Podcast Zeitgeist, Jan. 26

This week's installment is the Podcast Zeitgeist of second chances, and probably the last such post for a good long while. I'll continue to listen to a few favorites, but a hiatus is in order. This started as an effort to make some notes about what worked for me as a listener. But it became an exhausting and time-consuming exercise, particularly since I sampled many more hours than I ever wrote about. It was cutting into my Twittering time. At some point I may summarize what I have learned, or not.[See all lists.]

  • Cranky Geeks 150: Big Wig Bailouts As tech podcasts go, this is one of the best, hosted by John C. Dvorak, with Sebastian Rupley of PC Magazine, Chris DiBonaof Google and Jason Cross of Extreme.com. Topics: Steve Jobs, Bernie Madoff, the fake Belkin reviews scam, disruptive technology like location apps and more. Dvorak keeps it moving. Good stuff. Running time: 31:40 minutes including several ads. Released: Jan. 21.

  • This Week in Media 123: Guns, Drugs and DVDs</a>. Daisy Whitney, Alex Lindsay and Dr. Kiki Sanford in a meaty discussion of new media technologies like Microsoft's Silverlight and CNN's Photosynth experiment for the Obama inauguration. YouTube music takedown notices. Do you stream or download Web video? Dr. Kiki: Streaming is getting easier, but buffering is still annoying, on the road. Whitney can't be bothered to download and sync video to a device. Beware: Even without DRM, iTunes songs contain your e-mail address. Depressing news from the old media business. Running time: 1 hour 7 minutes. Released: Jan. 20.
  • MacBreak Weekly 124: The Warmth and Saturation of Analog. Scott Bourne plugs his hard-to-remember photo critique site URL. Andy Ihnatko makes the funny. Frederick Van Johnson talks about getting laid off from Adobe. They are also joined by Alex Lindsay and Lisa Bettany. Twit site show notes are getting better. The health of Steve Jobs, again. Record iPhone app downloads (or are those just updates?) See the week's hardware and software picks here, including the very cool-sounding $200 2-gig Livescribe Pen. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. Released: Jan. 20.
  • This Week in Tech 179: Retail Therapy Laporte again, with Dr. Kiki, John C. Dvorak, Wil Harris of Channelflip, and Andrew Horowitz. Links discussed are bookmarked on Delicious. Good show, including a discussion of how Monty Python DVD sales shot up after the creation of an official, and free, YouTube channel. (Rathole: Military recruiting ads in movies and direct mail. Laporte says his teenage son gets junk mail: "Have you thought about what you're going to do when you drop out of high school?" Dvorak: "Let's get to some of these news stories.") Twitter raising cash. Foul-mouthed Carol Bartz, new Yahoo CEO, says she will drop-kick anyone who leaks, and then the leaking starts, inculding her breezy memo about "retail therapy." She is mocked. Health of Steve Jobs, again. The story behind Microsoft Songsmith, oy. CNN Photosynth, again. Various Obama tech stories, from Barackberry to Whitehouse.gov and the federal government's tech dark age. Huge traffic at Facebook. Dvorak on how to TiVo the Super Bowl properly and Horowitz on shorting the U.S. economy. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes. Released: Jan. 26.
  • Geek Loves Nerd 34: In-Laws The main segment is up front, an improvement over the last time I listened. This married Missouri couple gives advice to listeners about children, relationships and more. As the cute opening song explains, James is the geek and Jenn is the nerd. This week, they give advice about in-laws that I completely endorse as a married person with a child. Best example: Don't discuss your marital problems with your parents. They will naturally side with their own child and carry the grudge long after you have forgiven your spouse and forgotten about it. This is a clean podcast, but a warning: The views of sex roles are a bit stereotypical (men = breadwinners etc.) though perhaps that is intended humorously. Running time: 53:26 minutes. Released: Jan. 23.
  • The 40-Year-Old Boy: Episode 44. O.K., so much for the clean stuff. Here's a second listen from the world of blue podcast humor. Last week, the comedian Mike Schmidt depressed his listeners with an hourlong rant about his weight problems and stomach surgery. Listeners complained. That gives him a launching pad for a funny routine that range from "anonymous artless snark" on the Internet, Kevin Bacon losing his life savings to Bernie Madoff, people who sell meat door to door and more. The three-card monte story is worth hearing. So this is funny. And it's free. But the language is explicit. Running time: 1 hour, 17 minutes. Released: Jan. 14.
