Shows
What Now with Simo5.17 End, Middle, and Beginning24 March 2025 — Final episode — Café de Halle — Tampere Market Hall — Past, present, future — The decision to end this podcast was made before David Lynch left for the White Lodge — Major Briggs — Timings converging — Five years, seasons, and books — Started on 24 March 2020 in Iceland — The last two transcript books — Modern type of journal — Looking back — Hallituskatu — Lake episodes — Episodes in cafés — Tea with honey and ginger — Finishing things — David Lynch throughout this podcast — Inspiration — Short story “The Scarecrow” — At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Fully me — Every human soul — Successes and failures — We fail because… — Life humbles most of us — The edges of your life — Limitations as keys to freedom — True to...
2025-07-201h 04
What Now with Simo5.16 On a Train, Mystery, Love, and the Four ElementsTrain — Substantial — The aims of this podcast — Monty Python’s Flying Circus — Village idiot sketch with John Cleese — Providing a useful service — An effect behind the surface effects — Writing sketches also for or featuring the others — Introducing the next topic — The themes of mystery, hope, and love — “Platitudes” — Shorthand for something less damning? — Troubling — A sickness of thought — Authentic realities — Love or not? — A creator who absolutely believes in love and mystery — David Lynch — Wild at Heart (1990) — Earlier mention of this film in season 4 — The Wikipedia article — Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as Sailor Ripley and Lula — Mystery, love, hope — Barry Gifford’s novel Wild at Heart: The St...
2024-09-201h 01What Now with Simo5.15 Windows of Opportunity, Aims, and Seven Works in Seven Months8 August 2024 (recording date) — Beautiful summer morning — Slice of dream country on the outskirts of Tampere — Rowing service gone — The wooden bridge — The cover of At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Bridge modifications — Lagoon — Esthetics — Windows of opportunity — True also with creative works — This podcast — No song-and-dance person — Leafing through the volumes of the podcast transcript books — Word-for-word transcripts — My favourite type of interview or discussion to read — Interview articles used to be edited to a very high degree — With recitations of facts — Thousands of interviews — Some humility — A journal — A place to reflect on my own and other people’s works — Some autobiography — Goose-stepping...
2024-08-1926 minWhat Now with Simo5.14 4th Anniversary Special: Passages Dark and Light II24 March 2024 — Passages Dark and Light II: Passages 1–43
2024-03-2445 minWhat Now with Simo5.13 In the Dream Spa Part Under ConstructionFriday, 9 February 2024 — Table of contents not available for personal reasons
2024-02-091h 16What Now with Simo5.12 Rendezvous at the Dream CaféA place of the imagination — Bar / café — Still under construction — My music in the background — Albums and singles — The person in charge of the music — Passages Dark and Light — Tales from the North, Book I — Early Music Archive — “Land of Youth & Beauty” — 1 January 2024 — David Lynch’s weather reports — “January one” — Being and becoming yourself — Finding your own things — Patreon plan — Seeking support — Possible future episodes to help people sleep — Sleep issues — Music intended to be calming and soothing — May not work for people with troubled, restless minds — Too easy to tune out — Occupying your attention — Season 3 of Twin Peaks — Freed from anguish for a time — An array of elements arrang...
2024-01-021h 05What Now with Simo5.11 Summer Day, Rainy NightPART 1: SUMMER DAY: One last summer day — Boat on the shore — Did go rowing — Times I had the beach to myself — Later realised why — Water just right — Giving thanks for the beautiful day — Phone alarm — Many motivations — Boat drifting — Oh, a fish | PART 2: RAINY NIGHT: Rainy night on the balcony — Most of the lake recording unusable — Something discussed in season 1 — Artist Curt Swan — Known for his work on the superhero Superman — Feels strange to be talking about this again — A later realisation — Swan was pushed aside — Had to happen — Necessary change — Shifted position — This character — So strange I ever said it — Like another person — A personal reason...
2023-09-2941 minWhat Now with Simo5.10 Danger of Triviality, Creative Practicalities, and New Music“Season 5 Opening” (@ 0:00) — Second episode of the day — Recorded on different dates — Closer to the mic again — Nicer listening experience — Lake episodes — Drifting ever so slowly — Without larger goals, danger of falling into triviality — Dreams, aspirations — Not selfish things — Couples bickering in grocery stores over trivial things — Triviality has taken over their lives — Many different forms — Obsessions — Hypochondria — Can be learned from others — Empathy for people with this problem — Be careful — Preoccupation with quirks — Irritability, pettiness — Policing other people’s behaviour — Bike example — Rageful people — Eliminating ways of wasting time — One way to avoid this fate — Lost human potential — Being creative — Numerous ways — My mother’s creativity — She ma...
2023-08-2830 minWhat Now with Simo5.9 Programmed Addictions, Wasted Life, and Alternatives“Season 5 Opening” (@ 0:11) — Programming of people — Behaviour patterns — Part of the control group — TV, films, games, stories in every medium — More and more inhuman — Even subhuman — Since 9/11 — Torture — Non-critical depictions — Troubling — Many went along with it — The time torture was made legal — Antarctica — Arctic polar region — No justification ever — No free advertising from me — Crept quickly also into science fiction — Past critical depictions of torture and other types of physical, emotional, mental, and psychological abuse — The belief that we can separate fiction from reality — Media literacy — Stopped following broadcast TV about 20 years ago — Stupid stories — Very easy for the writers — Sexual assaults as motivation in stories — Told from the pe...
2023-08-2824 minWhat Now with Simo5.8 Early Music Archive, Lou Doillon, and Room to Imagine“Season 5 Opening” (@ 0:12) — Heavy heart — Talk it out — Reconsidering last episode — A little knoll — Past discarded recordings — Attempt to have a little fun — Reasoning behind the collage — “I like messes.” — Not letting myself off the hook — Moving on — Possible problem for creators — The best I can — By the time I publish a book — Able to justify everything included and excluded — We could do an experiment — Negative space — Heaviness of heart and spirit — Something very positive — Lou Doillon — French — Discovered her first as an actress in a film — Outshone everyone else — Multitalented artist — Music — Writing, playing, and singing songs — YouTube playlist — How natural she is — Things she doesn’t do — Like seeing and heari...
2023-07-3144 minWhat Now with Simo5.7 In Which I Talk Baloney in the First Collage EpisodeVeil of darkness — Morning row — Swimming on the beaches — Great privilege — My flashlight — Juice left — Creative activities — TV a lot — Arcane matters — Discussion — Completely against — About seven — Word-for-word perfection wandering off to one side — Come out later — Art is a circle — Talking baloney — At Dawn — Fresh inspiration — You will regret it — Properly continue — Early Music — Ten years — That Dark, Dark Night — Crystallisation — Love — An Iceland Symphony — Let them flow — All the feelings — One plus two — “In the Fog, Deep” — Eight is the number of infinity — Dissatisfied seagull — Dying to write — Be more fluid — How it made you feel — The sun has risen — Waterfall — Thunderstorm — Follow a story — Let yourself — Gen...
