Year: 2018

Podcast: The West Wing Weekly

Geek alert: I frickin LOVE The West Wing.

If you’ve never seen the show then this episode by episode ‘following along’ podcast will make each moment richer.

Scrap that, if you’ve never seen the show, drop everything and watching the Pilot episode. If you enjoy that, then subscribe and listen to the first episode of The West Wing Weekly (TWWW) and if you aren’t hooked by then, well, I’m not sure I want to know you.

THE WEST WING WEEKLY is an episode-by-episode discussion of one of television’s most beloved shows, co-hosted by one of its stars, Joshua Malina, along with Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder.

Where TWWW stands apart from other podcasts is in the range of guest stars they have on the show. From the creator/writer Aaron Sorkin, through pretty much every major cast member – Alison Janney, Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe – and other people involved with the show in the background, including Snuffy Walden who composed the theme tune and some other notable guests like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It’s insightful, funny, and a real treat for fans of the show.

Part of the reason it works so well are the hosts, Hrishi brings fan-like dedication, whilst Joshua brings the actor view, both before and during his time on the show. There are also quite a few funny stories of Joshua being a complete wind-up merchant; any of the episodes with Bradford Whitley feature some delicious back-handed compliments from both sides.

I’ve found myself re-watching episodes and with all that insider knowledge and with the presenters views in my head, end up seeing so much more detail and richness in each episode. They frequently talk to members of the production crew as well, writers, directors, producers, camera operators, so there is always something different to learn and new insights to be found.

I simply cannot recommend this enough, and if you weren’t a fan of the show before, then you will be once you start watching along!

I’m not going to link to any episodes as this podcast works best if you watch the TV show in sequence.

However, for those of you who’ve already watched The West Wing before, you can skip to your favourite episodes, the Pilot, In the Shadow of Two Gun, Two Cathedrals etc…

You can subscribe to future episodes using this RSS Link.

I met a spaceman

Ground control to Major Tom…
Ground control to Major Tom:
Lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on!

I can still remember the first time I heard Space Oddity. I can recall just how otherworldly it sounded to me and while that was largely down to Mr. Bowie (an entirely other being for sure) it sits squarely alongside a similarly titled book that I’d just finished reading which was, in turn, the very reason I had listened to that track in the first place.

I was maybe 12 years old at the time and the idea of space was more Star Wars than 2001 but I was slowly learning about the Apollo program and pages of my encyclopedia were starting to fall open at anything space related. I wouldn’t say it was a phase, it wasn’t like I wanted to be an astronaut or anything but, especially for people who grew up in the 60, 70s and 80s, space was a big deal.

The Space Shuttle was still active, and no matter how many times you see the footage it’s still mind-boggling to imagine, regardless how you try and frame it; as an engineering feat it’s one of the greatest achievements of mankind, the scale of it beyond anything done before; as a spectacle it’s equally mind-boggling, watching something that large move so so quickly.

And these days with the rise of social media, streaming content from the ISS being, it’s even more prevalent and even easier to keep up with. The fascination remains.

Fast forward to last Friday and I, along with a thousand or so others, found ourselves face to face with a spaceman. He goes by the name, and title, of Colonel Chris Hadfield, and there he was, an actual real life astronaut.

I’ve seen him interviewed and watched his YouTube videos that he recorded in space but wasn’t really sure what to expect. On stage were two chairs, two glasses of water, so I presumed it would be interview style. I was wrong, wonderfully wrong. Instead he spent about 1hr 45mins talking about, well, everything.

From his earliest days watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon, through all the decisions he made, all the things he decided to learn, he reaffirmed one notion; he wasn’t born an astronaut. He learned new things he thought would be useful, he looked at where he wanted to go and made decisions based on that desire, the desire to one day make it into space.

He also talked about the impact seeing the world from space and how clear it is that this is one world, that borders are invisible up there. He talked about the amazing and inspiring people he has worked with, all different genders, races, and religions. He talked about what happens when things go wrong in space (answer, you don’t panic because you’ve practised for when things go wrong).

He also made us laugh. Describing an incident he had during a spacewalk, when he was rendered temporarily blind, we all laughed aloud when he told us he was venting the air from his helmet out into space. I know, it doesn’t sound funny, maybe it’s the way he told it…

What struck me most, especially considering the number of young adults and children in the room, was his constant reaffirmation of ‘you can do whatever you want’. His positivity and belief that humankind is better together shone through. Even though they faced great danger, he said, it was important to remember that danger does not equal fear, you only fear the thing you do not know or have not prepared for, and that fear is easily overcome by learning and practising.