  • The Futile Podcast: "And the first word was Jesus" "Deconstructing 80’s & 90’s action movies. Relating them to comics, TV, and cartoons from then and now." Well, not quite. They review the first "Dirty Harry" movie, from 1971. Clint Eastwood as Callahan. He's no cartoon Rambo. He's a 70's antihero. It's seven minutes before any dialogue is spoken. The hosts attempt to decipher the politics of the 60s and 70s, with unintentionally humorous results for old people like me. Running time: 52:16 minutes. Released: Jan. 17. "Turns out he was 15 when they shot it." A review of the recent release "The Reader," based on the book. "This movie is about German guilt." What German movie isn't? Not an action film, unless you count sex scenes. I had to tune out at the spoiler alert. Running time: 29:42 minutes. Released: Jan. 21. "That ain't no cop gun Frank." Dirty Harry II: Magnum Force (1973). The franchise goes downhill (I think) but they like it. Nice dialogue on the nature of sequels. The nice thing about the "Dirty Harry" franchise is that it made Clint Eastwood rich enough to make good movies later in his career. Running time: 27:06 minutes. Released: Jan. 21.
  • Vomitus Prime 89: C'Mere and 90: Lovin' Nancyful Another reconsideration. I listened to this podcast back in November, and I was turned off by something or other, which drew some reaction in e-mails and on blogs from fans. Hey, it was my opinion. No accounting for taste. Perhaps I have been influenced by the hours of mediocre podcasts I've scanned -- I haven't even written about most of them -- but I'm ready to revise my opinion. It is foul-mouthed, gross, sick and frequently disgusting, but also funny. The regular hosts, Bill and Will, are entertaining storytellers who remind me of people from my own misspent youth. I say this knowing that they will respect me even less for changing my mind. Oh, well. Explicit language, obviously. They aim to shock. Running times: 1 hour, 26 minutes to 1 hour, 30 minutes. Release Dates: Jan. 17 and 25.
  • Sick and Wrong Podcasts 157 and 158 So after that, I figured I might as well turn to a podcast that bills itself as the No. 1 Source for Anti-Social Commentary. The first one marks the three-year anniversary of this podcast from Dee Simon and Lance Wackerle, which may be pseudonyms. A lengthy discussion of the police shooting caught on video in the BART and subsequent protests in Wackerle's neighborhood. Phone calls from drunk Australians. They also try to answer the question, why make an amateur podcast that makes no money? Apparently, they hoped to impress women, which has failed. They also interview the host of the fromtheville podcast, which stopped for no apparent reason one day. He doesn't seem to have been doing much. In the more recent episode, Wackerle explains why he bought a gun on inauguration day. And there's something about a kangaroo in Los Angeles. Running times: 1 hour 59 minutes and 1 hour 31 minutes. Released: Jan. 14 and 21.
  • Idiotboxradio 227: My Dad, The Baby! Speaking of Australians, here's one, a really weird and funny one, with a story told in stitched-together recordings of his children saying words and phrases. It's strange. But funny. And strange. The host says: "I think that my kids don't view me as an adult. Looking at it, that belief would have merit. (And before anyone thinks I got my kids to cuss, listen to the editing please...). I have to thank my beautiful girls Ella and Chloe for helping out on this one." Not for children. Running Time: 7:14 minutes. Released: Jan. 19.
  • Uhh Yeah Dude, Episodes 150 and 151 Like their counterparts at "Sick and Wrong," Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli are also celebrating nearly three years and 150+ hours of podcasting (I have been listening to the old shows and have about 30 hours left to go). The highlights of this one: chicken pox parties for children ("worst party ever"), the usual freakish true crime and medical tales, and Seth's story about getting an (unjust) ticket for -- shocking -- not wearing a seatbelt. The big news: They have finally revamped the long-inoperative UhhYeahDude.com, with show notes and listener forums. There's even a Wiki. Good on them. And as good a reason as any to quit reviewing podcasts. If most podcasters would put up some show notes or blog posts, and allow for reader discussion, they might be surprised by what happens. I have nothing to say about episode 151, which just dropped, but I am hitting publish and listening now. Looking forward to the part about the dog. Update: the story about rescuing the dog on a fixed-gear bike was great. Running time: 1 hour, 9 minutes. Released: Jan. 19.

