(1) Welcome back, Monte, and (2) PROGRAM NOTE: Sunday AM Country Force

Wish I'd known Justin Montemayor was going to be returning to Monte + The Machine yesterday morning, I'd have tried to catch more of the show.  I thought he sounded real good -- a little rough, a little tired, but pretty darned good little broadcast, what I heard.

Machine seemed happy to have him back as well.  His account of he and David Mino visiting Justin in the hospital where he had his leg tucked back under him -- giving the appearance that he might have been relieved of that limb as well -- was pretty amusing.

So was their talk about the Golden Chick empire being built on the music of Ronnie James Dio.  You had to be there.

I didn't hear the first of the show so if he delivered his package of his account of his hospitalization, I'd appreciate it if one of you would fill us in.

*     *     *

A long, long time since Country Force with Ty Walker and Eli Jordan got a slot.  Good to hear those boys this morning.

Grocery-cart talk very welcome.

*     *     *

Liking some of these new Ticker guys.  Caleb seems like a zero-BS guy.

 

A Few Quick Hits

(1) Craig "Junior" Miller was on fire this morning.  He played the race card explicitly (even used the phrase "I'm going to play the race card") in arguing that the Rangers wouldn't give a black player the same chance after chance that they are giving Josh Hamilton.   Then he called Sooner quarterback Baker Mayfield a "spazz" and "spastic," not just once, but several times.  Not disputing the point -- just a little startling to hear while I'm shaving.

(2) I haven't heard much of Monty + The Machine (i.e., "Not a Podcast") lately.  I did hear some of Mike "The Machine" Marshall's post-game Mavericks work and thought it was pretty good.

(3) We now have some theories on the ubiquity of those unlistenable Meador ads.  (i) A couple of posts ago a Confessor advised that Meador had fallen off a list of -- I forget exactly, maybe the Confessor can re-post, but the thought was that it had lost a spot on a list of quality or trustworthy dealers, or something like that.  Accounts for a million ads that say nothing about the products or the price, but are all about honesty, transparency, and the like.   (ii) General Sales Manager Charlie Gray, I'm guessing, is doing all those voices and, I'm also guessing, writes the copy.  Remember the one where Charlie is talking and all of a sudden, without an obvious edit, "Bob" begins to talk?

(4)  I owe Emmitt Smith an apology.  For weeks I drove by the digital billboard going north on the Tollway not far from downtown, and I would see this ad for PlainsCapital bank.  It showed a photograph of Emmitt and what I took to be a computer-generated image of a very beautiful young woman.  I mean, I thought she was a product of the animator's art, I really did.  The legend was "Our Bank Has Swagger."  Why, I thought, would they generate some fake image to show with Emmitt?  I thought maybe she was supposed to be his banker.   Here is the photo, without the PlainsCapital logo.

I suppose a true fan would know that that is his wife, Pat.  But I didn't.  Driving by at 65 mph, with billboard-quality resolution, I thought she was CGI all the way.  Turns out no, she's just perfect.  So I apologize to both Mr. and Mrs. Smith for my crass error.  Been making a lot of those lately.

Go forth, Confessors.

Can't Afford to Lose a Single Confessor . . .

.  .  .  so have the very safest of Happy New Years. 

I've got a topic list of articles to get to, trying to figure out which ones engage me and might engage you.

Well, after a couple of weeks, what do we think about the DryDock offerings?  The Shake Joint is pretty much a known quantity by this time and Jake and Sean are pretty polished content providers.  In general, I thought it was very good with a few fairly insignificant lapses that I chalk up to differences in taste (mine and theirs) rather than any real deficiencies.  Pretty nice little show they've got.

I really liked Jake and David Newbury on the Cowboys pregame, and I think we'll have them again tomorrow morning, although there seems to be some speculation that Jake might struggle for a timely arrival.

The wild card of the shows was Not a Podcast, their first lengthy stretch that I can recall, given the very plum PM Drive assignment, prime placement, long shows.  There seems to be two schools of thought on the show and hosts.  What do you all think?  Particulars, please, and keep it civil.  Want to hear from those who liked it, not just those who didn't.

Thanks for reading this year.  Back soon.

Not a Lot to See Here, Just Keeping the Thread Moving Along

I'm as big a fan of Monty + The Machine (aka "Not a Podcast") on Saturday morning as most of you seem to be.  A raucous, slacker-anarchic show even with only two voices.  Fun, different, some good Emerging Demo Sports Takes.

It's still kind of finding its way, though; still poking a sharp stick into the side of The Ticket.  Is it a good strategy?  I dunno.  I shake my head sometimes, but I don't punch out.

Yesterday, for example.

