#also recently one of my news podcasts did an episode on an australian news story which isn't really NEW i just hadn't heard about it

[thatrandombystander]

It is distressing how often you hear that someone was raised in a cult.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

The site is up to date again! This is, for people who don't know, a very very cool archive that a friend of mine created last year, for everything we could find of Daniel Kitson's radio work. And I mean everything. It is very impressive, the lengths my friend has gone to to track down some of these recordings. He has also put large amounts of time into created edited versions of everything on there, that have the songs taken out, if you just want to hear the chat. And he's created Spotify playlists, if you just want to hear the songs. And track lists.

I've helped. I created the edited versions and track lists of a bunch of those older files. I have also spent many, many hours going deep into Google search results, and scrolling through page after page of message board threads from like 2007, in order to find exact dates and other meta data for most of these radio episodes.

Last week, we got an extremely exciting donation of four new episodes. Four doesn't sound like a lot, but it is in this context, as Daniel Kitson did a six-night Triple R Graveyard run from MICF in 2006, and that donation brings our collection from 1/6 to 5/6. From barely there to nearly complete! Also, the Triple R Graveyard episodes are four hours long (they ran from 2-6 AM), so four new episodes is quite a lot of hours.

For anyone who doesn't know, Daniel Kitson used to occasionally get on a community radio station - either Resonance FM in London or Triple R in Melbourne - and talk in between playing music off his own CDs/iPod/Spotify account, in the middle of the night. He did that once in a while from 2005 until 2016. From 2018 until present - the most recent episode being today - he has done the same thing every once in a while, but only in London, and only in the mornings, because he turned forty and stopped wanting to stay up all night, which is fair enough (I mean, there was Trifle in 2020 that was sort of at night, sort of, don't worry about it).

Daniel Kitson doesn't record/archive/podcast these radio shows, but ever since he first started them, fans have been recording them and passing around the files. My friend, who made that website, has been personally recording all the shows since 2018, and putting them onto an internet archive and an RSS feed. For everything before that, the recordings have come into his collection from others who recorded and/or collected them at the time, and he has shared his collection with me, and in 2023 I listened to every single one of those radio files in full, and I spent hours and hours looking up old message boards to find dates and other information about the ones that weren't already organized, and I've finally got a clear picture of it now. I then did the track lists and edits on those old files. And my friend made an entire website and maintains it beautifully because he is so impressively good at this.

There's also a "misc." tab in the online archive, which is for times when Kitson has appeared on other people's shows (most of those are old - as in, before he left his agent in 2005, and when he could still be forced to do publicity - and/or Australian, and he doesn't seem to hate public appearances in Australia as much as in England), and like I said, my friend has done an amazing amount of work to put all those together. An amazing amount of research, digging up all the information that's out there and then tracking down recordings. It's incredible project, overall. And as I said recently, my friend is working on expanding this archive to include information and promo material for all of Kitson's stand-up and story shows - though it was a surprise when we recently learned that Kitson himself is also making a Kitson archive. The un-archive-able man is going to have two archives.

Anyway. I've spent all weekend listening to the four new four-hour episodes, all recorded from 2 AM-6 AM during the Melbourne Comedy Festival in spring 2006. Kitson used to have guests for his Triple R episodes, and these four new ones included the Australian comedians Andrew McClelland and Courtney Hocking, and the Irish/Australian tightrope-walking-along-the-line-between-doing-an-ironic-parody-of-an-obnxious-overly-publicly-affectionate-couple-and-actually-being-an-obnoxious-overly-publicly-affectionate-couple duo David and Claudia O'Doherty (no relation, importantly). All four episode were so much fun.

It was Chocolate Milk Gang-era Kitson through and through. Self-important, in ways that I'm glad he's walked back since, but I still enjoy listening to the more forthright version of him. So much underlying/sometimes overlying competitiveness with his guests about knowledge of indie music, and who has the most of it. Frequent, carefree references to his frequent, carefree trips to record shops with large hauls, and not a moment of concern that maybe these will all end up in a box taking up too much space one day. By the way, my friend's archive is also fully up to date with the six episodes that have aired so far of Kitson's 2025 Resonance FM breakfast show run, in which he takes out CDs that were stuck in boxes in his house, and plays them before deciding whether to take them to a charity shop. There will be more episodes of this, but they've been postponed until March 2025.

Anyway. The new episodes are fun. The old episodes are fun. Spending all weekend switching between listening to Kitson on the radio in 2006, and Kitson on the radio in 2025, was very, very weird. Many things have changed. A few things have not. He still has a disproportionate hatred for songs that fade out. His music taste was so much better before he got into LCD Soundsystem. So much better.

Everyone should check out this archive. Click on a random episode and have a listen. Or look through the track lists and put on something from an era where his music taste mostly aligned with yours (his music taste has changed over the years, in my highly subjective and oversimplifying opinion, from music that was quite good to music that is much less good - but your mileage may vary, some people like LCD Soundsystem, I guess). For people who enjoyed this season of Taskmaster, there's an episode in the Triple R tab with Andy Zaltzman as a guest, from MICF 2007, and it's unmitigated delight. I'm also partial to the O'Doherty episodes, of course, as a CMG fan, but I'm pretty sure those episodes are enormous fun even if you don't share my personal CMG obsession.

[ruegracieuse]

Any podcast recommendations?

Sure! I listen to far too many! I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time separating my regulars roughly thematically. If anyone has any recommendations I’m all ears!

Politics/current events: Trashfuture (leftist with a focus on the UK - I don’t nor have I ever lived in the UK but this podcast has also taught me a lot about tech things and how horrible they are, and the hosts are great. Depressing but funny, real band playing as the titanic sinks energy); Radicals in Conversation (a monthly podcast by the leftist publisher Pluto Press, wherein they interview a leftist writer or have a conversation between a few); Boonta Vista (this used to be political and now it is simply the hosts reading news stories that cater to some very specific and surreal subjects they’ve developed an interest in. I find it comforting as it’s very Australian but not in a cringe way); Srsly Wrong (a deep dive into different aspects of leftist theory or history or whatever, done in a very charming and accessible way. To begin with I love their eps on library socialism, or the episode ‘Misanthropy is a Death Cult’)

Film: Faculty of Horror (every month the hosts, whom I love, do a very academic and hugely interesting deep dive on the themes, context and content of one or two horror movies. To begin with, the episode on Pyewacket and Hereditary is great, or Eating Disorders in Black Swan and Drag me to Hell (huge tw for that one though!); Psychoanalysis: a Horror Therapy Podcast (every other week the hosts, who work with or have lived experience with mental health issues, examine a horror movie through the lens of a particular mental health (or adjacent) topic. Obviously various trigger warnings for each episode but I believe they include a content list in the description of each episode. Their series on suicide was really well done, plus the episode on depression in Lake Mungo was so good. And Dreams in Mulholland Drive is my favourite discussion of one of my favourite movies, maybe ever. It took me a while to gel with the hosts but once I did I was in!); You Must Remember This (she’s a classic for a reason. I adored adored adored the series earlier this year on erotic film in the 1980s, and I’m waiting for the next part, Erotic 90s, with baited breath); Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number 9 (tbh I’m hot and cold on this one. I only listen if I am interested in the movie they’re doing. It’s nice background noise, the hosts are from Welcome to Nightvale. I liked their episodes on Ginger Snaps and Belladonna of Sadness (tw for sexual assault on that one) and the Blair Witch)

History: Behind the Bastards (very well researched dives into awful people, movements, companies, ideas etc. I like the host although he can be a little self important at times); No Dogs in Space (hugely well researched music history podcast. I loved their series on the Dead Kennedys and on Joy Division); Stuff the British Stole (little podcast that does a deep dive into the history of single objects (or in one terribly sad episode, a person), that British colonisers took, or destroyed, or lost. Every episode is good, and the episode lengths are very manageable. I recommend Not Your Venus (about Sarah Baartman), A Tiger and a Scream, and Losing Your Marbles); You’re Wrong About (I feel like I’ve seen tumblr recommend this a lot, and for good reason! The earlier episodes offer great perspectives on the way our systems fail us, especially the most marginalised. I really appreciate the humanity and empathy the hosts express, even for people it’s so easy to brush aside or dislike. Any of their Maligned 90s Women episodes are good, and I’ve recently been listening to the opus they did on the OJ Simpson trial, which is great); the Timber Wars (this is a limited series but it’s SO GOOD! such an interesting and thoroughly researched/interviewed telling of the conflict between environmentalists and lumber workers and in Pacific Northwest, and how the timber companies, surprise surprise, fucked everyone over)

Misc/limited series: Maintenance Phase (two LGBTIQ+ writers, one a fat woman, really prising apart the junk science, prejudice, injustice and harm done by the wellness industry, diet culture, and fatphobia. As someone prone to disordered eating, and also as someone who is working to be more educated on ableism and fatphobia, I find it really informative and (and I hate this word) empowering. TW for fatphobia and discussion of eating disorders); The Lolita Podcast (very moving exploration of the many lives and interpretations of Lolita. TW for sexual abuse. I love Jamie Loftus and everything she touches is delightful.); This Podcast Will Kill You (every week two epidemiologists (? they both have doctorates in something to do with disease anyway) choose one disease and explore its biology, symptomatology, and history, before looking at the status of the disease in the world today. This podcast brings me back to the age of 9, devouring Horrible Science books. I’m not a numbers gal so I drifted away from science in high school, but I’ve always found the history of science gruesome and poetic and this podcast captures that beautifully. I love gory and upsetting things. Also the hosts have such lovely soothing voices.)

[mindctrlaltdel]

Random Reviews: Mulholland Drive

This movie is BASIC INSTINCT, written and directed by Salvador Dali.

***

Recently, I watched MULHOLLAND DRIVE for the first time for my friend Shawn Eastridge's podcast, MISSING FRAMES (www.thenerdparty.com/missingframes/episode-103-mulholland-drive).

As I watched this odd, funny, disturbing, interesting flick, I took the following notes. Is it, as some critics say, the BEST FILM OF THE 21ST CENTURY? Here's an inside look at my viewing experience as I mulled over MULHOLLAND DRIVE...

[PRESS PLAY]

I love how the first five minutes is basically a bad late 90's Gap commercial, all swing dancing, no point...

The Mulholland Drive sign is calling to us. The street, Mulholland Drive, is Bali Hai for perverts.

Justin Theroux gets top billing over Naomi Watts??

I gotta admit, I saw one of the movie's original posters and thought "Naomi Watts AND the lady from the first MEN IN BLACK is in this? It's the triumphant return of Linda Fiorentino." When I DIDN'T see her name in the opening credits, I was disappointed. She's NO Linda Fiorentino... for this role, she's even better. AND she's a countess (seriously, look it up). Oh, and Robert Forster shows up for 10 minutes.

Not-Linda Fiorentino has some hustle in her for someone who just survived a horrible head on collision.

I like how the street signs kind of tell us where we are and what kind of world we're in. It's like a surreal, dramatic version of that Californians SNL sketch.

You mean to tell me that the red-headed older woman didn't see not-Linda Fiorentino under her kitchen table? UnbeLIEVable.

Holy crap, the wide-eyed guy in Winky's - he plays Jimmy Barrett, the comedian in MAD MEN... and MAD MEN is an interesting connection here, because everyone talks in this measured, paced deliberate way throughout that series, kind of similar to how the characters usually speak in the David Lynch productions I've seen... When I started watching MAD MEN, I thought the actors were purposely directed to speak that way, so everything to seem more "real" as opposed to that fast-talking, old-Hollywood style that you'd expect to see from outspoken, big idea-types. I imagined that Matt Weiner wanted people to seem - at least to modern audiences - the way people actually were - particularly, the inhabitants of the intelligent and cerebral world of ad men, working behind the scenes, on the fringes of show business. But then Jimmy Barrett, an old-timey comedian ALSO spoke that way. And it just didn't seem authentic to me. Anyway, back to THIS movie...

OH and that dingy woman behind the dumpster! She's like if Captain Howdy moved out West and got all LA on us. Is that Cloris Leachman covered in mud? And the music... for some reason, there's nothing scarier than the sound of an HVAC vent on full blast. (According to this article, www.vulture.com/2014/10/mulholland-drives-evil-hobo-breaks-her-silencio.html,the actress who played Evil Hobo #1 said of her audition process: "I don’t mean to brag, but David Lynch said he was looking for the most incredible face he could find. I actually met him at a Twin Peaks party, and he was like, 'Look at that face!'")

I love the X-Files-style synth strings that play over Naomi Watts (Betty) and gram-gram (Irene) as they walk through the hotel, I mean the airport... Aw, these two old people love Betty. What a different life she's living than that countess who's not Linda Fiorentino who's squatting in that redhead's apartment that Betty's about to move into.

Even then, Naomi had a good American accent. (Although I learned she's technically British but split her time between England and Australia), those Australians are great at spitting out neutral American sounds. But once I learned that Betty is supposed to be Canadian, I was very disappointed. It's not THAT authentic. Where are her "Aboots"? And she didn't put maple syrup on anything in this whole movie.

Oh my God, are Irene and her husband, riding in this towncar, ALSO going to get held up, like not-Linda Fiorentino at the beginning of the movie? Oh okay, they're not. We just followed them for no reason other than to see that they look happier than an old couple in a Cialis commercial. I guess meeting Betty really improved their sex life or something.

Coco - of course she's a fading hollywood starlet... AHHH, Coco is played by Ann Miller - good for her. She's basically that kooky old landlady from SEINFELD, the one who worked with the Three Stooges that Kramer met when he went to LA. Look at all these connections!

"Prize-fighting kangaroo who shits all over the courtyard" - do you think Naomi Watts is going to come out and say, "as an Australian, I was actually offended by this line, but I was scared into silence by that power-hungry monster, David Lynch."

The countess - who now goes by "Rita" - does kind of look like Rita Hayworth. I like the connections to old Hollywood and to noirs and how it's all wrapped together. Rita Hayworth is also a redhead, like Betty's aunt. She's of Spanish descent as well... and the actress playing Rita in this movie is of Mexican descent... Connections, connections.

I love that this casting session is basically run by a deep state shadow organization with a weird waiter in a red blazer... This is how Disney cast WandaVision.

HAHAHAH "That is one of the finest espressos in the world sir!" - this is DEFINITELY how Disney casts their movies. And Justin Theroux is the only man with integrity in this room! Does anyone have any class in this town!? They don't even validate his parking.

This is my favorite movie about making movies since BOWFINGER. And I may not be lying. And somehow less weird than THE ARTIST.

Is everyone gonna start killing each other over Ed's famous black book? This is oddly funny.

"Something bit me bad!" This incredibly long fight scene between the blond guy and secretary... it reminds me of the Uma Thurman/Daryl Hannah trailer fight in KILL BILL VOL. 2 but with less snakes.

These closeups of lingering looks on Rita's cash-filled purse are great... She's pulling wads of cash out of that purse one at a time, like Leslie Nielsen pulling eggs out of that blond lady in AIRPLANE!

I want to know what direction David Lynch gave that braless woman who's following the blond assassin around. It's like she's doing an acting exercise... like you know, when you're told to fill the space... "walk around the room, and clear your head. And now you're walking really fast. And now you're slow. NOW, imagine what it would be like to walk with your nose as the furthest point in front of you. Lead with your nose..." And David Lynch did that and told the braless woman to lead with her chest.

Justin Theroux is basically Robert Downey Jr.'s character from BOWFINGER, except NOW, he's the protagonist.

Betty is loving Rita's amnesia a bit too much. If this were my life, Rita would be the most interesting thing to happen to me too. Hell, if I was from Ontario, getting off at LAX would rock my world.

When Justin Theroux enters his glass-walled home to find his wife with another man, well... Justin Theroux may never star in something like HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, but I can definitely picture him in YUPPIE WITH A GOLF CLUB.

That slinky theme song playing in Justin Theroux's/Laraine's house is a song that I actually listen to in my tiki, lounge playlist - to give you a hint of my music tastes. What I listen to for fun, Billy Ray Cyrus puts on to drown out his love-making.

By the way, BILLY RAY CYRUS!!! WHAT? Is this how Miley was conceived??? I think yes.

Pink paint in a jewelry box! This is much better than the usual throwing-all-his-belongings-out-a-second-story-apartment-window-scene that happens in every other movie.

I wouldn't be THAT excited if I learned MY name was Diane Selwin. BUT the sexxxual tension with the waitress Diane at the diner is palpable!

So, not-Linda Fiorentino has amnesia. How does she know that answering machine is NOT her voice!?

Justin Theroux/Adam Kesher's wife is very aggressive with the large man who's so dedicated to finding Adam Kesher that he keeps calling Adam's name in vain like the secretary in my doctor's office.

I watched this movie in pieces, the first half late at night. The second half the next morning. In between, while sleeping, I had a dream where Betty and Rita were looking over a map and any time one of their hands brushed over another, their hands would turn gold. As if this was a stylistic choice made by the filmmaker directing my dream to show that there's some kind of deeper relationship between these two women. So I've started dreaming in Lynch.

I like how this film is so utterly connected to not only Lynch's subconscious, but the audience's as well. Lynch is TAPPED IN. I don't always love when a film goes all in with a surreal style, because sometimes that's just a cover for something lacking in the storytelling department. But I do feel there's more to it here, in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

The hooded woman, Louise... I feel like I've run into her on the streets of New York. A Louise will ALWAYS find a way to give you a portent of doom that ruins your day. Friggin’ Louise.

This movie is so moody, you really have to be in the mood to watch it.

There's something magical and prophetic about the cowboy, like he's the seer that the old general sees on the eve of battle... Also, I love how the lead female role in Justin Theroux's movie is his sword of destiny. There's a glitz and gleam and nostalgia to Old Hollywood that naturally gives this movie, set in "modern" Hollywood," a total fantasy vibe.

Hahaha that "You're still here?" scene rehearsal between Betty and Rita is an excellent transition.

James Karen - the real estate guy from POLTERGEIST - is handling casting! "He moved the headshots but he didn't cast the bodies!!"

The casting direction: "Don't play it for real until it gets real." It's interesting how the characters, who work in the "business," seem to control their reality. Betty seems unsure of where the scene is going, then she gets into it. And it really speaks to her conversion from a bright-eyed new arrival to someone who surrenders to the darker impulses of the city.

HEAVY BREATHING.

Ugh friggin' Bob...

I love how Lynnie, the casting director, pulls the rug out from under that scene. There's always a jaded casting person who totally wrecks any good feelings about every audition. It's a thing.

David Lynch uses nostalgia and a latent love for Hollywood to draw the characters (and us) into his world and then subverts our expectations. A lot.

Why is the screen test just a lip-synching contest? ...I think it feeds into the nostalgia element for the movie at large but it seems like a waste of studio resources here. Early-aughties Hollywood spending, amirite?

Rita's reaction to finding the body is played very much like the reaction a character would have in an older film... The horror! The fear! The silent gaping terror while possessed with the inability to scream. I was watching the original KING KONG before this (which is may be a sign from the universe that I had to watch this Naomi Watts vehicle, as she starred in the remake), and specifically remember the scene where the director Carl Denham is coaching Ann Darrow/Fay Wray on how to act in a horror film - "now look up, and you see it, you see it in all its horror. And your jaw drops and you try to scream but you're so frozen in terror that you can't!" - I imagine that's what Lynch is doing to not-Linda Fiorentino off-camera as they filmed this scene.

Uh-oh, Rita is single-white femal'ing Betty now... She doesn't have a personality of her own, so she's going to take Betty's.... And now we're just getting NUDE with each other. This erotic thriller immediately turned from skintillating to Skinemax.

"I'm in love with you" - is Betty just saying that to convince herself? It feels more lusty than real. Betty's so bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Rita is gonna chew her up and spit her out!

I like the shot when they're sleeping together and, as they rest, their faces overlap thanks to the perspective of the framing. How much of the same person are they becoming? Where does one personality start and the other end?

The weird 2am theater. How'd Rita and Betty find this place? I love how this pop-up slam-poetry reading in this opera house is as terrifying to Rita and Betty as finding the dead body.

So Betty starts convulsing in her seat and then the poet disappears in a kind of old-style, cinematic I'm disappearing effect. I dig it.

Wait... is this a mysterious, magical show that just appears in LA, like Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, that town in THE MUMMY that only shows up at sunrise on the third day or something like that? Or is this just a poorly attended Spanish-language talent show that could only afford to book this theater at 2am on a Thursday?

I love that Betty and Rita are tearing up over Rebekah Del Rio's performance (Rebekah Del Rio is a real person, by the way). Then, Rebekah faints as her voice keeps singing - is NOTHING real? Has Betty totally given into this weird world to the point that she doesn't really know what's authentic and what's fake anymore OR was Betty fake before she got to LA so it was easy for her to get acclimated.

This movie is like THE MATRIX, from the perspective of characters who only took the blue pill and didn't look back.

OOOH, Betty has the box and Rita has the key! But the box is empty except maybe its the Gom Jabbar pain-box from DUNE. Is David Lynch using MULHOLLAND DRIVE as an excuse to make good on his promise to produce a good version of DUNE.

WAIT A SECOND, the cowboy knows the dead girl? Does this even matter?

Now, wait ANOTHER second. Is Betty performing or DREAMING when she's Diane or is something else going one??

What's the BLUE KEY doing there?

"Two Detectives"??? Is she talking about Betty and Rita OR Robert Forster and the pudgy guy? OR someone else entirely - the two guy's from Winky's???

The movie became more interesting the moment the perspective shifted to "Diane" and "Camilla." When that happened, Naomi Watts really amped up her performance... reaching a level of intensity we hadn't seen since Betty's audition... it does take 2 hours to reach that point.... But then, when Betty and Rita are topless on the couch, I couldn't tell who they were supposed to be until Rita/Camilla called her "Diane."

Wait, now Rita's acting?? OH, so Rita was an actress? And Diane wasn't? Or Betty looks exactly like Diane?

The weird shifts in focus. The sad masturbating. This is the most depressing soft-core ever made!

Did Betty get killed and have amnesia too?

They take a shortcut to Eddie's house which looks EXACTLY like where Rita/Camilla was taken at the beginning of the movie by the hitmen in the towncar before that wild accident with those teenagers made her life weirder... OR less weird. You be the judge.

IS this a flashback or the future. Eddie and Camilla are having an affair?

MY MOTHER? COCO - what's real and what isn't????

The jitterbug competition.... Diane/Naomi wanted the lead so bad, Camilla got the part but in Mulholland Drive, Naomi is the star.

Then, Camilla is kissing that other blond actress who Betty watched screen test...

MULHOLLAND DRIVE is just David Lynch telling us that LA is a place for lust and jealousy and no matter what, purity gets ruined.

WHAT, the blond waitress is BETTY? And Diane hires the blond guy, who's officially labeled as a hitman.

Diane is also from Canada...

Are Diane and Betty just different versions of the same people in nearby parallel universes? I certainly HOPE so. This is too much insanity for ONE universe to handle.

The blue key will be found where the blond guy told Diane. Okay, that makes sense. But if this were to mirror real life, the key was in her hand the WHOLE time!

OH, and hobo-Cloris Leachman comes back... AND she's holding the blue box/Gom Jabbar... WHY the hell did those two old people wander out of that paper bag??? Do they represent longstanding guilt? Seems like it. Because they've just crept into Diane's apartment.

MULHOLLAND DRIVE is almost silly to the point of pretentiousness at points - at least with the last word to be uttered on screen - "silencio." That said, it does evoke the HAMLET line: "And the rest is silence," so THAT's poetic.

Sadly, Robert Forster was barely in this movie...

Oh, and Lee Grant played Louise - the old-Hollywood connections keep coming!

I can't believe this movie was intended to be a pilot?

***

Now, some final notes:

On the swapping of characters and relationships in the last 30 minutes -- my first thought was that Betty/Diane and Rita/Camilla look similar and/or they're connected by a parallel universe, and the diner is like the central hub between worlds, and hobo-Cloris Leachman is the gatekeeper between the two worlds... I buy the "dream world" explanation that some critics espouse, that's something I considered myself as I watched. But I'm not sure I believed Betty is Diane's dream version of herself. Also, I think David Lynch has a feeling about how everything fits together, yet I don't know if he's even settled on an explanation for everything. He just trusted his subconscious and he's so confident in his latent abilities, that we trust him to show us everything we need to see and take us everywhere we need to go.

I enjoy how it's a surrealist answer to SUNSET BOULEVARD. I hope in 2050, someone makes "The 405" really tying all these movies and Los Angeles roads together.

MULHOLLAND DRIVE is weird but good. Still, I don't know if, to me, it's more weird than good. It's also funny. But is it funny because it's weird or because it's actually, genuinely funny? Are these questions David Lynch actually wants me to ask or does he make it weird on impulse to cover for the fact that the film is simply just weird and based entirely on impulse? MULHOLLAND DRIVE is almost like a parody of a film noir, made by an inter-dimensional alien life-form who studied a bunch of movies from the 40's through the 90's but doesn't have a full grasp on human behavior, and DESPITE THAT, it's more of an emotional experience than a logical one. It's somewhere in between. It's self-indulgent in a way but also very giving. It's a paradox wrapped in an oxymoron wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a coffee-stained napkin covered in cigarette ash locked in a small, blue box.

***

Summing it up: I don't think there's a world where this movie would get a perfect score from me. Because ultimately, for all it's interesting and exciting moments, it's more of a passion project for David Lynch than a piece of entertainment for the audience, no matter how entertaining it may be. To me, it's a vision board more than it is a complete film. And yet, it IS a complete EXPERIENCE. And there's nothing wrong with that.

All of that said, I know David Lynch doesn't really like to give viewers a clear cut, traditional narrative. So, I had a feeling the mystery was just that, a mystery. Or even moreso, the FEELING of a mystery. It's not about where we're going, it's about the journey to the destination. And while the general atmosphere is moody and evocative and often powerful, MULHOLLAND DRIVE plays more like a 2.5 hour piece of music than a cohesive narrative. Maybe that's the best thing about it.

In the distant future, when our way of speaking has become as archaic as the words of Shakespeare are to us, it's the feeling and emotions and images of movies like MULHOLLAND DRIVE that will still have a timeless impact on the future audiences who view them.

[zombee]

@pitirres okay -

WNYC does really good stuff in general, it seems to me they build their products with their hosts (instead of building the products and asking the hosts to adapt)

2 DOPE QUEENS is a comedy podcast. great for laughs, hosted by two black women, and a hugely intentionally diverse line up of stand ups & guests

SOOO MANY WHITE GUYS is the spinoff of one of the hosts of 2DQ. host interviews non cis straight white men, excepting one token a season. i thought it’d be along the same lines as 2dq, peen jokes etc, and those are defo there - but i didn’t expect to connect with these guests so intensely, and be challenged in my worldviews. phoebe robinson is a masterful interviewer and gets better each season.

for pop culture, i like METIS IN SPACE, which is two canadian metis women speaking about indigenous rep of all kinds in sci fi/fantasy media. the definition of this expands as the seasons continue. they’re funny and perfect for someone like me who likes to learn about identity around nerdshit.

similarly PRETTY FOR AN ABORIGINAL is two australian ladies, but it’s much more of a traditional “let’s talk about the issues” podcast. still delightful though, and i picked it up because my novel is set in australia and i wanted to make sure i brushed up on multiple perspectives.

if you like steven universe, tamora pierce, or the queen’s thief series, su has the official STEVEN UNIVERSE PODCAST, tammy has TORTALL RECALL, queen’s thief has ATTOLIAN ARCHIVES. oh, and THE GOOD PLACE PODCAST (the official one) is fucking amazing

for pop culture, i like WONDERFUL!. a husband and wife talk about wonderful things they love. it’s a great pick me up, feel good show.

dunno if you count this as pop culture or politics, but i also am loving OH NO! ROSS & CARRIE where the hosts take on claims of the supernatural, religious fringes, and suchlike. they attended scientology classes and got acupuncture and visited a pet psychic, in the eps i’ve listened to so far, that sort of thing. they’re affable and skeptical in equal measures, and you can defo pick and choose based on your own interests.

similar is SAWBONES, a “marital tour of misguided medicine.” doctor and her comedian husband tackle all kinds of Bad Medical History, so not for the weak-stomached, but still technically rated pg-13 (no swears basically). the back catalog stuck to mostly long-gone ideas & topics, but recently they’ve moved into more, i guess, controversial? topics, and that might scratch your pop culture/politics itch as well.

so those are my more specific recs, but then here are my generals that i just Really Love and Think A Lot of People Should Listen To (originally typed on reddit hence the grammar lol) -

NARRATIVE/STORY BASED -

The Adventure Zone: The podcast that got me into podcasts. Three brothers and their dad, with varying degrees of Dungeons and Dragons experience, set out to fill time so one of them could take a leave of paternal absence from their more famous podcast, My Brother My Brother and Me. What starts as dick jokes somehow turns into this incredible, character-driven, thrilling, mindful fantasy epic. I wept through the last dozen or so episodes. And, they did a 2.5 hour finale, so they could end on episode 69. The duality of TAZ. If you struggle with the more purely sophomoric content on the first arcs, my rec is to start with arc three, Petals to the Metal.

