Completely Conspicuous 245: Apolitical Blues

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the sad state of political discourse. Listen to the episode below or download it directly.

Show notes:
- Matt doesn't like awkward stuff, avoids those types of campaign clips
- They built their campaign around it

- Tim Thomas vs. the White House
- Facebook is full of Constitutional scholars
- Matt is on Romneycare
- Running for office requires a boring past
- You can't escape your past...especially when you post it on Facebook
- Europe isn't exactly running smoothly, either
- Everybody's in a cocoon here
- Matt overuses social media because he's self-employed
- The Internet has made people lazy about research
- Matt wrote a dating column for a while
- When AOL started, emails would delete after 30 days
- The Internet has changed the way we find out about each other
- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Paul Westerberg - My Road Now
Robert Pollard - Who's Running My Ranch
A.C. Newman - Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns
Hot Snakes - Light Up the Stars

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

The Paul Westerberg song was released last week to the I Will Dare blog. Download it for free from I Will Dare.
The Robert Pollard song is on the album Jack Sells the Cow on Fire Records. Download the song for free from SoundCloud.
The A.C. Newman song is on the album Shut Down the Streets on Matador Records. Download the song for free at Stereogum.
The Hot Snakes song is on the album Automatic Midnight on Swami Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic.

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; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 244: You're All Talk

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the sad state of political discourse. Listen to the episode below or download it directly.

Show notes:
- Election year's in high gear
- Local elections provide personal access
- My kids are scaring Phillion away from fatherhood
- Blown off by the lieutenant governor
- Mass. senate race has been heated
- The power of SuperPACs
- Candidates are puppets of the money behind them
- Dumbing down the message
- Mass. voters went for Republican governors from '91 to '07
- Big speeches with no substance in them
- All political claims need to be fact-checked
- Tough times for journalism
- Dealing with political posts on Facebook
- The conventions are cheerleading camps
- Most voters have already made up their minds
- Congress sucks, too
- Can the government actually get anything done?
- It's not as simple as red state vs. blue state
- Facebook posts aren't changing anyone's mind
- The Democratic platform and mentions of God
- A bitter idealist
- The stuff you post on FB could come back to haunt you - Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Paul Banks - The Base
Cat Power - Cherokee
Aimee Mann - Charmer
Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!
The Paul Banks song is on the album Banks on Matador Records. Download it for free from MatadorRecords.com.
The Cat Power song is on the album Sun on Matador Records. Download the song for free from MatadorRecords.com.
The Aimee Mann song is the title track of the album Charmer on SuperEgo Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic.
The Electric Six song is on the album Fire on XL Recordings. Download the song for free at Epitonic.

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; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 165: Same Old Song and Dance

Part 1 of my podcast conversation with special guest Eric Convey as we discuss the familiar themes of American political rhetoric. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



The show notes...

Topics:

- Eric's Managing Editor of the Boston Business Journal

- Worked for congressman in DC in early '90s

- It was a contentious time

- In '94 mid-term elections, Newt Gingrich led the Republican takeover of the House

- Big Clinton tax increase didn't go over well

- Convey: There's always a backlash in mid-term elections

- In '92, local Democratic congressman was indicted on corruption charges

- Convey got gig as press secretary for the new Republican congressman

- "I was nowhere near cynical enough."

- Eric was good at political spin

- After a few years, he made the jump back to newspapers

- Eric was a master of political spin

- Eric: Don't think the rhetoric now is no worse than '94 or 2000

- Rhetoric raises money

- The two-party system sucks

- Eric: Parliamentary system is better

- Nowadays, everybody is more concerned with themselves than politics

- People are more likely to read viewpoints they agree with

- Too many distractions; our attention span is shrinking

- Eric: Giffords shooting was caused by a disturbed person, not political rhetoric
- Eric turns to the Washington Post for the most fair political reporting

- Jay and Eric reminisce about their days covering local politics

- There were a lot more sources of local news 20 years ago

- The public doesn't trust journalists anymore, mainly because of TV news

- Recalling Eric's tormenting of a rival press secretary

- Back then, the newspapers were the main conduit for news for political campaigns

- Now campaigns can use YouTube, Facebook, Twitter to get their message out

- The Palin phenomenon

- People in Middle America relate to her

- Jay: Suspicious of every candidate

- Eric: Wish politicians would have the guts to say things people don't want to hear

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

Sloan - Follow the Leader

The Dodos - Don't Stop

Sunny Ali and the Kid - I oh you

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

The show is sponsored by Eastbay/Footlocker.com. Use the following codes to get athletic gear from Nike, Adidas, Asics and more. AFCOMP15 will get you 10% off any order of $50 at Eastbay.com, AFCOMP20 will get you 15% off any order of $75 at Eastbay.com and AFCOMPFL will get you 10% off any order of $50 or more at Footlocker.com.

The Sloan song is on the forthcoming album The Double Cross on Yep Roc Records. Find out more and download the song for free (in exchange for your e-mail address) at SloanMusic.

The Dodos song is on the album No Color on Frenchkiss Records. Download the song for free at Stereogum.

The Sunny Ali and the Kid song is available for free at Bandcamp.

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 blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.