52: Women's Soccer
In celebration of the National Women’s Soccer League’s inaugural season, 5 questions on women’s soccer. This week’s music comes from the Subway Music Archive.
30: The Stanley Cup (Rerun)
No new episode this week, as I’m swamped with work. Enjoy this episode from last year on the Stanley Cup. Regular episodes in two weeks’ time.
5 questions on one of the greatest (physical) trophies ever, The Stanley Cup. (I don’t mean the best sporting competition, but it’s close.) Music this week is “Ivy (There’s No Forgetting)” by Tom Fahy from the Free Music Archive. There’s also a bit of “The Crystal Cat” by Dan Deacon used in the preview for next week’s premiere of The Aulos on infinitespace.
51: Game of Thrones Spelling Bee
In lieu of five questions this week on Game of Thrones, a 5-round GoT spelling bee. (N.B.: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS.)
The music pieces this week are all covers of the GoT theme song, composed by Ramin Dajwadi; they are by the following artists:
50: Molly Shannon
5 questions about SNL veteran and perpetual TV guest star Molly Shannon. (Because this podcast is 50! 50 episodes old!)
Music this week is “La Di Da” by Sydney Wayser, via the Free Music Archive.
49: π!
It’s Pi Day (in North America)! 5 questions on one of mathematics’ biggest days.
This week in lieu of music, I’m featuring a stanza from Garrett Buhl Robinson’s epic poem Martha. You can find out more about Garrett’s work here.
Also, I’ve got a new addition to the Subway Music Archive - listen to it here.
48: International Baseball (with Ted Berg)
5 questions on international baseball, in celebration of the World Baseball Classic, which begins next week!
Featured this week in lieu of music is an interview I did with USA Today sports writer/sandwich maven Ted Berg. I got to talk to him about the WBC, his expectations for the Mets this year, being both a fan and a sportswriter, his time in the Jeopardy! contestant pool, and of course, Taco Bell.
The music before the interview was Fax’s “One Minute for the Stars”. Afterwards, it was this Nike ad from 2001.
infinitespace 2x03: Timeline of a Loop
Looping, cycles, repetition - it’s all present in our history, art, literature, and nature. This week in two acts (plus a prologue), how loops affect us all, from every 10 or 20 seconds to every 10,000 years.
We begin at the Staten Island Museum, home to the largest collection of cicadas in North America. Brood II of the 17-year magicicada genus is returning to the East Coast this summer, which the museum is celebrating with a yearlong exhibition and site-specific sculpture piece. I spoke with Alex Bolesta, of the American Museum of Natural History’s Invertebrate Zoology Collection and the SI Museum, about the unique life cycle of those cicadas.
I then talk to K Ishibashi, previously the frontman of Jupiter One, then a touring musician for Of Montreal and Regina Spektor, and now the one-man band that is Kishi Bashi. He uses a loop and effect pedal to not only create orchestral sonic landscapes, but also to mess with time and meter - sort of bringing the sound of a strings section to a dance club.
Finally I speak to Matt Greco, an artist-in-residence at the Museum of Arts and Design and art professor at Queens College, about his series “History Vessels” and the revival of an older artistic ethos.
Special thanks this episode to Alex Bolesta, K Ishibashi, Matt Greco, the Staten Island Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, Kellyn Slone at 2:30 Publicity, Prof. Michael Sugrue, Signe Valentinsson, KEXP and NPR Music.
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The music and sounds for this episode, per usual, come from the Free Music Archive unless otherwise noted.
Sound of a mezzo cicada as recorded by Freesound user Tito Lahaye
“Fiya” by tUnE-yArDs (via NYC Taper, remixed and looped by me)
Snippets of “Atticus, In the Desert” and “I Am the Antichrist to You” by Kishi Bashi, via NPR Music’s recording of his show at the 9:30 Club (available here, used under fair use)
Clip of “Bright Whites” by Kishi Bashi, via KEXP’s recording of his show at CMJ Music Marathon (available here, used under fair use)
“Waiting on the Day” by Tall Tall Trees (used under fair use)
“Aux Puces no. 2: Carosello” by Circus Marcus
Sound of a music box by Freesound user klankbeeld
“Búsqueda exploratoria #007 - Rue Laide Coupe” by Circus Marcus
“Brown Wax Recording” via the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
“Wet Riffs,” via Incompetech
“Plasticities” by Andrew Bird, via the Internet Archive (remixed and looped by me)
To those who subscribe to the ThursTriv Feed, I present to you “Timeline of a Loop,” the latest episode of my other podcast, infinitespace.
47: Broadway Musicals
Two weeks late is 5 questions on Broadway musicals. Music this week is “Maxima and Minima” by Matheatre from Calculus: The Musical.
12: TV of the 2000s (Rerun)
In honor of 30 Rock’s finale - and the fact that I have a bunch of stuff to read this week - I’m re-running this old episode (almost back to the SoundCloud days!) on TV of the 2000s. (Fun note - I believe I mentioned my friend Kerishma Panigrahi in this episode. I have now been dating her nearly the past 13 months. Oh, how time flies.
46: The Peabody Awards
5 questions on the Peabody Awards, possibly my favorite award in media. Music this week is “You Were Cool” by the Mountain Goats via the Internet Archive.
