Completely Conspicuous 408: Squirrel!

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
 

Show notes:
- Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3
- Spending too much time in front of screens
- Much harder to get through long articles nowadays
- How many words are worth $1?
- Looking at phone is how we kill time
- Smoking made Matt more social
- A generation of socially inept people
- Binge-watching TV requires more attention
- Longer network TV seasons seem so much longer now
- The Punisher is a tough character to get right
- Hell hath no fury like a nerd upset over something stupid
- Gotta pay attention when there are subtitles
- Anime moves too fast
- Audiences can't deal with slow scenes any more
- As a writer, Matt writes shorter chapters
- Short attention span applies to music listening
- Matt: If I had an iPhone as a kid, I would never have read a book
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 407: Fast and Loose

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
 

Show notes:
- Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3
- The inevitable joke
- MP: The more novels I write, the shorter my attention span gets
- Live-tweeting TV shows takes some effort
- Trace back to quick cuts in MTV videos of the early '80s
- Wireless Internet has sped up the attention decline
- Twitter mulls expanding character limit to 10,000
- The fine art of crafting an effective tweet
- News of Bowie's death spread fast on social media
- What a way to go out, leaving a great piece of art behind
- It's hard to sustain a long career these days
- How to teach your kids about music
- Dumbo doesn't hold up
- Matt: New Star Wars is an homage to the original, but much faster
- So much more dialog in TV shows now
- HBO's In Therapy was different because much of it was just two people talking
- Elmore Leonard mastered economical writing
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 406: Simply the Best

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of this decade (2010-14). Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
 

Show notes:
- JB's #5
- Dan Bejar's guilty pleasure
- JK's #5
- Band came out of left field
- JB's #4
- Dream pop classic
- JK's #4
- Comeback album from alt-rock legends
- JB's #3
- Cassette-only release
- JK's #3
- Prolific artist put it all together
- JB's #2
- Veteran hardcore guitar god goes folk rock
- JK's #2
- Sprawling punk rock concept album about the Civil War
- JB's #1
- An epic from a band just dropped by its label
- JK's #1
- First Matador act to hit #1 on album chart

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 405: The First Half

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of this decade (2010-14). Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
 

Show notes:
- Looking back
- Breitling: My top albums of the 2013 and 2014 didn't make this list
- JB's #10 and JK's #9
- "The purest distillation" of this band's sound
- JK's #10
- Harking back to '70s glam punk
- JB's #9
- New sound for indie rock stalwart
- JB's #8
- Lots of side projects spun off from this band
- JK's #8
- A super outing from an indie supergroup
- JB's #7
- Unclear whether another release is coming from this act
- JK's #7
- Top pick of 2011
- Turned Out a Punk is an interesting podcast
- JB's #6
- Breakthrough for excellent indie act
- JK's #6
- Television-Velvet Underground sound
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.