Tag: music

Torg Favorite Books, Movies, Musical Artists and Shows

It’s TORG FAVORITE BOOKS, MOVIES, MUSICAL ARTISTS and TELEVISION SHOWS on this edition of the Torg Stories Podcast. 

BOOKS OR ESSAYS: Bill’s  Favorite Books or Essays of All Time…

(Anne’s lists appear further down on the page.)

  1. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby – came to this book through the film with John Cusack. Book set in London, Rob works in a record shop and visits ex girlfriends as a way to figure out his current relationship. Lots of lists! 
  2. Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. Rob writes about music and the mix tapes he finds as a way to write about the passing of his wife. 
  3. Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion writes about the year that follows after the passing of her husband. 
  4. “A & P” by John Updike – first time I realized stories could reflect my life
  5. “The Planet Trillaphon as it Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing” by David Foster Wallace as my favorite of a whole bunch of essays by Wallace that I like. 
  • Honorable mention: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut, Wonderboys by Michael Chabon, Illusions by Richard Bach, “The Ecstasy of Influence” essay (not the collection) by Jonathathan Lethem, Missoula by Jon Krakauer, My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, On Writing by Stephen King, Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon, The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov, Moneyball by Michael Lewis, Catcher in the Rye by Salinger

MOVIES: Bill’s 5 Favorite Movies of All Time…

  1. Pulp Fiction – non linear story with some of my favorite actors including Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta, let’s check out LA! Capture the way a certain person talks with language that I don’t hear. Picked this over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 
  2. No Country for Old Men – the force of evil and human beings inability to stop it but to try anyway, beautiful landscape, Tommy Lee Jones fan 
  3. High Fidelity (directed by Stephen Frears) – a more grown up and mature romantic comedy that comes after the 80s, lots of lists by the characters who work in the record store 
  4. Good Will Hunting – Robin Williams to Matt Damon: It’s not your fault! Genius movies are fun. 
  5. Moneyball – a sports story where someone (Billy Beane / Brad Pitt) has the courage to try something different and compete
  • Honorable mention: Say Anything, The Fugitive, Silence of the Lambs, The Green Mile, Secret Garden, The Shawshank Redemption, Unforgiven, Nodding Hill, Air, The Bourne Ultimatum 

MUSICAL ARTISTS OR GROUPS: Bill’s Favorite Musical Artists or Groups of All Time…

  1. The Killers – Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, When We Were Young, Human. I saw them at Mohegan Sun in CT. 
  2. Noah Kahan – Mess, Homesick, Dial Drunk, She Calls Me Back, the collaborations, saw him in Nashville
  3. REO Speedwagon – Keep on Loving You, Take it on the Run, Time for Me to Fly, 
  4. Ed Sheeran – Castle on the Hill, Old Phone, Galway Girl 
  5. Def Leppard – cassette getting turned over and over, Hysteria album, Women, Rocket, Animal, Love Bites, Pour Some Sugar, Hysteria
  • Honorable mention: Luke Combs, The Outfield, Bare Naked Ladies, Rolling Stones, Prince, Liz Phair, Chappell Roan, Jackson Browne, Bob Seeger, Journey, ABBA  

SHOWS: Bill’s Favorite Shows of All Time…

  1. Ted Lasso – positive vibes with lots of 80s sports pop culture allusions that are funny and thought provoking 
  2. PTI – writing background of Tony and Wilbon, their chemistry as friends, the rundown 
  3. Daily Show with Jon Stewart – news with some funny commentary
  4. Saturday Night Live – live sketch comedy, Will Ferrell, Colin and Che, Marcello
  5. Seinfeld – the group of friends, uniqueness of George and Kramer 
  • Honorable Mention: Landman, Family Ties, Penguin, 

Anne’s BOOKS OR ESSAYS: Anne’s Favorite Books or Essays of All Time…

  1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  2. Dune by Frank Herbert
  3. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
  4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  5. The Once and Future King, by TH White
  • Honorable mention: Demons by Fyodor Doestoevsky, Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones series, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