Alice Isn't Dead: A truck driver searches across America for the wife she had long assumed was dead. In the course of her search, she will encounter not-quite-human serial murderers, towns literally lost in time, and a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman. The American landscape is its own character, it's only three total seasons and we're three episodes into season 3. So good.

Welcome to Night Vale: Small desert town radio show, except the town is a hotbed of eldritch activity. Very Lovecraftian, except hysterical and not horribly racist (the opposite, in fact!)

Bubble: post-apocalyptic radio play. hilarious and scathing.

MUSIC BASED -

Heat Rocks - The Podcast: Two hosts interview a third party on their personal "heat rock," an album they have a deep love for, for whatever reason. I despaired that my lack-of-knowledge of albums before 2010 would hinder my enjoyment of this podcast, but then I realized I could just listen to them before the episode.

Dissect - A Serialized Music Podcast: Long-form version of the above. One season, one album; each episode, a song. First season is To Pimp a Butterfly, second is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Third and current season is Blonde.

BARDIC GOODNESS -

The Myths and Legends Podcast: Writer and host stitches a narrative from myth/legend/folklore etc. Tells you about his research and where the versions differ, and is just generally a great writer and funny and engaging. Really took to heart crit and slowly expanded his repertoire beyond Western/white stuff, so there is some really obscure (for me) stories in there that I love alongside more typical Norse mythology or Arthurian tales or what have you.

Fictional Podcast: Same premise as above, but with classic lit. I don't ever want to read Dante's Inferno, but I for sure want to hear someone dad joke their way through fake arguments about the place of Greco-Roman allusion in a Christian text. Also pretty new, if you're like me and Have To Start At The Beginning No Matter What.

[johnboothus]

VinePair Podcast: Can Small Towns Save Sommeliers and Bartenders?

The shake-up of the restaurant and bar industry caused by Covid-19 has, without a doubt, had a sizable impact on the entire service sector. When dining and drinking out recovers, there will certainly be demand for cooks and servers, but what about beverage specialists like sommeliers and bartenders? Will changing conditions in big cities create incentives for drinks pros to move to smaller cities and towns?

That’s what Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe discuss on this week’s “VinePair Podcast.” Are some of the advantages of a smaller city — like cheaper rent and less competition — compelling enough to create an exodus? Are some of our ideas about larger and smaller markets outdated in this era of remote work and video conferencing? Will this be yet another way in which Covid-19 completely reshapes the drinks landscape?

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Or Check out the conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the “VinePairPodcast.” And Zach, man, what’s going on? What you’ve been up to? I mean, you’ve got like three days left. I mean, Dry January is going to be over. So what are you going to be drinking? Because you said that what you liked about Dry January is you get to plan. So I’d like to know your plan.

Z: I know, it’s true. It’s one of these funny things, so just because of how the calendar falls, the first day of February — when you all presumably or many of you are listening to this — is a Monday. And so it’s not like the most exciting day to be like, let’s have a drink. I think, honestly, the thing that I’ve craved the most and it’s sort of surprised me is, I really think, I got some darker beers from a brewery near our house that were like a special run. And my wife and I got them during January, we’ve been kind of holding on. So I have a hazelnut stout, which sounded appealing to both of us. So that’s kind of been the thing I’ve been most jonesing for. And that’s kind of a good “I’m going to have a drink on Monday night. I’m not going to have several.”

A: Yeah.

Z: But really, I think the two things beyond that that I’ve been missing, definitely gonna have some sparkling wine of some sort. Knowing me, probably Champagne.

A: Yeah.

Z: And then I’ve really also been missing gin. I didn’t think that would be the spirit that I’d be missing, but so, I don’t know, maybe I will make myself a gin and tonic. Honestly it’s been the drink that I’ve been sort of craving, in part because I’ve been drinking some just plain tonic water on occasion. So which is like, I like tonic water all right. But man, that is a big-a** let down.

A: Yeah.

Z: It’s not the same as drinking a gin and tonic. I am well aware. So yeah, these last couple of days there’s always that, like, sort of voice in the back of my head that’s like, “It’s basically February. You can have a drink, it’s OK. ” And it’s like, I’m just going to hold on, and then I feel like I’ve completed something, but yeah. What have you been drinking?

A: So I mean, Naomi and I actually did this really fun thing last night where we had dinner and then at the end of dinner we had a glass each of Scotch. Which was nice, we didn’t have any through dinner and whatever, then in the late evening, we had a glass of Scotch while we watched a television show so it was sort of like our treat that was almost like a dessert. And I really liked that. It was a GlenDronach, which is a Tim McKirdy favorite.

Z: Oh, really?

A: Yeah. And it was really good. It was very delicious. And it was a nice way to end the evening. And so that’s probably the most memorable thing that I’ve had recently. And it was also nice because I’ve been drinking a lot of bourbon, and I forgot how nice Scotch is, especially in the late evening. I find that I can’t drink bourbon after a meal. I can have a glass of bourbon on a Friday night instead of a cocktail. I’d have a glass of bourbon, and then I’ll have dinner and maybe a bottle of wine with Naomi, but I’m not going to have a bottle of wine and then be like, “You know what I want? Is a dram of bourbon.” I feel like to me I can’t do it. But the Scotch was nice. I feel like it’s just like that lighter whiskey, not as light as an Irish whiskey, but it was a lighter whiskey that just is very, very drinkable. And so that was nice. Yeah, besides that, man, not much. Who knows what I’ll get into this weekend, but no real plans. It’s also supposed to be the coldest weekend of the year. We’re at that point in January when we get a few of these days where it’s just unbearable. And I think we’re there. And it’s pretty funny, too, to pick on Tim McKirdy one more time.

Z: Why not?

Z: Why not?

A: Yeah, he’s down in the Caribbean right now visiting family. And he’s like, “I fly back on Saturday.” I was thinking to myself, man, I would just have been like, “We’re all working remote. Can I stay until this crazy cold front is through?” Because it’s going to be insane. Even today, I think the high is like 28 or something. It’s no fun. So who knows? I’m actually thinking more, too, about like, OK, I’m going to have to go to the grocery store maybe tomorrow morning before work. What do I want to get for the weekend in terms of dinners and stuff that are also kind of warming and comforting because it’s going to be miserable, I think.

Z: Yeah, I would say that is one of the things about this year of quarantining that is like, it does make it a lot easier when the weather sucks to be like, “Well, I wasn’t going to do anything anyhow,” at least for me. The downside is, it does on the flip side make that bad weather feel maybe more oppressive because you’re like, “Even if I were to brave the cold, what exactly would I be braving it for?” I like to avoid all people. I wanted to mention one thing also when we were talking about drinking, because I thought it was really interesting to me to think about this in the context of this period of time in the winter where for much of the U.S., it’s cold out, and people are eating and drinking. If they’re doing it, a lot of them are doing it outside, even if it’s not very pleasant. And I was wondering, I know you had mentioned that you were meeting Mary Taylor for beers on our last episode. What was it like to sit outside and drink a beer in what I’m assuming was not nice weather?

A: Oh, let me tell you two stories, Zach, now that you asked. So one, Mary Taylor, it wasn’t that bad actually, because it was like one of these more temperate nights. And also we just had like two beers. And so I wasn’t there for that long. So earlier this week, Monday, actually, so I guess a week from when people are going to listen to this podcast, I have a friend who sits on our advisory board. He’s become a friend, but he is an adviser. His name is Philippe Newlin. And he actually runs this company called IvyWine, which is really amazing. He used to also run Duclot. So they import Pétrus.

Z: We’ve had Felipe on the podcast, too. You only hang out with people who have already been on the podcast.

A: Oh, right. Yes. If you wanna be my friend, come on the podcast.

Z: Except me, right?

A: Yeah. You’re not my friend. No, Zach. You’re my friend. Come on. I don’t want to get that message to people.

Z: I know. I know.

A: But also I like how you kind of dug for the compliment there. That was really good. But so he was like, “Can we get breakfast? I want to tell you about some cool stuff I’m doing,” which he’s doing some super-cool stuff. So Philippe basically, in addition to — and I’m going into way too much information about him — but he teaches this very popular wine class to students at Columbia Business School and Yale Law School or maybe Yale Business School. And it’s super popular. You take it one of the years you’re in school. It’s considered extracurricular, but it’s only available to people who are students of these schools. And he’s been doing it for 10 or 15 years, I think. And he has this massive following. So anyways, he’s been still doing it through Covid remotely, just like every other professor has been teaching remotely. But, Philippe’s eight courses are on wine, which I think is awesome. And so he wanted to catch up about that and talk about some other things he was up to. And he was like, “Can we meet for breakfast?” And I was like, “Sure.” And we met in Lower Manhattan. And it was miserable. I mean, I put on long underwear. I joked with him, it was like I was getting ready to go skiing. But I’m from the South and don’t ski. I don’t do these things. I don’t do these crazy winter sports where you have to wear 50 flayers, and you’re like, “Yeah, but I’m outside it’s the best!” It was fine for the 15 minutes that I had my cappuccino, and then it became really miserable really fast. And they had heaters and stuff, and I felt really bad for these restaurant workers, and it was this place called Dudley’s which, actually, they claim to have introduced the avocado toast to New York City. It’s these Australian, I think they’re from Melbourne, it’s like an Aussie all-day cafe. And there were other people there. I think it’s been featured in shows or whatever. We picked it because it was equidistant to where we were both coming from. And they have a really safe outdoor setup. That’s the other thing, too, that you have to check for. What feels safe. There’s a lot of it in the city we talked about before, like outdoor indoor dining, where it’s like literally they have four walls and a door, and it just happens to be outside. It’s like, “So this actually looks smaller than if I were to eat inside your restaurant? This doesn’t feel safe.” But this is open, but that “openness” means it’s miserable. So it’s hard, man. And yeah, this weekend I think is going to hurt a lot of places because it’s going to be so cold. Who’s going to do that?

Z: Yeah, I don’t know.

A: It’s not easy. It’s not easy. I’m just ready for a crowded, warm bar in the winter. That’s always a fun time.

Z: The thing where you step inside and suddenly you’re wearing your winter coat and all that, and all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, it is like 80 degrees in here, and I have to shed all of my clothing as fast as possible.”

A: Yeah. And the only thing that sucks about that, right?

Z: Is the smell?

A: If you go to a really crowded bar, your jacket always winds up on the floor.

Z: Yeah.

A: It always winds up on the floor in a crowded bar when it’s that warm inside and the floor is sticky and you’re like, “Oh man, now my nice winter coat is on the floor of this bar.”

Z: I used to be the person who never understood why coat checks existed in places. Not so much in bars, occasionally clubs, etc. And now as an actual adult, I’m like, “Oh, I would gladly pay 5 bucks to make sure that no one stepped on my coat.”

A: Exactly, right? It’s like, no, I’m going to keep this and just risk it being covered in spilled beer later. But so speaking of restaurants, etc., we have a pretty fun topic today. You want to introduce it? Because the email that came from the listener came through and was addressed to you.

Z: It’s true. Yeah. So we got an email from a listener. And as a reminder, of course, if you guys want to reach out to us with comments, questions, or possible topics, it’s podcast@vinepair.com. And John, who wrote to us, thank you so much for your email. And he kind of had a long email that was in part in response to an article I wrote for VinePair, or an essay, I guess, I wrote a couple of weeks ago, pondering the future specifically of the sommelier profession. And he wrote, and John is based in Blacksburg, Va. He works at Virginia Tech and also owns a wine bar there. And he was writing asking a question about basically — maybe in particular in light of what’s happened to the industry through Covid — is there the possibility that sommeliers, as he asked and I would expand this to maybe be “beverage professionals” more generally, so your skilled bartenders, your cicerones, people of that ilk who are specialized beverage professionals within the larger restaurant/bar industry. Would they be tempted to move or interested in moving to smaller markets that might not have a person of their standing already or might not have many? And sort of trading in the density and the “glamour,” I guess you would say, of big-city living for smaller cities, towns, college towns like Blacksburg, places like that. And I thought this was a fascinating question. I wrote back to John and we’ll cover kind of some of what I said. But I would really love to start with your thoughts, Adam. You’re connected to a lot of the industry, as am I. And I’m wondering, have you heard any sort of rumblings along these lines from people — whether they’re, specifically the sommeliers, bartenders I spoke of, or maybe just beverage industry pros, period?

A: So I think two things. One, I’m from a small town, too. A small college town. So I think, I used to always have this perspective that obviously that’s why you left those places. That’s why I didn’t even want to go to college in the university town I was from, even though I love the sports team — War Damn Eagle. But, I wanted to go to Atlanta and go to school at Emory, and then, same exact story, you wanted to go to NYU, right? Like this “being in a city” and whatever. I do think, though, there are people doing it. And I think what’s interesting about what you said to John that resonated with me in your response, because you CC’d me, which was very nice of you, was I don’t see a lot of people moving to these towns. And look, it’s going to have to start to happen if more people move, but I don’t see people in many of these towns looking for jobs. In like the, “I’m going to move to a college town where a wine bar already exists and try to become their beverage director.” And I think you had a good point about that, which was because if you get there and you don’t like that place, then there’s not another place for you to move to, if that’s the only great wine bar that caused you to move there in the first place. What I do see some of, and I think we might see more of, is people moving and opening their own places. I mean, yes, rent is going to be cheap in New York, relatively, when Covid is over there are people getting “steals.” But you’re never going to beat the rent of smaller towns. I mean, to put this in perspective. This has nothing to do with bars, but this is just friends of mine I know who are looking to potentially open a brewery. They’re connected or were connected to a very large, very famous brewery in New York City. They’ve gone out on their own. And they were looking in a small town in the Hudson Valley, and they found this property that was, like, it’s two buildings. It’s on a river. It has an apartment in one of the buildings that you can use. You can furnish it but it’s fully updated. It’s like this old tanning factory or something. Do you know what the rent is for a month?

Z: I’m guessing. I’m guessing it’s — I don’t know. You tell me.

A: $5,000.

Z: Wow.

A: Right? Like you can’t find a tiny office in Manhattan for $5,000 that’s a thousand square feet. So I think there are opportunities to move to these towns. And as other people in the Hudson Valley on the brewery side have noticed, people will also come to those destinations. And I think especially when it’s smaller, when small towns are connected to colleges, as you mentioned in your article, right? There are additional economic drivers that help. There are huge football games. There are basketball games. There’s usually university theaters that bring people into the town in addition to just a town that has a group of people in it that are, I don’t want to say “intelligentsia” like an elitist. But, they all would be looking for a nice wine bar to meet up with their grad students. I mean, I think that was my dad’s biggest thing when he was a professor, he just retired. But there were no really great bars to meet your students, your adult students at. Right? Because you either were at a point when I was growing up and he was really pushing as having lots of grad students where, like you were either going to wind up at the bars where all your undergrad students were at — and you don’t want to ever be there. Or you were basically having a beer with your student in your office. Or you’re inviting them into your home. There weren’t any “adult places.” And that’s what I thought was so cool about what John said in his emails was, he was like, this wine bar he’s created is for the professors. It’s for the adults in town. But then there are students who want to learn about wine who are of age, seniors or whatever, who are now coming to his wine bar, too. So you definitely are hearing about it. There’s another really great bar called Law Bird in Columbus, Ohio. Yes. I also get that Columbus is a bigger city, but it’s really known for the university.

Z: Yeah, of course.

A: Law Bird is amazing. And it’s done really well and winning a lot of awards on the mixology front. And I think there are people around the country that are really starved for these places. And as we’ve become more connected, we’re seeing what we can have. We’re traveling to New York and we’re experiencing it or maybe we’re living in a city like New York or Atlanta or whatever for a few years and having a great experience going out to wine bars or cocktail bars and then going to these smaller towns. We want that still. And I think there’s a huge opportunity. But I definitely think it’s an opportunity more in ownership, right? Than in people saying that they’ll move for something that already exists unless two or three people go and open their own places. And then there’s enough that you could move around a little bit.

Z: Yeah, I think it’s really fascinating. One of the things you and I talked about way back in the early days of this podcast, we talked a little about some of these same issues. And there I think it was a much more hypothetical conversation because we didn’t have this massive change and blow to the industry that Covid has provided. That is going to be a real prompt for a lot of change if it hasn’t already done that. And then we were talking a lot about how — maybe we weren’t talking about college towns exactly. We were talking about, sort of second- and third-rung cities. Places like Atlanta, places like Pittsburgh, maybe you would say Austin or Omaha, those are all different in various ways. And I still think that that whole piece of what we’ve talked about is really true and that there’s a lot, and I think one thing you will see is definitely people will be challenged to find jobs of the kind that they’re used to in New York, in San Francisco, in Las Vegas, possibly even, moving to smaller cities. But I think, and to come back to this specific topic, what I hadn’t considered, but until John’s email and thinking more about it, was that really, for a lot of people, the potential is going to be to build something of their own or maybe with an existing property where the ownership is willing to really kind of invest in this idea and say, “Look, yeah, we might be in Boise or we might be in Blacksburg, we might be in,” you know, pick one of our hundred. “And we know that there is an audience here.” And yes, the audience is a fraction of the possible audience for something in New York or San Francisco. But we also know that there’s no competition. We have a captive audience in a lot of ways and more than ever before, people in those places are not interested exclusively in the limited selection and arguably limited quality that their options would have provided. And we’ve talked a lot on this podcast, both in terms of the flagship pod and the “Next Round” episodes, to and about challenges in getting products to people who are not in big cities. Right? People who are just as enthusiastic of a spirit drinker, beer drinker, wine drinker who want to drink the things that they hear about, that they read about, that they see things about on social media and don’t have a conduit because they don’t have a good wine shop in their hometown or a wine bar in their hometown. And online shipping is maybe becoming more of a thing, but still not robust enough for a lot of people, and the idea of going into one of those places is really, I think, exciting, because, again, like I said, there’s not the same level of competition. And because — I’ll say this from my own perspective even — one thing that became a little hard in what I was doing professionally in Seattle, and I think is even more so the case in possibly somewhere like New York, is that to be sort of “cutting edge” you suddenly are at a point where you are encouraging people and recommending to people these really obscure wines. And that doesn’t mean they’re not amazing. Sometimes they’re fantastic, but it does sometimes take you pretty far afield. It took me pretty far afield sometimes from what I really fell in love with about wine. And it was much more about, OK, well, how obscure of a wine — specifically, because, again, that’s where I’ve mostly worked — how obscure a wine could I procure? And at some point is that really the thing? But in a smaller market, you might be able to. I’m not saying you’re going to be like, have you ever heard of Burgundy? I mean, maybe that will be your role, but it’s more like you can still probably excite people with really, really amazing wines that still come from classic regions. You can probably turn people on to great producers in Burgundy or Barolo or the Sonoma Valley or whatever. Those things are not going to be as ubiquitous or seen as passé, almost, in a market that isn’t inundated with wine bars and shops or cocktail bars or whatever. You can work in this great area where you’re not necessarily selling the stuff that everyone knows, but you’re also not having to kind of strain at the borders of what is even available to excite people, I don’t think.

A: Yeah, I think you’re really right here. You’re spot on. And, I was realizing while you were talking is what we’re talking about, it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. Yeah. OK fine, I gave some examples like other wine bars and bars I know of of the few, but chefs have been doing this for years.

Z: Yeah, absolutely.

A: I mean, chefs have been doing this for years. I mean, that’s what is interesting about Auburn now. For the last I think six or seven years even longer, what’s considered to be one of the best restaurants in the state of Alabama and I think in the southeast is called Acre, and it’s in Auburn. The chef left, I think he was either in Atlanta or in New Orleans and moved back. And has this incredible farm-to-table restaurant. Now, I don’t remember any time I’ve been there there being a beverage director. But that might be because he can’t find someone, right? I’m not really sure. But chefs have been doing it forever. I mean, that’s what kind of helped reinvigorate the Hudson Valley was all of these incredible chefs that were leaving the West Village in Brooklyn and whatever and saying, like, “Screw it, I’m going to move up there.” And then beverage people followed. So, there’s no reason why you can’t go that route and find a chef that’s doing that or just do it yourself. The models are there, the one thing I’m curious about, though, Zach, is the comment you did make in the email, which was, some people might be scared about being able to find the wines that they love in their current markets. And I get that, even if it’s something that either is not true. Right? Like maybe you can find them if you work hard enough or also that people just need to get over, like, “OK, so you can’t find your heavily allocated X, Y, or Z. But like, there’s so much good wine out there, why do you care?”

Z: Yeah, I remember years and years ago talking to a sommelier, a wine director, I guess, who was working in Charleston and then moved to North Carolina and was talking about how even just in that change, North Carolina is a pretty big population state, but it doesn’t have the equivalent of Charleston. Or I mean, Asheville is kind of a food destination, but it’s much smaller and it’s not, you know, it’s not coastal. It’s not kind of picturesque in the way that Charleston is. And what she told me, was like, “You know, the great thing about this is all the wine that I had to fight for in Charleston” because, South Carolina as a state or Charleston as a market got X amount of it. And North Carolina gets at least that much allocated by the importer or the distributor. But no one wants it, or there’s a few people maybe in the Research Triangle who want it. There’s a few markets for those kinds of wines. But she was able to go get what she wanted. And I think that to some extent where you go, that may or may not be the case. I mean, Virginia is complicated because obviously Virginia has some big cities and obviously a lot of sort of satellite D.C. neighborhoods that probably have serious wine programs or wine restaurant wine bars and shops. But at the same time, I think that, yes, you may not be able to get the exact wine you want. Although on the flip side, if you move to a place — especially a smaller city or town — and you open a serious wine shop and you show the distributor in that state, like, “Look, I can sell whatever. I want to get this, I’ll buy it.” They will take your money, generally. They’ll be happy to. Even if it’s something that they work with an importer who doesn’t normally bring that into their state. But you tell them, “Hey, look, I’ll buy two cases of this” or “I’ll buy five cases of this” or whatever the quantities you’re working on. They’re in it to do business. And so they will generally do business with you if they can. And a lot of those places would love, for a variety of reasons, those businesses would love to shift to buy higher-end wines, to sell them. It’s good for them on a lot of different levels. But the other thing I would say is — and this is the piece of it that I think I mentioned in my article — and I’m not sure how to resolve this because I do think there is a challenge to this, which is part of the reason why people have traditionally gravitated towards big markets in the beverage alcohol profession, is some of what we talked about, lots of different job opportunities. You have better access to product, but some of it is about a level of camaraderie and a community. And that, to me, is one of the things that I think is just a challenge. It’s not an insoluble one. And it’s certainly, there are some people in the beverage alcohol profession who, frankly, are not as interested in that community going forward or want to build it from scratch, themselves. Someone I spoke to for that article who I think we’ve featured on VinePair before, John Wabeck, who is a guy in Pittsburgh, a wine professional in Pittsburgh, and really kind of created the sommelier scene in Pittsburgh, not entirely by himself, but was really instrumental in creating it. You can be a person like that who says, “You know what, I don’t need an existing community. I will create one. I will find people who are interested in wine or cocktails. And I’ll teach them, I’ll learn from them, etc.” But there are a lot of people who come to big cities because they recognize that one of the best ways to learn about these things is to be in a community. And it’s hard to do that if you’re the expert. It’s nice to be the expert in some ways, but it’s hard to learn sometimes when you’re the expert. You have to be the engine of your own learning all the time. And unfortunately, the other piece of this is that, and we’ve talked about this on the podcast, too, especially outside of those regions, maybe even outside of the U.S. the perception of America as a market, especially for wine, but for other things, too, is still about, what, four or five, eight, 10 cities max? It’s a fight to get not just products, but people who are visiting winemakers and even whole promotional organizations and boards. If you’re in a smaller town, do you want to be having to go on the road, take a five-, six-, seven-hour drive just to be able to go taste wine, because the only city in your broad region that’s getting a visit from this Italian wine consortium or whatever is that far away? That’s a tough thing. I mean, again, I don’t think it’s insurmountable. I think there are some people who would look at that as an acceptable cost, but it is a real challenge for people, I think, especially younger professionals who might not be able to kind of be as self-confident in saying, “Hey, I’m going to just go build this thing from nothing.” Or flip side, maybe they’re just dumb enough to think they can and will succeed because that’s a lot of what life is is just trying s***.

A: Yep, I agree. I completely agree. I think there’s a lot of opportunity and there’s going to be some downsides, as you said. But also, I do wonder if how we’ve all become so digital in the last year might help with that somewhat. Could you still join a tasting group that is now digital and meet with people and keep your game up? Could you still join a group of bartenders who are learning skills on Zoom or things like that? So that yes, it’s a bummer. But I also think when certain markets do emerge, other places will follow. Right? I think other people will follow. People will start realizing all of a sudden that Blacksburg is a great place for wine because if one person is having a lot of success, someone else is going to open another place. That’s just how it works. When a market realizes that Italian food is the hot thing, more Italian restaurants open. And I think the same thing is true for this. It’s just people taking the leap. And I do think it’s really, really interesting to think about there being more people doing that in the next few years, post-Covid. I really do.

Z: I think the other piece of this that we can’t know now totally but is going to be interesting, is to what extent does the broader population say, “Maybe I don’t want to live in New York City?” I mean, we’ve talked about whether this whole “New York dying thing” is a myth or not. And obviously, New York is not dying. But I do think that there are some real questions as to whether, as maybe more work goes fully digital, as people reconsider what their priorities are, we may just see a little bit of a migration away from really big cities with crazy-expensive costs of living. And that might help foster some of this movement within the service sector. Because obviously, to some extent, the service sector is always going to follow people and the money. And if those kinds of people are moving — whether it’s to college towns or to just smaller communities or smaller cities — then yes, for sure, “tradespeople” will follow, too. And I think also, maybe something for us to talk about another time, I don’t think it’s going to fit into this conversation but makes it interesting for you and I and for everyone at VinePair to think about: How do you cover an industry that is maybe a little bit more dispersed? And I think we’ve always done a really good job of highlighting bars, restaurants, wine programs, etc. all over the country. But it is true that the more decentralized it becomes, the more kind of like, “Oh, how do we grapple with an industry where maybe the greatest wine bar in the country is actually in the 143rd largest community in the country? Like, that’s certainly possible, and that would be cool. But it also puts an additional kind of onus on us, which I mean, I’m interested in, but is kind of different than in an era when the only things that people seem to care about in wine were happening in five cities.

