sur la route

From the archives…

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:00:42 +0100

In the process of clearing my Gmail as I start using the new Mailbox App, I couldn’t help reading some of the old ones which sent me off in all sorts of other directions into my other archives, and I didn’t think I still had this story at all, being as I deleted it from public sight less than 24 hours after I posted it lol. This was the time I walked out of the job I am still at. It’s kind of weird how little reading it depressed me - I’ve passed the “30” mark I mention and I’m approaching my 15 years mark which will actually be rewarded. Anyhoo. I found it interesting as a snapshot of me. I still think I was right. But I think I’m also better now than I was then. I present it complete with only details of the company removed… [if you click on this quickly from Twitter or whatever sorry if the formatting is weird, I’m lazy and don’t know how it looks until I post lol]

18th February 2007 (it actually feels so much longer ago than that):

*random update*: the strangest thing that has come out of this so far is I have realised how much of a monumental masterpiece Belle and Sebastian’s “If You’re Feeling Sinister” is … I listened to the live version the other day entering London and right now I can’t stop listening to primarily “Stars of Track and Field” but really the whole album is just … incredible …

If this all makes it to my site intact I’ll be amazed but I’ve decided to just start writing it as it happens as a form of therapy.

I think I finally quit my job.

I had a feeling it would happen this week, too. I mean, as anyone who knows me will know, shit has been piling up on my sanity ever since I started working there, ever since I realised I’d worked there a year, ever since I realised I’d worked there two, ever since it suddenly became 5, since it was suddenly 5 since I left college :( And basically last night, I couldn’t take it anymore. I did the kind of walk out I have in fact done before, except that time it was on an overtime night, not a contract night.

A customer asked me for help, she was feeling ill apparently, and I left her saying I’d try to find a first-aider and, basically, I don’t know how long I’ll be, because I don’t know what to do and this place is useless. I know that’s not right, but I had already decided before going in that night that all they were getting from me was 7 hours of attendance, because they really don’t deserve anything more. The fact is, thinking about it now, I know what I should’ve done as a human being, but when you’re on your shift in that stink-bin you’re so worried about doing the _wrong_ thing that the _right_ thing is almost impossible to deduce. I know that’ll be hard for some to understand, and, as I said as I left the scene, “I should just get a t-shirt that says ARSEHOLE!”

But if you’re still with me, the subsequent events only served to re-enforce my lack of enthusiasm. I went to the first “I am Here to Help” t-shirted person I could find and they directed me to “the blue-shirted person, somewhere down there” (like, duh, it’s [COMPANY NAME], everyone has a blue shirt) so I finally located a manager, explained the situation, and _he_ didn’t know what to do, at which point I couldn’t stop myself saying, verbatim, “this is fucking ridiculous,” which, understandably, took him aback a little, he replied, “what?” to which my response could only be “[COMPANY NAME]!” to which, I swear, he replied, an entirely understanding, “yeh …” and he proceeded to call a first aider to my aisle over the tannoy. I thanked him and went back to my aisle …. where the lady in question already had help. And had already explained in her own way that I had been an utter monster in my treatment of her. I walked to her and said, “Sorry about that, I did all I could,” and went back to my aisle. I kinda knew already at this stage that this night was probably gonna be my last.

On I get with my shelf-filling. I see managers gravitating towards the poor customer left right and center. I sure wish I had the time to be so concerned. I hear them laughing, even, I swear, probably at me no doubt. One manager passes me as a bunch of stuff falls off a pathetically stacked cage. All he can do as he passes is say “oooof!” and laugh. Finally, as I go to get more stuff to put out on the shelf, I hear, “Mark? a word please?” and I know that this is the moment I’ve secretly wanted, yet dreaded, all these years.

“Ohhhhh,” in a kinda Kate Monster tone, I begin, “is this going to end with me going home?”

“Well, I don’t know, is it?” he replies. I don’t know what the fuck this guy’s name was and I’ve never talked to him before in my life.

“I think so because I’m about ready to go,” I continue.

