Around the Podosphere – October 2010

Here is some of the shows that have recently jumped out at me from my podcast listening. I’m about 6 weeks behind in my listening. I wrote a script to add up the running time of my queue and it currently is hovering around 9 days worth of listening. I’m in no danger of catching up.

I recently started listening to Rebooting the News with Dave Winer and Jay Rosen. The August 29th episode is particularly good. They had some interesting points to make about the business model of Consumer Reports but also about the then recent “ground zero mosque” controversy. I liked their analysis which paraphrased was “It’s not at Ground Zero, it’s not a mosque and if it was, who cares? Build houses of worship of all kinds at Ground Zero if you want to stick it to the religious intolerance of Al Qaida.”

I’m one of the original and longest duration fans of the Rock and Roll Geek Show. At this point I’ve been listening for six years. When Butler was burned out and in a bad mood he recorded  episode #415 which was all the music of Thin Lizzy. On his various programs, Thin Lizzy is his go-to bad mood music, particularly what he and Jasper call “tender jams” of which “Dancing in the Moonlight” is what Butler says is his favorite of all time. I’m inclined to agree.  

I’ve been listening to Marc Maron’s WTF Pod show since about episode 30 or so (and I went back and listened to all of them from episode #1). He had a three run tear of some of the best shows he’s done in the whole row. He did a two part episode with writer-director Judd Apatow for episodes 103 and 104 . Amazingly, the first part contains some of Apatow’s recordings of interviews he did with comedians in the 1980s as a teenaged comedy nerd. I’d put these at the top of the WTFPod list except for their immediate successor – episode 105 which was an interview with Thomas Lennon. I laughed harder at this than any episode in the series. Every 60 seconds, there was some kind of quotable wit. In a crazy digression about how Lennon finds Enya hot, the two mused on whether or not she is rich. Said Lennon, “She sang on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Of course she has money. She has that sweet hobbit money!” I found myself laughing at the phrase “sweet hobbit money” for hours afterwards. I highly recommend this series as a whole, but particularly these three episodes. Check them (and all of these show) out!

Around the Podosphere 5/26/2010

Here are some podcasts and particular episodes that I’ve particularly liked lately. Torn straight from my playlist!

I’ve been iffy on the Long Now Podcast and on the edge of dropping it. It’s got the same problem I have with TED talks – basically good-willed wealthy technocrats throwing the rabble a bone by letting them experience the sessions. Long Now is the far better of the two, TED always makes me feel like I’m being condescended to. The most recent episode really interested me though. It was Nils Gilman talking about “deviant globalization”, basically pointing out that while all business globalizes the business of criminals does so most of all. The whole thing worth it was for the part where he talked about “moral arbitrage.” I also liked the part when he said that Russian organized crime rose so quickly in the 1990s because only criminals had entrepenurial organizational skills during the Soviet era. Interesting stuff.

I’ve started listening to the Tell Em Steve Dave podcast. This is a Kevin Smith spinoff podcast, as players in the View Askew-niverse are forming some sort of a network of shows. To be honest, I’m not sure that I don’t like this show better than SModcast. I’m not a Smith fundamentalist. I like some of his movies but not all, and sometimes I even skip SModcast episodes. In particular, most of the live show recordings I find completely unlistenable. Playing to the crowd changes the dynamic and I find much to the worse. However, the first episode recorded from their tour I kind of liked.

My friends Michael Butler and Jasper Borgman keep it rolling with Good Clean Fun. I listen to all of them, but like any chemistry driven show some episodes hit better and some hit worse. I’m about 3 weeks behind so I just got to the May 4th show but I thought it was hilarious and I really dug it.

This morning I was listening to Garrison Keillor’s Writers Almanac (the only thing I bump to the top of my queue so that I hear it when it is timely.) Today’s episode including a birthday shoutout to Caitlin R. Kiernan. This isn’t the very first time I’ve heard someone I know personally on that show but it’s always a nice surprise. Happy birthday, Caitlin!