A: Yeah, I agree. I mean, look, I’d encourage people who are listening, if you have thought about it there’s definitely people who love wine, cocktails, great beer all over the country. And I think now more than ever, there’s a lot less risk to doing it. So, yeah, if you are thinking about it, drop us a line. Let us know if you’ve done it. I’d love to hear those stories, too. If you’re a listener and you’ve opened a cocktail bar, wine bar, craft beer bar, whatever in a smaller market, we would love to hear from you. I think it’d be cool to interview you for “Next Round” etc. and let other people hear what you’re up to. Because I think, again, like I said earlier, there’s going to be some really, really, really exciting things that happen and a lot more possibilities than they’re used to be.

Z: Yeah, for sure.

A: Zach, this has been great, as always. For everyone listening, drop us a note at podcast@vinepair.com. Let us know what you think about the show. Leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Five stars please, and we’ll see you next week.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits. VinePair is produced by myself and Zach Geballe. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Can Small Towns Save Sommeliers and Bartenders? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/small-towns-sommeliers-bartenders/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-can-small-towns-save-sommeliers-and-bartenders

[nathanielwharton]

My 2019 in Pop Culture

Same plan here as usual. I discovered this as a draft from back in January that I hadn’t found images for yet. Posting it now, without edits.

Top Forty Things From 2019

45. A Town Called Panic: Agricultural Fair I made a last minute dash into the city to see this at the New York International Children's Film Festival screening (I ducked in, huffing and puffing, as the lights went down), but I was so glad I did. I love these shorts, and this one was an absolutely bonkers, madcap wonder.

44. "Gotham City Guys" from The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part I enjoyed the second Lego Movie pretty well, but I loved this song.

43. Finding Drago This is an Australian podcast about the search for the author of Drago: On Mountains We Stand, a book about Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. It was a delight.

42. Crawl I had a pretty good time with a bunch of horror movies this year. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark made some good use of 3D realizations of Stephen Gammell's potent artwork. Ready or Not was a good cat-and-mouse with a fun ending to see with an audience. Happy Death Day 2U kept the comic frisson of the original, pushing it further into nutty science fiction, while slipping in some real emotion. But the one that probably gave me the most thrills was Crawl. An expertly nasty little piece of work, it efficiently keeps turning the screws up the the very end. Jesse and I remarked afterward that we basically alternated leaning forward with our hands on our faces and leaning back, bracing on the armrest, throughout the entire movie.

41. When They See Us Urgent and harrowing.

40. Mindhunter (Season 2) The rhythms of this show are so distinctive and engrossing. It's not exactly Zodiac: The Series, but it is fascinating in some similar ways and I hope they come back and make more of it.

39. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Season 4, Part 2) I might (okay, definitely) be underrating this final batch of one of my favorite shows on TV. Blame it on Netflix’s half-season strategy, and not on these episodes that were as overstuffed as ever with a breathtaking array of jokes delivered by a note perfect cast. I’ll miss if, but I'm grateful for those final moments. (The line "Your books make me feel safe” definitely made me tear up.)

38. They Shall Not Grow Old in 3D This documentary was fascinating as a look at the less-covered (at least in my lifetime) First World War, and it was AMAZING as a visual experience, watching 100 year-old documentary footage in such an immersive way. And the short documentary that followed my screening showing the process of making the film was worth the price of admission on its own.

37. Glass at the Shyamalanathon Few things can top the weird thrill of seeing the ending of Split before hearing even a hint about the ending (Jesse and I were audibly shocked and delighted, and then spent part of the credits explaining the reveal to the kids in front of us after they asked us about it). So I was pretty psyched for this one. I caught Glass at the end of a Shyamalanathon at the Alamo Drafthouse, where they showed Unbreakable, Split, and a preview screening of Glass, with a Q&A with Shyamalan himself. I had a GREAT time.

36. Amazing Grace I saw it with about 8-10 people in the theater, and folks were still witnessing with Amens and hallelujahs from the back of the auditorium. They were well warranted.

35. The Twilight Zone Revival I definitely preferred this to the last revival, and the hit-to-miss ratio felt pretty standard for an anthology show. Highlights for me were "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet," "Replay," and "A Traveler." Looking forward to the next batch of them.

34. One Cut of the Dead A twisty, surprising one-shot zombie thriller that reveals itself to be something much different (and much more charming) than you'd expect.

33. Star Trek: Discovery - Pike sees his future This season of Discovery had a number of really strong elements (and I'm super intrigued to see what they do with that setup for the third season), but the part that probably most moved me was in episodes 12, "Through the Valley of Shadows." Captain Pike (a wonderful performance all season by Anson Mount; definitely looking forward to that spin-off) is given a vision of his eventual fate, which we know from the original series, in which he is severely disabled in an accident. He is told that if he takes the time crystal from the Klingon temple to help save the day in the season's storyline that he cannot change this fate and is essentially dooming himself. And he gives the most moving, Starfleety performance in choosing the greater good over himself.

32. Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal This was a visceral, thrilling surprise. I caught the first four episodes as a screening at the Alamo and it knocked my socks off. The final episode of this initial run was also really rad. Pure animation.

31. Under the Silver Lake Seeing this one at a late night screening felt just right, as it creates such a bewitching, hallucinatory spell. As someone who enjoyed reading about conspiracy as a youth and recognizes but (hopefully!) avoided indulging the kind of solipsism on display in Garfield's character, I was pretty into this movie.

30. Missing Link This Laika joint was an easy lay-up for me (an adventurer helping Bigfoot to find a lost civilization of yeti? sold.) and it did the trick.

29. Frozen II It's not as clean a narrative as the original, and Kristoff's storyline is too sitcommy, but this still packed a lot of emotional punch for me, and I love that it's a huge Disney animated movie that interrogates colonialism and the way that our history can obscure misdeeds and trauma.

28. The Righteous Gemstones Another acridly funny and tonally daring series from the McBride/Hill/Green team. Loved this first season, and certainly excited to see where they want to take it next.

27. A Series of Unfortunate Events (Season 3) This show continued to be a really marvelous adaptation of the books and the adaptation of the final story (and the elements they included from the ancillary Snicket books) really landed wonderfully. I really wish Netflix had already announced the same team was doing an adaptation series of the All the Wrong Questions books (with Warburton somehow still involved as Lemony Snicket).

26. Klaus & Noelle Two streaming services served up two new Christmas movies this year, and I dug them both. Noelle doesn't quite pull of the same magic trick as Elf, but I found it charming and the cast (and the fact that it is set, in part, in Arizona) went a long way to endearing it to me. And Klaus was a gorgeously animated, very enjoyable surprise. Odds are decent that I pop both of them on again at some point next holiday season.

25. Deadwood: The Movie A bit of bittersweet nostalgia, a post-script, and an elegy. Just the right balance of warm and melancholy. And while the movie definitely didn't give us the Al Swearengen I expected, I was so moved by his story (and McShane's performance).

24. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Season 3) The obvious surface pleasures of this show (the costumes and set design, the snaky sinuous camera work, the charming and charismatic performances, the rat-a-tat dialogue) continued apace, while the storytelling continued to strike a really enjoyable balance between joyful wish-fulfillment and (semi-)realistic period exploration.

23. Adam Sandler & Eddie Murphy on SNL and in the movies The two biggest SNL alumni that had not been back to host (ever, in Sandler's case, or since he was still a cast member, in Murphy's) Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy both returned too the show that had given them their start and pretty much lived up to decades of expectations. Sandler came back at the end of the 2018-2019 season and it was such a warm, funny homecoming that was really funny without just spending the time revisiting his old characters (the travel agent commercial he was in was one of the best sketches of the season and benefited hugely from his performance), and a genuinely touching tribute to Chris Farley. (And he capped his year with a fantastic, nerve-jangling performance in Uncut Gems, which was a Safdie special, exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure.) Then, following his really galvanizing lead performance in Dolemite is My Name, showing how hilarious and wonderful in a dramatic role he can still be, in the last episode before Christmas in the 2019-2020 season, Eddie Murphy returned to host, coming in with the enormous expectations that would accompany his return to the show at any time with the recent example of having seen it done so right. And they crushed it. His episode understandably featured more of the play-the-hits style of character reprisals, but they generally had clever ideas for using the characters (Mr. Robinson returned to a gentrified neighborhood, Buckwheat was a Masked Singer, and Gumby gave a hilarious Update rant) and, best of all, Murphy brought the necessary energy to make it all work. On top of that, he elevated the non-recurring stuff like a great Baking Championship sketch that he underplayed to perfection, or a North Pole newscast that he knocked out of the park. Both episodes were a joy.

22. Doctor Sleep I liked a lot of stuff in the book, but I think the movie improved on it! I love Mike Flanagan's style of horror story anyway, and it was a really good fit for Doctor Sleep. And the movie does a remarkable job of squaring itself with the Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick versions of The Shining, including a really moving appropriation of elements from the original book and potent movie imagery into a surprisingly touching combination.

21. Stranger Things 3 The run-up to this season was so much fun (special ice creams and store decorations at Baskin-Robbins, a whole Fun Fair set up at Coney Island), and then the season itself was a big summer blockbuster blast that Katie and I spent a whole day on.

20. The Lighthouse This one lingered! Two great performances, a beautiful visual scheme, and a bracing spiral into madness for a story.

19. Parasite Bong Joon-Ho with another what-genre-is-this masterpiece.

18. Watchmen on HBO This was so much richer and provocative than I expected. A compelling and mostly satisfying sequel to a book I didn't much demand a sequel to, it was one of the best shows I watched all year and honored the original by actually being about something.

17. The Farewell A warm and delicate story that really moved me, with a terrific performance by Awkwafina.

16. Jojo Rabbit I've been on Taika Waititi's wavelength since Boy, and this one worked for me as designed, which meant that I was delighted and then devastated.

15. Apollo 11 Like They Shall Never Grow Old, there was such power to seeing a new, vivid angle on major 20th century history.

14. GLOW (Season 3) This season, with it's Las Vegas setting and it stage-show status quo, created a bunch of new dynamics and fun developments (the Christmas Carol version of their show was a delight) while continuing to deepen the characters. Love this show.

13. Dumbo I am generally a Tim Burton guy, but I was surprised by how much I loved this movie. And every moment Michael Keaton was on screen was a great one.

12. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker This was a weird year for Star Wars, with Star Wars: Resistance coming to a satisfactory (but disappointing compared to the previous two animated series) ending and publishing having a handful of fun tie-ins to Galaxy's Edge and Rise of Skywalker, without anything particularly standing out. And all of it was capped off with The Rise of Skywalker, a film that definitely suffers from a bunch of competing storytelling interests. But the big moments that need to hit all pretty much hit for me and the final moments on Tatooine especially got to me.

11. The Irishman We went to see this movie during it's special engagement in a Broadway theater, which felt like an appropriate experience for such an epic. Surprisingly funny and, in the end, almost breathtakingly melancholy, this was a really special movie.

10. Lethal White Another cozy, gripping read. The mystery was less nasty/scary than the last one, but it was still pretty involving, and I certainly want to see what happens next for Strike and Robin.

9. Toy Story 4 This felt truly unnecessary (and even kind of unwelcome) when it was announced, but it turned out to be a genuinely worthy entry. It hits or improves on the expected Toy Story elements (the jokes hit and the characters are lots of fun, and it may be the most beautiful Toy Story, with stunning widescreen animation), and Woody's story builds to a surprising and very emotional climax. Once again, I'd be happy if this was where we left the characters, which is no small feat for a movie that has to push beyond the ending of Toy Story 3.

8. Disney+ (The Mandalorian, The Imagineering Story, Forky Asks a Question, etc) I was still working full time at school and working on my master's degree this fall, so it's not like I really needed a new streaming service to spend time on. But this was such a fun thing to explore. The Mandalorian immediately became appointment television for us (if that whole first episode hadn’t have done it, the final scene would have). But so was The Imagineering Story (one of the best showbiz documentaries I've seen) and Forky Asks a Question ("What? No!" definitely entered our daily lexicon).

7. Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood I loved it for the hang out (I want to watch Cliff Booth and Rick Dalton watch episodes of TV shows together!). I loved it for the incredible tension of the Spahn Ranch sequence. I loved it for the wry wistfulness of the neon sign sequence. I loved it.

6. Knives Out Such a thoroughly great time. I love Rian Johnson's movies in general, but this might be my favorite since Brick.

5. Us I'm reasonably receptive to the "bigger and more rococo" sophomore film, so I was ready to respond to this movie. But it still really knocked me out. I love it for all of the great surface pleasures (scary "monster" design, tense scare sequences, incredible dual performances by Lupita Nyong'o) and I loved it for the chewy thematic ideas it teases at. Peele is two-for-two, in my book.

4. Little Women I was only familiar with this story in a vague sense (like, I am sure I knew one of the sisters died in the book, but I didn't know which one going in). But I LOVED this movie.

3. Avengers: Endgame For this big, climactic year of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I had made note to include the Skrull reaction shots in Captain Marvel (Talos and the milkshake being the top of the heap), and Spider-Man: Far From Home was as consistently delightful as it's Spidey predecessor, but it's hard to think of a collective audience experience that was more fun than Avengers: Endgame. It basically played out as a series of huge payoffs and shocking moments for about three hours, and between the laughs and cheers and audible sobs, it really ran the full audience-reaction gamut. Hard to imagine another movie building up this kind of steam for a big finale again, and it was pretty special to see on opening night.

2. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance I was pretty excited for this show. The original movie is dear to me, I'd heard really cool, encouraging stuff about the show, and the trailers were pretty gorgeous. And the show exceeded all of my hopes for it. It was funny and exciting. It developed the mythology of Thra in cool, intriguing ways. It was absolutely dazzling to look at. It jockeyed for position with the number 1 spot on this list. I adored it.

1. Godzilla: King of the Monsters I loved this. I wrote about it at SportsAlcohol.com. I saw it five or six times in theaters. A full meal for my imagination.

Top Twenty-Five Things I'm Excited About in 2020

Godzilla vs Kong No question, I'm spectacularly excited to see this one. I loved all three of the previous films leading up to it, and the status quo hinted at in the credits of King of the Monsters suggests some directions that I really hope to see explored further.

Animaniacs revival & Looney Tunes Cartoons Here's hoping that this is finally the year we get to see the new Looney Tunes they've been cooking up (seems like HBO Max will be a good place to put them...) and while it feels like a while since there's been new word on the Animaniacs revival that's due on Hulu, maybe that'll show up this year too. Looking forward to whatever Warner Bros. animation we can get.

Bill & Ted Face the Music One of the few decades-later sequels that I've actively been wanting to happen. I'm so glad this finally happened, and I can't wait to see what it will look like. I love the title. I love the details they've shared so far. And I'm glad to have an excuse to watch the previous two movies in the run-up to this one.

West Side Story Spielberg finally doing his movie musical! And it's a great musical! With a script adapted by Tony Kushner, no less. Sign me up.

Muppets Now I don't know enough about the format of this show to know how excited to be yet (they're generally good at improvising, but the notion of ad-libbed shorts doesn't sound quite like the Muppet Show revival I'd really like to see on Disney+). Still, new Muppets!

The French Dispatch Seems like this one should hit his year after a festival run. Really looking forward to getting a look at what he's cooked up this time.

Death on the Nile #thirtyBranaghPoirotmovies

Onward & Soul Two original Pixar movies in one year! Super excited about this. (Also pretty psyched for another original film from Disney Animation Studios in Raya and the Last Dragon.)

MCU at the Movies I glad to finally get that Black Widow movie this year, and I'm certainly interested to see The Eternals, which has a great cast and sounds like another new avenue to explore in the Marvel movie world.

MCU on Disney+ As excited as I am for the two theatrical Marvel movies this year, I'm also pretty into The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and WandaVision. Now that my beloved Captain America has effectively retired, I'm pretty excited to see what happens to his best friends as Sam Wilson becomes the new Cap. And the word on WandaVision (that it's going to be pretty weird), coupled with the hints that they are taking inspiration from Tom King's run on the Vision comic book, makes this one sound pretty special. The Mandalorian set a high bar for how exciting these Disney+ shows could be, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Marvel comes up with.

In the Heights Hamilton melted my brain five years ago, and the trailer for this movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical is so wonderful. Can’t wait.

Jungle Cruise Mulan looks super cool, but I've got pretty high hopes for Jungle Cruise. Jaume Collet-Serra is responsible for some wild genre excellence and I'm hoping he was able to bring some of that cracked vision to a big Disney adventure movie with the Rock and Emily Blunt. Sounds good to me.

Tenet Certainly looking forward to seeing Nolan return with another big, original genre picture with a great cast.

Dune Denis Villeneuve's last two science fiction films were aces and he's assembled a great cast here, so I'm hoping he'll do something special with this book.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife For as bad a taste as the ghost-bros left me with in their furor over the pretty fun 2016 remake, I'm loath to admit that I'm really looking forward to this. I liked the trailer, I'm excited to see the original characters return, I really like the new cast members, and I'm looking forward to a story with a different setting and everything.

Last Night in SoHo I like all of Edgar Wright's movies, and this sounds like an interesting change-up for him.

Star Trek on CBS All Access First up this year we know we’re getting Star Trek: Picard, and I’m particularly excited because this is a Star Trek that will be reaching past everything we’ve already seen and showing us a story set in the galaxy after the destruction of Romulus and Spock’s trip back in time. It looks really cool, and it’s pretty exciting to see Patrick Stewart playing the role again. Beyond that, we should have Star Trek: Lower Decks, which sounds like it should be a lot of fun, and the third season of Star Trek: Discovery which, based on the ending of the last season, promises to also explore previously unseen corners of the Star Trek universe/timeline.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels I loved the original Penny Dreadful, and I'm pretty into the milieu they've set this...sequel? revival? spiritual successor? Pretty cool cast, too.

F9 Still really enjoying these big, wild, nutty movies. And I know my #family will be excited to roll out and see this one together.

Cosmos: Possible Worlds I loved the last Cosmos revival, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they've come up with for this one.

Over the Moon Netflix is supposed to have a new animated film directed by Glen Keane this year, so I'm looking forward to watching it.

The Witches I love the book (and the original film version, for the most part) and I'm always rooting for Robert Zemeckis to make another stellar entertainment. Hoping this is one!

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Volume 2 Maybe this year!

Halloween Kills I loved the 2018 Halloween sequel, so I'm fully down to see the next two installments, starting with this one.

No Time to Die Daniel Craig’s swan song as Bond, this one has had some pretty rad trailers and a very cool director. Hope he gets to go out on a great one!

[grimelords]

very long post about podcasts because someone sent me an ask about podcasts and I love podcasts and you can't do read mores on mobile sorry.

Hello I just wrote this incredibly long post about all the podcasts I listen to and would therefore recommend. Before you ask, I work alone so that’s how I have so much time for this many podcasts, plus audiobooks and music listening and everything.

Comedy Shows I Listen To Every Week

Comedy Bang Bang - always good, always funny, and if you have howl or stitcher premium the month of tour shows they did last year is really the best thing the medium of podcasts has ever produced, I really love it.

Hollywood Handbook - the best podcast. notoriously ‘hard to get into’ because it apparently takes people a little to adjust to the mindset these guys are in, and it requires you to be a little bit of a podcast person and also to have listened to this show for 100 eps to get certain things but it’s really incredible if it’s your thing. Their latest episode where they designed cards is maybe one of the most accessible episodes they’ve done in a while and if you’ve ever listened to Spontaneanation the episode they did with Paul F Tompkins a couple of weeks ago had me absolutely crying laughing.

With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus - Lauren Lapkus is the funniest person on the planet, undoubtedly. This show varies pretty wildly depending on the guest because it’s so conceptual but it’s never ever bad. Also please watch the web series The Earliest Show she did with Ben Schwartz because while the show is really good, the hour of outtakes is one of my favourite videos ever.

My Brother, My Brother And Me - you already know what it is. Good show, fun time.

Spontaneanation - Paul F. Tompkins really is a gift and this show is very very good, it’s fun and silly and good natured which is a nice change of pace from a lot of the world. The recent episode with Lauren Lapkus and Tatiana Maslaney is really really good on both sides.

Comedy Shows I Listen To Sometimes

Hard Nation - this is a really good political satire that almost always becomes very absurd. I’ve stopped listening to it as much in the last few months as politics news has sort of outstripped the pace of a weekly satire which is insane, but the show is still great every episode.

Never Not Funny - pretty easygoing chat show that I’ll listen to depending on the guest, it’s always good even if it’s someone I don’t know.

improv4humans - Matt Besser is one of the worst human beings alive and I really wish literally anyone else would start a show with this exact format but for now it’s all I’ve got. Any of the Wild Horses eps are incredible if you want a recommendation.

The Adventure Zone - you already know what it is, it’s those brothers playing dungeons and dragons. I’m lightyears behind but I listen to this sometimes and I’m slowly catching up.

Victrola - Improv combined with tight editing in a similar vein to Superego.

Pappy’s Flatshare Slamdown - a british panel show in podcast format, very good.

Handsome Rambler - Hannibal Buress’ podcast, great if you’re a fan and pretty infrequent so it’s easy to keep up with.

The Todd Glass Show - Todd Glass is an incredibly odd man and his show really reflects that. There’s a live band and lots of code words. The recent ep with Paul F Tompkins is an all timer, please listen to it if nothing else.

The Smartest Man In The World - I have no idea what this show is. As I understand it it’s just Greg Proops talking to a crowd about whatever’s on his mind and sometimes they bring him books to read out of? Very strange but Greg Proops is so incredibly good at just talking that it’s a great listen.

The Comedian’s Comedian - Stuart Goldsmith interviews comedians about making comedy. Really illuminating if it’s someone you love. Bizzare if it’s someone you don’t like cause they’ll explain their incredibly involved process for coming up with shit and boring jokes.

Politics Podcasts I Listen To Most Days

Is It On? - Buzzfeed Australia’s politics podcast. Really good light wrap up of the week in federal politics mixed with interviews with politicians that are a lot more personal and engaging than a lot of political interviews.

AM - ABC Radio National’s daily morning show. It’s only half an hour so it’s a really easy way to stay in the loop on the way to work or something.

The World Today - same thing but about world news and longer if you’re really interested.

The Daily - The New Yorker’s daily podcast. Great way to keep up with whatever the fuck Trump is doing today without having to go scrying through half baked twitter takes every morning.

Podcasts That Most Closely Fit Into The Genre Of ‘Podcast’

Song Exploder - breaking down songs note by note with the writers, incredibly well produced and a pleasure to listen to.

Reply All - really interesting show about the internet and all the evils it contains. Their episode Very Quickly To The Drill is the most interesting story about locksmiths you’ll ever hear.

Heavyweight - Jonathan Goldstein helps people make peace with their past. This is one of the best podcasts I heard last year and I really cannot wait for a second season.

Black List Table Reads - full quasi-radio plays of unproduced film scripts from The Black List. An incredible show that I wish were more popular.

99% Invisible - great stories about architecture and design.

Invisibilia - similar but about your emotions and brain

Gunsmoke - oldtimeradio.com presents the original 1950s cowboy radio serial Gunsmoke! and thank god!

Radiolab - it’s podcasts baby!

This American Life - baby, it’s podcasts!

Shows That Are Finished Series

Wiretap - Incredible show that I can’t believe I never heard of before. Hard to explain but it feels kind of like if Seinfeld was a radio show and happened mostly via phone calls.

Reality Show Show - the Hollywood Handbook guys’ previous show. A lot more accessible and incredibly listenable for what you’d think would be a pretty time specific show about reality tv.

Dead Authors Podcast - Paul F. Tompkins as HG Wells interviews comedians in character as famous dead authors. Surprisingly well researched and incredibly funny.

Wild Horses: The Perspective - I am absolutely begging for more episodes of this show from Lauren Lapkus’ improv group because it is so so good.

U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - please listen to this show, even if you don’t like U2. In face especially if you don’t. Adam Scott and Scott Aukerman try to review U2’s discography but very quickly devolve into some of the most absurd podcasting ever.

Superego - tightly edited improv with music and everything. Incredibly strange in a good way and it takes a little to adjust to the tone but it’s a great show.

Mystery Show - still gutted this never got a second series. Detective show in the vein of Serial about incredibly benign mysteries like how tall Jake Gyllenhaal is.

Rum, Rebels And Ratbags - great Australian history podcast from David Hunt who wrote the very good Australian history books Girt and True Girt.

Not Available On Stitcher But Very Good

Dead Pilots Society - like The Black List Table Reads but for unproduced comedy show pilots. Hilarious, well produced and an interesting look at how getting a tv show made works.

Night People On WMFU - this show’s finished, but it was a late night call in show on some american radio station. Perfect oddball show for driving at night or falling asleep to.

Please reply to this post and tell me more podcasts you think I’d like, or even ones I wouldn’t but you do - who cares. If you reply to this post and tell me to listen to Cum Town I will block you.

[shirlleycoyle]

How to Get Into UFOs

While everyone is either officially quarantined or simply self-isolating, countless people are stuck at home with plenty of time on their hands. For a paranormal UFOnaut junky like myself, keeping my mind honed towards ‘high strangeness’ is tough. UFO and paranormal conferences are being shuttered and my travel plans have been derailed, I am unable to visit long abandoned bunkers searching for Mothman or chase a UFO in Utah. This lover of Forteana and the peculiar is left to sit on his couch and stare longingly into the black void of the TV screen or listen to my headphones. If you are like me, here some things to keep you tuned into the bizarre.

Best UFO Podcasts

Wading through the vast array of content can be tough, so here are a few places to get started. For an easy and leisurely dip into new and old UFO cases and events, rationally delivered in short 20-40 minute episodes, check out Unknown, a project put together by Jason McClellan and Mauren Elsberry. If you are looking for longer episodes that dive deep into various historical cases or guest interviews with Ufological royalty, Ryan Sprague’s Somewhere in the Skies podcast and Greg Bishop’s Radio Misterioso will help you cope with the new normal of social distancing. For those into an array of general weirdness, The Micah Hanks Program , The Last Podcast on the Left, Where Did the Road Go?, Hysteria 51, and Euphomet all have plenty of episodes to make your face melt, enjoy a belly laugh and help you ponder some of life’s greatest mysteries.

Best UFO Documentaries

“On the Trail Of…”

From filmmaker Seth Breedlove and his indie film company, Small Town Monsters, the “On the Trail Of…” series covers the infamous sea monster Champ, everyone’s favourite cryptid Bigfoot and, most recently, the UFO phenomenon. Each series is six episodes long and cut into 20 minute segments. While Champ and Bigfoot can be viewed for free on YouTube, Breedlove’s newest series, On the Trail of UFOs is on Amazon Prime. Check out Breedlove’s other documentary films, most of which exist on Amazon Prime Video, where he explores various interesting paranormal topics such as the infamous Mothman case, stories of werewolves, alien visitation and other incidents of high strangeness.

Hellier

Now into its second season, Dana and Greg Newkirk’s strange descent into Fortean madness has immediately become a hit in the paranormal subculture. Completely independent and fiercely and unapologetically bizarre, it recounts the tale of an unknown doctor in Hellier Kentucky who’s home was being plagued by strange diminutive creatures. The case takes the Newkirks and their associates into a mind bending journey involving mysterious cults, ancient witchcraft, interdimensional beings and, of course, goblins. It is maddening and will leave you asking, “WTF just happened?” Both seasons are on their website.

Witness of Another World (2018)

One of the best documentaries I’ve seen about an alleged UFO encounter, Witness of Another World, takes the viewer on a journey into the mind of a man who experienced something incredibly bizarre. With an overabundance of terrible UFO documentaries out there, all inevitably fall victim to the same issue. They don’t deal with the complex mythologies that surround the UFO historical narrative and discourse. While we can question the objective reality of the UFO encounter the subject in the documentary experiences, the film isn’t really about UFOs and extraterrestrials. It is about people and the legends and lore we build around ourselves. Psychologically compelling and beautifully shot, the documentary dredges up the very human experience of loneliness, mental health and how we cope with trauma. It is available on various streaming platforms, and a must watch for any fan of the UFO and paranormal genres.

