Holy crap! Is it February already? It seems like only yesterday your three favorite idiots from The Popdose Podcast were blathering on about…what did we talk about last month, anyway? No matter. It’s a new month, and time for a brand new topic — and this one’s pretty great, if we do say so ourselves.
Loyal listeners of Ye Olde Popdose Podcast know that, when possible, we like to focus our discussions on a specific holiday: Thanksgiving, Christmas, etcetera etcetera. But here’s something particularly awesome about February — we have a holiday that lasts a whole month! Yes, it’s Black History Month, and what better way to celebrate it than with a trio of pasty white dudes? Please, join us for The Popdose Podcast, Episode 6: Awesome Black People! And before you start shaking your head, wondering if you can possibly listen to our usual irreverent banter with a clear conscience, we’re proud to announce our very first guest on the podcast — none other than Popdose’s own Mike Heyliger, an Awesome Black Person in his own right, who challenged us to come up with as many offensive questions for him as possible. Were we successful? Did he hang up on us? Am I writing this from jail? There’s only one way to find out. So click away, or do so on iTunes (link below), and speaking of iTunes, don’t forget to leave us a review. You’ll be our favoritest Valentine.
The Popdose Podcast, Episode 6: Awesome Black People! (1:07:00, 76.7 MB), featuring Jeff Giles, Jason Hare, and Dave Lifton, with Gordon’s friend from Sesame Street, Mike Heyliger.
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Show Notes
0:00 Intro: Jason reminds everyone he’s in Acoustic ’80s, and then we’re off on this month’s topic, which is (in case you forgot already) Awesome Black People.
2:56 Jason expresses his love for Stevie Wonder, leading into a discussion of Stevie’s excellent ’70s work and his…less-excellent post-’70s work. Jason feebly attempts to defend A Time to Love. We also discuss Prince’s sometimes too-prolific output (sorry, guys from Ickmusic!), Billy Joel’s crappy post-’90s output (I don’t think we need to apologize to anyone here), the awful Songs in the Key of Life album cover, Toto’s cover of “Living for the City” (send your complaints to Jeff), and Barry Manilow’s new steaming pile o’ crap.
16:34 Reggie! Reggie! Reggie! Dave praises the work of New York Yankee Reggie Jackson — both his athletic ability and his penchant for causing controversy. Other parts of his career are mentioned, including his fine work in BASEketball and The Naked Gun, and his California car commercials. Dave mentions Brad Benson’s similar venture. That somehow leads us into a digression on the awesome television show Men of a Certain Age.
25:27 Jeff’s vote for favorite black person? Roosevelt Franklin. (Check out that album cover.) Of course, this leads us to reminiscing about the classic days of Sesame Street. (There are at least three mother jokes in this section of the podcast.) We also discuss Franklin Delano Bluth from the amazing Arrested Development.
Special Guest!
35:40 Dave, Jeff and Jason welcome Mike Heyliger to the show. Jeff presents Mike with a Very Special award, complete with a Very Special song created just for this occasion (written and recorded by Terje Fjelde and Jason). Mike contributes to our Awesome Black People discussion by casting his vote for Michael Jackson.
40:40 Mike happily participates in our next segment, Ask a Black Person, where he shares his thoughts on Tyler Perry, on being a minority three times over, meeting Tupac, The Nutty Professor and…well, we kind of go downhill from there.
EnDOSEments: Black History Month Edition
49:48 Jeff endorses three products he’s recently reviewed: Rhino Handmade’s excellent boxset from Wilson Pickett, Funky Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Studio Recordings (1962-1978, the movie Black Dynamite, and the documentary Soul Power. (Song: James Brown, “Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud”)
54:08 Dave endorses Raphael Saadiq’s excellent 2008 release The Way I See It, and we discuss exaxcly why it sounds so fantastic. (Song: Raphael Saadiq, “Love That Girl”)
58:03 Jason endorses the pop-up pull-out coffee table book Michael Jackson Vault: A Tribute to the King of Pop 1958-2009, written by none other than Dave Lifton. (Song: Michael Jackson, “Rock With You”)
1:01:42 Mike endorses the upcoming documentary Soul Train: The Hippest Trip In America, premiering February 6th at 9:30 PM EST on VH1. (Song: The Isley Brothers, “It’s Your Thing”)
Wrappin’ It Up
1:04:14 Outro: Thanks so much to Mike Heyliger for being a fantastic first guest, and for having a fantastic sense of humor! Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes, and to visit our Facebook fan page as well as the Popdose Twitter feed. See you back here in March!
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