This episode your favorite bosom buddies are conversing with developer, musician & writer Arturo Vergara about language, influential authors & thinkers, cyberpunk and the value of art criticism.

• We met Arturo on Cupcake.io.
• Interactive fiction games? Design your own using the awkward R.A.G.S. or the HTML-based Twine.
• Arturo encourages everyone to check out Rudy Mancuso.
• Learning about Mexico City.
• Where there hell does Halloween come from, anyway?
• Arturo’s pond project is for synchronizing RSS and Atom feeds. Soon to be renamed so it won’t be mistaken for the other Pond.
• His other project is a self-hosted email server, Postage.
• He was inspired to make Postage in part because of arkOS.
• We talk about the T.P.P. and jkillearn shot us a link in the chat channel. Here it is.
• Arturo suggests searching for David Lynch’s Daily Weather Report on Youtube.
• Paul suggests searching for George Carlin’s Hippy Dippy Weatherman.
• Chris chimes in with Kevin Nealon with News From 10 Feet Away. Of course, he and Arturo can’t watch that clip because of lame copyright laws.
• Austin Kleon presents at SXSW in 2014.
• What’s with that weird hinge on the Surface Book?
• Arturo digs the A Clockwork Orange soundtrack.
• Other cyberpunk movies discussed: The Matrix, Tron & Blade Runner.
• Some other books of note we discussed, cyberpunk & drama flavored:
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
  • Neuromancer
  • Snowcrash
  • The Catcher in the Rye
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower
  • Ready Player One.
• Arturo suggests Android: Netrunner The Card Game.
• The bizarre history The Catcher in the Rye in pop culture.
• Arturo doesn’t like the notion of art critics as “nobody gets to decide what’s good and what’s bad in art.” Chris & Paul discuss ArtPrize.
• Arturo is a part of a reading group that discusses Heidegger and Sartre.
• Wine-tasting: it’s junk science.
• Arturo says Albert Camus was very influential to him.

Thanks to Arturo for joining us at the last minute! It was a pleasure to chat with him. Be sure to check out his site, arturovm.me to find his work and where to stalk him online. Thank you for listening! For more information about the podcast & upcoming shows, check out our Patreon page. You can throw money at us there as well.

Joe Veix is back! We talk giant, square tube TVs, human suffering, the Publik Facebook™ and of course, Truck Nutz.

• Candlebox as reviewed by an angry fan.
• Joe tells us Creed was sued for sucking.
• Joe says we’re doing voicemail wrong and we think he’s right. Misconnected: A Personal History of Voicemail.
• Our guest thinks It’s interesting how gChat (Hangouts), Instant Messenger & Facebook Messenger are similar forms of communication but we use and behave on them differently.
• Badwords the project created by Joe that replaced your cookies with those of bizarre characters. A great way to protect your privacy.
• The weirdness that is geriatric manikins?
• The logic of Truck Nutz?
• Chris dares you to put CarLashes on any trucks you find with nuts.
• What the heck is Tony the Tiger up to now?
• Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.
• Molleindustria makes activist type games to educate folks about our diabolical world. Check out Phone Story to learn where your phone comes from.
• Joe’s Publik Facebook™ project.
• Paul & Joe discuss the issues of online abuse and Twitter.
• Joe gives some great advice for creators/writers near the end of the show. “Do your thing. Don’t chase an audience or fame.”
• Joe mentions that many punk musicians never believed they were part of a revolution or movement. They were just making music they liked.
• Need a space to talk all things horses? Dig Horsechat, yo!

Thanks for listening to the episode! Check out joeveix.com or his twitter account, @joeveix to learn more about our guest. Please peek at our Patreon page and support the podcast for like $1!

Paul & Chris were joined by writer and artist with a last name that people always pronounce wrong, Joe Veix. He discusses his career, joke writing and of course Matthew McConaughey.