Also check out Dave Beaty’s short documentary, The Nimitz Encounters, and subsequent research and interviews into one of the most interesting UFO cases of the 21st century.

Best UFO websites to read

While podcasts and movies are great, venturing deep into the bowels of the world wide web to explore UFO lore is probably my favorite thing to do. Here are a few websites that are essential reading and you can easily fall into for hours. First, make sure you get lost in John Greenewald’s massive stash of declassified government documents that range from UFOs to CIA mind control projects. His site, The Black Vault, is an essential source of legitimate government paperwork that makes you truly question everything.

For meticulously researched UFO themed information, timelines, and sourced data with citations, Australian researchers Paul Dean and Keith Basterfield run UFOs – Documenting the Evidence and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena respectively. For those who dig a really weird experience, check out the interactive map Liminal.Earth, and read through some of the most peculiar and often hilarious encounters with the supernatural. John Tenney’s Weird Lectures provides a good philosophical and often intellectual foray into various oddities.

And you should definitely check out Motherboard's UFWhoa archives, which has scoops and recommendations from me and other reporters.

These are, of course, just a starter’s guide, but most of these sites and podcasts are well-sourced and skeptical.

How to Get Into UFOs syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[celtfather]

Celtic Tree of Life #443

Search inside yourself with the Celtic Tree of Life. Let's make the world a better place with Celtic culture and the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.

Seldom Sober, We Banjo 3, Marc Gunn, The Gatehouse Well, McKasson & McDonald, Crepuscule, Alexander James Adams, An lar, Heather Dale, Kennedy's Kitchen, Ockham's Razor, Ballinloch, Battlelegs, Rebels and Sinners, Onde

I hope you enjoyed this week's show. If you did, please share the show with ONE friend.

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast is here to build our community and help the incredible artists who so generously share their music with you. If you hear music you love, buy the albums, shirts, and songbooks, follow the artists on Spotify, see their shows, and drop them an email to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast.

Remember also to Subscribe to the Celtic Music Magazine. Every week, you will get a few cool bits of Celtic music news. It's a quick and easy way to plug yourself into more great Celtic culture. Plus, you'll get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free, just for signing up today.

VOTE IN THE CELTIC TOP 20 This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. Just list the show number, and the name of as many bands in the episode as you like. Your vote helps me create next year's Best Celtic music of 2020 episode.  Vote Now!

THIS WEEK IN CELTIC MUSIC

0:04 - "Jigs: Geese in the Bog / The Wandering Minstrel / The Coleraine" by Seldom Sober from Six Months in Confession

3:49 - WELCOME

5:17 - "Crann Na Beatha (Tree of Life)" by We Banjo 3 from String Theory

8:26 - "Loch Tay Boat Song" by Marc Gunn from Scottish Songs of Drinking & Rebellion

12:37 - "Tree Gap Set" by The Gatehouse Well from Bring You Ashore

16:18 - "Mark the Hard Earth" by McKasson & McDonald from Harbour

21:17 - CELTIC FEEDBACK

27:53 - "Lilting Music - Tree Set" by Crepuscule from Shades of Music

31:42 - "He of the Sidhe" by Alexander James Adams from Balance of Nature

38:01 - "No Land's Man" by An lar from Deception

43:39 - "Hawthorn Tree" by Heather Dale from Avalon

47:15 - "The Umbrella Reel, Two Days To Go, Down The Broom" by Kennedy's Kitchen from The Whiskey of Truth

52:03 - CELTIC PODCAST NEWS

55:43 - "Lark in the Morning" by Ockham's Razor from Songs from Potter's Field

1:01:06 - "The Intervention Set" by Ballinloch from Rise Up!

1:03:52 - "Greenland Whale Fisheries" by Battlelegs from Save the Humans

1:06:20 - "Mother Tree" by Rebels and Sinners from Day's Just Begun

1:10:40 - CLOSING

1:11:57 - "After the Storm" by Onde from Maelstrom

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was edited by Mitchell Petersen with Graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. The show was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather. To subscribe, go to Apple Podcasts or to our website where you can become a Patron of the Podcast for as little as $1 per episode. Promote Celtic culture through music at http://celticmusicpodcast.com/.

  CELTIC PODCAST NEWS

* Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. My name is Marc Gunn. I am a Celtic musician and podcaster. This show is dedicated to the indie Celtic musicians. Please support these artists. Share the show with your friends. And find more episodes at celticmusicpodcast.com. You can also support this podcast on Patreon.

There are Australian bushfires, oil spills, erratic temperature changes, earthquakes, hurricanes, the list goes on and on. Life on our planet is in a delicate balance. The Celts knew this. That’s why trees were so important to Celtic culture.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe all the scientific evidence that points to human-made Climate Change. What is important is stewardship of our planet. We need to take care of it.

So in 2020, I want to draw attention to our hurting planet and how we can do just that. That’s why our latest shirt and sticker design includes the Celtic Tree of Life.

I’ll be honest. I don’t have specifics as to what we can do. But if you have suggestions, please email me.

The 2020 Sainted Celtic Collection is now online. This is a very special package I put together each year to pay for the production of the podcast, but also to give you a way to promote the show.

You’ll get a t-shirt, a couple pint glasses, a bunch of stickers, our Victims of Irish Music compilation CD and my latest CDs with the Brobdingnagian Bards. Plus, this year, you’ll also get a digital copy of my Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers album.

It’s all one insanely low price. And the offer is good until February 3, 2020. Head on over to MageRecords.com to support the podcast today.

CELTIC PODCAST NETWORK This is not the Celtic podcast out there. I’m sure you already know that. But you may not what other Celtic podcasts there are online. That’s the reasons I share new episodes of other Celtic podcasts every week in the Celtic Music Magazine. This is one of the benefits of subscribing and reading. You’ll learn about other great shows you might enjoy.

What shows? Well, let me share a few.

Erin’s Isle is published by Erin Breen, an Emmy award-winning journalist, columnist and writer for television, radio and print who has put 25 years of experience to work honing a true talent for storytelling. Her podcast is internationally known and has become part of the inflight entertainment on Aer Lingus flights to and from Ireland. She explores the out of the way adventures you could easily miss if she weren’t one step ahead of you.

Irish Music Stories is published by Shannon Heaton. She plays Irish flute and sings. She LOVEs Irish music and dance, and related Celtic traditions. This show is her way of sharing the rich inspiration that the global ‘trad’ community has given to her, with the stories behind the music.

After a long hiatus, Celtic Roots Radio is back. Raymond McCullough in Downpatrick, Co. Down, Northern Ireland whet's yer appetite with Celtic, folk, folk/rock, Appalachian, Breton, bluegrass, Scottish, Irish, Cajun, Cape Breton, singer/songwriter – if its Celtic, roots or acoustic music you want, you'll find it there (plus a wee drop a' Norn Iron craic!). The show is once again publishing new episodes.

You can find links to ALL of these podcasts and more at MageNetwork.com. That’s where I publish links to all of my shows and posts links to other Celtic podcasts to share with you in the Celtic Music Magazine.

TRAVEL WITH CELTIC INVASION VACATIONS Every year, I take a small group of Celtic music fans on the relaxing adventure of a lifetime. We don't see everything. Instead, we stay in one area. We get to know the region through its culture, history, and legends. You can join us with an auditory and visual adventure through podcasts and videos. Learn more about the invasion at http://celticinvasion.com/

I still have space in 2020 for the Celtic Invasion of Italy. It’s gonna be monumental. You don’t want to miss it!

THANK YOU PATRONS OF THE PODCAST! Because of Your kind and generous support, this show comes out every week. You can pledge a dollar or more per episode and cap how much you want to spend each month over on Patreon.

Your generosity funds the creation, promotion and production of the show. It allows us to attract new listeners and to help our community grow. Plus, you get to hear episodes before regular listeners. When we hit a milestone, you get an extra-long episode.

I want to thank our newest Patrons of the Podcast: Samantha M, Christine M, Robyn

You can become a generous Patron of the Podcast at http://patreon.com/celticpodcast.

  I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK

What are you doing today while listening to the podcast? You can send a written comment along with a picture of what you're doing while listening. Email a voicemail message to celticpodcast@gmail.com

Heidi Murphy emailed a photo: "I’m listening to this while editing my book. Lovely Celtic Christmas music!

I noticed the other day that you had Round the House on. They're so cool. I've jammed with them before (I play tin whistle and bodhran) and they're delightful.

I recently went to the World Highland Games in Tucson, AZ. It was so lovely to watch them toss the caber and hammer. They broke a record in something I don’t know the name of. It’s a 2 stone bail of hay trussed up in canvas they toss with a pitchfork. I’d love to know what that’s called. I was off listening to music and eating haggis and a scone when they announced that name.

Here’s a pic of me hiking home from Muckross Abbey after a long day of exploring in the rain. Slainte"

Marshall Blosser emailed: "Hey Celtfather,

In searching for Newfoundland Celtic artists it dawned on me that you had a 2 hour special on Canadian Celtic music back in 2016. Episode 254 specifically from April 7, 2016.   That episode gave me several artists to look up.  For me specifically, The Rolling Kings, and The Ennis Sisters. As well as a few others from neighboring provinces.

My own on-line research found several other artists although I am not sure how many are still active. Listing the ones I can find on either Amazon or CDBaby first: The Irish Descendants, Celtic Connection, Shanneyganook, The Flummies, and Great Big Sea.

I know Great Big Sea isn't an active group any more but it's members, specifically Alan Doyle, Sean McCann and Murray Foster have continued to record music.

There is one band I want to get some recordings of but I can't find any information on is Greeley's Reel. They've been playing the local St John's pubs for 10 years.

As I visit the pubs I will make sure to try and connect any Irish/Celtic bands I find to your submission page. I am also kicking around the idea of starting a podcast of local artists for Newfoundland to help get them some more exposure. Any advise on how you started would be awesome. Looking forward to sending you many new artists"

Tim Sommer in Middleton, ID emailed: "Hi Marc, I love your podcast and wanted to support it and was signing up for the $5 per month contribution and I just briefly saw the window to select that.... when what do you know...I was signed up for the $5 per episode.  Couldn’t figure out how to change that number so am asking for your help to change it.

Yes, I do think you are worth $5 an episode but if my wife starts seeing the monthly amount for that instead of the $5 per month, she’ll be using her serious face and posture, asking me what I thought I was doing.

It could impact my entire Irish and Scottish music habit.  It’s like knowing how many beers you can drink at the session before you are in serious trouble."

Check out this episode!

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Second Galaxy, Space Hotel & Creative Emmys

I’m a Nerd and I’m okay, I play all night and I sleep all day, I read science journals, I eat my lunch I ride on the hover train (I wish). Welcome back to another exciting and fun filled episode from those whacky Nerds. First up this week we have a story about China influencing game studios to block any references to protests in Hong Kong. Obviously we weren’t approached, probably because of Buck’s rants. But this is kind of bad as it is enforcing the propaganda of a military regime. So please listen in and then go forth and show support for Hong Kong in its bid for democratic freedom from oppression. Viva la revolution!

Next up we look at news of resorts and hotels being planned for space. That’s right, hotels in orbit! You will be able to play basketball in one if you are so inclined. There is even mention of accommodation available on the ISS for a price, but no airport transfers, sorry. So if you know anyone expecting a return visit from aliens and wanting to avoid those pesky immigration queues then this might be just the ticket.

Then we look at the Emmy awards, particularly the creative side. They took place recently and there are some interesting winners to take a look at. There are the usual suspects that are to be expected, such as Game of Thrones, but also others such as “Age of Sail.” So take a look through the list and see who you like and also if there is something you like and we over looked it.

As always we have the shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and special events from this week in history. We are planning on being at Supanova again this year, if you are let us know and we will be happy to see you. Until next time stay safe, take care of each other and stay hydrated.

EPISODE NOTES:

Hong Kong protest references removed in game - https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/d4brd7/mobile_game_second_galaxy_removing_guilds_with/

A Space hotel experience - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/fake-gravity-and-supersized-basketball-a-look-inside-the-space-hotel-experience/ar-AAHhTCr

2019 Creative Emmy Awards and the winners - https://deadline.com/2019/09/creative-arts-emmy-awards-2019-winners-list-1202734630/

Games currently playing

Buck

– The Orville Fan experience - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1096200/The_Orville__Interactive_Fan_Experience/

Professor

– Creeper World : Anniversary Edition - https://store.steampowered.com/app/422910/Creeper_World_Anniversary_Edition/

DJ

– Warframe - https://store.steampowered.com/app/230410/Warframe/

Other topics discussed

White Chicks (2004 American comedy film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Chicks

Forensic Firearm exam (forensic process of examining the characteristics of firearms as well as any cartridges or bullets left behind at a crime scene.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_firearm_examination

Steam removes Devotion game

- https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18239937/taiwanese-horror-game-devotion-gone-steam-removed-winnie-the-pooh-meme-china

University of Queensland as students clashed over their views on China and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-24/uq-student-protest-anger-over-hong-kong-chinese-minorities/11343130

Shenmue 3 undergoing slight changes

- https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/09/shenmue-3-reportedly-undergoes-slight-alterations-for-chinese-localization/93134/?fbclid=IwAR3icI-5tQESFeT0-2G4i7Zgr_jhh89E8eJvjBQKaoA6eoGajwU7rIM1svM

Sony’s strict content censorship

- https://boundingintocomics.com/2019/04/23/sony-confirms-existence-of-strict-content-censorship-policy-regarding-playstation-4-releases/

AC/DC (Australian Band)

- https://www.sonymusic.co.uk/artists/acdc

Von Braun Station also known as Rotating wheel space station

- https://gatewayspaceport.com/von-braun-station/

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_wheel_space_station

Fly in Fly out (method of employing people in remote areas by flying them temporarily to the work site instead of relocating employees and their families permanently.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly-in_fly-out

Launchbat (Bat hanging onto space shuttle)

- https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts119/launchbat.html

Space Elevator (proposed type of planet-to-space transportation system.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

Space Station V (Largest orbital structure ever built. It featured an orbital hotel, run by Hilton Hotels; a Howard Johnson's restaurant; lounge areas; and picture phone booths. It was featured in 2001 : A Space Odyssey)

- https://2001.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Station_V

Age of Sails (2018 animated movie)

- IMDB page - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8908420/

- Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH3HOcRayC8

Love, Death & Robots stylized as LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS (American adult animated science fiction anthology web television series on Netflix)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Death_%26_Robots

If Memory Serves (Star Trek Discovery episode)

- https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/If_Memory_Serves_(episode)

It’s My Birthday (Thor Ragnarok scene)

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8BBBJRxMk

Cutscene Saga (TNC Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/cutscenesagapodcast

Imogen and Harrison Predict the Future (New TNC Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/iahptfpodcast

Shoutouts

16 Sept 1959 - The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, on live television from New York City. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_914

16 Sept 1976 – Armenian champion swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into a Yerevan reservoir. While jogging alongside Yerevan Lake with his brother Kamo, also a finswimmer, Karapetyan had just completed his usual distance of 20 km when he heard the sound of a crash and saw a sinking trolleybus which had gone out of control and fallen from a dam wall. The combined effect of cold water and the multiple lacerations from glass shards led to Karapetyan's hospitalization for 45 days, as he developed pneumonia and sepsis. Subsequent lung complications prevented Karapetyan from continuing his sports career. He was awarded the Medal "For the Salvation of the Drowning" and the Order of the Badge of Honor. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavarsh_Karapetyan

16 Sept 2019 - Fisherman catches ‘alien’ fish with huge bulbous eyes off Norwegian island and ate it. Mr Oscar Lundahl, 19, was fishing for the blue halibut of Andoya in northern Norway, He nearly jumped out of his fishing boat when he saw the bizarre-looking species with bulbous eyes on the end of his line. The specimen is a ratfish, whose Latin name Chimeras Monstrosa Linnaeus is aptly derived from a Greek mythical monster that had the head of a lion and tail of a dragon. The fish — a relative of the shark that dates back 300 million years — live in deep water and are very rarely caught. Not wanting to waste it, he said he took the fish home and fried it up. Despite its ugly appearance, it was delicious. “It is a bit like cod but tastier,” he said. - https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/fisherman-catches-alien-fish-with-huge-bulbous-eyes-off-norwegian-island/news-story/7bee99e9f22dd336031d40692636c008

Remembrances

16 Sept 1736 - Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, a physicist,inventor, and scientific instrument maker. Fahrenheit was born in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), then a predominantly German-speaking Hanseatic city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but lived most of his life in the Dutch Republic (1701–1736) and was one of the notable figures in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A pioneer of exact thermometry, he helped lay the foundations for the era of precision thermometry by inventing the mercury-in-glass thermometer (first practical, accurate thermometer) and Fahrenheit scale (first standardized temperature scale to be widely used). In other words, Fahrenheit's inventions ushered in the first revolution in the history of thermometry (branch of physics concerned with methods of temperature measurement). From the early 1710s until the beginnings of the electronic era, mercury-in-glass thermometers were among the most reliable and accurate thermometers ever invented. He died from mercury poisoning at the age of 50 in The Hague - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gabriel_Fahrenheit

16 Sept 2005 - Gordon Gould, American physicist who is widely, but not universally, credited with the invention of the laser (Others attribute the invention to Theodore Maiman). Gould is best known for his thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies. He also fought with laser manufacturers in court battles to enforce the patents he subsequently did obtain. He died from natural causes at the age of 85 in New York City - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gould

15 Sept 2019 - Richard Theodore Otcasek known as Ric Ocasek, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and painter. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and songwriter for the rock band the Cars . In 2018, Ocasek was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cars. That same year, he exhibited several his paintings in a national tour. He died from heart disease at the age of 75 in New York City - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_Ocasek

Famous Birthdays

16 Sept 1875 - James Cash "J. C." Penney Jr., American businessman and entrepreneur who founded the J. C. Penney stores in 1902. In 1898, James Cash Penney began working for a small chain of stores in the western United States called the Golden Rule stores. In 1902, owners Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan, impressed by his work ethic and salesmanship, offered him one-third partnership in a new store he would open. Penney invested $2,000 and moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming, to open a store there. He participated in opening two more stores, and when Callahan and Johnson dissolved their partnership in 1907, he purchased full interest in all three stores. By 1912, there were 34 stores in the Rocky Mountain States. In 1913, he moved the company to the Kearns Building in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The company was incorporated under the new name, J. C. Penney Company. By 1924, Penneys' reported income of more than $1 million annually. The number of stores reached 1,400 by 1929. He remained as chairman of the board until 1946, and after that as honorary chairman until his death in 1971. Until the end of his life, he continued to go to his offices. He was born in Hamilton, Missouri. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cash_Penney

16 Sept 1925 - Riley B. King, known professionally as B.B. King, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric blues guitarists. King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert and Freddie King). King performed tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts per year into his 70s. In 1956 alone, he appeared at 342 shows. He was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.B._King

16 Sept 1956 - David Seth Kotkin, known professionally as David Copperfield, American magician, described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield's television specials have won 21 Emmy Awards of a total 38 nominations. Best known for his combination of storytelling and illusion, Copperfield's career of over 40 years has earned him 11 Guinness World Records, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a knighthood by the French government, and he has been named a Living Legend by the US Library of Congress. Copperfield has so far sold 33 million tickets and grossed over $4 billion, more than any other solo entertainer in history. In 2015, Forbes listed his earnings at $63 million for the previous 12 months and ranked him the 20th highest-earning celebrity in the world. When not performing, he manages his chain of eleven resort islands in the Bahamas, which he calls "Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay". He was born in Metuchen, New Jersey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Copperfield_(illusionist)

16 Sept 1960 – Danny John Jules, British actor, singer and dancer. He played Cat in the sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf and policeman Dwayne Myers in the crime drama Death in Paradise. He was also a protagonist in the hit CBBC children's spy drama M.I. High, in which he portrayed Lenny Bicknall, the caretaker. On 13 August 2018 he was announced as one of the celebrity contestants on the 2018 series of Strictly Come Dancing. He was eliminated from the show on 11 November 2018. He was born in Paddington,London - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_John-Jules

Events of interest

16 Sept 1963 – The Outer Limits first aired on ABC, the series is often compared to The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction stories (rather than stories of fantasy or the supernatural matters). The Outer Limits is an anthology of self-contained episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outer_Limits_(1963_TV_series)

16 Sept 1979 - Eight people escaped from East Germany to the west in a homemade hot air balloon. The plot to accomplish this was carried out over a period of one and a half years, including an unsuccessful attempt, three different balloons, and various modifications until the successful escape occurred. One failed crossing alerted the government to the plot, but the police were not able to identify the suspects before their flight to the west. The escape has been portrayed in two films: Night Crossing and Der Ballon. The former, also called With the Wind to the West - the English translation of the German title, was an English-language film produced by Disney. The latter was a German-language production which "both families welcomed [Director] Herbig’s desire to, as he put it, 'make a German film for an international audience. In 2017, the balloon was put on permanent exhibition at the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte (Museum of Bavarian History). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_balloon_escape

17 Sept 1978 – Battlestar Galactica first aired its 148 minute pilot on ABC, starring Lorne Greene,Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict, it ran for the 1978–1979 season before being canceled. In 1980, a write-in campaign revived the show as Galactica 1980 with 10 episodes. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(1978_TV_series)

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

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[thesnhuup]

Pop Picks — May 19, 2019

May 19, 2019

What I’m listening to: 

I usually go to music here, but I was really moved by this podcast of a Davis Brooks talk at the Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/david-brooks-quest-moral-life.  While I have long found myself distant from his political stance, he has come through a dark night of the soul and emerged with a wonderful clarity about calling, community, and not happiness (that most superficial of goals), but fulfillment and meaning, found in community and human kinship of many kinds. I immediately sent it to my kids.

What I’m reading: 

Susan Orlean’s wonderful The Library Book, a love song to libraries told through the story of the LA Central Library.  It brought back cherished memories of my many hours in beloved libraries — as a kid in the Waltham Public Library, a high schooler in the Farber Library at Brandeis (Lil Farber years later became a mentor of mine), and the cathedral-like Bapst Library at BC when I was a graduate student. Yes, I was a nerd. This is a love song to books certainly, but a reminder that libraries are so, so much more.  It is a reminder that libraries are less about a place or being a repository of information and, like America at its best, an idea and ideal. By the way, oh to write like her.

What I’m watching: 

What else? Game of Thrones, like any sensible human being. This last season is disappointing in many ways and the drop off in the writing post George R.R. Martin is as clear as was the drop off in the post-Sorkin West Wing. I would be willing to bet that if Martin has been writing the last season, Sansa and Tyrion would have committed suicide in the crypt. That said, we fans are deeply invested and even the flaws are giving us so much to discuss and debate. In that sense, the real gift of this last season is the enjoyment between episodes, like the old pre-streaming days when we all arrived at work after the latest episode of the Sopranos to discuss what we had all seen the night before. I will say this, the last two episodes — full of battle and gore – have been visually stunning. Whether the torches of the Dothraki being extinguished in the distance or Arya riding through rubble and flame on a white horse, rarely has the series ascended to such visual grandeur.

Archive 

March 28, 2019

What I’m listening to: 

There is a lovely piece played in a scene from A Place Called Home that I tracked down. It’s Erik Satie’s 3 Gymnopédies: Gymnopédie No. 1, played by the wonderful pianist Klára Körmendi. Satie composed this piece in 1888 and it was considered avant-garde and anti-Romantic. It’s minimalism and bit of dissonance sound fresh and contemporary to my ears and while not a huge Classical music fan, I’ve fallen in love with the Körmendi playlist on Spotify. When you need an alternative to hours of Cardi B.

What I’m reading: 

Just finished Esi Edugyan’s 2018 novel Washington Black. Starting on a slave plantation in Barbados, it is a picaresque novel that has elements of Jules Verne, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad. Yes, it strains credulity and there are moments of “huh?”, but I loved it (disclosure: I was in the minority among my fellow book club members) and the first third is a searing depiction of slavery. It’s audacious, sprawling (from Barbados to the Arctic to London to Africa), and the writing, especially about nature, luminous. 

What I’m watching: 

A soap opera. Yes, I’d like to pretend it’s something else, but we are 31 episodes into the Australian drama A Place Called Home and we are so, so addicted. Like “It’s  AM, but can’t we watch just one more episode?” addicted. Despite all the secrets, cliff hangers, intrigue, and “did that just happen?” moments, the core ingredients of any good soap opera, APCH has superb acting, real heft in terms of subject matter (including homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexual assault, and class), touches of our beloved Downton Abbey, and great cars. Beware. If you start, you won’t stop.

February 11, 2019

What I’m listening to:

Raphael Saadiq has been around for quite a while, as a musician, writer, and producer. He’s new to me and I love his old school R&B sound. Like Leon Bridges, he brings a contemporary freshness to the genre, sounding like a young Stevie Wonder (listen to “You’re The One That I Like”). Rock and Roll may be largely dead, but R&B persists – maybe because the former was derivative of the latter and never as good (and I say that as a Rock and Roll fan). I’m embarrassed to only have discovered Saadiq so late in his career, but it’s a delight to have done so.

What I’m reading:

Just finished Marilynne Robinson’s Home, part of her trilogy that includes the Pulitzer Prize winning first novel, Gilead, and the book after Home, Lila. Robinson is often described as a Christian writer, but not in a conventional sense. In this case, she gives us a modern version of the prodigal son and tells the story of what comes after he is welcomed back home. It’s not pretty. Robinson is a self-described Calvinist, thus character begets fate in Robinson’s world view and redemption is at best a question. There is something of Faulkner in her work (I am much taken with his famous “The past is never past” quote after a week in the deep South), her style is masterful, and like Faulkner, she builds with these three novels a whole universe in the small town of Gilead. Start with Gilead to better enjoy Home.

What I’m watching:

Sex Education was the most fun series we’ve seen in ages and we binged watched it on Netflix. A British homage to John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Pretty in Pink, it feels like a mash up of American and British high schools. Focusing on the relationship of Maeve, the smart bad girl, and Otis, the virginal and awkward son of a sex therapist (played with brilliance by Gillian Anderson), it is laugh aloud funny and also evolves into more substance and depth (the abortion episode is genius). The sex scenes are somehow raunchy and charming and inoffensive at the same time and while ostensibly about teenagers (it feels like it is explaining contemporary teens to adults in many ways), the adults are compelling in their good and bad ways. It has been renewed for a second season, which is a gift.

January 3, 2019

What I’m listening to:

My listening choices usually refer to music, but this time I’m going with Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast on genius and the song Hallelujah. It tells the story of Leonard Cohen’s much-covered song Hallelujah and uses it as a lens on kinds of genius and creativity. Along the way, he brings in Picasso and Cézanne, Elvis Costello, and more. Gladwell is a good storyteller and if you love pop music, as I do, and Hallelujah, as I do (and you should), you’ll enjoy this podcast. We tend to celebrate the genius who seems inspired in the moment, creating new work like lightning strikes, but this podcast has me appreciating incremental creativity in a new way. It’s compelling and fun at the same time.

What I’m reading:

Just read Clay Christensen’s new book, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. This was an advance copy, so soon available. Clay is an old friend and a huge influence on how we have grown SNHU and our approach to innovation. This book is so compelling, because we know attempts at development have so often been a failure and it is often puzzling to understand why some countries with desperate poverty and huge challenges somehow come to thrive (think S. Korea, Singapore, 19th C. America), while others languish. Clay offers a fresh way of thinking about development through the lens of his research on innovation and it is compelling. I bet this book gets a lot of attention, as most of his work does. I also suspect that many in the development community will hate it, as it calls into question the approach and enormous investments we have made in an attempt to lift countries out of poverty. A provocative read and, as always, Clay is a good storyteller.