What bugs me now is how easily I know I could’ve got through this whole thing. I know now thinking back that all he wanted was an, “I know, I promise it won’t happen again, I’m sorry,” but seriously, this place has broken me so much I needed to walk out like I did. I think the breaking point was this exchange:

Manager-person: “There’s always time for things like [dealing with customers].

“Me: “There should be, it’d be nice if you gave us it, all we have time to do is fill the shelves.”

Manager-person: [re-iterates the same point]

Me: “Okay, wait: do you think my entire life is stacking shelves?”

Manager-person: It certainly seems that way to me.

At which point I literally laughed in his face and said, “Okay I’m going home.” I think he called after me, “you go, mate” or some shit.

I actually clocked out. I love that I do stupid things like that lol. I don’t know why I bothered. I did the same last time I walked out lol. Anyway, suddenly my own night manager, the one that I actually know, was after me, “what are you doing?” And I explained the whole thing and he tried to make me stay but I was already on my way and couldn’t stop, and I actually had a fucking reality-tv style moment, seriously you could’ve filmed it, “I should’ve quit 3 years ago, I’ve had absolutely [tears nearly begin] enough!” And that was it.

Anyway, I spent today kind of realising what I’d done and thinking what to do about it, I didn’t talk to anybody about it. In the end, I told my mum what I’d done. I’d put on all my work clothes for tonight’s shift, thinking maybe I’d go in and see if I could fix the situation. I had to tell her before I left, or she’d be like weirded out if I came back 5 minutes later. She agreed I should go in and try to explain myself since apparently it happens all the time there and nobody bats an eyelid and like most of the time it’s way worse than what I did and they still keep their jobs. So I went in to see what happened. And my name’s crossed out of the book with an overtime name in my place, and the night manager wasn’t gonna be in till an hour later, and wasn’t even going to be a manager who was there last night. So I came home. And here’s where I’m up to. No idea what’s gonna happen. I want to be out of that shithole so bad, but right now I just really wish Friday night hadn’t happened because I know sanity dictates one should really have another job lined up somewhere before you do something like this. But no words or explanation I can come up with can come close to how much I have had it with the place. It’s hell. It’s evil. And I know I’ve only myself to blame about the debts I have and the fucking computer I have through the place which is gonna cause me even further hell of trouble if I’ve really lost my job, I know how much of this is my fault, but it doesn’t change the fact that as much as I feel like shit for doing this all the wrong way, I still feel like I did the right thing. [COMPANY NAME] is the fuck pit of mankind.

Anyway. If you’re still reading, let’s summarise this the way I see it now. Shit got on top of me and I cracked. And tonight I went back to try and make amends. As much as I want out of there, right now I really just want last night never to have happened. And I went in tonight to try and fix stuff, but there was no one there to help. At this stage, I’m about to go to bed, and I don’t care, I’ll think more about it tomorrow. Like I said, my mum knows people who have done far worse than I did and still kept their jobs. But y’know what? I really don’t know which outcome I want. I think part of me did this to kickstart something. Old as I’m getting, I still understand that I’m at the age where I can still do this kind of thing. I don’t know how I’m gonna deal with it but if I calm myself down enough I can see how it just will, whatever happens. Part of me is so certain I will just throw myself under a train if I’m still working in this hellhole when I turn 30. I need to force a change. Okay I’m repeating myself now. I know all this came out in a mess and I haven’t posted anything like this to my blog in ages but I really feel like this needs to be posted even if I delete it in 10 minutes. It might just be a turning point in my life.

Margaret

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:24:44 +0100

EMILY: I don’t give a fuck what you believe in.

LISA: Oh my god! Why are you so mad at me!?

EMILY: Because this is not an opera!

LISA (flushing): What? You think I think this is an opera?

EMILY: Yes!

LISA: You think I’m making this into a dramatic situation because I think it’s dramatic?!?

EMILY: I think you’re very young.

LISA: What does that have to do with anything? If anything I think it means I care more than someone who’s older! Because this kind of thing has never happened to me before!

EMILY: No, it means you care more easily!

