Podcasts

Podcasts are great.  In case you don't know what they are, they are essentially free mp3 audio recordings of radio shows that you can download to your iTunes (either manually or through automated subscription) and listen to on demand (at an hour that suits you, in segments, or all at once) either directly through your computer or through an iPod or similar device that plays mp3s.

This means that my mom no longer needs to queue up the clunky, family-room radio player to record Prairie Home Companion every Sunday at 10:00 am onto cassette tapes that she would then lug around with her to share with her friends.  She can just subscribe to it on iTunes and carry around hours and hours of the show on her mp3 player.  And if she wants to share it with her friends in UT she can simply send them a link, like this: http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/podcasts/xml/prairie_home_companion/news_from_lake_wobegon.xml.  Also, you can just open up iTunes, go the iTunes store, and search for whatever podcast you want and you should be able to track it down in no time.

Now, to say that podcasts are simply on-demand radio shows would be selling them short.  Since the advent of the podcast and in step with the proliferation of mp3s creative individuals and universities have also jumped onto the scene and are setting out to publicize their content or ideas to anyone that will be their audience.  This means that the total content can be overwhelming but to the extent that you can sift through it you might just find a treasure that perfectly suits you.  Regarding the university content, in theory, you can now essentially audit a class anywhere in the world assuming you find a partcipating university and a subject matter that interests you.

With all that in mind, here are some podcasts I regularly listen to and recommend:

Sound Opinions - A weekly radio show hosted by Jim & Greg, two geeky rock and pop music critics from Chicago.  They typically spend a few minutes discussing music news (e.g. artists in jail, deaths, records and concert sales, federal rulings on things like Napster) and then they have a 30-minute feature with either a special guest (past guests have included Thom Yorke, Trent Reznor, Arcade Fire, etc.) or a dissection of a theme (e.g. the advent of disco music, an exploration of Pink Floyd's The Wall) and then review new music which is always an enjoyable listen even if you don't care much for the music.

Filmspotting - Another weekly radio show from the same studio as Sound Opinions.  This is pretty much the same show as Sound Opinions but dealing with film instead of music.  The two hosts are Adam and Matty and I find them to be very likeable--guys that just love watching movies but that are also trained in the art and can offer intelligent opinions and critiques.  I heard what they had to say about my movie, Avatar, and it hurt but I completely respect their opinion... and I still like Avatar by the way.

Fresh Air (NPR) - This is a more serious radio show which was recently recommended to me.  Its format is refreshingly simple: find interesting people and sit them down for an hour-long interview.  Terry Gross is typically the interviewer and she operates with great comfort and tact so as to get her subjects to relax and come out of their shells a bit.  The episodes I've really enjoyed so far have been interviews with Bob Woodward, friends and family of John Lennon, Jon Stewart, Jason Schwartzman, and Justin Timberlake.

ESPN: The B.S. Report - A podcast hosted by Bill Simmons (Sports Guy) dedicated mostly to sports but heavily interlaid with Bill Simmons theories and analogies.  He also brings on guests who are only slightly connected to sports (e.g. Tre Parker from South Park) and he often has shows entirely dedicated to TV shows, happenings in the media, movies, and other stuff like that.  I enjoy listening to him call his friend JackO and just chew the fat on Yankees/Red Sox talk, but this is definitely not for everyone.

The Ricky Gervais Show - The greatest podcast of all time.  It was actually awarded the Guinness World Record for the most downloaded podcast.  This show is actually 100% about the mind of Karl Pilkington.  Ricky Gervais is a comedian and British personality (best known as the creator and star of The Office BBC) and Stephen Merchant is his co-creator.  These two gentlemen are actually pretty intelligent, scientific-minded guys and, given their sense of humor and quest for anything funny, they prove to be the perfect counterpart to simple-minded, bald-headed, shaven monkey, complete idiot, Karl Pilkington.  Karl is the rare individual who teeters between idiot and genius.  Ricky and Stephen pretty much just ask him questions and probe him with intellectual subject matter and laugh hysterically as he deconstructs or simplifies or just outright misses the mark on whatever it is they're talking about.  This podcast had three strong seasons and is actually no longer available, except as audiobook.  If you're interested in a free, mp3 version just let me know and I can send it to you.

