TbP 22: Get Paid for Being You (f/ Victor Cayro & Sarianna)

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TbP 21: Actually ... Love (f/ Joe Stremph)

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Sally Jane Black and I welcome that hero-legend of Regular Guy Style, Joe Stremph, to th studio to chat for two hours bout th consensus Most Important Topic o.A.T., though since this is 2016, we couldn't resist throwing some Trump in there, too

•    00:00  "Today I Met the Girl I'm Gonna Marry" performed by Nation of Ulysses
•    01:47  Hi, Joe Stremph 
•    04:11  What's the most fucked up thing you've done for love? | th Anime Girl 
•    19:24  The very first thing I said to my future wife | Jimmy Eat World 
•    30:47  Aspirational romantic comedies | not an alcoholic | day we first kissed : 10 Feb 1996                 | what Jews are like | bad maps | musicals 
•    58:00  If love stops existing, do you think there's something that could replace it ?  
• 1:08:00  Accurate cinema on love | Roseanne | Parenthood 
• 1:13:55  Tech difficulties | Victor Cayro cameo | adieu Sally | My Stupid Brother (Jesse                   Peretz 2011) 
• 1:21:55  Han versus Luke | more tech diff | th one-on-one version of you 
• 1:27:27  Th desire to be understood and to be psychic | "praise in public, critique in private"                     ethic | (off th record discussion) 
• 1:36:33  Winning & humility | a scenario that contains potential for mutual understanding                       | kneejerk liberals, kneejerk conservatives, Trump, risk, & accountability
• 1:49:07  Risk & love | Doblering | vulnerability & desire | weaponizing intimacy 
• 1:55:02  Engagement | more tech diff | devaluation of jokes, devaluation of engagement                           | cool Internet meetings | adult friends | and more tech diff | distance 
• 2:10:42  "Your Wonderful, Sweet, Sweet Love" performed by Th Supremes

 

TbP 20: Talking bout Music (f/ Paul G, Lauren M, & Phil B)

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Thank you for time- and space-travelling back to New Orleans of April 2015 to listen to this podcast live & in person, where Billy Ray Stupendous & I caught up w/ Phil B and Lauren M of el jay fame, & Paul G of two-sport fame (football/trombone), to marvel @ th chart success of Laurie Anderson, th cross-cultural transcendence of Anne Murray, and th unlikely history of Branson, MO

We tried something new and inserted songs right in th middle of th 'cast -- enjoy, use yr whole heart, control yr gun, spread wings, get loved, be good to yr ears 

Table of contents:

• 00:00:00  "Spasticus Autisticus" performed by Ian Dury
• 00:05:05  Texas, Missouri, & Toronto | favourite Canadian band | bad bands from America | John Tesh
• 00:13:24  New show format | earliest musical memories
• 00:22:04   "Fly Robin Fly" performed by Silver Convention
• 00:25:51  Hairless down there area | when disco was a thing 
• 00:27:16  What is music, anyhow ? | chopping time up | Time, mortality, & harmony | tribes again
• 00:31:16  Th insignificance of lyrics | What about hip-hop ? | rapgenius
• 00:41:07  Scientific fact:  singing along feels good
• 00:44:00  The Dusty Triangle 
• 00:45:52  "You're Dead" performed by Norma Tanega
• 00:48:12  "Walking My Cat Named Dog" | how to discover music | what we know bout Kate Bush
• 00:55:24   "Running Up That Hill" performed by Kate Bush
  
• 01:00:16  MTV | Maxwell | Velvet Underground type of deal | "Why Should I Love U?" | "... all the friends I was girls with ..." | Sandman & The Dreaming
• 01:07:58  Gloomy Spectrum Disorder, Goonies Spectrum Disorder | baby on th podcast 
• 01:12:44  Ginger Baker and ⚡ time ⚡  |  "Th sun is God" -- JMW Turner
• 01:15:42  Censorship for babbies | Nevermind | rock stars who namedrop bands
• 01:21:24  File-collecting vs social life | Austin Psych Fest
• 01:26:00  Music is Children's Music | gift from an adult | parental record collections 
• 01:32:49  Country | Staunton VA | Branson MO | Bald Knobbers
• 01:39:49  "Old Aunt Dinah" performed by Butter Boy
• 01:41:11  Metal Machine Music | "O Superman"
• 01:44:33  Th race card
• 01:46:33  Culture as taking |  Kurt Cobain's problems | growing up in bumfuck | 120 Minutes
• 01:52:49  Trombone & American football
• 01:58:52  Nerds & th experience of music
• 02:03:07  Why do you think so many people are total assholes ...? | Grouper & Bob Dylan | free Belle & Sebastian image consultation
• 02:13:55  Hip-hop, St Louis, Ferguson, and involuntary political awareness
• 02:25:11  Bonus Track: "Ok Denn" performed by Pill
  

TbP 19: G.O.A.T.

