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February 16, 2021 Top 5 tips for working in the creative sector
Guest
David Webb
Creative Director at WeAreBeard.
twitter.com
WEAREBEARD - Design, branding & development Worcester
Mark is joined by the Creative Director at Worcester-based design, branding and development agency WeAreBeard, Dave Webb, to share his top tips for working in the kind of field that your mum told you you should have a backup for.
Dave remembers the first day he was praised for drawing something good, instead of being made to feel like he was falling behind academically, which is where his affinity for creative work began.
A creative person’s priorities often don’t fit in with a “professional” culture, which can lead to clashes, of which both Mark and Dave have experience.
Dave’s tips
In order of discussion:
Don’t have a plan B
Make an achievable, flexible plan and work towards it. Consider subsidising it if you can’t make a living at it, and keep a record of your success so you can measure how far along you are.
Be childlike, but not childish
A child’s enthusiasm is an inspirational thing to keep around, as it gives us curiosity and wonder, making us more receptive. A child’s attitude to criticism… not so much.
Be excited by your work
If you’re not excited about your work, you can’t expect anyone else to be. That goes not only for the work that you create from whole cloth, but the ideas presented to you, or even professional briefs. If you enjoy working on a project, that enjoyment shines through, but the inverse is also true.
Failing is learning
Don’t be afraid to make a mistake, because chances are you’ll make lots of them as you’re starting out, but making those mistakes, figuring out what went wrong is what equips you to do better next time.
It’s a numbers game
Looping back to Dave’s original point, your time will come if you stick at what you want to do, and wait out the competition who give up too soon.
Mark’s tips
In order of discussion:
Be supportive
If encountering others’ work, whether you’re being asked to critique or not, focus on the things that matter, rather than what might be elements of technique alone that can be improved.
Be stubborn
Some people ask “why?” instead of “why not?”, so in those moments where someone doesn’t see the worth in what you see, maybe it’s time to dig your heels in and advocate for your thing.
Run your own race
If you’re running a race ,while you need to keep half an eye on your competitors o you know when to push ahead, your primary focus should be on the finish line. With creativity, we need to compare sparingly and in context.
Use what you have to hand
If you can’t afford the latest up-to-date music creation software, or the most-expensive DSLR camera, that doesn’t make you less of a musician or photographer — your work is in you, not your tools. Yes, they can make the creative process easier, but “XKCD isn’t successful because it looks great”.
Take all advice with a pinch of salt
Your goal is to improve on the work you did yesterday, not to improve on someone else’s. This is your art, your work, your creativity, and your choices.
Honourable mentions
Dress for the industry you’ll be working in, not what you think you’re supposed to wear.
Show your work in an email; don’t send a precursor and wait for an invitation.
If you’ve sent a legitimate email, don’t be afraid to follow up (this doesn’t apply unless you know the full name of the person you’re emailing, and you have their permission to email).
More of Dave Webb
Follow Dave on Instagram and @illustratteddave, and check out the wonderful WeAreBeard, of which he is Creative Director.
Go further
Compare the Meerkat
Share this show with friends
Mark’s meme thing
@obscurestvinyl on Instagram
Links
Support the podcast
1 hr 23 min
January 26, 2021Top 5 time-travel romance films
Time-travel films are often about fixing the big things, so says this week’s guest, Karl Hodge, but time-travel romance films address the small things that keep us awake at night.
Mark and Karl begin by looking at some of Christopher Nolan’s work, from Memento to Tenet, and trying to figure out whether they qualify as time-travel films.
(00:00) - Introduction
(05:48) - Karl's pick: Groundhog Day
(08:32) - Mark's pick: Back to the Future
(12:02) - Karl's pick: The Time Travellers Wife
(15:24) - Mark's pick: About Time
(20:10) - Karl's pick: Kate & Leopold
(23:50) - Mark's pick: Safety Not Guaranteed
(26:14) - Karl's pick: The Lake House
(32:18) - Mark's pick: Happy Accidents
(33:54) - Karl's pick: Time After Time
(38:34) - Time Break
(44:26) - Building the final list
(48:12) - Honourable mentions
(49:48) - Goodbyes
51 min
January 26, 2021 Top 5 time-travel romance films
Guest
Karl Hodge
University Course Director, and former tech journalist, currently researching VR and narrative.
twitter.com
Time-travel films are often about fixing the big things, so says this week’s guest, Karl Hodge, but time-travel romance films address the small things that keep us awake at night.