…just one of many escalatingly brilliant scenes in Kenneth Lonergan’s “Margaret”, which I just finally watched… I think I might actually get around to writing at length next week, if I do, this will be one review…

First of May, Melody (1971)

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:39:38 +0000

First of May, Melody (1971)

Our House, The Strawberry Statement (1971)

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:38:09 +0000

Our House, The Strawberry Statement (1971)

My fave part in #Scream lol :)

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:10:58 +0000

My fave part in #Scream lol :)

"Conservatives will find it subversive, liberals will find it irresponsible, utopians will find it..."

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:42:49 +0100

“Conservatives will find it subversive, liberals will find it irresponsible, utopians will find it bleak, humanitarians will find it inhuman - Dr. Strangelove is all these things. But it also releases, through comic poetry, those feelings of impotence and frustration that are consuming us all; and I can’t think of anything more important for an imaginative work to do.”

- Robert Brustein, in the New York Review of Books, on Dr. Strangelove… one of the best things I’ve read about it…

Harley Quinn Smith, on her father, Kevin

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:52:01 +0100

As a Christmas gift, my daughter, Harley, wrote an essay about me—an overview not of filmmaker Kevin Smith, but Kevin Smith the dad. Considering it’s the best review I’ve ever gotten, I’m including it here, for posterity.

I hope she still feels the same way when she’s a teenager …

Usually a Father is seen as an authority figure that is just there to keep you in line. That’s not how I see my dad at all.

To me my dad is my role model. Without my dad I don’t know what I’d do. A lot of people say we are just a like and I think so as well.

I can’t relate anyone as much as him. No one really understands what I’m feeling sometimes except for my dad. When I’m sad, a lot of people will just tell me to brush it off and get through the day, but my dad will relate to me. He always tells me something that makes me feel better or how to get through my problem. When I am feeling really sensitive he is the only one that can really understand how I’m feeling.

My dad is my role model in so many ways. I see him go through a lot of things sometimes, and he always knows how to get through them. He doesn’t really care what anyone thinks and he is himself. Like for instance one day he told me about some of the mean stuff people say on Twitter and I didn’t really understand how that couldn’t hurt his feelings and he said that you couldn’t please everyone. I really admire that because sometimes I try to go out of my way to make someone happy by not being my self, but he is always himself and everyone loves him for that. He is very inspiring and always has quotes handy to give when I’m feeling down.

My dad helped me find out what I love to do most in life, which is making people laugh. I can’t always get a laugh out of everyone, but when I do it makes me feel really happy and my dad helped me figure that out being the hilarious person that he is. I used to be sad when I made people laugh because I thought they were laughing at me, but now I know that making people laugh is the best feeling in the whole world.

My dad is very kind hearted and always has an open ear for me to talk to him. Sometimes no one really understands my ideas or understands why I like something but he will understand. Without my dad I would not like to write as much as I probably do. A lot of the time when I am either really sad or really happy my dad will tell me to write and put my emotions into the writing and that I can let it all out there. My dad encourages me to write all the time and I really appreciate that because before I found writing as just something I had to do for school, but now I really like writing and I do it for fun.

Whenever I try something new my dad always makes me feel good about it. Like when I did the play I didn’t really know how I was going to do, but then when I did it and my dad saw it he made me feel so good because he went on about how good I did.

My dad is always there for me even when he is miles and miles away I always think of him when I need a little inspiration or a little kick to get me going because I know he loves me and I love him just as much.

My dad is one of the most special people in my life and I do not know where I would be in life if he were any different then he is now.

I love my daddy.

—Harley Quinn Smith

12/25/11

"I thought more about putting some kind of radio thing on my site. My new idea is to do like an hour..."

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:20:15 +0100

“I thought more about putting some kind of radio thing on my site. My new idea is to do like an hour long “show”, at regular intervals, say, every Monday…”

- hehe. That was me in April 2005. We don’t notice the little “dreams” that actually happen sometimes ‘cos we’re busy doing them :)

"No one has a right to make you feel guilty about what you deserve. I know that you need someone to..."

