Contemplate the difference between signs, symbols, and symptoms. Did our improv scene get Zoom-bombed, or is that just real life intruding? THINK OF THE CHILDREN (eating Doritos)! What flavor of chip is Bill trying to teach today? Why is Brooke sad? BBrooke is of course an improviser and has also been on TV and works for Jackbox Games. Follow her @brookebreit, For more Continue Reading …
Philosophy vs. Improv #31: Signs, Signs, Ubiquitous Signs w/ Brooke Breit
PREVIEW-Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode in its entirety. Citizens can get it here. Concluding from part one on Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (ch. 8-10). We continue discussion whether and how music is symbolic, contrasting Langer's take with Scruton's on Eduard Hanslick: you can't just consider music as "intransitively referential" or referring only to itself, Continue Reading …
NEM#171: Ben Vaughn’s Primitive Fever Dreams
Ben started releasing sardonic retro rock records with the Ben Vaughn Combo in the early '80s, and has now released over 20 of them exploring various genres, while also working on TV soundtracks like Third Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show, hosting a radio show, and producing for several artists including Ween. We discuss "Wayne Fontana Was Wrong" from The World of Ben Continue Reading …
Ep. 292: Langer on Symbolic Music (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 8-10 ("On Significance in Music," "The Genesis of Artistic Import," and "The Fabric of Meaning" respectively), plus ch. 7, "The Image of Time," from her Form and Feeling (1953). Is music a language? If it's "expressive," what exactly Continue Reading …
Philosophy vs. Improv #30: In Historica Res
...which, as I was saying, is right in the middle of a sentence or scene! Sheesh! How should our personal and family histories shape our behavior, both in real life and in improv scenes? Do these histories, these stories we tell ourselves, nail us down as people? Are we all old before our time? Are those your real parents? Hang on to your poser wallet! Image by Julia as Continue Reading …
Pretty Much Pop #121: Protesting Protest Songs
Are protest songs effective, either as protest or songs? Four songwriters including your host Mark Linsenmayer, Lilli Lewis, Rod Picott, and PMP's audio engineer Tyler Hislop discuss how protest works in various musical genres, who it's aimed at, and when it goes wrong. Has the day of the protest song passed, or is it alive and well? Rod mentions how Bruce Springsteen Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Ep. 291: Cassirer and Langer on Myth and Ritual (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode in its entirety. Citizens can get it here. Continuing our discussion from part one on the symbolic value of religion and its antecedents, primary at this point discussing Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key, ch. 7. We start out connecting this to psychoanalysis, and how what Langer calls "fantasies," i.e. symbolic visual Continue Reading …
NEM#170: Bob Mould From Hüsker Dü to Sugar to Now
Bob released six albums with Hüsker Dü in the '80s, went solo, had a wash of fame as Sugar in the early '90s, and has released around a dozen solo albums. We discuss "Forecast of Rain" from Blue Hearts (2020), "I Don’t Know You Anymore" from Beauty & Ruin (2014), "JC Auto" by Sugar from Beaster (1993), and "In A Free Land" by Hüsker Dü, 1982 singe remixed for Savage Continue Reading …
(sub)Text: What Falls Upon the Living in James Joyce’s “The Dead”
In 1906, presumably finished with his short story collection Dubliners, James Joyce wrote to his brother with dissatisfaction that, though he set about to create a comprehensive portrait of Ireland’s capital city, he had not managed to render its famous, unrivaled hospitality. His efforts to rectify this omission resulted in “The Dead,” the book’s final story. It takes place Continue Reading …
Ep. 291: Cassirer and Langer on Myth and Ritual (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Ernst Cassirer's his An Essay on Man (1944), ch. 6-7, and Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 6-7. This discussion featuring Mark, Wes, and Seth follows the introduction of these books and the argument that we are primarily symbolic creatures in ep. 290. Why do Continue Reading …
Pretty Much Pop#120: Dexter the Loveable Serial Killer
