‘funny,’ not funny

Scott Hall paid us a visit to talk about the Northampton, MA band Lonesome Brothers (no the!) He has been working on a songbook based on his own charts, created for the purposes of standing in with them. Scott Hall is a member of the band Drunk Stuntmen, and has 2 solo albums out and one on the way as well. We had a great time talking with him, and listening to some of the songs from the collectio...

David Partikian rejoins the pod to talk about his new Substack under the moniker "Bartleby The Sailor." We start with a bit of Melville, and then discuss his essays in more detail before musing on life growing up in Peter Cooper Village, and our differing experiences in the school system in New York City.

This week we talk about the Hugo Awards with Sarah Elkins, who is a judge, and Julia Tenney, who is a reader and viewer of Science Fiction. We talk about Jim's new sport coat, nominees for best novel, novella, novelette, video, and even game. That's the synopsis. You have to listen to know more.

Jennifer Kimball , songwriter, performer, singer, horticulturalist and landscape designer joins the pod. One upon a time, she was in a legendary band called The Story with Jonatha Brooke and now she lives on an island, making music, and designing lawn free (or almost free) gardens of local flora and fauna. We also talk about her wintery songs project which is just outstanding, and growing up in NY...

There are some politics in this episode, but we manage to get that under control. Jim starts by comparing Severance to the Labyrinth of Greek mythology. Lionel tells Jim about the Darkman comics. The Dungeons and Dragons movie was brought up again, as well as some critique of the newer Star Trek films with Chris Pine. We move into the MCU with Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy. We go from...

We start by talking about Ketamine, Signal, and the protest in Somerville over the seizing of the Tufts student: Rumeysa Ozturk. At the time of this recording, it had just happened. Lionel breaks political talk silence by relating a personal story to the Signal fiasco. Julia says she was using Signal and Signal type apps when communicating with people at orbs.spheres. Julia then schools Lionel and...

Dr. Bill Hanage is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Co-Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. His research and teaching focus on the epidemiology of infectious disease and the evolution of infectious agents. Jim begins by talking about the animated sci-fi tv show Pantheon, which he's enjoying. Then he introduces Bill w...

Jim starts by sharing his excitement about his new super minimal reading glasses, wallet, and bank account. Lionel talks about how music gear reviewers are almost always biased toward the gear they are sent for free. Jim recommends the tv series Dopesick, recommended by our guest Nyadenya from a few weeks ago. Dopesick is a fictionalized drama about the Sackler family and their role in the oxycont...

Lionel and Jim discuss email woes, Bitcoins and Blockchains by Antony Lewis, Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, more Neal Stephenson, The Cloud, Jim’s reading of Chromaspace Conscript by Megan Alnico, the nature of money, and Jeff Bezos’ yacht (again.)Photo credit: Fred Romero from Paris, France , CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/...

We welcome Jim's friend Nyadenya Inyagwa to the podcast to talk about his interests and ventures. We touch on a bunch of video stories at first, following some discussion about the homeless situation in Boston and Cambridge. This leads us to talk about the Hulu show Dopesick & Snowfall. Then Lionel talks about how much he's enjoying the series Elementary with Lucy Liu, Johnny Lee Mil...

Dr. Christopher K. Coffman is Master Lecturer in Humanities at Boston University. He has published on a wide variety of topics in literature and music, and has increasingly been focusing in his research on points at which the two fields intersect. The author or editor of four books, Coffman's current project is a study of the Grateful Dead in relation to the literary tradition. Lionel and Jim...

Abby Altman, Club Manager of Passim joins us to talk about her experience guiding the iconic music club, located in the heart of Harvard Square Cambridge, MA through its many programs. We discuss the mission and history of the club and its importance to the music scene not only in the Boston area, but worldwide. Abby is the second millennial to appear on our podcast. We look forward to talking mor...

We begin by talking about Hundreds of Beavers and move into Jim’s experience with the Raw Diet and Johnny Gottado. From there we talk about food delivery and inactivity. We talk about A Complete Unknown and Dylan’s life in general from Jim’s recollections of interviewing Dave Van Ronk, and Jim’s reading of Dylan’s autobiography Chronicles. We touch on the band Boston...

