as i've promised over the past two podcasts, tonight brings us back home with my sister amanda. amanda spent 2008 as an exchange student in chile, and just returned home last month. she was gracious enough to join me for episode 132, and talk a little bit about the basics - what it's like to live in another culture for a year, what it's like to see your own culture from another perspective, thoughts and feelings and observations of life in chile... plus some beautiful music by the cobalt season and julius caesar.

if you have time, i hope you can join us. :)

and visit our musical contributors...
cobalt season - thecobaltseason.com
julius caesar (aka ryan) - myspace.com/thekoedonarmada

explore chile - on wiki
and russell's favorite chilean - pablo neruda
happy wednesday,

russell

Posted by russell at 05:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

this sunday will bring us the 81st annual academy awards! so, in honor of films-gone-by, tonight's podcast features my top 10 favorites of 2008. lists like these are always subject to (and inevitably do) change as i explore and find things i've missed, and i'm sure '08 won't be an exception. i promise to keep you in the loop as new things come to my attention... :) but - that said - these're my favorites so far...

10 - vicki christina barcelona -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
9 - encounters at the end of the world -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
8 - the reader -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
7 - doubt -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
6 - chris & don: a love story -
ny times review, wiki article.
5 - the wrestler -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
4 - milk -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
3 - The boy in the striped pajamas -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
2 - synecdoche, new york -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
1 - man on wire -
ny times review, roger ebert review.

+ some things i missed in '07:
11 (Dec 2007) - the diving bell and the butterfly -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
12 (Dec 2007) - grace is gone -
ny times review, roger ebert review.
13 (2007) - unborn in the usa -
ny times review, and related - the 2006 documentary lake of fire.

and the artists from tonight!
kathleen dunbar - myspace.com/kathleendunbarmusic
nick guerrero - myspace.com/nickguerrero
julius caesar - myspace.com/thekoedonarmada

if you have time, i hope you'll take a listen to episode 131. i'm thankful you're here.

yr friend,
russell

ps - for previous top tens, visit episode 079 (2007) and episode 026 (2006)...

Posted by russell at 06:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

the core of tonight's podcast is some absolutely beautiful music by local singer/songwriter kathleen dunbar. the songs are taken from her cd "finally home," and they seem really right for tonight. i want to send a huge thank you to kathleen for letting me share her songs here! if you like what she's doing, i hope visit her at: myspace.com/kathleendunbarmusic.

as i type and reflect on things this week, i'm reminded and struck by how strange structure and order and context feel sometimes. it's interesting to me how ideas and feeling and meaning correlate and interrelate and mix and inform each other. how perceptions change over time. how our understanding of things affects or experience of things. hm. i guess most of this comes from lately having found myself in a good place. but it's come in a funny form - i'm busy, things are crazy, i have no time, i'm pulled in a thousand directions at once. but i also feel like i'm doing the right stuff, and in the right place. it crazy and peaceful. both simultaneously. i don't know if i've ever felt this way before? maybe? but i don't think so. either way, i'm thankful for the feeling.

a lot of my life in the past has been about making mistakes, and questioning, and wondering, and regret and fear. i guess that true for most of us? a lot of us, anyway. and i know i'm still mixed up in all of those uncertainties. i haven't solved any of it. for me, i don't think i'll ever escape or fix that stuff in any conclusive way. each moment is a different set of variables to manage. which seems true. and somehow, strangely, recently, it feels like things've been making a kind of (perhaps illogical or short-lived - but all the same) sense these days. like my mistakes needed to happen. somehow? that they couldn't help but happen. and that it's somehow ok that they're gonna keep happening. i don't know. part of me is embarrassed to say any of this, cuz it's just a feeling. and it's impossible to say the way i feel it. and part of me (this part) knows it's important to try. :)

if you have time, i hope you can take a listen to episode 130.

and don't forget to visit kathleen dunbar at:
myspace.com/kathleendunbarmusic
and, if yr interested, the movie i mentioned is:
adaptation. (2002)

wishing u the best,
russell

Posted by russell at 06:54 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

part two of the interview with useless desires is here! hopefully you had a chance to listen to episode 128 last week - it was a treat, and featured some great live music by local musicians david shear and curt yagi. as they mention tonight, their band useless desires is having a cd release party this upcoming friday night, february 6, at beale street, san francisco (for more details, check their site here). if you didn't get a chance to listen to the first segment of the interview, i hope you'll visit it... and, if you've already listened, hopefully you'll join us again as we continue the conversation...

as a reminder, don't forget:
the useless desires site - uselessdesires.com.
the cd release party this friday at - beale street, san francisco.
curt and his (other) band - curtyagi.com.

the band sends love to:
their graphic artist - terry redfield.
and their studio - snoppy quop studios.

wishing the best,
russell

Posted by russell at 07:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)