2023-07-2407 min
What Now with Simo5.6 In Which I Share Rainy Night Thoughts on My BalconyLong period of rains — On my rainy balcony — “Autumn Leaves” — Chet Baker’s version — English lyrics by Johnny Mercer — Forecast — A promise of sun — The rains started — Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” and “All Summer in a Day” — The 1982 TV adaptation — Days for summer dreams — Beaches overrun with blue-green algae — Dangerous — Things I’m here for — Obstacles — Rejected by Finland — Collectively and individually — Outcast — “Die already, Simo, or go away.” — Dreams and aspirations — Resentment — Unfinished thought — Another chance for Finland — Past midnight — Creating the sheet music for Tales from the North, Book I — Long process — Hoped to receive some support for this task — Sleeping in fresh air — Glass panels — Night...
2023-07-0327 minWhat Now with Simo5.5 Anti-Podcasting, Demystifying Creativity, and Lasting WorkRay Bradbury’s writing process — Secret self — This podcast — 2020 — Spontaneity — Backlog — My wandering way — Some intentions behind my podcast — Almost an anti-podcast podcast — Special guest episodes — One-person operation — No haphazardness — Morning at the lake — Calm — Now you’re closer — Experimentation — Learning — Alan Moore — J. Michael Straczynski — Babylon 5 (1990s) — Online before most of us — Newsgroup — Demystifying the creative process — Obfuscation — Acting out of narcissism — Many different Alan Moores, then only one — Laundry to the laundrette — Occult and mystical subjects — Regular person — Personas — Not my kind of people — An outlet for thoughts and feelings — No local friends — A bug — Sometimes completely aimless — Being a human being — Free of all nonsense, façades, personas… — A record...
2023-06-2933 minWhat Now with Simo5.4 Book Vision, More Silence, and Finnish WoodsRecording conditions — A topic — Filming — Bridge — Last summer — Perfect shot — Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems video — The vision of the book — Updated YouTube video descriptions — Illusion or mirage — What caused it? — Long winter wait — Andrew Mellor’s book The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music & Culture — Serialised discussion — First two paragraphs — Special, even sacred things — Light in Finnish forests — Immersing oneself — The time problem — Attempts to gain more for creative work — Burning the candle — Weird one — Quoting permission — The sounds of a Finnish lake — People swimming — Finnish architect Alvar Aalto — Quote from musicologist, folklorist, and educationalist Pekka Hako — Buoys — Cushioned recorder — Ambience — Jean Sibelius — Tapiola —...
2023-06-2031 minWhat Now with Simo5.3 Lake, Respect, and a Simple QuestionThe Paul Williams lyrics — Can you guess? — Following up — Talking past things — Too noisy and windy — Not morning — Golden time for lake episodes — The wind — Human and animal activities — Bird fight — Their own business — At the lake and in the boat — Past summers — Ran the boat ashore — Weather forecast — More regular podcasting — Broadcasting — Radio shows — Always liked finding my own way — Maybe just didn’t find the right programmes — Tastes and interests — Northern Exposure — Chris Stevens (“Chris in the Morning”) — His radio show — Ideal — Terrific talk, real honesty, curiosity, great music — End of tangent — One important thing — Train wanderings, thoughtwise — Respect for living performers — Pianists — What I didn’t want to...
2023-06-1212 minWhat Now with Simo5.2 Tales of Tales, on a Train, Heading SouthHello — Song by Paul Williams — “Nice to Be Around” — An interstitial episode — On a train — Family trip — Cup of coffee — Wooden stirrer — Second album — Tales from the North, Book I — 12 pieces — Piano duets — The nature of the album — The primary function — Introducing the pieces into the world — One rendition — For others to perform — Not mimicking actual performances — In the digital realm — In no way “definitive” versions — Liner notes — Not pre-empting — Professional performers — Virtual version of a piano from Abbey Road Studios — Spitfire Audio — Mrs Mills Piano — Bright and loud — Lacquered hammers — Lovely quality of detuning — Nice tang — Limits I set for these renderings — Soft and loud notes on this piano — Transpare...
2023-06-1048 minWhat Now with SimoPierre Estève 2022–2023 Special — Part 2Sky Flowers: “Murmuration” pt. 1 (@ 0:00) — Intro — Sky Flowers: “Murmuration” pt. 2 (@ 0:39) — Locations — Megaliths of Carnac in Brittany — Shapes — Sourcier — Pythagore / Pythagoras — Special properties — “Gymnopédie Baaka” pt. 1 (@ 2:34) — “Sunriders” — High place — Echo — Rhythm — “Afterlife” (@ 4:28) — Fresh air — Temperature — Senses — Creating outside — Atlantis II: “The Sunken Isle” (@ 7:01, feat. Alyssa Landry) — Houses — 20th floor — Sunrises, epic storms — Black Moon Chronicles: “Incantation” (@ 10:18) — Theory — “Fairy Tales” (@ 12:06) — Adventure games on an island — L’Île-d’Yeu — Patricia Ruscito, programmer Pierre Gaudillère — Children of 8–18 — Weather — One rule — “Calm Morning” (@ 15:22) — Cameras — Drawings — Schools — Learning by themselves — Surprises — Pedagogically interesting — “Opera Baaka” (@ 19:05) — Adults — Director — Space — Computer voice — Homer Simpson — Perceptions — Dracula: “Harmonic Flow” (@ 22:01) — Learning from each other — Fresh ideas — “Curu” (@ 24:29) — Teacher of English — Research — “Good News from the Multiverse”...
2023-03-241h 29What Now with Simo5.1 Nordic Insights, Future Plans, and Past and Present“Season 5 Opening” (@ 0:00) — Welcome to the heart of Tampere — Café — The year 2023 — Several episodes in preparation — Following season 4 — Collections of full seasons on YouTube — Season 5 will also have other audio elements in every episode — Music — Natural sounds — Lake episodes — Outdoors — Rowboats — Sound design — Context — Anti-podcast podcast — Ginger tea — Andrew Mellor: The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music & Culture (2022) — Need for changes in my life — Immersed in the Nordic countries — Insightful and thoughtful — Another quality I appreciate — The darker sides — Honesty — In the two very first paragraphs — Finland — Journeys abroad — Iceland — Paris — London area — Sidcup — COVID epidemic — Byways of thought — The forbidding nature of Finnish forests — Not fairylands — Vast — Dangers...
2023-01-0130 minWhat Now with SimoPierre Estève 2022–2023 Special — Part 1Atlantis II: “Astralia 1” (@ 0:00) — Welcome — Sky Flowers — Installation and album — Part of the main exhibition Flowers of Change — Roppenheim The Style Outlets — Village of brands — Consumerism and art — Sky Flowers: “Clouds Above” part 1 (@ 3:26) — The street — Special mental place — Senses — QR code — Sky Flowers: “Clouds Above” part 2 (@ 6:13) — Relaxed with beautiful things — Unusual — Strong reactions — Atlantis Evolution: “Memories of Atlantis (Reprise)” (@ 9:26) — Like a second exhibition — Deo Gratias: “Panthalassa” (@ 11:23) — Darkness — Gratitude for sight — Dragon Lore II: “Into the Legend” (@ 13:50) — Healthy effect — Experiences at the Isturitz caves — Music in Penumbra — The complete experience — Sky Flowers: “Pluie d’Étoiles” (@ 18:18) — Silence, negative space, pauses — “Wall of Sound” — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Spitzberg” (@ 21:32) — Active listening — Freedom — Obs...