A few months back I subscribed to Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast. I think there were 30 or so episodes when I subscribed and it took me months to listen through the whole backlog. Now I’m relatively current (as current as anything – 3 weeks behind) and I heard his amazing episode with Robin Williams. I’ll admit that as much as I loved Williams 30 years ago, his relentless shtickifying has burned me out. Nowadays ff I see he’s in a movie I’m otherwise interested in, I rethink that interest. Imagine my surprise at the quality of this conversation between Maron and Williams about comedy, life, fucking up and recovering from it. It’s the kind of episode that by itself validates all the work that goes into the series. I’ve had those, and I think Maron has had multiple ones. Very highly recommended listening.

Surprise Good Clean Fun

Last night I was feverishly working on the Mur Lafferty episode of Reality Break at the same time I was listening to the live stream of Good Clean Fun and was in the chat. Yeah, I know. They got to talking about the early days of podcasting and decided to call me, which was a bit of a surprise and I wasn’t ready for but I did it. The conversation was rambly and I have no idea why Jasper wanted to ask me about what I do when I go to the gym, but there you go. I’ve decided that when I go for two weeks without a new show produced by me, I’ll put in links to some of these other things in my feed. That way, at least I can keep it from going dark. As it is, I have an episode to publish today and others that will be hot on its heels. I still have a lot of material in the can from Dragon*Con.

I join the call somewhere about halfway in this very long episode of Good Clean Fun. Check it out if you are so inclined.

Listen to Me on Good Clean Fun

I very seldom put external files in the feed here. In fact I’m not sure if I’ve ever done it before. I want to for this one. As far as I’m concerned this was part of the EGC canon. I really enjoyed being on Good Clean Fun with Butler and Jasper. Balls were busted, jokes told, people were ragged on and we discussed how none of us were excited by Blood Feast.

Here is the link to the MP3 file itself. If all works as it should, this will show up in the RSS feed and with a little player in this post just like any episode of my show. Thanks again to Michael and Jasper for letting me play in their sandbox. I’ll do it at least one more time, when I come back on to discuss my favorite film of all time,


George A. Romero’s Knightriders. I can’t wait! Let me know what you thought of the episode, and if you are a Butler or Jasper fan following me back to here, welcome.

Me on Good Clean Fun

My favorite podcast to come along in some time is Good Clean Fun with Butler and Jasper. I weaseled a little and now I’m going to be on the show tonight. We are scheduled to record at 7 PM PDT/ 10 PM EDT and their will be a live stream available here. It would be great if there was at least one chatter from people that are friendly to me. I think the last time I was on the Rock and Roll Geek Show the consensus was that they hate me. I don’t really care, I think it will be fun and I even sat down and watched Blood Feast to get read for this. My game face is on!

Michael Butler on a Tear

I listened to all three of Michael Butler recent interviews with geezer rockers. I tally them as going two for three. I loved the interview with Howard Kaylan of the Turtles and Flo and Eddie fame, and I loved the interview with Tommy James. Both of those guys were really nice to Mike, very candid and high energy. I didn’t so much like the interview with Mark Volman, who was kind of a dick. I really expected to love it and had been looking forward to it, but when it came down it just wasn’t so much fun. It wasn’t Butler’s fault. For sure, he was working like a dog to get the energy up and bring Vollman out but it just wasn’t there. I’d have rather heard a second hour with Howard Kaylan. Maybe in the future, he can be a return guest. As Meatloaf sang “Don’t be sad, two out of three ain’t bad.”

This is just me, but I absolutely hate the Rock of Love recaps. He says that all the feedback he gets is positive, so I imagine I’m outnumbered. I just don’t care about any of the reality show recaps, be it Rock of Love or American Idol or Rock Star or any that might come along later. If his audience digs it, then he should stick with it. That’s OK, I have a good skip button on the Creative Zen that makes it easy to zip past.