Mark and Karl begin by looking at some of Christopher Nolan’s work, from Memento to Tenet , and trying to figure out whether they qualify as time-travel films.
Groundhog Day
This early time-loop film has not only spawned films in a similar vein, it’s effectively become its own genre, spanning TV and film.
Back to the Future
Yes there may be better films in the trilogy, but Mark picked the first because, well, it’s the first, but also because it has some unique romantic, and anti-romantic plot dynamics.
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Karl chose this 2009 film, adapted from the book, partly as it countered his worry that it wouldn’t match up to the wildly popular source material. Its placement in Karl’s list obviously puts paid to that.
About Time
As much as it is a Richard Curtis film with all the trappings of a Richard Curtis film, this ranked highly in Mark’s list because of its sweetness. But it does have some holes, as the pair explore.
Kate & Leopold
Karl picked this fish-out-of-water story as a bit of an undiscovered gem. You could do worse than pick up a pint of a frozen dairy product and enjoy this sweet film.
Safety Not Guaranteed
Mark Duplass and Aubrey Plaza star in this as-yet-unseen-by-Mark pick, but the good news is Karl has seen it and can totally vouch for it.
The Lake House
While time-travel feels like a character in most of the pair’s picks, this film from 2006 takes a more subdued approach, focusing on the conflict the distance in time creates.
Happy Accidents
Mark’s final pick is from 2000, in which a woman meets a man from 470 years in the future. It’s one that had passed Karl by, so consider the homework set!
Time After Time
Also known as Time Freak , Karl’s final pick teaches us that any film or TV show called Time After Time – whether that’s its original name or not – is worth checking out. This one is particularly worth checking out as it focuses, not on the needs of the time-traveller, but on the chaos that can be left in the wake of someone without regard for proper time-travel etiquette.
Links
Support the podcast
51 min
January 19, 2021Top 5 people from Birmingham
This week’s guest is musician, DJ and producer Kevin Kerr, and on the list is top people from Birmingham in the UK, or as we have them, Brummies.

(00:00) - Introduction
(04:38) - Rusty's pick: Benjamin Zephaniah
(07:14) - Mark's pick: Stewart Lee
(10:12) - Rusty's pick: Tony Iommi
(12:32) - Mark's pick: John Cadbury
(15:50) - Rusty's pick: Mike Skinner
(20:14) - Mark's pick: John Oliver
(22:50) - Rusty's pick: Pat Malloy
(28:52) - Mark's pick: Janice Connolly
(31:10) - Rusty's pick: Joe Lycett
(34:50) - Brummie in the middle
(36:22) - Putting the final list together
(39:24) - Honourable mentions
(46:10) - More of Rusty Nails
Follow @RustyNailsBeats on Twitter and listen to Titans of Doom’s latest single, Rise Up, in aid of the Northfield Community Partnership food bank.

Links
Gary Sambrook eats big dinners
51 min
January 19, 2021 Top 5 people from Birmingham
Guest
Rusty Nails
Musician, DJ, producer, dreamer! One third of Titans of Doom.
Rusty Nails | Free Listening on SoundCloud
twitter.com
This week’s guest is musician, DJ and producer Kevin Kerr, and on the list is top people from Birmingham in the UK, or as we have them, Brummies.
Benjamin Zephaniah
Kevin’s first pick is the poet and performer who might be best known to non-UK listeners as the priest in Peaky Blinders, but Benjamin’s words have touched both he and Mark, which is why he features highly on both of their lists.
Stewart Lee
Mark’s pick was instrumental in British comedy from the 90s onwards, and remains one of the UK’s most well-respected stand-ups. It also gave the pair the opportunity to reminisce about an obscure and overlooked TV gem, called Time Trumpet.
Tony Iommi
If Mark had allowed Kevin to pick Black Sabbath as a whole, then perhaps he would’ve, but as that would cause incalculable damage to the podcast format, he picked this superhuman heavy metal legend.
John Cadbury
What better Brummie could Mark choose than the inventor of chocolate, and the father of the inventors of Bournville (sort of)?… even if Mark never got to go to Cadbury World, the closest thing that passes for a theme park in Birmingham.
