According to industry statistics, only 11% of podcasts make it to fifty episodes, and 90% never publish more than three episodes before drowning in a raging torrent of abject shame, humiliation, and self-abuse. (We may have made up the part about the torrent.)

Founded in August of 2022, the same month the FBI raided Donald Trump's Palm Beach bolthole looking for classified documents he ripped off from the White House on his way out the door, we are now proud members of the elite 11%. In this week's episode, we celebrate our historic Big Five-O by re-living some of Semi-Retired's more or less memorable moments.

As a bonus, Dave recounts his recent fall from social media grace at the non-corporeal hands of an Instagram AI "team member."

Warning: Some content verges on self-abuse. Listener discretion is semi-advised.

Music and image credits:
Episode graphic by Richard Bonomo and ChatGPT (or is it the other way around?)
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Not a day goes by without news about AI making the headlines. From last summer's actor's strike, to AI-assisted documentary film-making, to a recent AI beauty pageant, even AI podcast co-hosts (take note, Richard), there's no telling where this rapidly metastasizing technology will turn up next.

In their latest guaranteed100% Grade B+ human-generated episode, the guys take a look at some of the latest AI escapades and wonder aloud:  where's it all going?

Music and image credits:
Tsunami image by Erik Nikolai Halsteinrud from Pixabay
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

On the eighth day of April 2024, Montreal found itself in an extremely unusual and fortunate position. For the first time in ninety-two years, and the last time for another eighty-two, its citizens were directly underneath the tiny shadow cast on the Earth by the Moon as it passed in front of the Sun AKA the Path of Totality. And if you're hearing the 5th Dimension's shimmering pop hit from 1969, "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" playing inside your head, you're not alone. Although that's astrology, not astronomy, and never the twain shall meet.

In this week's double-barrel episode, Richard and Dave talk about their eclipse experiences, but only after indulging themselves in a discussion about recent sci-fi movies and streaming series that cast dark shadows across their notoriously fickle attention spans.

Music and image credits:
Totality as seen from Montreal by Megan Ranco
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Is it even possible to imagine a cultural vocabulary that doesn't include phasers, photon torpedoes, communicators, the bridge, the transporter room, sickbay, beaming down, beaming up, the Enterprise, shuttlecraft, warp engines, dilithium crystals, The Federation, Star Fleet Command, Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, the neutral zone, Talosians, Andorians, Gorns, Metrons, tribbles, subspace radio and open hailing frequencies? And what about Harcourt Fenton (Harry) Mudd and his mummified wife Stella? What about them?

In our opinion, a universe without Star Trek would be like a day without starshine.

Music and image credits:
Starship Enterprise by p2722754 from Pixabay
Star Trek theme "Where No Man Has Gone Before" by Alexander Courage
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Sir Winston Churchill (not the guy who ran the Crescent Street pub) described the United States and his own country as being two nations "divided by the same language." The same could be said of the generations, each of which develops its own set of expressions in order to assert its sense of linguistic individuality by infusing their day-to-day conversations with terms, phrases, and metaphors that reflect their life and times.

In their latest bad ass pod, hep cats Richard and Dave groove deeply on some of the newspeak jive they've heard recently, and ask themselves where all this kludgy word salad could be heading.

Music and image credits:
Episode image graphic courtesy of ChatGPT   
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

Ah, the wretched excesses of late-70s English rock bands with roots in the kaleidoscopic, Swinging London days of the UFO Club, Carnaby Street, Twiggy, Vidal Sassoon, and Sgt. Pepperland. Rob Reiner's first-of-a-kind 1984 'mockumentary' follows fictional hard rock has-beens, Spinal Tap, as they try to get it together for just one more US tour to promote their pungently titled new album, 'Smell the Glove.'

Richard and Dave take their love of rock music to 11 this week with a characteristically freeform examination of this riotous masterpiece of cultural satire, in an episode that somehow devolves into fond reminiscences about paintball-related injuries in the closing minutes. For added content value, Dave provides a progress report on his avoidance of using five really stupid expressions.

Long Live Rock and Roll! Long Live Tap!

