Blog Archive

Monday 2 November 2015

The Dinner Party: "Timelines", "Playlists" and "Purchase History"

Podcast | Milo


Facebook must have been real proud of themselves when they decided to roll out “Timelines”. After all it’s a very cute way of keeping members using the site from birth till death. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day it becomes commonplace to roll out someone’s timeline at their funeral, heck maybe this’ll even be common place within my lifetime.

However in this technocratic future inevitably awaiting us, I’d like to make a request. Please don’t use my dead-ass Facebook timeline to convey the life and times of Lord Milo (OBE, PhD, Nobel Prize Laureate and International Man of Peace and Love). No you’re better off using my Amazon history, and my YouTube Playlists of yesteryear.  

In fact they were my first port of call when figuring out who on earth I would bump up the guest list.
Furthermore judging from my purchases, “2010” and “2011” were particularly important years for yours truly. I was perhaps going through my darkest patch, and had a number of health related issues that were holding me down and keeping me from being me. Ironically it was also during this time that I found a number of people whom have had such a powerful influence on my life, I can’t say that I would be Milo without them…maybe I’d be Big M, or the M Dawg, or Mad Money Milo or Sergeant Pickle. Fuck if I know, I’m terrible at nicknames…  

Anyway back on topic. I believe that all of these people are best described by the title of one of my favourite songs:


That song was by Godflesh, an influential industrial metal band from England. More specifically its founding member, Justin Broadrick, is the first name added to the guest list. A person whose musical journey is full of the weirdness, solitude, verve and hardcore individualism that I feel keenly attracted to and emboldened by. At the same time I have Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky whose novella, Notes from the Underground, is the book that convinced me that I could and wanted to be a writer. As we go through 2010 on my Amazon history I spy Fear and Trembling by the Danish philosopher Soren Kiekegaard. A person who reassured me that a religious life could also be a philosophical life. As we roll on I spot Tokyo Godfathers by the wonderful Satoshi Kon, a director whose animated films showed me the importance of optimism. My next two guests are not to be found on my Amazon history and instead have to be resurrected from YouTube playlists of years gone by. Firstly I have Dave Chappelle who is probably the funniest comedian of his generation, and who must be one of the few people with the bottle to reject millions of dollars because of his morals. He showed me that being true to yourself was as much about saying “No” as it was about saying “Yes”. And lastly I have America punk rocker, novelist and stand-up comedian Henry Rollins whose blunt, common sense attitude to life brought me back down to earth in a very big way. One of his quotes always keeps me steady: “cynicism isintellectual cowardice” and his essay on weightlifting is a great read for anybody who needs to be reminded of the benefits of self-improvement.

Whew that got pretty personal didn’t it? Nevertheless I’m looking forward to proving why they would be best guests once our podcast goes live. Check it out to find out who makes it, and who’s left outside peeking in through the windows like a pervert.  

In summation, I will be arguing for the following:
Justin Broadrick
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Soren Kierkegaard
Satoshi Kon
Dave Chappelle
Henry Rollins

Milo out    

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