Completely Conspicuous 556: It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss life after close to a year in pandemic lockdown. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Tough to not see friends

- Matt runs Dungeons & Dragons games via Zoom

- Surprising number of people are into D&D

- It's a good escape from the world

- Like a weekly therapy session

- Companies use D&D for corporate retreats

- Games have grown in popularity during the pandemic

- Jay: We started playing a family dominoes game every Saturday

- Jay: Played the board game Pandemic years ago

- The CDC's zombie announcement

- People will run toward the zombies

- Going to movies seems so far away

- Jay: Like going to concerts, don't love going to movies

- Tough time to be a theater actor

- Miss going to bars

- Will masks stick around after the pandemic ends?

- Toilet paper hoarders

- Matt ordered TP last April; it arrived in October

- Waiting for normalcy

- Matt: Look forward to seeing nieces and nephews again

- Want to do activities involving other humans

- We miss traveling

- Jay: Wasn't overly disappointed to not go to a June work conference in Phoenix

- Matt hated getting ready to go places, but liked it once he got there

- When you can't find parking during a pandemic

- Some people don't care about doing the right thing

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 555: Working for the Clampdown

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss life after close to a year in pandemic lockdown. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Haven't talked for the show since November 2019

- Coming up on the first anniversary of everything getting locked down

- Matt was already used to working from home

- Matt writes YA superhero/fantasy books including The Indestructibles series

- Hasn't been able to go to fantasy or comics conventions

- Jay: Miss the interaction of being in the office

- Now used to the WFH life

- Strange to spend all day at home with your family

- Matt has been working remotely for over a decade

- Companies will probably do away with full offices at some point

- Matt: Working in an office forces you to plan for inefficiency

- WFH requires self-discipline

- Definitely tougher for folks with small kids

- Matt dealt with the challenges of ancient Wifi technology in 2010 in Ireland

- Employers will have to adjust post-COVID

- Commuting sucks and people aren't going to want to do it as much

- The lockdown wasn't good for Matt's writing focus

- Too much going on in the world

- Last March, we all assumed things would be back to normal soon

- Matt: Lost the full-time gig, now juggling multiple freelance jobs

- Doing photography shoots exposes you to lots of germs

- Masks let you be more anonymous than you once were

- Running with a mask is a little challenging

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 521: Content Overload

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the decade in TV and movies. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Going over some of our favorites of the decade
- Jay: Haven't seen a lot of critical faves
- Both enjoyed Blackkklansman
- Toy Story 3 is the best of that series
- Matt: Beasts of the Southern Wild was a stunner
- In the Loop is profanely excellent
- Jay never saw Inside Out; Matt says it's borderline educational
- The traumatic sadness of Disney movies
- Don't ban offensive old movies
- Stereotypes in older movies stick out
- The series 24 was so over the top about torture and terrorists
- Writing for women's roles in the '80s was pretty awful
- Post-9/11 jingoism
- Good Sorkin: The Social Network
- Bad Sorkin: The Newsroom
- When older celebs are trending on Twitter
- Matt: In praise of Monsters
- Timothy Olyphant is great
- Matt needs to watch Justified
- Black Mirror is predicting everything
- The Americans is an excellent show
- Matt hasn't seen Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul
- Orphan Black features an amazing performance by Tatiana Maslany
- Bill Hader elevates himself from comic genius to dramatic auteur on Barry
- Russian Doll came out of the blue
- The People Vs. OJ Simpson was excellent, with a bizarre performance by John Travolta
- The sneaky genius of Legends of Tomorrow
- Dark on Netflix is a German show that is brilliantly out there
- Downton Abbey: Cultural phenomenon that doesn't make sense
- The Leftovers got better when it went beyond the book
- The Marvel shows on Netflix were surprisingly good (except for Iron Fist)
- The fight scenes in Daredevil were intense and creative
- So much content out there that it's impossible to see it all

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 520: Streaming for Vengeance