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This one went off th rails pretty early on w/r/t its intended topic and never got back on, fully.  Billy Ray's original intention, I think, was to set up th parameters of what it means to be th Greatest Of All Time, and den debate various G.O.A.T. candidates over various fields of endeavour.  Instead we ended up talking bout Livejournal again 80% of th time, general Internet ethics (10%), Stevie Wonder (5%), and gay filmmakers (5%).  Idlewild, Ryan Jackson, Abbas Kiarostami, bell hooks, James Booker, Los Bros Hernandez, Alison Bechdel, Akira Kurosawa, Sergei Parajanov, Persepolis, and Charlie bit me are namedropped in passing.  We are joined this week by Rena J of el jay fame, who was gracious enough to join us on v. short notice and ended up being our first ⚡solo⚡ guest in many moons after our other guest passed out drunk

Listen close for th G.E.O.A.T. (greatest ending of all time)

Table of contents:

• 00:00:00  "Sir Duke" performed by Stevie Wonder
• 00:03:52  Nominal attempt to stick to a topic | blah dee blah dee blahHH | etc etc etc
• 01:59:38  Bonus Track: a great way to start a mixtape or end a podcast
  

TbP 17: Serial

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This is th one you been waiting for.  By "you" I mean "Kathleen O" because she's on this one.  It's bout serial killers.  I play th curious novice; Kathleen & Billy Ray Stupendous play th seasoned veterans showing me th ropes.  Th ropes, th knives, th axes, th guns, th fire, and th bare veiny hands

Kathleen took copious notes for this one.  Keep an ear out for some of history's most famous -- Jeff Dahmer, Ed Gein, Jack th Ripper, John Wayne Gacy -- as well as lesser-known pop anti-stars.  Billy and I share th same favourite killer, it turns out 👊✊✂💀🍀🔫👻



Table of contents:

• 00:00:00  "Red Right Hand" performed by Nick Cave & th Bad Seeds
• 00:06:06  wah-WAH wah-WAH wah-WAH wah-WAH [adults speaking] 
• 01:08:24  I enjoy a moment of microsleep mid-podcast and den have to call for an ⚡⚡INTERMISSION⚡⚡
• 02:04:24  Bonus Track: "Psycho" performed by Jack Kittel

TbP 16: Livejournals of Future Past

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Look, you're into Livejournal or you're not, and it's not anyone's job to sell it to you or defend it from its detractors. What Billy Ray Stupendous and I wanted to allow ourselves w/ this episode was a bit of navel-gazing, a bit of choir-preaching, and a bit of self-back-patting, in accordance w/ El Jay's charter as set forth by th one true god Brad Fitzpatrick in 1999. Not sure if that stuff happened. Not sure what's on this podcast. We were joined by last-minute surprise guests Asphalteden, Herrdoktor, Horty_pie, and Koala_infestation. Clocking in @ something like two hours and a quarter, this one's for th frenz & fagues

Table of contents:

• 00:00:00  "Th Anthem of Fuck You Crew" performed by David Fox
• 00:02:24  ??????CONTENT OF SOME SORT
• 02:04:24  Bonus Track: "Clouds across th Moon" performed by RAH Band

TbP 15: NOLA: Tourists, Townies, & Transplants

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It is my fault that our podcast disappeared, and now it is my fault again that it is back, and it is especially my fault that I have little recollection about what is in this episode of the podcast nor enough desire to rediscover what is in it before posting. What is known: Billy Ray Stupendous and I were joined by our roommate and lifelong New Orleans resident Kathleen O and th world-famous-in-New-Orleans DJ Pompeii (to whom you can tune in every Monday from noon to 2:00p Central on WTUL), to discuss the profound differences between being local and being a carpetbagger in America's greatest city

Table of contents:

• 00:00:00  "Here Come the Girls" performed by Ernie K Doe
• 00:02:58  ??????GOD ONLY KNOWS
• 01:09:58  Bonus Track: America's greatest American

TbP 14: Canadia (f/ Phil B & Michael Dwilow)

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There were times  in this podcast when th dead air stretched out before us like a highway cutting through th Canadian wilderness. Billy Ray Stupendous and I were cool w/ it as we emulated th chillness of our esteemed Canadian guests, Toronto's Phil B and Winnipeg's Michael Dwilow, who hold court on th greatness, th bashfulness, th emotional weirdness, and th relative invisibility of th land known to people in my neighbourhood as "Canadia". Listen as Billy and I indulge in a nostalgic callback to our shared coming-of-age to Allan Moyle's Pump Up th Volume (1990). (Yes, Moyle is Canadian.) Learn th fate of th Loyalists from th American Revolution. Slap yr own head in astonishment as one of th world's most beloved superheroes is outed. Picture Chester Brown's m-bation technique. Surrender to th feeling that something's off about a famous person you admire -- that's right, it's because they're from Canadia

Table of contents:

• 00:00  "Everybody Knows" performed by Leonard Cohen
• 05:29  A pair of killer Canadians | What the fuck is going on in Ottawa!? | serious Canadian terrorism
• 09:24  Upsetting our thesis | size comparison: Toronto vs NOLA | surfing/Slurpee capital of th world
• 13:06  The feet in Vancouver | Twin Peaks/Canada crossover
• 16:16  What are the signifiers of Canadian culture? | long stretches of non-civilization | default: hockey
  
