Episode Description

With Dan on sabbatical, Merlin is joined by John Roderick of The Long Winters to talk about life as a bull in a china closet, craving real-world constraints, making better records, and being banned for life from Interpol's corn chip bowl. Special guest John Roderick.

Episode Information

Initially Released August 30, 2011

Runtime 1:42:22

Episode Page You can Polish AC/DC All Day Long

Recurring Topics and Characters

• Merlin Plays Guitar

• Karl Van Hœt

Discussion

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Quotes

There is no modern Oscar Wilde - who was a polymath and a social critic and a contrarian.... Somebody can be a social critic or a polymath and a bon vivant, and meh, either you like them or you don't. "Change the channel. I'm going to go listen to the polymath that I think is funny." And so with that you lose the frisson of being captivated by somebody that you don't like. Or captivated by somebody whose opinion gets under your skin.... And so there is no room for, "Sir, I take umbrage at what you've said, but I admire the language you used, so carry on!"
-John Roderick

It's almost like if the Clash started today they wouldn't be successful unless Joe Strummer followed you back.
-Merlin Mann

That whole business about kids being natural artists and the artistic impulse [being] beat out of them by our patriarchal society? That's [expletive]. Kids are terrible artists. Making art is hard work.
-John Roderick

One of the things that I appreciate most about my parents, and particularly my mother, was that when I was working on something like art, something artistically, she would back out of the room and close the door. She didn't sit there and say, "What are you doing now? Well, what is that? Is that a tree?" She didn't do any of that. When I was done, she put it up on the refrigerator. She recognized that that was not necessarily another opportunity for parent-child interaction. That was what I was doing and I was fine. Let it ride.
-John Roderick

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