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  1. The Smartest Man in the World (Proopcast)

    Monday, November 26, 2012

    Here's the long and short of it:  Greg Proops is funny, he has a podcast, and he is funny on the podcast.  I am on the opinion that you should download this aforementioned podcast, listen to it, and enjoy the comedic stylings of the also aforementioned comedian Greg Proops.

    ...what, you want more information?  Fine.  Have it your way, like always!


    Just kidding darling, you're fabulous!

    Relevant Links:
    Get the podcast through Libsyn!
    Or perhaps you would prefer to get an App through iTunes!
    Tumblr!
    RSS!

    Comedian Greg Proops is smarter than you.

    Here's why you want to listen to The Smartest Man in the World:

    1. Greg Proops addresses his audience as "kittens" and you know you want in on that.
    2. If you are unable to have access to comedy clubs this podcast will give you a chance to listen to a standup comedian perform before a live audience.
    3. The Smartest Man in the World has a hefty run time per episode.
    4. Because The Smartest Man in the World is performed before a live audience, that hefty run time is lean and mean with no boring filler.
    5. I have laughed aloud (or "laughed out loud" as the kids say it these days) and that's got to be a good sign right there I-tell-you-whut.
    6.  The podcast is free!  That is always a reason to listen to a podcast.

    Greg Proops!  He travels the world to make with the laughs!  Then he records his live performances and that, as far as I understand, is how The Smartest Man in the World came into being.  I first saw Greg Proops back in the days when I would record funny tidbits on television through the magic of my VCR.

    [Kids, this was back in the day when we didn't have your fancy torrents and your precious Napsters.  If you wanted to watch an illegally copied episode of your precious animes you had to pray you knew someone with one of those special VCRs that could run two tapes at once!  Those were dark days, my friends.  You should crawl underneath your desk and kiss your CAT5 cable in gratitude right now.]


    Content RatingExplicit and flagrant about it.  In my personal realm of what I will tolerate and what I will not in regards to vulgarity I find that the Proopcast don't bother none.  That being said, I would suggest a pair of headphones to use if you are going to be listening in mixed company or at work.

     The men in the crowd look at me and go "I wish I was a nasal, effeminate guy from San Francisco!" and the women look at me and think "I wish my boyfriend was a nasal, effeminate guy from San Francisco!"

    Average Episode Length:  Ugh, effort.  The majority of episodes are well over an hour long while remaining under two hours in length.  Somewhere in between 60 minutes and 120 minutes lies the average episode length.  Close your eyes and take a guess!  Seventy-eight minutes?  Sure, sounds great.

    Drinking Game:  Take a drink whenever:
    • Greg refers to the audience as "kittens"
    • A historical fact is mentioned
    • A former president is discussed
    • Who's Line is it Anyways is brought up

    Release Schedule:  Weekly, with the release on Monday.

    Music: There is just a pinch of music in The Smartest Man in the World aka Proopcast which is a snazzy little tune for the intro and outro.

    If I had any sense of smell, or I could hear, or I could see I wouldn't have this job.  I would be a cheese taster in Provence, I really would, my name would be Jabert and I would be insufferable.  "This morbier hasn't aged enough, I can't believe you have the inconsideration and gall to put it on a cracker and give it to me.  Look at the veins on it, they're paltry!"

    Unintentionally Good Part:  You can learn things while listening!  That whole The Smartest Man in the World title ain't just for show!  Greg often enjoys sharing historical facts with the audience.

    "But ViddyViddy," you say, "He has a personal bias in the information he presents!"

    "Yes," I will reply.  "That is a true fact."

    Still, all the stories he brings up are interesting, and perhaps they will spur you on to learn more all on your own!

    Unintentionally Bad Part:  Greg Proops is unabashedly to the left of American politics, and often brings up his viewpoints during The Smartest Man in the World.  This is not an inherently bad thing, and I would say this regardless of what part of the political spectrum a person lands on.  What makes this potentially bad is if you try to listen to this in, say, a six hour car ride with someone else where the other passenger disagrees with his viewpoints. 

    Actually, that's okay too!  Nobody has to agree with everything they hear.  The potentially bad part comes along where the other person decides that you need to hear why they disagree and are inherently correct in their opinion and then you might try and drive off a cliff to get them to stop talking.  A man can only take so much.

    Unrelated rating: Two fictional ocelots out of two. 

  2. LA Foodie

    Monday, November 19, 2012

    SCENARIO:  You find yourself in the Perfect Kitchen with every conceivable tool, recipe, and ingredient that you would ever need or want.  There is a magic pantry filled with every spice the natural world has to offer, lots of those weird molecular gastronomy devices, a collection of pans that would make Julia Child weep, and even those awesome little lychee candies from the Asian market by my house. With enough time and effort you could make ANYTHING YOU WANT with the added guarantee that it will turn out perfectly.

    What do you do?

    That's right!  You order take-out. WAY too much effort, amirite?

    I love to cook, but I'm one of the first to admit that sometimes you just want someone else to cook the damn meal. Maybe you don't even want to get your own dishes dirty!