2022-12-231h 24What Now with Simo4.16 Creative Basics, Visions, and Fog“In the Fog, Deep” (@ 0:00) — Season 4 finale — Grief — Doors closed — An Iceland Symphony — Progress in life — Age and new directions — Making music — People driven to art and people doing art as a hobby — Creating something new — David Lynch and his life’s work — Inspirations — Ideas — Never copy — Basis in reality — Possible misinterpretation of my aims — Ray Bradbury — Pierre Estève — Vangelis — Twin Peaks — The last thing anyone should expect from me — The real thing — Waste of talents — Our special things — A turning point — Receiving and creating — Journey through the history of music through its recorded forms — Late 19th century — No longer getting something from something — Repetition and repert...
2022-10-2547 minWhat Now with Simo4.15 Northern Dream, Morricone and Tiomkin, and Tremendous FreedomNorthern Exposure dream — Rich and long — Many scenarios and segments — Dreams are a gift — Places familiar from earlier dreams — Another puzzle piece — Stan Jones song “Riders in the Sky” (1948) — A seed for Ennio Morricone — Great Western music — Finding my own way — Sergio Leone asked him to write in the style of Dimitri Tiomkin’s Western soundtracks — Born in Russia, moved to the United States — “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling” from High Noon (1952) — Later instrumental music — The two influences — Spotify playlist “What Now 1956–1959” — Performance by Nelson Riddle — Music composed by Tiomkin — Two John Wayne movies — Rio Bravo (1959) and The Alamo (1960) — Johnny Puleo & His Harmonica Gang’s...
2022-07-2013 minWhat Now with Simo4.14 Sky Flowers, Just One More Thing, and Three Ravens or CrowsBack at the lake — Episode of updates — Water perfect for swimming — One of my very favourite things in the world — Immersing myself in water — Lake, swimming pool, bathtub — When I start to float — Your own private world of blueness — The good type — The fresh smell of the lake — If you could bottle that… — Pierre Estève’s new album Sky Flowers — On Bandcamp — You never know what to expect — All kinds of musical realms — Musical explorer and adventurer — Flowers of Change — Fresh listening — Store selling used books and magazines — The memoirs of Peter Falk: Just One More Thing — Columbo — A book very much after my own heart — Varied an...
2022-06-3014 minWhat Now with Simo4.13 Wild at Heart, Negative Space, and Petering OutWeather totally amyaazing — Midsummer — Drifting and talking — Quick course correction — Too close to a marker — A whole episode about negative space — Other thoughts — David Lynch film Wild at Heart (1990) — Starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern — Beautiful sequence — Gas station — Drive through a desert — Trying to get good music on the radio — 100 miles to go — Horrible stuff — Violence, death, health issues — Lula — Sailor Ripley — Powermad (band) — Letting go — From heavy metal to a classical song — Richard Strauss’s “Im Abendrot” (“At Sunset”) (1948) from Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder) — “Abendrot”: “evening red” — Different versions of the song — Rowing — Great tempo — Finnish for “world”: “maailma” — “Earth” (“maa”) + “air” (“ilma”) = “e...
2022-06-2408 minWhat Now with Simo4.12 In Which I Go Rowing Without TalkingA short afternoon row from beginning to end without talking, with some quieter parts when filming.
2022-06-1720 minWhat Now with Simo4.11 Lake, Land of Youth & Beauty, and PlansGood morning from the lake — Back to rowing — Future presentations of my books — At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems — Hardcover and ebook — Low profile for the moment — The Land of Youth and Beauty — Feeling truly loved — Then you feel young and beautiful — Chronological age — Chris Stevens in Northern Exposure — A kind of companion book — Title, cover design, nature — No assembly line — So many things — Screenplays and stage plays — Poems from a time of searching — From my heart, soul, and secret self — The most special things — Many styles and topics — Now a very clear sense of direction — Markers to my future — The...
2022-06-1326 minWhat Now with Simo4.10 In Which I Go on a PicnicGood spot for a picnic — Green grass — Forgot the pillow — Shade — Sandwich — S.Pellegrino sparkling natural mineral water — Shoes — Rainbow-coloured blanket — Helmet — Why haven’t I done this before? — I don’t believe in beating yourself up — Easygoing — A long time ago — Academia — Dry place — Parties and picnics — May Day — That part of the day — In warmth with a breeze — Basic things most important — Fresh air — The smell of grass — Colours — Tastes — Smells — A touch — Senses — Art & Love, Vol. 1 — Next part — Chapter on sensuality — Not hedonism — Indulgence leads to unhappiness — Distorted looking glass versions — What I see right now — Sunglasses — Bottle — Black bag — Shoulder bag from London — Zoom record...
2022-05-2429 minWhat Now with Simo4.9 2nd Anniversary Special“Season 4 Theme — 2nd Anniversary Opening Version” (@ 0:00) — Two years from recording the first episode at Hótel Vellir in Iceland — My mother’s passing — My parents — “2nd Anniversary Lyre” (@ 1:52) — New leather couch from Denmark — “Passages Dark and Light — Part 1” (@ 2:40) — Note regarding earlier symphony discussion — At Dawn: Early Short Stories for a later episode — The three first Psycho films — Anthony Perkins — Lasting use of language — David Lynch and Ray Bradbury — Henry Purcell: “What Power Art Thou” from his opera King Arthur (1691) — David Lynch swearing — The music of Ron Jones — Sleeve notes from Film Score Monthly — What Star Trek was originally meant to be — Once upon a time — A person like a dragon — Phili...
2022-03-2453 minWhat Now with Simo4.8 Northern Lights, Op. 2 No. 1: “A Beginning Is a Difficult Place to End”Northern Lights, Op. 2 No. 1 for Lap Steel Guitar: “A Beginning Is a Difficult Place to End” (@ 0:00)© 2022 Simo Sakari Aaltonen. All rights reserved.
2022-03-0703 minWhat Now with Simo4.7 Notes to Self, Plastic People, and Symphonies Then and Now“Notes to Self” (@ 0:25) — Backlog — Some individual points — Line by Rod Serling — “What are you, some kind of sadist?” — Nicholas Meyer on specificity and universality — The very picture of a violinist — Sir Yehudi Menuhin — Poster in a café — Tastes in music — Plastic people — A really bad idea — Symphonies were originally not expected to be heard by any single person more than once — What types of music and what pieces of music you can listen to over and over again — Expectations of Beethoven, Mozart, and others — Very different now — Expected relistenings — Theme music for this podcast — Most advertising jingles annoy on purpose — Angelo Badalamenti’s theme for Insi...
2022-01-1712 minWhat Now with Simo4.6 Warmth, Light, and Freedom of ExpressionYear 2022 — On a train — Warmth — Finland has two great festivals of light and warmth — Midsummer and Christmas — Human warmth is a miracle — The most difficult thing to get across in art — Harder than comedy — Everything needs to be just right — Sense of balance and lightness — The Finnish Christmas song “Varpunen jouluaamuna” (“Sparrow on Christmas Morning”) — Prose translation in the season 4 book — Upcoming books and updates — The season 3 book will be special — Now all episodes play on all devices — A lot of catching up — Several books in the first half of 2022 — Collection of short stories — Hardcovers — Excellent printing — A tremendous change — Avenues of expression — Before the Inte...