What I’m watching:

Just watched Leave No Trace and should have guessed that it was directed by Debra Granik. She did Winter’s Bone, the extraordinary movie that launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career. Similarly, this movie features an amazing young actor, Thomasin McKenzie, and visits lives lived on the margins. In this case, a veteran suffering PTSD, and his 13-year-old daughter. The movie is patient, is visually lush, and justly earned 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (I have a rule to never watch anything under 82%). Everything in this film is under control and beautifully understated (aside from the visuals) – confident acting, confident directing, and so humane. I love the lack of flashbacks, the lack of sensationalism – the movie trusts the viewer, rare in this age of bombast. A lovely film.

December 4, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spending a week in New Zealand, we had endless laughs listening to the Kiwi band, Flight of the Conchords. Lots of comedic bands are funny, but the music is only okay or worse. These guys are funny – hysterical really – and the music is great. They have an uncanny ability to parody almost any style. In both New Zealand and Australia, we found a wry sense of humor that was just delightful and no better captured than with this duo. You don’t have to be in New Zealand to enjoy them.

What I’m reading:

I don’t often reread. For two reasons: A) I have so many books on my “still to be read” pile that it seems daunting to also rereadbooks I loved before, and B) it’s because I loved them once that I’m a little afraid to read them again. That said, I was recently asked to list my favorite book of all time and I answered Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. But I don’t really know if that’s still true (and it’s an impossible question anyway – favorite book? On what day? In what mood?), so I’m rereading it and it feels like being with an old friend. It has one of my very favorite scenes ever: the card game between Levin and Kitty that leads to the proposal and his joyous walking the streets all night.

What I’m watching:

Blindspotting is billed as a buddy-comedy. Wow does that undersell it and the drama is often gripping. I loved Daveed Diggs in Hamilton, didn’t like his character in Black-ish, and think he is transcendent in this film he co-wrote with Rafael Casal, his co-star.  The film is a love song to Oakland in many ways, but also a gut-wrenching indictment of police brutality, systemic racism and bias, and gentrification. The film has the freshness and raw visceral impact of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. A great soundtrack, genre mixing, and energy make it one of my favorite movies of 2018.

October 15, 2018 

What I’m listening to:

We had the opportunity to see our favorite band, The National, live in Dallas two weeks ago. Just after watching Mistaken for Strangers, the documentary sort of about the band. So we’ve spent a lot of time going back into their earlier work, listening to songs we don’t know well, and reaffirming that their musicality, smarts, and sound are both original and astoundingly good. They did not disappoint in concert and it is a good thing their tour ended, as we might just spend all of our time and money following them around. Matt Berninger is a genius and his lead vocals kill me (and because they are in my range, I can actually sing along!). Their arrangements are profoundly good and go right to whatever brain/heart wiring that pulls one in and doesn’t let them go.

What I’m reading:

Who is Richard Powers and why have I only discovered him now, with his 12th book? Overstory is profoundly good, a book that is essential and powerful and makes me look at my everyday world in new ways. In short, a dizzying example of how powerful can be narrative in the hands of a master storyteller. I hesitate to say it’s the best environmental novel I’ve ever read (it is), because that would put this book in a category. It is surely about the natural world, but it is as much about we humans. It’s monumental and elegiac and wondrous at all once. Cancel your day’s schedule and read it now. Then plant a tree. A lot of them.

What I’m watching:

Bo Burnham wrote and directed Eighth Grade and Elsie Fisher is nothing less than amazing as its star (what’s with these new child actors; see Florida Project). It’s funny and painful and touching. It’s also the single best film treatment that I have seen of what it means to grow up in a social media shaped world. It’s a reminder that growing up is hard. Maybe harder now in a world of relentless, layered digital pressure to curate perfect lives that are far removed from the natural messy worlds and selves we actually inhabit. It’s a well-deserved 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and I wonder who dinged it for the missing 2%.

September 7, 2018

What I’m listening to:

With a cover pointing back to the Beastie Boys’ 1986 Licensed to Ill, Eminem’s quietly released Kamikaze is not my usual taste, but I’ve always admired him for his “all out there” willingness to be personal, to call people out, and his sheer genius with language. I thought Daveed Diggs could rap fast, but Eminem is supersonic at moments, and still finds room for melody. Love that he includes Joyner Lucas, whose “I’m Not Racist” gets added to the growing list of simply amazing music videos commenting on race in America. There are endless reasons why I am the least likely Eminem fan, but when no one is around to make fun of me, I’ll put it on again.

What I’m reading:

Lesley Blume’s Everyone Behaves Badly, which is the story behind Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and his time in 1920s Paris (oh, what a time – see Midnight in Paris if you haven’t already). Of course, Blume disabuses my romantic ideas of that time and place and everyone is sort of (or profoundly so) a jerk, especially…no spoiler here…Hemingway. That said, it is a compelling read and coming off the Henry James inspired prose of Mrs. Osmond, it made me appreciate more how groundbreaking was Hemingway’s modern prose style. Like his contemporary Picasso, he reinvented the art and it can be easy to forget, these decades later, how profound was the change and its impact. And it has bullfights.

What I’m watching:

Chloé Zhao’s The Rider is just exceptional. It’s filmed on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which provides a stunning landscape, and it feels like a classic western reinvented for our times. The main characters are played by the real-life people who inspired this narrative (but feels like a documentary) film. Brady Jandreau, playing himself really, owns the screen. It’s about manhood, honor codes, loss, and resilience – rendered in sensitive, nuanced, and heartfelt ways. It feels like it could be about large swaths of America today. Really powerful.

August 16, 2018

What I’m listening to:

In my Spotify Daily Mix was Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman, one of the world’s greatest love songs. Go online and read the story of how the song was discovered and recorded. There are competing accounts, but Sledge said he improvised it after a bad breakup. It has that kind of aching spontaneity. It is another hit from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, one of the GREAT music hotbeds, along with Detroit, Nashville, and Memphis. Our February Board meeting is in Alabama and I may finally have to do the pilgrimage road trip to Muscle Shoals and then Memphis, dropping in for Sunday services at the church where Rev. Al Green still preaches and sings. If the music is all like this, I will be saved.

What I’m reading:

John Banville’s Mrs. Osmond, his homage to literary idol Henry James and an imagined sequel to James’ 1881 masterpiece Portrait of a Lady. Go online and read the first paragraph of Chapter 25. He is…profoundly good. Makes me want to never write again, since anything I attempt will feel like some other, lowly activity in comparison to his mastery of language, image, syntax. This is slow reading, every sentence to be savored.

What I’m watching:

I’ve always respected Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but we just watched the documentary RGB. It is over-the-top great and she is now one of my heroes. A superwoman in many ways and the documentary is really well done. There are lots of scenes of her speaking to crowds and the way young women, especially law students, look at her is touching.  And you can’t help but fall in love with her now late husband Marty. See this movie and be reminded of how important is the Law.

July 23, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spotify’s Summer Acoustic playlist has been on repeat quite a lot. What a fun way to listen to artists new to me, including The Paper Kites, Hollow Coves, and Fleet Foxes, as well as old favorites like Leon Bridges and Jose Gonzalez. Pretty chill when dialing back to a summer pace, dining on the screen porch or reading a book.

What I’m reading:

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson tells of the racial injustice (and the war on the poor our judicial system perpetuates as well) that he discovered as a young graduate from Harvard Law School and his fight to address it. It is in turn heartbreaking, enraging, and inspiring. It is also about mercy and empathy and justice that reads like a novel. Brilliant.

What I’m watching:

Fauda. We watched season one of this Israeli thriller. It was much discussed in Israel because while it focuses on an ex-special agent who comes out of retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist, it was willing to reveal the complexity, richness, and emotions of Palestinian lives. And the occasional brutality of the Israelis. Pretty controversial stuff in Israel. Lior Raz plays Doron, the main character, and is compelling and tough and often hard to like. He’s a mess. As is the world in which he has to operate. We really liked it, and also felt guilty because while it may have been brave in its treatment of Palestinians within the Israeli context, it falls back into some tired tropes and ultimately falls short on this front.

June 11, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Like everyone else, I’m listening to Pusha T drop the mic on Drake. Okay, not really, but do I get some points for even knowing that? We all walk around with songs that immediately bring us back to a time or a place. Songs are time machines. We are coming up on Father’s Day. My own dad passed away on Father’s Day back in 1994 and I remembering dutifully getting through the wake and funeral and being strong throughout. Then, sitting alone in our kitchen, Don Henley’s The End of the Innocence came on and I lost it. When you lose a parent for the first time (most of us have two after all) we lose our innocence and in that passage, we suddenly feel adult in a new way (no matter how old we are), a longing for our own childhood, and a need to forgive and be forgiven. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll understand. As Wordsworth reminds us in In Memoriam, there are seasons to our grief and, all these years later, this song no longer hits me in the gut, but does transport me back with loving memories of my father. I’ll play it Father’s Day.

What I’m reading:

The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin. I am not a reader of fantasy or sci-fi, though I understand they can be powerful vehicles for addressing the very real challenges of the world in which we actually live. I’m not sure I know of a more vivid and gripping illustration of that fact than N. K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award winning novel The Fifth Season, first in her Broken Earth trilogy. It is astounding. It is the fantasy parallel to The Underground Railroad, my favorite recent read, a depiction of subjugation, power, casual violence, and a broken world in which our hero(s) struggle, suffer mightily, and still, somehow, give us hope. It is a tour de force book. How can someone be this good a writer? The first 30 pages pained me (always with this genre, one must learn a new, constructed world, and all of its operating physics and systems of order), and then I could not put it down. I panicked as I neared the end, not wanting to finish the book, and quickly ordered the Obelisk Gate, the second novel in the trilogy, and I can tell you now that I’ll be spending some goodly portion of my weekend in Jemisin’s other world.

What I’m watching:

The NBA Finals and perhaps the best basketball player of this generation. I’ve come to deeply respect LeBron James as a person, a force for social good, and now as an extraordinary player at the peak of his powers. His superhuman play during the NBA playoffs now ranks with the all-time greats, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, MJ, Kobe, and the demi-god that was Bill Russell. That his Cavs lost in a 4-game sweep is no surprise. It was a mediocre team being carried on the wide shoulders of James (and matched against one of the greatest teams ever, the Warriors, and the Harry Potter of basketball, Steph Curry) and, in some strange way, his greatness is amplified by the contrast with the rest of his team. It was a great run.

May 24, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I’ve always liked Alicia Keys and admired her social activism, but I am hooked on her last album Here. This feels like an album finally commensurate with her anger, activism, hope, and grit. More R&B and Hip Hop than is typical for her, I think this album moves into an echelon inhabited by a Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or Beyonce’s Formation. Social activism and outrage rarely make great novels, but they often fuel great popular music. Here is a terrific example.

What I’m reading:

Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad may be close to a flawless novel. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer, it chronicles the lives of two runaway slaves, Cora and Caeser, as they try to escape the hell of plantation life in Georgia.  It is an often searing novel and Cora is one of the great heroes of American literature. I would make this mandatory reading in every high school in America, especially in light of the absurd revisionist narratives of “happy and well cared for” slaves. This is a genuinely great novel, one of the best I’ve read, the magical realism and conflating of time periods lifts it to another realm of social commentary, relevance, and a blazing indictment of America’s Original Sin, for which we remain unabsolved.

What I’m watching:

I thought I knew about The Pentagon Papers, but The Post, a real-life political thriller from Steven Spielberg taught me a lot, features some of our greatest actors, and is so timely given the assault on our democratic institutions and with a presidency out of control. It is a reminder that a free and fearless press is a powerful part of our democracy, always among the first targets of despots everywhere. The story revolves around the legendary Post owner and D.C. doyenne, Katharine Graham. I had the opportunity to see her son, Don Graham, right after he saw the film, and he raved about Meryl Streep’s portrayal of his mother. Liked it a lot more than I expected.

April 27, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I mentioned John Prine in a recent post and then on the heels of that mention, he has released a new album, The Tree of Forgiveness, his first new album in ten years. Prine is beloved by other singer songwriters and often praised by the inscrutable God that is Bob Dylan.  Indeed, Prine was frequently said to be the “next Bob Dylan” in the early part of his career, though he instead carved out his own respectable career and voice, if never with the dizzying success of Dylan. The new album reflects a man in his 70s, a cancer survivor, who reflects on life and its end, but with the good humor and empathy that are hallmarks of Prine’s music. “When I Get To Heaven” is a rollicking, fun vision of what comes next and a pure delight. A charming, warm, and often terrific album.

What I’m reading:

I recently read Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, on many people’s Top Ten lists for last year and for good reason. It is sprawling, multi-generational, and based in the world of Japanese occupied Korea and then in the Korean immigrant’s world of Oaska, so our key characters become “tweeners,” accepted in neither world. It’s often unspeakably sad, and yet there is resiliency and love. There is also intimacy, despite the time and geographic span of the novel. It’s breathtakingly good and like all good novels, transporting.

What I’m watching:

I adore Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film, Pan’s Labyrinth, and while I’m not sure his Shape of Water is better, it is a worthy follow up to the earlier masterpiece (and more of a commercial success). Lots of critics dislike the film, but I’m okay with a simple retelling of a Beauty and the Beast love story, as predictable as it might be. The acting is terrific, it is visually stunning, and there are layers of pain as well as social and political commentary (the setting is the US during the Cold War) and, no real spoiler here, the real monsters are humans, the military officer who sees over the captured aquatic creature. It is hauntingly beautiful and its depiction of hatred to those who are different or “other” is painfully resonant with the time in which we live. Put this on your “must see” list.

March 18, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Sitting on a plane for hours (and many more to go; geez, Australia is far away) is a great opportunity to listen to new music and to revisit old favorites. This time, it is Lucy Dacus and her album Historians, the new sophomore release from a 22-year old indie artist that writes with relatable, real-life lyrics. Just on a second listen and while she insists this isn’t a break up record (as we know, 50% of all great songs are break up songs), it is full of loss and pain. Worth the listen so far. For the way back machine, it’s John Prine and In Spite of Ourselves (that title track is one of the great love songs of all time), a collection of duets with some of his “favorite girl singers” as he once described them. I have a crush on Iris Dement (for a really righteously angry song try her Wasteland of the Free), but there is also EmmyLou Harris, the incomparable Dolores Keane, and Lucinda Williams. Very different albums, both wonderful.

What I’m reading:

Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on Christopher Steele presents little that is new, but she pulls it together in a terrific and coherent whole that is illuminating and troubling at the same time. Not only for what is happening, but for the complicity of the far right in trying to discredit that which should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. Bob Mueller may be the most important defender of the democracy at this time. A must read.

What I’m watching:

Homeland is killing it this season and is prescient, hauntingly so. Russian election interference, a Bannon-style hate radio demagogue, alienated and gun toting militia types, and a president out of control. It’s fabulous, even if it feels awfully close to the evening news. 

March 8, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We have a family challenge to compile our Top 100 songs. It is painful. Only 100? No more than three songs by one artist? Wait, why is M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” on my list? Should it just be The Clash from whom she samples? Can I admit to guilty pleasure songs? Hey, it’s my list and I can put anything I want on it. So I’m listening to the list while I work and the song playing right now is Tom Petty’s “The Wild One, Forever,” a B-side single that was never a hit and that remains my favorite Petty song. Also, “Evangeline” by Los Lobos. It evokes a night many years ago, with friends at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA, when everyone danced well past 1AM in a hot, sweaty, packed club and the band was a revelation. Maybe the best music night of our lives and a reminder that one’s 100 Favorite Songs list is as much about what you were doing and where you were in your life when those songs were playing as it is about the music. It’s not a list. It’s a soundtrack for this journey.

What I’m reading:

Patricia Lockwood’s Priestdaddy was in the NY Times top ten books of 2017 list and it is easy to see why. Lockwood brings remarkable and often surprising imagery, metaphor, and language to her prose memoir and it actually threw me off at first. It then all became clear when someone told me she is a poet. The book is laugh aloud funny, which masks (or makes safer anyway) some pretty dark territory. Anyone who grew up Catholic, whether lapsed or not, will resonate with her story. She can’t resist a bawdy anecdote and her family provides some of the most memorable characters possible, especially her father, her sister, and her mother, who I came to adore. Best thing I’ve read in ages.

What I’m watching:

The Florida Project, a profoundly good movie on so many levels. Start with the central character, six-year old (at the time of the filming) Brooklynn Prince, who owns – I mean really owns – the screen. This is pure acting genius and at that age? Astounding. Almost as astounding is Bria Vinaite, who plays her mother. She was discovered on Instagram and had never acted before this role, which she did with just three weeks of acting lessons. She is utterly convincing and the tension between the child’s absolute wonder and joy in the world with her mother’s struggle to provide, to be a mother, is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. Willem Dafoe rightly received an Oscar nomination for his supporting role. This is a terrific movie.

February 12, 2018

What I’m listening to:

So, I have a lot of friends of age (I know you’re thinking 40s, but I just turned 60) who are frozen in whatever era of music they enjoyed in college or maybe even in their thirties. There are lots of times when I reach back into the catalog, since music is one of those really powerful and transporting senses that can take you through time (smell is the other one, though often underappreciated for that power). Hell, I just bought a turntable and now spending time in vintage vinyl shops. But I’m trying to take a lesson from Pat, who revels in new music and can as easily talk about North African rap music and the latest National album as Meet the Beatles, her first ever album. So, I’ve been listening to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy winning Damn. While it may not be the first thing I’ll reach for on a winter night in Maine, by the fire, I was taken with it. It’s layered, political, and weirdly sensitive and misogynist at the same time, and it feels fresh and authentic and smart at the same time, with music that often pulled me from what I was doing. In short, everything music should do. I’m not a bit cooler for listening to Damn, but when I followed it with Steely Dan, I felt like I was listening to Lawrence Welk. A good sign, I think.

What I’m reading:

I am reading Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Leonardo da Vinci. I’m not usually a reader of biographies, but I’ve always been taken with Leonardo. Isaacson does not disappoint (does he ever?), and his subject is at once more human and accessible and more awe-inspiring in Isaacson’s capable hands. Gay, left-handed, vegetarian, incapable of finishing things, a wonderful conversationalist, kind, and perhaps the most relentlessly curious human being who has ever lived. Like his biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, Isaacson’s project here is to show that genius lives at the intersection of science and art, of rationality and creativity. Highly recommend it.

What I’m watching:

We watched the This Is Us post-Super Bowl episode, the one where Jack finally buys the farm. I really want to hate this show. It is melodramatic and manipulative, with characters that mostly never change or grow, and it hooks me every damn time we watch it. The episode last Sunday was a tear jerker, a double whammy intended to render into a blubbering, tissue-crumbling pathetic mess anyone who has lost a parent or who is a parent. Sterling K. Brown, Ron Cephas Jones, the surprising Mandy Moore, and Milo Ventimiglia are hard not to love and last season’s episode that had only Brown and Cephas going to Memphis was the show at its best (they are by far the two best actors). Last week was the show at its best worst. In other words, I want to hate it, but I love it. If you haven’t seen it, don’t binge watch it. You’ll need therapy and insulin.

January 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Drive-By Truckers. Chris Stapleton has me on an unusual (for me) country theme and I discovered these guys to my great delight. They’ve been around, with some 11 albums, but the newest one is fascinating. It’s a deep dive into Southern alienation and the white working-class world often associated with our current president. I admire the willingness to lay bare, in kick ass rock songs, the complexities and pain at work among people we too quickly place into overly simple categories. These guys are brave, bold, and thoughtful as hell, while producing songs I didn’t expect to like, but that I keep playing. And they are coming to NH.

What I’m reading:

A textual analog to Drive-By Truckers by Chris Stapleton in many ways is Tony Horowitz’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning Confederates in the Attic. Ostensibly about the Civil War and the South’s ongoing attachment to it, it is prescient and speaks eloquently to the times in which we live (where every southern state but Virginia voted for President Trump). Often hilarious, it too surfaces complexities and nuance that escape a more recent, and widely acclaimed, book like Hillbilly Elegy. As a Civil War fan, it was also astonishing in many instances, especially when it blows apart long-held “truths” about the war, such as the degree to which Sherman burned down the south (he did not). Like D-B Truckers, Horowitz loves the South and the people he encounters, even as he grapples with its myths of victimhood and exceptionalism (and racism, which may be no more than the racism in the north, but of a different kind). Everyone should read this book and I’m embarrassed I’m so late to it.

What I’m watching:

David Letterman has a new Netflix show called “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and we watched the first episode, in which Letterman interviewed Barack Obama. It was extraordinary (if you don’t have Netflix, get it just to watch this show); not only because we were reminded of Obama’s smarts, grace, and humanity (and humor), but because we saw a side of Letterman we didn’t know existed. His personal reflections on Selma were raw and powerful, almost painful. He will do five more episodes with “extraordinary individuals” and if they are anything like the first, this might be the very best work of his career and one of the best things on television.

December 22, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished Sunjeev Sahota’s Year of the Runaways, a painful inside look at the plight of illegal Indian immigrant workers in Britain. It was shortlisted for 2015 Man Booker Prize and its transporting, often to a dark and painful universe, and it is impossible not to think about the American version of this story and the terrible way we treat the undocumented in our own country, especially now.

What I’m watching:

Season II of The Crown is even better than Season I. Elizabeth’s character is becoming more three-dimensional, the modern world is catching up with tradition-bound Britain, and Cold War politics offer more context and tension than we saw in Season I. Claire Foy, in her last season, is just terrific – one arched eye brow can send a message.

What I’m listening to:

A lot of Christmas music, but needing a break from the schmaltz, I’ve discovered Over the Rhine and their Christmas album, Snow Angels. God, these guys are good.

November 14, 2017

What I’m watching:

Guiltily, I watch the Patriots play every weekend, often building my schedule and plans around seeing the game. Why the guilt? I don’t know how morally defensible is football anymore, as we now know the severe damage it does to the players. We can’t pretend it’s all okay anymore. Is this our version of late decadent Rome, watching mostly young Black men take a terrible toll on each other for our mere entertainment?

What I’m reading:

Recently finished J.G. Ballard’s 2000 novel Super-Cannes, a powerful depiction of a corporate-tech ex-pat community taken over by a kind of psychopathology, in which all social norms and responsibilities are surrendered to residents of the new world community. Kept thinking about Silicon Valley when reading it. Pretty dark, dystopian view of the modern world and centered around a mass killing, troublingly prescient.

What I’m listening to:

Was never really a Lorde fan, only knowing her catchy (and smarter than you might first guess) pop hit “Royals” from her debut album. But her new album, Melodrama, is terrific and it doesn’t feel quite right to call this “pop.” There is something way more substantial going on with Lorde and I can see why many critics put this album at the top of their Best in 2017 list. Count me in as a huge fan.

November 3, 2017

What I’m reading: Just finished Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, her breathtakingly good second novel. How is someone so young so wise? Her writing is near perfection and I read the book in two days, setting my alarm for 4:30AM so I could finish it before work.

What I’m watching: We just binge watched season two of Stranger Things and it was worth it just to watch Millie Bobbie Brown, the transcendent young actor who plays Eleven. The series is a delightful mash up of every great eighties horror genre you can imagine and while pretty dark, an absolute joy to watch.

What I’m listening to: I’m not a lover of country music (to say the least), but I love Chris Stapleton. His “The Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” is heartbreakingly good and reminds me of the old school country that played in my house as a kid. He has a new album and I can’t wait, but his From A Room: Volume 1 is on repeat for now.

September 26, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo. It took me a while to accept its cadence and sheer weirdness, but loved it in the end. A painful meditation on loss and grief, and a genuinely beautiful exploration of the intersection of life and death, the difficulty of letting go of what was, good and bad, and what never came to be.

What I’m watching:

HBO’s The Deuce. Times Square and the beginning of the porn industry in the 1970s, the setting made me wonder if this was really something I’d want to see. But David Simon is the writer and I’d read a menu if he wrote it. It does not disappoint so far and there is nothing prurient about it.

What I’m listening to:

The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast. I love this band. The opening piano notes of the first song, “Nobody Else Will Be There,” seize me & I’m reminded that no one else in music today matches their arrangement & musicianship. I’m adding “Born to Beg,” “Slow Show,” “I Need My Girl,” and “Runaway” to my list of favorite love songs.

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[kennethmjoyner]

The 20 Most Important Legal Technology Developments of 2018

What a whirlwind of a year it has been for legal technology. Barely a week into 2018, industry-changing news broke of Avvo’s sale to Internet Brands. Legal tech news has been nonstop ever since – so much that it’s a struggle to keep up with it all.

For several years now, I’ve closed out the year with a round-up of the 10 most important legal developments (2016, 2015, 2014, 2013). Last year, I bypassed the top 10 to focus on a single overarching development, The Year of Women in Legal Tech.

This year, a top-10 list won’t suffice. So much of significance has happened that I can’t sum it all up in just 10 points. Instead, I’m doubling the list to offer my top 20 picks for the year’s most important legal technology developments.

As in past years, the order in which I list these is not meant to be a ranking by importance. They are all important, each in their own way.

1. Analytics become essential.

If you were to judge the year’s most important legal technology by looking at conference agendas and media coverage, you’d probably say it was the continuing development of artificial intelligence. But if you judge the most important technology by its direct impact on the practice of law, then it would have to be analytics. As I suggested in a recent column, we could be nearing the point where it would be malpractice for a lawyer not to use analytics.

At the center of the analytics story this year has been LexisNexis. Following its acquisitions of Lex Machina in 2015 and Ravel Law, it has been steadily working to build on the foundations established by those products and integrate them into its legal research platform Lexis Advance. It has steadily expanded the practice areas covered by Lex Machina’s analytics, and from Ravel it added both visual search results and the unique Context analytics that examine the language of judges’ opinions. The defining moment for LexisNexis this year came in July, when it put a stake in the ground to claim the analytics space.

But LexisNexis was by no means the only legal analytics story this year. Thomson Reuters also put down its claim with the launch of its next-generation research platform Westlaw Edge, which for the first time brought detailed docket analytics to the Westlaw research platform. Elsewhere in the legal world, Fastcase released its Analytics Workbench, which it said would allow legal professionals to build their own bespoke litigation analytics, and judicial analytics company Gavelytics got new funding and expanded the scope of its coverage.

Related:

LawNext Episode 7: Data-Driven Lawyering with LexisNexis Legal VP Jeff Pfeifer.

LawNext Episode 12: Judging Judges – How Gavelytics’ Judicial Analytics are Reshaping Litigation.

2. Legal tech goes global.

Legal tech has long been provincial in its perspective. Here in the U.S., we’ve tended to focus on what was happening here in the U.S., ignoring and therefore ignorant of legal tech developments elsewhere in the world. But this year, that changed dramatically. The world of legal tech got flatter. That was largely thanks to the Global Legal Hackathon.

This audacious effort by organizers who had never before run even a local hackathon turned out to be a huge success. They rallied participation by 600-1,000 teams in 40 cities and 22 countries around the world. During the hackathon, they dispatched Dera Nevin as their own “global ambassador for legal technology,” who visited 19 destinations in 15 countries on six continents over 40 days to meet with hackers and entrepreneurs. The ultimate winners came from locations as diverse as Budapest, Hong Kong, Denver and New York.

And it showed us that we are not provincial in the problems we seek to address or the solutions we are developing. To a surprisingly large degree, the problems that face the legal and justice systems in any one country are the problems shared by every country. And all over the world, hackers and entrepreneurs and others are working fervently to come up with the tech to solve these problems.

I was fortunate enough this year to see some of this personally. In April, I traveled to Lexpo, one of the leading legal technology conferences in Europe, where I got to speak with lawyers and entrepreneurs from all over Europe. More recently, I was in Moscow for Skolkovo Legal Tech, a leading Russian legal technology conference. Both events reinforced this idea that the problems we face and the solutions we’re developing are largely universal.

Related:

LawNext Episode 6: Dera Nevin’s ‘Round-the-World Tour of Legal Innovation.

LawNext Episode 20: Live from Moscow: Two Interviews on the State of Legal Tech in Russia.

