Mundanity Podcast

Not Gonna Lie Teaser Ep #2: Getting Windows Started

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 14:49:13 +0000

Hello all! We drawing closer to officially unveiling our new podcast next month, and we celebrate that, the recent eclipse, and the joys of updating Windows in our final teaser episode. We look forward to joining you on a regular basis soon!

Cheers,

JLo, Nick, and Shawn

Not Gonna Lie To You: Teaser Ep 1

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 16:00:00 +0000

Hello kids, long time no pod. We are not quite ready to re-launch our podcast full time under our new name, Not Gonna Lie to You, but we wanted to give you a little taste of our new format. Be aware that there's going to be a little more salty language in the podcast going forward, so fair warning.

JLo was chomping at the bit to talk about Edgar Wright's fantastic new film, Baby Driver, so we got together to record a glowing review. It's a total blast, and you should definitely go see it this week when it comes out.

Enjoy this sneak preview, and we're looking forward to bringing you our new podcast in the very near future!

Cheers!

JLo, Nick, and Shawn

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 03:43:25 +0000

2 years ago today, the Mundanity Podcast was unleashed upon an unprepared and unsuspecting world, so happy anniversary to us! We celebrate by welcoming back Voice of the Listener and pretty much official third chair Nick Parrucci to discuss the upcoming Star Wars Celebration Orlando, the fantastic first season of LEGION, catch up with some of our other favorite shows, and complain about the Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer. (#Spoilermuch?)

We thank you even more than usual for putting up with us for two years! Much love to you all...

Jim and Shawn (and Nick)

Episode 85: High Brow

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 04:06:20 +0000

In retrospect, my friends, when you willingly turn the keys of the podcast over to Voice of the Listener and professional provocateur, Mr. Nick Parrucci, you really shouldn't be surprised when he comes up with ideas like "hey, why don't you guys take the Proust Questionnaire", but here we are, surprised nonetheless. We transport you back to the fashionable salons of 19th Century Paris with talk of literature, favorite virtues, heavily edited curse words, haute cuisine, and Peter Cetera. It's a wild, wild ride, so thanks for coming along with us.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn and Nick

Episode 84: OSCAR Picks!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 23:12:34 +0000

On this episode of the podcast, we attempt to answer the age old question, "Can you make OSCAR picks if you haven't actually seen any of the movies nominated?" We answer that with an emphatic "Yes, we can!" In fact, we would argue that our analysis is all that much more impressive because of that fact.

By popular demand we welcome back third chair and voice of the listener Nick Parrucci to help us forecast the Academy Award winners, as well as name our all-time "Roll in Vegas Squad," in honor of Mr. Parrucci's impending triumphant return to Sin City next month.

As always, we appreciate you listening!

Jim and Shawn (and Nick)

Episode 83: Fake Podcast!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 00:57:13 +0000

We are joined by a very special guest for this episode, as longtime voice of the (infrequent) listener, Mr. Nick Parrucci reprises his role as third chair this week. Things start of on a light note, as we draft our all-time "squad" to fight an unknown evil, and of course delve into a little Star Wars talk. You know, the usual stuff for about the first 55 minutes. After that, however, things get a little political, as we break from the mold to discuss "fake news", the current state of politics, and Donald Trump. (Spoiler: if you are die hard fan of 45, you might want to sit this one out.)

Cheer, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn (and Nick)

Episode 82: Five Takes

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:56:25 +0000

Welcome back to the Mundanity podcast, and this one is chock full of spoilers. We talk the (series?) finale of Sherlock, episodes of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Flash, and spend way too much time trying to glean anything we can from the reveal of the Star Wars Episode VIII title (The Last Jedi). Plus, Shawn's adventures in grooming!

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 81: Stud Finder

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 18:19:17 +0000

Greetings all! It's a birthday episode of the Mundanity Podcast, as this one was recorded on the 25th* anniversary of Jim being forced upon an unsuspecting world. To celebrate, we discuss movies that we'd love to see on the big screen, Episode 2 of Sherlock (The Lying Detective), the season premiere of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and hipster foods.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Update: It's confirmed! Jim does own original theatrical versions of the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. The fact that he stumbled upon these blindly is in now way making Shawn grind his teeth in anger at this very moment.

*possible alternative fact

Episode 80: Rogue One

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:51:45 +0000

Greetings and happy 2017 from the Mundanity podcast! Now that Shawn has managed to free himself from the mountain of pops and toys that he received over Christmas, we are back after our holiday hiatus with our review of the terrific Rogue One, and some remembrances of the great Carrie Fisher. We also take a look at the first episode of season 4 of Sherlock, as well as talk briefly about the Doctor Who Christmas special. Spoilers abound for all three of these, so consider yourself well and truly warned.

Thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 79: Christmas Throwdown!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 18:24:41 +0000

I'm not going to lie to you (ding!), we recorded this podcast right after Thanksgiving, and I nearly forgot about it thanks to an untimely illness and the general holiday hustle and bustle. This pod though tackles one of the great existential questions of our time, though: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? It's a heated discussion as Shawn and I debate this most important of all holiday issues.

We also chat about our favorite holiday traditions, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and made some predictions about Rogue One (no spoilers, we don't say whether they came true or not!).

Wishing you all a festival holiday and new year! Thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 78: Old and Scared

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 19:44:11 +0000

Here's our Black Friday gift to you, a solid hour of stream of consciousness conversation that hits everything from The Orange Menace to the overall comfiness of Sketchers shoes, with some Star Wars Rebels and ways to blast defiant teens back to the technology dark ages.

We hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving holiday. Even in this never-ending dumpster fire that is 2016 we have much to be thankful for, so enjoy your time with friends and family and give thanks for what you have.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 77: Goodbye, The Walking Dead

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 16:33:12 +0000

It's been a rough week for a lot of America, so we felt it was our duty as podcasters to try and bring a little levity and positivity into the world. And what better way to do that than to permanently ban that bastion of negativity and mediocrity otherwise known as The Walking Dead from our show for good. So goodbye, Rick, Darryl, Carol and Coral. After this episode we shall never speak of you again.

We dedicate the rest of the episode to a (non-spoiler) review of Marvel's excellent Doctor Strange, catching up on the latest Netflix offerings, Shawn's always entertaining movies on a plane adventures, and blaming the Cubs for everything that has gone bad in 2016.

As always, thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 76: Last Pennant Before Armageddon

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 01:33:11 +0000

Nobody has ever accused us being timely, and there's no better example than this episode. We spend the first 5 minutes or so marveling at the Chicago Cubs making the World Series (don't worry, nerd-dom, this isn't a sports episode), when this episode is being edited and released during Game 7 of said World Series. If you do the math, that's about a week and a half between recording and releasing. Whelp, these things happen when you have a coupe of busy go getters on the mic.

We like to describe this episode as a couple of friends who haven't talked much over the past few weeks sitting around and catching up. We hit on a bunch of topics, including the writings of W.P. Kinsella, the passing of a great comedian, Kevin Meeney (you suck 2016), a couple of movie reviews from the plane (Shawn voluntarily watched Independence Day: Resurgence and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates), and the first six episode of Marvel's Luke Cage (spoiler alert!).

Cheers, and we thank you for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 75: October Surprise!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 02:47:04 +0000

I was really tempted to title this episode "Ken Bone", because we are not above trying to latch on to the latest trends. Instead, "October Surprise" seems appropriate since it was getting to be really doubtful that we going to be able to get this episode recorded. Never fear though, we are back, and talking all kinds of things, including Hurricane Matthew, X-Men: First Class, Mr. Robot, Microsoft MVPs, e-mail signatures, Zootopia, Westworld, Benedict Cumberbatch, Planet of the Apes, Spring Breakers, silent movies, and the new streaming service, Filmstruck. Enjoy the ride...

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 74: Set Your Phasers For Fun!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 11:00:00 +0000

With the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, we could think of no better guest to have on to help fill the void of my utter lack of knowledge than Star Trek super fan and voice of listener, Nick Parrucci. We talk about the impact of the show, rank the movies, and play a super fun and not at all overly long quiz devised by Shawn.

After an hour of that, we chat a little Stranger Things and 80 nostalgia, and wrap things up with our ubiquitous Pokemon Go discussion. Good times.

Fair warning, this episode is longer than most. So sit back, get comfy, and enjoy!

Live long and...prosper?

Jim and Shawn (and Nick)

Episode 73: Gene Wilder

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 12:00:00 +0000

2016, just stop it already. Seriously, cut it out. Bowie, Rickman, and Prince weren't enough for you? You had to go and take the great Gene Wilder too?

We mark the passing of one of our favorite actors by revealing some of our favorite Wilder moments and films, as well as get a Pokemon Go update from Shawn, discuss the bumper crop of movies and originals coming to Netflix in September, and recap the last two episodes of Mr. Robot (prior to the episode that aired Wednesday night, September 7, so worry about spoilers if you haven't seen the latest ep yet).