This American Life - A weekly NPR radio show that consists of inspirational/interesting stories that take place in America and are typically based on a theme and staged in 3 acts.  This show is hit or miss (erring on miss) but sometimes I really enjoy it.  It is hosted by Ira Glass.

WNYC's Radiolab - Similar to This American Life but less inspirational, and more interesting/scientific.  One out of every 10 episodes is really good.  I enjoyed one that was about gun control and another one about how cities are living organisms and how their citizens all adapt to the city's footspeed and physicists claim that by knowing a city's footspeed you can extrapolate countless characteristics from that city (e.g. libraries per capita, expected AIDS outbreaks in a given year, etc.).  Also, their technique for editing is really cool; it makes the show fly by and it keeps your ear interested. 

Econ Talk - It's a very good show hosted by this really bright, really level-headed academia guy, Russ Roberts. He brings on various economists and discusses their theories. I wish I were more disciplined to listen to this show regularly but I only check in every so often.

LDS General Conference - A great way to relisten to general conference talk by talk.

INNOVATION

Sometimes humanity’s innovative advancements amaze me. I marvel at the amazing things that handheld devices or machines or apparatuses can achieve. You need only take a step back and tune out the critical complaints about signal attenuation issues, or how a camera lens isn’t sharp enough at certain ISO levels, or how a certain car doesn’t make the grade on MPG, or whatever and just appreciate the creation for its capabilities to realize how much we have achieved as a race.

Three particular innovations have been on my “mind grapes” lately. Bikes, cameras, and mobile phones.

Sometimes I wonder if I get carried away in my marveling (e.g. I dreamt about buying an expensive DSLR camera last night) and if it’s inappropriate to consider the creations of man’s hands with such awe and respect. Should I renounce manmade innovations and modern innovations and spend my energy reading, or conversing, or contemplating nature? I say no. While there is always the risk of becoming too extreme in my affection for innovations, on balance most of these items, and particularly the 3 listed above, if anything help to accentuate and facilitate these more virtuous acts. I’ll spare you specific examples of how this is the case.

Bike
With bikes, I’m not really sure why I’ve been so impressed with them. I have been riding my bike a lot more lately I guess and one day I just realized that they are really great. My bike enables me to use native energy and inputs to get from one place to another. It helps me to slow life down (relative to the car) and appreciate my surroundings and be more aware of the sun and wind and rain. Yet it doesn’t force me to slow life down so much (see walking: boring) that I get hot and bothered, and frustrated at the slow speed.

I own the Specialized Crosstrail which you can get for like $500. It’s a hybrid which means it has shocks on the front wheels and it seats you more erect than you would be on a road bike. But it also has road bike features and can go faster than a mountain bike on pavement and is good for commuting. If you live in an area where work is relatively close and the city has set up bike paths or there are trails nearby then I would definitely recommend getting a decent bike.

Camera
My super slim Sony Cybershot T7 fell out of my pocket and died on me on a recent trip to Israel. I was a bit sad but I like to reflect more on the good times we had together. R.I.P. T7, or at least until I sell you for parts on ebay. We had a good run but now I’m pretty excited as I shop for a new camera. Do I go with a big DSLR and risk looking like a dweeb when I carry it around my neck? Do I go with a more compact camera and sacrifice those really cool action shots? We’re expecting a girl in October and I want to be well equipped to capture the moments. I saw this picture the other day on wsj.com and it got me thinking, how do I manage to get a picture like that?

I’ve been doing some research and I’m leaning towards the Canon Powershot S90 ($350) since it got very high marks on cnet.com and it was recommended by Ken Rockwell as “The World’s Best Digital Pocket Camera.” If I don’t go with that one I might go with the Nikon D5000 DSLR ($650). One other question I have is should I be worried about buying a refurbished camera?

