‘funny,’ not funny

Subject: A Night In The Lonesome October by Roger ZelaznyGuests: Julia Tenney, Sarah ElkinsThis curious summary was generated by AI:The conversation explores various themes including biking adventures, car troubles, and the legacy of Subaru. It transitions into a discussion about the book 'A Night in the Lonesome October', focusing on character dynamics, plot unfolding, and the role of a...

This one has a big, red E on it. Take the kids to the bunker before hitting play. Eric Schwartz is possibly the only artist in the history of the world to get raves from Gloria Steinem and Hustler Magazine. His songs are alternately heart warming and ... something else. We sit down and talk about his work, his feelings about his craft, and what it all means. In addition to rude mentions of body pa...

Lionel and Jim talk about producing this podcast for video, which you can see in a separate post. The thumbnail did not show up but it's available from youtube - unlisted as of this posting. We also discuss transitions and productivity at work and our trip down the Empire Trail in New York State. We end up discussing two films which were first timers for Lionel and repeats for Jim: Mystery Me...

Lionel and I were talking about all our druthers in the literary and streaming world when I got a phone call from Chris Chandler, and I invited him on the pod to just talk about whatever was happening with him. We did discuss Hurricane Helene and our friends in the Asheville area as well as Chris' tour schedule and our upcoming visit to San Antonio to honor the late Monk Wilson.

This week we are joined by playwright, rowing coach, meditation teacher, songwriter/singer and all around fascinating human being, Mark Basquill to predominantly discuss the play he co-wrote with Jay Sefton. Unreconciled is the true story of an adolescent actor cast as Jesus in a school play directed by a parish priest. The story chronicles a survivor’s journey as he confronts his past, navi...

For music makers, a producer/engineer can be a unique sort of friend. For all of us, except Lionel in this conversation, that unique friend came with the name "Ducky Carlisle" and helped us make the best music we could make, all while having the time of our lives. Bleu McAuley, Shaun Wortis, Mike Gent, and Jim tell the tales of the studio days and nights with the late great Duck Carlisle and we pl...

This week we were fortunate to have songwriter, singer, producer, creator, Jeff Tareila on the pod. Jeff has toured internationally with his band and solo, has recorded and produced "tons of records" in his words, and shared a history back in the distant past with Jim, stomping around the SoHo folk scene in New York City. He talks about the creation of his own releases as well as work he's be...

This one was recorded while Jim was in New York City at Rivendell (Peter Cooper Villiage) in the last homely house (his mom's apartment) with his daughters visiting his mom. We talk about Norman Cantor's In the Wake of the Plague, and touch on some other books about similar subjects before veering off to discuss Napoleonic surgeons, The Watchmen, and Lionel's idea for R.U.N.A.I. Ref...

This week Lionel and Jim talk about the TikTok algorithm, Roy Casagranda, AB testing at PayPal in the 2000s, Survey Groups and Polling, The Bonfire of The Vanities ny Tom Wolfe, the real date of the Fall of the Roman Empire, The Printing Press As An Agent Of Change by Elizabeth Eisenstein, and Autonomous by Analee Newitz. References here: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S5~dot~02-Bang-on-...

We start our fifth season by considering a change of genre for our podcast, either to sports or economics, but ultimately settling on not giving a crap. We move on to considering the difference and origins of both Science Fiction and Fantasy, and then ponder the origins of Vanishing Point Perspective Drawings and whether human beings are biologically the same from a few thousand years ago to prese...

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...