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 72: Stranger Things

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 02:42:57 +0000

Hey, we're back! Did you miss us after our unplanned sabbatical last week? To make it up to you, we're coming back strong and talking about one of our favorite television shows in a very long time, the tons of fun Netflix series Stranger Things. We round the hour out with a Mr. Robot recap, and some sundry movie news, including the new Rogue One trailer, Spider-Man: Homecoming casting news, and bets on how soon the Harry Potter films get rebooted.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 71: Unfortunate Harley Quinns

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 23:52:24 +0000

This episode is kind of a big deal for three reasons: 1.) It's a "recorded live" ep, since I was in Tampa for TB Comic Con and was able to get some live podding done while there 2). The run time of this entire episode is shorter than some of our Pokemon GO updates from previous weeks 3). This is the first episode in I don't know how long to get posted relatively close to our normal schedule. Huzzah!

We went in to this ep with the intention of being tight and focused, and doggone it, we did it! In under 40 minutes we give you a run down of our visit to Tampa Bay Comic Con, a review of Star Trek Beyond, and, sometime in between, Shawn unloads a pile of vitriol and righteous score upon Suicide Squad (spoiler alert: he didn't like it).

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 70: Accio Adderall

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 16:56:35 +0000

Welcome to episode 70 of The Mundanity podcast! This week, we wish a very happy birthday to one Harry James Potter, honoring the birth of The Chosen One by ranking the Harry Potter Movies from worst to first. We also take the weekly pulse of Pokemon GO, discuss the new Avengers: Infinity War updates, catch up one Mr. Robot, and preview our trip to Tampa Bay Comic Con. We'll return next week with a summary of our adventures, as well as a review of Suicide Squad.

Cheer, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 69: (Comic) CONNNNNNN!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 03:16:02 +0000

Cards on the table time here: this episode is all over the place. We will freely admit that. In our defense, however, we recorded this episode on the Saturday of San Diego Comic Con, and trailers and news were literally breaking as we recorded, so we got a little off track. We talk all the trailers and news from the weekend, including an inordinate amount of time freaking out about the Brie Larson (Envy Adams 4 EVAAAA) is Captain Marvel news. Plus, our now legendary recap of the week in Pokemon GO continues!

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 68: Pokemon GO!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 03:26:26 +0000

Never let it be said that we won't jump on a trend and ride it for all it is worth. Yes, we spend the first 30 minutes+ of this episode talking about Pokemon. One of us is playing (Can you guess which one? The answer will not shock you.), and the other is merely being roundly ignored by his family while they play round the clock. Afterwards we talk about movies Shawn say on a plane (the Jake the Snake Roberts documentary), the lovely and talented Mary Elizabeth Winstead and BrainDead, the awesome season premiere of Mr. Robot (big spoiler alert!), as well as the news out of Star Wars Celebration.

As always, cheers, thanks for listening, and good luck finding a Snorlax.

Jim and Shawn

Episode 67: Flip-Flopped

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 16:15:09 +0000

You may notice some strange things about this episode. First off, it's late, so our apologies for that. It's been all kinds of a crazy week. Secondly, we identified this episode as #66 in the bumper, but then decided to release our Game of Thrones wrap up before this one, so we flip-flopped the order and created all kinds of continuity chaos, which somehow seems to fit with our way of doing things.

Anyway, this was a really fun, if slightly long episode, featuring our long awaited wrap up of Orphan Black, a rather unique review of the Pixar hit, Finding Dory, a classic movie rewind of the 1970s Roger Corman classic, Death Race 2000, some general fawning over Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and much, much more.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 66: The Winds of Winter

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 08:39:22 +0000

Hello friends. The episode of the podcast is solely dedicated to wrapping up season of Game of Thrones, as we go full on spoiler to recap the final two episodes of the season, "The Battle of the Bastards" and the finale, "The Winds of Winter". We try to make some predictions about where the show goes from here, so consider yourself warned for the spoilers within. Also, I try my best to warn the public about the gut and soul destroying horror of the Burger King "Mac n' Cheeto," a creation that not even Maester Qybrun would dare consider bringing to life.

Cheers, and thanks for listening.

Jim and Shawn

Episode 65: Old School Random

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 20:52:42 +0000

For this episode of the podcast, we're going old school random, and jumping back and forth between television, movies, airplanes, The Rock's physique, the general unpleasantness of Janis Joplin, the ubiquity of OJ Simpson, and Father's Day plans. We talk in varying degrees about Central Intelligence, Finding Dory, Amy, OJ: Made in America, Preacher, The Lady in the Van, and of course, S6 E8 of Game of Thrones. (not E9, The Battle of the Bastards, so no spoilers from Sunday's episode).

