Category Archives: Media (Films & Music)

Podcasts: Like Radio, but Better (and With More 0s & 1s)

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Posted by Lloyd Morgan on February 22, 2008 – 3:09 pm
Filed under Media (Films & Music), Politics, Sci/Tech

Podcast Wallpaper from OllyHart (flickr)I have never listened to an audio podcast, it’s true. And yes, I know, I know - it’s shocking and it’s a slap in the face to Generation 2.0©. That’s why I’ve decided that now is the time for me to diversify and experiment in this strange medium.

After doing some research and compiling a list of possible subscriptions, I’m presenting them here as a way to keep track of them and also in hope that you may chip in with your thoughts and recommendations to liven up my daily commute.

BBC Worldwide

  • The Naked Scientists - “Stripping science down to its bare essentials” (in association with Cambridge University)
  • BBC Newsnight - Not strictly a podcast, but you can’t miss Newsnight!

National Public Radio (US) a.k.a. NPR

  • Intelligence Squared - also known as IQ2 U.S. While you’re at it, check out the live London Debates.
  • RadioLab - “Science meets culture, and information sounds like music”
  • Science Friday - “Making science user-friendly”
  • Fresh Air - “Probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insights”
  • On the Media - “Explores how the media ’sausage’ is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression”

CBC Radio One

ABC Radio National (Australia)

  • All in the Mind - “From dreaming to depression, addiction to artificial intelligence, consciousness to coma, psychoanalysis to psychopathy, free will to forgetting - exploring the human condition through the mind’s eye”
  • Philosopher’s Zone - “Your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics”
  • Big Ideas - “thinking on major social, cultural, scientific or political issues”

IdeaCast - “Breakthrough ideas and commentary from leading thinkers in business and management” from The Harvard Business Review

EconTalk from The Library of Economics and Liberty on “the economics behind current events, markets, free trade, and the curiosities of everyday decision-making”

…Open Source “Inverting the traditional relationship between broadcast and the web: not a podcast with a web community; a web community that produces a podcast”

Physics for Future Presidents with Richard Muller - “What every world leader needs to know”

Scientific American’s Science Talk - “Exploring cutting-edge breakthroughs and controversial issues with leading scientists”

Seminars About Long-term Thinking (SALT) - “promoting ’slower/better’ thinking”. Part of The Long Now Foundation

The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe - “Your escape to reality”

Studio 360 and specifically its Design for the Real World segment - “Get inside the creative mind: a smart and surprising guide to what’s happening in pop culture and the arts”

Philosophy Talk with Stanford University’s Professors of Philosophy - “The program that questions everything… except your intelligence”

The CERN Podcast is recorded in situ at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider with special ‘celebrity’ guests - “A cocktail of entertaining chat shows with a bit of particle physics thrown in”

That’s quite a few isn’t it? Of course there are many more great ones I’ve missed that may be of equal or greater interest to me as all of the above, so if you know of any please let me know (yes, I am actually begging).

How about these popular ones that I left out of the above list purposefully - am I being foolish in demoting these to the footer: Slate’s ‘Daily Podcast’ or ‘Explainer’, This Week in Tech, The Glenn and Helen Show, Shire Network News, This American Life, World Beyond the Headlines, Common Sense, BrainStuff from HowStuffWorks, The Guardian’s Science Weekly, Selected Shorts, The Economist, The Writers’ Block, This Week in Science, Sex is Fun and Open Source Sex with Violet Blue. Regarding those last two: one’s on the physiology of sex and the other is written for women; both are supposed to be interesting; and I imagine they’re both super-NSFW.

Sources or: Where I Found These

The Hobbit’s Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro to Direct LotR Prequels

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Posted by Lloyd Morgan on February 1, 2008 – 3:51 pm
Filed under Media (Films & Music)

In the first piece of movie news that’s excited me in a long time, I just discovered that Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro is to direct The Hobbit in lieu of Peter Jackson.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and when I first heard that Jackson was having a bit of a rift with New Line and may not direct the two planned prequels (The Hobbit will be shot as two films) I was slightly worried to say least. Jackson did an incredible job with the original trilogy and I couldn’t think of another director who could put the same passion into directing The Hobbit whilst keeping the feel of the movie so close to that of the book.

However, I think del Toro is perfect and I congratulate MGM, New Line, and Peter Jackson (he’s the executive producer) on their inspired choice - del Toro brought Pan’s Labyrinth to life as a work of visual art, and if the same emotion gets poured into The Hobbit, well, we’re all in for one hell of a treat.

Thinking back to when I first saw Pan’s Labyrinth I remember being amazed at the realism of this fantasy film and being blinded by the brilliance of the cinematography. I remember having the distinct feeling that I was reading a brand new - even darker - Lewis Carroll fairy-tale directed by an early Tim Burton; all enhanced by the glorious little cinema I saw it in. It was brilliant.

Pan’s Labyrinth 5 / 5
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 5 / 5
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 4.5 / 5
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 5 / 5

More Films of January 2008

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Posted by Lloyd Morgan on January 25, 2008 – 1:19 am
Filed under Media (Films & Music)

King of California, Superbad, and Everything's Gone Green

More films I’ve watched this month:

Superbad 4.5 / 5
The realists American Pie, one of the best comedies I’ve watched in a long time, and a film as funky as its soundtrack: Superbad is the coming-of-age movie that I wish was released when I was doing just that.
Being male may help in order to fully enjoy this film, but who cares: Superbad reinvigorates the tired movie stereotype of a bunch of inept teenagers attempting to score for the first time. My opinion may be biased due to the fact that Michael Cera is one of my favourite comedy actors, but I’ve already seen this film twice so you should see it at least once.

King of California 3.5 / 5
The slightly eccentric script keeps this film ticking along nicely but its the cast that makes it not just watchable, but enjoyable too. With Michael Douglas giving a heart-warming performance as a father recently released from a mental institute and Evan Rachel Wood as the daughter trying to keep both of their lives together, this most unlikely of stories is kept grounded through the reality of mental illness and familial bonds.

No Country for Old Men 4 / 5
Lacking both the dark comedy and memorable soundtrack that has typified the Coen brothers’ films since the mid 1990s, No Country for Old Men is a straight forward film noir parable. However, for a better take on the genre try Miller’s Crossing - a film where they didn’t have to rigidly stick to the original story.
This is a damn good film - I’m not denying that - I just don’t think it’s the classic it’s being made out to be.

Air Guitar Nation 3.5 / 5
The second ‘fringe’ documentary I’ve seen this month and by far the better of the two. When originally suggested to me I had no intention to watch this film - let alone enjoy it - but, after approaching with trepidation, my cynicism soon waned and I found myself totally engrossed in the stories unfolding before me. Strange? Definitely. Deep and meaningful? Maybe not. Peculiarly compelling? Definitely.

Everything’s Gone Green 3.5 / 5
I’ve had Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs (and JPod) highly recommended to me, so when I had the opportunity to watch Coupland’s debut screenplay I jumped at the chance - and I’m glad I did. An excellently quirky feature reminiscent of The Station Agent and Garden State, Green is a lush, feel-good movie, ideally suited to first dates or lazy nights in.

All-in-all, a good couple of weeks of film watching.