2022-01-0613 minWhat Now with Simo4.5 A Christmas SongFinnish Christmas song: “Varpunen jouluaamuna” (“Sparrow on Christmas Morning”)
2021-12-2403 minWhat Now with Simo4.4 Winter, First World Poems, and Finding Life Again“Winter Is Here” (@ 0:27) — My tribute joke to Norm Macdonald — A reason why many old poems no longer play — First world problems — Hundreds of poetry readings from 1923 to the 1950s — Listening to some during morning exercise (5 to 6 a.m.) — Wordsworth, John Donne — Donne’s “The Sun Rising” (1633) — Raging at the sun — Determines the comings and goings of lovers — Casts an imperious eye — How privileged? — A natural phenomenon an adult should be able to accept — Painstakingly, by hand, maybe with a quill and ink — “Saucy pedantic wretch” — Spinning creative wheels — Picture the scene — Waking up — How dare the sun shine when it pleases? — Guy ranting at the window — Undercut...
2021-12-0213 minWhat Now with Simo4.3 Misuse of Language, Harmful Thoughts, and Winds That Come and GoSo many of our problems come from misuse of language — “What is the meaning of life?” — Not possible without language — Like the memory of a wind that came and went — Questions of self-worth — At some point in the past — Need to be responsible with language — Any idea can potentially live forever — Self-defeating and other-defeating ideas — Ruthless — Mosquitoes — Getting rid of deeply seated thoughts — “A high standard” — Nonsense thinking about perfection — Emotional self-abuse — Physical effects — No difference — Another basic flaw — “Failure” and “success” can only apply to a process that has come to a conclusion — Aiming at the Moon — All part of the journey there — The only real failures — Our...
2021-11-1910 minWhat Now with Simo4.2 Room, a Repeat, and Norm MacdonaldAn illustration — Something I and Pierre talked about — Silence, negative space, and room — Tight vs. looser editing — Exact same background music (“Fresh Start”) — Postponing some topics — Great losses recently — An uncle, a friend, Dean Stockwell — The passing of Norm Macdonald — He was the first outside my personal circle to have an impact on this podcast — Early in season 1 — Norm’s encouraging tweet — Messaging — Sent him my books — The prospect of doing a podcast with him — Amazing amount of appearances on podcasts etc. — Kept his cancer secret — He’s hugely important — Free — A good soul — Feeling of freedom and space — Two different energies people can create — Dave Ch...
2021-11-1110 minWhat Now with Simo4.1 Welcome Aboard, a Look Back, and a Look Forward“Season 4 Theme” (@ 0:00) — Welcome — “Fresh Start” (@ 0:33) — New cover art and theme tune — Looking back on season 3 — Discussions with David Lee Homb and Pierre Estève — Great feedback — All music in my own episodes is by me — No ready-made elements — Hardcover books — An Iceland Symphony — Short episodes — Introductory episode — Original idea and secret hope — Chris Stevens in Northern Exposure — Pierre’s music — His and David’s generosity — David’s first book of poetry Awake, I Dream — Future plans — Next steps with An Iceland Symphony — Book of short stories later this year — Catching up with transcriptions — Season 3 book of transcripts — Including full transcripts of the discussions with David and Pierre — A mill
2021-11-0206 minWhat Now with Simo3.14 A Discussion with Pierre Estève — Part 2Atlantis II: “Rainbow Bridge” (@ 0:00) — Cahors — Avignon — Nature and wild places — Dragon Lore II: “Sanctuary” (@ 2:02) — Listening — Sound is a miracle — Field recordings — Studies — Learning — Your own voice — Confidence — The best way to learn — Pleasure in the doing — Teachers — David Lynch — Rules vs. principles — John Cage: Silence (1961) — Freedom — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Spitzberg” (@ 12:20) — The way Mr. Lynch learned screenwriting — Restrictive rules — Surprises — Changes in mood — Season 3 of Twin Peaks — Current reading and films — Many interests — Edward Bernays — Rules of propaganda — Short film Propaganda — Noam Chomsky — Poetry — Technical things — Janine Benyus and biomimicry — Ken Loach — Lars von Trier — Also some Hollywood movies — Dracula: “Flying Over the Mountains” (@ 20:50) — Koyaanisqatsi (1982) — Baraka (1992...
2021-10-051h 31What Now with Simo3.13 A Discussion with Pierre Estève — Part 1Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Sunriders” special remix (@ 0:00) — Introduction — Welcome — Composer and artist — Sound experimentation — Recording company Shooting Star — Non-profit organisation Art Science 21 — Crossroads of art, science, and sustainability — Bandcamp page — Website — Something special coming — Vangelis — Music and friendship — Closer relationship — YouTube — Huge instrument collection — Flowers of Change — A special project — Collaborative — Forests of flowers — From recycled plastic bottles — Interactive — Light and sound — Like a video game — Evolving — Augmented reality — Grenoble, France — Flowers of Change, Flowers of the Anthropocene — Changes — Transhumanism — Science, nature, and biomimicry — Immersive experiences — Mix of music and sound effects — Generative music — More composed parts — The forest in Atlantis 4 and the Flowers of Change forest — Atlantis Evolution: “Quie...
2021-08-2031 minWhat Now with Simo3.12 Basic Human Truths, Healing, and an Art EveningGood morning — Back at the lake — Some basic truths about healing and human life — Speaking from experience — Bad advice and good advice — Getting out of the house — Active outdoors — Nutrition — Health and happiness — Depressed, down in spirits, in despair — What will never help — When summer got here — Daily activity — You can’t get to a better place by only thinking — Choosing activities you enjoy — Moping around — Not making light of difficulties — The bottom line — Dwelling on past events — To do so for some time may be healthy — But only for some time — The first step — Admitting there is a problem — Endless things to choose from — We m...
2021-07-0319 minWhat Now with Simo3.11 Bradbury Land, Kindness from a Stranger, and HappinessWelcome back to the lake — Windy but warm — Bradbury land — Many of them — Years looking for it — Lakes — Carnivals — Some good futuristic things — Summer mornings, days, evenings, and nights — Green grass — Freshly mown lawn — Learned rowing from my father — Principles of responsible boating — Centre of gravity — Orientation and direction — Oars in water — Genius inventor of rowing — Saving a little bug — Cheering encounter — Traffic lights — Headphones — Audio books, poetry, etc. — Thanks for riding the city scooter on the road — More irresponsible scooters — How life should be — Unhappy people who have it all — Happiness comes with moments — Finishing the thought on Bradbury land — First visit to Tampere in 1990 — Field...
2021-06-1709 minWhat Now with Simo3.10 An Iceland Symphony, on the Lake, Early in the MorningEarly morning on the lake — An Iceland Symphony: A Theatrical Symphony for All Ages — First large-scale composition — Book of sheet music — 21 sections — Calls for performers of all ages — Started writing in early 2019 in Iceland — All of Iceland and all Icelanders — Children and teenagers and adults — A land where childhood is still possible — Grocery store anecdote — “Pabbi” (“Father”) — The voice of a child who had had a genuinely happy, safe childhood — Good families and bad families — Good conditions and bad conditions — Children are the future — People of more advanced years — General respect for elders in Iceland — Works created to last — Philip Glass on how you have to write for the...
