Talking Turkey

Audio Giftie / Audience Qs / Big Buddhie / Resolution / Can a conversational romp have a finale? Have Neil and James run out of turkeys? Find out--once and for all--in the Talking Turkey season finale. With nary a butterball in sight, Neil and James receive a "giftie," before chasing after some listener turkeys. In the end, all that seems to matter is an old apartment, a telephone pole, and a really "big buddhie." Stick around for the extended outro as the lads peer into the show's murky future.   ---Contact ---   Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!   ---Works Cited---   Charlotte Bronte: "Giftie" from Villette, Vol. 2, Ch XVI: "I noted them all - the third person as well as the other two - and for the fraction of a moment believed them all strangers, thus receiving an impartial impression of their appearance. But the impression was hardly felt and not fixed, before the consciousness that I faced a great mirror, filling a compartment between two pillars, dispelled it: the party was our own party. Thus for the first, and perhaps only time in my life, I enjoyed the 'giftie' of seeing myself as others see me. No need to dwell on the result. It brought a jar of discord, a pang of regret; it was not flattering, yet, after all, I ought to be thankful; it might have been worse." Barenaked Ladies - The Old Apartment [Youtube] Matthew Good Band - Everything is Automatic [Youtube]     Mary Shelley - Frankenstein, 1818 ed. [ebook] Gilles Deleuze [Wikipedia] - Immanence: A Life [pdf], from Pure Immanence: Essays on A Life (2001),  25-35. Martin Heidegger [Wikipedia] - The Thing [pdf] Steve Hagen - Buddhism Plain and Simple [Amazon]

Office Greetings / Romanticism / Professorial Types / As season one flaps towards completion, Neil and James consider the minimally effective office greeting--the tight smile--before contemplating some looser alternatives. With beaks pursed, the turkeys then waddle into their own field of study--Romanticism--and consider what makes someone a Romanticist. Is there a type? From here, these would-be professors consider a few professorial types, which inevitably devolves into a character study of a professor who doesn't believe in pants...   ---Contact ---   Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!   ---Works Cited---   Stanley Kubrick - A Clockwork Orange final scene [Youtube] Lovejoy, A. O. "The Meaning of Romanticism for the Historian of Ideas." Journal of the History of Ideas, 2.3 (1941): 257–278. http://doi.org/10.2307/2707131 Slavoj Zizek - In Defence of Lost Causes [Verso] Mary Shelley - Frankenstein, 1818 ed. [ebook] Lord Byron's death [Wikipedia] Percy Shelley's death (Wikipedia] Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Wikipedia) - Kubla Kahn [text], composition of [Wikipedia] Stanley Kubrick - The Shining kitchen scene [Youtube]  

Facts / Wonder / Work / It is What It Is / Neil and James take a walk on the dark side.  The fellows begin with a thorough airing of their beef with facts.  By way of “daddy’s war book” and portable internet, the two find consolation in Wordsworth and the possibility of undertaking a serious late-life pscychedelics binge.  From here, the boys explore the shift from innocence to experience that occurs when one makes the transition into the working world.  Weighing the rhetoric of Arcade Fire, Mac Demarco, and—quelle surprise—Wordsworth against the necessity of having to go work, the fellows find themselves surprised by facts after all.  Then, Neil follows James on one of his Guelph river rambles.  As James pushes further down the river he finds a series of dwellings that move from the innocence of a teenage hideaway to something far more fitting of the deep, dark woods.  Next, it is what it is—is it? It is not.  The boys visit this heavily trafficked phrase and parse out its meaning by tracing its trajectory from a genuine place of linguistic impasse to the statement of postmodern apathy.  Finally, Neil and James take some time to consider where Talking Turkey fits in a cultural context that seems to demand substantial takeaways.  In so doing the fellows come to their own dark realization that the alliterative “TT” casts Talking Turkey as the strange foil to Ted Talks.  In the end it is all mist, and that is just fine.    ---Contact --- Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!   ---Works Cited--- Charles Dickens - Hard Times [wikipedia] Quentin Meillassoux [wikipedia bio] - After Finitude [book] Michael Pollan - The Trip Treatment [New Yorker psychedelics article] Robert Duncan - The Agony of Jimmy Quinlan [ Short nfb film, 27:07] Mac DeMarco - Brother [youtube] TED Talks - Johann Hari - "Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong" [Youtube, 14:42]

