Category: Podcast

Do you believe rumors? Of course you do. Where do they come from? Word has it we’ll also talk about kinescopes, spinning plates, being an eternal optimist, seeing ghosts, your Facebook feed, P.T. Barnum, Internet arguing, the liberal media, briefly trying to be good Lutherans, Rastafarians, being a feminist, a dictator’s stock in trade, pollen…

An oral history of my Teeth. Yes, teeth! Just one of life’s wonders and horrors that we all share. And you can’t talk about teeth without talking about Thunderdome, science and technology, surviving on 2 liter bottles of Coke and bowls full of jellybeans, stumps and crowns, implants (dental, not breast), royal decree, things you…

An admittedly biased one-man oral history of the Guerilla Poetics Project, including tricky vampire doctors, sharks, unknown poets, databases, voting blind, Ginsu knives, explaining Netflix to a monkey, swag, pawn shops, mysterious collectives, going viral, human nature, ending strong, the extinction of retail book stores (maybe), vinyl LPs, The Beatles fan club and minor miracles.…

This Facebook thing, think it’ll catch on? Also, gay marriage in Kentucky, cats are henchmen for the dark overlord, knock-off Prada bags, Soviet apartments, geocities, pictures of car wrecks, chosing convenience over quality, hedge funds, the Holstee Manifesto, five thousand dollar bicycles, mystery meat, snake oil, those Victorian-era bikes with the giant wheels, taxidermied deer feet, 80 year old hammers, wiping your ass with a corncob and Ben Franklin. Links mentioned…

Okay, let’s talk about The MTV Video Music Awards, Chrissie Hynde’s book interview and the Internet’s reaction to it, and The Pageant of The Masters, which is something you’ve probably never heard of, but you’ve got to hear about it. And yes, I will also say a thing or two about the Oscars, the Wu-Tang…

Trevy Felix of Boom Shaka and his companion Nelly Stharre were found dead on August 19th in the burned remains of the house where they lived in the hills of Dominica. Trevy was a friend for almost 30 years, so here’s a little remembrance. [subscribe] Transcript

Listen while I extol the wonders of aging and sing the praises of getting up and doing the same thing every day, running naked through the streets, retirement, pensions, GOD testing Job, people who “don’t see color,” being in your 50s, filling up the Internet, the best place to sit or stand at a concert, going…

Let me tell you about First Aid Kit, and what it was like when I saw them perform the other night. Let me also tell you about the Inland Empire, cult-speak, living in a Walmart parking lot, plowing the same fields over and over, sibling vocal harmony as competition, authenticity, suffering for your god, the…

What happens when I’m part of the audience at a live Big Brother TV show. Not to mention, blown tires, wobbly CV joints, drifting, soggy in New York, Ed Sullivan, The Beatles, punk cred, the L.A. river, Julie’s boudoir, the angriest white man in America, amping up the excitement level, lemonade, grade school pictures, how…

Misadventures in trying to give things away on the Internet. Also: dicking around, vacations, text messaging, ridiculously humid days, lying about your name, setting fires in your front yard, people at the post office, bubble wrap, the customer is usually wrong, the Recycler, that TV show about guys up in Maine buying and selling and…

Let’s talk about clothes. We all wear them, we all love them. You do love them, don’t you? Along the way let’s also mention humidity, the people who really run shit, guacamole, Chinese boots, caves and castles, going topless, Victorian era women, flappers, frozen steaks, Comic-Con, Captain America, mouth-breathers, subcultures, fishermen, black jeans and Babylon. [subscribe] Transcript

It’s time to get to the bottom of Charles Bukowski’s “10 year drunk” and many other Bukowski myths. Also, taking it easy in Greece, Pearl Harbor, meditation, BMWs, expensive wine and a veritable slew of new Bukowski books due out later this year. Links mentioned in the episode: The senseless, tragic rape of Charles Bukowski’s ghost…

It’s the 4th of July, what better day to talk about independence. We’ll wave the flag and maybe talk about some other things, like the President, Marc Maron, Rolling Stone and the Rolling Stones, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Joan Jett and the Runaways, the Sex Pistols and Green Day, blowing shit up, refusing to kiss the king’s ring, weasels, politicians, tough…

TED, changing the world one robot at a time. Also, Big Brother, camping, Comic-Con, the Rolling Stones, the south pole, smallpox, selfies, throwing shade, and ice cream on my nose. Links mentioned in the episode: Google spreadsheet listing every TED talk [subscribe] Transcript

