In this episode of Rodcast—the final in the liner notes series for my 2015 album Badass Plaid—I get all philosophical and stuff.
Author Archives: rodzroom
Triggered (& Inspired) Reformed Mullet-wearer
I recently came into possession of an Alesis HR16 drum machine. By all measures, almost nobody cared about that model. “Mr. Wendal” features it, and possibly some other songs.
It is a glorious button-laden gray box, with a flip top that actually houses, in microscopic print, the entire user manual. My mission was to simply acquire a power adapter and figure out how to make a beat.
As soon as I patched MIDI into it, I was in a world of 80s bliss. Needless to say, there has been some mission scope creep. Continue reading
Rodcast Ep 10: Happy Mother’s Day, Ma
This episode features my first guest, my mom. This features three songs that she requested, filtered through my musical idiosyncrasies (including a duet with her on the song, “Please Don’t Bury Me,” by John Prine).
Rodcast Ep. 9: Disc-ooh Noooo
The second in my Badass Plaid liner notes series, featuring #ifeireuto, Mitchell Effect, and Being In the Honour of Kevin Barnes.
Rodcast Ep 8: Badass Plaid 1
This kicks off the liner notes for my 2015 album Badass Plaid…
Song: Grass and Wine (2014-04-20)
Happy 420. Here is an attempt at being anthemic. An old song’s 2nd version.
The Idiom: A Politically Neutral Proposal for Social Media
“Never discuss politics or religion at the dinner table,” so the saying goes. I spent a few minutes trying to track down the origin of this idiom without success. I did find several discussion boards where posters intimate that their mothers told them that. I’m left to assume this is a saying as old as these two institutions.
In case you haven’t noticed, people regularly ignore this idiom in the context of politics in two situations (I shall willfully ignore the “religion” part in this essay):
- In a meatspace social situation, when they assume their viewpoints match those of their present company; or
- on social media.
There is, however, a conundrum: Breaking this idiom consistently underscores the efficacy of it. Emotions, assumptions, and overconfidence lead to name calling, ridicule, career-ending bloviating, and even violence.
Why break the idiom at all, then?