Mike Skinner
Kevin reopens old wounds for Mark with this pick, the front man – or only man? – of the Streets, and one of Mark’s mortal enemies (although Mike wouldn’t know it). Can Mark keep a clean streak and knock Mike off the final list?
John Oliver
Arguably one of the most successful Brits working in the US today, Mark’s pick is a surprise-Brummie. Host of Last Week Tonight , and former guest-host of The Daily Show , former co-host of the Bugle podcast, former Smurf, and current Zazu… you get it.
Pat Malloy
Originally from Galway in Ireland, Pat moved to Spark Hill in Birmingham, and was the linchpin of Irish music within the centre of the city. He makes Kevin’s list by virtue of the quiet influence he exercised throughout the community.
Janice Connolly
Janice’s character Barbara Nice has made it to national TV on multiple occasions, and she is a mainstay of the Birmingham comedy scene.
Joe Lycett
Kevin’s choice is people’s champion, regular Channel 4 panel-show contributor, hilarious stand-up comic and extremely local-to-Mark-boy, Joe Lycett.
Honourable mentions
Alan Napier
Julie Walters
Rob Halford
Jamelia
Moeen Ali
Barbara Cartland
Arthur Darvill
Fred Dinenage
More of Rusty Nails
Follow @RustyNailsBeats on Twitter and listen to Titans of Doom’s latest single, Rise Up , in aid of the Northfield Community Partnership food bank.
Go further
Gary Sambrook eats big dinners
Links
Support the podcast
51 min
January 12, 2021Top 5 moments of anarchism
This week’s guest is Liam Barrington-Bush, a Bristol-based activist who helps organisations think more like people, and has loads of real-world experience of how people can govern themselves, build their own systems, and get closer to achieving what they want, without having those systems handed down to them.

After years of community activism and disillusionment with political systems, Liam discovered that people were capable of remarkable things when they weren’t being told what to do. Mark and Liam discuss the way the Internet has enabled or changed activism, but allowing information to spread to places that wouldn’t ordinarily be affected or invested. They also examine what happens after the dust has settled.

(00:00) - Introduction
(05:54) - Liam's pick: Argentine Occupy Factory movement
(20:50) - Mark's pick: Indignados movement
(24:10) - Liam's pick: People's uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico
(31:10) - Mark's pick: Singing Revolution
(37:02) - Liam's pick: Sweets Way regeneration
(43:52) - Mark's pick: Inner-London squatting in the 70s
(49:12) - Liam's pick: Rojava revolution
(54:58) - Mark's pick: Sous les pavés, la plage!
(56:36) - Liam's pick: Viome factory occupation
(01:02:10) - Mark's pick: Rage Against the Machine for Christmas #1
(01:04:26) - Au milieu de la discussion, la pause!
(01:09:48) - Putting the final list together
(01:13:38) - Honourable mentions
(01:17:32) - What happens next?
Follow Liam on Twitter @hackofalltrades, and check out his website.

Links
David Graeber, anthropologist, anarchist activist, and author
Accidental Anarchist, a film by Carne Ross
Teaching Rebellion
Anarchists in the Boardroom, Liam’s book
1 hr 27 min
January 12, 2021 Top 5 moments of anarchism
Guest
Liam Barrington-Bush
Helping keep neighbourhoods undesirable. Hip-hop. Anarchism. Community is the answer.
twitter.com
more like people » Anarchists in the Boardroom | more like people
This week’s guest is Liam Barrington-Bush, a Bristol-based activist who helps organisations think more like people, and has loads of real-world experience of how people can govern themselves, build their own systems, and get closer to achieving what they want, without having those systems handed down to them.
After years of community activism and disillusionment with political systems, Liam discovered that people were capable of remarkable things when they weren’t being told what to do. Mark and Liam discuss the way the Internet has enabled or changed activism, but allowing information to spread to places that wouldn’t ordinarily be affected or invested. They also examine what happens after the dust has settled.
Argentine Occupy Factory movement
In the early 2000s, the Argentine economy tanked, and capital fled, so a number of factory workers began to challenge the notion of why they needed bosses in the first place, forming democratic assemblies to determine how to run the factories and even what they should produce.