    So you go out to eat. But then THAT takes effort!  Where do you go? How do you know it will be good?  What should you wear?  Who will shovel the food into your gaping maw?



    THERE'S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!


    It may be too late for some lost souls, but the LA Foodie podcast is here to light the path to deliciousness* **.

    *Granted your path takes you through the state of California.

    ** Huh, deliciousness is a word recognized by Firefox?  I learned something new today.


    Relevant Links:
    Welcome page for those new to LA Foodie!
    LA Foodie Main Site!
    LA Foodie Podcast!
    Store with Cute T-Shirts!
    Twitter!
    aaaaand their Pinterest board (??? that is the right term, yes?) because all the kids have them these days. 

    Hosts Drew Hubbard, Ben Waters a hella (hecka? I'm trying to adopt the lingo for this review) lot of other contributors work their artisan baked buns off to bring you the whole of the LA Foodie online content, podcast included. It is their mission to endlessly taunt you with descriptions of food-type items until you are forced to go out and try them all.

    We're looking for the best food in LA and usually finding it.

    The tone of LA Foodie is casual with lots of humor, but they do remember to offer up plenty of informative reviews about what they've been eating.  I am not familiar with food reviews, so I don't know if there is any particular expected format to compare LA Foodies' reviews to, but here's what they will deliver:

    1. They will tell you about a food.  If the food is not a national brand that can be found at any grocery store, they will give you the location where the food can be procured.  The place where the food will be procured will also be described so you can learn about their decor, seating, how they present their food experience and such.
    2. Said food will be described.  If the serving method is interesting they will describe that along with texture, flavor, and enjoyment of the food in question.
    3. Hosts will then go on to talk about the food for a while.  At the end of their discussion you will be able to tell whether or not the food is worth attempting to procure for yourself.
    Trust me on this, all right?  It is interesting and you will be drooling by the end of each episode. 

    Content RatingExplicit and tagged as so in iTunes.  Be forewarned that the humor often goes blue.  Nothing that has scorched my ears yet, just be aware that you might want to slap headphones on if you listen at work. 

    "This was in my mouth, it's going in yours."

    Average Episode Length:  The smallest "mini-episode" clock in at about 4 minutes, while their longest recording stands at one hour and ten minutes (with a few seconds tacked on).  Most of their episodes fall around 45-ish minutes.  Accurate, am I not?

    "Just want to say I referred to my forty ounce as a palate cleanser, that's probably the only time in history that's happened."

    Drinking Game:  Allow me to make my own contribution by showing you this article on the best bars in LA with drinking games!  For the "at-home" version, I suggest that you seek out some sort of local beer/wine/soda/caramel sauce to enjoy as you listen to the podcast.  Review whatever you are drinking, aloud, to your pets.

    Release Schedule:  Twice a month!

    LA Foodie even has segments!  Here are a few of my favorites:

    What Did We Put In Your Mouth? - A guest is blindfolded, fed something, and is given two minutes to discern what they have eaten.  Afterwards the item is revealed and everyone tries it out and discusses the food-thing. 
    Fresh and Spoiled - A discussion of a restaraunt/food that looks at both the positive and negative aspects of the whole. 
    Yelp, Counter Yelp - Which involves dramatic readings of Yelp reviews. 
    New and Improved - Where the hosts find something new, weird, or possibly wonderful in the food world and eat it for immediate review.  

    Music:  It's good!  I can't think of the genre of music they use to break up their segments, but it is the kind that makes you hum "buh-duh-duh-daaaaaaa-la! La! La! La-dee-duh-daaaaaaah-aah!"

    Unintentionally Good Part:  An entire podcast about food in which the hosts and guests will consume food for review during the podcast and there are NO EATING SOUNDS.  A+++++, will listen again.  I have been forced to turn off and unsubscribe from a podcast before due to the heinous act of purposefully chewing into a mic.   I find that incredibly disrespectful to the listening audience, so I am please to announce that LA Foodie hosts handle themselves well.  Manners, yo, they matter.

    [Addendum:  Yes, I am completely insane about the sound of people chewing.  CLOSE.  YOUR.  MOUTH.  YOU.  SLATTERN.  Ugh, disgusting!  Okay, I'm over it for the moment.]

    Unintentionally Bad Part:  Unless you live near LA and the surrounding area where LA Foodie reviews eateries, you are going to get hungry with no outlet to feed yourself with the delicious foods they are describing.  The part of the nation I live in is desperately lacking in adorable food trucks. 

    Care to try a free sample?:  Discover LA Foodie as I did, through this delightful mini-episode.  It is a very good representative of the podcast as a whole. 

    Unrelated rating:  1200% of your daily sodium intake.

  3. The Shakespeare Sound

    Monday, November 12, 2012

    Hello readers, won't you have a seat while you take a gander at this podcast review?  Here, it's your favorite chair, just right and comfy for this chilly winter weather that's starting to settle in.  That's right, just settle in and make sure that you're comfortable enough that you won't want to jump and bolt the minute I mention that this podcast revolves around...



    POETRY YOU 
    HAD TO READ
    IN HIGH SCHOOL!


