Tag: Diesel: Running on Gas

Posted on

Episode 64: The Party! Party! Party! party

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week Dave and Steel are joined by Spencer to discuss the latest in Vin Diesel news, their favorite fringe presidential candidates, historical also-rans, and fringe political parties, revive Lost the Plot, share outsider classics from Daniel Johnston, Dan Reeder, The Toadies, They Might Be Giants, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker, and Leonard Cohen, and hear the calming anti-road book wisdom of the Honku.

Links

Perpetual Candidates and Favorite Third Parties

Unchained Melodies: Outsider Music

Book Wisdom

This week Spencer enlightened us with “Honkus,” anti road-rage haiku poems by Aaron Naparstek.

Posted on

Episode 58: ROOOOOOOOOBOTS!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week Dave and Steel are joined by their old friend Spencer. The trio discuss wedding planning, Steel’s first Vin Diesel film experiences, debate the future of artificial intelligence and the ethics of robot hunting, share great music from Radiohead, Looper and Ane Brun, and hear an allegory of the afterlife from the poet David Kirby.

Links

Enjoy Steel’s multi-part blog series on wedding planning, especially if you’re thinking about getting married.

Unchained Melodies: Dystopian Technological Future Edition

Book Wisdom

This week Steel shared David Kirby‘s beautiful poem “more than this.”

Featured image by PinkMoose

Posted on

Episode 49: On the Road Again

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week’s episode had some technical difficulties and the audio has some issues with sound quality. We tried to fix it, but occasional clicking sounds are still audible for much of the episode. We’ll do better next week.

This week Dave and Steel are joined by their friend Jordan–together the three of them spend about an hour talking about fatherhood, family, and survival as it relates to Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, give updates on the life and times of American hero Vin Diesel, play great music by David Bowie, William Onyeabor, Interpol, and Dethklok, and share some wrenching book wisdom from the American poet George Oppen.

Links

Diesel: Running on Gas

Unchained Melodies: Bowie Tribute and Soundtrack to The Road

Book Wisdom

This week’s segment of book wisdom was section 5 of George Oppen’s poem “Route” from his 1968 collection Of Being Numerous.

Featured image by Gilbert-Noël Sfeir Mont-Liban

Posted on

Episode 38: All Hallows' Eve!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week Dave and Steel are joined by Jordan for a special Halloween edition of the podcast. We discuss our all-time greatest Halloween costumes, share spooky stories, talk about scary films we’ve enjoyed, give an update on Vin Diesel and his latest Witch Hunter film, share spine-chilling tunes from Thurl Ravenscroft, Perfume Genius, Henry Hall, Nina Simone, Vince Staples, and Mastodon, and read a scary story to tell in the dark.

Links

Diesel: Running on Gas

  • Grantland’s Shea Serrano developed a Vin Diesel character matrix that we all agree is pretty accurate.
  • The folks at the Nerdist invited Vin to join a round of Dungeons and Dragons. They made a short teaser, called D&Diesel:

Unchained Melodies: Spooky Songs Edition

Book Wisdom

Jordan read “The White Wolf” from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a book which features haunting tales collected and retold by Alvin Schwartz and very memorable illustrations by Stephen Gammell.

Featured image by vandalog

Posted on

Episode 34: A Mighty Wind

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week Dave and Steel are joined by Dave’s old neighbor Zac, an accomplished pianist (you probably know him from his work with world-renowned Neil Diamond cover band Diamond in the Rough or his life-changing guest session with George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars at a Barack Obama inauguration with the Congressional Black Congress in a DC hotel) and holder of a five-year chip for meritorious bus driving in the Mesa Unified School District. He’s a big deal, obviously! In addition to Zac’s “expert testimony,” in which he explains the cultural value of jazz to the philistinic hosts, and gives some tips for avoiding disciplinary hearings as a high school bus driver, the trio share the latest in Vin Diesel developments, some great music featuring wind instruments from Beirut, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, the Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Vulfpeck, and Tjupurru, and Dave drops some great vehicle related wisdom from Flannery O’Connor’s novel Wise Blood.

Links

Vin Diesel: Running on Gas

  • Vin’s a must-follow on Instagram
  • The Last Witch Hunter is less than one month away.
  • Although the search for a director for Fast & Furious 8 continues, Vin promises a closing trilogy for the series.