Indignados movement
Following mass unemployment in Spain, a group of bloggers put together a manifesto calling for a demonstration. Thousands turned up, making camp in a Madrid square, and refusing to leave. The protests turned into a political movement with the English-translated name of “We Can”.
People’s uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico
In 2006, a teachers’ strike was exacerbated by the Mexican government dropping tear gas from helicopters onto the strikers. Although public will wasn’t initially behind the teachers, protests began to form in reaction to the government’s heavy-handed approach. Protesters eventually ousted the police and military forces from the city of Oaxaca, built their own barricades against the country’s military, and started holding twice-daily community assemblies.
Singing Revolution
In the mid 1980s, the then USSR was relaxing its laws on free speech in the hopes of quelling unrest. Meanwhile in Estonia, fear and anger over the dumping of phosphorite led to protests in which people would gather and sing Estonian protest songs. The movement spread to other baltic countries, until 1991, when Estonia regained its independence from Russia.
Sweets Way regeneration
In 2015, Liam was involved with a community in Barnet, London, who were fighting eviction and forced relocation to housing outside of the city. Once evicted, property developers who owned the buildings would make the flats unliveable, by destroying fixtures and fittings, so as a group, the remaining residents decided to occupy and rebuild the homes, together, as a way of demonstrating that these properties were still fit for purpose. Within days, people who’d been forced to relocate banded with the current residents, community members and squatters, using whatever they had to hand to give the properties the attention they needed and maintain dozens of them as homes for over 7 months.
Inner-London squatting in the 70s
At the height of housing shortages in the 70s, over thirty thousand people were living in squats in London, which led to the formation of the Advisory Service for Squatters which published the Squatter’s Handbook , and were instrumental in the Sweets Way occupation.
Rojava devolution
From his Turkish prison, guerrilla Marxist and Kurdish freedom fighter Abdullah Öcalan began reading writings on communalism by New Yorker Murray Bookchin, and developing a model for building a free society for the Kurdish people, which involves making decisions as close to the ground as possible, and has led to greater empowerment of women, a focus on environmentalism, and transformations in the justice system.
Even in the midst of a warzone in Northeast Syria, hundreds of thousands of Kurds (and other regional residents) have managed to practice a direct and localised form of democracy for several years, while being at the forefront of the succesful fight against ISIS’ advances in the region.
Sous les pavés, la plage!
In May 1968, protests at a Paris university led to its shutdown, with students refusing to leave, and as the conflict escalated, the French government responded with aggression. Sympathy with the protesters spread, leading to workers striking in solidarity, calls for a new government, and the fleeing of then President Charles de Gaulle. A full-on revolution was prevented after the government collapsed, and the message, translated into English as “under the paving stones, the beach!” became emblematic of the protests, as people tore up the paving slabs to find sand beneath.
Viome factory occupation
After a factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, was set to fold following the bosses’ desertion in the wake of the financial crisis, the workers took it over, and renamed it to Viome, bringing in some of the people who’d help reform the factories in Buenos Aires. The people fought off attacks from the returning factory owners and the local community rallied around them. As a result, they transformed the output of the factory from toxic adhesives to affordable, eco-friendly household cleaning products.
Rage Against the Machine for Christmas #1
Following years of ITV shows deciding what should be the UK’s Christmas #1 — back when that felt important — a Facebook campaign was setup to encourage people to buy or download Rage Against the Machine’s 1991 hit Killing in the Name , so that it could beat the then X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s single The Climb. In some ways this was a spiritual successor to 2005’s story of Nizlopi whose JCB Song was, contrary to Mark’s memory, kept from the top slot by that year’s X Factor winner.
Honourable mentions
Mass trespass of Kinder Scout
Toppling of Edward Colston’s statue
More of Liam Barrington-Bush
Follow Liam on Twitter @hackofalltrades, and check out his website.
Go further
David Graeber, anthropologist, anarchist activist, and author
Accidental Anarchist, a film by Carne Ross
Teaching Rebellion
Anarchists in the Boardroom, Liam’s book
Links
Support the podcast
1 hr 27 min
January 05, 2021Top 5 golden-age arcade games
Today Mark is talking the golden age of arcade games, which ran from 1979 til around 1983. Mark and Nick start with their own childhood arcade memories, and Mark gets quizzical about the American quarter as a “unit of fun”. As this was recorded during the Quarantimes, conversation inevitably turned to the decline in in-person entertainment like arcades and cinemas.