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 64: Don't Call Me Shirley

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 22:32:33 +0000

Welcome to episode 64 of the Mundanity podcast! Thanks to Shawn's travels we are able to debut a new segment this week, entitled "Movies I Saw On a Plane", featuring one good (Creed) and one bad (Victor Frankenstein). I sneak in a reminder about how bad Jurassic Park II: The Lost World is, we talk our favorite monster movies, and reminisce about one of the funniest movies of all time, Airplane!, in the classic movie rewind section. We'll be back to chat Game of Thrones next week (spoiler: we are NOT happy).

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 63: Valar Exposition

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 03:51:55 +0000

Hey, it's another TV-centric episode of the Mundanity podcast. This week we talk about some of our favorite TV memories of the late and very, very great Muhammad Ali, debate our six desert island TV shows for the long haul, and recap S6 E6 of Game of Thrones. There's a lot of old characters back, so it's time to break out some not so discreetly placed exposition, lest we forget who is lingering in House Fray's dungeons. Thanks to our schedule, we are one week behind on GoT eps, so you can listen without fear of spoilers for E7, which aired Sunday, June 5.

Cheers,

Jim and Shawn

Episode 62: Apocalypse Now?

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 14:30:21 +0000

Happy June, and happy belated Memorial Day! In this episode I listen patiently and enjoy a fine beverage while Shawn reviews X-Men 367: Yet Another One! (on second thought, that might not be the title), before launching into a discussion of our favorite Apocalypse movies, including Dr. Strangelove, The World's End, Mad Max, The Day After, and more. Then we wrap up with an overview of our favorite Memorial Day films, including talk about how World War II became the default conflict for classic war movies.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 61: Hold The Door

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Sat, 28 May 2016 19:47:47 +0000

Just when you think Game of Thrones has gone a little soft, dare I say hopeful even, what with John and Sansaa's reunion and The Mother of Dragon's shaking off her Dothraki captors, they go ahead and drop an episode like The Door just to remind you who is boss and snuff all that joy right out. We provide a little needed post-episode therapy session to try and get you through the tough times. Needless to say there are major spoilers ahead for S6 E5 of GoT, so proceed with caution. Along the way, we rant about obnoxious bikers, idiotic Marvel comic plot lines, confusing movie trailers, and racing to kids' after school events, so it's a pretty fun ride if I do say so myself.

As always, we thank you for listening.

Jim and Shawn

Episode 60: Rise of Emily

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 24 May 2016 17:13:53 +0000

You might notice that our podcast has a very different sound this week, and that's because we have a guest co-host sitting in with Shawn. The lovely and talented Emily Tabor makes her second chair debut on the podcast! And boy howdy she does a bang up job keeping her dad in check and debuting a new segment called "Movies I Saw For Free", where she reviews movies that she saw gratis thanks to boys of eligible dating age in the Tampa Bay area. I'm off pedaling my bike for charity this episode, but will be back for the Game of Thrones therapy session we all need and deserve later in the week. Enjoy Cinema Mundanité, The EmTab Edition!

Cheers,

Jim and Shawn and Emily

Episode 59: Torienne or Briemund?

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 19 May 2016 19:26:08 +0000

We are all kinds of excited this week to talk some more Game of Thrones, including the latest on the newest Westerosi power couple, Brienne & Tormund. So, should we just call them Torienne or Briemund? Whatever you decide, you simply can't deny the raw, animal attraction those two kids displayed last Sunday whilst lunching at Castle Black. Oh yeah, and a couple of other things happened, but you'll have to listen to the pod to find, because, you know, spoilers and all. Consider yourself warned if you have not yet watched GoT S6 E4, Book of the Stranger. Some big doings there, for sure.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Episode 58: TV Carnage

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Sun, 15 May 2016 14:07:44 +0000

It was a pretty brutal week in the world of television, as the major networks swung the axe with impunity and cancelled several of your favorite shows, including Agent Carter, The Grinder, Castle, and Nashville. ABC even took the unusual step of preemptively canceling the meticulously setup Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D spinoff, Marvel's Most Wanted. We discuss this carnage, as well as catching up on our Game of Clones favorites by recapping the last two episodes of Orphan Black, as well the Game of Thrones episode, Oathbreaker.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 57: Summer Movie Preview!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 10 May 2016 14:44:37 +0000

It's that time again kids; time for the Mundanity podcast Summer Movie Preview, where we run through the upcoming movie offerings and give you the lowdown on the films that we think you should spend your hard-earned money to see in the theaters. We look at most of the big summer blockbusters (which, quite frankly, are looking a little limp on the vine), as well as some promising but lesser known films that don't serve to get lost in the shuffle. We also give you our (spoiler-free) impressions of the latest Marvel offering, Captain America: Civil War (hint, it's fantastic), including some man-on-the-street feedback from our roving reporter Steve Rivera, check in from the Captain America marathon screenings last week.

