Post here when you’re feeling out of the loop

I'm no tennis enthusiast, but I think Venus set the tracks and dominated while Serena came up to speed, and then Serena's late career performance has blown away anything Venus ever accomplished.

I don't even know which one is older.

Hard to complain about these things when you haven't put in a second of actually trying to figure it out for yourself.

what is this

I have never watched/listened to Bill Hicks.

Is that something I ought to change?

I prefer to listen to Dan Hicks.
But maybe?

undo wrote:I have never watched/listened to Bill Hicks.

Is that something I ought to change?

I think you should listen to him. It can be a lot to take in over the course of an hour or more show but in small doses he’s entertaining but often repetitive.

He did a routine where he says something like Rush Limbaugh is a guy that likes laying naked in a bathtub while someone in a Barbara Bush mask pees on him. Other times he advocates drug use and I believe those are sampled on Tool songs. The band were big fans which might influence your decision as well.

Aside from "Sober," I have never listened to another Tool song let alone an actual Tool album

Nick wrote:

undo wrote:I have never watched/listened to Bill Hicks.

Is that something I ought to change?

I think you should listen to him. It can be a lot to take in over the course of an hour or more show but in small doses he’s entertaining but often repetitive.

He did a routine where he says something like Rush Limbaugh is a guy that likes laying naked in a bathtub while someone in a Barbara Bush mask pees on him. Other times he advocates drug use and I believe those are sampled on Tool songs. The band were big fans which might influence your decision as well.

I actually think the album format is where he shines. His shows have a flow and they payoff really well, imo. Revelations, which is streaming on Netflix right now, is perfect "comedy" imo. It ends w/ his "just a ride" bit and it restores my faith in humanity - at least the part I have to play in it - every time I see it.

I wonder if I would now like Bill Hicks in the same way that I used to think Rage Against the Machine were cringeworthy but I now think they raise a good point

Two or three months ago, it felt like everyone on the Internet suddenly started talking about air fryers.

I still don't know what they are or how they work.

I think they’re like old school popcorn machines, but instead of popcorn you put like chicken wings in them.

They're a lot like a convection oven. Great for people that don't have much time, buy shit food, and don't like to cook. So most everyone these days, I think.

It has a distinct heating quality that is different from my Breville convection oven or a regular conventional oven. Things don't seem to "burn" in the air fryer the way it does in other ovens, so it's good for breading chicken or fish. It also does a good job of crisping without too much oil, so you can make nice fries/crispy potatoes or kale chips in there.

Definitely one of those products to convince people they need 50 gadgets in their kitchen, but it's a decent one.

undo wrote:Two or three months ago, it felt like everyone on the Internet suddenly started talking about air fryers.

I still don't know what they are or how they work.

This friend of mine who i never really liked particularly due to his frustrating nihilistic views and his fiance who talks too much about murder weapon ownership recently purchased an air fryer and she posts frequently on facebook about recipes from it i will never own one because of this

Our air fryer makes amazing chicken wings, pork belly, chicken thighs and other recipes. I consume a lot of those items and it has made the purchase worth it.

Getting back to how they work, is it kinda like a vape with cooking oil? Does it heat the oil and then blow oil vapor over the food?

Imagine my surprise when I was looking up this person by name and suddenly saw this photo staring back at me!

Lol. It was recently his 200th birthday, iirc. I was just thinking about how I should probably change my avatar to something a little more light and welcoming.

Dan Sausage wrote:

undo wrote:Is it too late for me to get into Chapo Trap House?

i listened for a couple weeks but then i stopped driving to work which meant i was never listening to a podcast ever again

Yesterday I got in the car and decided I would try to listen to this for the first time.

After 5 minutes of searching for the actual episodes on my phone I gave up. They have a website but it seems like it's selling a book and provides nothing else. Do I have to sign up for some third party website to listen to it?

I am listening to this on SoundCloud but the most recent upload is an episode from May. Are there more recent episodes, and where?

Not really a problem atm but just wondering.

Every episode is on Apple and Spotify podcasts, which are the two leading platforms right now

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chapo-trap-house/id1097417804
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ZfEmftOCw3AzhpyCIfFwF

My experience listening to Chapo is that it mostly sucked ass because it's a bunch of old young dudes being boring.

Yeah. The episodes should not be hard to find at all. I am subscribed on Apple podcasts and get all of the free episodes (every Monday). Chapo was really funny and excellent for several years. They were the perfect companion to the Trump years. I thought they got a little too eager and involved in the Bernie campaign and they kind of lost their way a little bit as a result. They are best when they are just riffing. Christman is the smartest one and is a really brilliant social theorist. Will is a good host, very funny, and surprisingly empathetic and probably very relatable to a lot of people. Felix is just really funny. Virgil has been excommunicated for a while, which is good considering the recent allegations about him literally grooming young girls. Amber, who was the lone female host and was probably the most confrontational (and a very orthodox and old-school Marxist interested in boring ol' class politics) has left the show for a while, which is a shame because she brought something interesting to a lot of episodes. She is also a great writer.

The last few episodes have been pretty lackluster. They have an excellent reading series a few weeks ago that just went on a tangent about homoeroticism, traditional male bonding practices, etc. It was probably the highlight of the year so far. I was cracking up in my car listening to them riff. Given the amount of content they produce, I think the quality is pretty outstanding. It never feels like they are just mailing something in. The most recent episodes probably only feel lackluster because this whole country does at the moment... What can you really do?

I still enjoy Chapo and think the best parts are when Will or Felix start cracking up because of the other pointing out how fucking stupid whoever/whatever they’re talking about is.

If you want a Leftist pod that is still compelling minus Trump administration in power I would recommend TrueAnon. Take a listen to free episodes and if being a Patreon to a podcast is something you’re into the paywall ones have been worth it.

You recommended that before and I kind of looked into it but what I read suggested that it was very focused on Jeffrey Epstein and at the moment I don't know if that's what I'm looking for

There is an overabundance of lefty pods and so much of it is just derivative social commentary. If you are into political theory and want to follow contemporary debates within the international socialist left, I cannot recommend Dead Pundits Society enough. He was a student of Leo Panitch and PhD dropout who does really great interviews with leading thinkers on the left. Check out some of the stuff that he did with Panitch's friends and associates after he passed away. There is a really great two part interview with Ed Rooksby (who tragically passed away). He also has a series on theories of the state and state power, which basically functions as a Master's level course. He is pretty light hearted as well. His goal is to make this stuff as digestible as possible for a mass audience without necessarily watering anything down. I think he does a great job.

People also really like Aufhebunga Bunga. I don't really listen to their stuff. Every now and then I'll pop in for an episode if I am interested in the guest. They seem to be really smart and the general theme of the podcast is very interesting.