The amazing, wonderful, comedian, storyteller, songwriter, performer, author, and great friend to have, Don White joined us this week to talk all about his process, his art, and his life as a student of the craft. We begin talking about the Naked City, where Jim and Don first met, and move on to discuss the music and comedy blendings of Catch A Rising Star. Don fill us in on his method stories fro...

In this episode, our guest Matthew Roazen returns to talk to us about his time in Russia, and gives us a lesson in what was happening in Russia during the 1990s and early 2000s. Matthew explains the rise of the Russian Oligarchy and how it was linked to guarantees to banks via the IMF. This effected not only all the small businesses in Russia, but also foreign business and investment in Russia tha...

Matthew Roazen, lawyer, and Russian history & linguistics expert, who lived in Russia for 16 years talks about his time in Moscow during the 1990s and 2000s. This is part one of a 2 part conversation with Matthew about what things are like in the country with the largest landmass in the world. We talk about his time managing a blues band in Moscow, the beginning of the perceived western bonanz...

We discuss the making of video clips for promoting our podcast and the futility thereof. The unruly beard is disparaged. Lionel brings up an episode of CSI where a civil war re-enactor was killed and found to be wearing a girdle as a response to Jim's thought experiment of having to be sewn into his clothes like foot soldiers in the civil war. We talk about the history men's fashion, men...

Do billionaires deserve our empathy? We passively mention the Brian Thompson murder, and Jim’s portrayal of The Vengeance in his books. Do we need the profit motive to create new drugs and medical treatments? Cialis, Viagra, and Ozempic all started out as drugs for different things than what they were intended. It’s the Bell Labs situation in another instance. Were the inventions from...

Lionel and Jim discuss a myriad of subjects this week with a subtile common thread. We move from Jim's recent experience with jury duty to return to discussing the novel The Devil’s Broker by Frances Stonor Saunders . From there we revisit the Steerswoman series with Jim's experience reading book 3: The Lost Steersman. Lionel has been left behind on these books, but talks about The...

Lionel and Jim talk about the book "The Devil's Broker" by Frances Stonor Saunders and about mercenaries and what happens when peace breaks out and they don't get paid. We also discuss Laurie Anderson, the dawn and death of classical synthesizer music, Dune Prophecy, briefly - more on this later, the Prague Diaries TV series, Firefly, and books by Stanislaw Lem. A rollicking good time.

Encore episode from January 2023Jim Rosen, Catherine Pilfrey, Matthew Bellows, and Jim Infantino have been teaching meditation online for almost 3 years as part of a twice weekly session that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays called Mindful Aware. In this episode, Matt, Jim, Jim, and Catherine answer Lionel’s questions about meditating online and discuss the practice of teaching meditation from a...

We discuss two novels in this episode, the first, The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein , was suggested to us by Sarah Elkins. The second, The City & The City by China Miéville was suggested by Jim to Lionel and then by Lionel to the group. This four person book series seems to be a thing with us. We enjoyed ourselves, I hope you do too.

Monty joins the pod and we talk about his experience playing music, going to folk conventions, his “no-case” showcase at NERFA, playing, and Monty’s songs. Montgomery Delaney is an unusual performer in the folk world. Later in the show the conversation takes a turn, as we talk about how Monty was banned from Cafe Lena one time because of his political beliefs. We discuss what it...

David decided after graduating NYU in the late 80's that he did not want a traditional desk job. He joined the Seafarers International Union as an unlicensed deckhand. Eventually he joined the Sailors' Union of the Pacific and finally got his officer's license in 2013. He has sailed all over the world on US flagged vessels. He worked as a licensed deck officer in the Masters, Mates...

This conversation would qualify for ASMR in terms of the pacing and tone, except that we discuss the movie Vice with Christian Bale. Jim talks about his impressions of it and Lionel talks about a number of books and movies he's been watching, including 'Mordecai,' and Isaac Asimov's 'The Gods Themselves.' We talk about our viewings of The Americans, comparing the espi...