• 20:58  Michael gets frozen in time | burger culture
• 24:08  Canadian Thanksgiving vs Canadian Halloween | Canada's Mexico | northern superiority | Canadian jail
• 29:33  MZA's Canadian gaydar | gun control & diversity | the Memphis of Canada
• 35:19  Canada's treatment of its aborigines
• 36:55  How do you feel bout Québécois separatism? | How do you feel bout the Queen of England?
• 39:55  Th Canadian/American crossover | dual credibility | unassumingness/bashfulness/humility | wet split beaver
• 43:11  Th Canadian reputation for comedy | shoutout to Crime Wave (John Paizs 1985) | speculations on killer Canadians
• 46:27  Th Lowest of th Low | Barenaked Ladies
• 49:01  calibrating yr Canadian gaydar: Jim Jarmusch | Twin Peaks | Canadian selfhood eludes me | Jodie Foster
• 54:33  Famous Canadian authors
• 56:19  Rob Ford
• 57:42  MZA, what is it that you find weird bout Canada? | Coen Bros & Minnesota | th cinematic Canadian spectrum | Guy Maddin
• 1:04:07  Michael Dwilow's historical theory re Loyalists from th American Revolution migrating to Canada | Phil's Canadian body language | th 'Nuck/flippy crossover
• 1:06:55  What to do for fun in Winnipeg | invitations to our respective cities
• 1:08:49  America: guns & diabetes | Phil visits America | Torontonians vs Winnipeggers
• 1:12:11  Who is yr favourite Canadian ? | David Cronenberg | little Canadian in-jokes | Chester Brown | Cronenberg again
• 1:21:49  Canadian rebels who have gotten adopted/co-opted by official culture: Leonard Cohen & Louis Riel | how Chester Brown m-bates
• 1:27:00  List of famous Canadians: hot or not | Superman is half-Canadian (!?) | Clifford Olson | James Randi | Pierre Trudeau | Big Bear | Michael's dad was a fish pathologist
• 1:38:58  Billy issues an apology
• 1:39:16  Famous Canadian actors | th shape of Pamela Anderson's pussy
• 1:41:55  Good-bye to our Canadians | Roger Ebert | Canadian selfhood still eludes me | Rough Trade's "High School Confidential" etc
• 1:46:39  Bonus Track: male feminist Canadian anthem

TbP 13: Social (f/ Doc Carnage & Hooper X)

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Th good news  is that th ASMR-esque aspects of our podcast are undiminished (or augmented, possibly) by crappy audio quality. Th bad news is that it is hard to hear what our guests are saying, @ times. Consider listening on headphones as Billy Ray Stupendous and I bring together two giants of th troll community, Doc Carnage and Hooper X, for an informal (and barely audible, @ times) chat about th evolution of yr favourite addiction: social media. Play that game where you eavesdrop on somebody's call and try to guess what th person on th other end of th line is saying. You'll be rewarded w/ @ least 6 or 7 minutes of penis talk, and th birth of perhaps th strangest presidential ticket in history

Table of contents:

• 00:00  "Hangin' on th Telephone" performed by Th Nerves
• 02:01  Welcome back, Doc | technical difficulties harbinger | godforsaken Shockwave | This podcast is the Cullman Nation of social media
• 06:28  Portal of Evil forum | Usenet illiteracy
• 10:00  Penis talk
• 13:29  I once got beat up for making fun of a guy's metaphorical penis
  
• 15:49  People aren't used to being criticized in person | on private thoughts becoming public record | on interpreting personality on th Internet | homeless friend(s) 
• 19:55  Listen to my typing on th Internet | th rise and fall of ello | th collapse of FB
• 22:08  Myspace
• 24:08  Welcome, Hooper X | Time To Cock (TTC): 30 seconds
  
• 26:07  Phone phreaking & Captain Crunch
  
• 29:07  Taking pictures of Hooper | G+
  
• 30:19  Youtube komments: "the DMV of the Internet" | "I tore down and rebuilt my dryer from a Youtube video"
  
• 32:42  On running for office w/ a checkered Internet past
  
• 35:13  Cub4udk@aol.com
  
• 37:07  Have you guys ever met in person ? | I'm really worried about th audio this time | turning th cameras off | Hooper meets Doc, continued | when rock bands reunite
  
• 43:42  Age & social media | Hooper met his wife on Friendster
  
• 45:57  Zuckerberg's wishes | FB stalking as a traffic driver | th autistic network
  
• 47:55  Generational segregation | what old people use Facebook for | Death comes to FB
  
• 54:49  Th Livejournal and Hotmail accounts of Gordon Meuse
  
• 56:22  The information superhighway | Anna Paquin ? | iPhone vs Batman's utility belt
  
• 59:49  Owning vs renting | worst podcast o.a.t. | shoutout to NOLA Hopitoulas
  
• 1:03:04  How have social media changed yr life ? | on growing up in the middle of nowhere and the escape from place | Cullman, Alabama
  
• 1:08:19  Th disintegration of local selfhood & th rise of all other kinds of selfhood, including th Brony : correlation or causation ? | American punk infrastructure
  
• 1:12:02  On how childhood/adolescent experiences shape attitude toward Internet community | how trolls are born
  