Whatever I decide, I’m glad to live in a time when cameras are as available as they are and are by and large all capable of capturing powerful, memorable, emotional images that can be enjoyed for years to come. I just need to learn how to take such pictures…

Mobile Phone
Coming from a guy who didn’t own his first mobile phone until February 19, 2005 as a senior in college, I am a big proponent of owning a high quality cell phone. I am also a big proponent of not taking on fixed monthly bills when you haven’t first satisfied the more primary concerns: rent, food, gas, etc., which is why I don’t see the previous sentence as inconsistent or ironic. I recently paid $20 or so for a prepaid in Guatemala with a couple hundred minutes and then threw the phone away when the trip was over. Who would have ever thought a cellular phone would be so expendable?

After owning the very reliable Sanyo MM-8300 - red (Sprint) for about 2 years I upgraded to the iPhone when it first came out. I loved it so much that I didn’t even care that they overcharged me by like $200 when they first sold it—but I didn’t complain when they gave me a $200 certificate either. Since then I’ve upgraded a time or two and now own the iPhone 4. Of all the innovations I am amazed by, this one takes the cake. The iPhone is not only a product of creative genius it is also a source and a platform for it thanks to the countless apps and open software developer kits so that all can contribute. The designers at Apple may be a bit eccentric and arrogant or whatever but the fusion of technologies both digital (phone, computer, camera, iPod, compass, voice recorder, and on and on) and analog (bullet proof glass, touch screen with heat and tactile sensors, smart antenna, retina display, etc.) is a modern day masterpiece. I have had little or no reception issues with my iPhone 4 and whatever problems it may have are vastly outweighed by the conveniences it offers.

Here are some reasons why you must own an iPhone (budget permitting):

• iBooks (as well as the Gospel Library app) paired with the retina display resolution is quite good and I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed reading on the iPhone as a sort of handheld kindle.
• You’ll always have a high quality camera and an HD video recorder in your pocket.
• You can fill all your down time with either entertainment (card games, web browsing, social media, podcasts and other multimedia, etc.) or something productive (read books, scriptures, write emails, language training, etc.).
• The Voice Command function has proved to be very useful as I’ve learned to wield it to make calls and play specific music while it stays in my pocket (great for biking or running or for wearing skinny jeans).
• It doubles as a mirror.
• It’s just a fun experience and it enriches life.

If humanity stretches roughly from 3000 BC to 2000 AD it’s pretty fascinating to think that these 3 innovations (bikes, cameras, and mobile phones) didn’t show up until early 1800’s, early 1800’s, and late 1900’s, respectively.
Of all the eras I could have been born in, I’m glad I was born in an era where I can own a bike, camera, and iPhone.

New Albums that I Like (Continued)

This Is Happening (LCD Soundsystem) - James Murphy is the dude behind this band.  He is exactly that, a dude.  That's what's so alluring about LCD's music.  He is just a chilled out guy making cool music and not taking himself too seriously (except for on the track, "You Wanted a Hit," which is some sort of backlash at music producers and is painfully reminiscent of Tom Petty's worst song of all time, "My Name's Joe I'm a CEO).  It is dance-punk executed perfectly.  For those who expressed disappointment in this album, I'm not sure what you were hoping for.  Yes, the predecessor, "Sound of Silver," was amazing, but in the end it's just really good dance-punk music.  'This Is Happening' is likewise really good but to a slightly lesser extent.  Fortunately, for the listener, they introduce some new sounds to their repertoire like the funkdafied "Dance Yrself Clean" and the Bowie-esque "All I Want."  Finally, it has been rumored that 'This Is Happening' will be LCD's final album before James Murphy moves on to other projects.  If that is so, then the final track, "Home," represents a great swan song and a culmination of talents, beats, and emotion.
7.4