Yet it was all hyperbole. At one point he informed us that the odds of ‘something bad going wrong’ on his first flight aboard the Space Shuttle was 1 in 38. A quick check and it turned out that there were about 38 seats in each row of the seating. Would we have turned up that evening knowing that one person in each row would die?

Yet despite all the grandeur of space, and all of his amazing achievements, Colonel Chris Hadfield remained wonderfully self-effacing, full of empathy for his fellow humans, witty, and boy does he have a splendid moustache. His talk was uplifting, motivational, moving, revealing, and entertaining. He held our attention easily for the entire time, peppering his talk with photos and video clips and, of course, he closed by talking about that song, a version of which he recorded in space.

At the very end, he picked up a guitar and to a backdrop of a video showing shots of the world whizzing by underneath the ISS, he strummed and sang.

I can still remember the first time I heard Space Oddity and 30 years later for just the briefest of moments, on a dreich Friday evening in Glasgow, I was there. I was Major Tom.

Gig: The Lovely Eggs

I’d not long finished my dinner and was doing the dishes. Standing at the sink I pondered what to do next and tried to think of reasons not to do any more chores, after all hoovering can always wait until tomorrow, right? We will ignore the fact that my hoovering was probably about a week past needing done, because hoovering is ALWAYS a job for tomorrow; just as dusting is a job for whenever someone is coming to visit, a lesson well learned from my dearest Mumsy.

So you can imagine my excitement when, moments after I’d set the last dish on the rack to dry, my watch vibrated on my wrist to notify me that a new message had arrived! Ohhh me oh my, perhaps an adventure lay within.

And, dearest reader, it did!

A spare ticket for a gig that very evening, to see a band called The Lovely Eggs who I’d heard of in name purely because the person who invited me had mentioned them a few weeks prior. Not only was there a spare ticket, there was also the offer of a lift to and from said gig, so who was I to say no, hoovering be damned!!

I wasn’t fully sure what to expect but the evening started well with the support acts; Mr Ben & The Bens offered some nice pop/rock tunes, Porky the Poet (aka Phil Jupitus) made us laugh, and then it was time for the headliners.

Having not heard much (if any) of their stuff I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but a few bars into the first song and I was pretty sure I was gonna enjoy it. The Lovely Eggs are a wife and husband duo, he drums and controls the samples, she shreds a guitar, screams, wails, groans, and serenades her way through every track. Described as ‘psychedlic post punk’ on at least one website, I loved every second of it.

It’s also a testament to the small gig thinking I posted about recently. The venue, Stereo, holds about 300 people in their basement and I was right at the very front (to one side as I’m 6’1) and lapped up the energy from the stage as Holly whirled and danced and goaded the crowd into reacting. Once again, the ability to turn a gig into a show that includes the audience is a talent and the passion and energy on display was infectious.

If you like punky thrashy guitars over simple melodic tunes, sprinkled with a dose of comedy, then check them out and if you get the chance to see them live, take the plunge.

So here’s to friends, here’s to saying yes on a random Monday evening, and here’s to small venue gigs by bands you’ve never heard of blowing your damn socks off.

Podcast: 99% Invisible

One for all you beautiful nerds, 99% invisible covers an endlessly fascinating series of topics loosely arranged around design and architecture.

99% Invisible is about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.

From graphic design and prop making for movies, to La Sagrada Familia, to sports bras, to emoji design, to city and street layouts, and a myriad of fascinating interviews and insights. If learning how everyday things work and exist in common usage interests you, it’s well worth a listen.

Even if you don’t think you are interested in design, if you are naturally curious about the world around you then give it a shot, the episodes are both short enough (~30 mins) and slick enough to carry themselves. You’ll learn something new everytime.

Hell, even if you only listen to one it’s worth it for the treacle thick voice of host, Roman Mars (yes, that’s his actual name).

Here’s a couple of episodes to start you off:

You can subscribe to future episodes using this RSS Link.

New Bands and Small Venues

For a while now I’ve been on a mission to discover new music. That might just be music that is new to me, or it might be actually new up and coming bands that I’ve not heard of, but I’ll happily admit that the recap of my musical year that Spotify provided was a bit of a shocker. We all have our own self-image but, musically at least, I didn’t think I was quite as mainstream as all that… stats never lie though, right?

For the last few years I’ve tended to rely on the same few sources; a mixture of random recommendations from friends and colleagues, the occasional blog post or album review here and there, but I always seem to fall back to the same two places for ‘new music’. namely BBC 6Music and Spotify.

