viddyviddy

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!

[Huddle up, dear Reader. Get close.

Closer. Uncomfortably close. I want to be so far inside your personal space bubble I can tell what you had for lunch. Butterfly-kisses close.

Closer. I want to tell you a secret.

Closer.

Ok, that's close enough. Here's my secret:

I'm afraid to review Fear the Boot.

Don't laugh! It is one of, if not the very first, podcast I ever truly enjoyed to the point of downloading the entire archives. Not only that, but is has become some manner of leviathan among gaming podcasts. It's been running since 2006! Over 200 episodes! I don't have the attention span to even attempt to begin to attempt to describe all the myriad topics, host changes, events, charities, games, discussions, arguments, food and beer reviews or anything else they've ever brought up!

THIS PODCAST. IT'S FULL OF STARS.  OR NERDS. EITHER WAY, THERE'S STILL A LOT OF GAS INVOLVED (see episode 104, 57:29).

RELEVANT LINKS:
Main site is here!
Wikipedia page yonder!
Forums can be found thither!
RSS Feed!
Fear the Con! No, seriously, they have their own gaming convention. Did you think I was spouting hyperbole when I said this podcast was epic?


But no longer can I push away my duties as a podcast reviewer. I must review Fear the Boot or I shall surely perish. I'm like a podcast reviewing shark.

But I can't.

But I must! So in honor of the spirit of enhancing the RPG experience and bringing a higher level of understanding to the hobby so loved and thoroughly discussed by the Fear the Boot crew...

I've made some random encounter tables. Just follow along and soon you'll have created your very own, personalized Fear the Boot experience!]

CHOOSE YOUR HOST: There are 7 current hosts. Select a d8 and roll three times to determine who will be the main contributors to that episode's conversation (re-roll on an 8).

1 - Dan Repperger
2 - Chad Wattler
3 -Chris Hussey
4 - Pat Roper
5 - Wayne Cole
6 - John Grana
7 - Johann

All right! Now that we've got players on the field, so to speak, let's form the rest of the episode. Now, I understand that not everyone has a set of dice at home outside of the d6 that come with Monopoly, so let's figure out the rest of this with a diceless system, shall we?

THE EPISODE'S TOPICS: For this one head out to the closest grocery store to your house. Once at the grocery store, pretend that you are a ninja being hunted down by wary guards. When someone notices you lurking stealthily through an aisle, mark what section of the store you were in. Take the first 5 times someone notices you (or less, depending on if you get kicked out by security) and match them to the possible topics listed below:

Fresh Produce: Gamer health and etiquette.
Next to the Toothpaste: Danecture.
Aisle 7 - 12: Talking about Battle Tech.
Ethnic Food: Convention based. Can include podcasting about Fear the Con, recording from a convention, a recorded panel, or a review of a convention attended.
Pasta/Dried Beans: Actual, solid gaming advice.
Frozen Foods: If you're near the microwave meals, then it's a Bonus Episode. If you're closer to the Ice Cream/Novelties, then there will be a Gaming Story.
Spices/Baking Goods/Salad Dressings: Discussing how to properly build a character in regards to a game's mechanics.
Next to the Rotisserie Chickens: Discussing how to properly build a character in regards to role playing.
Beer/Wine: Mocking LARPers.

PICK A CONTENT RATING: Take a Ritz(r) cracker. Flip it.
Salted side up: Clean.
Salted side down: Mild swearing, with possible use of some pejoratives. Bonus episodes are particularly vulnerable to the hosts catching a case of the potty mouth.

DRINKING GAME: Not the drinking game per se, but here's an interesting blog article from one of the hosts. For a game that actually involves alcohol try this: drive around town until you find a liquor store that has at least one letter in its neon sign blown out, ala the infamous "BJ'S LIQUO STORE." Buy some manner of alcohol there, Schlafly preferable, and drink it during the podcast.

RELEASE SCHEDULE: One a week, mid-weekish.