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the decade in TV and movies. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- This decade has flown by
- 10 years ago, Matt was getting ready to move to Ireland
- Hard to rank the best movies and TV because there's so much we haven't seen
- Recording on the day that Disney+ launched
- Some bugs because of the huge demand on day 1
- Biggest change is the move to streaming content
- Binge-watching has become a huge trend
- Spoilers abound
- Jay: Don't read reviews until after I've watched something
- HBO's Watchmen series is pretty good
- So easy to fall behind on a show
- Shows switch to different streaming services
- We're so distracted that many people are doing multiple things while watching a show
- Short seasons are appealing because you can finish them quickly
- Rare to watch shows live
- Matt watched final season of LOST from Ireland, live with his family via a laptop
- Similarly, there's so much new music being released but a lot of it doesn't get heard
- Radio stations play a lot of the same music over and over
- More and more original programming on non-traditional outlets: PlayStation, Amazon Prime, Apple+
- So many streaming services available now
- The end goal is to replace your $200 cable bill with an equal amount spent on streaming services
- Jay: Cut the cord three years ago, went to all streaming
- You can't get everything
- Takes a long time to decide what to watch sometimes
- Sometimes we watch two different things while in the same room
- Seeing movies in a theater is great, but dealing with other people isn't
- Stay off social media if you don't want spoilers
- Jay: 10 years ago, I was watching late night talk shows every day
- Now, watch clips online the following day
- Jay: Haven't seen a Star Wars movie since 1983
- Something to be said for holding onto hard media
- Bringing back dead actors using AI
- Deep fakes are freaky and amazing
- Superhero movies became big moneymakers in the last decade
- The Shining happened because Kubrick was at a low spot and needed a hit
- The new Fantasy Island reboot is a horror movie
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 490: Social Disease

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss social media dependency. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea
- The political climate is disturbingly fascinating
- O, Canada?
- It used to be easy to fall out of political favor
- Howard Dean's scream
- The lack of competition
- No alternative party
- Navigating social media to victory
- Coming up with an escape plan
- Watch out for gators
- Connected to social media all day but don't look at it all the time
- Your info is constantly being collected by FB, Google, Amazon, etc.
- Wandering through the social media graveyard
- FB Messenger was banning people based on supposedly private conversations
- Matt's adventures with drunken late-night purchases like the Ab Zapper
- Buying swords on QVC
- The desperate need for social media likes
- Matt: No withdrawal symptoms when disconnected from the internet
- Consequences for social media faux pas can come quickly

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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 489: Social Distortion

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss social media dependency. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea
- Back from a little hiatus
- People who use their phones at the urinal
- Matt: Detached from social media while in Canada
- We're online all day for work
- Jay: The kids love the Instagram
- Twitter can be a cesspool
- Let Me Google That For You
- When Star Wars nerds get ugly
- Twitter can often be a license to be a jerk
- People can be "rock stupid"
- The compulsion to tweet
- Arguing with family members on social media
- The mute function on FB is helpful
- Matt: Writer Twitter drives me nuts
- Don't click on the comments!
- Anime geeks solving their arguments in a civil manner
- 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 486: Content Mismanagement

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the power of the written word. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea
- The popularity of comics has moved beyond just comic books
- The collector's market collapsed in the late '90s
- We make less time to read nowadays
- Audiobooks and podcasts are popular with people trying to multitask
- Mark Hamill's interesting career
- Attention spans are shrinking
- Binge-watching vs. reading
- Long-form storytelling is alive and well on TV
- Being professional on social media
- When things you liked don't age well
- Retroactive criticism
- Hate-sharing for fun and profit
- Outrage fatigue
- Picking careers that become obsolete
 
