I thought it might make sense to do some short form podcasts when it strikes my fancy. The first is my take on The Academy Awards. I took scratchy notes duing the ceremony, and decipher them in front of a fancy microphone. Thanks for listening.

Podcast: Download

This. Is. Awesome. If you’ve heard this guys creepy answering machine messages, seen his website, or read about him losing his medical license for basically being a creep…well, here’s more creepiness in documentary form:

This time around I talk about a variety of topics:

• Love and sex, or lack thereof.
• Shark attack and my fascination with deadly creatures like sharks, snakes and gators.
• Mandatory maple syrup for Canadian restaurants.
• Olympic opening ceremony commentary
• Why do people worship “celebrities”?
• Indie Music Awards unfortunate inclusions.
• Great but late picks to add to the best of 2009 movies.
• Stand-up comedy from Ian Edwards and Andy Daly

You can listen to the podcast here or get it through iTunes. Please subscribe!

Podcast: Download

I had intentions of covering a wide variety of topics on this cast, but was surprised this morning by major changes to the Toronto Maple Leafs. On this episode I talk about:

• Analyzing the Leafs trades (with Calgary and Anaheim)
• Comedy from Eugene Mirman
• Pedestrians being ticketed in Toronto
• The Yes Men
• Mortality
• Comedy from Patton Oswalt
• Credit Card Telemarketer

You can listen to it right here, or head over to iTunes and download it.

Podcast: Download

Another week of talk radio, this time with an extra dose of hockey and politics. Here’s the rundown of show topics:

• Up In The Air
• Worst Movie Critics/Quote Whores
• The lame Pepsi cheer “Eh-O-Canada-Go!”
• Stephen Harper must go!
• Hockey Night in Canada‘s Bob Cole needs to retire.
• Leafs Phil Kessel trade not a good one.

You can listen to the show or download it right here, or get over to iTunes and subscribe. Every time there’s a new episode, you’ll get it automatically. Plus you can review it there (or here.) Please subscribe…the more subscriptions the better. It’s free!

The Josh Holliday Show Podcast #4:

Podcast: Download

It’s a brand new podcast. It’s the lull between Christmas and New Years, and here’s what we talked about on this weeks’ show:

• New Years Plans. Bars charge too much!
• Ed Hardy Boxer Shorts for Christmas. Nooooo! Ed Hardy is for Douchebags.
• My Top 10 Movies of 2009.
• One terrible movie. Guess which one. Hint: “Away __ Go.”
• Stand-Up Comedy from The Sklar Brothers on Classic Rock Radio Stations.
• Not a Top Ten, But TV Shows I Enjoy
• Bono is a Hypocritical Douche Revisited
• Negativeland

Here it is!

Enjoy, and please spread the word. Thank-you. Josh Holliday Show Podcast #3:

Podcast: Download

Here’s a surprise, the latest Robin Williams/John Travolta vehicle – from the director of Wild Hogs – is getting savage reviews. Rottentomatoes.com which aggregates Top Critics reviews into a percentage of positive/negative reviews currently lists Old Dogs at 6% positive. In other words, 94% of the top critics worldwide who saw the film thought it was garbage. Some quotes:

Old Dogs does to the screen what old dogs do to the carpet. It’s unfortunate that only the latter can be taken out and shot.

We have reached a point in our moviegoing life where the two most horrifying words a studio can mutter are “Robin” and “Williams.”

For a number of years I’ve had a theory about Robin Williams’ acting. For the record, I think he was a decent stand-up in the early 80s, but his live comedy now is mostly high-energy non sequiturs; a style of comedy I despise. Lots of mugging and bad accents. Back to the subject at hand. Robin Williams the actor. My rule of thumb is this: If Robin Williams is starring in a comedy, it’s likely to be a bomb. Witness a sampling of RW comedies with their Rotten Tomatoes rating:

• RV 23%
• Patch Adams 24%
• Man of the Year 21%

There’s an exception or two, Mrs. Doubtfire 64% and Good Morning Vietnam 90% to start. Now here’s the paradox. When Williams stars in a movie in a serious role, the ratings are generally quite favorable. Witness:

• Insomnia 92%
• One Hour Photo 82%
• Good Will Hunting 97%
• Awakenings 89%

And of course, there are exceptions here too: Jakob the Liar 32% and Bicentennial Man 38%.

So What’s the lesson? For Robin Williams, it’s stop trying to be funny, and concentrate on your undeniable talent for dramatic roles. For us? Buyer beware!

So I finally went to check out Spike Jonze’s latest project, the film version of Maurice Sendak’s much loved 1963 children’s book. I read the book as a very young kid, though I have no real emotional attachment to the original work. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The creature design was pretty outstanding, and I was glad CGI was used sparingly. Max Records (the kid) is fantastically cast, and Jonze managed to get a great performance from the young actor. Catherine O’Hara is brilliant, as she often is.

I went to the movie with my pal Gene, and as we left the theatre, he said the movie was “OK, but geared more for chicks.” Usually we have very similar tastes (ie. an intense dislike for the cloyingly pretentious film Away We Go.)For a second I felt guilty for being drawn into the movie. It’s an emotional experience, and there were some tears at times. If you’re not overly cynical, and want to venture back into childhood, as seen through a child’s – eyes see this film. If you’re really cynical and had a perfect childhood, maybe not.

Well, technically it’s not the new blog site, as I didn’t really have a blog before. I have had a webpage for many years, at JoshHolliday.com. At this point, I’ve got a bunch of irons in the fire. Literally, cause I heard it’s good luck. Although it’s making my place unbearably warm. With this new site, I’m going to take everything that’s going on in my life and put it up here in neat little categories. If I do some radio, I’ll try and get the audio up here ASAP. I can get irriated at idiotic behavior, and I’ll use this as a forum to call people out.

Now that I’ve set out the broad ambitions, I will try not to procrastinate, or be lazy (same thing?) and get some content rolling.

Please enjoy this random picture of a Koala from my computer’s sample photos file.