We got the chance to wax a little philosophical on this week’s Todcast. It stemmed from a discussion of the unreality we can sometimes attribute to other people’s lives, this sense about the difference between what’s real and what’s not. To be clear, I don’t think the rabbit hole goes any farther down than it appears to, or than one might expect, but I regularly experience the unreality of the world, or a situation. But when we’re struck by what seems a soul-crushingly lack of authenticity from everyone around us, it has more to do with our relationship to them, than to the unreality of the situation. The Matrix doesn’t have you, it has everyone else.

In other news we discussed the Weather Channel, a terrorist organization responsible for closing schools and driving mass panic all over the peninsula. Worse, they someone injected panic and greed into the legitimate news media such that every moron with a press pass spent 24 hours shitting themselves over the coming storm and another 24 hours mocking people for taking it so seriously.

Reportage is broken and it makes me sad.

The tragedy of the rodeo clown

I ran into Donnie Landis at a Salisbury Food Lion. In case you missed last week’s Todcast and also don’t follow me on Twitter, Donnie Landis was the rodeo clown we interviewed. I have to say, I was a little jealous of the idea of being a rodeo clown, until I saw the hellish downside. It was kind of like seeing a rock band playing in a mall (they don’t do that anymore, do they?). It was one of those situations where the surroundings actually detracted from his persona. Sitting in front of “The Food Lion,” near the Froggy 99 van, the rodeo clown looked dingy, and he clearly is better than that.

Super Bowl Predictions

We did some talking about the fallout from the Richard Sherman, and, truly, it makes me want to root for him all game. I’m hoping to find a pool or something so I can root for the score instead of for one of the teams.

There’s plenty more, including a Todd Man Out preview but that’s why we record it.

You can follow Todd and Tony individually on Twitter, or collectively by subscribing to the Todcast on iTunes. If you can’t stand only getting 30 minutes of Tony’s dulcet tones, or you’re interested in home brewing, check out the Beer with Strangers podcast. If it’s his writing you can’t stand to be without, the No Relation blog is open 24/7.