The Double Feature podcast with Jim Farris and Douglas Lain is landing here, on the Diet Soap podcast feed, until it finds it's own home. This is a bit different from the Former People podcast in so much as it isn't as high brow and will take a look at more B pictures and middle brow fare. It is also different in so much as Jim Farris is a grumpy old man with a history in Hollywood whose knowledge of movies and movie history is extensive rather than a poet or an aesthete or something else grand like that.

The films reviewed in this first podcast are Franklin J. Schaffner's "Planet of the Apes," and JJ Abram's "Cloverfield."

On Cloverfield Farris believes that the film comments on 9/11 in the way Godzilla commented on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whereas I believe the film fails to comment on anything but affirms our cultural narcissism through its single camera perspective.

Both of us enjoyed Planet of the Apes quite a lot, especially Heston's performance. Cut from this episode is a discussion of the character Nova because Douglas liked this character too much and it made everybody sick to their stomach to listen to him talk about her.

The guest this week is the philosophy professor and no good commie David Blacker. Blacker is the author of the book "The Falling Rate of Learning" from Zero Books, but this week we discuss his vacation to Cairo Egypt and why he hates anarchists. Blacker is a regular guest and I was glad to talk to him again.

I want to thank John L, John Spillane, Andy M, and Jacob L for their recurring donations to the podcast and to thank Jake C for making a one time donation to the podcast. And urge everyone who enjoys Diet Soap to consider pressing on the paypal buttons and dietsoap.podomatic.com. You can also follow me on twitter, friend me on Facebook, send me an email through my website which is doulgaslain.com.

As some of you may have heard I have started writing a book called "How to Watch Star Trek" for Blacker's publisher Zero Books, and I hope to share excerpts from the book as I go along. I also hope to talk to Andrew Kliman, Daniel Coffeen, Andy Marshall, Jason Horsley, and Margaret Kimberley in the weeks to come and maybe even talk to some new people as well. I'd really like to interview the author Jonathan Crary whose book 24/7 describes my life, for instance, and I also hope to land an interview with the editor at Verso who recently released a collection of Althusser's essays. There will also be more film podcasts from Former People and a new possibly recurring movie podcast with my friend Jim Farris.

The music you're listening to right now is Steve Martin's King Tut as performed by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, but in just a moment you'll be listening to David Blacker and I discuss An Egyptian Impasse/After the Impossible.

Due to lack of sleep and poor sound quality on a recording for the Avant Garde edition of Former People I am rerunning an episode of a now defunct podcast I created with my son Benjamin. This is episode three and we discussed Edouard Manet's "The Rue Mosnier with Flags," Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann's renovation and modernization of Paris in the mid 19th century, and the notion of a dérive.

In the weeks to come on Diet Soap I will be running a conversation with Jason Horsley, David Blacker, Andy Marshall and I hope to talk to Pat Cadigan. I also hope to create podcasts that will track my progress with my book, "How to Watch Star Trek" which I need to write and submit to Zero Books.

According to wikipedia: "The Rue Mosnier Decked with Flags depicts red, white, and blue pennants covering buildings on either side of the street; another painting of the same title features a one-legged man walking with crutches.

Benjamin and I discuss this second painting in this episode.

The guest this week is Dr. Jason Adams. Jason Adams is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Global Center for Advanced Studies and the author of the book Occupy Time: Technoculture, Immediacy, and Resistance after Occupy Wall Street, a book that came out from Palgrave late last year. Jason and I discussed the difference between what is happening now and what is instantaneous or immediate, we talked about resistance as opposed to revolution and, at my insistence, we talked about time travel.

I want to thank Andy Marshall, Jacob L, John L, Ted F and John Spillane for donating as regular subscribers. John Spillane just signed up as a subscriber or recurring donor and Andy Marshall donated both as a subscriber and with a one time generous donation. And if you're listening and haven't given to the podcast before but like what you hear and would like to donate you can find the paypal buttons and dietsoap.podomatic.com. Also, as Andy will tell you, the continuing Hegel workshops are doing just that, continuing, and becoming a regular or recurring donor is the best way to get an invite to join in. In fact, I need to make sure John Spillane is invited aboard.

Speaking of reading I recently finished a new short story and I thought I'd share it with the first five or so people who ask for a copy either through Facebook or by email.

The music you're listening to right now is the Pennsylvania Polka from the movie Groundhog's Day. The comic actor and film director Harold Ramis died a few days back and this week's podcast is dedicated to him and his masterpiece. Groundhog's Day, as a movie about Repetition and Difference, would be a great movie to watch as a follow up for this episode I think. So you might check to see if it's streaming on Netflix or somewhere, but right now get ready to listening to Jason Adams and I discuss How to Occupy Time.

This week marks the death of the podcast "Pop the Left" and the birth of a new podcast called "Pop the Program." Varn has grown tired of the left, profoundly tired of it, but he enjoys conversing about all manner of subjects with me, and in an effort to keep the conversation going we've renamed our joint effort. What you can expect in the future are conversations about literature, art, music, philosophy, and perhaps even conversations about dead white dudes like Marx or Guy Debord, but "the Left" will no longer be our primary subject.

This week, at the outset, we discuss the revolutionary ideas in Richard Linklater's 2001 film "Waking Life," and as such this first episode is a transitional podcast. It was recorded for "Pop the Left" but edited as the first episode of "Pop the Program."

Back in 2001 Roger Ebert celebrated Linklater's film and its release: "Waking Life" could not come at a better time. Opening in these sad and fearful days after Sept. 11, it celebrates a series of articulate, intelligent characters who seek out the meaning of their existence and do not have the answers. At a time when madmen think they have the right to kill us because of what they think they know about an afterlife, which is by definition unknowable, those who don't know the answers are the only ones asking sane questions.

Next Page