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:53:44 +0100

“No one has a right to make you feel guilty about what you deserve. I know that you need someone to make you feel guilty so that you can pretend you don’t deserve it, because you are so horrified of what you are capable of, because inside you are actually gloating, or not even that, *sub*-gloating, smirking, going *duh*…”

- Courtney Love to Kurt Cobain, apparently. I’m not sure from where but I was reading Poppy Z. Brite’s Courtney Love book at the time. Finding all sorts in this old blog :) I liked this. I was crazy back then but I miss parts of it…

Made me laugh…

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:30:43 +0100

I just found this fragment of poetry in this old 2002 blog archive I’ve been slowly reading through. There’s a lot of nonsense, frankly maniacal poetry in here, but this one I thought was actually good just ‘cos of the last line lol.

have you ever been concerned
of being led down dawson’s creek
by a pointless cult or commune
(god of which, of course, can’t speak)?

have you ever died in dreamsville
or considered drinking pig swill?
(or eating it?)
are you frightened by my words yet,
have you even wrote your will?

you think too much.

Memories

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:29:59 +0100

Been going through old blogs today… a whole 2002 archive I’m pretty sure I didn’t think existed anymore. So many memories, I’ve posted some to Twitter, mentioned some on Facebook, some in IMs lol, the more you’re connected to me the more you’ll follow. This was just a whole entry that was too long for Twitter that made me feel better about what happened in AFLS, something I’ve always been vague about and felt slightly worried/guilty about, but I feel like maybe this was the start of the decline and I was pleased to see “the ones who matter” understood what I was feeling (apologies to those whose comments included, but it’s part of the whole piece, just scream at me if you’re not comfortable with me sharing lol)

AUTHOR: markie

TITLE: :-I

STATUS: publish

ALLOW COMMENTS: 1

CONVERT BREAKS: 1

PRIMARY CATEGORY: personal

CATEGORY: personal

DATE: 01/27/2002 06:09:50 AM

——-

BODY:

from AFLS…

<small» Alex, sometimes I think you think too much.

Thank you, Lea. :) I do appreciate it.

</blockquote>

I’m just speechless. I actually still always had part of me that considered maybe I was being narrowminded in my view of this person. But this, that, seriously… how clueless can a person be? No let me rephrase - maybe not clueless, but that above signifies that he is either clueless or, worse, doing all this deliberately which I can’t believe so I’ll personally rest with clueless.

I’m trying to think of the movie, some comedy, where a woman seriously yells at and puts down the ‘hero’ who’s like a total idiot, and after this huge rant, this guy goes “Are you saying you want to have sex with me?” totally serious, or something like that. That’s what I’m thinking of now. That’s how moronic I can imagine this guy getting, lol.

And for the record I don’t care who is reading this, so don’t ‘anyone’ get the idea of making it sound like a triumph in the comments that you’ve ‘found’ me talking behind anyone’s back. My life as recorded here is literally an open book. And with this guy, I frankly don’t see the point in saying this stuff to his ‘face’.

I’m just so completely… something. I don’t know. I’m drawing a blank here, lol. It’s like this thing has finally been confirmed for me, this guy Really Is A Jerk, and now I’m twiddling my thumbs with the question off my mind of whether it was just me. Well whatever… no I know what it is. I’m hesitating over whether to post this. Well fuck it, dude, it’s MY blog.

——-

EXTENDED BODY:

——-

EXCERPT:

——-

COMMENT:

AUTHOR: Manda

EMAIL:

IP:

URL: http://www.mandamia.com

DATE: 01/27/2002 10:57:48 AM

It’s my blog

It’s now or never

I ain’t gonna blog forever

I just want to blog while I’m alive

(It’s my blog)

My heart is like an open highway

Like Frankie said

I did it my way

I just wanna blog while I’m alive

It’s my blog

(apologies to Bon Jovi…)

——-

COMMENT:

AUTHOR: Laura

EMAIL: Uknow32451@aol.com

IP:

URL:

DATE: 01/27/2002 07:41:07 PM

OMG.. I agree with you 1000000000x. He pisses me off SOOOOOOOOOOO much I can’t even begin. The whole NG does. Ugh. Can we kick all the newbies and annoying people out and just have fun again???

——-

COMMENT:

AUTHOR: Scooby

EMAIL:

IP:

URL:

DATE: 01/30/2002 10:21:35 PM

I think he DOES appreciate it.

He does think to much-much to the

annoyance to the rest of us. If his

posts are more then two lines, I usually

stop reading.