• 1:15:03  On demonizing various categories & gradations of Other | th diversification of Internet users | Eternal September | a black lesbian trapped in a man's body
  
• 1:18:49  You can't out-weird the Internet | Florida hate | crime stats & th eternal drug-addled murder capital of th world | Roe v Wade's theoretical effect on th crime rate
  
• 1:25:55  Ken Baumann tweet re "I don't like what that person's doing" vs "That person is trying to destroy me" | the echo chamber and the great Tea Party/Tumblr emotional crossover (fear) | FEMA concentration camps & FEMA guillotines
  
• 1:33:00  Mental illness & social media | ridiculous tribalism
  
• 1:36:33  Where do we go next ? | geographical segregation based on political/identity-based fragmentation | sexual barter system
  
• 1:41:13  Future political candidates' Internet accountability | Doc Carnage + Hooper X: the weirdest presidential ticket o.a.t. | coitus interruptus
  
• 1:45:45  Bonus Track: errbody do a Rosie Perez dance 

TbP 12: Anticulture (f/ Lisa Carver & Mr Musty)

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This episode of Talking bout Practice is so good I'm probably a genius just for scheduling it. Please join me & Billy Ray "the Bedroom Genius" Stupendous as we execute a flawless takedown of two overrated geniuses, "Rowdy" Mr Musty and Lisa "The Hitman" Carver, in a no-holds-barred cage match ...... nah. Truth is there weren't a whole lot of disagreements in this one, only thoughts presented in a gentle manner by civilized adults. Fans of Mr Musty's Livejournal and Ms Carver's zines and books -- of which th latest is named Money's Nothing -- won't be surprised by their incisive interpretations and their oblique angles on familiar topics, though their shared affection for Kardashians and Furries might catch a few off guard. Th evening's topic? Culture, Counterculture, & Anticulture -- i.e., th Dominant, th Insurgent, & th Invisible. Th Assimilator, th Assimilated, & th Unassimilable. Th Lawful Good, th Chaotic Neutral, & th Ugly. Th Bad Ugly Good, th Ugly Beautiful Baaaad, & th Angelic Demonic Freakin' Week-end. We never did get around to defining our terms

Table of contents:

00:00  "In Spite of Ourselves" performed by John Prine & Iris Dement
03:30  Intro Mr Musty and Lisa Carver | What is a str8wad? | Mr Musty's three agents of culture | counterculture to culture: a process
08:44  Lisa on being assimilated by culture | two books published in one year
11:00  Kardashians vs Art Is Life movement
13:33  Baseline mass-cultural product has gotten really good | Family Ties
17:06  Agreeing on everything -- what a bummer | information saturation | "I wasn't using my privacy anyway" | seamlessness between culture and counterculture
19:25  UFO abductees | Anticulture is unassimilable | what UFO-acceptance culture would look like
23:44  Constituents' paranoid fantasies come true | how to get on a watchlist
26:30  On th gentleness of abductees, psychics, & witches | late Furry friend | shoutout to AA and Livejournal
31:07  Non-geographical vs geographical senses of self | tribute to New Orleans | Local conformity was an illusion | one possible advantage of geographical/local identity | can opener story: Culture, Counterculture, or Anticulture? 
38:33  Message from Culture: Yr Neighbourhood Is Not Who You Are | hashtags and their relationship to #identity #politics | Never go outside | Never go outside w/o yr smartphone | I'm going to keep my flip-phone
40:35  Young and untraceable | what it would take to get a visit from th FBI | th antiterror comedy | close enough for government work | Are you Saudi Arabian?
43:19  How to get along w/ Republicans | The fact that Ds and Rs don't talk to each other anymore is totally fucking up the country | hatred, or just wanting to win? | Nobody wins
50:55  Rs, Ds, symbolic fights, & real fights | things (politics, jobs, numbers) that are and aren't real 
54:44  Mr Musty and Ms Carver appear to disagree | ethanol story | abstractions tumbling downhill into th real | what businesspeople and politicians are supposed to be doing
57:58  Lego hypothesis
59:11  College is ... | "I don't think there should be school anymore" | de facto debtors' prison | Swedes | th grind | fake jobs
1:04:30  I never went to college | windsurfing Furry dream | Financial obligations multiply | MZA says something racist again
1:08:33  Resolved: I am going to own 10 of everything | on having 10 friends | 1 computer w/ 10 of everything on it
1:12:33  Why do you have physical books? | th comix problem | why painting paintings is more lucrative than writing books | Carver is th Klimt of now
1:14:29  The last, bloody, failed, rear-guard action to hang on to the physical book | those fucking millennials | over-under on th lifespan of books
1:15:54  Guys who need books to get laid | when girls got into comix | Craig Thompson's Blankets | classy people who make lists of books
1:19:33  On making a book interactive | on th seclusion of books
1:21:21  Differences in th new brain | Submitted: technology changes more than th brain does
1:22:16  Ode to th long form: Livejournal & Grantland as Counterculture | Now we are th slow grandparents | split attentions in th new brain
1:25:45  "Web sites are tools" vs "Web sites are houses" | remembering facts vs remembering locations of facts | What are street signs ? | wearable tech | drunks in driverless cars | th Apocalypse | th wristwatch, th map, th chicken nugget, & th printing press
1:32:42  Let's do a Diet show | th game-ification of incentives | You can't lie to yr iWatch | "I permit all"
1:36:55  Good-bye, Lisa & Mr Musty | good-bye, listeners
1:39:29  Bonus Track: a song whose royalty fee we paid in blood

