#I have never liked podacasts

[mifhortunach]

lol anyway, all that said, heres just a gen buncha stuff I really liked this year, unfortch for us all!!: its mostly podcasts lol:

toxic podcast / an aesthetic theory of alejando kolleeny: this is,, the purest distillation of the podacasting form imo - I'll say it time & time again!- comedian in a room by himself talks about a piece of media I could never personally get into basically - one of the little joys of this year was it coming back for a while (hiatus all 2020 p much): for a while every week I would listen to it on the trips to woodies I was always doing lol. definitely not for everyone, but It got me thru my thesis & all the rest of my college year lol - taught me everything I know about both the DC movie-verse, wine, as well as the saw franchise. please dont think less of me ??

bnl/stevie page - ugh, ah yk, i listened to All of their pre-2009 catalogue over the course of a month && read SO many old interviews- obvs had heard page' most recent album in 2020 but I got way more into everything. hate to say it but bnl ARE underrated && I think following the growth from rly exciting live band/kids into 'Real Musicians' is so interesting

Blank Check Pod - just got HARDCORE into this for a couple of months basically; how few pods do 2+hour end releases as the baseline lmao; taught me so much more about movies to be deeply annoying about!, when its good its one of the very best

Live @ The Death Factory!: Pretty 'Recent', Extremely Niche podcast on 'scum cinema'; EVERY ep is enjoyable, the biggest problem ive got with it is that I can't always find the music they use to end each ep! - theyre great really consistently engaging& interesting hosts, talking about niche cinema (& honestly gen 'niche media'); introduced me to noroi, as well as a couple of other films I really liked this year - if I rec ANYTHING for u to ACTUALLY get into on this list I rec this one

Gen stuff:

got WELL back into fatt this year; sangfielle is DEFINITELY one of the highlights of this year, its so unique & special-as well as being a perfect jumping on point for new listeners- ive loved every minute

got temporary into cobra kai / tkk, & I definitely need to return lol

the tick!!: ive been putting off watching it since I knew about it, just bc of how it appeals & how I KNEW it would upset me - I still need to fin the 2017 series ! - the live action ones have SO much charm, && I think use superherodom as a metaphor for queerness (in a variety of senses) in such a appreciative loving way that makes them really special - still need to get thru the comix/etc

I also really liked the Gideon the 9th series, what a joy

&& ofc, twioat is ALWAYS there for me; I may not have been the maddest on Emmanuelle season but by GOD those frosty fellas were still out there every week doing SOMETHING; I should be burning tributes every day

- theres a TONNE of other stuff Im forgetting here im sure, but yk!! at least I remember like,, 1/6th of the year thru this stuff lmao

[thelostcatpodcast]

THE LOST CAT PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS: S01 Ep03: The Hole Of The Leviathan

SEASON 1: EPISODE 3: THE HOLE OF THE LEVIATHAN

Episode released 28th  July 2014

http://thelostcat.libsyn.com/episode-3-the-hole-of-the-leviathan

The other day, while looking for my cat, I visited another plane of existence, I witnessed reality from a position of nowhere, and lost the colour in my left eye. How this happened was: The Hole Of The Leviathan has a pet rescue centre.

THE LOST CAT PODACAST, BY A P CLARKE, EPISODE 3: THE HOLE OF THE LEVIATHAN

People say if you press your belly button hard enough you turn inside out. People say, everything happens for a reason. People say, if you want a thing hard enough, you can make it happen.

People say the silliest of things, often with the most sincerest of tones.

Take my friend, who I had met down the pub for a drink, and to let him fix my radio. He enjoys drinking, and showing me how he knows how everything works. I enjoy drinking.

He always says ‘I’m certain’ at the end of his statements. I think he thinks it will make what he says more true.

For example:  “oh yeah, Your cat’ll definitely be at the Leviathan.,” he was saying with his fingers stuck in my radio. “I’m certain.”

“OK,” I replied.

“It’s obvious,” he concluded.

Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but I mean really. The more certain people sound, well, the more silly they sound. I think they think the talking will keep the darkness away. But if they would just stop talking for a moment they could hear the darkness already within them.

It is singing.

