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  1. A Call for Podcasts!

    Friday, May 20, 2011

    Gentle Reader,

    The time has finally come when I am forced to realize that my podcast-listening habits have fallen into a rut. My listening device is currently packed with 24 podcast that make up my standard listening rotation and that's fine for me.

    But that's bad for me as well. It is easy to fall into habit when it comes to things you like. I can listen to a single podcast several times over, and with a big enough backlog of episodes a single podcast can keep me sustained for a week. There is little motivation for me to seek out new podcasts.

    Which is bad, because, y'know. This whole "podcast reviewer" shtick would end pretty quickly if I just reviewed the same podcast over and over again.

    The Internet is a big place when it wants to be, and trying to discover new podcasts to listen to can become an infuriating game of hunt-and-peck. A lot of podcasts unfortunately fall into a "Quality, Regularity, Entertainment: Pick Two" category. If you manage to find something that is relevant to your interest there is a highly likely chance that they either only have 10 episodes, or it sounds like they were recorded on Xbox live headphones.

    There's iTunes, yes, and you're sure to be able to find all of the top podcasts that are currently sweeping the headphones of the nation. Sticking to their most popular podcasts will most likely reward you with a slew of high-quality, highly entertaining podcasts.

    But A quick Google-ing brings me to these directories:

    Podcast Directory

    NPR Podcast Directory

    Podbean

    Podseek - After clicking around for thirty seconds, my path brought me to a podcast about book making! Neat!

    So I want to know, reader: where do you find your podcasts? Do you have some secret cache of forums that keeps you in the know? Word of mouth? Podcast review sites that aren't mine (you hussy). Give me some new hunting grounds so that I can find new and untamed podcasts to review for you. Let me know where you go!

    Please?

  2. So hey guess what I just discovered Paul and Storm.

    Yeah, I know, 2005 called and they want their Internet back. Shut up.

    What have I discovered so far is that I like this song, Paul and Storm occasionally open for Jonathan Coulton, they've been featured on The Bob and Tom Show several times and their podcast is called Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average).

    Storm: I made butter a couple of nights ago.
    Paul: You made butter, is that a euphemism?


    Relevant Links:
    Main Site Here!
    Go here to get the Podcast!
    Featured sub-page: the rules to give you an intro to the podcast.
    Getchu some music here!
    Wikipedia entry!
    Paul & Storm Twitter!
    Podcast archives!
    Store!

    So the title for this podcast is pretttttty accurate. It's Paul and it's Storm and they're talking about things. I'm about five episodes and some of the featured topics have been:

    Felicia Day
    Kittens
    Hoping Felicia Day Notices Them
    Culture-Grown Meat
    Vacations to the Grand Canyon
    Eating Habits
    Pining for Felicia Day

    I think I'm safe when I categorize this in the "nerd banter" field of podcasts.

    Content Rating: Explicit. Curse-type words, possibly naughty-type content contained within.

    Average Episode Length: Not five or ten minutes. Browsing through their archives show that most of the episodes run about twenty to forty minutes! Looks like their intentions of being a quick listen got push aside pretty quickly, but hey, more content for the devoted listener amirite?

    I wanted a status check: did you, in fact, fall into a crevasse and die?

    Drinking Game: Hm, these are always tricky. Drink whenever Paul and/or Storm says something that seems to honestly surprise Storm and/or Paul.

    Release Schedule: A weekly podcast recorded Monday, released ASAP which usually ends up being Monday or Tuesday.

    Music: To quote from their FAQ:
    • The intro music will always be “The By Cracky Beat” from Lowney’s Chocolates. (Find the song and more info here)
    • The outro music will always be “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” by the Tom-Terry Trio

    Unintentionally Good Part: This podcast is a good "listen and" podcast. It doesn't require your entire attention, thus allowing you to listen and knit, listen and perform surgery, listen and toss sabers back and forth with a trusting friend, ect.

    Unintentionally Bad Part:
    It is one more banter-style podcast on the Internet. There's a lot of them, and if you don't find a rapport with these two dudes you probably won't find this podcast interesting.

    I'm still in the first stages of listening to this podcast, but I like it. Given time and a chance to learn Paul and Storm's personalities I bet it will be a podcast I stay subscribed to. I hope you'll give it a chance and check out their music as well!