UNINTENTIONALLY GOOD PART: Go to your local friendly gaming store, and spend an afternoon with your friends around the gaming table. That is how the banter will make you feel during this podcast. The hosts are welcoming and proud of the community that has grown from the podcast, and it shows through their attitudes on-mic.

UNINTENTIONALLY BAD PART: Take all of the dice you can find in your house. Go into your living room, put every die into your hand and throw them as hard as you can so they scatter around the room. Now go find them. The time and tedious effort it will take you to reclaim these dice represents how it feels when the hosts get on a topic that is not relevant to the main podcast. There are only so many times I can listen to Battle Tech stories.

And, voila! You have yourself the perfect, perfectly randomized Fear the Boot episode! Bask in the glory you yourself have crafted! Or just go listen to the dang podcast. I think you'll like it.

Webcomics! Know 'em, love 'em, love to hate 'em, hate 'em, who cares? If you're a social invalid like myself you've got at least a dozen of them that you check each day and you may have even have deigned to buy a t-shirt or book.

But what if you're a social invalid that wants to make their own webcomic, possibly devoting and developing the skill, talent, dedication and understanding so that you can make a living as a professional cartoonist? You might want a little bit of a guiding light to help you figure out the long road ahead. You might want Webcomics Weekly.

Hosted by a quartet of some of the finest webcartoonists avaliable to host a podcast about webcomics, Webcomics Weekly consist of cartoonist on the web talking about webcomics to those who want to make webcomics and want to know more about webcomicry so that they can succeed with their own webcomics (webcomics).

Webcomics Weekly is a gol' dang font of information. The topics cover the creative and business end alike when it comes to making webcomics. Topics have included:

• Rulers
• How to ship merchandise
• Hand lettering vs. digital lettering
• Do's and Don'ts of conventions
• Feedback
  

There are four hosts, which provides the listener with different points of view and a variety of methods for everything they talk about.

Let's meet them, Tiger Beat style, shall we?

The Heartthrob: Kris Straub. He enjoys writing both Starslip and Chainsawsuit, long walks on the beach and listening to you talk about the drama that goes on during 5th period geometry.
The Bad Boy: Scott Kurtz. Will your sign match up with this fiesty gemini? Scott keeps himself lean and mean by letting you know exactly what's on his mind! Turn ons: understanding gutter size. Turn offs: girls that wear too much body glitter!!!!
The Cute One: Dave Kellett. Put your pencils down from this multiple-choice test on heart-breakers! Dave Kellett may have two Masters degrees but that doesn't keep him from wanting to learn all about you!
The Sweet One: Brad Guigar. Here's what Brad has to say about what makes him a fan favorite:

"Throughout life the way you approach something like that, the way you are able to receive something like is different. For example, if you're ten years old and your dad says something about your mother in a way that indicates that they're actually two married people and it's like "Ew, gross!" you don't want to see your dad kiss your mom or anything like that, it's gross when your ten. But then it's twenty years old and he makes a comment and it's like "Yeah, these are two married people, of course he's going to kiss mom... uh, I don't why I'm doing the whole 'kissing mom' thing... "

... thanks Brad!

Relevant Links:
Get the most recent episodes here.
Find the archives (episodes 1-39) here.
Check out each host's webcomic. I can verify the fact that, if you're me, you'll enjoy all of them.

Hey Look, Another Site:
Webcomics.com, a "tremendous resource of practical information for webcartoonists." This site is outside of my purview, but from what I can tell it features in-depth articles/tips/tricks from some of the leaders in webcomicry. It is subscription only, but if you're an actual webcartoonist go ahead and give it a look.

Content Rating: Majority Clean. Explicit episodes are tagged appropriately.

Average Episode Length: Most episodes will cost you about an hour of your time, give or take ten minutes. The longest episode is a mere five seconds shy of 140 minutes. The shortest episode clocks in at an adorable 31 minutes. Cootchie-coo, little episode!