2021-06-1613 minWhat Now with Simo3.9 Philip Glass, Early Days, and Remaining FreeAn audio message recorded for a friend on my phone — An interview with Philip Glass — His early years — One of the most successful composers of our time — Film music, operas, and countless other types of pieces — His first opera — Back to driving a taxi — Opera doesn’t make a profit — Nothing to fall back on — Always working on many things rather than a single big thing — Not allowed into the usual concert venues — Radically different music — Music with repetitive structures — Gatekeepers of the classical music world — He was the future — A threat to the existing order — No connections in the establishment — No encourageme...
2021-05-0307 minWhat Now with Simo3.8 Rod Serling, Writing, and the Clear StageRod Serling — A gift to all writers — Worked hard all last year — Gift to myself — The 60th anniversary Blu-ray set of The Twilight Zone — The best presentation of this material ever made — Serling himself never got to see it in this astounding quality — Lighting, filming, sets, costumes — Super quality — A treasury for any creative person — Creative insight — Keys to creativity — Apologies to my friend Maren — Incredible amount of extras — A complete, self-sufficient masterclass for any writer — The episodes themselves — Studying them to learn about every aspect of filmmaking — Short films — Acting, lighting, cinematography, staging — Two ways to learn — Personal curiosity — The extras — Serling’s pitch...
2021-04-0614 minWhat Now with Simo3.7 Straight Talk, Dreams, and Listening to That VoiceThe discussion with David Lee Homb very special for me — Never had a peer group of creatives for long in life — How different life would’ve been — Easy connection among likeminded souls — Something to do with creativity, caring, and wanting to have a positive impact — Selfishness closes a person off from any meaningful path in life — What we can do for others — A question with art also — What effects? — 10:14 p.m. — Night for the soul — Straight talk — Friends and not — Those who disappear — Maybe due to being overwhelmed and maybe due to lack of caring in the first place — True friendship — Heartfelt disc...
2021-04-0405 minWhat Now with Simo3.6 1st Anniversary Special with David Lee Homb — Part 2Heartfelt messages — Reaching out to likeminded people — Saying what feels right — David Lynch — Therapy and creativity — Tigger — ADD / ADHD — Doctor in Beverly Hills — Bouncing rather than medication — Effects on creativity — Insidious effects — Changed brain chemistry equals changed personality — Upcoming book of poetry — Started writing after Phantasmagoria — Pulling through the dark years — Self-realisation — Helping — Working title Out of the Darkness — Final title Awake, I Dream — Writing process — Dreaming awake as well as asleep — Illustrations by Rodrigo de Oliveira Vilela — Great souls and good fortune — Question from Nicole Etter — Archaeology and geology — History — Painting — Questions from Nelson Miguel and Michael Shaw — Dealing with the difficult times — Writing — Musicals an...
2021-04-0144 minWhat Now with Simo3.5 1st Anniversary Special with David Lee Homb — Part 1First anniversary — Special guest David Lee Homb — Actor and writer — This podcast started in Iceland on 24 March 2020 — Sierra’s groundbreaking adventure game Phantasmagoria — Live actors in computer-generated sets — Nothing can replace a real actor — Lead male role — Kindred spirit — Same wavelength — Two-part episode — Skype recording — David’s introduction — Great things coming — Starting on his acting career — High school — Theatre — Ballet for 9 years — From stage to screen — His self-imposed apprenticeship — Second year in Los Angeles — Sasha and Orson Welles — Orson’s 16-millimetre practice reels from his early 20s — The vault — Early days in Los Angeles — Honda Gold Wing motorcycle in Arlington, Texas — Father’s advice — The Steve McQueen...
2021-03-2436 minWhat Now with Simo3.4 Freedom of Theatre and Music, Good Life, and Status UpdateUnplanned break — Clearing the cobwebs — Spotify playlist from 1952 to 1955 now over 15 tracks old — The only agenda for it — Period pieces or timeless quality — Recent Icelandic earthquakes — Best wishes from Finland — Increasingly less interested in comics — An art form as good as any other — Films, TV series, theatre, music — Limitations — Following real passions — The possibilities of theatre — Potential — Feeling of freedom — Music and theatre are a wide open stage — The poetry of T. S. Eliot a dead end — Not helpful as a model — Tiredness, hopelessness, giving up — Fresh things not laden down with the past — The meaning of life — In good moments that question becomes meaning...
2021-03-0311 minWhat Now with Simo3.3 The Right Stuff, No Wrong Stuff, and SensualityRecap: TV, malls, driving — Lighter episode — Happy 75th birthday to David Lynch — Spotify playlist — “Scène” from Act II of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake — London Symphony Orchestra/Anatole Fistoulari — Dragnet premiere correction — Favourite film of 2020: The Vast of Night — Subtle depth — Nothing about it needed excusing — Favourite TV series: The Right Stuff (Disney+) — Science fiction and science fact — Authentic and down to earth — Alan Shepard’s first flight — Simulator felt more real — The virtue of being a slow burn — Better and better — A genuinely mature series — Misuse of the word “mature” — Parks and Recreation — Comedy series — Perfect casting — Ron Swanson — Aubrey Plaza — Jerry — Chris Traeger — Completi...
2021-01-2108 minWhat Now with Simo3.2 Staying on Course, True Unwinding, and TV Season 2 transcript book now on Amazon — More than 41,000 words — Introduction, footnotes, and bonus chapter on The Ray Bradbury Theater — Book series — Happy with this volume — Closer to my ideal of being like a late night radio programme — Thanks to Alessandra for checking my facts regarding S.Pellegrino mineral water — Course correction re: sharing my journeys through different realms of art — Reasons against it — Spontaneity and total freedom — Sharing only the most interesting things — The Spotify playlists will continue — Tens of thousands of tracks — Not possible to share folders on Spotify — A future possibility — One task too many — Foregrounding the wrong thing — Slowing down every...
2021-01-1228 minWhat Now with Simo3.1 An Invitation, Blue Velvet, and Clothes in ComicsWelcome to 2021 — Journey through art — Music, film, TV, books, comics, more — About dates — Spotify playlist: “What Now with Simo 1952–1955” — Tony Bennett’s “Blue Velvet” — January 1952 — Version by Bobby Vinton in the 60s — Used by David Lynch in his film — A threshold moment — Modern era — “Riders in the Sky” — Caccini’s “Amarilli” — Ages for reference — David Lynch turned 6 — Philip Glass turned 15 — Jean Sibelius was 86 — John Cage 39 — Ray Bradbury 31 — Gene Roddenberry 30 — Charles M. Schulz 29 — His Peanuts strip was 1 year and 2 months old — Rod Serling was 27 — The Twilight Zone would start in 1959 — Harlan Ellison was 17 — Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman) 11 — Vangelis 8 — Edward James Olmos 4 — Larry David 4 — Births still in the future — Jerry Seinfeld...