The Machine was on fire, returning to his roots as a guy who talks a lot.  The guy has a very unique radio timbre, and it's an interesting sound to have coming through the buds, but the guy gives some signs of being positively Sturmian as the syllables pour out of him, irrespective of what else is happening on the show at the time.   I thought that he and Justin had really worked out a nice balance in the last couple of months, but Justin's 1-1:30 news was a jumble of both of them talking at once.  (Hey, Machine, don't get upset -- love the show, love what you got.  OK?  This is just what one guy is hearing.  Maybe I'll hear from Confessors who ain't hearing the same thing.  And I'm estimating a P1 readership for this site on the order of 0.05% and a Cumulus readership south of that.)

And then there was the Eli Jordan Ticker.  It was cruising along at its usual dramatic pace, when all of a sudden there was a bunch of talking going on over his report.  I thought it was Machine, but I could be mistaken about that.  Could have been both him and Justin.  I tried to tell if whoever was talking over the Ticker was doing it accidentally because of a mis-hit board button, or just crashing the Ticker for the hell of it, but since the whole thing was incomprehensible, it was hard to tell.  I will say this, Eli didn't miss a beat, so it wasn't clear to me that he could hear the host-noise going on over his report.

But I think he did, and I think he did not believe it was a technical meltdown, because:

After it was all over, Machine and Justin tried to get Eli to get on-mic to  .  .  .  well, it wasn't clear what they wanted to talk to him about, although they said once or twice they wanted to "ask him a question."  But Mr. Jordan was having none of it, a 100% layout, Eli has left the building, leaving M+M to vamp embarrassingly for a bit before moving on. 

And M+M didn't blame the technology.

I dunno, guys, dunno what you get out of jabbing the Musers, don't know what you get out of jabbing Eli, don't even know what you get out of pretty harshly jabbing the Siroises as you also did yesterday (and do a lot).  I know, I know, it's a M+M bit to be the snotty newcomers.  Maybe that's what Cat is looking for, maybe you've got a deal with Mike and Cash.

But it's starting to take on just a bit of a hostile cast, pretty aggressive for a show that may feel established to its hosts but does not to most everyone else (all right, maybe just to me).  I really want to be hearing M+M on the air for the foreseeable future, so I'm hopeful that they will give some thought to the whereabouts of that fine line between bit and bloviation.

ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

Can We All Agree on This?

I'm glad to see that "Not a Podcast," starring Justin Montemayor and Mike Marshall, seems to have found favor among Confessors.  It's a pretty slick listen on a Saturday morning:   a little slacker, a little millennial, a little snotty, a little hip -- but well-prepared, good chemistry, some interesting takes, some interesting use of language.  The two very different voices and energy levels attract the ear.    Sometimes -- OK, a lot -- the show is Machine-heavy, but they're working on it, you can tell.  I tune in.  (Interesting dynamic emerging between NaP and Cirque, by the way.)

In an earlier post, I threw out the idea that "Not a Podcast" is not an attractive name for the show.  Despite Justin's denial in these very pages, seems like a jab at Jake and T.C.   Its phrasing is negative, almost apologetic, a downer.  And it's not descriptive of what the show is.  Bad name.

To my surprise, this drew quite a few comments.

To my further surprise, there seemed to be a gathering consensus that the name of the show should be "Monty + The Machine," pronounced "Monty and The Machine."

It's their show.  They can call it what they want, or what the Western Hemispherical Catman wants.

But for now, I'm going to call the show "Monty + The Machine," unless Justin advises that he prefers "Monte" as the short form of his name.

You have my permission to shorten this to "M+M" in the comments.  

I will also entertain other names for the show, perhaps something a little less quotidian, a little more clever. 

And no, "The Show That Melts In Your Mouth, Not In Your Hand" will not be acceptable.  Although  .  .  .  .

But for now it's "Monty + The Machine."

"Plainsman, you are so wrong.  More Machine." 

I'll be out of town for a week.  Keep things light, Confessors.

Data Dump

I've been terribly delinquent in getting up new blasts, but I do have an excuse:  Last Tuesday's storms were unkind to our shack out on the plains, and after a couple of visits from contractors and adjusters, the fine folks at Amica have offered to replace our sod roofing.  Those interruptions mean longer work hours and fewer MTC hours.  

I keep notes on things to write about.  I look at them and think yeah, that would work for a short piece, and then they get stale and I don't do it.  So to atone for my lack of output recently, I'm going to unload a ton of stuff on you in the hope that it will provoke a rainbow of well-considered reactions in the thread to follow.  Numbered for your convenience.

[By the way:  The guy who comments three or four times per thread making obvious reference to T.C. (and sometimes Jake) without naming him (them) – I'm going to start deleting you.  You got something specific, let's have it.]

*     *     *

            (1)   Let's say that Craig "Junior" Miller decided to go on the bicycle racing tour, whatever it's called, for a couple years.  Let's further say – and this may be more far-fetched – that Gordon could be persuaded to stop baiting Mike Doocy.  Would you listen to the George-Mike-Gordon Musers with regularity?  I would.