    REE!  REE!  REE!

    Don't run!

    DON'T RUN!

    No seriously, I locked the door from the outside so you're just going to hurt yourself.  Take a deep breath and we'll try to find some good points about this.

    Does it help if the poetry in question was written by Shakespeare?  Eh?  You like the version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio, right?  That's a starting point!  What if I put up a funny video from the Reduced Shakespeare Company?



     How about if I tell you that since this is a podcast you don't have to read anything?  Okay, that seems to have taken away the fear in your eyes.  Let's take a look at The Shakespeare Sound.

    Relevant Links:
    The Ministry of Shakespeare Main Site!
    RSS Feed!
    Twitter!

    Content RatingSeriously?  CleanIt's people reciting Shakespeare, don't be such a baby.

    Average Episode Length:  Three episodes selected at random give an average time of 24 minutes.

    Drinking Game:  Ooh, for once Google returns a bevy of choices.  Here's what I got for you:

    Hosts Reggie Batusic and Dana Vagg want to make The Bard a part of your life.  These two people are earnest in their wish to bring Shakespeare to a new audience and to have it heard as the audience at the Globe Theater would have heard them.  I mean, seriously, they even wrote out their motivation for this project and I can't express how awesome that it.  I love their passion and you can hear it in The Shakespeare Sound.

    We were inspired, so why not inspire?

    THEY EVEN HAVE A MISSION.  I know I'm a font of sarcasm but I honestly love these two for what they're doing.  Vunderbar.

    Reggie and Dana present a single snippet o' Shakespeare each episode.  Their process involves 3 separate readings of the piece.  There's the blank reading where they just say the words on the page, the exaggerated reading where sounds are brought out and played around with to discover how the piece should be read, and finally an interpreted reading that is much like how the piece would be performed on stage.


    Release Schedule:  Monthly, but a warning for the possibility of spotty releases.  There's a good archive, it'll keep ya for a while. 

    Music:  A little in the front, a little in the back.

    Unintentionally Good Part:  When the post an "Old Word New" with the release of a podcast.  Nifty! 

    Unintentionally Bad Part:  NOTHING.  Let these two delightful people read Shakespeare to you, dammit. 

    Unrelated rating: Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding. Volumnia in CORIOLANUS; 4: 

    Sure!  Whatever you say, Shakespeare.

  4. Comic Dorks!

    Monday, November 5, 2012

    BANG!

    WHAM!

    POW!

    bonk.

    Comic Dorks.  Holy earbuds, Batman!  It's a podcast!

    Relevant Links:
    Main site!
    iTunes Subscription site!
    RSS Feed-y goodness!
    Forums!

    Scott Johnson, Scott Kurtz, Stephen Schleicher, and Marc Spagnuolo are here to deliver all your comic book and comic industry news, fresh each month!  Unfortunately they can't be a superhero team because only one of them has the alliterative name (is that still a trope?), but let's try not to hold that against them. 

    From what I understand, comic books are a thing that you can read.  Sometimes they are on paper, although they are more frequently being sent via bits and bytes via the Interweb.  Many times these comic books involve people in illogical amounts of spandex, or detectives in trench coats, or even normal people doing normal people things that happen to be very interesting.  Comic Dorks talks about both the stories and the creation and operation that surround comics and even as someone who isn't entirely sure what they're talking about, I am still entertained.

    Content RatingExplicit, and tagged so in iTunes.  I haven't really heard any naughty words, but they do discuss comics that have violent plots and they might swear on occasion. 

    You could come out with a web comic or a graphic novel online it didn't matter who saw it, or whether anyone ever saw it you could still put it out there and that is the most free-the freaking-I don't know the word, you're the libertarians of comic makers because anybody could see it and it's complete and total freedom and you could be naked in your house and who cares. 

    Average Episode Length:  Around an hour and forty-nine minutes as far as I can tell by glancing at the two episode they have released.

    Drinking Game:  ComicAttack.net not only features drinking games (scroll down), but some superhero drinks as well!  Yay, Google searches.

    Release Schedule:  Monthly. 

    Music:  There are goofy little clips from corny old superhero shows that they play between topics. 

    Unintentionally Good Part:  The sheer nerditry that's going on in this podcast.  It's dense, people.

    Unintentionally Bad Part:  Hm.  Like I said, I am not on top of comic book related information, but let's say that a bad part of this might be if the hosts opinions or facts are incorrect about something, which could make you rage as you listen.


    I like violence, and I like sex, but I don't like violent sex.


    The Comic Dork hosts are wise in the way of comics, and several of them have worked or currently work in "the industry" of comics/webcomics, so they have the insight you're looking for.  The personalities go well together and the discussions are interesting and thorough.  THEY LIKE COMICS AND LIKE TALKING ABOUT THEM EVEN MORE.  Even if you're like me and don't know much about comics, you will still be entertained by the hosts' and how they say what they have to say.  

    One of my favorite parts is their comics recommendations, and when they discuss what they are currently reading.  Great way to find fun stuff to read!

    Unrelated rating:  Fourteen "snikts!" out of seventeen "Bubs."