This week Dave and Steel by Dave’s high-rent lawyer friend Grayson. Together the three of them discuss quick favorites from this year’s NBA playoffs, do a special legal-themed edition of Ask OTC, rank the on/off chainness of various categories of things, play angsty music from Bleached, Fugazi, The Misfits, The Hotelier, PJ Harvey, and Teenage Bottlerocket, and share some immortal book wisdom from JD Salinger’s much beloved Holden Caulfield.
Links
Unchained Melodies: Angsty Edition
Book Wisdom
This week Dave shared a brief passage from J.D. Salinger’s classic coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye.
This week Dave and Steel were joined by Jack Bangerter to talk about the best haircuts and best names of the year, share spring musical memories from 2007 and 1997 by Okkervil River, Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Rihanna, Wyclef Jean, Ben Folds Five, and Soul Coughing, and share a moving springtime poem by William Carlos Williams.
This week Dave and Steel are joined by their old friend and marketing professional Alan Stoffer, who fills us in on top-level marketing strategies, what it’s like to live in Silicon Valley, the joys of having your garage rented out to a guy named Darrell for $1000/mo, and why he’s so relieved not to have to talk about sports at the office anymore. We also do another segment of Lost the Plot (this time it’s a romantic comedy!!!), share great music to train to by The Who, Flo Rida, Cold War Kids, The Japandroids, The Very Best, and J Roddy Walston and the Business, and drop some book wisdom from a western novel by John Williams.
Links
Unchained Melodies: Workout Edition
Book Wisdom
This week Dave shared a passage from John Williams’ 1960 western Butcher’s Crossing.
It took Steel three weeks to get this episode edited (which explains all the Valentine’s Day references in early March) but we’re back! This week Dave and Steel make a new induction to the OTC Hall of Fame (congratulations public libraries!), give you some new topics to discuss in another installment of Small Talk, praise two everyday heroes, shared six great songs from Esmé Patterson, Graham Parker & the Rumour, Saintseneca, Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam, Dr. Dog, and Keaton Henson, and drop some book wisdom by the satirical French novelist David Foenikos.
Links
OTC Hall of Fame
This week we’re inducting the public library into our Off the Chain Hall of Fame! The greatest idea in the history of Western civilization? The last bastion of pure idealism in the United States? Yes and yes. We think you’re great, public libraries. Thanks for everything!
Folktopia! The youtube channel you need to follow. Back yard maker stuff, mostly, all planned and shot by Steel’s coworker David Macasaet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD5rDHxU3NY [Steel]
Bike Batman, this otherwise pretty boring normcore guy in Seattle who confronts bike thieves and returns the bikes to their rightful owners [Steel].
Scott Mills, the man who stood inside the U-Haul truck while we emptied my house and somehow found a way to fit all of my family’s possessions inside this truck [Dave].
Unchained Melodies: Songs for each other
Book Wisdom
Steel read a passage from David Foenikos’ hilarious satirical novel The Erotic Potential of My Wife [thanks to Ewa Miernowska for the recommendation!].
Here’s the last of our 3-part year in review for 2016. In this episode we bring on our old buddy Spencer Gardner to talk about the year in sports. It’s pretty much only for the hardcore fans (there’s a lot of nerdy talk about the NBA, among other things), but we had fun. Happy New Year to you all. We’re really holding our breath for 2017 …
Leicester City, a provincial club who were nearly relegated in 2015, win the English Premier League, the wealthiest football league in the world. [Steel]
Here’s the second part of our 2016 year in review podcast. Think of it as an early Christmas present from us to you! On this episode Jack Bangerter joins us to talk about the year in art, culture and food, and Aaron Peck comes to talk about all things film. We’re pretty happy with how this one turned out, so please enjoy!
Top 5 movies this year that you probably didn’t see
The Witch
Krisha
Swiss Army Man
Cameraperson
Manchester by the Sea
Best performance by the Rock in 2016
Central Intellegence [the misspelling here is soooo fitting, Dave]
Ballers (HBO) [Aaron]
Surprising film you really enjoyed
The Shallows [Aaron]
Family film that you were into
Pete’s Dragon [Aaron]
Trolls [Dave]
What are you looking forward to in 2017
John Wick 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Aaron]
Fate of the Furious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Dave]
Featured image: Photography of a recent oil painting by Jack Bangerter. Jack writes: “There are spirit/shadows of the players represented by chess pieces. I was inspired by images of Ajax and Achilles playing a board game/planning a war on some Greek amphora pots.”