I love autobiographies and I love rock and roll in all its many hairy permutations, so what could be better than reviewing a stack of autobiographies written by musicians? That’s a rhetorical question, I’m going to do it anyway. By chance I may also speak of Rachel Dolezal (again), Compton’s Most Wanted, White Indians, survivalist cults, Saturday Night Live, jumping…

Thrill to the new sound of me talking about Rachel Dolezal, dreadlocks, our old friend the Internet, Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Vocoder, the tinny clang of the 80s, electric guitars, triggers, metal kids, mistakes, Gramophones, fuzzy noisemakers, the Mellotron, Guitar Center, Louis Armstrong, transcendence, cocked wahs, bagpipes, and momentum. [subscribe] Transcript

Well, I have a little chest congestion, so forgive the slight wheezing as I talk about President Obama, the Los Angeles Clippers, fast forwarding, neighbors, construction, This Old House as porn, people who are good at what they do, working on Sunday, the history of sticking windows into walls, the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, chatty Cathy, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, corrugated fiberglass, Styrofoam heads, evidence of a…

Starring Mary Ellen Mark, Bukowski’s LouJon press books, book art, letterpress, getting your hands dirty, kissing the paper, manual typewriters, nostalgia, home tanneries in Brooklyn, synthesizers, late 50s Les Pauls, craftsmanship, Kalamazoo Michigan, robots, green wood, perpetual motion, Detroit steel, making rich people more rich, buying Bukowski’s boyhood home, gentrification, turning all of Los Angeles…

If you listen very carefully you may also hear me say something about ripping CDs, Google Play Music, The Philadelphia train wreck, the World Trade Center, Hiroshima, Jesus H. Christ, Antonio Villaraigosa, death, The American Journal of Psychiatry, communism, chicken pot pies (oh wait, I didn’t talk about that, I’m just really hungry right now),…

Kickstarter, Patreon, tip jars, donate buttons – some days when I’m bouncing around the web it feels like I’m idling at a freeway entrance ramp and the entire web is a cardboard WILL WORK FOR FOOD sign. I may also mention things like B. B. King, Charles Lindbergh, PayPal, fan sites, scanner bulbs, lyric sites, bots, forums, crime, gauze,…

You may also hear me talking about office chairs, Malcolm Gladwell, technical people not being great communicators, baking pies, fundamentalism, the death of white America, dinosaurs, carbon, Rodney King, living in a cave in the desert, heads on pikes, Mad Max, Goethe, and Mozart. [subscribe] Transcript

I might also mention airport security, the lack of seasons in Los Angeles, VCRs, fish heads, what I would do if I was smart, the Pony Express, Mark Twain, Costco, giraffes, world travel and sitting and doing nothing. [subscribe] Transcript

Also in this action-packed episode: The Podcast Awards, what entrepreneurs do, chickens, gas stations, bars, rock concerts, and room service hamburgers. [subscribe] Transcript

Why do we name things the way we do? How do we come up with the terms we use every day? Language is a funny thing. I’ll also talk about asbestos, pizza, the military, news people, ASMR, scientists, stink bugs, audiophiles (again), Dianetics, being uneducated, Deadwood, artist’s statements, belonging, communicating, and the rise of our evil canine…

This one is about the Podcast Awards (yes, that’s a real thing), but I might also mention Carol’s art show, NMX, NAB, what conferences and trade shows really are, Las Vegas, desperation, The Rose Parade, The Webbys, Smurfs, and a few other things along the way. What can I say, my mind wanders. [subscribe] Transcript

Reality TV. You love it. You hate it. You watch it. Admit it. There’s no shame in it. Really. Stop beating yourself up. [subscribe] Transcript

Marley Natural is a new company created to sell legal herb with Bob’s name on it. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Links mentioned in the episode: Live Talks L.A. [subscribe] Transcript

This is it, the only Oscar ceremony wrap-up you need. Forget the big networks, and even the tiny networks that no one watches, like E! You don’t need them. I cover all the bases, every category, every wonderful minute of Hollywood’s greatest night! You don’t want to miss it. [subscribe] Transcript

The strange and terrible world of unboxing videos, Facebook, the Book of Revelations, Heaven’s Gate, Marketing, Betamax recorders, Internet communities, the discomfort of silence, and more. [subscribe] Links mentioned in the episode: World’s first unboxing video Hosho McCreesh Transcript  

How does one live simply when there is so much junk everywhere? It’s a first-world problem, having too much stuff, I know. But here I am talking about it anyway. On the way to that subject, you’ll also get to hear about how to be an awesome podcaster, landlords, eBay, yard sales, people in the 1920s,…

According to Wikipedia (my favorite source for quasi-truth and hamfisted misinformation), an Internet troll is: a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or otherwise disrupting normal…