On a side note:

I’m I one of the annoying newbies?

Just wondering.

Love this site, Markie.

——-

COMMENT:

AUTHOR: Scooby

EMAIL:

IP:

URL:

DATE: 01/30/2002 10:50:04 PM

That should say…

Am I one of the annoying newbies?

*****

Someone said that I wasn’t very bright,

it must be sinking in ;)

——-

COMMENT:

AUTHOR: Markie

EMAIL: i.am@ambival.net

IP:

URL: http://ambival.net

DATE: 01/30/2002 11:10:43 PM

Nah Scoob you’re not one of the annoying people :) You’re one of the normal people (Gooble gabble gooble gabble one of us! one of us!

lol), one of my favourite people on the group in fact!

I e-mailed you but I’m not sure if I have your address right? lemme know if you got it :)

End of harmy’s show

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:59:36 +0100

End of harmy’s show

"…a holdover from my Hollywood fantasies in which on opening nights black-tied men and bejewelled..."

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:36:26 +0000

“…a holdover from my Hollywood fantasies in which on opening nights black-tied men and bejewelled women stood up at anything - much as they do nowadays, where standing ovations are a foregone conclusion, it being necessary for audiences to remind themselves that they’ve had a live experience by participating in it…”

- I love Stephen Sondheim (from his book “Finishing the Hat”, chapter on “Company”… seeing the Neil Patrick Harris version at the cinema tonight…)

"I’ve never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus story should only be, as is generally..."

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:34:02 +0000

“I’ve never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus story should only be, as is generally accepted, ‘Don’t try to fly too high,’ or whether it might also be thought of as, ‘Forget the wax and feathers and do a better job on the wings.’”

- Stanley Kubrick

"Part of the grotesqueness of the problem is that there are three basic ways in which you can relate..."

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:07:00 +0000

“Part of the grotesqueness of the problem is that there are three basic ways in which you can relate to life: through power, through love, or through withdrawing. Trying to get out of the grayness through love is very, very difficult, because love is very, very hard to find and to give. Withdrawing is increasingly difficult in the modern world because of the tempo, the amount of communication, the social mobility. The basic adjustment that most people make to life is power. Power has become of grotesque proportion.”

- Stanley Kubrick talking to Joseph Heller about Dr Strangelove, but it strikes me this quote kinda unites ALL his films which I’ve been watching this past month. TASCHEN’s Stanley Kubrick Archives are amazing…

"This film is often described as anti-war… it is no such thing… it is about power, class,..."

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:33:20 +0000

“This film is often described as anti-war… it is no such thing… it is about power, class, manipulation, and the absurdity of war as a continuation of those civilian instincts…”

- Gary Giddins’ commentary on the Paths of Glory blu-ray… uhh… that’s not anti-war?

aWake - 9/11 poem

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:09:47 +0100

Posted a screenshot of this as a twitpic but at my end at least it seems to have disappeared, and it’s probably best posted as text anyway. Also it requires more set up than was available to me posting on Twitter. I don’t know how to feel about this poem, I seem to either love it or hate it every time I come across it, I can see the good and bad sides of it, which overall leads me to believe it’s probably a good thing. But for what it’s worth, it’s something that was written by a (still) late-blooming artist barely beginning to bloom at the age of 21 in a very emotional and confusing time. I neither stand behind it nor frown upon it now, I just share it as a kind of relic, n invite you to make of it what you will. I don’t know if I wrote it the very day after 9/11, but I’m fairly sure I wrote it at some point in the week after. The reference to the nutsy news coverage makes me think probably a few days after… I forget exactly how fast I realised how stupid the rolling coverage was.

aWake?

Petrified, we all but stand still:
From fear rises quickly a fiery illwill.
In wake of disaster, few words are spoken -
Still life in the City means mourning has broken.

Sudden, all wordly:
The calm passed, a storm
Rises jubilant - Nonsense. -
Hysterical norm.

Ruins remind that we're meant to be haunted,
Beckoning future forced motion, resolve,
And rather resorting to chaos, reported
Most quibble, some mourn for the lately dissolved.

Your ghosts watch you weeping,
They did not want this.
Know that while you were sleeping,
They stopped by to kiss...