Cheers and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 56: I Drink And I Know Things

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 06 May 2016 18:45:07 +0000

Welcome to our weekly television recap episode, what we like to call Game of Clones, only this week, with no clones. With major apologies to the Sestras, there was so much to recap and unpack from S6 E2 of Game of Thrones that we just did not have the time needed to do an Orphan Black review justice, so we'll over two episodes next week most likely to get caught up. There were a lot of questions asked and answered this week on Thrones, such as:

Which shave club does the Three-Eyed Raven prefer?
How exactly do you get blood and smashed skull out of a King's Landing alleyway (and Castle Black courtyard, for that matter) wall?
Should you let Ramsey Bolton hold your newborn baby?

And then there was some minor, trifling thing about Jon Snow. I forget what exactly, but I don't think it was anything major.

Obviously, tread lightly if you are looking to avoid GoT spoilers.

We thank you for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 55: Cinema Mundanité

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 04 May 2016 19:11:22 +0000

Welcome to the movie-themed portion of our podcast week, Cinema Mundanité. Sounds fancy, no? As if our houses have many leather-bound books and smell of rich mahogany. This week, Shawn previews the upcoming week in film, including a small, promising indie number called Captain America: Civil War. We both think this one has a shot to make good!

Shawn also recounts his experience watching, and honestly, I really can't believe that I'm typing this, the film Mother's Day, which was apparently directed by the corpse of Garry Marshall, and stars Julia Roberts' wig. We close out the episode in a more positive fashion revisiting the classic children's film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which as it turns out is just a Bond film with a spoonful of sugar and Dick Van Dyke.

We do hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 54: Game of Clones!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 23:56:45 +0000

Welcome to the first of our experiment in formatting, as we are splitting our podcast into two, shorter television and film centric episodes each week. We're still the Mundanity podcast, but we're nicknaming the television episode Game of Clones, after two of our favorite shows (and the two we are recapping this week), Game of Thrones and Orphan Black. We hope you enjoy the new format, and would love to hear some feedback from you about what you like or do not like about the change.

Listener beware, spoilers for S6 Ep 1 of Game of Thrones and S4 Ep 3 of Orphan Black are ahead.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 53: Purple Rain

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

When somebody as iconic as Prince dies, you basically drop everything and make sure you talk about it on the podcast. Unfortunately this kind of thing keeps happening in 2016, so it feels like our podcast could be doubling as the Oscars In Memoriam segment. Prince demands and deserves his due though, so we dedicate a segment of the pod to his unique legacy in music. We also discuss the latest episode of Orphan Black, wrap up an exceptional season of Better Call Saul (despite what Shawn says about Chuck), quickly preview Game of Thrones, and make a special announcement that allows me to make one of my favorite clone-related puns ever.

As always, thanks for listening!

Batman V Superman Spoiler Podcast!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Hey, it's a bonus episode of the podcast this week! We sit down with an entire panel of guests for our Batman V Superman spoiler episode. Our thanks to Nick, Emily, Steve, and Chris for joining us to discuss pretty much everything about the film, from Ben Affleck's portrayal of Batman to Zach Snyder's inability to tell a coherent story. There was a wide variety of opinion about the film on the line, and it made for a really interesting conversation.

We hope you enjoy this bonus episode of the podcast!

Cheers

Jim and Shawn (and Nick and Emily and Chris and Steve)

Episode 52: Trailers, Lawyers, and Clones!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 16:03:18 +0000

On this episode of the Mundanity podcast, we welcome back frequent guest and voice of the listener, Nick Parrucci, who joins us to talk about the two new trailers for films that we are pretty chuffed to see later this year, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Doctor Strange. We also wrap up a couple of excellent episodes of Better Call Saul as it marches towards its season finale tonight (Monday), and introduce a new weekly segment reviewing Orphan Black, including JLo's Weekly Clone Power Rankings^TM (here's a hint - if Alison is in the episode, she will be ranked high). To kick things off, I subject Shawn and Nick to one of my periodic quizzes, mainly because I'm very easily entertained and enjoy making the veins in Shawn's head bulge out.

Thanks so much for listening!

Cheers,

Jim and Shawn (and Nick)

Episode 51: Shawn Rules April

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 00:07:40 +0000

We hope you all enjoyed our little nostalgia trip last week as we celebrated our one year anniversary. Some of those episodes seem to us like they were recorded 1000 years ago on some far off, alien world (and sound that way too).

