Sunday Morning Shards: "The Podcast Edition"

So ever since the release of iTunes 4.9 and their lavish embrace of podcasting (say what?), I've been meaning to post about the podcasts I regularly download. Consider it this week's edition of Sunday Mornings Shards. Due to the rigors of book touring, I'm long overdue so please consider gently.

Podcasts: I've been stung. I'm a full-blown radio addict (at least 3 hours a day, often many more) and have craved something like "TiVo for radio" for at least a few years now. Thanks to sites like Public Radio Fan and friends now working in the business, I hear often about new radio programs I'd like to try. But there's no way to guarentee or even hope that I'll be in front of my computer at X time on Y day and have an uninterrupted hour to enjoy it. Which is why podcasting is such a great thing. You subscribe to a "feed" (so need to worry about what that is. it's a stupid term anyway) from the podcast produceer (Podcast Alley is a great directory of them) and use a piece of software to download the program to your desktop. Now you don't have to be listening to the radio at exactly the right time to hear On the Media. Now, On the Media comes to you and you listen to it whenever you like.

Pre-iTunes 4.9, I used a piece of software called PlayPod, which was fine. I still had to relabel everything after downloading and move it to appropriate folders on iTunes so I could listen to podcasts while commuting or at the gym. Since i use iTunes anyway for updating my iPod, 4.9 puts them all in one place, labels everything and lets me stop a podcast in the middle then pick up again without having to hold my thumb on Fast Forward for 20 minutes.

So 4.9 has been great for my purposes. Not every show I like has a podcast (Fresh Air, This American Life, what up?) so for those I use Radio Time and Audio Hijack which are ok but improving I hear.

Below is a list of what podcasts I  listen to in order of frequency. I've included the subscription URL, which you put into iTunes or whatever software you use for downloading, when it asks you to "subscribe".

As soon as I get it:

On the Media (subscribe): Weekly roundup of media-related news and features out of New York City. I used to miss this show every Sunday because it conflicted with my friend Roman's program.

Rumor has it OTM's listenership has doubled thanks to podcasting

Dawn & Drew Show (subscribe): Wisconsin husband and wife blathering 3-5 times a week. Much much funnier than it sounds. Some of the first podcasting "celebs."

Ebert & Roeper Movie Reviews (Subscribed through iTunes): I just found this. I never remember to watch their show on TV. This weekly version has no commercials.

Assload of programing from KCRW (info): Los Angeles's KCRW was the first major public radio station to take the lead in podcasting, offering nearly all of their non-music program for download as soon after broadcast. I listen to their 5 minute commentaries (Art Talk, On the Beat and Overbooked) without fail and their half-hour entertainment shows (The Treatment, The Business, Bookworm) while driving, flying or cleaning house. The Politics of Culture works better in the abstract than in execution but I love the title so I hold out hope.

Future Tense (subscribe): Five minute commentaries (this one on technology) are great for breaks in work or the cool down period on a treadmill.

Writer's Voice Radio (subscribe): Weekly interview show for book lovers from my local radio station. Podcasting for them is a stroke of genius.

Pinky's Paperhaus (subscribed through iTunes): "Podcasting Writers Who Rock." Writers DJ and talk about books. Produced by the indomitable Carolyn Kellog.

Sometime Yes, Sometimes No:

Forum (subscribe): San Francisco's signature call-in public affairs program will have 1 or 2 topics a week Im interested in. But since they are an hour long, I usually save up and listen when on a long trip.

Dailysonic (subscribe): Morning Edition for Generation X. Out of NYC. Great program but the daily barrage keeps me a few shows behind.

IT Conversations (subscribe): I pick and choose speeches from different tech conferences that interest me. Tons and tons of stuff here so you have to be descriminating.

The Theory of Everything (subscribe): Benjamin Walker's Boston-based weekly program is genius. Imagine Andy Kauffman getting his hands on This American Life. I have to be in the right frame of mind for it but when I am, Daymmmnnnnnnn.