 

TbP 11: Conflict of Interests (f/ K$, Nat, Ariel)

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Th road to being th world's best podcast is bound to incorporate a number of chaotic detours. This week on Talking bout Practice, Billy Ray Stupendous and I taste th nectar of chaos when, one hour prior to recording, I invite one of my OKCupid contacts onto th show.  Unexpectedly, she says yes, and we learn each other's names minutes before going on air. We are joined by two of th all-time best talkers, Kristin (Chicago's legendary Kdollarsign) and Nat (NYC's most powerful PR magnate).  Th nominal topic had been Conflict Resolution Strategies, w/ a significant head nod to Conflict Avoidance Strategies, and assumed forays into Passive Aggression, Secrets & Lies, Brutal Truth-Telling, Silent Treatment, Feigned Obliviousness, Steamrolling, Redirection, Gifts, Apologies, Prisoner's Dilemma, Skipping th Chain of Command, Trolling, Flaming, and These Aren't th Droids You're Looking For.  What happened next might give lovers of artful conversation pause and lovers of CHAOS a feeling that all's right in th universe. Big ups to Ariel (NOLA's head narcissist in charge) for bringing th combative spirit th 'cast has been missing. Warning/hype: a substantial 21% of th podcast is devoted to James Franco

Table of contents:

00:00  "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonight" performed by Rezillos
01:52  Ladies wearing clothes and a cam girl
03:55  Tonight's topic | When's the last time you were in an argument? | intro Kristin, Nat, Ariel
05:11  Two truths and a lie ... | K$ & th Big Piece of th Titanic | inner conflict & ethical boundaries
07:55  Natalie, do you get in fights @ work? | Olivia Pope style | th only nice celebrity in Hollywood
09:19  Bill Cosby scandal
13:42  "I used to date this guy who was a travel writer ..." | PR freebies & conflict of interest | Yelp is lame
16:11  Yelp for Grindr, Yelp for dating
18:30  Have you guys been sexcessful using an app? | OKCupid batting average | online charisma | online diligence | MZA is a nightmare
21:55  How do you resolve something w/ somebody that you think hates an entire category of people ? | "That's not how the patriarchy works"
23:42  Building an online profile | completely unmysterious | reading between th Internet lines | Livejournal shoutout again
27:55  Dating artists & writers, being a muse | "... fuck a book into 'em" → "... staggering act of narcissism" | bad writing chemistry
30:27  Anti-abbreviations | context rules everything around me | "I say lol all the time -- all the time!"
32:27  James Franco / Ted Bundy
42:19  James Franco says bye | Ariel says bye | everybody says bye
44:39  Bonus Track: a sad song that Nat requested

TbP 10: Good Night (f/ Ilya)

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Step into a smoky dive bar w/ Billy Ray Stupendous and me in th days before smoking was banned on Earth, as we are joined by Ilya th disco cosmonaut to talk bout everything related to th night except Batman.  What makes staying out until th sun comes up feel good ?  What's in a cemetery ?  What goes on in Berghain, Berlin's most secretive club ?  Do gays age differently than str8s ?  What's th diff between tolerance and acceptance ?  What's th over-under on th number of years more it'll take to accomplish world peace ?  And who committed a hate crime against th Shoney Bear ?  Mysteries upon mysteries, my friend

Table of contents:

00:00  "Freaks Come Out @ Night" performed by Whodini
04:35  "... Answer every question with a question" | intro Ilya | 7-hour time diff
05:49  What's the weirdest thing you've seen in the middle of the night? | Ilya's story (circa 2007) Pt 1
09:26  Why cemeteries @ night are boring
11:16  Popular themes of th night | Ilya's story Pt 2 | rampant sexism by MZA | vocabulary lesson by Ilya
15:19  Ilya's story Pt 3 | class consciousness after death | Oscar Wilde's grave
19:01  Th storytelling urge | visual gags on podcasts | The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin 1973)
22:13  Slightly late bloomers | th first time Ilya got a hangover
27:21  Shoutout to Natalie's discreet hurling style | rug-peeing asshole
29:00  Billy & th Shoney Bear 
31:44  Chain-restaurant-dining barbarians | shoutout to P.F. Chang's in Ridgeland, MS
36:55  MZA has never seen anything weird @ night | flippy rat mugger
39:19  Th attractiveness of low visibility | porn in HD | th forbidden and eternal | one night in NOLA w/ Ilya & Dimi
47:02  An artificial natural ending | th Wizard of Oz moment | theft of time vs reclamation of time
54:42  Deepest darkest fears | Do you find that you use the Internet differently in the middle of the night?
56:35  Movie soundtracks, imaginary & non-imaginary | Quentin Tarantino and Tumblr are lying, cheating dickheads
1:00:47  Guardians of th Galaxy (James Gunn 2014) & nostalgic sci-fi
1:04:16  Phones for lighters | Berghain's (anti)culture of unphotographed debauchery | We lost Ilya
1:12:33  Bad nights | Ilya's embarrassing night Pt 1 | on th upside of getting beaten up
1:16:27  Exploiting yr shitty nights for stories | Ilya's embarrassing night Pt 2: party @ ex-girlfriend's
1:30:08  Ilya's embarrassing night Pt 3: th angelic Dane
1:37:42  Taming th ego vs clinging to self
1:43:00  Being open or not open to th night's offerings | shortcuts based on experience | aging clubgoers
1:45:49  Experience, perversion, th sex drive, & watching Aladdin (Ron Clements & John Musker 1992)
1:48:21  Aging in th gay community | th gay nuclear family | not settling down
1:51:42  Gay rights, gay marriage, & th play for accessibility | legal strategies | NOLA prostitutes' "unnatural acts" | "taxation without representation"
2:01:27  Th overrepresentation of gays in night culture | alternative strategies for gay rights | How can you criticize somebody else's strategy if you don't have one of yr own ?
2:07:11  Perceiving similarity vs perceiving difference | non-legal strategies
2:09:24  Overhauling th education system | infiltrating kindergartens @ night
2:12:19  Tolerance vs acceptance vs embracing vs penetration | de facto segregation | acknowledging gay people's importance
2:18:42  Not being optimistic bout world peace
2:24:03  Bonus Track: elevator jazz