Mark is joined by repeat offenders Lawrence Ware and Sarahlyn Bruck and new-to-the-podcast psych/philosophy student Michael Paskaru to talk about the Showtime TV horror-dramedy shows inspired by Jeff Lindsay's novels, in light of the revival show Dexter: New Blood. People loved this character so much that they were very mad that he didn't die at the end of the show's initial Continue Reading …
PvI#29: Personal Panpsychism w/ Jack Symes
Panpsycast host Jack, the Liverpudliest Liverpudlian of all, brings his promiscuous philosophy of mind to the show, wherein mind is here, there, and everywhere. But what does that mean? Skits about renting a flat for nefarious purposes and designing software for Nozick's experience machine reveal all! But the question remains... So what? You have to care! Hear Jack on his Continue Reading …
NEM#169: Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) Likes Words
Wesley started performing as John Wesley Harding in the late '80s (often eliciting comparisons in his early work to Elvis Costello), moved from England to the U.S. in 1991, and has 20+ releases, switching to his own name in 2013 as a result of his success as a novelist. We discuss "The Impossible She" (and end by listening to "Come Back Yesterday") from Late Style (2021), Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our Symbol-Making Nature (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode in its entirety. Citizens can get it here. Continuing from part one on Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 1-5. We start off by considering whether the hardware-software distinction with regard to our minds can help make sense of what Langer has proposed in saying that symbol-making is basic to us. Is she saying that we're more Continue Reading …
Ep. 290: Susanne Langer on Our Symbol-Making Nature (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On Philosophy in a New Key (1942), ch. 1-5, plus as background most of us looked at Langer's main influence Ernst Cassirer via his An Essay on Man (1944), ch. 1-5. Featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. What is human nature, and why does natural science have such trouble studying it? Continue Reading …
Pretty Much Pop #119: Disgraced Artists Like Cosby
Comedian Genevieve Joy, philosopher/NY Times entertainment writer Lawrence Ware, and novelist Sarahlyn Bruck join your host Mark to discuss how we deal with entertainers like R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, Woody Allen, et al. We all watched W. Kamau Bell's Showtime documentary We Need to Talk About Cosby, so most of our discussion is around that. None of us seem able to separate Continue Reading …
NEM#168: Clive Nolan (Arena, Pendragon, etc.) Moves Forward Relentlessly
Clive is a keyboardist, orchestrator, singer, and composer of three musicals and several concept albums as a solo artist or collaborator. He's played with Pendragon since 1986 and has led the bands Shadowlands and Arena since the 90s. We discuss "Dragon Fire" from his most recent solo album, Song of the Wildlands (2021), "Silent Words" from his musical King's Ransom (2017), Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Ep. 289: Aesthetic Sense Theory: Hume (Part Two)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode in its entirety. Citizens can get it here. Continuing from part one, we get into more detail on David Hume's "The Standard of Taste" (1760). Hume starts out with a paradox: On the one hand, we believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; it's not a property of objects but of the interaction between an object and an observer. Continue Reading …
Phi Fic #43 Bleak House by Charles Dickens
"What connexion can there have been between many people in the innumerable histories of this world, who, from opposite sides of great gulfs, have, nevertheless, been very curiously brought together!” - Bleak House At over 900 pages, 300,000 words, and nearly 50 characters, Charles Dickens’ Bleak House is less a novel and more a temporary hobby. Set in a foggy, dirty Continue Reading …
(sub)Text: Finding Home in Stephen Spielberg’s “E.T.” (1982)
Stephen Spielberg once said that he was “still waiting to get out of [his] Peter Pan shoes and into [his] loafers.” Being a filmmaker, he said, was his way of remaining a child. Sort of. While his film “E.T.” is told from a child’s vantage point, it does not completely honor the wish to remain there. Like the alien he befriends, Eliot has been abandoned. And to this, many of us Continue Reading …