Friends and 'casts I'm trying out:

My friend Eric Rice is a media empire of one. His podcast The Eric Rice Show (subscribe) is the tip of the iceberg.

Baratunde Thurston is a Boston-based comedian I've befriended over the last year or so. He does a homegrown radio show called The Front Porch Podcast (subscribe) that I dig.

ThoughtCast is another show out of Boston that interviews scholars and academics (subscribe).

I'm also subscribed to iPodarmy, The Book Cast and NextBook's podcast, even though I haven't listened to them yet.

What are your favorite podcasts?

 

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Sin City"

Sin City (2005): "Frank Miller's genius is keeping a whole team of therapists busy and well-paid."

Read Recently: Bel Canto by Anne Patchett

Backstory: I've been trying to get to this book for 2 years. Finally I just bumped to the front of the line.

Notes: Inspired by a an actual incident, a group of terrorists seize a birthday party of a wealthy Japanese industrialist being held in a nameless South American country. On hand are that country's Vice President, several diplomats and the world's most famous opera singer. Over months of standoff, terrorists and hostages realize a bond neither of them thought they had, a bond betted by a love of beautiful music.

Verdict: Patchett's command of language, mood and setting are masterful. At first I objected that her tone--polite, even a bit aloof--seemed a rather cruel way of discussing hostages and home invasions. But even though she takes her time, it makes sense if you can hang in there with her.

Two minor objections: The characters are mostly servicable types rather than real people, which didn't bother me all that muh and the ending is an irrational rush to tie everything up. Still recommended.

The 21st Century Chelsea Hotel:

Looks like the legendary Cheslea Hotel has both a blog and a podcast. Oh and Wifi in the lobby. Howz that for adaptation?

Inside Pixar:

I dig these photographic tours inside places I've never been. Which is why I dug seeing the inside of Pixar Studios, courtesy of the folks from Ain't It Cool News (via Waxy.org).

Sarah Vowell on Identity Theory

An interview with Sarah Vowell. Haven't read it yet but looks interesting.

Books I'm Excited About #4: "I'm Not the New Me" by Wendy McClure

Title: I'm Not the New Me: A Memoir

Author: Wendy McClure

Relationship: Touring buddies. Wendy and I are both on book tour this summer and have friends in common. So we started bonding by email and have had lunch in our respective cities. We've also geeked it up by wandering into bookstores and asking for each other's books.

Synopsis: Comic memoir about attempts to lose weight

Acquired: Wendy's publisher Riverhead sent me about 95,000 copies. Was it something I said?

Excitement: Author's got talent coming out of her ears. I've been reading her blog for about a year now and would probably be entertained by her transcription of the phonebook.

Early Verdict: I've had my own issues with wieght loss and didn't think it was a good attic to go digging around in while on a book tour. But we're in the later weeks of Summer of Bookmark Now and I've been hanging with Wendy here in Chicago. I've been thinking that one is lucky to have funny, talented friends and their projects are cause for celebration. So I'm bumping this to the front of the line, for the downetimey fall.

More Chicago Twiddly Bits: Mr. T!

Justin, my college roommate who makes his home here in Chicago, was kind enough to pass along this Chicagoist interview with Mr. T, I guess to make me feel at home?

Climbing Aboard a Pedastal:

So it would seem I'm someone's guide to contemporary literature. I hope he knows what's he's getting into.

When in Chicago: The Heartland Cafe

When in Chicago, the staff of Where There's Smoke.net recommend dining at the Heartland Cafe, directly beside the Morse stop on the Red Line. I like it because it reminds me of Seva back home in Ann Arbor, healthy, bountiful food, leftist literature on the newstand, radical movement posters on the walls. My old college roommate Justin introduced me to it and this time I got to take my friend Mara and her husband David.

Who they had an empire (radio show, journal, theater) too? Damn. Hell hath no fury like an ambitious lefty. I love it. It's so me and my crunchy roots.