We get back into the normal swing of things this month with a Shawn-dominated things we're looking forward to in April episode, where we preview the TV, film, and music that we are most looking forward to this month (spoiler, it's basically Game of Thrones). We also chat briefly about the, um, shall we say "divisive" The Walking Dead finale, Shawn's dwindling Pop Vinyl collection, and my sudden aversion to pasta.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Mundanity Classics: Episode 27

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Note: Our anniversary week celebration winds up with the release of our final classic episode, this one recorded live with our friends at Ten10 Brewery in Orlando on October 5, 2015. It should be subtitled, Shawn Learns About Beer, so you know it's a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone for your support over the past year! We look forward to many more.

As somebody relatively famous once said, and now for something completely different…

We had such a great time visiting our friends at Ten10 Brewing Company and talking to bartender extraordinaire and all around great guy Gordon Jackman about craft beer and the brewing process. We sampled several of the fine offerings from Ten10, and gave Shawn bit of an education on the subject in the process. Much to the surprise of Mr. “Beer Should Taste Like Beer”, Shawn discovered that he liked basically everything that we threw at him, which just goes to show (again) that he should always listen to his partner in pod (at least when it comes to food and drink).

Mundanity Classics: Episode 15

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Note: This week we celebrate our one year podcast anniversary, and to celebrate we are releasing our five favorite classic episodes from over the past year. This one, which first aired on July 13, 2015, is a lot of fun, so it was a no-brainer for inclusion. We hope you enjoy it, and thanks for much for listening!

We are not going to lie to you, this episode was just a whole lot of fun, and it is probably no coincidence this is one of the shorter pods that we have recorded. We talk about some of the news and trailers coming out of Comic-Con, including Doctor Who, Star Wars, Sherlock, and Ash vs. Evil Dead. We talk in-depth about our bracket to determine the greatest comic book movie of all time, including our predictions for which films will still be there when the dust clears (Spider-Man II better be there, just saying). Also, our update on Shawn’s health leads to a Charity Miles Challenge, and, in a giddy fit of solidarity, one of us giving up beer (doh!).

We will be tracking our running, walking, and biking miles using the Charity Miles app and seeing who can raise the most money for the Wound Warrior Project and Habitat For Humanity. At the end of the year the winner will surely gloat up a storm, but regardless we will hopefully raise a lot of money for this two worthy causes. We are encouraging anyone who wants to join us to download the Charity Miles app for their respective app store and use it while exercising. You can select a from among the participating charities and Charity Miles will direct money to that charity based on the number of miles you put in. What could be easier?

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Mundanity Classics: Episode 13

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Note: Happy anniversary to us! One year ago today, the very first Mundanity podcast episode aired, and the world was changed indelibly. To celebrate, we are releasing five classic episodes from the Mundanity vaults, this one from June 29, 2015. It is notable for featuring the single most disturbing yet hilarious story of childhood trauma by Mr. Tabor that, in retrospect, explains so very much about how he ended up the hairy-footed man-child/hobbit that he is today. We hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane with us, and thanks so very much for listening.

No, not the James Bond villain. On this episode we’re celebrating the 40th birthday of one of the great summer films of all time, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. In honor, we run through some of our favorite horror/suspense movies, from Alien to Suspiria, and along the way Shawn tells one of the most disturbing intersections of childhood and Searching for Mister Goodbar ever. EVER. Trust me on this one. In addition, we play a game with America’s most extreme restaurant items of 2015, which quite frankly is way more frightening than any of the movies we talk about on the pod. Thank you, Cheesecake Factory! You’re the gift that keeps on giving.

Mundanity Classics: Episode 5

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Note: As part of our one-year anniversary celebration, we are releasing five classic episodes from the Mundanity vaults this week. This is episode 5, featuring our first guest appearance by our Official Youth Liaison, Emily Tabor! We hope you enjoy this episode, which first aired on May 4, 2015, and thanks so much for listening!

Episode 5 of the Mundanity podcast is here, and it’s completely on fleek! (Don’t worry, people over the age of 25. Listen and that sentence will eventually make sense.) This week the guys talk about some of their favorite live music, including Jim’s selfie-laden adventures at the recent Wilco show in Orlando, and the second half of Netflix’s amazing Daredevil series. They also welcome their first special guest, the lovely and talented Emily Tabor! You’ll not soon forget Emily quizzing the guys on their knowledge of the language of today’s youth, Alex Trebek-style. It’s podcast gold, my friends!

Many thanks again to Travel Time with Mickey & Universal for sponsoring this episode, and to our friends The Gita for the awesome theme music.

Cheers and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Mundanity Classics: Episode 1

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Note: To celebrate our one year anniversary, we are releasing five of our favorite "classic" episodes this week from over the past year. This is our very first podcast, which first saw the light of day April 6, 2015. Either we were extremely nervous or just unaware that it was ok to vary the inflection of our voices. We hope you enjoy and thanks for listening!

