Podcast 84: Alan Alda Lovefest

  What a great night of podcasting we had! One of our new listeners JD sent us in a great picture of him wearing a piece of TrekWest 5 Paraphernalia (see image below). And of course we were introduced to one of the few season 6 bright spots, the great Alan Alda. It's clear what his acting experience lends to sub-standard writing. It almost becomes passable. One last thing is that JD actually called in on our Google Voice and left a message. Joey didn't notice it until after the recording was over, so we'll have to respond to it next podcast. Sorry about that JD. This podcast covers episodes 5-8 of The West Wing, Season 6.

For our iTunes subscribers: it appears that blogspot may have been going through a temporary outage when our FeedBurner feed (on which the iTunes listing is predicated) was updating this week. This may have caused your iTunes to not see the latest entry. We have tried to force a refresh through the FeedBurner service, this should force iTunes to see the post...whenever Apple decides to check again. Sorry for any trouble.

Success!

Various topics discussed in this podcast include:
    Joey's Culture Corner: Grace is Gone
    Principles of an American Life: Article 7 of the Constitution
    The Sword of Damocles
    Jellyman Kelly by James Taylor
    Burning the American flag
    Alan Alda impersonation
    Josh Woodward's track Morning Blue

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Here are the ratings that we gave for each show:
The Hubbert Peak: 37min 11sec
Peter: Television - 5
Joey: Television - 6

Dover Test: 19min 18sec
Peter: Television - 5
Joey: Television - 5

A Change is Gonna Come: 19min 56sec
Peter: Television - 6
Joey: Television - 7

In the Room: 25min 22sec
Peter: Television - 6
Joey: Television - 7

If you have something to say then we welcome your comments below, or feel free to email us at trekwest5@thehomestarmy.com, twitter us at hashtag TrekWest5, or leave us a voicemail at 801-788-4913.

Podcast Movie Special: Star Trek First Contact

 Our long standing TW5 intern Aaron joins us this week to talk about the 2nd TNG movie: Star Trek First Contact. Ostensibly this is an action movie set in a sci-fi world that made Joey and I split in our enjoyment of it. Regardless of that we both loved the performance by Alfre Woodard as she clearly stole the show. See this movie at least for what she offered as an actress. Plus, androids and cyborgs kissing! What could be more sexually charged?

Various topics discussed in this podcast include:
    Joey's Culture Corner: Heart & Souls
    Joey gets sentimental/emotional about the Enterprise
    Joey gets signals from outer space
    Pete gets turned on by the Borg Queen
    Alfre Woodard gives the best performance in this movie
    What's more sci-fi than cyborgs and androids kissing?
    Music Intro: Hear Me by Imagine Dragons

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If you have something to say then we welcome your comments below, or feel free to email us at trekwest5@thehomestarmy.com, twitter us at hashtag TrekWest5, or leave us a voicemail at 801-788-4913.

Podcast 83: Now with Merchandise

 What an incredibly busy week and podcast. We at TW5 are proud to announce that we now have TW5 merchandise! Check out our store link at Cafe Press. Listener Jim institutes a new rating system due to his extreme hatred of what is going on in the episodes. Check it out, you will laugh your head off. We discussed episodes 1-4 of The West Wing, Season 6.



Various topics discussed in this podcast include:
    Announcing TrekWest5 merchandise from Cafe Press
    Joey's Culture Corner: Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
    Principles of an American Life: Article 6 of the Constitution
    The WW writers really screw up the character of Leo
    Don't go skeet shooting with Aaron
    Joey should watch the movie Dirty Dancing
    Music Intro: I Fight Dragons

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Here are the ratings that we gave for each show:
NSF Thurmont: 49min 31sec
Peter: Television - 7
Joey: Television - 5

The Birnam Wood: 20min 53sec
Peter: Television - 7
Joey: Television - 7

Third Day Story: 17min 14sec
Peter: Television - 8
Joey: Television - 5

Liftoff: 23min 32sec
Peter: Television - 9
Joey: Television - 7

If you have something to say then we welcome your comments below, or feel free to email us at trekwest5@thehomestarmy.com, twitter us at hashtag TrekWest5, or leave us a voicemail at 801-788-4913.

Podcast 82: West Wing Season 5 wrap up

 As we have mentioned time and again this is truly the beginning of the decline of the West Wing. We had a great time rehashing the bright spots and abusing the mistakes in our season 5 wrap up. Thanks again to our loyal listeners for their thoughts (Jim, JD, and Mohammad). We also cover episodes 21-22 of The West Wing, Season 5.