MOVIES: Anne’s 5 Favorite Movies of All Time…

  1. The English Patient
  2. 2001: A Space Odyssey 
  3. Terminator
  4. The Princess Bride
  5. Spy
  • Honorable mention: The Silence of the Lambs, Titanic, Return of the Jedi, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Thin Red Line, Heat, My Name is Ivan, Dirty Dancing, The Sixth Sense, Gattaca, Goodfellas

MUSICAL ARTISTS OR GROUPS: Anne’s Favorite Musical Artists or Groups of All Time…

  1. Fleetwood Mac
  2. Bon Iver
  3. Bad Bunny
  4. Abba
  5. New Order
  • Honorable mention: The National, War on Drugs, Radiohead, The Antlers, Shelby Lynne, Silversun Pickups, Local Natives

SHOWS: Anne’s Favorite Shows of All Time…

  1. Chuck
  2. Game of Thrones
  3. Alias
  4. X-Files
  5. Wonderfalls
  • Honorable Mention: Sopranos, Remington Steele, Lost, Friends, Arrested Development, Bojack Horseman, The Americans

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast! 

Summer Playlists on the Torg Stories Podcast

Summer Music Playlists Discussion on this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!

Last week we did our favorite things to do on a nice day in Los Angeles and Boone, NC and this week we’ll go over the music we’d listen to on these beautiful days. We talk about how we got to these lists of songs, and we listen to an excerpt from each of our ten songs.

BOONE, NC (Bill): It’s a beautiful day in Boone, what songs am I listening to? 

  1. “Motorcycle Drive By” by Zach Bryan
  • 2022 release. Born in Japan. Parents in Navy. Moved to Oklahoma. In the Navy for 8 years. 
  • Lyrics “I will be in Richmond by tonight” and “I think it’s about time we headed home”
  • It has a motorcycle that propels you and they are going somewhere like me in my car on the beautiful day. 
  1. “In a Big Country” by Big Country
  • 1983 release. Scottish rock band. Participated in “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” song. This song came out in 1983.
  • Lyrics: they say “Ha!” or is it “Shock!” to open and “Shout!” in one sentence lines. 
  • Think it’s guitars to sound like bagpipes 
  1. “Motion Sickness” by Phoebe Bridges
  • 2017 release. From Pasadena, CA. About her relationship with Ryan Adams.
  • Lyrics: Somebody roll the windows down. There are no words in the English language I could scream to drown you out. 
  1. “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” by Bob Seeger
  • 1969 release. 80 years old. From Detroit. This song was on his debut album in 1969. 
  • Lyrics: ‘Cause I was born lonely down by the riverside. Learned to spin fortune wheels, and throw dice. I was just thirteen when I had to leave home. Knew I couldn’t stick around, I had to roam
  1. “Just Drive” by Erin Kinsey
  • 2022 release. From Texas. 24 years old. 
  • Lyrics pretty much what we are doing here: You and me, this white Toyota. Paramore on the radio Going 90, down 40
  1. “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran
  • 2017 release. A love letter to Suffolk. NE of London. It’s the Framlingham Castle mentioned in the song. He wanted to make a song like Bruce Springsteen’s “The River.” 
  • Lyrics: I’m on my way. Driving at 90 down those country lanes Singing to “Tiny Dancer”
  • More lyrics: He writes, “but I can’t wait to go home.” Does this exist for us? 
  1. “See You In the Afterlife” by Foster The People
  • 2024 release. Formed in LA in 2009. They sang “Pumped up Kicks.” Singer Mark Foster is married to Ozark actress Julia Garner. 
  • Most interesting song lyrically on my list? Today I woke up crying, so I went into a church to pray. They said, “Excuse me, but you’ll have to leave or we’re calling security”
  1. “And We Danced” by The Hooters
  • 1985 Release. Philly origins. Wrote it in the Poconos.
  • They took their name from a nickname for the melodica, a type of keyboard harmonica.
  • Lyrics: I met my be-bop baby at the Union Hall. She could dance all night and shake the paint off the wall
  1. “Space Age Love Song” by A Flock of Seagulls
  • 1982 Release. Liverpool origins. A singer from The Stranglers yelled at them, “A Flock of Seagulls.” They decided that would be their new name. 
  • Not a lyrically interesting song other than maybe a minimalist approach. 
  1. “Takin’ It to the Streets” by The Doobie Brothers
  • 1976 Release. First to feature Michael McDonald on lead vocals. 