3. Legal research gets smarter and more comprehensive.

Given that it started off with a “robot fight” between two AI-driven legal research products, you knew 2018 was going to be a momentous – and even pugilistic – year for legal research. Not only did research get smarter, thanks to a whole new generation of tools powered by AI and natural language processing, but it also got more expansive, thanks to a momentous project that put all U.S. case law online.

On the pugilism front, it was a year in which legal research platforms introduced product after product designed to make their research platforms “smarter” and to further separate them from their competitors. That started with ROSS Intelligence’s introduction of EVA, a brief-analysis tool similar in concept to the previously released CARA from Casetext and Clerk from Judicata. That led to the aforementioned robot fight, which I broadcast on Facebook Live, and to a string of similar products introduced throughout the year, including Vincent from vLex, Attorney IO, and CaseIQ from Casemine, as well as to major updates to the product that started it all.

Beyond brief analysis, this was the year in which Thomson Reuters introduced Westlaw Edge, the next generation of its industry-leading legal research platform, that LexisNexis put a “stake in the ground” to claim the legal analytics space with its Lexis Analytics, and that the American Association of Law Libraries selected Bloomberg Law’s AI-powered Points of Law as new product of the year.

In this increasingly competitive market, the gloves came off in September when Casetext released a study comparing its CARA against Lexis Advance and concluding that attorneys who used its product finished their research significantly more quickly and found more relevant cases. Lexis cried foul, criticizing the study as biased and tainted by flawed methodology.

And even as Casetext and Lexis sparred, Fastcase and Casemaker continued their longstanding competition for the bar-affiliation market. In court, Fastcase won a key victory in an ongoing legal battle with Casemaker over copyright in Georgia administrative regulations. In the market, Fastcase scored a deal to become the legal research member benefit for the 60,000-member California Lawyers Association.

Then, in October, news came that brought uniform acclaim across the legal research field. Harvard Law’s Caselaw Access Project had completed its project to digitize all U.S. case law, some 6.4 million cases dating all the way back to 1658. As if overnight – although the scanning and digitization took some three years – decades-long visions of full electronic access to case law became a reality.

Related:

In Episode #2 of My New Podcast: A Closer Look at Westlaw Edge with Two of the People Who Developed It.

LawNext Episode 3: Casetext’s Founders on their Quest to Make Legal Research Affordable.

LawNext Episode 10: Dr. Khalid Al-Kofahi, Head of Artificial Intelligence at Thomson Reuters.

LawNext Episode 18: Adam Ziegler on How Harvard Put 360 Years of Caselaw Online.

4. Investment hits $1 billion.

This was a year in which investment in legal tech hit $1 billion. Granted, half of that went to a single company, LegalZoom, and was a secondary investment. Nevertheless, it signals, as I wrote earlier this year at Above the Law, that big investors are no longer snubbing legal tech.

Among some of the notable investments this year:

A reported $100 million to e-discovery company Exterro.

$65 million to Atrium, the combination law firm and legal technology company.

An investment in UnitedLex said to be “one of the largest transactions to date with any legal services provider.”

$50 million to Kira Systems, a Toronto-based developer of machine learning software for contract review and analysis.

$30 million to Seal Software, a developer of AI-powered content discovery and analytics products.

$25 million to Everlaw, and e-discovery and litigation platform.

$25 million to Logikcull, an e-discovery company.

$17.5 million to Eigen Technologies, a London-based AI company.

$13 million to Tessian, a UK startup that uses AI to secure emails and data for law firms and enterprises.

$6 million to Court Buddy, a San Francisco company that matches consumers and small businesses with a-la-carte attorneys.

$12 million to LawGeex, a company whose AI product automates the review and approval of contract.

$5.5 million to PactSafe, a cloud-based contracting platform.

$3.4 million in Clarilis, the UK document-drafting automation platform.

$3.2 million to Gavelytics, a judge-analytics platform.

$1.8 million invested in Australian legal tech startup LawPath by LegalZoom.

$1.5 million in Legaler, the Australian legal technology company.

An investment of an undisclosed amount in PracticePanther, the practice management platform.

Related:

On LawNext: LegalZoom’s GC on the Company’s $500 Million Investment.

5. Acquisitions accumulate.

It was big year for legal tech mergers and acquisitions. Among the notable ones this year:

The acquisition by Fastcase of Docket Alarm, the docket tracking and analytics company.

The merger of two major e-discovery companies, Consilio and Advanced Discovery.

E-discovery company Catalyst’s acquisition of TotalDiscovery, a legal hold and data collection platform.

The acquisition by Mitratech, a provider of legal and compliance software, of ThinkSmart LLC, developer of a workflow automation platform used by many corporations and corporate legal departments.

The acquisition by London-based HighQ of Legal Anywhere, based in Portland, Ore. Both companies specialize in secure, mobile enterprise collaboration and file sharing.

Cloud practice management platform Clio’s acquisition of Lexicata, a client intake and CRM platform.

Another acquisition by Fastcase, this one of Law Street Media, a company that operated a free legal news site.

The acquisition by DMS platform NetDocuments of Closing Room, a deal-management application developed by the Am Law 200 firm Chapman and Cutler.

The acquisition by desktop practice management company Tabs3 Software of CosmoLex, a cloud practice management application.

The acquisition by global law company Elevate of LexPredict, the legal AI technology and consulting firm.

The acquisition by Seal Software, a developer of AI-powered content discovery and analytics products, of Apogee Legal, a provider of advanced contract analytics for enterprises.

Related:

LawNext Episode 15: Lexicata CEO Michael Chasin on His Company’s Acquisition by Clio.

6. Practice management market corrects.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the two original cloud-based practice management products, Clio and Rocket Matter. Their launch in 2008 and subsequent success set off a frenzy of imitators and emulators. Over the decade, many new practice management products came along, but only one shut down, LexisNexis Firm Manager in 2017.

This year, it seemed that we saw the beginning of a correction – or perhaps more accurately a maturation and stabilization – of this market. Signs of this seemed to converge in a sort of perfect storm in October, when in the span of a week:

One of the oldest practice management companies, Tabs3 Software, acquired one of the new cloud-based platforms, CosmoLex.

PracticePanther, believed to be among the top companies in this space in terms of market share, brought in a new CEO to replace the founder, after taking a large private-equity investment earlier in the year.

Clio kicked off its Clio Cloud Conference, which has become a major industry event, with the news that it had made its first acquisition, purchasing Lexicata, the cloud-based CRM platform.

Those events were followed by news in November that Needles, a company that provides case-management software for plaintiff-focused law firms, had named a new leader to take charge of its brand and oversee the launch of its cloud version.

7. Ethics reform sticks its nose under the tent.

The legal ethics world felt a tremor this summer when the board of trustees of the State Bar of California voted to appoint a task force to study and make recommendations on whether those who are not licensed as lawyers – including private companies – should be allowed to participate in ownership of law firms and legal services providers.

What spurred the bar to take this action was the Legal Market Landscape Report it commissioned from William D. Henderson, professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. In his report, Henderson made the case that the legal profession is failing in its core mission of serving those who need legal services. One of the most effective ways to address that, he argued, would be to ease rules on non-lawyer investment in order to allow lawyers to more closely collaborate with professionals from other disciplines, such as technology, process design, data analytics, accounting, marketing and finance.

But that was not the only tremor. In June, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission – the very body that oversees attorney discipline in that state – published a report chiding the legal profession for its resistance to change and calling for Illinois to loosen its professional conduct rules to allow attorneys to participate in for-profit referral services such as the now-shuttered Avvo Legal Services.

Then came news that a second state, Utah, would license non-lawyers to practice law in limited circumstances, similar to the limited license legal technician (LLLT) program pioneered by Washington state.

For years, calls for ethics reform have seemed quixotic, tilting at an entrenched and protectionist legal establishment that showed little interest in changing the rules. But an ever-worsening access-to-justice crisis is forcing the profession’s hand. This year was a turning point. The tremors were signals of greater shake-ups to come.

Related:

LawNext Episode 9: Bill Henderson on Changing the Non-Lawyer Ownership Rules.

Podcast: Interview with Author of Illinois Report Calling for Loosening Rules on Lawyer-Client Matching Services.

8. The end of Avvo.

We were just a couple of days into 2018 when Internet Brands announced it was acquiring Avvo. It is an exaggeration to say that was the end of Avvo, because Avvo still exists as a business unit. But it marked so significant a turning point for the often-controversial company that it may as well have been its end. A few months later, Avvo’s visionary founder Mark Britton left the company, then Internet Brands shut down the pioneering Avvo Legal Services, and then, as perhaps the final blog, came the rebranding of Avvo as the Martindale Avvo legal group.

Ironically, all this happened just as some professional regulators were calling for the legal profession to loosen its restrictions on lawyers’ participation in for-profit referral services such as Avvo Legal Services. Yet, even as Avvo shut down its legal help service, a new, similar service was launched, no doubt signaling other such services still to come.

Related:

LawNext Episode 11: Avvo Founder Mark Britton on Why He Started The Company, Why He Sold It, and Why He Left.

9. The cloud no longer looms ominous.

As I noted above, 2018 marked the 10th anniversaries of the launches of Clio and Rocket Matter. This year, we saw signs that the practice-management market is maturing and stabilizing. But we also saw something else this year – the legal profession’s general acceptance of the cloud as something to embrace, not fear.

Some among you might argue that we’d already reached that point. Perhaps we had. But I believe the maturing of the practice management market is evidence of the maturing of our perspective on cloud computing more generally. Until recently, many in the legal professional still harbored doubt and even fear about the viability and safety of the cloud. Now, cloud-based systems have come to dominate and define legal technology.

This is not just in the area of practice management, but across legal technologies. Consider the news earlier this year that Hogan Lovells, one of the five largest law firms in the world, had moved to cloud-based NetDocuments as its document management platform. For that matter, just look at NetDocuments. As its cofounder Alvin Tedjamulia told me in a LawNext episode in November, the company long faced an uphill struggle to convince lawyers to move to the cloud before becoming, in just the last few years, one of the leading DMS systems in legal. Companies that long specialized in on-premises products, such as iManage and Relativity, are now emphasizing their cloud versions.

10. Law gets liberated.

Remarkably, the question has persisted: Can states or anyone else own copyright in public laws? This year, three separate opinions came down on the side of public access:

In July, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the fair use doctrine may prohibit industry groups from controlling publication of technical standards that have been incorporated by reference into law, allowing publication of them online by Resource.org and its founder Carl Malamud. Here is the decision.

In October, in another case brought by Public.Resource.org, the 11thS. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the annotated version of the Official Code of Georgia is a public record and cannot by copyrighted.

In October, the 11th Circuit ruled for Fastcase in its lawsuit against Casemaker over the latter’s claims of copyright in George administrative regulations.

11. Tech competence gets real.

In 2012, something happened that I called a sea change in the legal profession: The American Bar Association formally approved a change to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to make clear that lawyers have a duty to be competent not only in the law and its practice, but also in technology. In the years since, I’ve been tracking states’ gradual adoption of this duty. This year, the number of states reached 35.

On top of that, a second state has now made it mandatory for lawyers to receiving continuing education in technology. Beginning in 2019, all lawyers in North Carolina will be required to complete one hour per year of CLE devoted to technology training. The state joins Florida in mandating CLE, after it became the first state to do so in 2016.

12. AI gets an MBA.

Every one of my year-end round-ups has given a nod to the growth of artificial intelligence in the legal field. In 2013, I said that lawyers were finally realizing that AI could be an ally, not an enemy. In 2014, I said that AI was finally becoming accepted as essential and commonplace. In 2015, I noted that AI had become mainstream in e-discovery and moved into legal research. In 2016, I said that the legal industry had finally gotten smart about AI, with its use growing by leaps and bounds.

Well, if that was the year the industry got smart about AI, this was the year AI got smart about the industry, so to speak. This once-fledgling technology is now among the most dominant technology businesses in legal. Just look at where the investment money is going and the size of that investment money. Of $1 billion invested in legal technology this year, $362 million went to companies whose products use AI, according to LawGeex.

13. Startups continue to proliferate.

The proliferation of startups continues to be a major trend in legal technology. Four years ago, I wrote that we were in a time of unprecedented innovation in legal technology. In the years since then, the numbers of legal tech startups has snowballed (as I track at this page). And, as noted earlier in this post, that proliferation of startups as gone global, with new legal tech companies emerging in countries throughout the world.

But it’s not all good news. As I reported last May, a study conducted by Kristen Sonday, cofounder and COO of legaltech startup Paladin, a pro bono management platform, found that women and people of color are significantly underrepresented among legal tech founders, accounting for just 13.6 percent and 26.5 percent respectively. Black and Latinx founders account for a staggeringly low proportion of legal tech entrepreneurs, the study found, at just 2.3 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.

14. Legal podcasts multiply.

Who knew 2018 would be the year that legal podcasts started replicating like rabbits? For those of us who chose to launch a new podcast this year, that meant that much more competition for lawyers’ ears. But for legal professionals who enjoy listening to podcasts, the pickings are abundant.

Midway through the year, I rounded up some of these new podcasts in a post at Above the Law, eliciting so many suggestions of others that I soon followed up with a supplemental post. I’ve got a folder full of even more that have been launched, which I plan to highlight in an upcoming post. Also this year, the ABA Journal devoted part of its Web 100 to the best law podcasts.

For me, it was a transition year, podcast wise. As I signed off the podcast I’d done for 13 years, my longtime cohost J. Craig Williams and I recorded an episode on what we’d learned about podcasting. Then I introduced my new podcast LawNext, kicking off the first episode with Nicole Bradick, CEO of Theory and Principle, the technology design and development company she founded as 2018 began.

15. Legal tech gets platformized.

The CRM company Salesforce is generally lauded for a strategic decision it made early on. Realizing that it could not give its customers all the technology they would need for their businesses, it turned its product from an application to a platform, launching its AppExchange and opening its platform up to third-party developers to add their products. The result is a rich ecosystem in which companies can do much more than simple CRM.

Increasingly in the legal market, companies are emulating this strategy. Perhaps the most-recognized example of this is Clio, which announced in 2017 a goal of moving not just practice management to the cloud, but law practice in all its facets, with its platform serving as the hub of a law practice ecosystem through integrations with a variety of partners. This year, it took that strategy even farther, making its first acquisition of an integration partner, staging a $100,000 competition for the best new integration partner, and announcing plans to launch its own incubator.

Both iManage and NetDocuments, two of the leading DMS systems for the legal industry, are also moving towards becoming platforms to support broader ecosystems. iManage is doing this more through acquisitions, such as of risk management software Elegrity in September and of AI platform RAVN last year, whereas NetDocuments has developed a very Salesforce-like app directory that currently lists 83 integration partners, while also making acquisitions.

Related:

LawNext Episode 19: NetDocuments CTO Alvin Tedjamulia on Helping Lawyers Learn to Love the Cloud.

16. Blockchain builds buzz.

August marked the first anniversary of the formation of the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium, an organization created to drive the adoption and standardization of blockchain in the legal industry. In that time, the GLBC has grown to have 125 organizations from 20 countries as members and is the third-largest blockchain consortia in the world in any industry, with major law firms and legal companies as members.

Even so, as 2018 dawned, many still wondered about blockchain’s applicability within law. One preview was provided by a proof of concept developed by ServeManager and Integra Ledger that showed how it could be used as a means of verification of service of process. Later, Integra Ledger unveiled applications to enable blockchain-based email encryption and blockchain-based version control for Microsoft Word documents.

In other news, Kleros was using the Ethereum blockchain to develop online dispute resolution for virtually any product or service, Legaler raised $1.5 million to help build a proprietary blockchain aimed at bridging the global gap in access to justice, and an international group of law firms and legal technology companies joined forces to help launch a public, permissioned, blockchain-based, smart-contract management system, the Agreements Network.

Meanwhile, the GLBC has unveiled a number of initiatives intended to promote the further use and adoption of blockchain in law, including a series of non-technical guides and a “Blockchain 101” course.

Related:

LawNext Episode 21: Blockchain, Smart Contracts and the Future of Law, with Casey Kuhlman of Monax.

17. C-suites see shake-ups.

Changes at the top became a recurring motif this year. It started in February when, just days after the wrap of the Legalweek/Legaltech conference in New York, ALM ousted the vice president who oversaw it. A few weeks later, ALM named a new executive to lead its global events, Mark Fried.

Another notable shake-up came in June, when Thomson Reuters announced the departure of Susan Taylor Martin as president of its legal business and her replacement by two co-chief operating officers, Brian Peccarelli and Neil Masterson.

The summer brought two more surprising turnovers. First, in July, Bloomberg Law said that its president Scott Mozarsky had left and that Joe Breda, former executive vice president of product, has replaced him. Mozarsky in August became regional managing director, North America, for Vannin Capital.

Then, in August, just days before the start of its annual education conference, the International Legal Technology Association revealed that its CEO Dan Liutikas would be leaving and that it would be launching a search for his replacement. He had been there barely a year, having been named in March 2017 to succeed longtime executive director Randi Mayes.

Other c-suite changes for legal tech companies this year included:

At Casemaker, longtime CEO David Harriman retired. Replacing him were Sarah Gorman as chief operating officer and Dan McCade as chief information officer.

Startup Doxly, a secure portal for managing corporate transactions, named Christopher Clapp as executive chairman. Founder Haley Altman remained CEO.

Law practice management company PracticePanther named Soumya Nettimi as CEO, while cofounder and former CEO David Bitton became chief marketing officer.

Troubled “tech-enabled” law firm UpRightLaw announced a restructuringin which founder and managing partner Kevin Chern would now report to a management committee chaired by Craig Sonnenschein, the firm’s general counsel. The firm also appointed a law school ethics professor to serve as an independent monitor.

In a move that signaled a new strategy for Needles, a company that provides case-management software for plaintiff-focused law firms, its owner TrialWorks LLC named a new leader, David Wagner IV, to take charge of the brand and oversee the launch of its cloud version.

18. ALSPs no longer ‘alternative.’

They have long been called “alternative legal services providers.” But when I once used that phrase to describe the company Elevate Services, its founder and executive chairman Liam Brown wrote me to say, “Elevate has an allergic reaction to being call an LPO and we gently encourage people to describe us as a ‘law company,’ which we think better communicates the more sophisticated capabilities and expertise we offer.”

That sentence well sums up the state of the entities formerly known as LPOs. Because ethics rules prohibit private companies from investing in law firms, we have companies that developed sophisticated an extensive operations that do everything but explicitly deliver legal services. And then they do organizational acrobatics so that they can effectively be in the legal services business as well, such as the Elevate/Elevate Next relationship announced earlier this year, bolstered by its more recent acquisition of LexPredict.

Also this year, we saw news that Atrium — the combination law firm and legal technology company — had raised $65 million, followed soon after by news that enterprise legal services provider (aka LSP) UnitedLex had received a major investment said to be “one of the largest transactions to date with any legal services provider.”

Whatever you call these sorts of entities, this much is clear: It is no longer accurate to call them “alternative.” They are mainstream forces in the global legal services market.

Related:

LawNext Episode 22: Elevate’s Acquisition of LexPredict, with Pratik Patel and Dan Katz.

19. A2J gets a lifeline.

November brought news that could potentially have a significant impact on helping to overcome the barriers we face in the U.S. to bridging the justice gap. The Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent nonprofit with over $6 billion in assets, announced that it will now tackle the use of technology to modernize the civil legal justice system, meet unmet legal needs, and make courts more efficient.

As I wrote at the time on Above the Law, this is significant not only because of Pew’s resources and clout, but also because it has specifically targeted some of the problems that have most stubbornly stood in the way of progress in this area, such as antiquated court proceedings, restrictions on unauthorized practice, and the lack of evidence-based research into what works and what does not.

20. Legal news becomes the news.

At a time when it seems that traditional sources of legal news are reducing their coverage and locking it behind paywalls, this year brought two developments that could signal relief for news-starved legal professionals.

With apologies for what may seem like shameless self promotion, I was proud this year to be part of one of these alternatives. In September, LexBlog formally launched the first phase of a first-of-its-kind global news and commentary network, delivering timely and targeted articles from legal bloggers throughout the world.

The new site unites the universe of legal bloggers within a single platform – no matter where in the world they are located or what topic they cover – and then delivers it all to readers in a variety of formats, including web access, RSS and email. There is no cost to readers to access this content and no cost to bloggers to add their content.

Meanwhile, Fastcase made an initial foray into legal news with its acquisition of Law Street Media, a company that operated a free legal news site, which it intends to retool and relaunch in 2019. Fastcase CEO Ed Walters said his company’s expansion into legal news is consistent with its mission to become as robust a legal research platform as LexisNexis and Westlaw.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on the year’s most important developments in legal technology. Add your comments below or share with me on Twitter (@bobambrogi).

from Law and Politics https://www.lawsitesblog.com/2018/12/20-important-legal-technology-developments-2018.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[richardrobertsimsuccessblog]

181: How to Overcome the Challenges of Being a Solo Entrepreneur

Tackling the Biggest Challenges of Being a Solo Entrepreneur with Robert Gerrish of FlyingSolo

In today’s lesson, I have a real treat for those of you who spend most of your working life alone as solo-entrepreneurs.

Over in the ProBlogger Podcast listeners facebook group this week I ran a little poll to see how many of you as listeners work alone vs work in teams. The results were as I suspected – 93% of you work alone on your blogs.

Of the other 7% – most had family members or readers volunteer their time to help out a little with some small aspect of their blog but it was largely a solo venture.

This is no surprise to me at all because in the regular surveys we do of ProBlogger readers and listeners we regularly get asked questions on some of the challenges that solo-entrepreneurs face.

As a result for today’s episode I asked Robert Gerrish to join me. Robert is a coach, teacher and community leader who has a passion for solo business owners. He’s the owner of an Australian site – FlyingSolo and has recently put together an excellent resource for solo-business owners called Soloism.

I chatted with Robert earlier today, and I asked him about some of the biggest challenges I see in our community of solo-entrepreneurs. We talk about productivity, focus, loneliness, personal development, motivation, feeling overwhelmed and how to get through times when things don’t seem to work. He also gives us some tools and apps that solo business owners will find useful.

If you’re a solo-entrepreneur (or want to be) you’re going to relate to a lot of what we talk about in this episode. I came away from this chat feeling motivated and inspired for my own business and hope you enjoy it to.

Listen to this interview in the player above or here on iTunes.

Further Resources on How to Overcome the Challenges of Being a Solo Entrepreneur

Soloism 20% Discount Link

‘Note: we are an affiliate and earn a small commission if you purchase Soloism but we offer our genuine recommendation for it and the teaching of Robert.’

FlyingSolo.com.au

2x Your Blog Writing Productivity and Reduce Your Stress by Single-Tasking

The biggest lesson I learned about Blogging (episode 38)

A primer on the Pomodoro Technique

Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view

Darren: Hi there and welcome to Episode 181 of the ProBlogger Podcast!

My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com, a blog, a podcast, event, job board and a series of ebooks all designed to help you as a blogger to start an amazing blog, beautifully designed and to create amazing content for it and to grow that audience that you’ve been dreaming of and to hopefully make some money from your blog as well. You can learn more about ProBlogger at problogger.com.

In today’s episode, I have a real treat for those of you who, if you’re like me, spend most of your time working alone as a solo entrepreneur. I do have a small team who works with me but I spend most of my day by myself and I’m not the only one. I’ve ran the ProBlogger Podcast listeners Facebook group this week, I ran a little poll to see how many of you as a listeners work alone versus working in teams.

The result was as I suspected, 93% of you work alone on your blog. You don’t employ anyone, you don’t have anyone volunteering to help you in your blogging. Of the other 7%, most of you said that you had a family member or a reader volunteer their time or someone virtually offering their time in another part of the world. Of that 7%, most of you say you do spend most of your time alone as a solo entrepreneur even though you do have other people involved in the business.

This figure of 93% or it’s probably 100% really is no surprise to me at all because every time we survey our readers, we find the same thing and we get a lot of questions from you as readers and listeners of the podcast asking us about your biggest challenges as a blogger. Most of the challenges that we see are less about blogging and more about being a solo entrepreneur. We get a lot of questions about productivity and how to stay focused and how to do with being overwhelmed and how to know what to spend your time on. These are challenges that many of us face because we’re working alone.

As a result, for today’s episode I asked Robert Gerrish to join me. Robert is a coach, he’s a teacher, he’s a community leader who has a passion for solo business owners. He’s the owner of an amazing site her in Australia called Flying Solo. You can find it at flyingsolo.com.au, it’s got over 100,000 members and they’re almost all solo business owners. He’s been doing that for many years now. And he’s also recently launched a really great cause for people around the world called Soloism. We’ll talk about that later in the episode.

I chatted with Robert earlier today and I asked him about some of those big challenges that I see you as our community having as a solo entrepreneurs. We talked about productivity, we talked about focus, we talked about loneliness, about personal development, how to stay motivated, how to deal with feeling overwhelmed and how to get through those times where there’s rejection or a failure. I also get some really useful tools and apps that solo business owners will find useful.

If you are a solo entrepreneur, or you want to be, you’re making a transition to be, you’re going to relate to a lot of what we talk about in this episode. I personally came away from this chat feeling very motivated and inspired and I hope you do, too.

You can find today’s show notes over at http://ift.tt/2lBLEsq where there’s a full transcript of today’s show. You’ll also find on the show notes today a link that Robert has given us that gives you 20% off his Soloism course. We’ll talk a little bit more about that at the end of the show. But you’re going to get a lot of value whether you look at that or not because this episode is packed with value. I hope you enjoy this interview with Robert.

Hello Robert, how are you today?

Robert: I’m very well, Darren, great to be talking with you.

Darren: That’s great to be chatting with you, as well. Sometimes when I think about interviewing you, I don’t know quite where to go with this because there’s so much we can talk about. You’ve got a great story and your site Flying Solo is one that I would love to interview you about, but today I want to talk about Soloism and being a solo entrepreneur. I want to just give our audience a bit of context into who you are and why you are talking to us on this topic today, whether you can talk to us a little bit about why you’re passionate about Solo Entrepreneurs and maybe give us a two minute back story of getting into that industry yourself.

Robert: Yeah, sure. I started Flying Solo about 20 years ago now, which has just flown by. I can’t believe it’s that long. To give you a short version, my background part on that was on the other side of the world, in London. I was working for a small independent marketing consultancy, we sold our business in the late ‘80s and I then decided with a bit more caution, I knew what to do with, not sure what to do next, that I’d take a year off and travelled the world. Wasn’t I lucky? And I did.

Thank goodness, I ended up in Australia and thank goodness I met my now wife. We relocated to totally here now. The reason I’m telling you all that is when I came here, I decided that after reason based on the full on career, I really wanted to do my own thing and I totally saw these stories about some life in Australia. I decided, yes, okay, I was going to start a business, I was going to keep very under control, very manageable, we want to start a family. I knew I wanted a real sort of lifestyle business.

I set about doing that and ended up getting a little too busy, and one of the main reason I got too busy was that I started working with small creative groups. That was the background that I had, small creative companies, helping them with their positioning and marketing.

Through a delightful twist of fate, I was introduced to this whole world of coaching that was just starting. This was about 1998, 1999.  I looked to that and I thought, this is a really good way to deliver my skills rather than consulting where you come back to your office and do all the work. Coaching is very much more you support the individual to find the solution themselves and you’d nudge them and guide them. I was really attracted to that, that suited my lifestyle business idea perfectly.

About that time, ABC Four Corners was doing a show on new work practices and delightfully they chose me as their guinea pig. I suddenly had an office which in fact was my garden shed with a TV crew in it, they followed some of my clients around and over a very short period of time, my businesses went nuts. I had this fantastic national TV profile, my phone was ringing off the hook. I was so busy. I suddenly found myself back on that situation where I was doing too much and that’s not what I wanted.