Scott Kurtz: No, dolls and mannequins will come to life and kill you. That's a fact.
Kris Straub: Yeah, that's a given.
Brad Guigar: Mannequins too?
Scott Kurtz: Oh, yes.
Kris Straub: Why not? Why not, Brad? They're instinct with hellish life! They don't like that they've been made in our image but they can't move. They can't enjoy life! They just have to watch and they're miserable.
Scott Kurtz: And they're waiting for you to drop you guard.

Drinking Game: Take a drink each time syndication is mentioned. Drain your glass if it sets off a rant.

Release Schedule: Weekly-ish. Their track record is a bit spotty when it comes to maintaining the "weekly" part of the podcast. Lucky for you there is a huge backlog of episodes to keep you busy if they skip a week or two! Or three.

Music: Your choices in music vary from that one song every podcast uses with the two guitars that goes:

bink-bink-bink
deedle-eedle-deedle-lee
bink-bink
deedle-deedle-eedle-eedle

OR the one that goes:

woan-de-now
wonna-na-da-de-now
dooooow-de-wonna-won-wow
w0nna-wan-won
bwon-bwon-bwon-bwon

OR ONE OF THE OTHER SONGS THAT EVERY FRIGGEN PODCAST USES. COME ON, GUYS! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY JUST LICENSE SOMETHING ORIGINAL!

Unintentionally Good Part: Brad Guigar's laugh. It's like puppy dogs wrapped with rainbows.

Unintentionally Bad Part: To be fair, I can't peg down a "bad part" for this podcast. I listen to it for the personalities behind the mics. If you're an aspiring webcomic artist, I can't speak for whether or not the information and opinions offered are sound. This podcast serves a small audience; give it a try to see if it's worth your time.

As someone who has absolutely no investment in making a webcomic, I really enjoy this podcast for the personality of the hosts. Start at the beginning of their archive, give it a shot, maybe you'll enjoy it as well. Let me know in the comments!

Before I begin this review, let me draw your attention to one of the most important creative creations that human kind has ever created.

HALO.

Not just any Halo, but the Haloz. You've either played through one of its many iterations, been forced to watch as other people have played it or you are merely taking a break from playing it right now to rehydrate from screaming obscenities into your headset before you go back to playing it.

Some people have taken their fervor for this game to amazing heights, going so far as to recreate Master Chief's armor. A few have permanently marred themselves to show their devotion. At least one couple even got married by Master Chief.

Some people celebrate Halo as a part of their life. Some people build an empire on it. These some people be Rooster Teeth. Then these some people made a thing, which is also a podcast, which it called that Drunk Tank.
These some sentences no work too good. Halp!

Relevant Links:
Twitter
Main Site
Store!
Podcast!

After establishing themselves as the gods of machinima (a word that Firefox is unfamiliar with) they spread their digitally rendered wings and now they're all over the place with live action shorts, a comic based on their day-to-day hijinks, and forums just to name a few of their endeavors. Good thing they made this podcast because, seriously, what a bunch of slackers.

Burnie: "Have you ever in your life, Gus, ever had to figure out what the area under a parabola is?"
Gus: "No."
Burnie: "Has that come up once?"
Gus: "No, never."
Burnie: "So they're literally teaching us things that we don't need to know.
Gus: "Nope, no need for that."
Burnie: "Volume of a cylinder? Ever come up?"
Gus: "Uh-once. Once. And not too long ago."
Burnie: "What for, condoms?"

The Drunk Tank podcast consists of the main pillars of the Rooster Teeth Productions crew talking. And talking. And then yelling at each other before they go back to just talking. Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Joel Heyman, Geoff Ramsey, Griffon Ramsey and Gustavo Sorola serve as the main hosts. Occasionally an intern is thrown into the mix to give Gus someone to yell at. Discussion ranges from video games, recounting stories from life, movies, alcohol and anything else that comes to mind.

Drunk Tank broaches such topics as:

• Poisonous spiders and the recognition of them
• Those Lava Cake things you can get from Dominos
• Removing holy cards that had been buried in your yard
• Airlines and flying habits
  

Content Rating: Explicit. Swear words just flyin' around all over the place.