LOS ANGELES (Anne): It’s a beautiful day in LA, what songs is Anne listening to?  

  1. “Close To You”by Dayglow
    • 1/20/21, Day glow is Sloan Christian Struble, Texan.
    • Lyrics, “I’m only overthinking when I’m close to you”
  2. “What a Fool Believes” by Self
    • Remake of Doobie Brothers song, played entirely with toy instruments. Did an entire album being played with toy instruments.
    • Original song written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins released in 1978.
  3. “Fever”, by Inner Wave
    • 2021. Inner Wave is from LA.
    • Lead singer says song has “driving up the coast vibes” 
  4. “All My Happiness is Gone”, by Purple Mountains
    • 2019. David Berman, a poet and musician.
    • Sadly committed suicide a month after release. He was 52 and in rehearsals for tour. First album after 10 years. Known for lyrics.
    • All the lyrics in this song are great, “Mounting mileage on the dash, Double darkness falling fast, I keep stressing pressing on”
    • By A song that sounds uplifting but lyrics hit hard. I listened to another song about his mom from this album, made me get teary eyed at work.
  5. “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”, by Radiohead
    • 2007
    • A song that ends in a great climax, great guitar ending.
    • Lyrics “Everybody leaves, if they get the chance, and this is my chance” “I hit the bottom, hit the bottom and escape”
    • Great backing vocal, eerie vocals.
  6. “Escapism”, by RAYE, 070 Shake
    • 2022. 
    • Its about partying to forget your pain, in a bad place. Lyrics: “Just a heart broke b****, high heels, six inch, in the back of a nightclub, sippin’ champagne
  7. “Wait a Minute”, by Willow, 2019 became a hit from TikTok trend
    • 2015, she was 15 years old
    • Willow is daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinket.
    • First heard this on a youtube of Coachella performance
    • Lyrics: “Wait a minute. I left my consciousness in the sixth dimension”
    • Pronounces things as tings in song to good effect
  8. “Fire”, by Waxahatchee. Jump in
    • 2020.
    • Katie Crutchfield, named after a creek in Alabama. 
    • She is a twin
    • I saw her open for someone at Hollywood Bowl, maybe Haim, this song stuck with me.
  9. “Never Too Much”, by Luther Vandross
    • 1981. Debut song written/composed/produced by him alone
    • I of course know Luther Vandross, but only recently have listened to this song a lot because I heard on TikTok
    • Great vibe song, a happy song

10. “Where She Goes”, by Bad Bunny

  • 2023. Coachella really brought me to Bad Bunny and he released this shortly after that with a great desert video filmed near there.
  • I don’t know Spanish, but the opening lyric is easy “Baby, dime la verdad” (Baby, tell me the truth) I also like singing “Quisiera volverte a ver” (I would like to see you again). Also in English he says “I go where she goes”

We’d love to hear what’s on your summer playlist!

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!

False Profit: A Mockumentary Indie Film about the Financial Crisis, the Bailout, and Occupy Wall Street

“Finally,” CNBC declared about the mockumentary False Profit. “A comedy movie about the financial crisis.” I met one of the producers on this film, Dan Abrams, because we’d both been fans of and guests on a podcast called asymco. It’s host is Horace Dediu and Horace studies Apple and its competitors. It’s an example of the ways in which stories, digital media, and Apple are coming together for me. Dan’s current project is a mockumentary called False Profit, and it’s an indie film project in that he is seeking his own financing, partially done through a website called Kickstarter. To read more about that and potentially help fund the project (and pick up some swag in the process) you can click here.