And if you visit the hole of the leviathans, half way up the high street, the darkness will sing in tune with the low moan emanating from the hole, pulsing in time with the tentacles rising up 100ft from it into the air.

I don’t know, Perhaps I am just in a bad mood. He is fixing my radio, after all.

Now the reason he was certain was: the low moan affects all the dogs and cats in the area. Possibly rabbits too: I am not an expert. Late at night they will sing along with it, lying with their heads upside down. A quiet, ululating whine that spiders shrink from.

It is a recognised phenomena that, if let off their leashes, pets will walk in concentric, predictable rings around the Hole Of The Leviathan. Locals simply let their dogs walk themselves as go and they have a coffee in the shop that opened next to the hole specifically to cater to them. The closer to the hole the animals get, the more docile they become.  Indeed you can see cats and birds lounging next to each other, all the way up the slowly pulsing tentacles that tower above the high street.

So you can see why it would be a natural fit for a pet rescue centre.

It is situated just under the right tentacle of the Leviathan. It takes all kinds of pets, and I had been assured they were very good at picking up strays. They have pop up markets every Wednesday. Squatters in the adjacent buildings put on gigs and other community events beneath the squamous shadow. For a large part of the community, The Hole Of The Leviathans is a very welcoming place, and a cultural centre for the local area.

The dark cloud thins above the Hole and sometimes the day breaks through. On good days the tentacles are bathed in sunlight. Really, it is lovely. You can navigate by them.

And anyway, what is a ‘low moan’? It sounds better than cars at any rate. If mixed with a steady harmonic of around 600hz, the result is quite relaxing to the human nervous system.  

People use it to go to sleep to.

Some have even ascribed aphrodisiac qualities to the low moan. But that’s musicians for you.

Here, have a listen. I will remove the background music and turn up the gain so you can hear it.

<low, slowly rising noise that sounds like an intergalactic storm crying into the void. Or something. Anyway, it gets really loud>

They say, if you listen long enough, you can hear someone calling for help.

I can’t say I have ever heard it. But what do I know?

My friend says that they are the sounds of lost souls, trapped there for ever. He says That once the void has you, it never let’s go.

“Really,” I say.

Because, honestly, I feel bad for the Leviathan. No one knew why it just stays where it is, stuck halfway out of the ground, never advancing, never retreating, and with cats lounging around on its tentacles. Does it know that its main effect on the world is to help children sleep at night? Poor thing.

Quite suddenly he loudly exclaimed “There!” and held up my old radio. “This is fixed. This will now pick up the low moan. Go on! Try it!”

So I tuned in the old analog radio to the low end of the am dial, and listened

<the slowly rising noise returns but, this time, as it reaches full volume, you can hear the distant but distinct noise of ‘meiows’>

“Oh my word. My cat. I am sure it is my cat. My cat is down there with the tentacles. He always did like fish.”

“Told you.”

“I have to go and get him. I have to go to the Hole Of The Leviathan!”

“Excellent. But not before you buy me another drink. Its your round,” he said.

I said, “Are you sure?”

But yeah, I went to the bar, and he went to the jukebox and we had another glass of wine.

<music plays: Slaughterhouse, written by A P Clarke. Performed by A P Clarke and W Walker Allen>

What else are you doing? You smoked your cigarette.

Come on there’s nothing on the tv.

The Slaughterhouse is open, every Friday night,

There’s a party you can go with me.

And from the blood on the floor, the gristle on the saw

the piles of glasses, teeth and car keys,

And the scratches on the door tell us those that came before

Went down, down, down to the Slaughterhouse.

Let’s get killed.

There’s tinsel on the handles, and flowers on the grates

The boys will follow girls wherever they go.

And the blades will make the rhythm, screams will make the tune

When the first cut comes that’s the start of the show.

There is petrol in the air, and the smell of burning hair

When the angel’s dress goes up she does a striptease.

And at night the only lights on anywhere in the town

are down, down, down at the Slaughterhouse.

Have ourselves a time.

Your bedroom smells like newspapers, your linen smells like smoke

and the cities are all empty but for people.

And you can hear the road from anywhere, the tiny clacking sound

machinery to keep a corpse alive.