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 485: Word is Bond

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the power of the written word. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea
- Everything's great
- Content has a different meaning these days
- Gotta grab readers much more quickly
- We read full articles more infrequently
- Rarely go directly to newspaper sites
- Jay: Use Feedly, which is like the old Google Reader RSS feed aggregator
- RSS feeds are archaic now
- Facebook's News Feed is pretty light on actual news
- People "liking" products on social media
- Matt: Shorter stories seem to do better than longer novels
- e-readers are good and bad
- Internet publishing took away the gatekeeper so anyone can publish now
- Now there's so much out there, you can't tell the good from the bad
- Paperbacks are making a comeback, like vinyl
- Putting "girl" in a book title is trending
- Dino erotica is a thing
- Fun with keywords
- Doing chart battle with werewolf smut
- Jay: Finally got a Kindle last year
- Matt: Amazon is the devil that pays on time
- 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 475: Ignorance is Bliss

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss our uncertain world. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea
- Escapism is tempting
- Shopping by alcohol content
- Is ignorance bliss?
- Dumb and happy
- Cynical about politics at all levels
- Corruption is rampant
- Appearances count
- Politics have never been this divisive...or have they?
- Internet comments are the worst
- Social media enables morons to spout off
- Journalism burnout
- Shooting a guy in the face is quaint now
- Does uncertainty = depression?
- We haven't given up yet
- We solved nothing
 
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 474: Age of Uncertainty

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss our uncertain world. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea
- Recorded before the Las Vegas incident and Trump's visit to PR
- Everything's uncertain
- Don't know what to expect from the news
- Trump: Savvy or master of chaos?
- Twitter as distraction
- Social media amps up the anxiety
- FB as the center of vitriol over every conceivable public issue
- The weather is slamming us with unpredictable events
- Selling the BS
- Clickbait's gonna get ya
- Much ado about kneeling
- Scandal recovery
- Controversy du jour
- Punisher fans can be scary
- Twitter roulette
- Ah, the threat of impending nuclear war
- The relentless news cycle
- The difficulty of just enjoying life
- 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 457: Reboot, Reuse, Recycle

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss Hollywood's love of reboots. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- Docudramas like The People Vs. OJ Simpson are doing well
- Reboot of 24 sans Jack Bauer
- Why would you remake a perfect movie?
- Flip the concept
- Matt's book idea
- Need to reward original stories
- Pixar's doing great work
- The Marvel series on Netflix have been good
- Experimental episodes can be fun
- So much TV to watch now
- Luke Cage broke new ground
- Watching foreign shows and running out of episodes
- Remaking European shows for American TV
- Matt needs to watch Terriers and Justified
- The greatness of Walton Goggins
- Shows that are difficult to watch

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 456: Once More, With Feeling

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss Hollywood's love of reboots. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- Unnecessary reboots
- The Ghostbusters remake was controversial
- Westworld was a hit, but most viewers probably didn't see the original movies
- Michael Crichton's trial by fire as a director
- Channing Tatum is the mermaid in the new version of Splash
- The Rock's in everything
- DC's TV shows are good
- Matt Fraction's comics reimagining of Hawkeye is excellent
- Deadpool is a cavalcade of dick jokes
- Penny Dreadful mashes up classic horror characters
- Beauty and the Beast live-action remake
- Rebooting in advertising: the Most Interesting Man in the World, Col. Sanders
- Reboot vs. continuation
- The Muppet Babies effect
- The many Punishers
- Taken, the TV show
- Getting manipulated by This Is Us
- 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 455: I, Reboot

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss Hollywood's love of reboots. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- All about recycling ideas
- Some reboots are self-referential
- The Brady Bunch Movie kicked off the reboot as parody
- Johnny Depp: Master of the Reboot
- Nic Cage's recent career choices
- Some improve on the original or have a different take
- Westworld, Bates Motel
- New TV shows based on Lethal Weapon and Training Day
- The industry's too risk-averse
- Comic book movie franchises reboot constantly
- So many different Batmen
- How long will Batfleck last?
- Daredevil: Netflix show is much better than the movie
- Stephen King's cocaine years
- "The hamster just fell off the wheel"
- 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 448: Well, That Happened