 

TbP 09: Dating in Yr 30s (f/ Peter & Brian)

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This week on Talking bout Practice, Billy Ray Stupendous and I are joined by cat gentlemen/dangerous Lotharios Peter and Brian to talk bout adventures and misadventures in love.  Should one bring porn to a date, just in case ?  How young is too young ?  If Billy Joel is not a dealbreaker, what is ? What are our ethical responsibilities to our Internet lovers ? Exactly how long is th long back end of love ? Once upon a time, these men did not know, but now they definitely do, and should you listen to all two and a half hours of this, so will you. (Length compounded by my accidental appending of a something like 9-minute-long song twice @ th end of th podcast.) Bone appetite

Table of contents:

00:00  "Getting Older" performed by th Clean
04:29  Intros | What has been the worst date you've ever been on? | Brian's story Pt 1
06:59  How old were you when you got married ?
08:10  Brian's story Pt 2: th performance artist
16:19  Women are better @ shutting it down 
17:42  Brian's story Pt 3: trapped two hours from home
20:37  Vegans are bad news
21:13  Brian's story Pt 4: porno mags
25:16  Threshold of psychological unattractiveness | projection of desire | "I need you to be decisive"
28:49  ASMR videos | conversing w/ a person who's no longer in yr life 
34:21  Perfunctory rituals vs appreciating th moment
35:55  Bringing porn to dates | Peter's story Pt 1: th chief resident and th medical student | A lot of physicians are losers
43:51  Peter's story Pt 2: flustered by chopsticks
47:51  Baseline vulnerability | Do you like it when you feel nervous ?
51:20  Not currently dating, no intention to | being mindful of biological clocks
57:19  Shortcut questions | What's the difference between Internet dating & traditional dating? | Some heuristics work better than others
1:01:36  Being decisive in one's personal life & being on the same page re what you want
1:02:45  "The experience that women have of men in everyday life is largely a negative one" | on th usefulness of dating site filters | Eran's OKCupid profile is a beautiful thing
1:05:02  OKC, verbal abuse, & dick pics: a debate
1:26:07  Risk management | snapshot of Peter's flying cock
1:27:42  MZA bathroom break | on quitting OKC | "We're getting old for this technology"
1:29:51  On age differences
1:32:35  "What is your age floor for dating?" | "What are your baseline requirements?" | Peter bathroom break | no checklist | differential wisdom
1:41:13  The long view | differential rates of change | cameos: Brian's cat, Peter's cat | You can't predict th unpredictable
1:47:30  A tweet from Mark Leidner | "the parasite inside your brain that is forcing you to make more humans" | the spark vis-à-vis the back end of love
1:51:00  Why you need drugs | Claudia Sherman doesn't want to be to be another person's sherpa | Rubik cleanses his own anus
1:54:02  Dominance/submission compatibility
1:56:13  "Things could always be worse" | money, career, & class compatibility
2:01:03  Longest podcast, officially | a request for dick pics | reminiscence on boob shots in fuckyoucrew 
2:04:49  A tweet re I Corinthians 13 (the bridesmaid's verse) | getting perspective on hard endings 
2:12:19  Last words ? | hunting vs gathering vs fishing | "crazy pickup artist guys" | Peter & Brian ask each other out
2:18:27  Bonus Track: kick out th jams two times, or a tribute to love's long back end

 

 

TbP, Ep 08: 9/11 Is a Joke (f/ Peter & Eran)

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Was it an act of heroism or an act of terrorism ?  An act of war or a performance art piece ?  A movie or a television program ?  A defining moment for a generation or an ordinary shitty day on Earth glorified by exceptional PR muscle ?  This week on Talking bout Practice, Billy Ray Stupendous and I are joined by Dr Peter and Dr Eran -- two veterans of th Livejournal decade -- to talk 'bout September 11, 2001.  We get earnest.  We tell jokes.  We suffer insufferable audio quality.  In th 75th minute, a third doc, Doc Carnage, hops on and redirects th conversation toward matters explosive. In th end, drowned out by echoes of our own voices, there's but one matter upon which all involved concur: this was th worst podcast ever made, a real holocast. 