See how much you’ve grown, have you ever seen your bones?

Don’t worry every part of you is used.

And when all that’s left is shoes, someone else will sing the blues

Down, down down at the Slaughterhouse

And have ourselves a time.

So the next day I borrowed marigold gloves from the kitchen, and travelled to The Hole Of The Leviathan. The tentacles swayed to their own gentle breeze above the houses.

I walked through the circle of dogs, careful not to interrupt their dazed ritual.

A fortunate side-effect of the immense size of the leviathan was that the gargantuan scales acted very much like a ladder. careful not to have my fingers squashed by the tectonic movements of the scales, I placed my hands in the joins and started my descent.

The flesh between the scales was soft and goo oozed around me. It was why I had worn marigolds. It was a tentacle after all, and one should expect this. To my human nose it smelt, of all things, like stale lavender.

Down in the hole, the light disappeared, the moan turned to a loud hum. All the sounds of the street went silent, the darkness within me sang in the hollow of my chest and I felt suddenly and entirely alone.

Then a voice sounded out loud in the centre of my head.

YOUR WORLD IS A HOLLOW SHELL WE WILL CRACK LIKE AN EGG. YOU ARE DUST IN WIND.

I don’t know why, but at this moment I said this: “You are speaking English.” It just occurred to me.

DO YOU SPEAK ANY OTHER LANGUAGE?

And, well, that was fair enough. I said, “I am sorry.”

YOUR WORLD SHALL BE DESTROYED IN THE GLORIOUS PAIN OF OUR BIRTH

I felt the urge to continue: “How do you speak?”

THAT REALLY ISN’T IMPORTANT.

“See, I mostly picture a squid.”

YOUR WORLD IS RUIN. PALTRY.  CRAVEN.

That was also fair enough. I said: “I can’t say that I disagree.”

DO YOU NOT KNOW TO WHOM YOU SPEAK?

“Well not really, no.”

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

“I am looking for my cat.”

YOU CAME HERE TO LOOK FOR A CAT?

“I like him.”

ENOUGH! I WILL SHOW YOU THE CHAOS BENEATH YOUR THIN SANITY!

The tentacle coiled around me. It tried in my ear, it slipped around my nose. It wrapped around my body, and then it found my belly button and slid its dripping end in.

And I turned inside out.

It did not hurt. And when I opened what I thought were my eyes, I saw the world from a position of nowhere.

I said: “woah.”

It was quite a thing.

DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE NOW? DO YOU SEE THE FUTILITY OF YOUR EXISTENCE?

“I’m sorry, no.”

I mean it was quite a thing.  But what use was it to me? I am someone. I am somewhere. What is the use in knowing something from nowhere? No wonder the world seemed so empty to this poor creature.

I was suddenly filled with a desire to help it.

TIME IS THE MEANS THE UNIVERSE HAS TO UNDERSTAND ITSELF. TIME IS MEASURED BY CHANGE IN STATES. CHANGE IN STATES USES ENERGY. ENERGY, IN BEING USED, IS GONE. BY THE UNIVERSE KNOWING ITSELF DOES IT MANUFACTURE ITS OWN DESTRUCTION. LIFE IS LOSS.

I don’t know. It just sounded so negative. I said: “life is defined by trying.”

YOU WILL EXHAUST YOUR ENERGY.

What else is it for?

SO WHAT ARE YOU USING YOURS FOR?

I am trying to find my cat.

YOU ARE… YOU ARE SERIOUSLY TRYING TO FIND YOU CAT?

Yes.

I… I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

And it was in this that I finally knew why the leviathan stayed in its hole, neither retreating nor advancing, and staying in its limbo, half way up the high street. It was, simply, confused. It could not understand why cats would climb up it, nor why humans would open cafes near it. It could not understand why I would climb down into the darkness of its hole just to find my pet. It had lost its certainty. It simply did not know what to do.

HELP ME. HELP ME, it said.

It said: I AM…CONFUSED.

“I know. The world is a strange place, especially for those who seek order from it.”

YOU DO NOT FEAR ME.

I want to help you.

I… DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO.

