Transitionseeker Podcast: Recent Episodes
Russell Forden
Russell explores critical and creative responses to pop culture with the aim of helping listeners transition from passive to a more active and conscious approach to consumption.
In this episode we finally get around to a profile of news values, those criteria that journalists rely on to select news items. Because news is not something that just happens, it’s a social construct. We also get bookish and look at ten questions to ask at your next bookclub meeting. Of course, you don’t need to wait for the meeting, you can ask them of yourself whenever you read a book. Here Russell also shares a disappointing encounter with one of Kingsley Amis’s books. Brr, never again (except maybe Lucky Jim)! There’s also a plug for new computer game Tonight We Riot, a ‘revolutionary crowd retro brawler scroller about worker liberation’, info on a new Rolling Stones song and an introduction to social media posting parties. What’s that all about? Russell also shares his guilty pleasure at purchasing a lavish new version of Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea series. He can only justify it on its future scarcity value (there’s also the beautiful Charles Vess illustrations and the single short story he hasn’t read - but is that enough of a justification?). In short, he’s a pathetic materialist. And in further news: black holes can starve – and they can be icebergs. Mind blown…
For this episode Russell goes back to the nineteen-seventies with a discussion of his list of ‘Key Albums of the Seventies’, and a look at the fascinating (and sobering) leaded-unleaded petrol wars of that decade, featuring some groovy Amoco ad soundtracks. Moving closer to the present, there’s also a review of Pearl Jam’s new album Gigatron, copious Abba love, some nerdy librarian talk about ‘shelfies’ and a necessary retraction (and plug) about the Bandcamp app. Oh no!
The MSM has been giving Russell the shits, so the New Adventures sees him offloading on News Corpse, Trump and front page editorials, and lamenting the MSM’s need to appear ‘objective’. With almost everyone home and playing computer games, Russell rejects his ‘sensible gene’ and decides to join in with an old RPG, Bards Tale (the reboot), and offers his take on gaming addiction and some advice about playing creatively. There’s also a segment about the importance of planning - whether it’s planning one’s consumption of books, bringing up children, or running a country. The best planning involves gentle guidance, democracy and knowing when to let go. In other words – good leadership. As Lao Tzu says, the best leaders are those whose presence is hardly felt, because the people are able to govern themselves.
This week the program goes a bit surreal, with Russell offering up some unconscious consumption in the shape of a dream he had, and songwriter Jimmy Webb offering a tutorial on how to write good lyrics with his “surreal canvas”, Macarthur Park. There’s also some Hogwarts talk, a review of Stealers Wheel (remember them?), a visit to the PEI of Anne of Green Gables and other fictional locales, a look at some of Animelab’s latest anime offerings and a segment on otherwise good pop songs that contain rather crap lyrics. Good taste, it seems, is something that’s difficult to get across to people. Them bloody oars!
With the help of the recent stimulus payment Russell has bought some printer ink and a new laminator. That can only mean one thing: it’s print project time. Russell details some of his efforts, including the dvd movie covers project, and offers tips on how to get the most of out of those extortion-priced inkjet printer cartridges. There’s also a review of a Paul McCartney and Wings album where Russell has the temerity to suggest how Macca could improve on one of his songs. Another genre is profiled, this time the film genres of horror and crime. Plus there’s a look at the different types of plots that can be found within film. All good advice for the inner film critic. Amongst all this Russell ponders his consumption price trigger, and whether it is better to seek or to find.