I love podcasts. In my previous career incarnations I used to have long commutes, and an iPod / iPhone stocked with podcasts was my saving grace (a moment of silence for GQ Radio). Now that we have a home office with a view of the lake, my commute is a walk down the stairs; but podcasts keep getting even better, and my hands-down favourite is Mike and Tom Eat Snacks. The goal of each episode is for Tom Cavanagh and Michael Ian Black try out a new snack and give it a rating, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In a series spanning several years, they’ve covered space exploration, Navy SEAL training, and going underground to survive a global Hostess manhunt. This is some of the best improv you’ll ever come across, built on a long friendship between two of the funniest guys in the snack game.

Leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and the NBA season has officially kicked off. To celebrate my favourite sport being back in full swing – on a related side note, isn’t Christmas Day bball among the greatest inventions ever? – I’d like to share one of my favourite (and often hearbreaking) anomalies of this beautiful game …

Heat Check : [hēt CHek] (noun) Following three smart shots by a stupid one to prove that you, in fact, are not magical.

Coach Skip: Well, it’s real simple. Basically, there’s three grabbers, three taggers, five twig runners, and a player at whack-bat. The center tagger lights a pine cone and chucks it over the basket and the whack-batter tries to hit the cedar stick off the cross rock. Then the twig runners dash back and forth until the pine cone burns out and the umpire calls hotbox. Finally, at the end, you count up however many score-downs it adds up to and divide that by nine.

Kristofferson: Got it.

film : Fantastic Mr. Fox
director : Wes Anderson

I know it doesn’t seem that way
But maybe it’s the perfect day
Even though the bills are piling
And maybe Lady Luck ain’t smiling

But if we’d only open our eyes
We’d see the blessings in disguise
That all the rain clouds are fountains
Though our troubles seem like mountains

track : Gold In Them Hills
artist : Ron Sexsmith
album : Cobblestone Runway

Don’t you think I’m looking older?
But something good has happened to me
Change is a stranger
You have yet to know

track : Older
artist : George Michael
album : Older

‘The last word he pronounced was – your name.’

I heard a light sigh, and then my heart stood still, stopped dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. ‘I knew it – I was sure!’ … She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due? Hadn’t he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark – too dark altogether …

title : Heart of Darkness
author : Joseph Conrad

Yes, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell why I’m lying here …
but God forgive me …
and God help us all …
because you don’t know what you ask of me.

track : Just
artist : Radiohead

MORE »

so don’t you stop being a man
just take a little look from our side when you can

track : Glory Box
artist : Portishead
album : Dummy

One of the best music videos of all time (directed by Spike Jonze), mustaches like a goddamn boss, and lyrics like this. Doesn’t get much better.

Because your crystal ball ain’t so crystal clear
So while you sit back and wonder why
I got this fucking thorn in my side

track : Sabotage
artist : Beastie Boys
album : Ill Communication

It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say

track : Englishman In New York
artist : Sting
album : … Nothing Like The Sun