20: School

and some podcast recommendations, and the Pretenders

I’m thinking a lot about school right now, as I’m preparing to write a book about teaching, learning, and schools. I’m taking a sabbatical next year, and I can never really write about teaching while I’m doing it - not sure why, but it’s a consistent thing.

This week Canada saw another gut-wrenching discovery of horror at a “school” for children. 215 little bodies were discovered - unmarked, unreported murders by “teachers” and “administrators” of a death machine called Residential Schools. The country aches this week with regret. Many Canadians are feeling for the first time what Indigenous people have been telling us for decades, what we’ve all known about and disregarded for a hundred years. “All Children Matter” is displayed on social media, which to me spells out our collective mental illness: of course they fucking matter. What is wrong with us that we can forget that?

Trauma is healed by storytelling and love - which demands that we confront our history, confront the legacy of white supremacy and mass murder that undergirds our whole country, that we (as a nation) talk about it honestly, that we (as settlers) hear the stories and hold them in our hearts, that we (together) embrace Justice, which I’ve heard Dr. Cornel West describe as What Love Looks Like in Public.

This story continues. The work continues. Reconciliation is a distant goal, but possible, if we earn it.

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Podcasts about Music

I’ve been digging into podcasts about music for a while, and want to share some in case they’re useful to you. They fall into categories, and some are much better than others, but all are appreciated.

Great Podcasts

Strong Songs by Kirk Hamilton is the hands-down best in my opinion. Hamilton is a musician and music lover with real breadth in his tastes; each episode dissects a single song (sometimes a pair) in loving detail. He recreates the instrumental tracks so he can demonstrate how they’re working, explains them structurally, and situates them in the wider context of musical history. If you want a taste, go listen to him dissect Prince’s Kiss; I would not have thought I could love that song more, but I do now.

Hamilton’s expertise and skill as a teacher are the meat of this podcast, but the sauce is his genuine positivity. Being the age I am, I am still surprised when someone radiates love without shame, but this cat does it. Strong Songs is fully supported by Patreon, a platform and concept I adore - so it has no ads at all. Shows are a full, immersive hour long, and I have been turned on to many pieces of music I wouldn’t have noticed without this show.

Second best is one I’ve mentioned before: Chris Molanphy’s Hit Parade, on Slate. It’s only available with a Slate+ membership, and I bought one despite Slate’s somewhat dickish general tone, and Hit Parade being the only show I listen to on Slate. So that says something.

Switched on Pop is good and smart, although a little more modern-pop than I care about. I dip in when I want to know who Billie Eilish is or something. Occasionally they talk about music technology or introduce some jazz or classical explainers. Both hosts are smart and both teach well.

Twenty Thousand Hertz by Dallas Taylor is really cool, but it is about sounds rather than music. Episodes delve into things like the Netflix “theme” music, sound pollution, music design for games. Very interesting, very intelligent.

A similar podcast is Reasonably Sound, which is intelligent and very well-written, and is also concerned with the music of the planet (topics include “clapping,” “white noise,” and that Bwong Inception sound.

Roundtable Podcasts

There are many more shows that are less polished and more annoying. I’m not naming any because I don’t want to be a fully negative dickhead, but these are the shows that feature several critics who are also friends who do roundtable discussions of eras, or albums, or singles. These can be informative, and they certainly have pushed me to check out albums I missed (for example, I’ve just now discovered how cool The Pretenders were), but the percentage of time spent repeating each other’s words to show agreement, laughing, and sharing in-jokes kinda wears me out. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a whole episode of one of these shows.

Roundtable Discussions of NOTHING

And there are podcasts like the ones above that somehow don’t have the fair-use rights to play any of the music they’re talking about. The entire best thing about this format is that you can hear what’s being discussed. Without that, the pod is like an audiobook that keeps forcing you to go turn on the TV for its content. I don’t know why anyone would do this.

The Actual Worst

I will name the worst one, because they suck so hard: Your Favourite Band Sucks is a “funny guy” thing with “hot takes” formed entirely from ego and piss and bile. I fundamentally disapprove - maybe because I was at the 90s and am still tired of that Ed the Sock humour. If you love hating things, you’ll love this stupid show.

The Pretenders

Thank you to 80s Music Exposed! for the heads-up. I knew Hynde was cool, and I liked what I knew, but I had no idea The Pretenders were so tough. I’ve been devouring the first record, and apparently they maintain this for three albums.

Thanks for reading. Peace out.

jep