“We all have to figure that out, I guess.”

WHAT ARE *YOU* TRYING TO DO?

“I am trying to find my cat.”

And there was silence for a long, long time. And then:

I… I WILL FIND YOUR CAT.

“… really?” I replied.

YES… YES… I WILL FIND YOUR CAT FOR YOU.

This felt like progress. I said “You can do this?”

YES. I CAN DO THIS.

This felt *good*.

And then it said: I CAN FIND YOUR CAT. I AM CERTAIN.

And I sighed. I must admit, I felt sad at this point, for I knew I truly could not help the Leviathan. Trapped forever in its confusion, and believing certainty was its map for escape.

“Its OK,” I said. “You do not need to.”

I MUST AND I WILL.

And then a great rumbling began beneath me, as if impossible masses were moving against each other.

IT IS BEGUN the Leviathan intoned, with something like smugness in its voice.

I did not have the heart to tell it people were using his emanations as a sex aid.

BEGONE. I MUST PREPARE MY ULTIMATE VICTORY, AND YOUR INEVITABLE DOOM.

“OK,” I said.

And he pushed me back into myself and I was here once again, holding on to a tentacle with the goldening sky only a few yards above me.

“Truly,” I said, down into the hole. “I wish you well.”

But the Leviathan, busy about its business, I guess, did not reply. But of my cat, there was no sign. I checked myself, and I seemed fine. I even still had my marigolds on.

So I rose from The Hole Of The Leviathan as the sun was just starting to set, and a band was just starting to play. It was a nice evening, all things considered, and I called up my friend to share a beer or two. They asked what happened.

I said “I went down the hole.”

He said “you’re an idiot.”

He sounded certain.

I don’t know. Maybe he was right?

He looked at me then, and asked if I was OK. He held up a candle to my face and then he saw it.  All the colour was gone from my left eye. There was the white and the dark spot at the centre, but nothing in-between.

As we were leaving, we noticed: all the dogs were now walking the opposite way around the hole.

I got home just before dark, and returned to my quiet, clean, empty room and felt sad that I could not help the Leviathan in its confusion. It would have to figure it out in its own time. But while it was doing that, I needed to sleep, so I tuned the radio down to its low moan, turned off the lights and went to bed.

<the low, rising moan returns but, this time, just as it reaches its full volume, one can clearly hear a familiar booming voice say “HELP ME. HELP ME”>

THIS HAS BEEN AN EPISODE OF THE LOST CAT PODCAST, WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY A P CLARKE. COPYRIGHT 2014.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.

Links:

thelostcat.libsyn.com

twitter.com/LostCatPod

thelostcatpodcast.tumblr.com

facebook.com/lostcatpodcast

soundcloud.com/a-p-clarke/sets/the-lost-cat-podcast

apclarke.bandcamp.com/releases

[recentnews18-blog]

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/why-we-need-the-unrivaled-honesty-of-comic-jim-norton/

Why We Need The Unrivaled Honesty Of Comic Jim Norton

Courtesy of Loshak PRJim Norton

With a looming deal on the horizon after signing a contract extension for his morning radio show, a role in an upcoming Martin Scorsese Netflix film and a standup tour in full swing, you can bet against comedian Jim Norton becoming yesterday’s tomatoes any time soon.

The Bayonne, New Jersey native can be seen performing stand-up comedy live across the country on his Kneeling Room Only tour and can be heard weekday mornings between 7 a.m – 11 a.m. ET on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton and Sam Roberts show.

Norton, along with Roberts, hopes to have a new contract wrapped up by the end of the week after signing another round of extensions to stay on the air while the details get worked out.

“Jim is like undeniably one of, if not the funniest guys in radio,” Sam Roberts, Norton’s morning show co-host said. “It’s such a blessing to be able to do a show with a guy like that because it’s not the type of thing where we have to sit there for hours on end and try to find the humor in something or fake that we like each other, or fake chemistry or anything like that.”

Working out a lucrative long-term deal would not only be in Jim and Sam’s and the fans’ best interest, but SiriusXM’s as well. You’d have to be locked in an asylum to not appreciate the strides the team has made in just two years.

