Geeks Without God Gets Extra Geeky
The whole concept behind Geeks Without God is that we are geeks who are also atheists and both sides of that equation are important. This week’s episode is seriously geeky because we talk about the most recent series of “Sherlock.” In depth.
I’m kind of in love with this new series. I think all three episodes are great although the second episode may be my favorite episode of the entire run. Hard to say. I’ve had to re-watch the first episode of series one a few times in order to make up my mind.
The three of us geek out hard on this episode. We go very deep into spoiler territory. Very deep.
But I gotta say that this episode was a lot of fun to record. Three fans just geeking out about a terrific show.
Putting it Together – Collaboration
Putting it Together is my Monday “artist talking about art stuff blog”. The title comes from “Sunday in the Park with George,” the best (and possibly only) musical that is entirely dedicated to an artist talking about his art. Is that pretentious enough?
Collaboration is one of those words that theatre people throw around in the same way corporate America throws around the word “Paradigm.” We make it sound really important. Can you actually produce theatre without collaborating?
Can you produce business without a paradigm?
While I’m certain that you can do business without paradigms (or synergy), it’s pretty hard to produce theatre without collaboration. Even if you are writing a one person show and the person in question is you, you probably aren’t going to be running your own lights. You might want someone else to direct your show.
Geeks Without God Tackles the Creationism vs. Evolution “Debate”
This week’s Geeks Without God was about as timely as our podcast gets. We talk about the debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye that took place last Tuesday. I have to be honest and admit we didn’t actually watch the debate because we had strong issues with the fact it was even taking place.
Were we right to judge what took place without actually watching it? Well, given that our objections had little to do with the content of the debate, I think that we had some valid points to make.
Creationism is something that annoys the hell out of me because it is completely dishonest and I’m pretty sure it comes out in this week’s podcast. So if you want to listen to me (and Molly and Nick) get pretty vocally angry, I’m guessing you’ll like this week’s show.
You can listen to it here.
Geeks Without God talk about Life of Pi
This week’s Geeks Without God was my idea. I’m sure Molly and Nick will want everyone to know because boy oh boy were they unhappy that I made them watch the movie.
I’ve actually been pushing for Life of Pi to be a topic for quite a while. I was certain that my co-hosts wouldn’t like the movie and yet it has a premise that is perfect for our podcast.
Early in the movie we are told that Pi has a story that will make us believe in god.
When watching the movie in the theatre, I was actually really interested to learn what that story might be. Sure, the movie is fiction so it is not trying to convince me that there is a god. It was more of an intellectual exercise. If this story was true, would it make me believe in god?
I’m not going to give away the answer to that question. You’ll just have to listen for yourself.
Also, if you are a Dregs fan, check out my new weekly blog that includes a rehearsal recording of our newest song!
Everyone needs to have a Schedule
As part of a renewed focus on writing stuff, I’m creating a blog schedule for myself. If you follow this blog, here’s what you can hope to find. If you don’t follow my blog, I imagine you aren’t reading this.
Monday: This will be all about the projects I’m working on, my creative process and my artistic journey. I’m calling it “Putting it Together” because it sounds very self important.
Tuesday: Dregs blogging! I’ll be posting on The Dregs website about our latest projects, music, gigs and more. I’ll also have a post on this blog about the latest episode of Geeks Without God, which goes live every Tuesday.
Wednesday: Movie blogging. I’ve been writing my Alphabetical movie blog on and off for a while and I really enjoy the exercise of trying to write about the mental journey I take as a result of watching the film rather than the film itself. I’m going to “force” myself to post about a movie every week. If I’m feeling super productive, I might even write two entries on the same day!
Thursday: Open. What am I, a machine? I might write about something. I might not. Give me some space!
Friday: Shit that Pissed me off. My attempt to find humor in the news events that have struck a nerve. Kind of a rage blog.
Saturday: NO BLOG FOR YOU!
Sunday: Comedy blogging. In other words, I shall attempt to write something funny. On purpose.
If all goes well, I hope to begin this on Monday, February 3rd. My first installment of “Putting it Together” will, somewhat ironically, be about how I suck at self promotion.
Shit that Pissed me Off 1/24
Dude is Going to Hunt a Black Rhino and People Respond in a Logical Fashion
This is a story in which nobody involved comes out looking particularly good.
One the one hand, you have a guy who is spending $350,000 to kill a critically endangered animal. Yes, that money goes to conservation efforts and the animal he’ll be killing is too old to breed. He’s doing the black rhinos a favor by killing one of them!
This one looks super grateful!
You gotta wonder, though, about a guy who is so anxious to kill one of them that he’s willing to pony up $350,000 to do it.
On the other hand, he is getting death threats. People are threatening his children.
How does that make it better? You don’t like the fact he’s going to kill an animal so you threaten his family?
What a fucked up circle of life.
Geeks Without God talks about a Wedge Issue!
This week’s episode of Geeks Without God was recorded in my hotel room at CONvergence 2013, which sounds dirty but really isn’t. My Twitter friend Finn Murphy was at the convention and she’s a co-host of the Skeprechaun podcast back in her native Ireland. Super cool! We asked her on our podcast and she agreed.
So what topic did she want to talk about? Abortion! A perfect topic for a comedy podcast, right?
Actually, it was a great topic. For all the issues we have with abortion laws in the United States, things are far worse in Ireland. It was a fascinating exploration of some really problematic legal choices.
Hey, I used the word choice. See what I did there?
Geeks Without God Talks about the Fringe Festival
My life is about to become all Fringe Festival all the time so it seemed appropriate that this week’s Geeks Without God touched on the theatrical orgy that is the Minnesota Fringe. We brought back former guest Joshua Humphrey to engage in Fringe Nerd conversation.
To be fair, Josh and I are the fringe nerds. Molly and Nick patiently listened to what we had to say and asked really good questions. The conversation covers the origin of the Fringe, the benefits to local theatre companies and some of the challenges as well.
Then Josh got to ask us five questions and they required a fair amount of thought. I don’t know what it is with guests showing up and making us think, but it needs to stop!
If you would like to listen, you can do so here!
Geeks Without God Talks CONvergence Again
OK, I know we’ve been talking about CONvergence a lot. We really like the convention. So this episode is about our favorite moments at the convention. I think the episode is fun to listen to but no matter what, it was fun to record. That has to count for something, right?
Actually, there are some fun stories that came out of the convention and we somehow managed to remember a few of them!
Geeks Without God Talks to PZ Myers
In the second of two live episodes recorded at CONvergence, we finally got to talk with outspoken atheist PZ Myers. I wanted to talk to him about evolution because he is a professor of evolutionary biology and a vocal opponent of creationists the world over. My question to him was fairly simple: what is the best evidence you can use to get a creationist to think about their beliefs?
I had no illusions that one could completely eradicate years of indoctrination with a single well-chosen piece of evidence. I just wanted to know how you could start the ball rolling.
Of course the answer isn’t nearly as easy as the question. I knew that.
Still, PZ helped us work through some of the ways those of us who know evolution is true can begin to educate those who do not. It was great to have PZ on the show and I hope we can chat with him again soon!
Grail Diary 