2021-01-0111 minWhat Now with Simo2.16 Eighty-Six, Art & Love, and the Land of Youth and BeautySeason 2 finale — Over 5,000 listens since 24 March 2020 — Dark events and crossroads in time — David Lynch writing and directing Wisteria for Netflix — Published Art & Love, Vol. 1 — A legacy creation — 100 years from now — Future-proof language — Encapsulations and essences — The substance of a person’s life — 124 chapters — Preserving or diminishing the value of a creation — Imagine a theatre stage — The books of transcripts — Future wishes — An Iceland memory — A country where childhood is still possible — Intuition — Norm Macdonald Has a Show and Norm Macdonald Live — Warmth — Jane Fonda, Michael Keaton, Drew Barrymore — How rarely many comedians seem to enjoy their work — The Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me soundtrack by Angelo...
2020-12-191h 26What Now with Simo2.15 Autumn Dream, Dream Landscape, and Alexander Toth14 October 2020, 4:39 p.m. — A long, almost baroque autumn dream — This time of year — Halloween on the horizon — 21 October — Libra — Proud of my mother — Eye surgery — Back to the dream — Gusty winds — Possibility of falling branches — Storm approaching — Seaside town, autumnal — Huge old house with creaking wooden floors — The home of a friend — Housesitting — Old-time things — Flea markets — Remains of lives — Lace, wood, porcelain, vases, curtains, carpets, armchairs, ornaments — Fresh — Good, fresh air — Wooden spiral staircases — The depths of the basement — Others moving about — The scariest adventure game ever made — Horrible things could happen — Frustrating timed sequence — Laboratory storage room — A fully formed place — Hewn stones on the embankment front...
2020-10-1413 minWhat Now with Simo2.14 Songs, the Dark Gem, and MysteryAn episode of diary entries — Sunday, 20 September 2020 — 12:05 p.m. — “The Song of the Volga Boatmen” — The emotional arc of waking up on some days — A feature of art — Emotional underpinnings — 12:22 p.m. — Norm Macdonald video of Letterman appearances — “Calypso Blues” by Nat King Cole (music) & Don George (lyrics) — A song that can bring a smile — Version by Mona Baptiste (early 1950s) — Sultry, interesting, relaxed — 23 September, 12:31 a.m. — Rod Serling talking to a group of young writers — Norm Macdonald’s comment on The Twilight Zone — Probably the best TV series of all time — If only one TV series could survive — Only the original series — A series that gives...
2020-10-0811 minWhat Now with Simo2.13 Moonlight, Gould, and If Ever I Cease to LoveNewfound freedom — Fresh air — The 1st movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 (Moonlight) — Pieces I never get tired of — Changing pianists, changing tempi — In Season 3 of Twin Peaks — The most remarkable use of this movement — Time slows down — David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti — The gift of simplicity — “Slower” — Music is a set of simple things in combinations of varying complexity — Simple questions, simple choices — The idea tells you everything — The answers already embedded in the idea — Creating a story — Many ways of writing — The main thing is to remain open and be ready — 1:29 p.m. — Wildfires in the United States — National Geographic — 85–90...
2020-09-1828 minWhat Now with Simo2.12 Gym, Headset, and CurbWe are going to gym — Recording on a headset with a microphone — Testing — No time, but doing it anyway — Cardio day — 3-day cycle — No 45 minutes of heavy breathing — Exercise makes drinking a huge pleasure — Stretching — All done — Now food — Last night a good night creatively — A theory about music — The time problem — Also a good writing day — Finished a solid scene for a stage play — Back from getting food and some liquids — Started watching Curb Your Enthusiasm — S.Pellegrino mineral water — Tastes like health — Only three TV series in the 2000s absorbing enough to help me get through tough times — Battlestar Galactica — Twin Peak...
2020-09-0211 minWhat Now with Simo2.11 An Icelandic Artist, Her Work, and the One-Month Mirror Strike10 August 2020 — Icelandic artist Hildur Kristín Thorstensen — My imperfect pronunciation — Summer of 2016 — Singer, writer, performer, dancer, director, actor, and more — Schools in Iceland, Finland, France, and the UK — Natural born artist — Early years — Collage — First book of poetry in 2017 — Bilingual — Poetry that comes naturally — To create a perfect poem — Directness and beauty — Elegance — The most beautiful voice I’ve heard — Mezzo-soprano — “Amarilli” by Caccini (c. 1601) — Her rendition vs. others — Clarity, strength, sensitivity — Written at the dawn of opera — More composers could’ve taken pointers from it — Want to recommend people and works I feel in my heart deserve it — A unique and special person — Out of anyone I know, she...
2020-08-1015 minWhat Now with Simo2.10 Asylum, the Perfect Set-Up, and More DrivingMany new developments — Joined the Senscape team to work under Agustín Cordes on writing and revisions for the horror adventure game Asylum — Worked previously together on the free horror adventure game Serena (available on Steam) — Fertile and enjoyable creative collaboration — That game was made from beginning to end in two months — A feeling of exhilaration — The Holodeck in the early episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation — My first game writing in quite some years — Adventure games close to my heart — Let my voice get out of practice — Back to more regular podcasting — Freshness — This year’s virtual Finncon — “Froggering” — Fr...
2020-07-2916 minWhat Now with Simo2.9 Night Drive, The Vast of Night, and Atlantis4 a.m. drive — Good time and place for a driving podcast — Attempt #2 — Done talking about some things — Focusing on the present and the future — I like driving — Mic talk and fair warning — Used to go rollerblading at this time of morning — Now driving — You never know what thoughts will occur when out and about — Avoiding stagnation — Keep developing — Driving past my first school — Cemetery on the other side of the road — The Vast of Night — A genuinely thrilling and involving film — Not a single misstep — The storytelling potential of film — Pierre Estève’s Atlantis Evolution album — Abrupt cut — The Atlantis series of games (Cryo) — First...
2020-07-0718 minWhat Now with Simo2.8 Scooting, Sunlight, and Simple PleasuresScooters — Reckless riders — Running, walking, biking — An outing to pick up copies of my paperback — Beautiful summer day — City bikes out of circulation for now — Visiting Tampere in the summer — Nature places and gardens — The time I walked 12 kilometres most days for a month — Scooting along — Tier — One euro per trip plus 20 cents per minute — Half an hour of walking both ways — Really enjoyed it — Many good things about scooting — One element of the future we saw in fiction — 50s science fiction comics from EC Comics — The elemental joy of moving around in the world — Way more fun than sitting in a bus — Left copies of my...
2020-06-1212 minWhat Now with Simo2.7 Wavelengths, Imagination, and ConnectingBeing on the same wavelength or not — Possible or impossible to connect — The real communication happens under the surface — Looking into each other’s eyes — Other factors involved — Happens naturally — Your people — Those with whom no connection is possible — Seekers — A creative need — Pursuing goals related to creativity — Taking steps to make them happen — Imagination is super incredibly important — Raising your eyes from little things — Meaningful experiences with art — People who are not going for something better — Bringing others down to their own level — A horrifying thought — Death in life — The opposite of what life should be — Imagination and art matter — A driving force — Strong word
2020-06-0911 minWhat Now with SimoNX 1.1 As Fresh as Northern Exposure: “Pilot”Excerpts from Chapter 1 of the first book in my upcoming 6-volume series on the TV series Northern Exposure (1990–1995). Chapter 1 covers the pilot episode.