This year we’re trying something new (and awesome). We asked six of our friends to join us for a recap of the year that was, with each of them covering a subject that they’re an expert in. We’ll be bringing you our 2016 in review in two episodes (this week and next), but this week we were lucky to be joined by Rosie (the social issues that defined 2016: populism, political rhetoric, violence, and environmentalism); Jordan (the year in music, featuring songs from Mick Jenkins + BadBadNotGood, Camp Cope, Mitski, Big Thief, Pinegrove, and Snarky Puppy); and Rose (the year in books & reading).
Links
Social Issues
Political Rhetoric
Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2016 DNC
Theresa May setting out a vision of Conservative leadership as socially responsible and humane (gasp!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac6VJVDOOz4
Violence
Subscribe to journalist Torie Rose DeGhett‘s “This Week in War” newsletter for weekly updates about violent conflict around the world.
Unchained Melodies: Favorite Songs and Albums of 2016
Ho! Ho! Ho! This week on Off the Chain Dave and Steel are joined by their old friend Jordan to discuss all things Christmas. The three of them share Christmas memories, cover their gift giving guide (with lots of help from Oprah), give a quick run down of the best/worst Christmas movies ever made, share great Holiday music from the Jenson Family, Neil Diamond, Eef Barzelay, and the Jackson 5, and drop some Seussian book wisdom.
Steel recommends using AMAZON SMILE to give a small percentage of your Amazon purchases back to charitable causes. If you’re looking for a worthy recipient, he suggests either the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council or the Friends of Lorine Niedecker.
Steel also suggests pledging to give a percentage of your lifetime earnings to effective charitable causes this year. Learn more at Giving What We Can or The Live You Can Save.
Christmas Movies Appraised [by Jordan, mostly]
BEST
Die Hard
Home Alone
A Christmas Story
The Original Grinch [animated]
White Christmas
Jingle All the Way
Elf
Rare Exports (Finnish movie)
Saint Nick (Sint)
Scrooged
Nightmare Before Christmas
Muppet Christmas Carol
Joyeux Noel (WWII Christmas)
Rocky IV (Rocky fights Drago on Christmas day)
WORST
It’s a Wonderful Life
Jingle All the Way
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Gremlins
The Home Alone sequels
Jack Frost
Fred Claus (Vince Vaughn is Santa’s older, loser brother, Fred)
DISPUTED [BEST & WORST]
Hook
Jingle All the Way
OTC Festivities & Feasts
Recommended Eats & Drinks
Darigold Eggnog. It’s the best there is. Available in both original and old-fashioned varieties. [Dave]
North African Christmas! Don’t eat the same old doldrums. Try making and enjoying something from North African this year, like this spiced pie dish. [Steel]
Turon
“We always eat food white people don’t eat or even know what it is. Things like lumpia, pancit, ginataan, polvo, puto, pan de sal, leche flan, sinigang, champurrado, etc. Oh and turon! Oh my gosh turon. You guys would like turon. It’s a big chunk of plantain wrapped in a flaky pastry, coated with sugar syrup and then fried in butter. It’s so sticky and gooey sweet delicious. So good! Reminds me of Christmas! Also ube cake, white rabbits, chocnut.” [Jordan]
Dave was out on vacation for a while, so Steel invited his old buddy Jack Bangerter to fill in for a week. The two of them talked about the latest news in the world of sports hair, ran through a segment of small talk (toilet recommendations and drawings of Buraq!), talked about collecting and collections, shared great music from Donovan, Beck, Herb Alpert, and Greg Brown, and Jack shared some hippy futurist poetry from Richard Brautigan. Enjoy!
This week Dave and Steel are joined by Steel’s sister-in-law Jennie Bastian, an artist and professional photographer. Together they talk household pets (cats. vs. dogs), take questions from listeners throughout the great state of Illinois, ask Jennie a bunch of questions about her upcoming show on Fear and her photography practice generally, share great music from Mulato Astatke, Gasper Nali, American Wrestlers, Smog, Tim Maia, and Camp Cope, and Jennie shares some dreamy book wisdom from Gaston Bachelard.
Jennie shared a brief passage from Gaston Bachelard’s 1958 classic The Poetics of Space, which examines the phenomenology of architecture in beautiful and moving ways.