The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) (Janelle Monae) - In sports people often hope for and talk about "some kid, somewhere that's going to be the next [Michael Jordan/ Tiger Woods/ Babe Ruth/ etc.]."  Based on sheer population and anomalies, the theory goes, someone has to emerge eventually.  In the music arena Janelle Monae is this kid.  She seems, to me, to be a huge talent who just suddenly came out of nowhere (Kansas City, MO, to be precise).  Apparently she was starting a career of training for Broadway but realized her passion is pop music.  This means that she has an awesome voice (both booming and melodic) and great stage presence and dance moves.  'The ArchAndroid' is a continuation of her Metropolis concept series.  Apparently, the series involves the fictional tale of Cindy Mayweather, a messianic android sent back in time to free the citizens of Metropolis from The Great Divide, a secret society that uses time-travel to suppress freedom and love.  Whatever.  The things to note here are that 1) the music is super high quality: good beats, vocals, lyrics, and an amazing range of genres (she channels Michael Jackson, Outkast, James Brown, Beatles, Claude Debussy, and Simon & Garfunkel, all with fluidity and grace), as well as a hefty dose of material (18 solid tracks); and 2) the over"arch"ing theme is actually pretty cool: she uses futuristic worlds and space travel as a metaphor for being free from chains and oppression (possibly inspired by her connection to African-American slavery).

9.1

New Albums that I Like (Update)

Plastic Beach (Gorillaz) – A concept album from a concept band. What impresses me about this album is how fluid it manages to be for having guest artists on most every track (from Snoop Dogg to Mos Def to Lou Reed). It definitely has some catchy songs (e.g. ‘Melancholy Hill’) that you can’t help but like but it also has some less “user-friendly” tracks (‘Sweepstakes’ w/ Mos Def) which have a lot of depth to them upon subsequent listens. This helps make the album a lastingly good one. ‘Some Kind of Nature’ w/ Lou Reed doesn’t really fit any of those categories; it is just awesome.

8.5 (on a scale of -10 to 10)

Sisterworld (Liars) – A friend of mine wondered if the cd had possibly been retrieved after being “discarded somewhere on the floor of hell.” He continued, “I tried, but I just can't do it. I feel like an old man getting his first taste of rock 'n' roll.” This album is definitely not for the faint of heart and yes it may have some diabolical qualities to it, but damn if I don’t LOVE this album. It’s so good. Admittedly, you have to be in a slightly sinister mood (in other words, don’t listen to it on a sunny morning whilst on a power walk) to really get into it. Interestingly, some of the tracks (e.g. ‘Scissor’) are haunting and jagged, yet others (e.g. “Too Much, Too Much’) are angelically melodic. Also, they pull off one of the best album remixes I’ve ever heard. As a bonus disc they do alt versions of each track allowing other artists to inject their influence and remix the track to their style. Two of these remix creations are just annoying and offer no new perspectives or improvements, but at least two of them are homeruns and most of them are just really good.

9.0

Go (Jonsi) – Listen to this album on a sunny morning whilst on a power walk. It will make you happy. Jonsi (frontman of Sigur Ros) steps out on his own to deliver this solo project. It’s very colorful and upbeat and I like that it draws on that signature Icelandic sound that he has helped to create. No song really stands out as genius, and after a week or two you might even forget that you have this album in your collection, but it is good and you will be glad when you play it again after realizing that you haven’t listened to it in a while.

7.0

Forgiveness Rock Record (Broken Social Scene) – The Canadien indie superband is back at it with their fourth studio album. I think this is BSS’s most consistently good album to date. It doesn’t have any immediate hits like ’Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl’ or ‘7/4 (Shoreline)’ but it has two or three or four songs that I really like and more importantly, no duds. This album is pretty recent so I haven’t given it a lot of listens yet but I’ve found that it’s their most complete album and for that reason probably their best.  I'm bored with this album by now.  It has little character and at least one annoying song ("Texaco B's").  It still has a few nice tracks but it's never enough to pull me back in.

7.5 4.0

The NBA: Where Vengeance Happens

Will the Suns have enough to rise above their former slayers?

You know how often in movies the plot centers around someone being killed and that someone's friend/lover/child swearing he will get revenge?  And then there's another character who tries to tell the avenger that revenge isn't the solution, it is eventually unsatisfying.  Or, as Batman put it to Robin, "You make the kill, but your pain doesn't die [there], it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another, until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life."