    • Podcast Zeitgeist, Nov. 28

    Here's my weekly roundup of podcasts from selected geeks, nerds, kooks, freaks, comedians, self-styled tech gurus and other denizens of the audio Web, in the order I listened this week:

    • "Extra Life Radio, #202, #203, and #204" "Geek tested, nerd approved!" A likable group of geeks and nerds, Scott Johnson and his friends are Web comics artists who talk about films, TV, gaming and comics, among other topics of a certain type. The first episode ("Vacillating Two Oh Two") encapsulated what I value in a podcast -- a deep and serious discussion that makes me care about a niche interest, in this case, Web comics. The next episode (#203 "Spinimal!") was a wide-ranging discussion of movies. The Thanksgiving episode (#204, "Choot the Turkey") was the least compelling, more movie talk and a long, easily skipped conversation about soccer parents (they often take a good 15 to 20 minutes to warm up). This podcast was the winner in the general category of the mostly meaningless 2008 Podcast Awards, sponsored by the marketing company Podcast Connect Inc. The contest bases the awards on how many fans repeatedly click on an unscientific online survey, as Mr. Johnson, to his credit, notes. He and his co-hosts also won for a "World of Warcraft" gaming podcast, The Instance. Length: Ranging from 1 hour, 7 minutes to 1 hour, 32 minutes. Released: Nov. 12, Nov. 17 and Nov. 25.

    • "The Bugle: Episode 54, The Las Vegas Special" John Oliver, best known for his appearances on "The Daily Show," and Andy Zaltzman are responsible for this weekly comedy podcast from TimesOnline.co.UK. It is relatively clean and amusing, although sometimes difficult to follow, because the comics have similar voices and insist on speaking British. It may be the only place you'll ever hear a joke that compares Joe the Plumber to Gore Vidal. I usually don't subject my wife to podcasts, but Jane, a wannabe Anglophile, listened to this one and thought this line was hilarious: "The ultimate Scottish dream, Germany beating England in a World Cup football final." I'll take her word for it. The audio quality is a little muddy. Length: 35:11. Released: Nov. 23.
    • "Diggnation, Episode 177: Multiview Diggnation Remix" Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht skipped the beer this time, because Kevin had a bad cold. That does not excuse the much-noted exchange that came next, starting around 3:29, a riff on domestic violence that eventually prompted a public apology from Rose, the millionaire founder of Digg: "There is only one time you can strike [a woman] -- if she kicks you in the balls, you have the ability and the right, to punch her in the teat ---it's just like that -- it's kinda like tit for tat. ... It hurts them, it does too - or take a scissors to the teat." On the video, he made a cutting action with his hand. Har har, boys. Perhaps they should go back to taping this videocast drunk. Or stick to the script. My morbid curiosity satisfied, I skipped the rest. (Diggnation was nominated but did not win in the video category of the mostly meaningless Podcast Awards). Length: 48:07 minutes. Released: Nov. 21.
    • "You Look Nice Today: Faux Tog" Once again, the show has guests. Once again, they are John Hodgman and the Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton. Chess jokes. Discussion of a universal template of dreams from Merlin Mann: "You're naked, there's a test, there's ladies..." In New York, dreams are often about discovering extra secret rooms in your tiny apartment. A discussion of horrible jobs, including work at a Lego store at the Mall of America on Black Friday, a true story. This show was voted best comedy podcast by the largely meaningless Podcast Awards. Released: Nov 24. Length: Back to the usual 32:12 or so minutes.
    • "Vomitus Prime 83: Make Chips!" I'm a longtime fan of sick humor. But it's possible to go over the edge, and this podcast crossed into misogyny with vulgar words for women this week and last. Their fans may argue that it's all an act, and that this kind of humor is guaranteed to misfire once in a while. Maybe I'm an old fogey for cringing at this stuff, but I just can't listen to it. I say that with some regret. These guys are likable and produce some promising satire -- chewable children's Vicodin? funny idea -- but they lost me with the trash-talking of women purely for shock value. Delete. Unsubscribe. Goodbye. Length: 1 hour, 13 minutes (didn't finish). Released: Nov. 23.