Various topics discussed in this podcast include:
    Should we get TW5 merchandise?
    Joey's Culture Corner: Article 5 of the Constitution
    Principles of an American Life: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
    It's not the situation that made you act in a certain way
    The writers are wrong to be fiddling around with long standing characters
    Music by Shayna Zaid

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Here are the ratings that we gave for each show as well as Season 5 lists/recaps:
Gaza: 41min 48sec
Peter: Television - 8
Joey: Television - 5

Memorial Day: 16min 58sec
Peter: Television - 7
Joey: Television - 6

Season 5 wrap up: 31min 15sec

Season 5 recaps and lists
Favorite Extra/Bit Part
Peter: John Goodman as President Walkin
Joey: Glenn Close as Evelyn Baker Lang

Most Hated Character
Peter: Will Bailey
Joey: Ryan Pierce

Favorite Villain
Peter: Speaker of the House Hafley
Joey: Will Bailey

Hot Chick
Peter: Zoey Bartlett as played by Elisabeth Moss
Joey: Young CJ Cregg as played by Alison Janney

Favorite Issue
Peter: Economics is a complex subject
Joey: Don't make promises you can't keep

Top 5 Hated Episodes
Peter:

1. Abut El Banat
2. Eppur Si Muove
3. Stormy Present
4. Slow News Day
5. Constituency of One

Joey:

1. Stormy Present
2. Eppur Si Muove
3. An Khe
4. Warfare of Ghengis Kahn
5. Full Disclosure

Top 5 Favorite Episodes
Peter:

1. Shutdown
2. Separation of Powers
3. 7AWF
4. Dogs of War
5. Memorial Day

Joey:

1. The Supremes
2. Shutdown
3. Dogs of War
4. Talking Points
5. 7AWF

Favorite Overall Moment
Peter: Shutting down the Federal government in Separation of Powers

Joey: President Bartlett talking to Josh in Talking Points


If you have something to say then we welcome your comments below, or feel free to email us at trekwest5@thehomestarmy.com, twitter us at hashtag TrekWest5, or leave us a voicemail at 801-788-4913.

Podcast 81: The Invisible Hand

 Guided by the invisible hand of podcasting Joey and I take a meandering course through this weeks West Wing episodes. A special surprise awaited us as we received some great listener emails from new listeners JD and Mohammad, as well as podcast regulars Flamingo and Listener Jim. Thanks a bunch for all your interest and opinions. We discussed episodes 17-20 of The West Wing, Season 5.

Various topics discussed in this podcast include:
    West Wing Episode Guide
    New listeners JD and Mohammad
    Joey's Culture Corner: Plato's The Republic
    Kind words from Flamingo
    Principles of an American Life: Article 4 of the Constitution
    Big named actors doesn't always make good production
    Is the 24 hour news cycle good for society?
    Economics is a complex subject
    Globalization is not bad
    Josh Woodward's track Morning Blue

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Here are the ratings that we gave for each show:
The Supremes: 1hr 7min 10sec
Peter: Television - 6
Joey: Television - 9

Access: 20min 20sec
Peter: Television - 8
Joey: Television - 6

Talking Points: 32min 34sec
Peter: Television - 6
Joey: Television - 8

No Exit: 15min 24sec
Peter: Television - 7
Joey: Television - 7

If you have something to say then we welcome your comments below, or feel free to email us at trekwest5@thehomestarmy.com, twitter us at hashtag TrekWest5, or leave us a voicemail at 801-788-4913.

Podcast Movie Special: Star Trek Generations

 We begin the TNG movie series with Star Trek Generations. Joey and I split our enjoyment of this movie. Frankly he was just pissed they blew up the Enterprise. At any rate we had a good time talking about it.

Various topics discussed in this podcast include:
    Joey's Culture Corner: Avatar: The Last Airbender
    Don't talk to people during a movie (especially Peter)
    Joey has an obsession with popcorn Jelly Belly's
    Joey loves watching crap blow up
    Fear can be a successful motivator
    Book recommendation: Drive
    Music Intro: Hear Me by Imagine Dragons

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If you have something to say then we welcome your comments below, or feel free to email us at trekwest5@thehomestarmy.com, twitter us at hashtag TrekWest5, or leave us a voicemail at 801-788-4913.

Podcast 80: From Sesame Street to Sodomy Laws

 What the heck were the writers thinking with this stupid Ben/CJ storyline? What a complete waste of our time. Although I suppose it does help to give us the best comment from this podcast: CJ Craig is not the Geordi La Forge of The West Wing. Special thanks to the TW5 intern, Aaron, and Jim for his comments. We discussed episodes 13-16 of The West Wing, Season 5.

Various topics discussed in this podcast include:
    Parliamentary Procedure is just a programming language for talking to people
    Joey's Culture Corner: The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
    Principles of an American Life: Article 3 of the Constitution
    The Franking Privilege
    Joey thinks male CEO's are attractive
    Mutually Assured Destruction: Societal Safety Net or Fallacy?
    There is no purpose in sensationalism
    everyone should be expected to be honest
    Where should NIH money go?
    Music Intro: I Fight Dragons

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Here are the ratings that we gave for each show:
The Warfare of Genghis Khan: 58min 33sec
Peter: Television - 7
Joey: Television - 6
Aaron: Television - 6

An Khe: 27min 21sec
Peter: Television - 7
Joey: Television - 5
Aaron: Television - 5

Full Disclosure: 16min 10sec
Peter: Television - 6
Joey: Television - 6
Aaron: Television - 4

Epur Si Muove: 19min 35sec
Peter: Television - 5
Joey: Television - 5
Aaron: Television - 5

If you have something to say then we welcome your comments below, or feel free to email us at trekwest5@thehomestarmy.com, twitter us at hashtag TrekWest5, or leave us a voicemail at 801-788-4913.