This week Dave and Steel are joined by Dave’s physicist friend Jason. Together the three of them discuss proton therapy, Jason’s top three physicists of all time, describe the new “Physics Hair” calendar they’re working on, answer Dave’s questions about fringe physics concepts, give parenting tips, play science-themed music from The Flaming Lips, Elton John, They Might Be Giants, Modest Mouse, Coldplay, and William Onyeabor, and share a classic story from Steven Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.
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.
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 week Dave and Steel are rejoined by their friend Aaron to discuss their New Year’s Resolutions and New Year’s Predictions. Dave shares his top five presidential haircuts of all time, the three of them give their predictions for 2016 and 2116, they share extreme stories of human endurance on another installment of To the Limits, share great dance party music from Prince, Outkast, the Notorious B.I.G., LCD Soundsystem, Missy Elliott, and Miley Cyrus, and Steel shares New Year’s themed poems from Naomi Shihab Nye, Louis Zukofsky and W. S. Merwin.
Links
Presidential Hair
Big prediction for the coming year: presidential hair will become a major issue in 2016. With that in mind, here’s our list of the top 5 presidential hairstyles of all time.
John Adams: the Nohawk.John Adams modeling the Nohwak
Adams’ celebrity doppelgänger: Paula Dean.
James K Polk: the original mullet.James K. Polk, 11th president of the United States and inventor of the mullet.
Polk’s celebrity doppelgänger: Mel Gibson
Franklin Pierce: the curly elevator.Franklin Pierce, sporting the ‘Curly Elevator’
Pierce’s celebrity doppelganger: Lyle Lovett
Andrew Johnson: the man bobAndrew Johnson proudly sporting the ‘man bob’
Johnson’s celebrity doppelgänger: Tommy Lee Jones
John F. Kennedy: the handsome man
John F. Kennedy, owner of the ‘handsome man’ since he was a child.
HONORABLE MENTION: William Howard Taft: the wounded walrus.Taft relaxes, secure in the knowledge that no one can do the wounded walrus quite the way that he can.
Celebrity doppelgänger: Richard Riehle
To The Limits
Carlton Williams, a 50 year old Welsh construction worker living in Australia, completed 2,221 pushups in one hour. He broke his own record, which had previously been 1,874 to 2,221–which is unworldly!
George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen were the first people to even row across the Atlantic Ocean, which they did in 1896 for a $10,000 prize that never came. Their time record for rowing the North Atlantic Ocean was not broken for 114 years, and then by four rowers instead of two.
In November, Shia Labeouf participated in a fascinatingly mundane movie marathon where he sat in a New York theater and watched all of his movies. It lasted three days and consisted of 29 movies. The public was allowed to come into the theater, and watch Shia’s movies with Shia. A live feed was broadcast where you could watch Shia’s face react to his own movies. At one point he fell asleep in the aisle during “Transformers 3.” Perhaps the most amazing thing about this was that Shia wore a giant winter coat with a hoodie underneath it the entire time. You’d think he’d get really sweaty.
We know that we missed a week (Dave was moving his lucrative nursing practice to a new city), but we’re back, and this episode is more than worth the wait. Our friend Josh joins us to discuss hair care and grooming tips for men, several flavors of apocalypse (he and Dave are experts on the topic!), we play end of the world themed music from Wyclef Jean, Nena, Barry McGuire, Tom Waits, Tool, and Echo & the Bunnymen, and Dave shares some dystopian book wisdom from Dave Eggers’ most recent novel The Circle.
Links
Hair Care & Grooming Tips for Men
Dave recommends Garniet Fructis’ now-discontinued Surf Hair product.
Steel once bought some Malin+Goetz hair pomade. The one time he used it was pretty nice.
Josh is a big fan of Brut spray-on deodorant, especially when applied in poorly-ventilated locker rooms. Do everyone a favor and use a ton of this stuff.
The Apocalypse
Some recommendations, sorted by type of apocalypse:
This week Dave and Steel are joined by their friend Julia to discuss their best and most memorable haircuts, the recent revival of the Yul Brenner sci-fi classic Westworld, a huge, beautiful net that’s been installed over Boston’s Greenway, and lower level Spanish football jerseys made to look like ham. The trio also give respect to a trio of everyday heroes, share six favorite songs from Beck’s incredible, eclectic musical career and Julia drops some books wisdom from Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”.
Links
Small Talk
Westworld, a fantastic film starring Yul Brenner was so good that HBO has decided we need more, much more [Dave].
This net over the Greenway in Boston is awesome. We should have one everywhere [Julia].
Some lower league Spanish football uniforms have been made to look like ham [Steel].
My mom. No but seriously. She broke her kneecap recently 🙁 — poor mom. She’s a good mom though. Also an anesthesiologist. Very impressive word to teach your kids to say. [Julia]
Arnold Abbott, this 90 year old guy in Broward County, Florida who has been serving meals to the homeless for decades in memory of his now deceased wife. Got arrested and made the news recently [Steel].
Unchained Melodies: Beck Edition
Book Wisdom
This week, Julia presented the concluding paragraphs of Herman Melville’s classic short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener“. Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!