    • "Uhh, Yeah Dude, Episode 142." This podcast shows how to be funny without being a jerk. Co-hosts Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli sometimes crack sexual and scatological jokes, but you never sense that they disrespect women, or anybody. Even when their humor is in poor taste, they are self-deprecating and never mean-spirited. Their stance is one of apology for male stupidity and mock-horror at tabloid America. (Here's an early profile of their show, now nearing the end of its third year). This week, they riff about Black Friday and again mock the horrifying "Brocabulary" (see related viral marketing). They goof on the immaturity of the NSFW Land O Lakes Indian Maiden trick; a terrible cameo by Jason Alexander (Seinfeld's George) as a serial killer on "Criminal Minds"; Florida write-in votes; pathetic cocaine addicts; the healthiest and least healthy cities, Burlington, Vt., and Huntington, West Va.; the newFinal Jeopardy music; a landlord who secretly taped 34 female tenants for 19 years; and toddler fights on YouTube, among other disturbing topics. Released: Nov. 25. Length: 1 hour, 27 seconds..
    • "MacBreak Weekly 116: Compressed Bits of Cheese Leo Laporte starts: "We had a show lined up..." Uh-oh. A guest shortage. Leo is alone with Andy Ihnatko, the entertaining tech writer for The Chicago Sun-Times. It's an entertaining show, nonetheless. They discuss the absurd Typepad journalist bailout program publicity stunt and the troubles of print journalism. Snow Leopard operating system update: not a major release? The allure of iPhone games; Leo killed his virtual villagers. They are joined at 21:57 by Rich Siegel of Bare Bones Software, which makes Yojimbo and BBSEdit. Problems with iPhone pricing and app structure. Is Google Mobile app getting special treatment from Apple? The iPhone app approval and rejection process. Andy still has the long iPhone backup problem. Leo says uncheck "send diagnostics to Apple" (that worked for me, too -- here's the how-to.) Danger: Obscure bug. Don't run your MacBook without its battery. Twitter hires the developer behind I Want Sandy and Stikkit, free services that will now die. A mercifully brief Audible ad. The week's picks: Besides the new version of Andy's iPhone book (not out yet), Uli's Talking Moose (free, a weird bit of Apple history dating to 1986), and Screenium, Cyberclean (See the handy and awesome MBWPicks for details). Length: 1 hour, 32 minutes. Release date: Nov. 26.
    • "This Week in Media 116: Dear Journalist" The host, Daisy Whitney, is joined by my colleague Brian Stelter of TV Decoder, Alex Lindsay of Pixelcorp, David Cohn, founder of spot.us, Patrick Thorton, of beatblogging.com. They go right to the heavy stuff: Will 2009 be the year of the great newspaper massacre? Are we no longer in a general interest media world? Will niche journalism dominate media in the future? Will citizen journalism supplant professional corporate journalism? What about hoaxes like the Steve Jobs heart attack rumor on CNN? The two types of online journalists, "thinkers and linkers." Some J-school-style debate about the "myth" of objectivity. Length: 55:33 minutes. Release date: Nov. 25.
    • "TWIT 170: Mile High Wi-Fi" This Week in Tech won the technology/science category in the mostly meaningless 2008 Podcast Awards. The host, Leo Laporte, is joined in this episode by Tom Merritt, Ryan Block, and Alex Lindsay. The topics: smartphones, wireless access on Virgin America, SearchWiki from Google, and, of course, the death of print media, starting with the move of PC Magazine to an entirely digital product. Block: "People interested in technology are not buying print magazines." A discussion of what this means for other print products. They take a break for a 5-minute Audible.com ad and some more gadget talk, then return to the death of print, with references to many articles first printed by newspapers (whatever will they talk about if all the newspapers do die?) Obviously, this is Topic A in the tech expert echo chamber. Their endless fascination with this topic, combined with a boundless enthusiasm for the online future, has an undercurrent that's a tad ... bubbly. They seem to think that Web media businesses will be spared in a major crash. Not likely. Length: 1 hour, 16 minutes. Release date: Nov. 24.

