We Recommend: Your Friday Freebies

In honour of the eternal flame that is Parks And Recreation’s Leslie Knope, this week’s Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast features everyone’s wishlist best friend, Amy Poehler. Hosted as always by Scott Aukerman, CBB podcasts can sometimes wear out their welcome, but Poehler, Neil Campbell (from Los Angeles arm of the Poehler-founded improv royalty The Upright Citizens Brigade) and Alan Thicke (played by Paul F. Tompkins) keep the chuckles-per-minute very high.

Plus Amy Poehler says the F-word a couple of times.

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Album: Haim — Days Are Gone

Recommended by: Edward Sharp-Paul (‘Maybe Tony Abbott Is Just Trolling Us All‘)

If you like joy, and life, you should probably go over to NPR and stream Haim’s new album. If you are ambivalent about those two things, you should still go over to NPR and stream Haim’s new album, because it is so fizzy and sugary that it might reaffirm your faith in joy, and life. If you hate joy, and life, you should probably still have a listen, because you may as well get to know your enemy: this sucker is going to be everywhere through spring and summer, because it’s pretty much aural sherbet.

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Twitter Tutorial: ‘How To Draw Walter White’, By Dan Berry

Recommended by: Andy Huang (‘Miley: The Movement Will Answer All Your Burning Questions About Miley, Hot Dog Guns‘)

Dan Berry is my new favourite excellent arty person. He is a UK-based cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator (read: he draws very well) and he lectures, tours comic book festivals and does other fun things too. For instance, he will show you how to draw Walter White.

Dan Berry gives the step-by-step instructions via a series of Tweets, ‘cause that’s how we do it these days.

[fast forward]

Grab all the instructions here.

He also hosts a podcast series Make It Then Tell Everybody, which is also available for free, or you can follow his blog and Twitter, because he is GREAT.

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Music video: ‘Hold On We’re Going Home’ by Drake

Recommended by: Rob Moran (‘On The Road With… Icona Pop‘)

Earlier this week, Canadian rapper Drake released his new album Nothing Was The Same to rave reviews from critics and sports stars alike. I haven’t heard it yet, but it’s supposed to be predictably sadsack-y, so I can’t wait. In the meantime, I’ve been re-watching the ridiculous, Scarface-inspired, 7-minute music video to his breezy lead single ‘Hold On We’re Going Home’. It features cameos from Asap Rocky and some dude with a slick ’80s ducktail, and the song itself sounds like it’s straight outta Turbo Outrun, which is my favourite genre of music.

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Animals: These Cats

Recommended by: Steph Harmon (‘Meet The Climate Council‘)

“…”

“…”

“Do you feel a draft, Bill?”

“No.”

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Podcast: Free To A Good Home

Recommended by: Patrick Lenton (‘Precap: One Direction’s This Is Us‘)

Free to a Good Home is hosted by Junkee writer and charming comedy superhero Ben Jenkins, and Michael Hing who I know no specific life details about. The premise of this podcast is that, through rigorous scanning of the classifieds — like Gumtree or Craiglist — the hosts and a range of their hilarious guests find funny and perturbing ads to discuss and also make fun of. This is a super amount of fun.

What this podcast could potentially be is a bunch of jerks jeering at the emotional cripples and cheese-smelling weirdos of the internet. But Jenkins and Hing don’t do that. Much. Instead, they are delighted by the potential stories behind the weirdness they encounter, and construct fantastic comedic adventures to explore why someone would ever sell his throwing knives for such a bargain price, or give his jet-ski away, or urgently need 30 metres of bike chain. Jenkins and Hing work well together, in the sense that they easily take turns poking fun at each others obsessions and follies. The inclusion of guests keep this from going anywhere near stale, and also allows for the airing of alternate theories, as Jenkins and Hing usually just guess “curses” and “murder” for each item. To be fair though, it’s totally always curses and murder.

The latest with Susie Youssef is a particular treat, and I would recommend starting there.

Also their website makes no sense.

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