Music and image credits:
Dial at 11 by Three-shots from Pixabay   
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

After being stuck in heavy traffic on the outbound T-Can for close to six months, Richard and Dave regrouped to complete production on this fond look at a milestone album in the first installment of a new series titled Albums That Left a Mark. 

Along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Kinks, The Who rank as one of the key bands that led the British Invasion of the mid 1960s. Originally known as a singles band with hits like I Can't Explain, My Generation--check out their explosive performance of this signature pre-punk snarl of youthful protest on the Smothers Brothers Show (you can find it on YouTube), and I Can See for Miles.

In 1969, the Who broke new ground with their acclaimed "rock opera" Tommy. This was followed in 1971 with Who's Next, the remnant of a second rock opera concept titled "Lighthouse," which never saw the light of day. Who's Next remains one of the finest rock albums of all time, featuring masterpieces like Baba O'Riley, Behind Blue Eyes, and Pete Townsend’s defiant look back at the failed promise of the sixties counter-culture revolution, Won't Get Fooled Again.

Music and image credits:
Photograph of the Who in 1970 from the Trinifold Archive 
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

While trying not to jump any metaphorical sharks themselves (see below), the guys return for the second part of their investigation into this irritating cultural phenomenon. Along the way they identify the one popular movie franchise that jumped the shark, didn't like what it found lurking on the far side, and had the balls to turn around and jump back a full four decades later. Better late than never, we say, sort of like this episode. A few bonus movie reviews are tacked on at the end because, why not?

According to Wikipedia: "The idiom 'jumping the shark' is a pejorative used to argue that a creative work or entity has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with, or an over-exaggeration of, its original purpose." The phrase was coined in 1985 by radio personality Jon Hein to describe what Henry Winkler had done, given that the stunt was his idea.

Music and image credits:
Shark jockey by Three-shots from Pixabay   
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

After a long and largely unplanned summer vacation, the guys are back with an apex predator of a two-parter.

On September 20, 1977, something momentous happened. On that last day of the third summer of disco and the second summer of the Son of Sam, Happy Days actor and former water skiing instructor Henry Winkler, AKA "Fonzie" and/or "The Fonz," made history when his character (ostensibly a motorcycle hoodlum from Milwaukee) jumped over a shark while on water skis in Los Angeles. The Fonz did this in response to a challenge to his bravery.

According to Wikipedia: "The idiom 'jumping the shark' is a pejorative used to argue that a creative work or entity has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with, or an over-exaggeration of, its original purpose." The phrase was coined in 1985 by radio personality Jon Hein to describe what Henry Winkler had done, given that the stunt was his idea.

This week and next, take a long, leisurely look at just some of the shark jumpers that came to mind as Richard and Dave stared at each across the table in the (now virtual) Semi-Retired studio.

Music and image credits:
Frenzied shark by Pascal Le Lay from Pixabay   
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock

With the recent release of Apple’s technologically astounding and eye-wateringly expensive Vision Pro virtual reality headset and the threatened release of its far cheaper competitor, Facebook’s Oculus Quest 3, VR may have finally reached early adulthood.

Distant progeny of the mid-20th century red plastic View-Master personal stereo viewer, through which children could stare at tiny 3-D images of the Great Pyramid or scenes from The Beverly Hillbillies, today’s VR headsets take advantage of the latest technologies to further free or tether us, depending on your point of view.

And while they could be a boon for virtual tourists, gamers, and porn aficionados, the idea of adding another ‘device’ to the household gear manifest with the attendant software updates, battery charging needs, and periodic hardware upgrades, could leave some feeling this could be a bridge too far.

What about family time together? The Brady Bunch would’ve needed nine VR headsets (if they wanted to include Alice) just to watch the latest Disney epic unfold around them as a magnificently immersive virtual experience.

Listen in as the guys strap on their brain caps for a look at what VR has become in 2023 and where it could go in the years ahead.

Music and image credits:
Cyclist with VR headset by Pexels from Pixabay 
Semi-Retired “flipz” theme by tubebackr from SoundCloud
Music promoted by free-stock-music.com
Perforated steel by YuriyC from VectorStock