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the aftermath of the election. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- Keeping friends after the election
- It's getting personal
- The canary in the coal mine
- Reading things that you know will annoy you
- Forced lefty
- Giving up on the presidency
- Don't encourage the Kardashians
- Romney's changed, man
- Matt's next book is changing because of the election
- Forget art forged from pain, we'll take mindless pop
- Social media as free therapy
- The Electoral College's relevance
- Changing demographics

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 447: The Aftermath

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the aftermath of the election. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- Jay: Not moving to Canada
- None of those celebs is leaving the country
- Enthusiastic votes for Trump
- Parallels to Brexit
- Plenty of protests when Obama was elected
- Scandals didn't hurt Trump
- Clinton was a very Republican-safe candidate
- Covering politics for a newspaper can change you
- When Matt was dissed by the new Lt. Gov.
- Oh, Gary Hart
- Politicians and sex
- 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 446: Picking Up the Pieces

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the aftermath of the election. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- Thought this was going to be a very different show
- Didn't expect a Trump victory
- Social media was raw the day after the election
- Family and friend disagreements
- You can't change anybody's mind on social media
- Friendships are ending over the election
- Hiding or unfriending people
- Plenty of blame to go around
- People don't fact check things before passing them along
- Thanksgiving could be disastrous this year
- Many people may avoid it altogether
- A whole group of people got left behind and Trump tapped into that
- A deplorable soundbite
- Promising everything
- We're insulated in Massachusetts
- Oh, Florida
- Dealing with post-election feelings
- Racist and dumb is quite the combination
- 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 429: Keeping It Real

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the difficulties of avoiding cynicism. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's new book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- People are desperate for fame
- Matt auditioned for season 2 of The Real World
- The savvy of Boston Rob
- Chewbacca Mom is pushing it
- Trump tapped into a vein of discontent
- He's got a way with nicknames
- We've got issues
- Fat, but not happy
- It's not a bad thing to be cynical
- Changing your Twitter icon or FB profile pic is pointless
- David Cameron and the pig's head
- Sinking to meme level
- The Internet never forgets
- Power + opportunity = Bad life choices
- We're going to remain cynical

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 428: Absolutely Cynical

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the difficulties of avoiding cynicism. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Matt's new book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4
- It's hard not to be cynical these days
- Politics are infuriating in general
- Soccer hooligans can spread joy, too
- Getting cynicism drummed into you as a young reporter
- Kids, don't go into journalism
- NIMBY remains a strong force
- Matt made the mistake of going to back to newspapers a few years ago
- Facts, schmacts
- Saying something stupid won't tank your campaign anymore
- Tapping into frustrated and angry voters
- Blindly loyal political supporters
- Stupid can win
- People are tired of hearing from so-called experts
- Jay: Reality TV makes me cynical
- The Duggars had a show because they had 19 kids
- Some people find The Bachelor fascinating
- So many kids these days have the drive to become famous
- The abnormal lives of huge celebrities
- Tom Cruise can't relate to normal people
- 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 421: Done is Good

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the need for organization and tell old journalism stories. 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
- Making a good first impression
- Journalism: A good profession for social misfits
- What to do when an ax-wielding maniac is on the loose
- "Your internship could have kids"
- Fun with newspaper interns
- Person-on-the-street interviews were challenging
- Expiration date for the newspaper biz
- Writing on deadline helps with time management
- Editors who can't write and vice versa
- Being a supervisor
- "Done is good."

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 420: Failing to Plan, Planning to Fail

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the need for organization. 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
- Always planning ahead to the next project
- Happiness is an empty inbox
- Jay: Preparing for a purge of office stuff
- How much is too much work?
- Matt doesn't need a calendar
- Organization via Google Calendar
- The art of the sticky note
- Business is moving away from email
- Working with people from across the globe
- Matt: Don't know how I could do more
- The newspaper life was a disorganized one
- Working way too many hours for tiny salary
- Learned how to write efficiently on deadline
- 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.