Reserved Recommendations

Texas is a big place, and contains multitudes. In many ways, the most American part of America, it contributes enormously to iconic US culture, food, and music, but also embodies many of America's worst trends and impulses. This episode I talk to Collin Bjork, academic, podcaster, and Texan, about the huge and complicated tangle that is Texas.

Find all of Collin's many many things at www.collinbjork.com

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

Despite running a mere two seasons in its original form and amassing only 52 episodes across its eventual 5 seasons, "Ren & Stimpy" is probably the single most influential of the early 90's "Nicktoons". It has an artistic legacy that persists even now, but was undone both practically and in terms of PR by the erratic (and eventually criminal) behaviour of its creator. Joshua Marchant of Mukpuddy Animation joins me to talk about the show, its influence, and its difficult legacy.

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

As someone who generally opposes war, I've always had a tricky relationship with ANZAC Day and the way that it seems to uncritically repeat WWI propaganda about the rightness of the fight.

On tonight's episode, I talk to my old friend Victor of the Rogue Insider Podcast (https://anchor.fm/rogue-insider) about war, war stories, and geopolitical strategy. Victor's academic background is in strategic geopolitics, so this gets complicated and we resolve nothing - much like war itself.

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

I've talked about specific games and settings before (Glorantha/Runequest and the World of Darkness to be precise) but I've yet to take on the hobby as a whole. This ends today! On this episode I talk to Liam Stevens of Toa Tabletop (www.toatabletop.com) about tabletop roleplaying as a hobby and an artform. We talk about our own tastes and histories with gaming, some long-standing controversies, and some newer innovations in play style and safety tools.

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

In the UK in the 60s and 70s there was an explosion of musical creativity that started with roots in folk, and expanded to encompass rock, pop, folk, jazz, psychedelia, and World Music. At the core of this explosion was the production team of engineer John Wood and producer Joe Boyd. On this episode I talk to Nancy Howie (Fathom, Tweed ) about the extended Joe Boyd/John Wood-iverse.

You can find all of Nancy's various things at https://linktr.ee/fathommusicnz

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

In the 30ish years since they hit New Zealand, anime and manga have become a big part of many people's pop culture diets. (It's me, I'm many people).

This episode I talk to Kyle from 1/200 Media (www.1of200.nz) about what draws us to Japanese entertainment, and the challenges that come with cross-cultural translation, interacting with this peculiarly problematic chunk of the global entertainment industry, and general "anime nonsense".

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

In the first episode of Season 3, I talk to Sammy G (Pipebombs and Headlocks) about the weird, bad, and sometimes wonderful video game movie adaptations of the 1990s.

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

The Goon Show was a long-running, deeply weird, and highly influential British radio comedy series written primarily by Spike Milligan and performed by him and his friends Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. It laid the groundwork for later weird anarchic British comedy (the Monty Python crew in particular cite it as an inspiration) as well as permanently altering the English language by giving us terms like "the dreaded lurgy" and leading to the creation of the BBC Radiophonic workshop (and thus indirectly to the Dr Who theme, and the TARDIS noise). Matthew Jenkin rejoins the pod to talk about our mutual youthful appreciation the show, and the way that that has evolved over time as we've begun to understand its darker and filthier undertones, and discover the ways in which it was the product of significant and unacknowledged trauma.

Check out Matthew's wife Fiona's project Stitch Kitchen here: https://www.facebook.com/StitchKitchenDunedin

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

Jacques Tati was a French filmmaker and actor whose career (as a director at least) ran from 1935-1978. He's most famous for the comic character character Monsieur Hulot (a primary inspiration for Mr. Bean) who he played across four films between 1953 and 1971. Tati's comedy is completely unique - highly choreographed, very visual, and often entirely unconcerned with modern considerations like character development or plot. This can make his movies a tough watch for modern audiences used to quicker and more character-driven fare. Derrick Sims (Tararua Cinematheque) rejoins the show to discuss Tati's filmic vision, and the challenges and rewards of watching movies that demand patience from the viewer.

Tararua Cinematheque on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TararuaCinema

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.

Dune (1984) was a notoriously tortured production, eventually helmed by David Lynch (who was so disgusted with the final product that he insisted on being credited as "Alan Smithee"). The film is gorgeous, weird, and kind of impenetrable if you're not already familiar with the books, but it's developed a cult following, and was hugely influential for many overserious nerds in the 80s and 90s. The books it's based on are simultaneously an attempt to deconstruct heroic sci-fi tropes of the 40s and 50s while embodying many of the biases of the 60s. I talk to John and Ross (aka PostingDad and ThatBikeDad on Twitter and hosts of PostingCast) about their relationships with the movie and the books, and how you go about approaching such a fundamentally problematic fave.

Find PostingCast at: https://postingcast.podbean.com

Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of NZ On Air.