Well in 2010 the Suns are the dead corpse and I am the friend/lover/child and even if Batman himself tells me not to seek revenge, I don't care.  We Suns fans have been dealt some deadly blows in the past, and this year I want vengeance.

With the Suns going on an impressive surge since the All-Star break and finishing out the season by beating both the Nuggets and the Jazz, they clinched the 3rd seed in the Western Conference.  Here's the playoff landscape they face:

Round 1:  Suns (3) vs. Blazers (6) - The Blazers have toppled some hurdles of their own to get here.  Some of their role player guys have been playing well above their level and Brandon Roy is always a force to be reckoned with, but I take comfort in the fact that the unflappable Suns come into the playoffs scorching hot and the Blazer bigs don't have the speed to defend Amar'e.

Vengeance Implication: In the days of KJ, Hornacek, and "Thunder Dan" Majerle, the Blazers beat us in 5 in 1989.  Then, in 1992, with the addition of Tom Chambers, and poised to go the distance, the dynamic duo of "Clyde the Glyde" and Terry Porter with help from the nefarious, head-banded Clifford Robinson, stopped us short by beating us in 5 in the Western Conference Finals.

Fear the headband.  Cliff Robinson literally invented the thing.

*Round 2: Suns (3)  vs. Mavs (2) / Spurs (7) - The Mavs have been playing good, playoff-caliber basketball for a good stretch now and they are not to be overlooked as serious title contenders.  The Spurs are not at 100%, or even 90%, health and vitality, and their core of Manu/Parker/Duncan is getting old and less title-hungry.  But they've had our number for a while and they are probably the most savvy team in the NBA.  I don't think this is their year to win it all, or even win the West, but they can certainly cause some serious disruptions.

Vengeance Implication (Mavs): With Amar'e out for the playoffs with a knee injury, the Suns miraculously made it to the Western Conference finals in 2006 on the strength of career years from the likes of Boris Diaw, Shawn Marion, and Barbosa, and of course Steve Nash leading the way with his MVP season.  We put up a good fight against the Mavs but the Mavs were too deep and they went on to beat us in 6.  The frustrating thing is that they had a relatively easy path to the trophy with a finals matchup against the Miami Heat but after going up 2-0 they crapped the bed and lost 4 straight.

Vengeance Implication (Spurs): Oh how I loathe the Spurs. The anti "joga bonito".  I hope we do get the chance to match up against the Spurs so we can comprehensively exorcise the vengeance demons.  In 2005 the Suns had one of their best ever regular seasons and were poised to win it all.  En route to face the Spurs we challenged and conquered the Mavs but not without Jerry Stackhouse pile-driving our offensive star, Joe Johnson, onto the floor and literally breaking his eye bone (tack this offense onto the paragraph above).  So we hobbled into our series with the Spurs and were dismantled 4 games to 1.  Momentum, excitement, thrill: gone.  In 2007 the Suns worked hard all season to build up steam and assemble a Spurs-proof team.  We succeeded at building such a team but in game 4 of the semifinals in San Antonio we were staging a symbolic, come-from-behind, crunch time win but in the closing seconds all that was marred by the Robert Horry hip check on Steve Nash that sent him flying into the scorers' table and resulted in a 2-game suspension for stars Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw on a ruling technicality.  In 2008 I wrote the following post and my feelings haven't changed since: "In 2008 things were almost looking good. We had beaten the Spurs 3-1 in the regular season series and we had started game 1 in complete control, leading by double digits for most of the game. Then the entire season ended with one ill-fated shot. Tim Duncan's OT buzzer-beater 3-pointer. His first 3-pointer in the last 2 seasons. I think that shot ended the game, the series, the season, possibly the era of the Phoenix Suns. I strongly dislike the Spurs. I have nothing more to say."  
 

Classless.