            (2)  I'm going to lose what modest credibility I have with some of you, but I am listening to those Reagor-Dykes ads with greater respect these days.  There may be some genius going on there.  That crappy production, the corny "keeping it real" theme, and Bart's non-sequitur giving-it-to-you-on-the-level ad copy ("I've never found Amelia Earhart, I've never published a paper on quantum loop gravity, but I'll make you a deal on a great car") – awful.  But he kind of won me over when he started pleading.  "Hey," he says, "don't hate me before you get to know me."  I don't like leasing my Conestogas (sorry, AutoFlex and D&M) and am unlikely to buy a used model, but if I did I might give old Bart a whirl.

            (3)  Over Drydock (I told you some of this stuff was stale), I heard Jake talking about someone, didn't catch the first part of his discussion so I don't know who he was talking about.  But the words out of his mouth made me laugh:   "The biggest thing for me was I learned about ego.  I couldn't believe anyone could be that brash that early in their career."  I didn't detect an ironic inflection in his remark.

            (4)  Why can't we have Intentional Grounding all year long?

            (5)  Award for Brain-Freeze Commercial Koan/Tautological Phrase of the Year goes to the following utterance from one of the blind pitch-guys on a Non-24 ad:  "If you're like me, you're not alone."

 

(6)  I do wonder about The Fan sometimes.  It was near the end of the Niffle year (at least for the Cowboys), I was switching back and forth between Norm/Donnie and the Fan post-game.   In contrast to Ticket callers, they took call after call from fans who were positively thrilled about the Cowboys' prospects for 2016.  Gavin shared their optimism.  When Jesse Holley tried to make a point about the Pokes' uncreative play-calling, Brad Sham (who joins the show for a segment) shot him down.  Aside from what seems like unsupportable Cowboys boosterism, however, it's not a bad show.   I've always thought Holley was quite good on it.

(7)  Is "Not a Podcast" a dig at "It's Just Banter?"   Let's help Justin and Machine think of a better name for what's a pretty good weekend show.

(8)  The muddy signal stayed muddy for a long time.  I don't know if I've just gotten used to it, but has it gotten a little sharper lately?   Someone dropped a comment not long ago, perhaps copied from Reddit, about some repairs being made.

(9)  Yes, I do like Not a Podcast.  Like it quite a lot.  And while I'm usually hands-off with the JV as they work to make names for themselves, I must say this – less Machine.  A couple of weeks ago I had to punch out when Justin was doing some news or something – in any event, it was a Justin segment – and the poor guy couldn't get a single sentence out without Machine derailing the point.

(10)  Corby did a story on 69 yo CBS newsman Steve Kroft's extramarital romps with the (rather attractive, and also married) Harvard Law School-educated NYC attorney Lisan Goines, dramatically illustrated with texts, in one of which he advised her, J-J Taylor-style, that instead of working he would "rather be eating your pudding."  What was strange about Corby's report is that this all took place a year ago, and there was nothing new on the story.  I wouldn't be mentioning this, except for Corby's closing remark, which made me laugh out loud on my drive home:  "I hope that when I'm 69 I'm not involved in a pudding scandal."

Lisan Goines, Esq.

            (11)  Did I hear George Dunham say that if you buy two PowerBall tickets instead of one, you do not double your chances of winning?  Yes, I did.  

*     *     *

 
Thanks for staying strong with MTC.  Hits still solid despite my recent neglect.  Will try to do better.  

ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

LIGHTLY BREAKING: Justin and Machine Join Saturday Lineup

I'm way behind the social network curve on this one.  I actually had this tidbit hours ago but was in meetings all day and unable to scoop it, but nevertheless:

"Not a Podcast," starring Justin Montemayor and Mike "The Machine" Marshall will permanently join the Ticket’s Saturday schedule from 10am-12.

I think most Confessors will agree that this has been an excellent pairing.  I'm not a giant Machine pop-on fan, but I have really liked his shows with Justin.  These guys definitely deserve the gig and a chance to hone their on-air skills.

Justin is an interesting case.  Not flashy.  Just likable.  With a dollop of warmth and humor, he'd be a candidate for a Muser-type show, lower-key, salt/earth host type.

Machine's got something going on with his timbre that is hard for Ticket audio technology to digest, but his show-sound is much better than his pop-on sound, and he's got some sportsy chops and some pop-culture stuff happening without the Jake-as-Argumentative-Dylan vibe.

"Machine or Justin, Justin or Machine?  I just can't decide!  I wonder if they have George DiGianni's number."

Something to look forward to on Saturday mornings now after that certain Tee Box.

My Ticket Confession offers hearty congratulations to them both, and to The Ticket for a solid weekend call.