The Shining / Enrique / Pronouncing the word "Lawyer"/  A classic turkey romp in advance of American Thanksgiving, Episode 7 offers an update on Neil's "postie" training, followed a tour through his nearly endless list. Topics range free and this one goes to 12.   ---Contact --- Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!   ---Works Cited--- Shaggy "Angel" (2000) Kreative Kontrol (with Vish Khanna) EP#38: Krist Novoselic "Grohl your way to the top" (Learning to Fly - Foo Fighters) Mr Destiny (1990) - Jim Belushi - Trailer The Moment with Brian Koppleman  The Tim Ferriss Show Stanley Kubrick - The Shining (1980): Jack Nicholson scene (tennis ball)

Planting Trees / PhD / Frankenstein/ 'Tis / Eavesdrop on a phone call between Neil and James in a concept episode that covers a lot of ground--from a clearcut in British Columbia to an apartment in Toronto. Topics range from Frankenstein and Frank McCourt to Panasonic Shockwaves and "binder knocking." Also, peak behind the curtain as the boys continue their losing battle against the outro. ---Contact ---  Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!   ---Works Cited--- Back To Work (Merlin Mann & Dan Benjamin) - Ep 7: Vocational Wheel Frank McCourt - 'Tis (audiobook) & Angela's Ashes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 1818 ed. [ebook] (esp. characters of Victor Frankenstein & Henry Clerval)  Treeplanting articles - "Treeplanting is Really Awful" (Vice), "Treeplanting becoming full-time employment..."  (CBC news)

Ted Talks / Rod Stewart, The Faces & Mini-Rod / Getting Jobs /James and Neil reach the mid-season mark, and show no signs of stopping as they move from talking ideas (Ted Talks), to talking standards (Rod Stewart & The Faces), to talking about Talking Turkey—or in this case the lack thereof, as they take-on their recording hiatus.    The fellows begin with James' observation and lament of the current vogue of ideas exemplified by the soaring popularity of Ted Talks.  The two look to John Keats as a possible antidote to the cult of ideas.   The boys then turn to a struggling attempt to define the genre of the "musical standard."  This discussion leads, quite unexpectedly, to the corpus of Rod Stewart (both his body of work and his legendary buns), which rapidly nose-dives into an exploration of the hijinks of Rod and kindred spirit "mini-Rod."   Finally, Neil and James turn to their recording hiatus (imperceptible to the listener), and discuss their respective post-PhD pursuits. James plans to put together what sounds like a very promising tree-planting podcast, and Neil hopes to not go postal whilst actually going postal.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.   ---Contact ---   Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!     ---Works Cited--- Ted Talks: http://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all Negative Capability: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_capability   Forever Young (Bob Dylan): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vd5dN1q-v0   Forever Young (Rod Stewart): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yGEe_zpddNI Mandolin Wind: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3xlo1NvEdAw  

90's & 00's Music / The Arcade Fire / 9 to 5s / Bumper Stumpers / It's tbt on Talking Turkey, Episode Four gets nostalgic. James and Neil begin with a not so sunny recollection of the music of the late 90s; which, it turns out, orbits heavily around Matthew Good. The two then recall the shock and awe of encountering the garage rock revival of the Strokes at the dawn of the 00s.  The conversation wraps up, as most should, with an homage to the classic Canadian film Going Down the Road. Next, cued by Arcade Fire's "Antichrist Television Blues," the fellows turn to slightly more serious matters by probing the "follow your dreams and never sell out" VS. the "get a haircut and get a real job" debate.   Finally, the boys wind things up with a misty memory of Canadian game show Bumper Stumpers, and the surprising lessons for race relations found in auto racing, of all places. Please Enjoy! ---Contact---  Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends! ---Works Cited--- Matthew Good: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Good_Band The Strokes: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TOypSnKFHrE Going Down the Road: http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0065788/ Arcade fire: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GB-xAQBWrm0 Clerks: http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/ Bumper stumpers: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg9vC7wb3TI  