Even with the abundance of audio content from terrestrial and satellite radio, as well as podcasts, Jim and Sam offer unconventional originality and immeasurable levity beyond comparison.

The show’s absurdly long intro – which serves as one of the many delightful running gags – has you eagerly awaiting the co-hosts take on what happened the day before and in today’s early morning hours. The dressing down of staff can be as compelling as Jim and Sam’s unique and unequivocally funny perspectives.

Then there’s Jim’s characters: Chip Chipperson (a dim-witted Norton character who lives with his mother) and Edgar Mellencamp (an elderly man with a dry mouth) to name a couple.

“Chip comes from Jim’s heart,” Roberts said of Chipperson. “And that’s why Chip is the most lovable and people, whether they know it or not, I think are sensing that.”

Chip has also found people’s hearts in becoming a sensation outside of Norton himself. The Chip Chipperson Podacast has a loyal following that sees its live shows sellout a variety of clubs and theaters.

“Norton thinks that Chip will outlive him as a personality,” comic and frequent Chip Chipperson guest Kevin Brennan said. “I actually like Chip more than Norton if you can believe that.”

Brennan has a theory on why the radio and podcast character has taken off.

“Chip’s crazy,” Brennan said. “Chip says whatever. He’s insulting, he’s offensive, he’s ridiculous and I love it. I just think it’s hilarious. He’s so funny because he still has Norton’s mind. He’ll say stuff that’s really funny off the top of his mind that he just came up with. That character is hilarious. I like mean comedy, that might be a reflection of my childhood.”

The success achieved by a character Norton started out doing to annoy an ex-girlfriend and amuse himself when he was alone (still does) has come as a surprise to Jim.

“I’m really happy,” Norton said. “I hope it keeps going. I hope it’s not a temporary thing. Of course I’m shocked. The fact is that we all have Chip in us. We all kind of stink on some level. And Chip embraces that and is that. It’s awful jokes, so it’s really fun. It’s fun to pick the worst jokes you can think of.”

Because Chip and Jim are separate people, there is an art to interacting with Chip for the success of a radio bit or the podcast.

“I’ve learned to just treat his characters like real people,” former co-host of the Opie and Anthony Show, Anthony Cumia said. “Chip Chipperson of course, a very popular character. Whenever I do his show and there’s somebody who’s never done it before, there sitting there and going, ‘What is this like?’ I go, Just imagine you’re doing a talk show that’s hosted by a [very slow] person, because that’s pretty much it.

“Then they’re like, ‘Oh, okay I guess I could go with that.’ I’ve just learned to really treat them like they weren’t Jim, and how would I react to somebody that really acted like that. Opie never really got a line on how to [interact with] Jimmy’s characters.”

Following the Opie and Anthony Show’s departure in July of 2014 after Cumia was fired for using racist language on Twitter, Jim and Gregg “Opie” Hughes tried to pick up the pieces and continue on with a new incarnation of the show.

Comedian Jim Norton participates in the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss the Netflix comedy special, “Mouthful of Shame”, at AOL Studios on Thursday, April 13, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

The duo continued for about two years before Jim and Sam paired up and Opie tried a show of his own.

“Look, we worked together for a long time,” Norton said of the partnership he had with Hughes. “The relationship deteriorated. It happens. I feel like I was very loyal for a long time. I’ve been very, very reverential to O and A, what they’ve done for my career. I’ve been very publicly appreciative of him.”

Hughes was fired by SiriusXM in July of 2017 after taking a video of producer Roland Campos going to the bathroom. 

There were only a couple dustups while Jim and Opie were on the air together and it’s only recently that Norton has been more vocal about what it was like working with Hughes, especially on Jim and Sam.

“It’s one of those things where he’ll throw a jab, then I throw one,” Norton said. “Or I throw one and then he throws one. I think that’s basically what it is. We both wanted to for a long time, but we weren’t able to. So it’s kind of fun to do when there’s a reason for it.

“He’s doing his show and I’m doing my thing with Sam. There’s really no reason for us to even think about each other. So it’s not like we do it all the time. It’s occasional.”

No matter who he’s been on-air with, stand up comedy has always been a constant in Norton’s life.

