‘funny,’ not funny

Jim starts things off by sharing his impressions of The Day of the Jackal, and Lionel and he talk about the historical background, touching briefly on Albert Camus and the feel of the film, the pacing and the cinematography. We split off into the genre the film pioneered. They move on to an initial impression of Deadrise by Robert Blake Whitehill. Jim talks about getting up at 5am and doing yoga. Lionel extols the benefits of a morning walk. We move on to a discussion of Tom Clancy and The Hunt for Red October, which is Lionel’s favorite novel by that author. Jim jumps back to The Day of the Jackal, to mention that Derek Jacobi plays a part in it. Lionel talks about The Color of Noize by Derrick Hodge which has been stuck in his head.Then Lionel asks Jim about AB1757 in the California legislature the would curtail the actions of web developers perhaps everywhere and Jim explains what it’s all about. They begin a discussion of ADA, WCAG and accessibility on the web, at the university, and everywhere. Jim brings up Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman. Jim mentions his partnership with the software company accessibe and Lionel shares his stories regarding accessibility at the university level. They close by talking about how organizations need to be able to listen and how accessibility benefits everyone.

Jim launches into a diatribe about the use of the word ‘mindset,’ matcha vs. coffee for increasing combativeness, the Clover Machine that used to be at Starbucks, Lattes and the word puerile. Lionel extols the virtues of Syracuse and its surrounding towns, replicable results in chain cafes, and the conversation continues from there. References to: Too Much Coffee Man by Shannon Wheeler, Planetfall by Emma Newman and the hoarding of memory, Low Density Parity Check Code, Dust (Lionel actually meant Shift) by Hugh Howey, 1984 by George Orwell, and rebelling against the surveillance state. Jim talks about returning to social media and his sense of time while away. Notable exceptions are Slaps and Wattpad. Jim mentions his new video for Spinning by Snorri Bros. Jim recommends sending questions to the pod via the website. We discuss The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis and its relationship to sociopaths and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.The rest of our conversation centers around the use of humor in speculative fiction, including works by Stephen R. Donaldson, Mark Leyner, Susanna Clarke, & Neal Stephenson. Jim brings up Malcom Gladwell’s definition of story. Lionel recommends watching The Day of The Jackal. We make a plan to read some Robert Whitehill. Jim watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and they discuss the role of the game in that movie. Jim mentions his invite as a guest speaker at a college English class at Defiance College. Jim quotes his friend Barry Crimmins. At the end Jim has a question for our listeners about moving the podcast to Substack. You can reach him via the email address he mentioned or via our contact form.If you want to support this podcast and Jim’s other creative projects, become a patron or subscribe to his Substack.

It was Lionel’s big birthday when we recorded this one. We talk inexpertly about cigars and the crash of 2008, Jim being mistaken for Stanley Tucci, the Bats Man, the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies, Piranesi (BIG SPOILERS), and our first email from a listener. Warning to people who haven't read Piranesi, you might want to skip this one. Also, Jim’s mic was all wrong during the recording of this episode. Jim vows to be more careful in the future.

Sarah and Ben met with us once before to discuss Jim's novels, and now they return to talk about what they've been reading. The books and movies are too numerous to list here but we start our conversation with the novel Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and move on through the new Teen Age Ninja Turtles movie to Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and How to Live by Derek Sivers. This is our first official meeting of The Parasocial Book Club and we hope to have many more.To see all the books we talked about, check out our references page for this episode.

This episode is resplendent with expletives. You have been warned.Greg Olear joins the pod to discuss his novel “Empress: The Secret History of Anna K.” Greg Olear is an author, novelist, journalist, and podcaster. His substack, PREVAIL tackles the currently mad political news cycle as both weekly articles and podcast episodes. His Friday YouTube podcast is called The Five 8 featuring well known political guests. We leave the politics to one side for most of this conversation to focus on this heartbreaking fictional autobiography of the life of Anna Komnene, first daughter to the usurping Byzantine Emporor Alexios Komnenos and her thwarted rise to power. The book covers the life of this amazing woman during a period of history left largely untouched by modern historians. Eventually, we drift off to touch on the songs of Taylor Swift and Joni Mitchell, and his warning about Leonard Leo. This was a special interview for us. We hope you enjoy it.

While Lionel gets settled in to his new home in the northeast, enjoy this episode from 2022. We will be back with a new epsiode next week.Bill is a professor of the evolution and epidemiology of infectious disease at Harvard and the co-director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. Jim met him while on tour with Jim’s Big Ego in London. We talk about English Football, Thanksgiving from a UK perspective, Doctor Who, Billy Butcher, Frank Herbert, Zombie Math, and the World of Warcraft disease. You might recognize his voice from his interviews on NPR in which he as appeared as an expert in virology on the topic of the COVID pandemic. I promised him we would talk about anything but epidemiology, but it crept in anyway.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S2~dot~08-Bill-Hanage/

Ellis Paul joins the pod and we discuss his new album “55” as well as what it was like growing up in northern Maine, how his work changed during the pandemic, reacting to the Beatles documentary, transitioning from competitive running to playing guitar, bad study habits, TransAtlantic by Colum McCann, Ellis’s upcoming retreats in Connecticut, England, and Ireland, and the book Virgin Territory by Craig Virgin.All audio clips used with permission from Ellis Paul.New Theme music: “Hum” from Utopia Revisited by Jim Infantino

This episode is our Season 3 closer, released late, due to the total collapse of my (Jim's) Mac. We start by talking about the website Slaps.com and move on to Jim's depressing read of The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen, which launches us into a discussion of the history of stratigraphy, and a questioning of the origins of the scientific process and the delay of discovery in the west and around the world. If you enjoy these episodes, please tell your friends about our podcast.

Kurt joins the pod again to review the work Jim and he did on the album Utopia Revisited, which is available now, streaming everywhere and on bandcamp. We talk about the process, how it was different for both Kurt and Jim, how being in Iceland informed the sound, the nature of ambient music, production techniques, happy accidents and Kurt's laser show.

This week we talk with James Meyer, a photographer and artist who did 12 deployments in Afghanistan as a flight engineer on C130s, moving cargo during the war. We talk about his life as an artists and how his tours of duty inform his work.