(00:00) - Introduction
(10:38) - Nicholas's pick: Pac-Man
(22:17) - Mark's pick: Space Invaders
(26:57) - Nicholas's pick: Defender
(32:44) - Mark's pick: Pole Position
(36:41) - Nicholas's pick: Mario Bros
(46:58) - Mark's pick: Paperboy
(48:40) - Nicholas's pick: Galaga
(53:22) - Mark's pick: Asteroids
(56:17) - A primer on vector graphics
(59:56) - Nicholas's pick: Robotron 2048
(01:03:32) - Dispatches from the past
(01:08:38) - Building the final list
(01:11:20) - Honourable mentions
(01:13:08) - More of Nicholas Bond
Nick blogs at the Retrogame Deconstruction Zone, and you can find him on Twitter @MrVGBrow.

Links
High Score documentary series on Netflix
Psygnosis (the video game publisher with the owl logo Mark was trying to think of)
10 hours of arcade noise
Masters of Doom
Podcast My Startup
1 hr 17 min
January 05, 2021 Top 5 golden-age arcade games
Guest
Nicholas Bond
Creator of the Retrogame Deconstruction Zone, focusing on early 1982.
twitter.com
Retrogame Deconstruction Zone
Today Mark is talking the golden age of arcade games, which ran from 1979 til around 1983. Mark and Nick start with their own childhood arcade memories, and Mark gets quizzical about the American quarter as a “unit of fun”. As this was recorded during the Quarantimes, conversation inevitably turned to the decline in in-person entertainment like arcades and cinemas.
Pac-Man
Nick’s first pick is the 800lb gorilla in the arcade, a game in which many other video game historians aren’t in love. Nick tells Mark about how he discovered a later-in-life love for the game, and gives a little behind-the-scenes colour on the game’s nascent AI.
Space Invaders
Mark’s first pick is almost the quintessential video game, but this iconic selection raises complex feelings in our listmate, due to its incredibly repetitive nature.
Defender
You can write a book on how many different strategies that can be used to play this 1981 shooter. It would go on to influence a great number of side-scrolling shooters in arcades and in the home.
Pole Position
Mark remembers sitting in a Pole Position cabinet, many years after the game has passed its peak, but this simple prototypical racer was a firm favourite and lived long into the 90s.
Mario Bros
Rather than picking its predecessor Donkey Kong , Nick elected to go with the beautiful, joyous Mario Bros. Can you believe Mark has never played a Mario platformer? Sacrilege.
Paperboy
From back when the pinnacle of video game destruction involved knocking over someone’s garden furniture or perhaps smashing in a window, Paperboy is Mark’s third pick
Galaga
At a time when many arcade games introduced random elements to make them operate a little more like slot machines, Galaga gave players the chance to learn and improve with each new pass.
Asteroids
Mark’s final pick is a classic to those who remember it, but hasn’t perhaps been passed down through the generations like some of the others discussed. The physics in the game are pretty impressive, and it does give us the chance to learn a little more about vector graphics.
Robotron 2048
Nick describes this as possibly being the single best action game of its era, but the maximalist explosions bely the deep strategical nature of the game. It was an early innovator in that it employed two joysticks: one for moving, and another for firing.
Honourable mentions
Berzerk
Qbert
More on Nicholas Bond
Nick blogs at the Retrogame Deconstruction Zone, and you can find him on Twitter @MrVGBrow.
More links
High Score documentary series on Netflix
Psygnosis (the video game publisher with the owl logo Mark was trying to think of)
10 hours of arcade noise
Masters of Doom
Podcast My Startup
Links
Support the podcast
Follow Mark on Twitter
Find more shows from the Outpost
1 hr 17 min
December 31, 2020Spooky stories: Part 2
Mark is joined once more by Cat Turner and Tom Clabon to swap spooky stories. If you haven’t already checked out part one, you can do so now.
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:10) - Mark's pick: The call is coming from inside the house
(05:40) - Tom's pick: Boston Dynamics robot dog revenge
(07:54) - Mark's pick: Petscop
(16:16) - Mark's pick: The Young Ones' fifth housemate
(27:42) - Honourable mentions
(35:58) - Postamble
41 min

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