6Music is definitely my touchstone and the place I’ve picked up new favourite artists the most. More recently though the “Discover Weekly” playlist by Spotify has thrown up some gems, but I know that, as it’s driven by my listening habits, it can get a bit samey and it’s not really expanding my musical tastes/vocabulary/library.

Looking at my upcoming gigs for the first half of the year I also realised my desire to find new artists isn’t just about finding new music to listen to, it’s about finding artists to connect with and the new experiences to be had there. With that in mind, and whilst I’m not against massive auditorium style (I have a couple planned already) I have found myself more and more drawn to smaller venues towards the latter part of last year and I can see that trend continuing.

Luckily Glasgow has a myriad of such places, the type of venue where you are never more than 40 feet from the performance (for Glasgwegians I’m classing King Tuts as the top ‘size’ end of this scale), places like The Hug & Pint, Broadcast, Stereo, and the 13th Note.

So how do I find these new artists?

Emails from ticket vendors helps – hat tip to See Tickets here as their ‘if you like X, you’ll like this band’ listings – and of course scouring Facebook has also turned up some gems, and when I say ‘scouring’ Facebook I of course mean I stalk a few people who are always out and about at gigs for bands I’ve never heard of, it’s great fun (and just in case, hi Stevie W, hi Angela B!). Equally, more and more artists and businesses use Facebook Pages to promote gigs, so I’ve started following as many of those as I can.

With all that in place I’ve now got quite a few more bands to listen to, and a rapidly expanding playlist of tracks to sample. Sure, it can be a bit hit or miss, but it’s fun spending time of an evening listening to random tracks and letting myself disappear down musical rabbit holes.

So far I’ll call out Cherry Glazerr, Car Seat Headrest, Gurr, Ghostpoet, Vultures and Zoe Bestel as ‘new discoveries’ that are worth a listen, and I’ve already got tickets to see one of them when they hit Glasgow.

How do YOU find out about new artists? Any tips or tricks to share? Or any new artists I should be checking out? Leave a comment, share the love.

Team Training at the gym

Gym wanker post alert.

Last year I started going to the gym. I was doing a ‘BootCamp’ which was less ‘being shouted at by angry army types’ and a lot more ‘encouraged to push yourself during HIIT sessions’. There were two sessions at week, including a 9am start on a Saturday, and once I got into the habit, I got used to and, SHOCK HORROR, started to enjoy myself!

This year, they’ve changed the format and the name. Now it’s all about Team Training, which still includes HIIT within each session but with the addition of more ‘lift heavy stuff’ type training. It’s also moved to three sessions a week, and joy of joys we don’t start until 10am on a Saturday morning!

I’ve done a little bit of the ‘lift heavy things’ training in the past and each session is focused on a different discipline; Tuesdays are for deadlifts, Thursdays are for squats, Saturdays are for bench presses. Each coach has taken the time to make sure our technique is right (so we don’t injure ourselves) and the challenge each week is to add a little more weight; around 2.5kg is all they are looking for which is very do-able (so far!).

To keep track of our progress we are logging what weights we are lifting so it’ll be interesting to look back in a few months and see some difference as we start to build more and more muscle tone. We are already a month in and it’s been good to mix things up a bit.

It’s also been interesting over the past year to look back at my original goals and see what matters to me now.

When I signed up for the first BootCamp it was all about losing weight. I was sick of being 17st (almost 18st at one point). In the first couple of months I lost some weight, but since then I’ve plateau’d but importantly, I realised I didn’t care. Whilst my weight has remained about the same, my trouser size has dropped from a ‘tight’ 40″ waist to an ‘almost there’ 36″. Ohhh and I can do press-ups now, like, more than 1.

I still weigh myself, just not every week, and the less I care about that number, the more I seem to be noticing other changes. As new muscles develop and my body slowly changes shape I can start to focus in on the main goal; goodbye beer belly!

I have quieter aspirations for my fitness – get to the gym 4 times a week if I can – and I’ve also signed up for Pedal for Scotland again so I’ll need to juggle getting out on my bike for some training runs (and yes, I’ve no doubt I’ll be cycling to and from the gym at some point too).

As a baseline then, I’m hoping that attending Team Training three times a week should help me break the current plateau I appear to be stuck on. I’m eating better and, as part of the Team Training classes includes help with Nutrition goals then in theory all bases are covered.

And yes, I’m deliberately posting this in February because this is not a New Year resolution, this is a journey that I started last year and which, by this time next year, I’m hoping still to be on.

I wonder what my goals will be then?


If you are interested in attending a gym that is focused on inclusivity, has no mirrors, no grunting muscle men, and supportive, friendly, realistic trainers then I can highly recommend AG Fitness.