• Trade secret from the gas station - OPEC doesn’t set gas prices. In college, Chris’ sister worked at a gas station and was obviously in charge of the price at the pump.
• Writing about K-Pop? Youtube examples.
• System Shock 2, a horror video game.
• Brandacted, a Chrome extension by our guest that blocks brand names.
• Similar to Brandacted, Joe also made Name Swap that gives political candidates a gross name.
• Joe was inspired by the Redskins Web Skin extension.
• Joe says he started out writing “really bad Jack Handy rip-off jokes.”
• Chris and Joe are both fans of Adbusters’ spoofs.
• The gents discuss the over commercialization of Back to the Future Day.
• Chris reviews his Back to the Future Blu-ray set.
• Robert Zemeckis films include: Forrest Gump, Death Becomes Her, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Romancing the Stone.
• Joe wonders if Contact is as bad as people say it is. Bad like Ishtar perhaps?
• Paul points out Matthew McConaughey is in both Contact and Interstellar.
• Joe thinks there are actors who do very similar characters in every movie and yet you still love to watch them. Like Steve Zahn or Peter Lorre.
• Chris says there are others that do that and he can’t stand them, like Joe Pesci.
• Joe’s amazing acting reel.
• The truck commercial genre is full of tropes and Denis Leary.
• A Transformers show with only trucks that can’t transform. A new kids show we pitch. Oh look, there’s a game already.
• Paul educates us on a dirty secret, fake engine noises playing in your car speakers.
• Writing apps for the Mac, Byword or Pages.
• Joe prefers to change the contrast settings and make Pages dark and less distracting.
• Markdown is the way Chris likes to write now.

Thanks for listening to the show and reading these handcrafted notes. Thanks to Joe for taking the time to join us. Be sure to check out his stories on Death and Taxes and his site. Also, please check out our Patreon page and throw money at us. No applause please.

Surprise! Did we kidnap the Larry Bird of podcasting in a bizarre re-enacting of the bad movie, Celtic Pride? Of course not. We’re too lazy. Dan Benjamin joined us to chat about his love of radio, setting the right expectations for your podcast and making better podcasts for listeners.

• Dan thinks Paul sounds really great. It must be that DBX pre-amp & the Onyx 1620i Paul purchased from multiple 5by5 network garage sales.
• Dan usually shares his experience with gear and production on his show Podcast Method.
• Dan loves the surprise of live shows, as in his show with Merlin Mann, Back to Work.
• Our guest remembers reading that Leo Laporte was making a million dollars podcasting and thought, “Surely I can make enough to pay my bills if I work really, really hard.”
• Advice from Dan to us & someone he met at the 2015 Podcast Movement, Make one really good show, first. Then, maybe try another. No need to start a network from the get-go.
• Celebrity podcasts are going to be the moneymakers and have the largest audiences. If you’re not Tim Ferriss or Bill Simmons, do what you love and find a niche.
• Even though Dan Patrick has been very successful, would he be where he is today without getting exposure & connections at ESPN?
• The best model to grow your audience? Here you go.
• Product Hunt is now curating podcasts.
• Speaking of discovery of podcasts, Spotify has a podcast section and Google Play Music will be hosting as well.
• Human curated lists work well, see Apple Music (just for curation, the interface is terrible).
• We’re very thankful Dan made time to talk to us. We were able to catch him before he did episode #151 of Amplified with Jim Dalrymple.

So grateful we had the chance to talk to Dan Benjamin. Thanks Dan! Thanks to you for listening and be sure to check out Dan on twitter, his network 5by5 and all the cool things he makes. Feel like supporting the show? Tell a friend and have a look at our sexy rewards on Patreon.

It’s part deux with Taryn Arnold from Patreon! As the conversation continues from the last show they discuss educational videos, the art of interviewing, Ace of Base, Tamagotchi, and bad accents.

• Paul works with the creator of Graphtreon, a tool to track the progress of creators on Patreon. Taryn says it is a fav around the office.
• Taryn loves so many things on Patreon. She mentions Crash Course, In a Nutshell, and How To Adult shows.
• We review Taryn’s test Patreon page.
• California is great! Well, except for the Earthquakes. Taryn is not a fan of those. San Andreas is real, yo!
• Montreal Sauce is no This American Life, but we do enjoy a good story.
• I like juice, the progenitor podcast.
• Chris asks a loaded question, “Please tell me you are playing Neko Atsume?”
• Now you miss your Tamagotchi, don’t you?
• Time to do a reno? You need Holmes on Homes.

QUIZ TIME!

Let’s learn about Sweden!

• The Swedish Chef makes poutine in Montreal.
• It’s The Final Countdown so take a Joyride because It’s All That She Wants.
• Godzilla rocks with Green Day. Remix!
• Lingonberry is your jam.
• Taryn thinks Chris sounds like Goofy in the first part. This episode he’s doing Wreck-it Ralph.
• Flavor Flav!

Thanks so much to Taryn Arnold for chatting and laughing with us! Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to check out Calling All Creators with Taryn, and the amazing Patreon site. Go hire OldManSteve at fiverr! You can support us at patreon.com/msauce.