The Matineecast

One-hundred-and-some-odd episodes in, The Matineecast is pretty much known for being planned, structured, and tweaked to a fault. Every once in a while though, I just wanna sit down with a friend and roll tape.

This is one of those times.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-sixteen…

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Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

Thinking back through the last few episodes of the show, it’s easy for me to understand that sensation.

As much as I love sitting down with new voices, and connecting via Skype to points all over the world, there’s something about having my close friends over to raise a glass and talk about things we love that just seems to deny succinctness. I’m good with that.

Thing is that along with giving y’all audio windows into my love and thoughts on film, a small piece of me enjoys giving you audio windows that look out onto the people I’m close to – and this episode is no exception. If it takes eighty-five minutes to get that done as opposed to sixty-five, I’m pretty sure you folks are OK with that, right?

And so the Matineecast creeps on.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-fifteen…

Runtime

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

As you may or may not have noticed, the podcast has primarily been keeping its eye on underexposed indie films through the course of 2014. Of the nine episodes that have posted prior to this, only three of them are what I’d really qualify as “mainstream selections”. So when I circled this animated offering from Dreamworks as a film to be discussed, I thought that it might be the moment the show tapped back into the zeitgeist.

Imagine my surprise to see this film under-perform, making this discussion a look at yet another underexposed selection! Hell, back when I mapped out when episodes would drop, along with what would be discussed, I feared that talking about this title one week after it arrived would be showing up late to the party.

Imagine my surprise!

Well hopefully y’all tune in (and even more hopefully, y’all check out this film), as it was a great evening spent with one of my favorite local podcasters – and a good friend to boot. This is the first time I’ve recorded in someone else’s home here in my home city, and I think it brought a great energy to the show that’s audible in the track. So before we go on, I want to offer my gracious host a word of thanks for opening his home to me.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-fourteen…

Runtime

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

After an episode spent on an old favorite, we return to the usual format where we discuss something new. In this case, “something new” is admittedly a few weeks old, but at the very least it’s a title that you can now track down on-demand if you wanted to do some homework before listening.

The slight irony is that BLUE RUIN was chosen for this slot because when I looked at this weekend and last weekend on the schedule I didn’t see any major releases that I really wanted to discuss. Little did I know that EDGE OF TOMORROW would become one of those releases! Oh well, there’s a sliver of a chance I’ll record an extra episode dedicated to it, but more than likely it will have to stay as a film examined in written form.

All the better too, because if I’d put the onus on discussing EDGE OF TOMORROW, then I wouldn’t have been able to sit down with today’s guest…and that’d be a pity since he’s a terrifically well-spoken guest!

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-thirteen…

Runtime

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

Now to the matter at hand. While it might seem to me like just yesterday that I was talking to Jess Rogers about THE APARTMENT, the truth is that it has been an entire year. It’s been a good year, sometimes a tough year, but definitely a year in which I have begun to understand what I am lucky to have in life and what I still want to do. Many people who read this space have been instrumental in both parts of realization…so thanks for that.

Speaking of thanks, I need to give a word of thanks to this week’s guest. Once in a while when I hear a person’s talent behind a mic, I get to thinking “I need to get that voice on my show”. That happened last winter when I did two podcasts with Ariel and saw how goddamned well-spoken the woman is. Not only did she deliver the goods, but in an unexpected twist, she ended up knocking Kurt Halfyard off his perch as the most loquacious single guest in more than four years.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-twelve…

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Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

When I published the NYMPHOMANIAC episode back on April 14th, I didn’t anticipate an entire month going by before the next episode would drop. However, besides there not being any other new releases in April that I wanted to discuss, and the audio component of my Hot Docs coverage just not materializing this year, it became an unexpected one-month-hiatus for the show.

In some ways that left me both antsy and rusty, and in other ways I’m down with that.

Everybody needs to step away from things from time-to-time. We need to let our batteries recharge and focus on other (often more worthwhile) activities. It helps us become more well-rounded, and even makes us better at whatever it is that we’ve stepped away from…considering that a bit of desire to get back to it builds up inside of us.

So now that I have the time on my hands again, I’m happy to be getting back to it. I’m happy that the warm weather has arrived and I can start recording outside, and I’m happy that there are lots of films coming that I want to talk about into my microphone. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Thanks for sticking around.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-eleven…

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Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

I decided to monkey with the structure with the release of NYMPHOMANIAC, giving both volumes the full “New Slang” treatment. The results – along with being lengthy – give Alex and I the chance to really dig in to this down and dirty movie. So we close out about ten minutes longer than usual, but with plenty of chapter breaks for your convenience.

One other programming note – With Hot Docs on the way, full episodes of the podcast will be taking a break for a few weeks. I’m hoping to bring you a few episodes of Life in Technicolor, where I get to talk with documentary filmmakers, but at the moment, nothing is set in stone.

So at the moment, this is the last episode I have planned for a few weeks…but hopefully my mic will be back on before too long. Stay tuned.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-ten…

Runtime

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

I have turned on my podcasting microphone somewhere around 150 times since mid-November of 2009. In all of those times – not to mention the times I have done guest spots on other people’s podcasts – I have never once done what I did for the recording of Matineecast 109. You see dear listeners, with a particularly nasty seventeen hour time difference between Eastern Canada and New Zealand, recording this episode required me to wake up and roll tape at five am yesterday. We finished recording shortly before seven.

I recorded an entire episode of the show and the sun still hadn’t risen yet!!

Hence, in the early-going of this episode, you might hear a touch of grogginess in my voice…though that dissipates pretty quick as I played Chatty Cathy for this episode and seldom let my guest get a word in edgewise. (Apologies for that Miss Taylor).

But please do give a listen , as I am joined by one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and a person who I don’t get to talk to enough on-mic. Fittingly, we mark the Sunday morning discussion by having a biblical discussion or two.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-nine…

Runtime

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

You see, every once in a while I need to take the ball and step on to the mound on short rest.  This was one of those weeks thanks to a film’s weird release pattern, and my guest’s busy schedule, “short rest” became recording, editing, and posting all on one day. Thus, a decision was made to post the show a little more raw than usual. With the exception of a few coughs and pauses, what you hear in this episode is the show as it happened.

Not that such a decision begs disclaimer or apology – far from it actually! I just know that I can hear the slightest change in tone with this episode, and if I can hear it…you might too. The guest I wanted for this episode is a busy chap, and if getting a bit of his precious time meant for a whole day dedicated to the show, then so be it. I’m still happy with how it turned out, even if it’s a little less minty-fresh than I’ve come accustomed to.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-eight…

Runtime

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

As much fun as I’m sure it’d by to discuss NON-STOP, and spin it into Other Side selections like SNAKES ON A PLANE and TAKEN 2, I feel like I can find more constructive uses of my time…both the time spent watching, and the time spent discussing. So why not go off-book? Why not go for catalogue releases? Why not go around the world?

Whether you love the idea or you hate it (and you know who you are), The Blindspot Series has caught on quite nicely this year. What’s more, the entries I’m getting are coming from all over the bloody place. So instead of waiting for a new release that will open in both Canada and Portugal at the same time, I was able to give the show some international flavour by getting three lads and three lasses from six different countries on to discuss what they’d watched for the first time.

So take a trip around the world with me, and likewise check below to find links to my guests’ blindspot posts for the films discussed.

Here’s what’s in store in episode one-hundred-and-seven…

Runtime

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!