William Torgerson Dan Abrams False Profit asymco Horace Dediu
False Profit from Kickstarter

When I asked Dan about his process for writing the story for False Profit, he said he wrote collaboratively, something that comes from his connections to the Second City comedy theater. He talked about a way of writing (and maybe it’s an improv technique too) called the “Yes And” method. I couldn’t figure out what he was saying on the podcast until I later saw it in writing. His example of the technique went something like this:

“It’s raining frogs.”

As the fellow writer, I am to accept that it is raining by thinking yes and and then going with it. “Finally,” I might say, “we’ve been having a terrible drought of frogs this summer.”

On the audio podcast, Dan and I debated the social merits of Will Ferrell movies. I thought mostly funny but also usually just silly and maybe even homophobic, and Dan mounted a satire-themed defense. From there, we discussed the Bailout, Chekhov, George Bush, and whether or not Republicans and Democrats alike might enjoy the film False Profit.

Dan is using Kickstarter to help finance his film and he explained how that works. I asked about Vimeo or YouTube for the sort of work I’m doing, and I had a lot of questions about copyright when it comes to news footage, the legal contracts in securing images and music, and all sorts of questions when it comes to film festivals and indie film distribution.

If you take the time to give the podcast a listen, I hope you’ll help me learn about some of this. I’m almost done with my documentary film For the Love of Books and I’m sensing that there’s more work ahead than completed when it comes to actually getting the film in front of audiences to where they can view it.

On iTunes, the podcast is called the “Read, Write, and Teach Digital Book Club.” If you look down the right side of this page, you can click on the file for download. I’d love to just have it ready for streaming play, maybe one of you can tell me how to set that up. Is it possible to do it while paying to go ad free on WordPress or do I need to run my own site? Thanks in advance for the help!

Prof. Torg’s take on Jennifer Egan’s A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

If you have a Facebook page, own one of the latest cell phones, blog, or tweet, then you ought to at least check out chapter 13 in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad.  In the following quote from the last chapter, a once big-time music executive laments about the state of the business.  Feel free to substitute ART in the place of MUSIC.  Here’s Bennie:

“The problem is,” Bennie went on, “it’s not about sound anymore.  It’s not about music.  It’s about reach.  That’s the bitter pill I had to swallow” (page 312).

Whose taste in art is for sale?

So when Bennie says “reach,” he’s talking Tweets, he’s talking Facebook Friends, and he’s talking hits on somebody’s blog.  The last chapter takes place in the future—and she could just almost be talking about right now—we all have to wonder if a book or album or any kind of art is really good or it’s just being promoted very well.  What is the Tweeter getting paid to say that this new artist is the next Bob Dylan?  What perks or gifts have been sent the book blogger’s way?  I just attended a BEA blogging panel where there was talk of ethics in the blogging world.

It may or may not have occurred to you that a novel can pay-off in various ways:  you can be made to feel as if you get to know the characters like people, the text can make you think, cause you to believe you are getting smarter, or make you bawl your eyes out or want to break stuff.  Another pleasing feature of a text can be the language, the words the writer chooses and the ways that the writer puts the words together in the form of sentences.  Egan’s text has that feature.  There are sentences beyond this one that would make for better examples of word choice but there are some original choices here—prewallet, overhandled, Sow’s Ear—and the clever detail of the guy who drinks flakes of gold.  An expensive habit, especially these days when an ounce of the stuff would cost over $1500.  This quote comes from the first story (notice also that it is a long sentence, not an always easy thing to pull off) when Sasha remembers stealing a wallet from a woman in the restroom while she was on a date.  We’ll also hear about Bennie here and we get to see him in the stories that follow.  He’s worth meeting.  Now here’s Egan’s sentence:

“Prewallet, Sasha had been in the grip of a dire evening:  lame date (yet another) brooding behind dark bangs, sometimes glancing at the flat-screen TV, where a Jets game seemed to interest him more than Sasha’s admittedly overhandled tales of Bennie Salazar, her old boss, who was famous for founding the Sow’s Ear record label and who also (Sasha happened to know) sprinkled gold flakes into his coffee—as an aphrodisiac, she suspected—and sprayed pesticides in his armpits.”