Table of contents:

00:00  "Search & Destroy" performed by the Stooges
03:19  Eating while podcasting
04:57  Where were you? | "I love 9/11"
07:29  "I was doing my psychiatry rotation"
09:05  Everybody loved New York for a few minutes | disenchantment
10:32  Ad hoc community feelings | th birth of Islamophobia | a movie villain | 9/11 party
13:44  Opinions vs insight
14:55  Getting used to it in Israel vs th Impossible American Event
17:44  Co-opting 9/11 to enhance personal drama | "irretrievable loss" | knowing nothing and feeling everything | being a brown person
21:16  Indians who took preventive measures 
22:27  Improbability | audio problem | th fading of 9/11
27:33  "The entire world jumped the shark" | squandering sympathy
30:13  An attempt not to be cynical | Hurricane Sandy | ad hoc community vis-à-vis "tragedy-based relationships"
32:29  Flight security theatre
36:55  What nobody wants to admit | predator-prey evolution | "Sounds of the Japanese Doomsday Cults"
38:49  On mellowing out & focusing on things you can change
39:49  On leaving local matters to th locals | Katrina relief | th inherent corruption of large organizations
46:08  Slow-motion disasters | Sandy relief | breaking relief orgs into smaller units
52:00  Sexy tragedies vs nonsexy ones | 9/11 in Syria every day | on whether we ought to give a damn
54:16  A case for depopulating th earth | terrorists as heroes, heroes as terrorists | "the central evil thought"
57:00  "Suicide has killed more people than war"
57:55  Cameo: Rubik
58:11  "It's almost like snuff films" | Real life is a movie, too | eliminating the implements of killing
1:01:39  Th Cold War of Reproduction | "my utopian seed" | "9/11 makes me so horny"
1:03:19  Gallows human | 9/11 jokes | Diego Castillo's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joke | Gordon Meuse's suicide | cosmic joke
1:06:19  If you were an Alan Moore character | Cameo 2: Rubik | This is our worst podcast ever
1:07:51  A recommendation: "Have You Forgotten?" by Darryl Worley | spitting on th American flag | starting a war over nothing
1:12:11  Think out loud bout remote warfare | depersonalization
1:14:30  Doc Carnage joins th 'cast | "I wanna make your wife feel at home" | Michael Bay explosions
1:16:49  Do you have any strong opinions on drone warfare? | Clint's battlefield laptop | th boredom of war | what you can see on infrared 
1:23:47  How ground warfare might be less damaging psychologically to its participants than drone warfare | on knowing or not knowing whether you killed anyone | Depersonalize might not be th right word | th shower scene in Psycho
1:28:42  How th Nazis did it in th concentration camps | We haven't found a way to not have damage | desensitized as a nation
1:33:21  "You do your job or you die" | on duty to yr fellow soldiers | Pokemon vs war
1:36:11  On th effect of homogeneity and scale on Israel's attitude to war | on th effect of intellectual isolationism
1:40:30  Israel's military
1:41:33  Eran vs other Israelis | ad hoc rooting interests | Clint begins a rebuttal ...
1:45:33  Reverb obliterates th debate | This is th worst podcast o.a.t. | I hate this podcast | This sucks
1:49:39  Bonus Track: b-side to Michael Jackson's "Man in th Mirror"

 

TbP, Ep 07: Religious Studies (f/ Reuben from Loose Canons)

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Strap in for our longest podcast yet as Billy Ray Stupendous and I host th host of another ultra-popular podcast, Reuben from Loose Canons, to talk about th practice of religion.  Witness as we agree that arguing for or against God's existence is about as useful as debating whether Th Thing could take Th Hulk in a best-of-seven.  Witness as we discuss th similarities between modern Christianity and Windows 8.  Witness as th definition of religion gets looser and looser until th IRS grants th Libertarian Church th tax exemption they always dreamed of.  Witness as th Wyatt Earp Effect accounts for th origin of humankind and of th universe itself.  Reuben's world-famous in our neighbourhood as a devil's advocate, a first-class reverse snob, a mensch, and an outstanding dancer.  Witness how pleased we are to have him on th show.  That's right, go and witness to thy neighbour.