Audiences fortunate enough to see Norton perform live in person are seeing the comic do what he’s best at. Despite Norton’s brutally honest, self-deprecating humor, the stand up chops he’s sharpened from almost thirty years of performing give him the confidence to prowl the stage like a panther.

“First of all, I love Jimmy,” comedian Russell Peters said. “He’s very funny, very astute and he’s a big student of the game.”

Comics like Norton are at a premium. Rawness and honesty are desperately needed to sift through vile dishonesty politicians spew out and the fraudulently indignant hypocrisy social media lynch mobs muster up on a daily basis.

“It’s his honesty onstage that keeps him where he is,” Peters said. “And I always try to tell comics, the more honest you are onstage the easier this job is to do. Keith Robinson told me that 20 years ago and I never forgot it. He’s not hiding anything.

“People are coming to see comics for the honesty. That’s what they want. That’s what the world is lacking right now. The news isn’t being honest. You can get two different types of news nowadays. How f***ing weird is that? You remember back in the day [when] news was news? Now you can have pro-Trump news or anti-Trump news. I’m like, Why can’t we just get news news?”

“He’s risky,” Brennan said of Jim’s stand up. “He’s always been risky. I hadn’t seen him in a while, because he’s been working mornings a lot. And he works the earlier shows usually, especially during the week, the weekends [he’s] on the road. But I saw him do a full 20-minute set or 25-minute set probably in July and it was f***ing great.

“I was kind of blown away by how good it was just because I know he’s so busy. He’s got a great work ethic so he does the morning show and he’s always on the road, he does Chip Chipperson. He’s just extremely busy.”

Peters and Brennan aren’t the only comedians regarding Norton as the Toast of the town.

“I love Jim,” Norm Macdonald said. “I love Anthony Cumia too. I think he’s a fantastic broadcaster, and those two together were great, now they have separate shows, but they’re both so good they can each have a show.

“It’s very hard to do radio for two, three hours a day, really hard to be funny I mean. Larry King used to do it all night long, but he didn’t have to be funny. Jim is just one of those unfiltered guys that just says whatever is on his mind, doesn’t second guess himself and he has a lot of passion for his opinions and that’s what makes, I think, for great radio.”

Jim Norton “Kneeling Room Only” tourCourtesy of Loshak PR

Norton examines his own life and career with the same honesty and self-loathing humor you can see in his act or hear on the radio show. When asked if after all the success he’s currently having he’s one good project away from hitting it big, he responded:

“No, I’m one bad project away from killing myself,” Norton joked. “I hope something happens. I never wonder, Where’s my spot? I never expect anything. The more good things that happen the better, but I never expect anything. I really don’t. I hope something good comes of it, but I never expect anything great to come.”

Something great that did come is the Netflix film the Irishman (2019) directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Norton filmed a scene where he plays one of his idols, the late comedian Don Rickles, performing at a night club.

“I love Rickles,” Norton said. “So it was really, really fun to play him. I tried to do it justice. The lines were written, which was easier.”

While shooting his scene, Jim worked with De Niro a second time (the Comedian), a third if you count De Niro appearing in the intro to his last standup special Mouthful of Shame.

“At one point, because De Niro wanted to hear material he hadn’t heard, they said, ‘Mr. De Niro is requesting that you just do your act.’” Norton said. “Because the camera was on him, so he just wanted to see my regular material just so he could laugh at it, so any shots of De Niro, if there’s any of him laughing, it’s at my regular jokes.

“It’s really weird, I was just talking to him and (Joe) Pesci. I mean there was an audience, but I was just looking over at De Niro and Pesci which was kind of surreal. It was great though because afterwards [Pesci] goes, ‘Hey, you were funny, man.’

“He was really cool and Scorsese is a really relaxed guy. I wasn’t nervous around Scorsese because I had met with him already and we had sat in his office and talked. And I wasn’t nervous around De Niro because I had done something with him, so Pesci was like the only one. It was still so much fun to do it with him. I didn’t let myself panic and get too nervous.”

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottking/2018/10/24/why-we-need-the-unrivaled-honesty-of-comic-jim-norton/