2020-06-0436 minWhat Now with Simo2.6 A Way to Learn, Screenwriting Gym, and Dashing Through20,000 words for the NX book — Writing — Translating films and TV series — Securing creative freedom — Game writing — My default way of living — Screenwriting gym — A whole script going through your mind and fingers — Concise writing — A way to learn from others — Words need to go through you physically as well as mentally — Writing by speaking — Rod Serling and David Lynch — Ideal type of work — Doesn’t matter whether it’s a good or a bad script — Really inspiring projects — Rich input needed for rich output — Reading all kinds of stuff — Doing things this way has been freeing and has lit an unexpected fire — Working on screenpl...
2020-06-0109 minWhat Now with Simo2.5 A Course Correction for the NX Book Series and PodcastStarted making the Northern Exposure recordings — Episodes of the podcast will be excerpts from the full work as it is being written — the hours-long full-length recordings and book chapters
2020-05-2709 minWhat Now with Simo2.4 Publishing, Clean Beach Smell on Main Street, and NumbersNumbered points — 1. Season 1 ebook on Amazon — Paperback soon — Pricing — 2. Northern Exposure podcast series — A “sub-podcast” for now — No branding or advertising — 3. YouTube Garfield pipe strip video called 07/27/1978 — In the category of comedy — Lovecraftian thinking — Visual illustrations of the points — 4. The main street smelled like a clean beach — Streets washed clean — Lost count — Another 4 — David Lynch’s weather reports and what they do for people — Some of the most positive comment sections on YouTube — 5. Lasting language — Popular expressions that come and go — Uses of language that become outdated — 6. To future and present listeners — Monday, 25th of May 2020 — Rate of podcasting — Progress report — Years finding the right direction...
2020-05-2509 minWhat Now with Simo2.3 Fading, Things of Lasting Worth, and TimeA less hectic pace this time — Things passing out of the common consciousness — The Twilight Zone — Even that — Forgotten? — Lasting work — People of generations after mine — Ancient history — Their own things — Anthology shows — The Ray Bradbury Theater — One of those eternal things — How many born later will go watch those episodes? — Losing the ability to watch or read old stuff — Going back to the roots — Such a daunting thought — Speaking across the ages — Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings — Enjoyed those too — The same will happen with them — Made a long time ago now — Rod Serling’s and Ray Bradbury’s work — Those things had w...
2020-05-2308 minWhat Now with SimoNX 1.0 As Fresh as Northern Exposure: IntroductionWelcome — Podcast and book series — 110 episodes and chapters — American TV series created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey — Six seasons from 1990 to 1995 — The Blu-ray release preserves the original music — Earlier DVD releases — Amazon — How to do justice to this series? — A tall claim, but one I believe 100% — The maturest series I know — A unique combination of what it does and what it doesn’t do — Dispelling cobwebs — Opening my balcony door and stepping out into the summer evening balminess here in Finland — Green leaves, blue skies, and sunshine — Fresh air — Clean, pure, cold water — Lakeside — Running in beautiful nature — Sitting around a smoking campfire — Toge...
2020-05-2220 minWhat Now with Simo2.2 Two Books, Season 1, and Six Volumes of Northern Exposure10-minute clock — A finely crafted wooden box — News — Two books — Finished a book during the break — A transcript of every episode — The editorial approach — Hybrid books and books that try something new — Issues of focus and memorability — Podcast then also available for anyone with any hearing loss — Writing by talking — Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, wrote by dictating into a tape recorder — Sitting out in the sun by the pool — Honed his skill for writing dialogue — Every word tested in the act of writing — David Lynch has also dictated many things — Room to Dream — A few of my favourite books — John Cage: Si...
2020-05-2109 minWhat Now with Simo2.1 New Horizons, New Energy, and What Happened in the MeantimeWelcome to season 2 — Putting myself on a clock — 10-minute episodes — My father turned 75 — David Lynch’s weather report (David Lynch Theater) — Norm Macdonald tweeted Dr. Jordan Peterson — Bear McCreary’s Battlestar Galactica maybe soon on Spotify — R.I.P. Fred Willard — A couple of announcements soon — Regular schedule from now on — Happy birthday, Dad — Always supportive parents — Something else playing soon at David Lynch Theater — Fred Willard on Norm Macdonald Live (video podcast) — Status update — Tampere, Finland — This podcast was born at Hótel Vellir in Iceland — Relocation after two episodes — Weather and a look out the window — Roses — Ray Bradbury: “You must stay drunk on writing...
2020-05-1909 minWhat Now with Simo1.15 Spring Break, James Horner at the Piano, and EpilogueSeason 1 finale — Single-mindedness can be a good thing when pursuing a single task — But life is many tasks — Throwing the thoughts out into the winds — The good ones will come back — Close Encounters of the Third Kind — Field of Dreams — Clearing out some things — Reminders of things forgotten for some time — Discussion featuring Philip Glass and Godfrey Reggio — Director of the Qatsi trilogy — Opening up vistas — The nature of Koyaanisqatsi — To present something but not tell you how to take it — Room for the audience — Link on Twitter — Philip Glass’s Twitter account — An experience that stirs up things — Completing the work — A Conversation w...
2020-05-0920 minWhat Now with Simo1.14 Trust, Darkness, and IdealsA motorcycle — Sunny day — Continuing the serial — I hate manipulation — Playing games with people — Relevance to Field of Dreams — Simply a good man — Superman is meant to be a completely goodhearted person — His backstory — From another planet, but raised by really good people — A valuable concept — Many writers don’t know what to do with this — Moving on — The connecting link — Whether you can trust someone or not — People reveal themselves over time — Assumptions can be telling — Nearly every superhero ends up being a compromised conception — A more innocent time in comics — Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner’s character) would not crumble — Not violent — Rarer than we...
2020-05-0718 minWhat Now with Simo1.13 Simple Human Decency, Field of Dreams, and Some HumourWhen did I go to sleep last night? — No way was I going to record today — A tumble of thoughts — A good creative principle — Small manageable chunks — Modular — A sort of serial — The real heroes in life are the people who keep life going no matter what — In that spirit — A podcast like a radio programme of comforting regularity — Heroes and superheroes — Perspectives change — Superman goes crazy — Poor Jimmy Olsen — The other 48% of the time — Pretending to be Santa Claus — Cinnamon roll — A living hell — Going crazy about 50% of the time is not good — Pivot into the main point — Simple human decency — Field of Dreams —...
2020-05-0516 minWhat Now with Simo1.12 An Update, Dreams, and Hearing the Sea in Music28th April 2020 — 20/20 vision about our lives — Something different again — 1. What I was doing today — Continued with music and writing — Better not share too much too early — A kind of jinx — Building up resources and tools — Being systematic — Tens of thousands of bars of music — Archiving — Also finished pieces — An Iceland Symphony — Aim to be drastically productive — Building a musical vocabulary — Philip Glass — Starting with a clean slate — From the simplest elements to an enormous range — Doing the math — 2. A dream about a Superman comic by José Luis García-López — Marvel and DC comics and films — A comic book album from the 1980s — A story told in two-pa...
