making serious money regardless. 

3. It's instructive that outside the White House, the NSA, lawmaker lizards like Lindsay Graham and Diane Feinstein, and pliant beltway pundits, there seems to be little outrage on the part of the public that the NSA's secrets were made public. (And I'm sure the greatest majority of all is comprised of people who don't care either way). I get a sense that a sizable chunk of the population who pays attention is getting mighty tired of this Faustian Bargain we've made for our "safety." Some of us are generally frightened by this vast, unaccountable bureaucracy and we'd like to see it reigned in. Or maybe that's just my own little feedback loop. 

4. I could probably find a Myspace post or a recorded bar conversation or two from back in the day where I stated my concerns about the Patriot Act. No matter. Timing is everything and times being what they were a decade or so ago, we're left this. 

5. It's not enough for them to offer assurances. The founders never intended for our affairs to be carried out this manner. "Just Trust Us" is not printed on the dollar bill. At least not yet. 

Elsewhere 

Not widely reported last week was the arrest of the man responsible for the outing of people and information surrounding the Steubenville High School rape case. 26 year old Deric Lostutter will probably do more time than anyone else connected to the case. How did they find him? Perhaps the answer is above.

I'm not going to even try to explain to you all the angles in the story of alleged crack smoker Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Gawker has been all over it, even going so far as to attempt to raise money to buy video of Ford sucking on a pipe. Use this as your launch point if you're so inclined and join me in asking how he got elected, and why he's still in office.  

Don't miss this article on theories that Queen Elizabeth I was a dude. Fascinating. 

It's storm season, and if you have a damaged tree don't try to remove it like these fellas.  

Hey look, I remember high school. Sometimes cheerleaders were mean.... not this mean though. Cheerleader pimps out class mate.  

 Sports

If ESPN could crap itself it would over news the Patriots have signed Tim Tebow. Scratch that. ESPN does crap itself everyday when Skip Bayless takes to the air.  

Hey I ain't proud, but I own Ryan Braun in three fantasy leagues. (I should also not be proud of how many leagues I'm in.) I think Braun will make it through the season unless his bad thumb gets him. That said MLB won't rest until they have his steroid bloated head on a stick.  

Indians closer Chris Perez is real bright. He's accused of having pot mailed to his house. There's a 4.20 ERA joke in there somewhere.

My Mariners played in one of the all time weirdest extra inning games last week. Of course they lost. That's a stupid question.  

 And Finally Tonight

  Update yourself on Anti Semitic Elmo. 

Brian Phillips is the afternoon DJ at the legendary FM Indi Rock Station CD102.5. You can learn more about him and other Pencilstorm contributors here. 

 

Watershed at Columbus Arts Fest Saturday June 8th on at 9pm

Columbus own "Hitless Wonders" will be performing Saturday June 8th @ 9pm on the Scioto Mile as the headlining act in the 2013 Columbus Arts Festival. If you cannot wait until Saturday, Watershed will be playing at Frankie's in Toledo, Ohio Friday June 7th at 10:30p.m.  A small club show that promises to be a beer and sweat soaked affair. 

If you have no interest in seeing Watershed but would like to have drinks with all your favorite characters from the best selling memoir, "Hitless Wonder- A Life In Minor League Rock n Roll", rumor has it they will be heading to the Jury Room following the Arts Fest to close down the bar to celebrate the conclusion of this grueling two city tour.

And don't forget to make plans to visit Raleigh, NC July 19-21 for the first ever "Watershed Rock n Roll Junket" three shows in three days. Details here.... 

as you were.