Hello!

We are really excited to present to you our little podcast. Where else are you going to hear two middle age white guys give their opinions on stuff?

In episode 1 we introduce ourselves a bit, talk about the genesis of the podcast name, name our five time capsule films, and then talk in depth about House of Cards Season 3, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Better Call Saul. We then preview three of the upcoming blockbuster movies: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mad Max: Fury Road, and SPECTRE.

We hope you like it, but let us know what you think regardless! We hope you to be up on iTunes soon, but for now, enjoy here!

NOTE: This should be obvious, but there are spoilers in here for HoC, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Better Call Saul, so tread lightly.

Cheers,

Jim and Shawn

Episode 50: Batman V Superman

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 18:42:54 +0000

50 episodes! What the what? We never would have guessed when we started this is podcast a year ago that we would make it to five episodes, must less 50. I must say, this is one of the best yet, even if it rumbles, bumbles, and stumbles at times, especially towards the end. Consider it a podcast tribute to the narrative style of our primary segment, a non-spoiler discussion of the Zach Snyder-helmed juggernaut, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Even though we have a lot of common ground of opinion about the film, it's safe to say that we pretty thoroughly disagree about the final product. We also provide a non-spoiler review of S2 of Daredevil, and then drop the spoiler theme for a review of another Netflix series, House of Cards. (Spoiler, that segment goes completely off the rails, digressing into discussions of Conan: The Barbarian, Penny Dreadful, and, somehow, the movies of Andie McDowell.

As always, we thank you for listening. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 49: When a Spoiler Isn't a Spoiler

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 00:34:54 +0000

To kick off episode 49, we welcome back our special youth correspondent, Emily Tabor, for her review of 10 Cloverfield Lane. Nominally this is a spoiler review, but such is her righteous fury with it that we're still not quite sure what the movie is about. It's not a spoiler to say, at least, that she did care for it. This episode also contains a moment that I was sure would come, though perhaps not so soon: Shawn watches and enjoys The Americans, now with 100% more gloating theme song. We close out by catching up on our Better Call Saul recaps, and take a brief look at a rejuvenated season of House of Cards.

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 48: Underoos!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 11:00:00 +0000

This was the week of the trailer, with both the Captain America: Civil War and Game of Thrones S6 trailers dropping, and we realize, with your busy and fulfilling lives, you may not have time to give these the careful scrutiny that they deserve. Never fear, though, because we break them both down for you and provide the kind of frame by frame analysis normally reserved for conspiracy theorists trying to prove an insane connection between the Kennedy assassination and global financial markets. We also discuss the hive of scum and villainy that is Hot Topic, the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.'s Out of Time, and donut shop clerks assuming everyone with grey hair gets a senior discount. We close with one last goodbye to the Lord Grantham & Co with our look at the final Downton Abbey. With all of that going on, there's little surprise that we needed to push our Better Call Saul recap back a week.

Plus: OUR NEW LOGO IS AWESOME. Thanks, Jeremy! @jeremylindstrom #teamcap #teamironman

Cheers,

Jim and Shawn

Episode 47: Shawn Discovers Music!

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Are you sitting down? You're not going to believe this, but in this episode Shawn discovers music recorded after the year 1987, and it is glorious! We also pay tribute to writer and South Carolina's favorite son, Pat Conroy, preview the movies and television coming out in March, and review the latest episode of Better Call Saul. Oh, and Shawn apparently bought a metric ton of Pop Vinyls. Does that really surprise you?

As always, we do appreciate you listening!

Cheers,

Jim and Shawn

Episode 46: Crybaby Squat

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Most of the time, we come into the podcast with a pretty firm agenda, and know exactly what we are going to talk about. Other times, one of us turns up in a mood, and all of that goes out the window. This is one of those episodes. After a 25-minute or so Hobbit rant/therapy session, we do find the time to talk about Better Call Saul and the new vocabulary it introduced into popular culture (such as squat cobbler, but maybe maybe you know it as Hoboken squat cobbler, full moon moon pie, Boston creme splat, Simple Simon, or the crybaby squat). We finish up by paying tribute to Downton Abbey in advance of its final episode next week, discussing last week's episode, and some of our favorite moments over the course of the series. Just let poor Edith be happy, Julian Fellowes!

Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 45: Take Back the Falls

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Welcome to episode 45! We shake of the gloom of another depressing day in politics to give you our Oscar picks, look back on the glorious series finale of Gravity Falls, preview Orphan Black and Daredevil via their respective recent teaser trailers, and review episode 7 of Downton Abbey. Finally, we debut our newest weekly segment with a review of the season 2 premiere of Better Call Saul.