Say farewell to your lovers,
Let's never look back
And perhaps we'll recover
Un-willed-for attack.

"All these hippies wandering about thinking the world was going to be different from that day on. As..."

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:52:29 +0100

“All these hippies wandering about thinking the world was going to be different from that day on. As a cynical English arsehole, I walked through it all and felt like spitting on the lot of them, trying to make them realise that nothing had changed and nothing was going to change. Not only that, what they thought was an alternative society was basically a field full of six-foot-deep mud laced with LSD. If that was the world they wanted to live in, then fuck the lot of them.”

- Pete Townshend speaking of Woodstock in this awesome book… ouch… (sidenote: I think I’m gonna start using this more… as a Tumblr should be used, i.e., for stuff like this lol… sorry about the bulky design - a bad idea from over a year ago… I will simplify it…)

Podcasts!

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:59:00 +0100

It occurred to me I’ve never listed the podcasts I listen to anywhere… I review the movies I watch on Ambival.net, you can see what music I listen to at Last.fm, I talk about the TV I’m watching plenty on Twitter, but even there I only occasionally comment on podcasts and radio which are taking up an increasing amount of my time in the past year or so… so here’s a list… I haven’t linked everything below ‘cos it’s mostly a simple case of searching iTunes… don’t get at me if you don’t like iTunes or ask me where else you can find ‘em ‘cos I haven’t the time to help you with that lol…

Comedy

Collins and Herring: Andrew Collins I can take or leave, but coupled with Richard Herring they make a fun double act (if not quite as good as Herring’s old comedy partner Stewart Lee). This is mostly random conversation - I can often sit listening to them for an hour and remember nothing of it - but it regularly makes me laugh.

As It Occurs to Me: Richard Herring’s random improv show. It’s on a break now but I think a new series starts in May. You’d do well to catch up on previous episodes as there are many injokes - it’s one of those podcasts that improves the more you get to “know” it.

WTF: found, like so many of my recent podcast discoveries, via Kevin Smith, who guested on it doing his Red State rounds… I haven’t made this a regular listen yet but has a great guest list too.

Nerdist: Ditto as with WTF, found via Kevin Smith’s appearance on it… really just working through old episodes of this with guests I like, like Sarah Silverman, as it grows on me. It hasn’t pissed me off yet…

Steve Agee: Uhh - I’m still on the old, kinda pointless, 5-10 minuters of this but I see it has grown in length with recent episodes so I look forward to catching up to those, as even the old, kinda pointless 5-10 minuters are good background noise.

Bill Burr: I found this one via the seemingly now defunct Tom Green Show on the SModcast network and it’s odd, I can’t seem to unsubscribe. Burr’s humour is really not for everyone - more often than not it’s not even for me, lol. He’s what they call a “comedian’s comedian” which in general means he will go places that might not even be funny other than for the fact that they’re so damn unfunny and offensive lol. But there’s a place for it, for sure, and it’s a great one to listen to over morning coffee and waking up.

The Now Show / The News Quiz: These alternate about 8 episodes at a time and are the closest the UK gets to a Daily Show/Colbert Report type news satire (sorry 10 o’clock live, you have failed lol).

Adam & Joe: Back at last just this month… I used to watch these guys’ TV stuff as a teenager and loved them - I missed their whole radio presence for years until getting into podcasts a couple of years ago. Great random buffoonery and jingles. Incredibly British.

The Perfect Ten: This is on a break at the moment but they tend to pop a random one off episode out every now and then. This is Phill Jupitus and Phil Wilding answering 10 questions submitted by listeners in 30 minutes, with earpleasing announcements between each question by Stephen Fry. Laughs can vary but there’s usually at least one huge one per episode.

Utter Shambles: Robin Ince and Josie Long’s show, this isn’t running at the moment either but I’m sure there’ll be more at some stage. It’s exactly as the title implies, the recording usually picks up midway thru a conversation and cuts off half way thru wherever it leads. Very interesting guests.