As I sat down one day with all the files of everyone I’ve ever talked to and worked out who are the people I really wanted to work with, who the people I really sensed I was doing good work with. Lo and behold, they were all people that were working totally by themselves. Just like me, trying to build a nice lifestyle business, something that allowed them to live and work the way they wanted to.

With my marketing brand, I wanted something here so I registered Flying Solo, I started writing just about solo businesses, working by yourself very quickly. Daily Telegraph asked me if I’d write a regular column, it all just took off. It’s always been since then and to this day is what drives me is wanting to support people who want to create that own business. If they want to scale and grow into something much larger, fine, but the hot land of our community, I will say those that want to work on their own terms want freedom, want fulfillment, want to do work that inspires them and does some good and that’s what we do now in Australia, the same as US and UK. Over 70% of small business these days are one person businesses and I think some of the challenges we have are very unique and that’s why we exist.

Darren: That’s great. It’s exactly why I wanted to focus on Soloism today because our audience, every time we survey them, and we survey them several times a year, the challenges in our community, seem to be less about how do I blog and more about how do I have a business and sustain it as single person or maybe someone who’s contracting out. It’s not a traditional business model in many ways, so many of the questions that we get are more around productivity and focus and feeling overwhelmed and lacking motivation and feeling lonely.

Today, I wonder if we could tap into some of those themes but before I get into those challenges, I wonder whether some people just aren’t cut out to be a solo operator and whether you can identify some characteristics that good solo operators might have for help to make that decision whether it’s right for them.

Robert: It pains me to say but I do agree. It does not suit everybody and particularly those that have maybe come from perhaps the big end of town from corporate, from an employed position where they’re used to having structure thrust upon them, they have reporting procedures and action this to determine why the people…

Sometimes, when you’re shifting from that to being the master of your own destiny, control of your own time and business, it doesn’t sit with everybody. But I do think that so many of the things that can bring about change and can help really enjoy a very learnable skill. This is not rocket science or else there wouldn’t be 70% of our business community working like this.

I think it’s something like one in three house in most residential streets in Australia and you got a home based business in them. A lot of people are doing it, but I think we need an ability to be able to juggle projects, we need to be able to have real clarity around where’s our priorities are and I think that’s a key one that we might pull apart a bit further. We need to be self-starters, we need to be disciplined, we need to be willing to learn, putting our own professional development at the top of our list which is often something that can be not on the top of the list. We got to be able to communicate well, we need to be able to market, we need to hold ourselves accountable, there’s a lot of stuff there.

We have a quiz, I’m very happy if anyone wants to have a look at it. It’s at http://ift.tt/2m2TBo4 where we pull this really apart and what are the skills that you need. I do think that we can certainly learn these things and we can take steps forward and start to bring some structure but it takes work. There’s no doubt about that.

Darren: Yeah. I think it takes time getting used to it as well. I actually had a conversation with someone recently that didn’t think they had what it took to be at home all day alone. I think you’re right, some of those skills and characteristics develop over time. But you don’t have to confront them all on day one either.

Robert: That’s for sure. Also, the way that we can run our businesses now has changed so dramatically even in the last 10 years. When you mentioned there about working alone, certainly working alone at home doesn’t work for everyone. You can’t bounce ideas off your household pets, you can get distracted when you work out of your office and see your dishwashing sitting there. There are things we can do about that, we can move around.

I think the important thing is to focus on what we can do, what we should do. If anyone is standing at home or sitting at home now feeling a little lost, the thing I would say is don’t sit around at home. Just get out, get out to the world. Don’t sit there laboring over something because ideas don’t come when you’re bashing your head on your monitor. It doesn’t work like that.

Darren: That’s right. It leads me to my next question, we hear a lot of our audience working off the kitchen table, if surrounded by the life of home or they’re working after work in a real job, lots of distractions. Are there tips you can give around the work environment and how to set up your work environment if you are struggling with all those distractions and other agendas?

Robert: Yes. I think you touched the very first point which is when someone is working at their kitchen table. If that works for you, fine. In my experience with these things, what we really need to do is we need to show ourselves that we’re taking our work seriously. I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve spoken to over the years, and I’ve said who’s struggling a bit with concentration and focus on the business.

Describe for me where you’re working right now. What do you see around you? And it startles me how many people use the third bedroom, the one with the half assembled Ikea furniture and kid’s bikes and all this kind of stuff. They huddle themselves in the corner somewhere or they sit in the kitchen or they sit in the bedroom. Really this is sending, I think, fairly deep signals to our inner selves that this isn’t real business, this is just something I’m going to do in the kitchen table once I got a bit of time.

I would say give yourself the best space in your home. Many cases, the nicest room is their bedroom where they walk in every night, shut their eyes and go to sleep ten hours, eight hours, whatever. Give yourself the best possible space. Make it the most supportive space.

If it’s important to you that it looks like a proper office, well, paint it like a proper office, furnish it like a proper office. Anything that sends signals to you that okay, here I am, I’m going to work, that’s what we need to do. Whereas if we’re sitting down in our pj’s and we’re just doing it around normal daily family life, then I think we’re setting ourselves up for a bit of a tricky time.

Create the right space. Have your desk space. I would suggest you nice and clear the things that are on your desk are the things that are your priorities. Anything else, get it out of your vision, move it away from you. Have a decent chair, have a decent desk, have a decent light, get the best computer you can afford. Give yourselves the best chances. If you’re in employment and somebody says sit over there in that corner where there’s no light on that horrible old chair and that lanky old desk, you wouldn’t stay there for very long and yet we do it to ourselves, it’s crazy.

Darren: That’s true. I think a lot of it is mindset, really. I know one friend who wears a tie to his front room everyday just to help him to get into work zone and to focus professionally upon what he’s doing.

Robert: I have a similar story of a woman who leaves her house, walks around the block and comes back in again. That’s a great thing. There’s a lovely quote from the Dalai Lama which says, “I’ve got so much work to do today, I’m going to have to meditate twice as long.” I think this is the most wonderful thing. The sentiment of that is if you’re busy and you’re overwhelmed, often the best thing you can do is actually just take yourself away, give yourself a chance to clear your head, work out what your priorities are and then come back into your day with some vigor.

If we’re just walking getting something like the kids out to school, walking into an office and boom, immediately feeling overwhelmed with what you’ve got to do, that’s never going to work.

Darren: I think back to when I used to work in a shop selling stationery, I used to enjoy the commute and I think that commute gave me some separation from the rest of my life and helped me to get ready for work. I miss that commute today and often will go for a walk or grab a coffee and get to work after I’ve had a break.

Robert: The story I often told people, just imagine you’re going on holiday, you’re going on a two week holiday or something, what usually happens before you go on holiday is you clear everything up, you empty your inbox, you tidy your office, you tidy up loose ends and then you go off and you enjoy holiday. And then when you come back, that first day back, sometimes you might not want to be back. What you’ve got is a workplace that’s ready for you.

What we shouldn’t be doing is waiting for our annual holidays to do this kind of stuff. Ideally, we should do these rituals that you talk about when you end your day, make sure you’re leaving your space ready for your next day, give yourself the best chance to work at your best.

Darren: That’s great. We’re really getting in there to talk some of the rhythms of work and leaving your work so that you’re ready for the next days starts to speak to a system of time management, almost planning. Do you have any other tips around managing your time?

Robert: Look, there’s a few things. Just to sort of jump around a little bit and go back a step. When I was doing a lot of one on one coaching with people, I would meet people who are or were in a position where they were really struggling and overwhelmed and just feeling so anxious about their work.

One of the opening questions that I would ask is where do you get your energy from? In most cases, people would respond in that situation saying I haven’t gotten any energy, that’s why I’m talking to you. I’ll say okay, let’s have a look at when you did have good levels of energy, describe life then. If you do that exercise, you’ll find that what people are saying oh when I had energy I used to catch up with my mates twice a week, I play soccer at weekends, I go out with my partner once a fourth night, I go for a run every morning, I go to the gym twice a week. All these things, that little by little when the pressure is on, if we’re not careful, we let go of these things one by one because we have this crazy thought that because I’ve got so much work, I’ve got to stay here in front of my computer which is just lunacy. We’ve got to put ourselves first, put ourselves as a priority, treat ourselves like our best customer.

You mentioned going for a walk there, I love walking. If don’t go for a decent walk every day, I’m not a nice guy. When my son gets home from school, my wife gets home, I’m not the nicest person to be around, but if I go for a decent walk, I get clarity, I get some distance between my work and the rest of my life. It’s not really a tool but it’s something I think we need to do.

We are very strong advocates of Flying Solo and have been for a number of years over the Pomodoro Technique which I’m sure you and your listeners will have heard of, but this whole notion of working in 20 minute blocks of having, it’s called Pomodoro Technique, invented by this Italian guy. He runs his little Italian tomato kitchen timers. You work for 20 minutes on a topic and then you take a five minute break. That’s a little tool, if anybody Googles that, there’s a lot of guides, there’s apps on your phone as well.

I think the notion of working in blocks of time and being really clear on what you’re going to do for the next 20 minutes and looking at a project, okay, that project is going to take me three lots of Pomodoros, having it planned. This might sound quite structured to some people and a lot of creative people don’t actually love a lot of structure but I would just say to you, please, please try it because it opens up so much more possibility to what you can achieve in a day.

I would certainly have a look at blocking time, using blocks for key periods. Something that has always worked well for me is having daily themes. For a while in my coaching business, Wednesday was my Business Development Day. All I did on Wednesday were activities to do with attracting growing business through promotion and marketing. The result that had on the rest of my week is whenever I have any other ideas or anything that I observed or anything I thought of that, it would all go in my diary for Wednesday. That’s Wednesday, I’ll do that on Wednesday. Don’t worry about that now.

But again, what I think happens with a lot of us in solo businesses is there are so many things coming at us all the time that we feel we have to respond to them in real time and that just destroys any sense of focus. Using blocks have perhaps, blocking a whole day, giving a day a theme, those are some of the things that certainly work for me and I’ve seen them work for a lot of other people.

Darren: It’s fascinating you said that because regularly, the listeners of this would’ve heard me talk numerous times about my own weekly schedule. I have a template for my week where I block it half a day for creating content, half a day for different activities, and I find that particularly works well for me. And I try and leave some freedom in there and some impulse in the midst of the day because I think that’s important for my personality type but I do think blocks of time work well.

Robert: I totally agree with you. I think if we don’t allow some time to be impulsive then, really where is this freedom that we’re all after. We should do that. But freedom comes and you can enjoy freedom when you get a sense that you’ve actually achieved something.

For anyone who’s having one of these really cranky sort of days, where they’re just in and out of email or Facebook and not doing anything. If you say to that person, okay, now it’s your yoga class, the chances are they go I don’t feel like I deserve that, I haven’t done enough, I haven’t achieved enough.

But if you actually do these things in these blocks, then you feel that you’ve achieved and that’s the whole thing. There’s no one else coming along patting us on our back when we’re walking saying good job or bad job or anything like that. We got to do it ourselves.

I talk to my son a lot about this when he’s doing his homework now. His tendencies, he wants to go and skateboard or he wants to go and hit the ball against the wall and I’ll always say come on, just eat the frog first, do the Brian Tracy thing, do the work first and then celebrate by having a bit of fun. Doing that switch is okay, I think.

Darren: That’s right. One of the other things that we hear from a lot of our audience is the feeling of overwhelm. It comes from different races, sometimes it’s just that a lot of pressure on other times it’s someone’s choice. How do I know what to focus on? There are so many opportunities and particularly as bloggers in the social media space, do I focus on Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat or blogging itself or podcasting and it can be an overwhelming space to be involved in. Is there any tips you can give us on doing that because we do have to do it all ourselves. We are the only ones who can get it done, is there anyway to make smart choices around what to focus at time on and to deal with those feelings of overwhelm?

Robert: Gosh. That’s such a big one. We research our audience every couple of years and overwhelm is second to finding enough clients and having enough revenue, it’s always there. A large part of it, I think was it Paul Theroux who said that lovely quote, “The world moves a sign for the man who knows where he’s going.” I still think of that.

I think it comes back to we need to have real clarity of what we’re actually trying to achieve and where we’re trying to get to. That’s so basic. You’ve heard that a million times. I do think that the core of overwhelm is a lack of or a slight hesitation in is this the right thing? Should I be doing this? When you’re really clear on what you want to do and where you need to go and what your priorities are for your day, it’s much easier to go, well, maybe that is a nice bright shiny thing over there but is it going to take me where I’m trying to go, it probably isn’t, so I won’t look at it now.

It’s the part of it that’s doing that and that doesn’t really answer your question because the examples that you used there are always or the number them a ways that a blogger can market and of course any blogger is looking to grow their and again look at all sorts of opportunities. But the main thing there is it comes back to that blocking idea. If looking at new avenues is something to do, then how that being maybe one of your themes, that one day a week or one day a fourth night, where that’s all you do. You bury yourself into it, rather than being distracted at new shiny things that are popping up here and there and they’re always going to be popping up here and there is compartmentalizing, you put them down, that’s your day of research to look at those things, speak to a couple of people, get other people’s opinions.

No one needs to reinvent the wheel these days. Too many people worry about trying to be early adopters, trying to get on things fast, getting on things first. I’m more of a get rich slowly kind of person. It means you don’t have to get rich. There’s no hurry. The important things is to step back a bit and observe and listen and look.

Whether that’s a tangible enough response to your question is questionable but the other thing now I’d say is overwhelm can be eased dramatically when we get things down on paper. When we’re walking around with stuff in our heads, it’s a really busy place, it’s like starting a computer and launching every single piece of software and then expecting everything to move smoothly, it doesn’t.

Ideally what we should do is get the stuff out of our heads. Get it down on paper, just write it down. If you’re getting overwhelmed by something, write down your thoughts. What is it you’re getting overwhelmed about? Is it right that you should be thinking about this now? Just go through that process, almost like sort of morning pages, you’ll be familiar with the artist way. Getting stuff out of your head and down on paper is such a strong way of clearing some of that overwhelm.

Another good way is to buddy up with someone, speak to a friend or a colleague. Speaking to people, we don’t do enough of that. Talk to somebody. Somebody who’s maybe on a similar situation, maybe catch up with them once or twice a week, talk on a forum. Forums are full of people that are sharing the things that are overwhelming them. You would know, your listeners would know the joy you feel, the ease you feel when you share a situation, a problem with somebody else. Even if you share it with someone who doesn’t even speak in your language, you’ll come away feeling a bit better.

Darren: Words really are powerful. Because often when we have those thoughts locked in our minds, they become bigger, they don’t need to become as big as we build them up in our minds. Sometimes, just speaking them or writing them down as you suggest can put you back in control again and give you perspective.

Robert: Totally. If you’ve done any of the studies of cognitive behavior therapy, it sounds very technical but is basically, in my understanding of it, I’ve done this a short course and it’s a means by which you write down what’s on your mind, you then write in the column next to it what am I really worried about? What are the issues that really concern me? And then in the third column, what’s the alternative, how might things actually play out? Just by pulling something apart like that, particularly for anyone that has recurring concerns, they’re forever waking up at two in the morning with the same sort of problems in their mind and two o’clock in the morning or thereabouts is never a good time to get clear.

But if you got a sheet of paper and I did this for a while, when we have some pressures on our business a few years ago. I wrote down, I did this three column thing. Okay, this is what I’m worrying about, this thing needs to be explained a little bit further but this is actually what it really counts, this is what could have really happened, this is an alternative way of looking at it. I just kept that by my bedside. My goodness, it was helpful. Just knowing it; you wake up, you can see it, you can worry, you can look at it and go, you know what, that doesn’t deserve worrying about, that’s just crazy.

Darren: Yeah, that’s right. It sounds like you did that like I do with my wife, with Vanessa. Often she doesn’t understand the complexities of what I’m worried about but simply by putting them out there, she’ll ask a couple of questions and you suddenly, yeah, okay, I don’t need to be worried about that anymore.

Robert: I agree. I think our wives are similar. It’s incredible, it doesn’t need to be somebody who has a deep insight into these machinations of your business. It’s the process of talking, verbalizing it, actually will help the individual to see often the absurdity of the worry but also start to see a hint of some of the solutions and the alternative ways of looking. There are always different ways of looking at things. When we’re on our own, hemmed in a bit, we often just fail to remember that.

Darren: Yeah. I guess one of the things that we’re talking about here is how you worry if things don’t go well. Many times, things do go well and we don’t need to worry about those things but what about when things don’t go well? Do you have any suggestions? Sometimes things rock our world, we might go through a ton of rejection, or something just doesn’t work and it can be really hard, as a solo entrepreneur, get over those hurdles because we don’t have someone alongside of us going, let’s keep going. Often when you are working in a team environment, one person’s up while the other person’s down. But if you’re all down and you’ve had some sort of rejection, how do you get back up on the whole and keep going?

Robert: That’s a great point. And yes, of course it happens. If we think of our kids, when they’re starting to walk, when they’re starting to talk, what do they do? They just fall over but they don’t just sit there and heap, they get up and they do it again. That’s nowhere near enough of that kind of solution but it’s worth remembering that as human beings, this is how we’re built, this is innate, this is within us, things are going to fail, but we do have the skill within us, we have the resolve and the drive within us to get up and try it again.

But the thing, I think, that often we don’t do enough of is just recognizing the real kind of learning and the wins even within failure. What I mean by that is if you think of those poor people who, maybe it’s hard to sympathize with them. Those people who ring up your family home at six o’clock at night, cold calling, canvassing, trying to plug you something. That’s a really grueling job to do, it’s a horrible job and most of the time they match with failure and they’re usually a lot worse that just failure, they get abused and everything else.

How on earth do they skip there and dial the next number? The reason I think that they do that, and there has been some research into this, is that the measurement of success is very much taking in very small steps. The fact that you pick the phone up in the first place is a win. The next thing that you actually say something even if it’s smartly abusive, is a win. They take the wins along the way and I think as business centers, we don’t do enough of that. We look at something and it’s too easy to say, well that didn’t work. Thomas Edison said, he doesn’t think he’s failed, he just found 10,000 ways it didn’t work.”

I think the same is true in business, we used to look at what we’re doing, going okay, that didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. However, what have I learned about that? What can I take as of it that I can reapply? If we start to use that sort of mindset, my goodness! It’s going to open up new possibilities and new levels of strength within us. Because if we do just fall over and heap every time, it’s not going to work. We’re not going to be able to come and carry on doing that.

There is a survey done, I think it was the Productivity Commission here in Australia spoke to a number of startup failures. To a woman and a man, every single person who failed, this is some time after they shut the door, considered the failure to have been a positive thing. Now that’s a very hard thing to get your head around when you’re in the middle of it, but they all look back in it saying, actually, if that hadn’t happened, then I wouldn’t have learned this, I wouldn’t have learned this, I wouldn’t have gone here, I wouldn’t have met that person. I think that’s an important thing just to remind ourselves that there are always lessons in here. You need to step back and go okay, well, that didn’t work, but what have I learned from it and how can I amend it and change it and transition and try again. Once we do lots of that, my goodness. It’s a tricky one, but once we do, we’ll never have that problem again.

Darren: That’s right. The rejections and the failures and the elimination of a course of action that you won’t take again narrows down the chance of victory. I was talking to one blogger the other day and she was like she’d been really quite depressed about her blog and have been dwelling on the fact that nobody’s reading and nobody’s commenting and nobody’s following and no one’s subscribing, then she managed to turn it around by focusing upon the fact that well, 30 paper read today, and I guess we start to look for the positives in that. 30 people are paying attention to something that I said, that doesn’t happen for me in my real life. That’s something to celebrate, she began to focus upon the 30 rather than the nobody. It completely changed her around and now has 30,000 because she actually realized they were the individuals, they’re interacting with what she was doing and it really changed things for her.

Robert: Isn’t that a wonderful example. You mentioned 30 people, it they turned up at your front door, that’s a lot of people. You wouldn’t fit them in most offices. That’s so valuable. When she talked to you, into the process of talking to you, she sounds like she got there. That’s just so important.

Darren: One of the other things that’s kind of come up in our conversation a little, bit there is about looking after yourself. When you’re working for a corporate or an employer, there are systems in place for the employee, that’s professional development. Often, there’s annual leave or sick leave or long service leave or maternity leave, all these things to help care for the employee. But when you’re working for yourself, that’s very easy to not have those systems in place, most of us probably don’t. Do you think there’s a case for us to think through things like sick leave and those professional development and those types of things, things that we can put in place to help us to be more sustainable in the long term within our business?

Robert: Yes, there definitely is. I think the good news is we don’t have to use terms like sick leave. We can put it in our language but I think it’s back to this kind of putting our self first. I would say that over the years that we’ve been existing, we’ve seen very, very positive changes in this regard.

I remember when we were starting out, so much of the talk where there’s sort of a battle of business. You got to work harder, mate. You got to push harder and I didn’t see so much of that around these day, thank goodness. I think a large percentage of people aren’t getting this right.

I think putting ourself first again is that energy thing, what is going to allow you to be the best possible you, is it going to yoga three times a week? Is it starting the day off with a walk? Is it catching up with a friend? These are the kinds of things that should be in our diaries before anything else, before any of those things. Putting the things that make you you, that’s the single most important thing I think, is giving yourself the chance to be your best self.

It’s that Dalai Lama quote again. That’s where it starts. With paid holiday leave, I certainly strongly advocate that we should always have something in our diaries that we can look forward to. Again, my darling wife Jane is very good at putting things in my diaries but we make sure that we’ve got some bit of fun always planned with us.

Lots of our availability is determined by school holidays, so every school holiday, we make sure we do something. We go away somewhere, we do something. But regardless of whether it’s school holidays or not, having something planned in your diary. Maybe it’s once a month, maybe it’s once a fourth night, maybe it’s once every three months, but what we shouldn’t do is get to the point where we get to end of year and go, oh, I didn’t have any holiday. I just don’t think that’s the right way to be.

The other thing is that perhaps it sounds like a bit of contradiction to that is that balance is not something that you do at the weekends. That’s not how it should be when you’re running your own business. Balance should be within every day. Doing something every day that is for you and that is for your mental and physical well being is just so important. I think it’s not work like a dog Monday to Friday and then lie on the sofa all weekend. Plan it in your day, make it a part of your day.

The professional development thing, I would say that again, we got so much access to tools. You go into Coursera or any of these places, anything that you want to upscale and my goodness you can just do it immediately. You can do it also at local universities and lots of organizations that exist doing very low cost professional development.

What I think we should do as solo business owners is give ourselves a professional development budget and spend it. Make sure we spend it because just going to something, when I was talking about that cognitive behavior therapy, the reason I did  that was I did a four day course, part of Sydney Uni. It was brilliant. I didn’t know what I was really doing but it looked interesting and I did for three afternoons, met with a fabulously interesting group of people, cost me not much money. Give yourself a personal development budget and spend it. Don’t get to the end of the year without spending it.

Darren: That’s great. I love those tips of something to look forward to and that’s something we’re always obsessed by our holidays and spend way too much time thinking about our next holiday but I think that helps my mental health to know that there’s something coming and there’s something exciting. Like you’re saying, each day there needs to be something to look forward to as well. For me, that’s my walk, my podcast, listening in the middle of the day, I give myself 45 minutes just to listen to something fun. That drives me through the morning and then it’s probably watching something on Netflix in the evening.

Robert: I’ve set up a day recently. I’m based in Sydney and I’ve planned a wonderful day trip, I’ve done it a couple of times. I’m going to try and do it every 12 weeks, which is I get a train from the center of Sydney which goes to Kaima down on the South Coast. It’s about 2 1/2 hours, lovely journey. I walk from Kiama to Gerringong which is about 20kms there and back. Lovely coast line walk and I get the train home again.

I leave at 7:30 in the morning, get home 7:30 at night and I walk and I sit and I listen, I take podcasts, I take notebooks. What a fantastic day. It’s a day and as I scurry off to the railway station and hop off at 7:00 in the morning, it just feels so wonderful. You can do so much when you’re staring out the window of a train or walking along a coast. It’s one day. It cost me next to nothing, it’s so cheap. It’s just a beautiful way to spend your day.

Darren: It’s interesting that you, as someone who worked alone a lot, spend that time alone when you’re not working as well. Are you an introvert?

Robert: No, not at all. Actually, no, I’m not in the slightest. But I love solitude. Actually, there’s a wonderful show on ABC recently about the distinction of solitude and loneliness. I love solitude and I just think it’s so important for me anyway and I know this happily from my wife. My wife’s an artist and she has time where she just wants to be by herself and paint and I know our teenage child has plenty of time and he wants to be on his own. I just think solitude is a wonderful thing. So yes, I do choose to be by myself and I make sure I have a good block of it each and every day, quite honestly, I spend the rest of the time surrounded by 100,000 Flying Solo members. I love communing as well.

Darren: I guess that brings me to my final question. It was around loneliness and I asked in our Facebook group the other day if anyone had any questions for you and there was a number of people who just reported feeling lonely and I can see them connecting with our community which is one way to tackle that. Do you have any other thoughts on those who do struggle with that aspect of being a solo entrepreneur?

Robert: Yeah. Look, it’s a very important one and I think learning this can really eat away at you and it just shouldn’t. I think there’s a distinction between working by yourself and just really feeling like you’re alone. You mentioned you’re in community of ProBlogger and clearly, we have a community at Flying Solo.

There are so many ways that we can connect and we should. I think that one of the key things is just having the courage to get away from your desk and going into the world. If you’re one of those people who tend to fall back a lot on online communication, maybe take a shift from that and actually arrange to go and meet people instead of just hooking up with them online. That might not sound like it’s so sensible in terms of time usage but what it gives you in terms of connection I just think is so much greater.

I personally love to go and work in a public library, I also have an office at home, I have an office in town but I still go and work in our public library, often if I’m writing. Having other people around me, that’s sort of studious with their head down really helps me. I think little tricks like that, just connecting by seeing other people living their lives, maybe going and doing work in a co-working space for a couple of hours, go and sit in a café. Really, libraries are just so wonderful. We can use those.

I think buddying up with people is very good if you just have two or three people, close colleagues perhaps in their little Facebook group and just check in with each other.

Since we use Slack as our communication tool in Flying Solo which works superbly for us, there’s eight of us all dotted around different parts of the country, all different time zones, working different days, working different hours but that’s one place where we just come together. Those little tools, if we make use of those, can really keep us connected.

Our forums at Flying Solo, lots of people pop in there. It never ceases to amaze me how supportive people are of other people, it’s a natural human instinct to offer support to other people. We should just use that. If you’ve got something on your mind, something you’re worrying about, something that you’re not sure about, then just ask. You’d be amazed what you get back.

Meetup groups, another great place to go just to stay connected with people. It’s connection that connection that connects, that’s the answer.

Darren: You’ve mentioned a couple of tools that you use, Slack being one. We use Slack as well. Do you have any other tools or apps that you use? Not just for connection with others but any aspect of being a solo operator.

Robert: I use one little one which you probably heard of called . A cool Coffitivity which is a little app. It’s available for Mac and Android. It’s just the noise of a café. It sounds a bit weird. It’s just a little app and if I play it, it just gives you the noise of a lovely café, you can’t hear any particular voices distinctly but it just gives you the impression that you’re in a bustling place.

Surprisingly, that really works. It really does. I personally use that. I use music a great deal. I have music playing around me all the time. I personally don’t have any vocals, I find those distracting but other music I certainly listen to. I make sure that regardless of whether it’s one of my walking periods or not that I’m outside quite regularly. I stay and see people around me as often as I can, I use podcasts and not just business podcasts. In fact, less and less do I listen to business podcasts, I listen to podcasts that entertain me, just humor or that lead me in areas that I maybe just don’t know anything about. I find those are good.

