We welcome a bald, bearded tattooed man into the studio and live to tell the tale. David Batzofin writes about about travel and ... things ... on his excellent blog, um, Travel & Things (www.travelandthings.co.za). A wide-ranging discussion takes in those themes, the scourge of The Influencer, music both country and Western and what matters when it comes to both parks and recreation. There is literature concerning those who have broken South Africa and those who are fixing it; red-headed strangers and people with the word "white" in their name; moms who matter; and an introduction to the word "imbolc". Which is important.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - Barely Breathing / Lioness / Parks & Recreation / Workin' Moms

READ - Like Water For Fish by Garth Japhet / 50 People Who F***ed Up South Africa by Alexander Parker and Tim Richman / Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks / Travel & Things by David Batzofin

LISTEN - Willie Nelson / David Kramer / Joe Pisapia / John Paul White

We prove that, in the same way that two random musicians with reading fetishes can create a sublime podcast, sometimes great actors can appear in entirely average films, and that it's easy to forget what happened in a book we loved. We go back in time on TV and have an author do the same, though he adds a number of extra centuries to his tale (et tu, Matt Haig?), just because he can. We ask if tangible passion can make music better, though we know the answer, and are reminded how royally spectacular Prince was on record and on stage. Oh, and Jason Bateman has crab pincers for hands. Yes. Well.

WATCH - 2 Guns / Rome: Season One / Thunder Force

READ - How To Stop Time by Matt Haig / Satin Island by Tom McCarthy / Prince: Purple Reign by Mick Wall

LISTEN - Damien Rice / Glen Hansard / Lifehouse / Zach Williams / Wendy Oldfield / Finding Faith / Anna Wolf / Prince

Bruce sees actual live people perform and lives to tell the story while Stefan admires rolling cheeses and frets about the darkness of Victorian London. Both Saddam Hussein and queer musicians get their moment in the sun (ok, Saddam was kept in a basement, so no sun, but you get the point). America's greatness or lack thereof is filtered through the fascinating filter of Bill Bryson, Bruce Springsteen and Barack (Hussein - another one; double the value) Obama. And Stefan listens to new music from anyone with a Telecaster and old music from performers whose genres are unlikely to ever see their like again.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - Ballet & Beyond / Blue Piano Social Club / The Blacklist / We Are The Champions / The Frankenstein Chronicles / Year Of The Rabbit

READ - The Prisoner In His Palace / Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache

LISTEN - Neil Young / Myles Kennedy / Bob Dylan / Buck Owens & His Buckaroos / Billy Gibbons / Renegades: Born In The USA / BB King / Ray Charles / James Brown / The Kentucky Headhunters / Paul Rodgers / Lincoln Brewster / Mercury Rev / Sly & The Family Stone / The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid

Stefan appears to have forgotten how to read. But he is making up for it by watching and listening to all manner of intriguing material, including a whole musical about and starring guitar pedals and shows that underline the relative values of your spouse and your space and which introduce him to his own country. Bruce investigates the leftovers of sex education and wishes some Americans had stayed on their side of the pond. We also consider the difference Jack Reacher, Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen make by not staying on their side of the pond, whether Marvel moving to the small screen works as well as it does in the cinema and if genuine talent won or not at the Grammy Awards. Oh, and we applaud the greatness of "Toy Matinee" as a band name. This is important stuff.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - Coming 2 America / South Africa with Gregg Wallace / Sex Education / Marriage Or Mortgage / The Leftovers / WandaVision / The JHS Shows: Pedals - The Musical

READ - Night School by Lee Childs

LISTEN - Renegades: Born In The USA / Sarah Jarosz / Sadler Vaden / Toy Matinee / Watertown / Silk Sonic

We harp on about music (ooh - art form-specific pun!) at length, glorying in the multifarious skills of a man named after a bird; noting the importance of mystery in the appeal compositions and musicians have; and being glad that enjoying Faraway George does not require a long-distance relationship. Elsewhere, there is much murder - distastefully so in Utah and accompanied by delicious cuisine in Sicily - and we agree that if someone possessed of loose morals and a proclivity for violence must be obliterated for the greater good, we'd like the task to be carried out by an individual with rather more elevated (if complex) ethics and a willingness to maim malefactors should the need arise.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - Anna / The Equalizer 2 / Murder Among The Mormons

READ - Auntie Poldie And The Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano

LISTEN - Charlie Peacock / Every One Loves Guitar / Glenn Worf / Deacon Blue / Hothouse Flowers / Faraway George

