Followers

Monday, October 23, 2006

Podcast Extravaganza!

We interrupt the Halloween Video Countdown for this important announcement.
Or rather, a list of podcasts I've subscribed to.

1. Channel Frederator
This is the first video podcast I got into. It collects animation shorts from all over the place and puts them together in a very adult-swim-inspired little package. Some of the shorts are mediocre. A great many of them are brilliant. I strongly recommend this to anyone with a video ipod.

2. Downloadable Content, the Penny Arcade Podcast
I find this podcast fascinating, not just as a Penny Arcade fan, but as a fan of comics and comedy in general. It's really cool to hear how these guys find their inspiration and fine tune an idea until it becomes the posted strip.

3. Thing A Week - Jonathan Coulton
Found this after discovering Jonathan Coulton. This podcast was his successful attempt to release a new song every week for 52 weeks. It's over now, and unfortunately the iTunes store doesn't archive it all the way to episode one. I subscribed when #19 was the earliest available, and now it's #23. Still, it's a great collection of Coulton originals and inspired covers.

4. Little Gray Books
Two talented Johns (Hodgman and Coulton) present this series to promote the touring Little Gray Books lecture series. The lectures, by various guest lecturers, are highly amusing and occassionally informative.

5. They Might Be Giants Podcast
Two other very talented Johns (Linnel and Flansburg) offer up this podcast for a little band some of you may have heard of. It just so happens to be my favorite band. Updates are sporadic and unpredictable, but the contents are great, ranging from remixes of new songs to rare bootlegs. And it's finally archived so all latecomers can get every episode!

6. NPR: All Songs Considered
A great NPR show that features music from a wide variety of artists. A lot of rare and indie music is featured. I've been introduced to a lot of great artists (Eef Barzelay, for one) by this podcast.

7. PopSci Podcast
The third Coulton-related podcast I listen to. In this one he takes stories from Popular Science magazine and delves a little further into them. The topics are varied and entertaining and Coulton lends his quirky sense of humor to them.

8. Cliptip
This is an amazing video podcast with frequent updates of music videos. MTV might not show them any more but music videos are just as important to the industry now as they ever have been. A wide variety of artists is featured, but the highlights are those videos by bands that I've never heard of. Really good stuff.

9. This American Life
My favorite show on NPR finally, finally has a podcast. If you're not familiar, This American Life takes a different topic every week and explores it from various angles. This show is executed masterfully, and I believe is proof that radio is still an important and viable medium for creative work. Only one episode in the podcast so far, and it's a rerun, but it features one of the funniest stories I've ever heard (which happened to be on the show's "best of" CD). It's about a disastrous production of Peter Pan, and if you've ever been involved with theater it's a must-listen. I can't wait to listen to each new episode at my leisure.

So that's my list. What podcasts are you listening to?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I listen to:
Bill Maher/Real Time podcast
Bill Moyers - it started with the series on Faith and Reason and now I just download all of it.
the Argument - it's folks from Louisville debating comic books and Louisville-centric politics/stuff. It's pretty silly.

And now, This American Life... because it's essential.

Anonymous said...

Get Ron Moore's weekly podcast commentaries on each new Battlestar Galactica episode. Which requires you to start watching the show, which you should, because it's the best show on television right now, bar none.

Sharkbear said...

Yeah, that's probably not gonna happen. I don't even have time to watch the shows I'm already into.

Anonymous said...

I would not be so relentlessly plugging this show were it not Worth It. Also: Robots! In space!!

Sharkbear said...

I get it. I've had several people recommend this show. I'll probably watch it when the DVD is released. Because I want to watch them in order. I've seen one episode and I was completely lost.
And by the time the DVD comes out I imagine the commentaries will be included.

Anonymous said...

...all the episodes, including the miniseries, are already out on DVD, except for the four episodes that've aired in the last month.


(Ok, I quit.)