Ricky Gervais: This is so dominated by adverts, trailers, and “extras” so tiny they’re not worth looking at I often forget to check it, but every now and then something good appears, like the recent “Guide to…” Comic Relief. When he’s good he’s very very good. I’ve been listening to old XFM shows from the late 90s also recently… some really funny stuff in those. There used to be a couple of online archives I could’ve linked to here but they’ve both gone down due to legal threats recently but there are torrents still.

Life, the Universe and Everything…
This American Life: this probably needs no introduction… I actually fell out of listening to recent episodes of this a year or two ago when I started finding so many other podcasts to listen to - when I used to only listen to them in a 5 hour period on Saturday nights. Now I can easily lose 4 hours a day listening to podcasts, so not such a problem. I’ve been listening to every episode of this from the beginning, though, currently up to #30 (of almost 500 now, so a long way to go!) …so many that I never listened to before, being as I started in the mid-300s and the only ones I had heard before that were the ones they picked to repeat in that time.

Radio Lab: this kind of replaced This American Life for me as the podcast I look forward most to new episodes of. It takes a similar format to This American Life, usually having a theme and several short pieces related to that theme, but with a focus on science. Don’t let that sound boring though: this is that Carl Sagan type of science, the kind that often reaches spiritual, transcendent places. It’s blown my mind often.

Waking from the American Dream: recently discovered, you guessed it, via Kevin Smith lol. This is George Carlin’s daughter Kelly talking to a variety of guests about the troubles of the world. She can get a little New Agey at times but she knows it and mostly keeps it in check. Some great, honest talk… more questions than answers but at least talk…

The Bugle: Not sure what’s happening with this lately, just as I finally got into listening to it as the episodes go live on iTunes, they seem to have dropped out of regular recording. I enjoy the banter on this one anyway. With John Oliver as co-host it’s kind of like an appendix to The Daily Show/Colbert Report.

Movies
Doug Loves Movies: Another found when Kevin Smith was doing the Red State rounds guesting on almost everything… I’ve really grown to love it. Great guests, games, movie talk, etc.

The /Filmcast: I don’t listen to this one as it drops, as they have a section called “spoilers” at the end of most episodes and I’d be useless at saving only these portions until after I’ve seen the films in question. What I do is let the episodes pile up and only listen to them after I’ve seen the movie under discussion. As a result I have quite a few of these queued up, lol. But I like their movie talk, even when I disagree with them. That’s the sign of good movie peeps :)

Mark Kermode: Probably the best film related podcast, though I disagree with Kermode almost as frequently as I do the Slash Film guys, and Simon Mayo’s habit of acting on behalf of the stupid people who might be listening often drives me up the wall. But when it’s good, it’s very very good…

Creative Screenwriting Magazine: Sadly this has stopped for the time being but I discovered it only recently and managed to download a whole bunch so currently working through them. Great discussion of the art, craft and business of screenwriting - something I’m not as ambitious about as I used to be but still carry on learning as much as I can where and when I can…

The Film Programme: a Radio 4 show, I forget why I subscribed to this one but have listened to a few good interviews on it. As with the /Filmcast I tend to pick and choose whether/when to listen depending on my level of interest/whether I’ve seen the film in question etc.

Music

Mitch Benn: Mitch Benn had one of those sort of random, babbling podcasts for a while a couple of years ago and it was a decent enough timewaster but his latest project is far more worth the effort. Half an hour a week he plays comedy songs sent to him by comedy singer-songwriters either looking for a break or cheap publicity. It’s not always good but it is always interesting.

MusicalTalk: I’ve been trying to get back into listening to this but they tend to pile up. The more I listen the more I discover I haven’t really missed anything by not going to see a musical since Wicked and Avenue Q back in 2006, lol… musical theatre really is in a bad way. But if you hold out the slightest hope (as I try to), this is as good listen as you’ll get. I should maybe make a habit of putting episodes back to back with Elaine Paige’s show to make sure I keep up…

Elaine Paige on Sunday: I made a minor resolution this year to start listening to this again and immediately kicked myself for ever stopping. When I was a kid I used to whine constantly about there being no movie or musicals stuff played on the radio, so even in this age where I can download any show or soundtrack I like in minutes this show is still a godsend. It’s also the only way I usually get any news about what’s happening in the theatre world. As with MusicalTalk, it usually just confirms to me that there’s nothing new lol, but I like to keep abreast of it all…

The SModcast Network

Damn, I can’t believe I wrote all of those and I haven’t even got to Kevin Smith yet lol. This is exactly why I wanted to make this list - sometimes you don’t realise where the time goes and making lists and logs can kind of shock you with how much you actually get through, lol.