Look for your chance later this week to play along with our Oscar pick 'em game, and win a $20 gift card to either Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts!

Cheers and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 44: Making chimichangas

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 23:53:12 +0000

Every now and then, we think we know exactly what we are going to talk about, and then life unloads a bombshell mere hours before we are scheduled to record. This was one of those weeks, as news of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia hit Saturday afternoon. We discuss the implications of his sudden death on the Presidential election, as well as name some of our favorite courtroom film and television to bring things back into the usual orbit of our conversations. We then break down the final Batman v. Superman trailer before Shawn gives us a spoiler-free review of the new Ryan Reynolds' vehicle, Deadpool, replete with chimichanga and Juice Newton references. We wrap things up with our nearly forgotten weekly Downton Abbey segment.

Cheers and thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 43: Please clap

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 05:00:58 +0000

Thanks for joining us for episode 43, or, if you prefer, Season 2 episode 1, of the Mundanity podcast. This week we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pixar Studios by ranking their films from worst to first, and find out along the way that Shawn has not see several of them, and therefore has no soul (just like gingers). Since it is primary season, we also talk our favorite political films, our preferred countries to flee to should the worst happen (cough*Trump*cough), and close out by discussing some of our recent TV viewing, including our weekly Downton Abbey segment.

As always, thanks for listening!

Jim and Shawn

Episode 42: Peppur Chambers

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 17:00:38 +0000

We are thrilled to welcome acclaimed actress, author, playwright, and friend of the podcast Peppur Chambers, who joined us from Prague, Czech Republic this weekend, where she is preparing for the opening of her one woman stage production, Harlem’s Awakening. Peppur joined us to talk about her career, what brought her to Prague, and her […]

Episode 41: A 2016 Preview

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:52:50 +0000

Greetings, and welcome to episode 41 of the Mundanity podcast. This week we preview the TV and film that we are most looking forward to in 2016, I give you my most anticipated albums of the upcoming year, and we review The Revenant (spoiler-free), including input from our returning special correspondent, Emily. We wrap up […]

Episode 40: Hans Gruber and The Goblin King

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 10:00:47 +0000

Greetings and thanks for checking out Episode 40 of the podcast. This week, we spend most of our time talking about the passing of two greats, David Bowie and Alan Rickman, and what they meant to us personally. As per usual these days, Shawn relays a story about Bowie that relates to another formative childhood […]

Episode 39: Welcome to 2016

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:49:30 +0000

Hello Mundanity podcast listeners. We here at pod HQ have a bit of a heavy heart today, as news broke this morning of the untimely passing of the great David Bowie. I am sure we will talk more about him next week on the pod, but suffice to say that we have lost one of […]

The Fab Forty

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 12:33:33 +0000

Last night the world got a bit of an early Christmas gift, as the entire Beatles catalog was deposited en masse on the streaming music service of your choice. Back when I was putting together the Best of… playlists for each year of the rock and roll era, the big caveat from 1963 to 1970 […]

Episode 38: The best of 2015

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 21:29:24 +0000

For our final podcast of 2015, we are pulling out all of the stops. That means another edition of Mundanity Podcast Live, recorded on the porch here at Casa JLo, with special guest appearances by Emily, Byron, Brandon, aka our kids, as well as Herbet the Hawk. We of course talk about the box office […]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Spoiler Free Review

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 13:50:45 +0000

Submitted by guest contributor Scott Damiano NO SPOILERS. I PROMISE, NO SPOILERS. I saw Star Wars Episode VII last night. I had been avoiding much about the movie mainly because of there being too much marketing, especially for a film which has a large enough fan base that it seems they would not even need […]

The best of 2015 playlist

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 17:53:45 +0000

Allow me to be the millionth person to point this out, but 2015 was a pretty great year for music. And if you can put down your copy of 25 long enough to listen for a bit, I’ll prove it to you with this year’s best of playlist. There’s old favorites revived, established darlings exceeding […]

Episode 37: Return of the pub

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 10:00:23 +0000

Hey listeners, guess what? It is the week you have been waiting for. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out this week. Are you exited? You can bet your lightsaber that Mr. Tabor is. In honor of this momentous week, we return to our conversation at The Pub in Tampa with our good friend, Nick […]

Episode 36: Soiled kimono

Mundanitypod@gmail.com (Mundanity Podcast) — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 18:31:25 +0000

Soiled kimono. How is that for an enigmatic title? Well, once you have seen Bill Murray’s gloriously bizarre Christmas special, A Very Murray Christmas, it will make perfect sense. We talked about that slice of holiday fried gold, as well as the unfortunate but unsurprising demise of Scott Weiland, our favorite Christmas specials, the underwhelming […]