Another thing that I do that I know number one is a bit weird, whenever I travel anywhere, if I’m going to an airport, I’ll always buy a magazine about a topic that I know nothing about. The time before last, it was a whole thing on graffiti. It was a magazine about graffiti and street art. I just bought that, I didn’t really understand it, not before I read I wasn’t sure whether do I like graffiti or don’t I. When I go to Melbourne, I love it, but a lot of the stuff I see around here is just tagging and messy.

I buy magazines on topics that I don’t know, I read them, my gosh, that opens up just new ways of thinking. I’m not sure whether it necessarily helps me with the loneliness side of things but it gives me an understanding of people in different ways that I didn’t have before. I just think that’s a large part of it, being open to new ways of doing things, new ideas, getting out from our own little bubble.

Part of the joy of a solo business is our little bubble but there’s a danger in there, also. A final thing I’ll just say is another quote that I often repeat in my head. It’s the one from the British philosopher, Bertrand Russell which is, “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” I use that as my excuse. I’ve got a bit of a thing about chairs, I buy and sell and collect particular chairs. That’s what I repeat to myself. The time I’m enjoying wasting is not wasted time. My wife calls it chair porn but it’s just me sitting there looking at a particular chair, models of chairs, and I love doing it. That to me just reminds me of gosh, aren’t I lucky to be working by myself, I can spend 10 minutes today doing something that I just love and no one’s going to tell me off.

Darren: That’s great. I love it. I feel like we’re just giving the surface today even though we have covered a lot of grounds. There’s so much that solo entrepreneurs face and I know that many in our audience would like to dig a little bit deeper with you and I guess they can check out Flying Solo but I love what you’ve launched in the last month, Soloism. I wonder whether you can give us a really brief introduction to Soloism because as I look at it, it is a perfect fit for so many ProBlogger readers.

Robert: Actually, it’s one point that I meant to mention before when you talked about being able to focus and concentrate on your priorities. The whole of last year, my password on my computer was the best work ever. I had to type that in laboriously, my computer is set to go to sleep every 10 minutes or something. For probably 10 times a day for everyday last year and a bit of the year before, I have decided to type in the best work ever. That is a wonderful way also to keep a theme going and keep you focused.

The purpose of that for last year was I was writing this course which we now have at soloism.com. The reason we’ve done it on this different domain is that Flying Solo is very much an Australian Business community. With Soloism, we’re taking what we’ve learned from nearly 20 years into the world and Soloism is basically a course of steps. I think we’ve got 82 videos that will go through every aspect of building, designing, growing, enjoying a solo business.

We’ve really pulled it apart, I’ve written it all, I’ve recorded all the videos. I do believe it’s the kind of thing I wish I had when I started. It’s all we know, we’ve observed a lot of solo businesses doing a lot of things and it’s everything we know in one spot and the idea is that if you got a query about how to charge more or how to work more productively or how to market with a little bit more powerhouse, use words more strongly, everything’s there. It’s lifetime access. That’s why we call it work your way which is very much the sentiment of a solo business. It’s totally made for people like you and me and you and your listeners. I really hope they will have a look at it and might like it.

Darren: I love it. Your tagline Complete Guide to Going Alone in Business, I always say the complete guide and think there’s nothing that’s complete. As I looked over the outline, you’ve got 26 sections and 106 modules covering pretty much anything I could think of that I’d want to know on this particular topic. You’ve very generously given 20% off for ProBlogger readers and we’ve got a link in our show notes at http://ift.tt/2lBLEsq and we’ll have the link that automatically you’ll see that 20% off for the next two months from when this show goes live. Thank you very from my audience to you for doing that.

Robert: It’s a total pleasure. I really hope that I’ll get to meet anybody who’s got any questions for me about anything whatsoever. Just send me an email at robert@flyingsolo.com and I’m happy to talk to anybody about any issues of their solo business.

Darren: Excellent. Thanks so much for being so generous with your time. Is there anywhere else that our audience can connect with you further?

Robert: I think that’s about it. I would just say don’t spend any more time thinking about me, just go for a walk.

Darren: Yeah. Perfect, and another podcast or two while you do it.

Robert: Yes, that’s absolutely right.

Darren: That’s great. Thanks so much, I have enjoyed speaking with you today and thank you from the ProBlogger audience to you.

Robert: Thank you so much.

Darren: I hope you found that interview to be useful and hopefully a bit inspiring as well. Being a solo entrepreneur is something that I have loved for years. I really have loved it. It’s brought a lot of freedom to my life which I’m incredibly grateful for but it does come with some real challenges and some real cost at times as well and we have to work through those challenges that we talked about today.

I hope you found this interview to have come at a good time for your own journey. I’ve been amazed actually over the last few weeks, the amount of people who said, are you reading my mind? These episodes just keep coming at the right time. I hope today’s was one of those.

You can find the full transcript of today’s show notes as well as a little bit of further listening and reading over at http://ift.tt/2lBLEsq.

If you are listening for something else to listen to, a couple of suggestions for you, and the last couple of episodes have had some really good feedback. In 179 we talked about how to reduce your bounce rate, got some tactics to do that. I’ve really been pleased to see some of you reporting how you have implemented some of those tactics.

` In episode 180, we talked about using Facebook Live and again, in the Facebook group we have seen a number of you sharing some of those Facebook Lives that you’ve done. Well done for those of you who have.

And I’ve also, as you were listening today, if you were challenged by what Robert was talking about in terms of looking after yourself, because if you want your business to thrive, you need to look after you or else your business is not going to be sustainable.

You might want to check out Episode 38 in which I share about how I came to the same lesson myself. I realized that I had not been looking after me and as a result my business was suffering and so I talk in that episode about how I got my health back on track and actually give you the things that I did to get my diet and exercise back together, some of my mental health and some other areas in my life back on track, as well. That was my most commented upon episode ever. That’s episode 38, if you want to go back and listen to that you’ll find it in iTunes or over at http://ift.tt/2lBAfsy.

Okay, it was a long one today. Thanks for listening to the end. I do appreciate it and I really look forward to connecting with you.

Next weekend, episode 182. Have a great week!

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[celtfather]

What Are You Doing While Listening to Celtic Music #432

I want your feedback. What are you doing while listening to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast? This week, I'm gonna share a bunch of feedback from the past couple o'years.

Poisoned Dwarf, Seldom Sober, Songs For Ceilidh, Mitchell & Vincent, Ciunas, Kennedy's Kitchen, Alasdair Fraser & Tony McManus, Kellswater Bridge, Captain John Stout, The Jig Is Up! from First Steps, Brobdingnagian Bards, Dylan Walshe, Sylvia Woods, The Jackdaws, Claire Roche, Black Market Haggis, Crepuscule, The Round Table, Tartanic, The Celtic Kitchen Party, Moch Pryderi, Teton Skye, Alexander James Adams, Molly's Revenge, Celtic Woman, O'hanleigh, Ciana, Vintage Wildflower, Katherine Nagy, Bellow Bridge, Jil Chambless

I hope you enjoyed this week's show. If you did, please share the show with ONE friend.

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast is dedicated to growing our community and helping the incredible artists who so generously share their music. If you find music you love, buy their albums, shirts, and songbooks, follow them on Spotify, see their shows, and drop them an email to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast.

Remember also to Subscribe to the Celtic Music Magazine. Every week, I'll send you a few cool bits of Celtic music news. It's a quick and easy way to plug yourself into more great Celtic culture. Plus, you'll get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free, just for signing up today. Thank you again for being a Celt of Kindness.

THIS WEEK IN CELTIC MUSIC

0:05 - "Bolt The Door" by Poisoned Dwarf from Bolt The Door

5:58 - WELCOME

7:25 - "The Ferryman / Mason's Apron" by Seldom Sober from Six Months of Confession

11:24 - "Rothsea-0" by Songs For Ceilidh from Falling Forward

14:36 - Alexis Fickes emailed: "Hey Marc, I am Alexis and I just wanted to tell you that I love the podcast, especially #426. I listen to the podcast on the bus and while I paint. Absolutely amazing. I love that there’s someone who appreciates the artists and music like this. Keep doing you!!"

Simon Dillon emailed a photo: "Hello Marc. Although over month ago, this photo shows me driving back from Canberra to my home town Bendigo (700km) while listening to your podcast.   Myself and my friend, and fellow musician, Keven McCarthy had just spent the Easter long weekend at the Australian National Folk Festival presenting “Songs From The Australian Tradition” session on each day of the festival.  Australia has many traditional songs. Many of these songs use traditional Irish melodies or are even parodies of traditional Irish songs.

The Nation Folk Festival was one of 3 festivals the Kevin and I attended in South Eastern Australia over 17 days around Easter.  We started at the Lake Cullulleraine Music Festival, then the National Folk Festival and ended up at the Koroit Irish Festival. By the time I arrived back home, we had covered 2800 km and listened to many Irish and Celtic Music Podcasts, the quintessential road trip podcast. Keep up the great work.

16:13 - "Seven Stars, The Sloe" by Mitchell & Vincent from The Preservation of Fire

19:18 - "Celtic Tiger" by Ciunas from High Time

22:59 - Ruben Lopez emailed a photo: "I heard the podcast #393, and was drawing. Here's the drawing. Have a good one."

Alexander Randall 5th emailed a photo: "Hey Marc: I put your sticker on my car... I should put one on the boat, but only fish and mermaids would see it..."

Conor Coll emailed: "Hey Marc, Just replying to let you know I received the music you sent and I am currently listening to them, still trying to decide between my favourite!

As an Irish man I have been hearing Celtic music all my life and it takes me back to a lovely atmosphere when I listen to these tracks. Recently, I have been following a band which I had done a little camera work with in the past, The Ronan Gallagher Band. They are very talented and are from the region I come from, so I am a big fan of their music. They are what inspired me to look for more traditional music which lead me to this newsletter."

Submit music to the podcast at 4celts.com.

25:00 - "Eoin O'neill Has Gone To Clare" by Kennedy's Kitchen from The Whiskey of Truth

30:25 - "Lady Louisa Gordon's Strathspey / The Highlands of Banffshire / The Merrymaking" by Alasdair Fraser & Tony McManus from Return to Kintail

34:50 - Marshall Blosser emailed: "Greetings Celtfather, I've been listening to your podcast for well over a decade.  We've circled around nearby cities, but never met. You moved to New Orleans just as I moved from there to the Mississippi gulf coast. And now you are in my old stomping grounds of Atlanta.

My family is moving from the Mississippi gulf coast to the eastern most  city in North America (St John's NL) so my wife can get her PhD in analytical chemistry. (I know you understand about moving to support your wife)

We will be driving there mid December (all 54 hours of it).  Apart from episode 421 the long drive - that's an understatement - we would like to have a few  CDs to pass the time on the road. I know there is a large Celtic music scene up there. Do you know of any St John's or Newfoundland Celtic artists that we could buy to support and listen to on the way there?

Thanks muchly,

P.S. I am an aspiring writer and your podcasts have inspired several stories (now if I could just get published) Txs again. Keep the Celtic light burning, in all its colors"

Marshall Blosser emailed: "Marc, I have enjoyed your podcast for over 12 years. The variety of music you bring to this show never fails to inspire and amaze me. The fact that you follow the roots of the music and the tendrils of its influence show just how connected the world is and how music is one of those things that can unite everyone. You understand and respect that musically there is no one Celtic musical voice. But rather that it is a rich and varied chorus of voices that make up that sound. I applaud the fact that you are seeking musicians and tunes for a Celtic LGBTQIA+ Pride special next year. The fact that you stand for the diversity that makes this music so touching and valuable is wonderful and so needed everywhere. Peace and may you never lose your laughter, your joy or your autoharp Marshall Blosser"

38:08 - "Keys to the Castle" by Kellswater Bridge from The Proof Is in the Pudding

42:32 - "Hail to the Autumn" by Captain John Stout from Love Abides

46:35 - James Cope emailed: "Hi Marc,Your ebook is a wonderful gift, thank you. I see the changes in the music business, some beneficial, some not so much. Your ideas and knowledge help me as a long time, and older generation musician “unpaid Professional” (mostly) to find where I can land and have the best impact on the art form.

Being upbeat in these changing times is a choice and you are an inspiration. As a friend of mine once said, “Damn! Jim you have made something from nothing!” So…. Damn Marc!! you have made something from nothing. Thanks again."

Melinda emailed: "Marc, I have subscribed to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast - I am still listening to shows from years ago, which was where you played the Joss song, and the "Don't Drink with Hobbits" song, which I LOVE!  Shared it with my son who just cracked up with me.

We are in El Paso - as far West as you can get!  Have not been to any of the festivals in Texas, but go to Phoenix each year to enjoy the Ren Fest there.  Have been to the Ren Fest in Bonner Springs, KS, in MD (think they shut that one down, but it was huge and wonderful!), and AZ.  Actually, I am still listening to your podcasts when you still lived in Austin, so didn't know that's not where you lived now :) Would love to see you live.  Will have to make sure to listen to the more up to date podcasts to get your latest events - or check your website. Keep up the great work! Slan Agat!

49:33 - "There's Worse Then That Around - Polka Niall - John Walsh" by The Jig Is Up! from First Steps

55:33 - "The Prettiest Hobbit" by Brobdingnagian Bards from I Will Not Sing Along

55:54 - Todd Thorne emailed photos: "Hello Mark, From the attached few pictures, I’ll bet you can instantly figure out where I took the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast this past month. For ages my wife and I aspired to visit Australia and New Zealand. Being two unabashed geeks, we could not make a trip Down Under without dropping in for a tour of Hobbiton. What an amazing day it was conjuring up the feeling that, at any moment, Sam, Frodo or Bilbo might emerge to challenge all of us interlopers in The Shire. While that particular encounter didn’t happen, I did get to talk up the podcast to fellow tourists plus our guide in response to their questions regarding my catchy and quite fetching t-shirt. Hopefully, you’ll pick up a few new worldly fans as a result.

I’ve been a devoted listener to the podcast for many years and credit multiple episodes for enriching and expanding my collection of Celtic music. At last count, some 15 artists have joined my growing mix, which all came about only because you featured them in an episode after they submitted their hopes, ambitions and livelihood for consideration. Thanks to you and all the incredible indie Celtic artists for providing us a way to connect and support what we love.

In closing, here’s an idea to ponder. What about a future Celtic Invasion Vacation to New Zealand? After all, Dunedin in the South Island has a mighty strong Scottish heritage and the Celtic spirit is alive and well I hear. Not to mention Hobbiton beckoning away on the North Island. A bit ambitious perhaps but it would be up there in the Trip of a Lifetime category, which I can definitely vouch for.

My best to you, your family and all the fans in the 2019 new year. Sláinte!

More about A Long Expected Party, next one is in 2020

58:38 - "Cut It Down" by Dylan Walshe from All Manner of Ways

1:02:56 - "Metamorphosis" by Sylvia Woods from The Harp of Brandiswhiere

1:05:37 - Margaret Zavala emailed: "Mark I just want to say thank you for the podcast that you put on. When I travel the world I can still listen to my celtic music. A few shows back, you featured Bangers and mash. well they’re playing near my hometown. in fact playing for two weeks just a five minute drive from my house. thank you for keeping me a contact such wonderful bands"

Rachel Bryant emailed: "Marc, Just dropping you a line to say how much I'm enjoying all your podcasts!! This time of year, I especially appreciate holiday music that is different (and better) than what I'm forced to hear in public.

Today, I am cleaning the house ahead of company, and enjoying the music and a very thematic beer, pic attached. I wish I could mail you some... maybe it's available in your area? I highly recommend this beer.

I try to wear my podcast shirt so I can spread the word! I made a new group of friends that way just a week ago, and we swapped stories of our favorite music venues and Irish/Celtic festivals.

Happy Holidays to you and your family!"

Subscribe to Celtic Christmas Podcast. It starts back up in November!

1:07:14 - "Erin's Revenge" by The Jackdaws from Colors

1:10:59 - "My Mother" by Claire Roche from From Then Until the Here and Now

1:14:58 - Darius emailed photos: "Hello Marc, I came across your wonderful podcast recently & subscribed!

Regarding voting, although all your featured musicians are wonderful, when asked to vote for a specific episode's featured musician, perhaps asking to vote for that particular/featured song would be more appropriate? By that I mean, I have gone back & searched the bands featured but found 2 or 3 songs as my personal favourites. Absolutely no offence to the great bands but I wouldn't go as far as voting them as my favourite bands, rather songs :)

Also, what do you think about either as the final episode of the year or the first episode of the year, featuring the top rated songs of the year, voted by the listeners?

Anyway thank you again and I promise to become a paid subscriber once I have some income.

Currently in the process of starting a sustainable, holistic, self sufficient & off-grid Ecovillage in Canada. More on that if you are interested. Namaste"

Vote in the Celtic Top 20.

Begum Unveroglu emailed a photo: "Hello there! I am listening to Scarborough fair episode on a train trip from Ankara to Istanbul. I am loving your show! By chance, I had opportunity to hear my favorite American Irish Music group the Gothard Sisters!!! Much love"

1:17:26 - "4 Concertina Reel Set" by Black Market Haggis from Better Than It Sounds

1:20:14 - "Rob Roy MacGregor" by Crepuscule from Hap and Rowe

1:23:15 - Dan Kulhanek emailed: "Marc,I was able to receive the downloads. Thank you so much!  I use them on my running playlist. I have your podcast to thank for where I am today.

My wife’s family is Scottish and Irish. I am of German heritage. After attending several St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with them, I really started to listen to the music. I stumbled upon your podcast shortly thereafter.

I was a casual listener for a number of years. After the economic collapse of 2008, I found myself without a job. I went back to school to become a nurse and found that I needed to learn how to speed read in order to keep up with the assignments. I used the jigs and reels in your podcast to help keep me on tempo and keep my speed up.

Fast forward several years later....

My daughter wanted to take dance lessons. My mother in law told her that if we enrolled her in Irish or Highland Dance she would pay for lessons. My daughter settled on Highland Dance and we found a group that offered lessons. It was a pipe and drum band with a dance troop. They also offered bagpipe lessons for free. After listening to your podcast for several years, my love for the music had grown so much that I jumped on the opportunity to learn the bagpipes.

I now have become an active member of the band, performing for gigs and the competition team, but I also have branched out on my own as a solo piper.

I look forward to your podcast every week. Please keep up the great work and we’ll keep listening!”

1:25:14 - "Love Is Ever the Strongest Spell" by The Round Table from Tales from the Turning Leaf

1:29:44 - "Jiggy Biddy's Slur Horn" by Tartanic from Uncharted

1:32:46 - Gerry Corr emailed a video: "Marc, Had a great evening listening to your Podcasts…….sitting on the deck on a cool, late summer evening enjoying sweet Uisce Beatha"

GERRY CORR VIDEO

Mike Coombs emailed a photo: "Dear Marc, I really love your podcasts! Thank you so much for introducing me to loads of superb bands and singers that otherwise I wouldn’t have heard. I listen mostly in my car. I’m a peripatetic guitar/bass/banjo teacher in the UK. I also play in a barn dance band and compose mostly acoustic guitar based instrumental music.

I hope to be recording my first solo album with a couple of Celtic style tracks in the next few months."

1:34:05 - "Pride of Newfoundland" by The Celtic Kitchen Party from Sociable

1:37:42 - "Welsh Medley" by Moch Pryderi from Jig Moch

1:41:39 - André Paz emailed: "Hey Marc Gunn! I'm a brasilian biologist, musician and flute player. I love your Podcasts, and I always listen to you, mainly while working/studying.

I've started with the Celtic music because of a brasilian band called Tuatha de Danann. I'd like to indicate them for you. I just listened to the "Summer Road Trip #361", and I heard a Brasilian band, Braia! They have almost the same musicians of the band I mentioned. Here follows some other names I remembered, mainly with flute or Whistles on their songs:

Kernunna (BR),

Tuatha de Danann (BR) ,

Braia (BR) ,

Flook,

Luar na Lubre,

MuteFish,

Thanks for your very nice mood, always, and for  your inspiration! Enjoy the summer there! Hugs from Brasil"

1:43:04 - "I'll Neither Spin Nor Weave" by Teton Skye from Teton Skye

1:45:55 - "Harvest Season - Second Cutting" by Alexander James Adams from Harvest Season - Second Cutting

1:48:47 - Erika Burkhardt tweeted: "Thanks for episode #371 of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Putting it to good use this morning planning lessons at the park."

Sasha, the Travelin' Quaker emailed a photo: "Hi Marc, I saved up several episodes of the show for us to listen to as we hiked part of the Barrow Way on our trip to Ireland (we are still here). It has been great catching live music and recognizing many of the songs I have heard on the show. Thanks again for an amazing show!"

1:49:30 - "Emmet's Hedgehog" by Molly's Revenge With Moira Smiley from The Western Shore

1:54:10 - "Ae Fond Kiss" by Celtic Woman from Ancient Land Deluxe

1:58:03 - Bonfilio Acencio emailed: "Hi Marc. I have been loving the podcast for like 3 years. I work outside landscaping so the music fits the surroundings, although Tennessee hills are not as great as Ireland it will do. But right now I have the great luck to go back and pick some of my favorite episodes, my girlfriend and I are going to the beach and I get to DJ the road trip (well really you do) Give my love to the family and ill let you know how the trip go's. Keep up the amazing work."

Annie Moisan emailed: "Allo Marc, I am from Québec, Canada. I am french so sorry for my english!!! Just for tell you that I love your podcast. I listen it during I'm working (I'm a IT programmer at home). We love Irish music. My husband and I have a duo and we play Irish music not professionnaly but we did a "home CD" two years ago and went to Ireland 4 times now. We like to sing Irish songs in French, English and Irish. We do little show with the projection of our photos of Ireland during we are playing for transmit our love of this country. I specially like harmony voices like The Selkie Girls, Lumiere, Sora, High Kings, Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer. But also Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Caladh Nua, Barrule. Thanks a lot to promote Irish music. We discovered on your podcast many signers and groups that we love. Still continue! With great regards! Annie"

2:00:10 - "Town of Strabane" by O'hanleigh from Of Irish Crossings Told

2:04:19 - "Tom McElvogue's / The Monaghan Twig / Woman of the House" by Ciana from Loneliest Road

2:07:40 - Daniel L emailed photos: "Hey mark! I love the podcast, thanks for being such a dedicated collector and distributer of Celtic music. I listen through Mixcloud, and love to dig into old episodes daily.

My father was a piper and flute player. your podcast is a great way to keep the traditional music I was raised on, in my life.

Here's a pic of me at work (I'm on the left side of the left rig) we rig suspended scaffolding and then paint beautiful signs and advertisements. This one is for Gucci in downtown manhattan. If you zoom I've got my headphones in, listening to your podcast of course!

An (almost) finished picture. And one more of our truck once we packed it all up. Keep doing your thing! Much love from nyc"

2:08:37 - "Sweet Bride" by Vintage Wildflowers from Lovely Madness

2:12:27 - "Gypsy Lady" by Katherine Nagy from Single

2:15:35 - "An Buachillin Ban" by Bellow Bridge from Cautionary Tales

2:19:28 - Jay Martin emailed from San Francisco: "Marc, All right, I Spotified. The first song I heard was "Last Gift" by Marys Lane. That song answers a question from Michael Truman Kavanaugh in show 376. How did that happen? Thanks for the music."

Listen to the Irish & Celtic Music Playlist on Spotify

2:21:46 - "When First I Came to Caledonia" by Jil Chambless from The Ladies Go Dancing

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather. To subscribe, go to Apple Podcasts or to our website where you can become a Patron of the Podcast for as little as $1 per episode. Promote Celtic culture through music at http://celticmusicpodcast.com/.

  CELTIC PODCAST NEWS

* Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. My name is Marc Gunn. I am a Celtic musician and podcaster. This show is dedicated to the indie Celtic musicians. I want to ask you to support these artists. Share the show with your friends. And find more episodes at celticmusicpodcast.com. You can also support this podcast on Patreon.

New to the show?

Listen for free

Each episode list the showing times for each song played on the show. This makes it easy for you to skip around or find an artist you love

Vote for each of your favorite artist in each episode of the show

Tell a friend

Listen to the next episode of the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast every week

TRAVEL WITH CELTIC INVASION VACATIONS Every year, I take a small group of Celtic music fans on the relaxing adventure of a lifetime. We don't see everything. Instead, we stay in one area. We get to know the region through it's culture, history, and legends. You can join us with an auditory and visual adventure through podcasts and videos. Join the invasion at http://celticinvasion.com!

VOTE IN THE CELTIC TOP 20 With the new year comes a new votes in the Celtic Top 20. This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. Just list the show number, and the name of as many bands in the episode as you like. Your vote helps me create next year's Best Celtic music of 2019 episode.  Vote Now!

THANK YOU PATRONS OF THE PODCAST! Because of Your kind and generous support, this show comes out every week and has done so since 2014. You can pledge a dollar or more per episode and cap how much you want to spend each month over on Patreon.

Your generosity funds the creation, promotion and production of the show. It allows us to attract new listeners and to help our community grow. Plus, you get to hear episodes before regular listeners. When we hit a milestone, you get an extra-long episode. We are super close to getting a two-hour instrumental special.

I want to thank our Patrons of the Podcast:

You can become a generous Patron of the Podcast at http://patreon.com/celticpodcast.

  I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK

What are you doing today while listening to the podcast? You can send a written comment along with a picture of what you're doing while listening. Email a voicemail message to celticpodcast@gmail.com

    #irishmusic #celticmusic #irishcelticmusic

Check out this episode!

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

The Lady Vanishes, Alan Watts Podcast and History of Aotearoa New Zealand

Well hello, we didn't see you there. We are your Castologists, Liz Best, Zane C. Weber and Patrick Shearer, here to tell you what's good in podcast land. This week Liz gets true crimey again with The Lady Vanishes, Patrick gets philosophisey again with Alan Watts Podcast, and Zane gets history-y again (we think it's again? We've lost track of who did what) with listener submission The History of Aotearoa New Zealand. Then they get stuck into the reviews from last week's offerings.

Liz Recommends - The Lady Vanishes

https://7news.com.au/news/crime/the-lady-vanishes-search-for-missing-australian-mother-intensifies-as-new-7news-podcast-climbs-charts-c-39131

A much loved mother, teacher and friend steps on a plane for an overseas adventure and is never seen again. Marion Barter, the former wife of Australian soccer great Johnny Warren, went missing in 1997. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are bizarre. Her daughter has never given up hope of finding her. This is her quest.

If you like weird stories then this one just keeps getting more weird. Also if you are a Queensland/NSW local you could actually be an armchair detective and help solve this one if you were in the Gold Coast/Byron area at the time. From Seven News, it's occasionally a bit too news like and editorial but still engrossing.

For both: Start from the start because it's another serial one.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-lady-vanishes/id1457296528

Pat Recommends - Alan Watts Podcast

http://www.alanwattspodcast.com/

Alan Watts was a 20th century British born philosopher. He's often credited with introducing and popularising Eastern philosophies to Western audiences. His focus is primarily with Zen Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. This particular podcast only delivers Alan in about 10 minute chunks and removes episodes from the feed not long after they're posted. I don't mind this so much as it gives me a healthy little dose in between my more lengthy and dense subscriptions. If you wish to listen to more of Alan there is a wealth of his content on YouTube, Soundcloud and Audible, as well as on the apps associated with this podcast.

For both: Pick any episode you can grab.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/alan-watts-podcast/id119777571

Zane Recommends - History of Aotearoa New Zealand

https://historyaotearoa.com/

Zane has recently fallen into a hole of history podcasts and wallowing about in all the great shows he has found. And this is one of those! A listener submission, The History of Aotearoa New Zealand Podcast is a chronological and narrative telling of the history of New Zealand. Each episode they tell the story of New Zealand in an interesting and informative way! 

For Pat: Any Episode that Appeals

For Liz: Any Episode that Appeals

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/history-of-aotearoa-new-zealand-podcast/id1448322129

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