2020-04-2821 minWhat Now with Simo1.11 More Keys, Encouragement, and AccentsPositive feedback — Aiming this time for no segues — A lot on my mind — More on keys of creativity — Key figures David Lynch, Vangelis, Ron Jones — Interviews, talks, and conversations — Insights — Saying enough but not too much — Vangelis recommendation — Not a marketable commodity — Healthier and wiser — Things that restrict us and things that unlock something — Segue — About creative people I know — So much potential but maybe giving up — Friends or family discouraging — On a more concrete note — Make your own opportunities — Ditch anyone who tries to make you feel worthless — Two-faced people — Another segue — Beautiful accents — Icelandic and English — Used to aim to sound like a native speaker, not any...
2020-04-2321 minWhat Now with Simo1.10 H. P. Lovecraft: “Ex Oblivione”Reading of H. P. Lovecraft’s “Ex Oblivione” (1920–1921).
2020-04-2006 minWhat Now with Simo1.9 Last Day, Pekar, and Keys9th April 2020 — Day of the Finnish language — Quarantine ending — Thinking of friends — Took a walk — Harvey Pekar and his comic book American Splendor — Pekar’s appearances on Letterman — He chronicled his own life in comic book form — Now many of us do it online — Pekar made a living as a file clerk at a veterans’ hospital — Letterman’s later regrets — Made fun of Pekar — Each provoked the other — Pekar’s very honest attitude — Refreshing — Great film (2003) based on his comics — Growing respect — May or may not read one day — Look forward to seeing the film — The variety of Letterman’s guests — Spending time with someone else a pre...
2020-04-0912 minWhat Now with Simo1.8 Odyssey, Adagio, and Back to Work6th April 2020 — A short break — Working on my music — Paris — Starting my personal system — Day 11 of 14 — About my odyssey through the history of recorded music — Gramophone magazine (founded 1923) used to cover all types of music — Digital archive — Spotify — Widening musical interests from the 80s to the present — Atlantis series of games from Cryo — World music — Pierre Estève and Stéphane Picq — Sounds of different cultures — Delving into classical music — BBC Music Magazine (founded 1992) — Years focused on writing — Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings — Oliver Stone and David Lynch on using that piece in their films — The Elephant Man — National Public Radio recording from the early...
2020-04-0613 minWhat Now with Simo1.7 First Message, Autism, and Always PossibilitiesMy first audio message from a listener — Jumping from one topic to another — Writing — Day 7 of 14 — Maren’s message — Social interaction — Article on autism — Different possible origins of problems in social interaction — Sorting and processing information — Behaviours that resemble autism — Sensory input — Asperger’s — Lack of practice — Autism spectrum — Not fixed in stone — Studied some psychology — Personal relevance of these questions — Interacting on our own — Conscious changes — Looking into this with doctors — An impactful event — May or may not have had an effect — MRI — Becoming more extroverted again — Great changes — Eye contact — Used to think more rigidly — Nothing was impossible to change — We keep changing throughout our liv...
2020-04-0223 minWhat Now with Simo1.6 Change, Tweets, and BrevityLike talking about another person — Changed so much — Some of the changes — Music — Listening to it — Odyssey through the history of recorded music — Writing my own — Discovery of Norm Macdonald — New discoveries in the area of comedy — Tough audience — Seinfeld — Checking out some tweets — David Lynch on the passing of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki — Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining — The Exorcist — INLAND EMPIRE, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks season 3 — “Major haircut at Philadelphia Orchestra” — Video message from Edward James Olmos — The people we actually depend on to stay alive — A brilliant aspect of Norm’s coronavirus stand-up and the bat song — Comedy that helps — 9/11 — Morbid s...
2020-03-3110 minWhat Now with Simo1.5 Day 4, Childhood, and the FutureDay 4 of 14 — Low spirits — Slept — Flock of birds — Or bats? — Norm Macdonald’s bat song written and performed by Josh Gardner — Heart of Tampere — Courtyard — One single star between the Venetian blinds — ”Star light, star bright” — Introversion and extroversion — Extrovert forced into an introverted lifestyle — Happy childhood — Years alone — Everything builds on what went before — The years we learn to socialise — Nerd background — Knight Rider featuring David Hasselhoff — Drawing comic book adaptations — A talking car with many safety features and that could drive itself — Disney comics popular in Finland — KITT features already a reality — All kinds of comics — Marvel, DC, Asterix, Peanuts, etc. — Computer games — Game m...
2020-03-3127 minWhat Now with Simo1.4 Day 2, Gratitude, and a DreamA change of pace — More personal — Previous episode — Day 2 of 14 — 2nd food delivery — Thanks for comments — No pushing — First set of names — Super thanks to Norm Macdonald for his kind tweet — Ideal epitaph — Finding my way in the dark — A regular outlet — Norm’s comedy has helped many people — A form of healing — Importance of it coming naturally — Comedy an art or craft — Conscious evolving of it — Carl Reiner’s comment on Norm Macdonald Live — Norm’s smile and joy in what he’s doing — Ray Bradbury’s advice on enjoying what you do — Hard work needed too — A way to live a life — I may have been too logical — A...
2020-03-2815 minWhat Now with Simo1.3 Back Here, David Lynch, and the Dalai LamaPronouncing my name — No call for dinner — Pass the salt — Finnish consonants — Day 1 of quarantine — Journey back to Finland — Keflavík — Heathrow — Finnair — Helsinki — Tampere — Exposure to others — Hand sanitiser — People creating ways to cope — No choice about returning — Thanks for caring — Pulling back on corona news — It won’t be like this forever — Some positive things — We are now missing one basic human thing — When this is over — Agoraphobic alcoholics — Alcohol lowers immunological capacity — Effect of stress and fear on the immune system — Study about watching the opening of Saving Private Ryan — Professor Michael Coleman, University of Jyväskylä — Bodies in Question — Effects of art and entert...
2020-03-2718 minWhat Now with Simo1.2 Last Flight for Now, Comedy, and All Summer in a DayKrónur — My time in Iceland growing short — Weather report — Stronger measures — Brief episode — Travel preparations — Criminals asked to kindly cancel their plans — Iceland Monitor — Dame Vera Lynn at 103 — “We’ll Meet Again” — Some perspective on our situation — Value of awareness of history — Gratitude for our devices now — The freedom I’ve given myself — Recommendations — Comedy is important — Norm Macdonald — Interviews, appearances on talk shows, YouTube — Making me laugh and also making me smile — A really good heart — Jokes about painful subjects — Relieving a painful tension — Stand-up about the coronavirus — Natural comedian — Many comedians exhausting after even a few minutes — Ray Bradbury: “All Summer in a Day” — Beautiful...
2020-03-2514 minWhat Now with Simo1.1 Corona, Krónur, and CreativityA podcast more like a relaxed late-night radio programme — The title — Experimentation — My situation with regard to the epidemic — Trip to Iceland — Leaving a more lasting and meaningful legacy — Hearing a person’s voice — Ray Bradbury — Target audience and not — The only thing we can offer — What makes a person beautiful — Being yourself — My way of expressing myself — We can never know — What will remain — We are all part of this — Becoming more myself — Opening up and speaking from the heart — Getting good practice — The logo — Clefs — Keys — These symbols — From the highest to the lowest — Music — An Iceland Symphony — Putting the pieces together — Summing up...
2020-03-2434 min