Claim OwnershipFlux Observer
Subscribed: 0Played: 0
Subscribe
© Copyright 2025 Adam Wood
Description
Flux Observer is a podcast about how works of art stay the same, and everything else changes. How do evolving context, the passage of years, and changes in our selves, affect our relationships with the films, music, and books that we once thought we knew? Each episode, Adam Wood revisits a piece of culture that has been in his life for 20 or more years, and discusses how his feelings about it have changed over time.
18 Episodes
Reverse
How many Nirvana references will Adam manage to get into this discussion of his favourite record of 2003, and one of his favourites of all time? Happy birthday Coral Fang!
Ticket to 2004 Distillers gig /
Garbage: ‘Girls Talk’ (2014) /
2020 Hallowe’en Special on YouTube /
2020 Christmas Special on YouTube /
Hole ‘Old Age’ (1997) on YouTube
Hoo boy! On this episode Adam goes all the way back to 1991, to revisit the album that introduced him to a whole new world of sound: heavy metal. Join us, won’t you, for discussions of relative grooviness, Satanism, and… Tipper Gore? Caution: this episode contains experimental audio mixing techniques.
Virginia Tech’s ‘Enter Sandman’ entrance /
Parental Advisory label
In the early 2000s, Adam thought Fab Moretti was maybe the coolest person in the world. He was an artists and sculptor with dual citizenship, who spoke four languages, and made smoking in skinny denim and a crew-neck shirt look impossibly chic. He was also dating Drew Barrymore.
Oh, and he was in a band, who put out a record in 2001 that single-handedly revitalised guitar-based rock music.
Climbing atop his soapbox, Adam attempts to persuade you — the listener — that Joe Dante’s comedy-horror(?) follow-up to his classic horror-comedy original is… one of the best sequels ever made!?
Editor Adam’s note: somewhat ironically, there was a technical issue during recording of this episode, which has affected the audio quality throughout. A gremlin is almost certainly to blame.
Adam goes back to the album that served as his introduction to hip-hop, to celebrate the way in which it has deepened for him over time. He also offers an apology to anyone who has sneezed in his presence within the last 25 years.
Adam revisits another movie he once owned on VHS, and finds it doesn’t exactly match its reputation. He also probably owes an apology to Tom Selleck, but that’s a different matter.
A return to the classic format, as Adam tells the story of how he came to buy his first (and only!?) Screaming Trees album.
Humbled by the burden of his ignorance, Adam goes back to one of the most celebrated films of Martin Scorsese’s career, to watch Goodfellas (1990) for the first time ever!
Will he find an indisputable classic? Why is he so worried about wigs?
Adam starts this episode off with a lamentable pun, and then later misses the opportunity to make others when talking about the movie’s stakes. He also mixes his Coreys up at one point — see if you can spot it.
At the end, a special announcement about the plan for episode #010!
On this episode, Adam’s cheating really: just listening to an album he’s loved for more than 20 years. No surprise there.
However, he forgot to mention that there was an incredible b-side in the White Pony era, called ‘The Boy’s Republic’, which is almost impossible to find these days — so here’s a link!
Adam re-watches one of his top 10 movies from 1999 (maybe even top 5), and — spoilers — it’s still wonderful. Also, he’s not joking about that bookshop thing: look.
Adam plays a record he fell head-over-heels for in the late 90s, but hasn’t listened to in a long while. Please note, this is not the second entry in a series about albums with orange cover art.
Adam revisits a film he saw way too young, but which introduced him to the work of Stephen King, Kathy Bates, and of course, the late James Caan. Is it a classic of modern suspense cinema, or should it be set on fire like a Paul Sheldon manuscript?
Adam goes back to an album that served as his introduction to a musical artist like none other, and hence, to a whole new universe of sound!
NB this episode was recorded before news broke of James Caan’s death
Adam re-watches a film he’s only seen once, and which he really didn’t like the first time. Was he a wrong-headed junior film snob, or is Speed not actually very good?
Adam returns to the first album he owned on CD, to evaluate how his understanding of it has evolved in the decades since. Also, how is REM fandom similar to The Legend of Zelda?
On the very first (proper) episode of Flux Observer, Adam goes back to a movie that was important to him in his childhood: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
Will he wish he still had his stuffed Roger and cardboard Benny? Or will the film need to be removed from his all-time Top 20 list?
This short introductory episode of Flux Observer explains what the show is, and why it exists. Short version: Adam keeps getting older, but the music and movies he’s loved for decades have stayed the same. Weird.
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States