Average Episode Length: My highly scientific method of "squinting at iTunes" reveals that the average length is around an hour. There is a week long series of shorter episodes, so let's just exclude those shall we?

Drinking Game: It is a podcast called Drunk Tank. I trust you can come up with something, people.

Release Schedule: Weekly, with a new episode released each Wednesday! A delightful mid-week treat.

Music: This is where it gets interesting. What began as a contest to select a permanent theme song has morphed into a weekly showcase of fan-made opening songs. Some of the songs are exquisite and hilarious (see episodes 11, 34, 35 and 81) and many many many many many many songs are so bad I have to turn the volume all the way down until they're over. I'm always loathe to express my dislike of fan-created content, but honestly! There is a massive distance between "It has been confirmed by outside sources that I am capable of singing" and "A microphone came with my computer." I'm also throwing out this caveat: there is amateur rapping. Consider yourself warned.

Unintentionally Good Part: This podcast falls under the subcategory of "friends talking to each other" which means that there will be parts when no host can talk because they are paralyzed with laughter. It is safe to assume that you will suffer the same fate as well, so try to make sure you're sitting on the floor if you feel an impending rofl fit.

Unintentionally Bad Part: Other than the listener submitted opening songs? This podcast is banter, banter, banter and occasionally the topic will fall onto something you have absolutely NO interest in whatsoever. And then it will remain there for forty minutes.

"You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com"

Do you crave information? Information that may very well blow your mind????

Awesome. Let's take a moment to prepare ourselves, shall we?

First, go into the kitchen and get some tinfoil. If you don't have any than just print out the following picture five or six times and tape it together:



Still with me? Now, take the foil and form it into a hat. According to the eHow.com instructions (yes this is a real thing), "It is very important for the shiny side of the aluminum foil to be showing when the hat is complete to make sure it is effective against alien rays or mind control signals."

Relevant Links:
Main Site
Subscribe Here
Wikipedia Link
Donate Here - Donations for Skeptoid are nifty. There are micro payments starting at as little as $3.99 (US) a year to help fun the podcast, or your can donate as much or as little as you want. Not only do you support a podcast you enjoy and help to keep it ad-free, but you get a free DVD including the movie Here Be Dragons: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. The DVD is even autographed!

The Skeptoid podcast modus operandi is this: apply critical thinking to information presented to the public to decide whether or not a claim can be considered valid. This isn't just someone picking apart obvious crackpot theories or setting up pseudoscience straw men to shred so that he can reference the scientific method and prance off to his forums to be praised. Dunning does his best to separate the truth from the lies from the half-lies from the "yeah, no way" in each topic he discusses.

Content Rating: Clean. Depending on what particular conspiracy theory, poorly researched medical claims or misunderstood scientific process you hold to there is a possibility that any given episode could send you into a frothing rage. So...that makes the rating either Clean or Rage Inducing.

Dunning himself is not afraid of critique; he occasionally posts a podcast with a title along the lines of "Things I'm Wrong About", where he posts corrections for any erroneous facts he may have made in previous episodes.

The language used in Skeptoid makes the scientific (and depending on the subject, "scientific") ideas proposed avaliable to young adults and laymen alike without being insulting. This is not a podcast that exists just to belittle and berate those who practice things such as Aura Photography or The Secret. Brian Dunning simply lays a topic out and examines it with a critical eye, guiding the listener's mind to each flaw and erroneous fact like an Antiques Road Show host revealing to a Midwestern retiree that their beloved heirloom is, in fact, made out of particle board.

Average Episode Length: Twelve minutes-ish.

Release Schedule: Weekly, with a new episode released every Tuesday.

Music: There is music occasionally, in the form of background noise. Music also has a high level of occurrence when the host is being a bit of a smart ass highlighting or referencing a particularly far-fetched quote or belief.