Table of contents:

00:00  "How Far Am I from Canaan?" performed by the Soul Stirrers f/ Sam Cooke
02:49  Shoutout to Loose Canons 
03:45  A simple Q: do you believe in God? / a simple answer / an answer that's a question
07:49  A breakup w/ a polyamorous God
10:04  Cameo 1: "Bart" blows her nose
10:27  Den again, th whole universe is odd / Hell, Heaven, & aliens are too human
13:49  Major Buffy spoiler / Joss Whedon loves his heroin...es
15:49  Sacred texts / playing non-literal / an atheist who is pro-religion
18:13  Local Church Full of Brainwashed Idiots Feeds Town's Poor Every Week
20:33  On whether Christianity is anti-sex / 99% pleasureless sex / Japan's penis festival 
24:24  Sex drive vs religion / reproductive strategy of religion
27:29  There were African popes / there was a female pope
31:06  Billy's agnosticism / th importance of proof
32:40  Timeline of African popes
34:24  Religious persuasion & dating
37:08  Shoutout to Portland (& Basil from Loose Canons)
37:24  On growing up a Jew in Alabama
39:33  Christianity as Jewish fanfic
40:51  A quote from a devil's advocate / th evolution of Reuben's attitude re religion
44:55  Reuben's contrarian approach to cinema / Hunger Games: Catching Fire
47:40  Th unreliability of predictions & first impressions / th instability of personal context
50:13  On th extinction of "retard"
52:51  A quote on religion's failure by a supposed religious person (Henri Nouwen) / philosophical reflection vs th violence of everyday life
56:51  Religion as a haven for freaks and artists
57:49  Technical difficulty / shoutout to Justified / "the Golden Age of television" / TV vs movies / shoutout to James Finney (?)
1:00:46  Shit-talking Marvel / an appreciation of Ang Lee's Hulk (2003)
1:05:05  What do y'all make of Buddhism ? / a mission of self-destruction
1:09:00  Reuben's pros and cons of Buddhism / American bourgeois Buddhism as fantasy football analogue / "... a Libertarian religion ..."
1:13:07  Starting th world from zero / working for salvation
1:14:24  Alan Moore again / Are we special ? 
1:18:31  Th Wyatt Earp Effect / Cameo 2: "Bart" makes a barely audible noise
1:21:08  Religion : spirituality :: collectivism : individualism / "Religion and capitalism are inversely related"
1:27:33  Secret origin of Jewish wealth
1:32:01  Capitalism adopts Christianity / cherry-picking th Bible
1:35:40  Biblical cinema / Fox News vs Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014)
1:36:46  That's because Jews are smarter
1:37:42  Our longest podcast ever, officially / snippet of Jewish prayer
1:39:16  Q: Would human life be improved by higher levels of contemplation ? / interconnectedness of all things
1:42:32  Story: Reuben's mum goes to heaven / Pete Holmes vs David Lynch
1:47:11  Bonus Track: a song sung to God in God's own voice

TbP, Ep 06: Sex, Nerds, & Tribalism (f/ Doc Carnage)

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This week on Talking bout Practice : Billy Ray Stupendous and I go head to head to head w/ th troll's troll, th notorious Doc Carnage -- former combat medic in Iraq, Portal of Evil alum, cat owner, and caveman polymath -- to pay tribute to our tribal past, push back against th nerdish present, and speculate on th future of sex.  Who are th nerds of th United States Armed Forces ?  Which is th more powerful psychic force -- th nerdification of sex, or th sexification of nerds ?  Do nerds constitute a tribe ?  What's up w/ Christians ?  We pull th answers to these questions out of ourselves, one by one, as one might beads on a string. 


Table of contents:

00:00  "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex than Me" performed by TISM
02:51  Possibly th most hated man on Facebook 
03:51  How much sex have you had?
06:33  Nerd-inspired anger
08:12  So are you an actual doctor? / Doc's background / K. Thor Jensen's Portal of Evil
12:21  Th troll's definition of trolling
14:24  "Where does the trolling end and the reality begin ...?"
16:23  Did you ever troll th fuckyoucrew ?
17:22  Why we lost th war 
19:02  Yr most awkward sexual experience
22:42  Nerds as a tribe / Christians as a non-tribe
26:08  Soldiers as a tribe / sub-tribes of soldiers
29:18  On not talking about combat / th North Pond Hermit / nerdy war stories
34:06  Th nerdification of beer/everything
36:57  New Orleans has got liquor in th grocery stores / Alabama's dry Oktoberfest
39:49  Th nerdification of sex / Mary, Queen of Farts / zero sex future
45:00 Sex barter system / sexbots / "I'd like to order one Realdoll in the likeness of my mother"
49:02  Lizard brain vs prefrontal cortex / Joel Rifkin / "the serial killer whisperer"
52:21  Organizing principles of autistic people / arbitrariness of DSM-5 / antisocial vs borderline vs troll
58:39  Cognitive misers vs chaotic narratives / doing Th Wave on social media
1:03:46  Audio difficulties / either a classic or a masterpiece
1:04:49  Th sexification of nerds / "You hate the things that you are"
1:08:42  Retirement strategy
1:11:13  Pulling it out of my ass
1:12:33  Bronies on their way to th zero sex singularity / House M.D. / Felicia Day-ness
1:16:44  Poop-throwing @ th Gathering of th Juggalos / Drew Ailes, journalist / th nerdification of gangs
1:21:19  WWJD / "high-tech rednecks"
1:23:21  A plug in th interest of veterans w/ PTSD: https://www.facebook.com/VipRtech or http://www.viprvr.com/ / Cesar Millan (flooding therapy)
1:25:23  Bonus Track: nerdiest song about sex ever written