Reserved Recommendations

On the last episode of the year (possibly the last ever?) I return to the solo minisode format to talk about the plague of "common sense" which I think is seriously damaging our current political climate. Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.

I've recently started messing around with VCV Rack (www.vcvrackcom) a virtual modular synth environment, so the time seemed right to have a chat to James Lissette. James has had a long history in Palmerston North music, and a lifelong fascination with modular synths. We chat about the history and principles of modular, all while listening to a generative patch on James's hardware modular setup. NB...

The thing about doing a show about problematic faves is that sometimes your own faves become problematic. Neil Gaiman is an author whose work has meant a lot to me at various times, and who now has (at time of writing) 5 credible accusations of historic sexual assault, detailed in the podcast "Master" (https://www.tortoisemedia.com/listen/master-the-allegations-against-neil-gaiman). On my first so...

Due to a confluence of factors, the early 00's saw a massive explosion of creativity in online comics. I talk to Karella, author of Midnight Pals (www.midnightpals.com) host of A Special Presentation, or Alf Will Not Be Seen Tonight (https://apple.co/3zACns8), and Person Cursed To Know About Sinfest, about all of this. We cover the general landscape and taxonomy of 00's online comics, the factors...

In the wake of JK Rowling's general personal awfulness, it's become fashionable to say that no part of the Harry Potter franchise ecosystem was ever good. But does any piece of genuinely unmitigated garbage get as big as Harry Potter did, and stay that big for as long? I read the books as they came out, and my assessment at the time was that the worst of them was "fine". This episode I talk to Cat...

In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war.... This episode I talk to Mira (@anarchoshanties.bsky.social) about the deep and convoluted lore and enduring appeal of the massive and endlessly complicated Warhammer 40,000. We talk chaos gods, a potted history of the Empire of Humanity, and how to deal with a hobby that attracts a disproportionate number of actual unironic Nazis. Find Mira'...

John Cecil (Zombie Beach) joins the show to discuss The Misfits, a band who answer the question "what if the Ramones were fronted by Elvis and sang almost exclusively about pulp horror?" We dig into the band's music and career, the creative and personal tensions at their core, and the continuing artistic career of their frontman Glen Danzig. Find out more about Zombie Beach here: https://www.faceb...

This episode I talk to my brother Angus about the (at the time) controversial game Spec Ops: The Line, which used a franchise reboot of an existing tactical shooter series to attempt a series of powerful critiques of the modern military shooter genre, player culpability in videogame violence, and war in general. Did it succeed? In a word, mostly. CW for discussions of graphic violence and spoilers...

Way back when I talked to Stuart Drake (The Fatalities) about Sonic the Hedgehog, he said to get in touch if I ever wanted to talk Blink 182, and sure enough there is a new Blink 182 album out - so now seemed like the time. We chat about the band, their history as a (kind of fractious) group, their role in popularising pop punk as a genre, and the surprising level of vulnerability they bring to th...

AI (or something that goes by that name at least) is the current global tech fad du jour. People have cited it as the thing that will save/doom us all, a pointless waste of time, and a means of committing fraud and plagiarism with much greater speed and efficiency than ever before. Which of these assessments are true? Kind of all and none of them. Matthew Jenkin (who actually knows things about co...

Most Kiwis, if they know Lupin III at all, probably know him from the Miyazaki Hayao-directed "Castle of Cagliostro" which is on NZ Netflix as part of the Studio Ghibli Collection. "Cagliostro" is good, but presents a kinder and gentler version of the master thief than the majority of Lupin media. "The Mystery of Mamo" is the previous Lupin movie, and hews closer to the madcap violence and lechery...

Over the last couple of episodes I've ended up circling back to "it was the 90's" as an explanation for weird or offensive elements in TTRPGs. I felt like this was a thread worth pulling on, so I called on Jay Brandstetter and Winslow Dumaine of the podcast "I'm From The Internet" (https://shows.acast.com/im-from-the-internet-a-podcast-about-somethingawfulcom) to help me unpack the edgy internet s...

The last of my KiwiRPG Week miniseries (www.kiwirpg.com for more on that!) this time I talk to Sean Murphy (www.smurphy-games.itch.io) about "Violence", a satirical 1999 roleplaying game by Greg Costikyan (www.costik.com) under the pseudonym "Designer X". Violence is part of a wave of critiques of the state of the roleplaying scene that emerged through the mid-late 90s, and in particular attempted...

