crapcasting

I've been pretty busy lately- mostly getting my ducks in a row for my pending move / complete life overhaul that will take place in mere weeks (7? less???)- but I've still found some time to do some really really dorky stuff with my iPod.

Apple has decided to make a big deal about podcasting, which they describe as both TiVo and Wayne's World for radio. It's basically blogging but in audio format, and the big appeal is that you can sync, say, your iPod (yes, hence the 'pod'-casting) every morning with your computer and have it download the latest broadcasts from whatever you subscribe to. And since I'm such an Apple fanboy / information junkie, I took the bait and downloaded iTunes 4.9 (now with Podcast support!) and, before I left for work this morning, decided to 'subscribe' to a few podcasts.

Of course I've known about podcasts for a while. What kind of dork do you think I am? Dave even showed me that you can make drunken phone calls to your blog for the world to hear. But I really haven't been very interested in hearing, say, some other dork reading to me what I've already read on his website. Call me old-fashioned. But once Apple decided to put their seal of approval on the whole phenomenon, I obviously had to try it out. I tried to subscribe to 5 or so podcasts, including the one that supposedly started it all that Adam Curry (remember him?) does daily, but only 3 made it to my iPod. So I drop Winnie off at the T, thinking she'd be too ashamed to participate in something so horribly dorky with me first thing in the morning, and head to the new 'podcasts' option on my iPod while merging onto 93 at 80mph.

First up: the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy podcast. It starts off with Carson (the flamingest of them all) telling me that if I have any holiday-themed clothing, I should roll it up in a ball and throw it out. Each of the Fab 5 has an equally insightful 10-to-15 second blurb over a background of that techno beat they use throughout the show. One of them told me to brush and floss my teeth. The food one (who's my favorite) said that you should cook for a date because even if you fail, it's cute. Okay, just what I expected... this is pretty dumb. If I want music, I'll turn to the other 39.9 gigs of space on my ipod for entertainment; if I want insight, I'll listen to NPR.

Anyhow, I kept at it. Next up was the iTunes New Music Tuesdays report. It's basically a run-down of the more important new releases of the week with a healthy dose of Apple propaganda thrown in. Ya know, now this could be interesting. While I wasn't really interested in the "Dance Hollaback Girl" remix, this sort of thing could be pretty cool on the local music scene scale of things. Maybe I'll send some mail to New England Product... or maybe that'll be my excuse to start podcasting. Or, most likely, I'll do neither.

The third 'cast that ended up on my iPod was KCRW's "Le Show", which is apparently a weekly show on KCRW Los Angeles hosted by Harry Shearer. Immediately upon hearing his distinctive baritone voice I remember that he's the guy that does Smithers' and Principal Skinner's voices. Okay, I'll give this show a shot. It turns out to be basically him killing 45 minutes of time by reading headlines... very...... slowly....... with the occasional improvised quip thrown in for good measure. Still, there's a reason this guy doesn't host The Daily Show.

So I don't know. I'm sure someone will find the killer market for the podcast. There are a few shows on the radio that maybe I'd like to time-shift and listen to at my own convenience, like New England Product mentioned above or One In Ten, which I usually listen to on my ride home from band practice on Sunday nights. Maybe if the Food Network did a podcast I'd be into it. Or maybe if they got Spongebob or Peter Griffin to read the news. Now that's quality radi... er... podcast!

And yes, I see the irony / recursiveness in blogging about podcasting, which is basically blogging. But I've done that before.

Ooh... come to think of it... I'll podcast Focusin's next show. Damn, I'm good. That'll get you to buy our CD!