Unchained Melodies

Songs with wind instruments

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage was chosen by Dave and comes from Flannery O’Connor’s first novel Wise Blood.
Featured image for the post by Tom Marcello

Posted on

Episode 10: Baby Birthday Parties, To The Limits, Ask OTC, Small Talk, Diesel: Running on Gas, Unchained Melodies, and Montaigne's Essays

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week Dave and Steel discuss some pro tips for successful birthday parties for infants and toddlers, talk about some incredible feats of human achievement (including Yeti sightings and some of the longest walks ever recorded), introduce you to the paranormal educational opportunities available at Arthur Findlay College, discuss Turning Point and Radio Diaries, answer great listener questions about vanity plates and rectal tubes, share some great music from Martha Wainwright, The New Christy Minstrels, Bahamas, and The National, and drop some humility from Michel de Montaigne.

Links

To The Limits

Sławomir Rawicz’s book is called The Long Walk. The book was the ‘inspiration’ for a 2010 film called The Way Back with Colin Farrell and Ed Harris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87kezJTpyMI

Here’s Elizabeth Weil’s NYT magazine article about the Swiss adventurer Sarah Marquis. Ms. Marquis maintains a website where you can hear interviews, find her TED talks, and see several videos of her exploits.

Small Talk

WSJ article programabout Arthur Findlay College, a Spiritualist-run school for psychics and mediums. The college also has its own website.

Dave highly recommends BYUTV’s programTurning Point.

Steel recommends Joe Richman’s podcast Radio Diaries, especially their recent episode about songwriter Rose Marie McCoy.

Unchained Melodies

Martha Wainwright — Everything Wrong

The New Christy Minstrels — El Camino Real

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btb2lEL4f7s

Bahamas — Lost in the Light

The National — So Far Around the Bend

So Far Around the Bend by The National on Grooveshark

Book Wisdom

Today’s passage was “To the Reader,” the brief preface to Michel de Montaigne’s classic Essays. Steel recommends the Donald Frame translation. You can also listen to the essays, as they’ve been recorded by LibriVox volunteers.

Posted on

Episode 5: Small Talk, Diesel: Running on Gas, Ask OTC, Unchained Melodies, and Shantideva

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This week Dave and Steel are joined by their old friend Jordan, a Las Vegas-based lawyer. Together, the trio talk about professional dumpster divers, meditating mummified monks, and the maker Jimmy DiResta, introduce a new segment focused on Dave & Jordan’s shared love of Vin Diesel, take a question from a listener about how to deal with boring lecture classes, share some of their favorite recent music, and explore the wisdom of the 8th Century Buddhist monk Shantideva.

Links

Small Talk

  • Wired Magazine’s profile of Matt Malone, professional dumpster diver in Austin, Texas.
  • Story on the unidentified mummified Buddhist monk in Mongolia from the BBC. A more in-depth feature appeared in the Siberian Times.
  • Jimmy DiResta’s YouTube channel. Jordan recommends starting with these two classics:
    Making an Aluminum Hatchet Handle:

    Making an AK47-shaped guitar for Wyclef Jean:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLmKrXjTwIo

Diesel: Running on Gas

Dave & Jordan discuss the 2013 film Riddick, the third in the Chronicles of Riddick franchise. Here’s the film’s trailer [warning: it’s pretty intense and probably not for children]:

Ask OTC

Here are a couple of images Dave and Jordan have drawn in class to help them pass the time.

Geometric Patterns
Geometric Pattern sketch made by Jordan during a law school course.

Gentle Bear checks his mail.
In this drawing by Dave, Gentle Bear checks his mail.

Dave has published a whole book of Gentle Bear cartoons, called Gentle Bear: Gentle Honey which you can buy in eBook form.

Unchained Melodies

DakhaBrakha: Baby

Animals as Leaders: Lippincott

AC/DC: Thunderstruck

Liam Bailey: Stun Me
Stun Me by Liam Bailey on Grooveshark
Alash Ensemble: Bashtak

Book Wisdom

This week’s Book Wisdom was stitched together from various passages in Vesna A. and B. Alan Wallace’s translation of Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life.