Total Number of Ratings: 8
Murmur - Episode #8 - Beatles!, Reality TV & Books
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 8:33 AM
September 29, 2009 - Murmur staffers Conor Kilpatrick, Josh Flanagan, Paul Montgomery and Jim Mroczkowski get together to talk about a whole mess of topics from across the Murmur spectrum. Along the way there are fond memories of Kozmo.com, Josh tells sordid tales from the set of Junkyard Wars, and Jim slags off Josh's favorite author!
Listen to the Podcast:
Tech:
00:01:13 - Everybody gets to be a Beatle in Beatles Rock Band, where there is no booing no matter how badly you play.
Music:
00:14:06 - The remastered Beatles CDs are super groovy!
00:20:05 - Jim's article, "Talk Amongst Ourselves: Does Music Matter" is discussed. The answer is no. No, wait -- yes. Maybe?
Television:
00:30:17 - Josh gives a passionate defense of the genre in his article "Calling Reality TV Stupid is Stupid".
Literature:
00:42:59 - Kelly Stephenson's article, "Top of the Stack: Fall 2009" inspires everyone to take a hard look at their stacks.
00:43:42 - What's Paul reading?
00:46:35 - What's Josh reading?
00:48:07 - What's Jim reading?
00:50:09 - What's Conor reading?
00:51:21 - Conor read the entire Harry Potter saga over the summer and everyone chimes in.
00:53:25 - Jim and Josh might have to resort to pistols at dawn over Neal Stephenson.
Follow everyone on goodreads! Become friends with Conor, Josh, Paul and Jim!
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Vampire Weekend
The talk about the Beatles re-issues has me wondering. Is this the last blast for the audiophile generation? I may be making some wild generalizations here, but is the latest generation moving away from high-end audio? The proliferation of mp3 and tinny little earbuds makes me think it's less important today. Don't get me wrong, I love me my ipod and think it sounds fine... But, when I plug into my snooty home theater setup it lacks a certain 'majesty'.
Sadly, the days of giant orange-ringed Cerwin-Vega woofers pumping out the bass drum beat of Def Lep's Rock Of Ages may be past.
I really enjoyed this episode. Well done.
I just finished reading Quicksilver and enjoyed the hell out of it. I am currently reading The Confusion (book two of the Baroque Cycle) and am enjoying it, too. I think Cryptonomicon was one of the 5 best books I've ever read. Thank you to Josh and Jeff Cannata from TRS for suggesting it.
Jeff also suggested The Time Traveler's Wife and I can say that it was one of the most emotionally moving books I have ever read. Very good.
On a side note: reading three (soon to be four) roughly 1,000 page books in a row has given me a very odd form of carpal tunnel syndrome, but it has been worth it.
Somebody bought Anathem at my work once, and was shocked at how large it was. I think his exact words were:
"Wow, so I can enjoy a sci-fi novel and solve my rat problem."
although my subset of "people who read neal stephenson" is pretty small, none of them (until now) have recommended the baroque cycle past quicksliver. most recommend staying far, far away from it.
my favorite NS is probably diamond age. i love the concept of the primer and the book is *about* a female character, instead of just featuring one or two in a male protagonist's story.
I like QUICKSILVER more the more I think back on it. I don't think I moved on to the next books at the time because I had other books to get to.
Also, I really enjoyed THE DIAMOND AGE.
I'd rank ANATHEM a bit above THE BIG U, which is probably the Stephenson book that I enjoyed the least.
i have a very soft spot in my heart for the big u for the near exact reason that jim does (it was the same school, after all) but it barely registers as a NS novel for me.
Great podcast as always.
I would buy the Beatles cd's because I want them on my ipod. Which is what I would've typed if I didn't already got the songs in my ipod because a friend loaned his collection to me. Welcome to the new millenium.
I'm on a nonfiction pace right now with reading. I have both A.J. Jacobs 'Human Guinea Pig Diaries' and Craig Fergusons 'American on Purpose' on my shelf right now. Jacobs books have brought a lot of entertainment to me and it's nice to see some of his old experiments collected into one book. The latter with Ferguson's book is a joy because....well because I find Ferguson a comical genius right now. But his past is kinda sad and telling on what happens if you become an alcoholic. Still it has some quirky charms to it that only Ferguson can provide.
am i in the minority when i say that i'd rather play rockband 2 instead of beatles:rockband?
i'm immensely frustrated that the beatles version isn't just rockband 2.beatles. if you want to play beatles music, you have to play that game. if you want to play anything else, you have to switch back. if i want my customized characters to "cover" beatles music, i am S.O.L.
as a stand alone band showcase for fans that just happens to be using the rockband "engine", it's a great game. as part of the series, it really disappoints me.
That is a bit annoying that you can't play both or mix the two games together. I was going to buy Rock Band: Beatles, and I most likely will in the future. But I wanna do more then just Beatles songs if I'm gonna pay that type of money up front for the game and instruments.
a big part of me wishes it was Rock Band 2: Beatles, mostly because I love my costumized characters :) Also, the selection of Beatles songs, at least right now, is pretty limited. There are a few songs that should be on there.
But then I play Shea Stadium and all is right with the world :)
and when they do release all the "good" beatles music, it'll only be DLC for the beatles version. I'll pay a couple of bucks to be able to sing it on RB2, even if you have to take away the drummer's power ups and the harmonizing aspect.
Well this game has always been a sort of vanity project and something specifically meant to highlight the Beatles and their career. You're meant to play AS the Beatles, not just play their songs. That's why it wasn't just DLC for Rock Band 2 and why you can't use your own characters. Because of that, any review you read will say that its great as a Beatles game, but falls short as a Rock Band game.
i haven't had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet, but i'm already so bummed that I wasn't around for the neil stephenson discussion.
How did we get through a whole podcast without naming our favorite Beatle?
Paul for vocals. George for personality.
Been reading a lot about Lennon lately. What a dick.
Whereas George, especially in those Anthology interviews, seems like a guy you'd want to take you to pick out school supplies or to an aquarium or something.
I probably have more McCartney solo albums than I have Beatles albums. (I was 43 in high school.)
1970 John Lennon did a lot of PR damage to history's other John Lennons. He went through an angry mythbusting phase, with that Rolling Stone interview being particularly bad. I hope/assume that 1980 John Lennon gave a much more nostalgic interview to Redbook or something that I just never read.
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This was an enlightening podcast. Apparently, I listen to music like Josh and read like Paul (in terms of approach, I mean, less so than content). My GoodReads informs me that I'm currently reading like 8 books and I have no idea where most of them are. GoodReads has actually made me more linear and given me a bit more motivation to finish things, but still I occasionally look at my currently-reading list and think, "Wow I was so excited about that book in July, and I just stopped for no reason on page 150."
I'm currently enthralled by Michael Palin's diaries, "1969-1979,The Python Years," which caused me to put down "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril," which caused me to put down Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" (NOT the one about the Civil War). And I just put down the Palin book to pick up the new "Umbrella Academy". It never ends.
Also,