    Podcast Zeitgeist, Nov. 20

    In a continuation of my peculiar hobby, here they are, in the order I listened this week, reports on a few of the podcasts of the geeks, nerds, freaks and boy-men of the Interweb:

    • Never Not Funny: The Jimmy Pardo Podcast, Episode 407 The name is a misnomer. This podcast is often not funny. The comedian Jimmy Pardo (who?) and a group of friends manage to make the lives of Los Angeles comedians sound boring. Jokes about Woodstock and the Who ("You saw who?" Nyuk nyuk). Airport humor. Industry chatter. L.A. freeway jokes. They're having fun, though, and obviously enjoy each others' company. The free 30-minute show is available on iTunes; maybe the other 30 minutes in the $ premium podcast are the funny bits. I listened to a couple of episodes, and this was the funniest of the three. By which I mean, not very. Update: I may give it another chance; Episode 409 features the actually funny comic Jen Kirkman. Length: 30 minutes. Release date: Nov. 12.

    • Vomitus Prime 82: Vombodies This effort at first reminded me of Five Tacos and a Taco, the podcast I had to obliterate from all devices last week. The first five minutes include explicit discussions of stomach flu symptoms. Not to everyone's taste. I would say not to anyone's taste, but they seem to have a following for their shockpod routine, a more explicit and meanspirited version of "Uhh, Yeah Dude" (below), only from the Midwest. The high point are the calls from apparently drunk listeners for what seem to be regular segments. There's a good riff on The Yellow Pages -- a humongous waste of paper that no one uses. This riffing is, unfortunately, marred by misogyny and explicit profanity deployed for the shock value. It's not just edgy; it falls off the edge. Just because you're not on terrestrial radio and can say whatever you want, doesn't mean you should. Length: 1 hour, 22 minutes. Released: Nov. 16.
    • "Uhh, Yeah Dude, Episode 141." One thing I like about this podcast, which is still my reigning favorite, is that each episode features a fresh song at the start and the end, often a cut I would like to own. And while they do get scatological, famous son Jonathan Laroquette and bit-actor Seth Romatelli are not misognyist or angry. They seem like Oxford scholars compared to some of the other nitwits recording podcasts these days. This week, they are back on their game. They mock "Brocabulary: The Man-ifesto book on Dude-talk." Examples: Wintercourse, Testoster-zones, fellobrating, brocrastination, prebauchery, guybernate, broverdose etc. Ugh. Then they move on to the 10 most irritating expressions in the English language. At this moment in time. Another traffic altercation from Jonathan. Hating on racists. Secret Service code names for the Obama family. The "Quantam of Solace" catch-phrase: Fuggehdaboudit. Nebraska feral child total reaches 30. Police traffic stop of 55-year-old man in a 1994 Thunderbird yields 250,000 hits of Ecstasy. Same-sex Koala bear orgies in captivity upset Australia. Man sues classmates.com for false claim old friends were looking for him. Jonathan's crazy gun dude story: Live round in the chamber. Released: Nov. 14. Length: 1 hour, 4 minutes, with 10-minute supplement..
    • "TWIT 169: The Donkey of the Week" After those three, it was refreshing to listen to some clean and useful from Leo Laporte's crew. This podcast is back on track after some meandering. After a two-year wait, Jason Calacanis finally gets his Tesla electric car and justifies its exorbitant cost because its a good example of green consumption. He also hints that he's working on a "big deal." Disclosure form will discourage tech-savvy applicants to Obama's White House. The president-elect's blackberry and email problems. What about Twitter? "Going into a meeting with Putin." Patrick Norton is back doesn't think Twitter is presidential. Calacanis says Obama should have a Facebook presence but not use the zombie app. He needs a social media secretary. The fellow endorse the idea of a massive Depression-style government project, a la rural electrification, to wire the country for broadband Internet with data speeds comparable to the rest of the world. A six-minute Audible ad; Calacanis picks a "Star Wars" novelization. Some extended chatter about weird stuff in Japan. An Argentine soccer star (Diego Maradona) sues to block Google searches on his name. The Classmates.com lawsuit again, more favorably received: They think the guy has a point about false advertising. Your old classmates are not looking for you. Layoff news from tech companies; an office killing spree. Will tech industry be spared? Consensus: No. Patrick Norton bails out without discussing his take on "Anathem," as promised (I'm in the 200s, and it's getting better). More from Calacanis about how the Tesla works. Lengthy economic discussion. No pity for bankers. An obsession with growth. Innovation is the cure. Productivity lost to video games. "Ender's Game" spoiler at the end; turn off the podcast if you haven't read the book. Length: 1 hour, 46 minutes. Released: Nov. 16.
    • "MacBreak Weekly 115: MacBroke Apparently, not much Mac news this week. "This is our license to do a shorter show." "No, we'll just talk longer about less." Playing around with the voice function on Google Mobile App for iPhone. Force an update through iTunes if you already have the app. Jerry Yang steps down @Yahoo. "This is not really a Mac story, but we use Yahoo." "Do you?" "No." MacBook Air updated. Rare negative notes: Why doesn't Mac ship all the cables you need? Why are their products so expensive? A lost Beatles track. Whatever happened to getting the Beatles on iTunes? Personally, I no longer care. Various software updates discussed. Audible ad, just over 4 minutes: "Team of Rivals" is book pick. MacBook Pro battery bloat. "Copy protection's a bag of hurt." The picks: new iPhone games (Touch Physics, JellyCar), Adobe Photoshop CS4. Scott Bourne's new blog: consumervideotips.com. Length: A delightfully short 57:06 minutes. Released: Nov. 18.