I tore that brown thing out on the side and used it as a bookmark.

This is a novel-in-stories, and I loved the first two.  I moved very logically with Sasha the kleptomaniac to her once boss Bennie in the second story who drinks the gold flakes and picks up his son from a previous marriage.  Most of the characters in the book are connected to the music business.  Egan almost lost me on the third story which takes place on an African Safari.  I felt internally frustrated as I was reading and trying to link each new story to the ones which had come before it.  On page eighty-seven, I wrote in the margins:  “I don’t know what the hell is going on or where I am.”

I gave up on trying to connect the stories and just tried to live in each one as a separate world.  I’d say this reading tactic helped, but really I think what happened is the stories got more interesting.  There were many good stories in a row and then on page two hundred and eight, I knew right where I was.  The stories were puzzling together.  I could see where all the pieces might go.  And then Chapter 12 is a Power-Point slide journal.  I don’t generally go for the story that could be called gimmicky.

I was just at a Writers Conference at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and most of the table moaned when I held up the book and showed off some of the slides.  One student is doing an MFA graphic novel thesis.  Suddenly, she was more interested in the book, and another guy at the table said, “I’ll never read a story like that.”

Fine, readers have their tastes I guess.  For me, Egan and The Goon Squad had won me over by the time the Power Point came up.  By the fifth slide I was laughing and my wife was wondering what was up.  It’s great the way I was taught by the text how to read it.  I say Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad is one you ought to read if you’ve got grown up and thinking tastes in reading.  I do.

Citation Information:

Egan, Jennifer. A Visit From the Goon Squad. New York: Anchor Books,    2011. Print.

Drop me a note if you want:

william.torgerson (at) gmail.com

Notes For Jan. 17 Music and Movies Book Club


My own novel, Love on the Big Screen, now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

On Monday night Jan. 17 at the Fresh Meadows Barnes and Noble at 7:30, we’ll be discussing Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape. We’d love to have you join us either face-to-face in the store or else here online with a comment to this blog post.  I also want to share that my novel, Love on the Big Screen, is now available in the states online through Amazon or Barnes and Noble and soon to be available internationally.  Coming soon to Kindle and Nook.

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Rob Sheffield / The Guy:

  • What do you think of the Rob Sheffield you meet in the book?  His relationship with Renee?
  • If you finished the book, what was it that kept you listening to Rob’s story?
  • “I listen to Hey Jude now, and I think two things:  I never want to hear this song again, and in 1979, my dad was around the age I am now, and given a Saturday afternoon he could have spent anyway he pleased, he chose to spend it with his twelve-year-old son, making this ridiculous little tape.  He probably forgot about it the next day.  But I didn’t.”  (17)
  • “How do you turn down the volume on your personal-drama earphones and learn how to listen to other people?”

Love:

  • Do you have a wish list for a potential romantic partner?  Is this sort of mental exercise helpful when it comes to navigating love? (67)
  • When you get married, you hope__________? (129)
  • “If she breaks my heart, no matter what the hell she puts me through, I can say it was worth it, just because of right now.”  (70)
  • What did/do you and your romantic partners fight about?  (102)
  • How do you know when it’s love? (4)

Music:

  • Did/do you make mix tapes?  Tell us about them?
  • Did your parents listen to music?  If you listen, how did you find your way into what you listen to?  Why _______ and not ________?
  • That night, I learned the hard way:  If the girls keep dancing, everybody’s happy.  If the girls don’t dance, nobody’s happy. (34)

Sheffield writes, before Murphy's death, "Remember Brittany Murphy..." / from TheJC.Com

Death / Life:

  • What would you leave behind? (10)
  • The moment when we find out what happened to Renee. (14)  What book did you think you were going to read?
  • Remember Brittany Murphy, the funny, frizzy-haired, Mentos-loving dork in Clueless? By 2002, she was the hood ornament in 8 Mile, just another skinny starlet, an index of everything we’ve lost in that time. (215)
  • Some hope in tragedy:  “We know the universe is out to burn us, and it gets us all the way it got Renee, but we don’t burn each other, not always.”  (167)