*Round 3: Suns (3)  vs. Lakers (1) / Thunder (8) or Nuggets (4) / Jazz (5) - The Lakers are the defending champs but they are backpedaling into the playoffs, Kobe is playing through pain, and they are not as deep as they were last year.  The Thunder are young and exciting.  Kevin Durant is a pure baller and I look forward to watching him play for years to come.  The Nuggets historically crumble in the playoffs but they might go far this year if they get inspired play from "Mr. Big-Shot" Billups and a revitalized Carmelo Anthony.  Their excess of tattoos means that I will never root for them.  The Jazz are hopeful that Carlos Boozer's injury is not serious.  They are always a threat to win at home but losing the advantage by slipping to the 5 seed might have a devastating affect on their 2010 run.

Vengeance Implication (Lakers): Some Suns fans hate the Lakers but I don't really hold anything against them.  In my era we've had the upper hand in our matchups so I've got no reason to hate.

Vengeance Implication (Thunder): None.  Not a likely matchup.

Vengeance Implication (Nuggets): None.  They've never knocked us out of the playoffs and we typically beat them in the regular season.  

Vengeance Implication (Jazz): With the Jazz it's more about rivalry than revenge.  Technically they beat us in the first round of the 1991 playoffs but I've pretty much forgotten about that by now. The Jazz are just one of those teams that get my blood boiling.  I can't stand their foul-crying, home-court fans and I don't care for their style of play--they're like a hybrid of a poor man's Spurs and a throwback to the early 90's Stockton-Malone combo.  

 Carlos Boozer, I award you 0 points for style.

The 2009/2010 Suns are clearly not the best team we've assembled in the Steve Nash era but they might actually represent our best chance to make it to the finals.  If not the finals, some sweet vengeance will suffice.

Avatar

What if I told you that Star Wars Episode III (the last of the new ones) was the best of the entire Star Wars series?  OK, try this one on for size: what if I told you that Avatar is better than any of the original Star Wars?  So maybe I've now blacklisted myself as a heretic, but I must say that I found myself pulling for Jake Sully in a way that I never did for Luke Skywalker.  And I was attracted to the hot Na'vi chick, Neytiri, way more than I ever was to Princess Leah.  Maybe I'm overreacting because I just recently saw this film whereas I've rehashed Star Wars a dozen times by now, but this is a truly quality film and there's more to it than just a cool protagonist and a smokin' C.G. babe.

Jake Sully and his avatar

I enjoyed the avatar concept of having an alternate identity, made even more poignant by the fact that the hero is liberated with full use of his regularly crippled legs when he is in avatar mode.  There is this clearly defined conflict between the greedy corporation and the natives, but there is also the more ambiguous conflicts involving Jake's loyalties and Neytiri's affections.  As Jake transports from one reality to another, he becomes converted to the Na'vi way of life and begins to appreciate the elements and the various life forms and his own interdependency with the biological network in which he resides.  But he knows he's a human in the end, and so, he struggles with his loyalties to humankind as well as his commitment to his hired task.  This dilemma is similar to that of John Dunbar in Dances With Wolves as evidenced in the scene where the union soldier taunts, "turned 'Injun', di'nt ya."  An equally difficult dilemma faces Neytiri who falls in love with the outsider Avatar.  She faces persecution from her own tribe, and eventually has to confront the fact that Jake is truly a human.  This all results in what I consider to be a deeply moving, not too sappy love story.

The graphics and images in this film were breathtaking.  The time and meticulous effort put into creating the creatures and the alternate universe are made apparent by the level of detail and the colors in the mountains and trees, in the creatures, and most impressively in the seamless overlay between the two universes.  Here James Cameron risked plummeting into the Uncanny Valley but fortunately he came out unscathed and on top.  I consider this film to be a culmination of the progress Hollywood has made with computer graphics merged with good acting and good storytelling--something George Lucas couldn't achieve in Star Wars round II.  This is one of the few movies where I will watch (and enjoy) the bonus features once it comes out on Bluray.

Incredible graphics and color.  Neytiri is a total babe.

Finally, this movie had a pretty awesome bad guy, the Colonel.  He was hardcore to the very end, and he introduced me to some cool tough guy sayings that I will be sure to incorporate into my daily speak.  Oh, and Sully had some pretty bad-A manuevers himself.