"Belief that a report is customized for us tends to improve our perception of the report's accuracy. I notice this right away when I read Isabel Myers description for my own personality type, ISTJ, the Duty Fulfiller: "Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible." Basically it's a nice way to say "Dry, boring, and punctual," which hits my nail pretty squarely on the head.

Drinking Game: Go to the sites supporting the theories that Skeptoid debunks. Read the forums there and drink. Heavily.

Unintentionally Good Part: I was thoroughly delighted to find that the host sings a little song for his 200th episode. Surely, some confused as-of-yet-undiscovered alien civilization culture somewhere must consider it a masterpiece.

Unintentionally Bad Part: After writing this review the word skeptic has lost all meaning to me. Now it looks like I'm spelling it wrong.

Gold Star!: Each episode of the podcast is not only listed on the site, but has a full transcript! Most excellent for people who like skepticism, but may not be able to access podcasts due to technical or hearing difficulties.

Alternate Titles:
Two Guys Read Wikipedia
Factoids: the Gathering
LMGTFY

This podcast is...wait for it...two guys, explaining how a process, social activity, natural event or other subject...works. This should not surprise any of us as the podcast is an offshoot of How Stuff Works, a site where you can learn about...

wait for it...

how nearly anything works. Uncanny, right? It's like they did this on purpose!

Ever wanted to know how deja vu works? Curious if there are dead bodies on Mt. Everest? Pondering the ethical dilemma of exorcisms? Want the low-down on habeus corpus? If you want any information of dubious relevancy related to you via two guys yakking, than SYSK comes highly recommended.

For an example, let's take a look at the erudite discussion surrounding saunas.

Josh: Kind of that Roman, Dionysian, orgiastic vibe in going on in the saunas was one of the reasons they were eradicated by Europe because in the early 16th century Europe got a little...tense.
Chuck: Yeah, the Protestant Reformation just ruined everything.
Josh: They were kind of like, "You can't do that! You put a hat with a buckle on right now!"
Chuck: "Yeah, you can't do that either! Or that! Or that! Or that! Get out of that sauna!"
Josh: "Start crying! Right now!"

Relevant Links:
Main Site
Download Episodes through iTunes!
Blog Entries!
SYSK Twitter Feed
Wikipedia Entry
Podcast.com Site

Episode Length: A sample size of 20 episodes gives me an average length of 35 minutes. This is interesting because if you look at the entire library of episodes, the time increase is huge. Early episodes are far, far shorter at about 5 minutes each, where the most recent episode at the time of this review weighs in at a heft 44 minutes and 48 seconds. This type of variation could prove beneficial for listeners! Need a long episode? Need a quick, in-between errands episode? SYSK has got you covered.

Release Schedule: Bi-weekly. The perfect schedule for a voracious listener. Also the perfect schedule for a less-frequent listener, because it's not like the episodes expire or anything.

Music: That one song that everyone who uses GarageBand uses in their podcasts. That, and sound effects from either Wheel of Fortune or The Price is Right.

Content Rating: Clean. The hosts might sneak in a few potty-humor jokes every now and then, but typically OK for all audiences. You can easily tell if the content is for you based on episode titles.

Unintentionally Good Part: The "peanut-gallery" style discussion about each topic. The hosts are more than willing to lend their own personal opinions and stories about whatever topic they're talking about and do so frequently.

Unintentionally Bad Part: The scholarly research about each topic is...dubious, at best. This is not a podcast you want to cite on your research paper. I haven't been able to unearth their research methods for each topic but I'm assuming it revolves around the use of an Internet search engine and...that's pretty much it. But I might be wrong! They might employ several interns who jobs involve cross-referencing articles! I doubt it though.

Drinking Game: Drink each time the hosts address each other by name.

Unrelated Rating: Five out of five correct answers on a pop quiz. A+ and a smiley face.

...oh crap.

Greetings, gentle reader! Turns out July was a hell of a month, but who cares? Not you!

Content coming...SOON(ish).