So, the rest of the list is basically the SModcast network - next month to become S.I.R., SModcast internet radio, and set to add another 28 hours at least of listening to my week somehow LOL. I can’t sing the praises of the podcasts on this network enough but I’ll try to keep it brief.

SModcast: the original, Kevin Smith and producer of his earlier movies Scott Mosier. There’s more repetition on this one than any others - you can’t blame them approaching 200 episodes lol - but when they get on a roll with one of their improvised stories they make me laugh like no other. I can’t wait to see how this theatre of the mind develops on S.I.R. Also check out the SModimations - hilarious animations mostly of those crazy stories. I’ve only seen a few but they’re amazing.

Hollywood Babble-On: hmm, did I say Kermode’s was the best movie podcast above? Then this is a close tie at least. They don’t talk deep about cinema or anything but at it’s best this is a refreshing no BS attitude to Hollywood. Like all podcasts on the SModcast network, it’s not for everyone. If you don’t like dirty talk - and I mean really dirty talk - you should probably avoid all of these. But I urge even the biggest prudes to try and get past the low humour on these, because underneath it has been some of the best discussion I’ve heard in the past 2 years.

Plus One: probably the best podcast on the SModcast network and I can’t wait for it to expand into SMorning with Kevin and Jen. This is Smith talking with his wife and it’s alternately hilarious and shockingly moving at times.

Blow Hard: Kevin Smith’s gay friend Malcolm Ingram. This is one of my favourites. Ingram has that attitude towards sexuality that I love - the kind that will frequently offend straight and gay listeners alike. His frequent guest Marja is a tornado of a presence, and again, a woman who will offend women by, well, being herself… this is a podcast that proves that there are no stereotypes, no set rules when it comes to gay/straight/male/female, etc… it’s all about individuals, and you won’t find more honest individuals than you find in Blow Hard’s guest roster.

Puck Nuts: a sports podcast, I hear you cry? It’s strange how much I’ve grown to like this one. Perhaps it’s part completism - I’m sure as the S.I.R. project grows I’m going to have to stop listening to some of the content Smith pumps out, but to date I’ve managed to keep up with everything from the SModcast factory - but the guys from Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave are really fun to listen to, even as here when they’re talking mostly about Hockey.

Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave: this is a group of Kevin Smith’s friends who have appeared in his movies over the years and run his merchandise/comic book store etc and they’re a fun bunch of characters to kick back with. It’s one of those podcasts I can sometimes put on and not even listen to but even then their voices are nice background.

Jay & Silent Bob Get Old: the closest anything on the SModcast gets to what most people know Kevin Smith for, the Askewniverse. This began (and just occasionally continues) as an attempt to tell Jason Mewes’ story of his ongoing battle with drugs but mostly it is a barrage of low humour. Lately it’s grated on me more than any of the podcasts I listen to… but once again, when it’s good, it’s very good…

SMoviemakers/SMinterview/Starfucking: And various other extra/infrequent/one-off podcasts that come out on the SModcast network. SMoviemakers so far has been Kevin Smith interviewing Richard Kelly and Edgar Wright - both great, epic (2/3 hours) interviews about their work. SMinterview has had Mitch Albom and Jamie Walton (a talk about child abuse and sex trafficking - a little awkward and cringey but again some discussion you just wouldn’t hear anywhere else). And Starfucking was a 3 part podcast with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.

So… that’s what I spend the rest of my time doing if you ever wondered what I do between watching movies, TV, listening to music, dithering, and my 2% of actual productivity LOL. Loathe as I am to ask, do let me know in the comments if you think there’s a podcast I should add to the rotation - impossible though it’d be to accommodate, I am, insanely, always on the look out for more voices to inspire or entertain me, and I seem to always squeeze them in.

Nevermind

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:20:00 +0000