This episode in my continuing mini-series for KiwiRPG week (www.kiwirpg.com for more on that!) I talk to Tim Denee of Old Dog Games (www.olddog.games) about the game I used to play with him back in high school: Deadlands. Deadlands is a "weird west" roleplaying game, and is a fascinating microcosm of a lot of both the good and the bad of 90s game design with a very distinctive balance of genuinely...

KiwiRPG week is (at time of publishing) just round the corner! I'm doing a few interviews with NZ TTRPG folks to mark the occasion, and the first of these is with Mike Sands (Monster of the Week - https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week) talking about RPGs that use unusual mechanical or storytelling methods. We cover a pretty broad range of stuff, but in particular talk about Maskwitches,...

"Cloud Atlas" is probably the Wachowski sisters' most divisive movie - critics at the time (and audiences today) seem to either love it or hate it. Today's guest (filmmaker and cinematographer Derrick Sims) and I are obviously in the former camp. This episode we look at this intensely ambitious movie and dig into what makes it so hard for some people to get their heads around. Produced by Manawatū...

One of the things that makes me very uncomfortable about NZ society is the way that ANZAC Day is recognised. It seems to me that most discussion around the day tends to recycle what is essentially contemporary propaganda about the causes and aims of WWI in particular. On this episode I'm joined by Scott Hamilton (@SikotiHamiltonR) author, essayist, and researcher, to discuss some forgotten parts o...

In one of our less-reserved recommendation episodes, I'm joined by Arka and Caleb of the Life, Love & Lenses project (www.lifeloveandlenses.co.nz) to talk about Giuseppe Tornatore's beautiful 1988 film "Cinema Paradiso". We chat about the movie's difficult relationship with nostalgia, and it's many themes around love and creativity. Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air...

The Punk (1994) is a movie that has fascinated me since I saw it. It hit my friend group in the mid-90's with a force that permanently altered our mimetic speech patterns. It was ubiquitous enough to be in pretty much all video stores with a "festival" or "art" section and show up as a late night TV movie several times throughout the decade, and then vanished pretty much without a trace. My brothe...

Dark Star (1974) is a cult classic sci-fi movie mostly notable as the first project of both Dan O'Bannon (wrote Alien, did some SFX for an obscure late 70's movie called "Star Wars") and John Carpenter (no introduction needed!) It follows the misadventures of the titular ship's crew, and did an enormous amount to set the tone of sci fi that looks at space as a shitty blue collar job. Returning cha...

In another "big issue" episode, this time I talk to Vixen, Scarlett, and Willow from The Good, The Bad, and the Whoreable podcast (www.goodbadwhoreable.com) about sexual shame. We compare and contrast NZ and US attitudes around sexuality, and talk about the influence of history, politics, and religion on the way things are right now. Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Ai...

"Adventures in Odyssey" is a radio (and video, and video game!) series produced by Focus On The Family as children's entertainment for fundamentalist evangelical Christian families. Hannah Blake (@exfundyfeminist) joins me to discuss the "Castles & Cauldrons" two-part episode (which is AiO's contribution to the Christian panic about roleplaying games) and the wider ecosystem of fundamentalist Chri...

Over the course of their 30 year career (from 1965 until Jerry Garcia's death in 1995) the Grateful Dead took a long strange trip through almost the entirety of the American musical vernacular, while maintaining almost exactly the same core lineup. Michiel Verkade joins me to talk about the Dead, and we discover in short order that an hour is not really enough time to talk about the Dead. Produced...

This week Spencer Hall from OAR FM Dunedin joins the pod to talk TISM! This Is Serious Mum (TISM) are an anonymous Australian band who kind of defy classification. They concealed their identities behind bizarre costumes and made music that mocked norms of good taste and decency as often as it mocked people they thought deserved it, all while being perversely listenable. Find Spencer's Oddities sho...

Hardcore is an aggressive style of rock music that emerged from punk in the late 70s and early 80s in the USA. Since its inception, it's evolved in all directions simultaneously and spawned dozens of subgenres, each with their own nuances of style and approach. On tonight's show I talk to Kane Power (Precision Podcasting, TeamSquad), hardcore fan and person who has actually studied the genre from...