In which we give a toss what a listener thinks (he's moved by films about necessary violence in ruined ancient cities, for what it's worth), and notice that a television series set in the future has the same name as a band left in the past by the aforementioned listener and that musicians popping up in literature can be as satisfying as movie icons writing books so well that they annoy comedians. We also note that there is as much pleasure in listening to the originators of musical genres as there is to those bands and artists who have learned well and now honour their forebears best. Possibly in Welsh.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - Mosul / Pure / Raised By Wolves

READ - Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell / Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks / Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

LISTEN - Gruff Rhys: Pang! / Biffy Clyro: Live At Wembley / Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music: Vol 4

We consider the merits of being the lesser of two evils, or whether being a good guy makes you invisible or not. We notice, with not a little shame, that changing music models have resulted in us being unaware of the release of new albums by sublime bands like the Hothouse Flowers and Deacon Blue, which is bad. What is good is that those same new models have alerted us to the presence of possible geniuses with odd botanical names (FKA Twigs). And we return to the Seventies and the rise of auteur filmmaking before returning to the present via the cluttered creative spaces of some of the world's top comic artists.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - I Care A Lot / Easy Riders, Raging Bulls / Crimimal UK / The Invisible Man

READ - Masters Of Comics by Joel Meadows

LISTEN - FKA Twigs: Magdalene / Hothouse Flowers: Let's Do This Thing / Deacon Blue: City Of Love / Luka 120 ft Bruce Dennill: Bo Mma

In which we note that Tom Hanks makes delivering news an art form - which we like, as for us, art is the best kind of news. There's also sex and beer and secret histories of different kinds - including that which pertains to The Artist Currently Known As A The Subject Of A Biography. In addition, there is dancing, death, a series of apologies, a singer who names his album after himself and the balancing of cover versions with (live) original music. Did we mention we write and record songs as a duo - The Van Dyke Parks Board - now? Did we? Mention that? And our debut single - "Between The Lines"? Available on all streaming platforms? No? Cool, cool. No matter, then.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - News Of The World / I'm Sorry / Teenage Bounty Hunters

READ - The Secret History by Donna Tartt / The Little Book Of Lager by Melissa Vole / Purple Reign by Mick Wall / Dancing The Death Drill by Fred Khumalo

LISTEN - Pat Barratt by Pat Barratt / Between The Lines by The Van Dyke Parks Board / Spotify cover versions / Phoebe Bridgers / Kacey Musgraves / Hayley Williams

It's probably harsh to refer to our podcast as sub-cultural - like, don't harsh our vibe, man - but we do find ourselves wandering into, and wondering about, the niches (the subcultures) that artists of every stripe and fans of all those artists, and possibly the stripes - hmm, very slimming - find themselves occupying, by choice or otherwise. Along the way, we meander through the Anglo-Saxon epoch; a comedian's living room; Washington DC (perhaps the weirdest of the lot); a guitarist who likes Satan as much as Les Pauls, possibly; and the Appalachian Mountains. It's a wild ride. Join us.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - The Dig / The Deuce / Kevin Hart: Zero F**ks Given

READ - Jimmy Page by Chris Salewicz / Joe Biden: American Dreamer by Evan Osnos / A Brief History Of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford

LISTEN - Art Of The Song Pocast: Bruce Molsky / George Lynch and Jeff Pilson: Heavy Hitters / The Black Crowes and Jimmy Page: Live At The Greek / Jimmy Page and Robert Plant: Walking Into Clarksdale and No Quarter / Toad The Wet Sprocket

Back in the screen saddle (to maim a metaphor), Bruce hunts a terrorist, explodes songs, discovering what Ailes Rodger and noting that making money as a teacher shouldn't include embezzlement. Meanwhile, Stefan feeds Phil, admires French thieves, fans Fran's fire, spends time in The Office and comments on unfortunate events in Fargo. On the page, we go South in the apocalypse and East on the Silk Road, explore both fragile and wild things and find that we understand the overstory, just like you. And through the speakers, we are assailed by (Charlie) peacocks, Cars and Led Zeppelins, and mystified by Mythos, Lore and Sarah Jarosz.

THE HOOKS:

WATCH - Manhunt: Unabomber / Song Exploder / The Loudest Voice / Bad Education / Somebody Feed Phil / Archer / Pretend It's A City / The Office / A Series Of Unfortunate Events / Lupin / Fargo

READ - Eastern Horizons: Hitchhiking The Silk Road by Levison Wood / South by Frank Owen / The Overstory by Richard Power / Just Like You by Nick Hornby / Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman / Wild Thing by Philip Norman

LISTEN - Mythos by Stephen Fry / Lore Podcast / Sarah Jarosz - World On The Ground / Led Zeppelin / Charlie Peacock - Skin And Wind / Allman Brothers / The Cars / Rick Beato