‘funny,’ not funny

In our final episode of a very long Season 4, Jim and Lionel talk about soundtracks, synthesizers, the limits of AI growth, political assassinations, and communication skills. From Ennio Morricone to Vangelis, from the Yamaha CS-80 to the Oberheim OBX, from Ed Zitron to The Paris Peace Talks, from Condoleezza Rice to the George Clemenceau shooter, we cover everything. References coming soon.

IMPORTANT: This was recorded July 17th, 2024. We have an enormous backlog of shows right at the time when everything is changing rapidly. So Kamala was not the candidate at the time of this recording. Lionel and Jim talk about riding bikes along the Empire Trail, The Watchmen franchise, Gattaca, Ernest Borgnine, and more. References forthcoming at funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/

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...

A lazy summer conversation between Lionel and Jim in which Jim talks about his adventures in recording his band’s new album and checks in with Lionel to discuss books, movies, and tv shows of interest. Check the references for information and links for each item discussed.

Jason comes back to talk more about his life in games. During his time at Gamewright and now at Happy Camper, Jason has explored the world of perfect logic games, cooperative games, games of chance, but always board or analog games, not the digital variety. We wonder what the first game ever played was, and Jim comes up from a past-life regression with a suggestion. We talk a little about Soul Cou...

The multifaceted Jason Schneider joins us to talk about his life in fun and games. Jason has started his own game company after working for decades at someone else's. Jason started studying philosophy, then went to clown college. From there, he worked on Sesame Street, Zoom, and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman . He discovered scores of games at Gamewright , and helped develop them into popular produ...

I chose this episode to encore because the amount of data centers in use for AI has recently been in the news. Damian was talking about this a year and a half ahead of time. - JimBrothers revisited! This week, Lionel’s brother Damian joins us to talk about big construction, data centers for crypto mining and AI, modern art in the Hudson Valley, The M1 Abrams Tank, hybrids vs. electric cars,...

Jim Hood, a graphic designer experienced in naming and brand development, typography, communication, and environmental graphics joins the podcast to talk about typography. One important thing we learned is that it was his class in the 90s that developed the standard for the typeface pictogram on Wikipedia. We discuss this, and many, many typefaces. Jim Hood came to my (Jim I) office, so the microp...

Andrew Silver is a research affiliate at MIT where he leads a seminar on leadership and film. He is a film director, producer, and writer of many films including Radio Cape Cod , Next Door, and Profiles In Aspiration .Jim recorded his half of this podcast from his home, where champagne was added to the mix of the conversation. Andrew, Jim, and Lionel discuss a variety of films with regard to leade...

Ben Solo rejoins the pod to talk about 1 book and two short stories. We start by discussing a book by Rory Sutherland . The full title is Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense , although, it was previously called Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life .We move on to talk about a short story by Jorge Luis Borges called T...

First, apologies for missing a week. Producing these takes a lot of work and I needed I week off. - JimOur guest this week is Balazs Szelenyi, Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University. From his university bio : Balazs Szelenyi received his Ph. D. from UCLA in 1998 and teaches classes on Philosophy, Globalization, Sociology and History for Northeastern University. His first major are...

Peter Mulvey joins the pod in person, sitting side by side with Jim in the Slabmedia offices this week. We talk about his career in songwriting, hitting a little on themes and methods, but also on inspiration, and a long history of work. Jim mentions Peter's TED talk about his book Vlad the Astrophysicist . We talk about the creation of his recordings: Notes from Elsewhere and More Notes from...

Ben Soto joins the pod to talk about The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life which is an extensive conversation between Matthieu Ricard and his father Jean-François Revel. Ben found this book particularly fascinating, given his interest in Buddhism, science, and the nature of mind. We also talk about The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of...

We begin by espousing the benefits of corduroy jackets, move on to quality problems at Jim’s childhood bagel shop, lambaste The Onion, and wave the flamethrower of curmudgeonliness at perceived modern production optimization techniques. We then talk about our varying perceptions of the state of Connecticut. Jim mentions Rein’s Deli , where a photo of his band hangs on the wall. Lionel...

We start by talking about what we like and don’t like about the band Cheekface . It’s mostly like. Then we talk about the novel Heavy Weather by P.G. Woodhouse . We talk about the line through Red Dwarf from that author and style of writing. We go on to discuss The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime by Mark Haddon and we discuss what we find dark and light about that novel. L...

Julia Tenney joins us for what we are pretty sure is the 100th episode of our obscure podcast. Depending on how you count, considering that Jim forgot to press record on episode 2 of Season 1 (so, not counted) and there were some encore episodes (so, not counted) this one should be the actual 100th. We start by talking about Jim’s new apple watch and then veer perpendicularly headlong into P...

This week we talk about The Midnight Library by Matt Haig . Suggested by Julia Tenney, this book deals with regrets we've felt throughout life and wishing we could go back and fix things. Lionel contrasts this book with The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime by Mark Haddon . The conversation turns to a book Jim wants to write about acceptance and meditation. We finish up by talking...

This week, we welcomed Bing Broderick as our guest. Bing Broderick comes to justBook-ish after years in marketing, community organizing, and nonprofit management. Early in his career, he marketed and sold music into niche outlets across the country (including bookstores) as Director of Special Marketing for the Cambridge-based record label, Rounder Records . Mid-career, Broderick shifted his focus...

Lionel talks about The Three Body Problem , both the novels by Liu Cixin and the Netflix series . We contrast the style of this series with our recent reads. Lionel contrasts the tv show with Red Queen on Prime. Back to The 3 Body Problem again, we discuss the ideas of Alastair Reynolds (not Ian) and killer alien traps. We then launch into an enervating discussion of doing taxes and finding a gene...

Dar joins the pod to tell us about her experience writing What I Found In A Thousand Towns, her songwriting and creative process, her experience in Beacon New York with Roger Ailes, the remarkable Jaimie Raskin, our relationship to art, the environment, and each other, Active Citizenship, and so much more. I could not find the live performance of The Mark Rothko song. If someone knows where it is,...

Lionel and Jim start by inexplicably talking about oat and almond milk. Lionel talks about how he considers upstate New York New England as per American Nations by Colin Woodard . We run through some of the "Nations" again. They touch quickly on tax season before Jim talks about his read of Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher . Naturally, this leads us to Calvinism in America. Jim asserts...

We start by talking about the possible death of TikTok in the USA and move on to introduce Julia Tenney and marvel over her pysanky eggs , the methods for their creation, and their Ukrainian and eastern European roots. Lionel discusses the historical Piranesi and his sketches. This leads us to talk about dreams and their origins and consequences. We launch into a discussion of Dune, the books by F...

Discussion of Bram Stoker ’s Dracula starts with Jim trying to do a Boston Brahmin accent , and talks about his daughter’s inexplicable accent when she was younger. They move on to talk about xenophobia in the book, alongside the treatment of the other in Frankenstein . We return to Mary Shelley ’s work repeatedly to compare and contrast. Lionel mentions all the new technology oc...

Jim opens with a thread sent regarding the previous episode on Frankenstein. They incongruously launch into a debate about artificial sweeteners. We get back on track discussing the Transcendentalist movement and what came after, as written about in The Metaphysical Club . Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. is one of the main characters. Lionel asserts that he is  the father of legal positivism, but t...

Sarah Elkins joins us to discuss the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley . We start with a Filk song to the tune of Funiculi funicula . What is Filk ? Victor spent His teenage years pursuing all the lore of alchemy (alchemy) Then he went Away to college and he switched to modern chemistry (chemistry) He was bent On secret science studies in the lab A descent: His obsessive glory-seeking grab! Let&r...