Birth Music / Hops & Craft Beer / Mushroom Explosions / Post-Restaurant / Bienvenue!  On this, the third outing of Talking Turkey, Neil and James--fully satiated from their Thanksgiving repasts--continue their conversational gobbling.    The fellows begin with a loose and wide-ranging discussion of the optimal "birth music." Bringing their modest and, frankly, unqualified riffing to the miracle of childbirth the two consider which tunes—from Elton John (youtube.com/watch?v=o8ZnCT14nRc) to Salt ‘n Pepa (youtube.com/watch?v=vCadcBR95oU )—might make for the best delivery room playlist.  Next, the two train their noodling upon a discussion of optimal exercise music.  James recollects that other James’ (James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem) atmospheric running track (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45:33) , which gets the boys weighing the merits of beats versus post-rock whilst exercising.  Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, the case is made for old sad bastard music, like the National or Dirty Beaches (dirtybeaches.bandcamp.com), over straight beats per minute.  Following this delightful romp, Neil and James take on the craft beer revolution, and in particular craft beer’s propensity for serious and arguably excessive hops (theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-trends/peak-hop-obssession-with-flavour-may-be-dulling-our-beer-palates/article24983520/)  Neil begins by whining about the overwhelming flavour of hops, but a mushroom explosion (youtube.com/watch?v=OlylgSzLyu8) brings him around to the unique and particular flavour notes found therein, as well as the sea change brought forth by the brewpubs that serve them.  In the final segment, the fellows wonder if a 'post-restaurant' is possible. Food Trucks and take-out quickly give way to more aggressive alternatives. Steering clear of the whacky waiters and unsuspecting diners found in a Just for Laughs vignette (youtube.com/watch?v=Tt1BTQZXXZE), Neil and James envision what a 'post-restaurant' might look like. They consider options ranging from cat burglar chefs, to a violent and Kafkaesque wait-staff before finally settling on a restaurant fully staffed by toddlers.   ---Contact ---   Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!

Gwen Stefani / Hip Hop / Forking / Well, they’re at it again. In this episode the boys begin with James posing the question to Neil as to whether the band No Doubt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZktNItwexo) were perhaps knowingly off the mark in devising their own band name. James proceeds to unpack the densely ironic name of the band through explaining Gwen Stefani’s masterful and uncanny ability to “double eye.” This discussion concludes, unfortunately, with the boys’ recollection of House of Pain alumnus Everlast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM6_7fgMorE), and his darker-than-thou-brand of mainstream country rap. Following this crucial and prescient discussion the fellows move on to a consideration of the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the worlds of hip hop and the university. By way of the cringe-heavy context of old white men summoning “rap” in their problematic and doomed attempts to add hip hop to academic discussions of poetry and language (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M61_L5PT-9A), the boys make the case for uniting these two worlds in a less politically and aesthetically offensive manner. Finally, the fellows turn to a discussion of the appropriateness of the word spooning in describing the act of a couple horizontally fixed in a loving, back-to-front embrace. Through a careful consideration of the nature of spooning, James offers the word forking as a more accurate designation. Enjoy the show. ---Contact ---   Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!

Podcasting / Tiny Doors & John Malkovich / Irony & Sincerity/ Canadians vs Australians / Welcome to Talking Turkey! In this the inaugural episode Neil and James take some time to introduce themselves and the podcast. These two fledgling academics begin by explaining why they have decided to momentarily put their dissertations aside and start talking turkey. After contextualizing and outlining the spirit and the aims of the show the boys get right down to it in their absurd consideration of the merits of tiny doors. This little conversation opens the door to the film Being John Malkovich (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/), which in turn leads to a serious debate on the power, or lack of thereof, of Malkovich’s piss-poor Russian accent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RiuE1rWnso). Finally, the fellows move on to slightly loftier pursuits in a discussion of irony and sincerity. In wondering whether or not it is possible to attain sincerity through irony itself, the two find themselves, much to their surprise, transported to the land down-under where the Australians’ propensity for sincere irony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijsCcDG0Fw), and their disdain for authority (http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-colour-of-money-r), force Neil and James to take a long hard look in the mirror. Enjoy the show. ---Contact ---   Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!  

Introducing Talking Turkey, a podcast with Neil and James. We should be writing our dissertations but instead we're talking turkey.    ---Contact ---   Find out more at WeTalkTurkey.com Follow us on Twitter: Neil @WeTalkTurkey & James: @JamesNicholson Like us on Facebook Subscribe to our Newsletter The Rafter Send us an Email! Listen to To Good Friends!