Following up on my last post, and because I'm not releasing any more podcasts for a while, here's some stuff to listen to if you're looking for new podcasts to check out.
Nina Kimberly the Merciless seemed like it would be all girly and cutesy, until I started listening to it. If the rest of the series is anything like the first episode, I'm going to love it. It's not girly and cutesy: it's a parody of that. There is blood, violence (like, right away), and not-in-any-way-subtle innuendo, though nothing on the level of Taken Liberty.
The author really does an outstanding job on the voices; the main character's read is spot-on. The music is really good (miles above the awful MIDI-sounding stuff in Taken Liberty), and the sound effects are used sparingly and for good effect. Can't wait to hear the rest of the series.
Taken Liberty is a sci-fi story about an escaped slave girl threatened with recapture. I downloaded the first couple episodes of this and wasn't digging it right away, but for some reason I just kept on listening. By the end I really enjoyed it, so much so that I actually made a donation to the author.
Speaking of the author, he does a very good job voicing all the characters. In fact, I think I prefer his reads of the characters to the ones on his main podcast, where the characters are all voiced by different people and the sound effects are rather annoying.
Taken Liberty has a lot of sex in it. It's not graphic in any way, it's just that everyone's fucking everyone. It seems a bit farfetched to have all this fucking going on in a military context, but I got over it quickly enough.
Podiobooks hosts both Nina Kimberly and Taken Liberty. I've been aware of Podiobooks for a while but never really bothered to check it out. Part of the reason is that I don't like going there and seeing lots of completed podiobooks; one of the things I find so compelling about podcasting is following along with things that are brand new.
Podiobooks does have a solution, though: if you create an account, you can get a personalized RSS feed for each book that will give you the episodes one at a time, on a schedule you specify (like once a week). It's still not the same as listening to the shows as they're created, but it's better than just downloading them all at once.
As far as I can tell, Podiobooks doesn't have a recommendation system, which I think it desperately needs. There are too many books, and just finding stuff that interests me by chance requires a lot of time or extremely good luck.
Corporate Watchdog Radio was recommended to me after my last post, courtesy of the ever-studly Dave Gray of The Global Geek Podcast, which you damn well better be listening to. This was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Mad props, Dave.
SModcast is the podcast of none other than filmmaker Kevin Smith and partner-in-crime Scott Mosier. Many of you know that I've been a big fan of Kevin Smith's films for a long time now. If you remember the conversation between Smith and Mosier that opened the Clerks 10th Anniversary DVD, you'll know what to expect from SModcast. I dig the music and sound effects they add to the background, which follow along with the conversation, but I doubt they'll last more than a couple months before whoever edits the show gets tired of doing them.
3 Wine Guys is a show I enjoy even though I hardly drink at all anymore, and I almost never drink wine when I do. I've never heard people so passionate about wine that they get profane when they talk about it. "This wine was fucking tremendous." I respect that kind of enthusiasm. And they really seem to know their shit, too.
TelonCast is also entertaining for me, despite the fact that I play Vanguard even less than I drink wine. I was kind of stunned at how strong Mikael's show was right out of the gate; most podcasts usually take at least an episode or two to get up to speed. Good thing, too, because the other Vanguard podcast out there was kind of awful when I listened to it.
Also, anyone starting a podcast, look at the TelonCast page to see how to do it right. No fancy crap, no dancing animated GIFs, no hidden RSS links, no having to dig through a bunch of fucking navigation, it is exactly how a podcast home page should be organized.
History According to Bob fills the void left in my life when The History Channel went back to showing World War II documentaries 24/7 after an amazing couple years of millennium-related programming in 2000-2001. Thankfully, Professor Bob is picking up the slack with a short, daily (!) podcast on a variety of historical topics. Very informative, and often pretty funny too. Perfect for my commute each morning.
LearnItalianPod is quite nice, even though you'd think that foreign language podcasts would be the last thing I'd want to listen to. But my limited Spanish from high school means I can actually understand bits and pieces. This makes me feel better when I start to get angry about how completely fucking incomprehensible Japanese is to me. The hosts sound good, work together well, and are very professional.
More pod plugs
The Bman - February 13th, 2007 - 8:00 AM
Following up on my last post, and because I'm not releasing any more podcasts for a while, here's some stuff to listen to if you're looking for new podcasts to check out.
Nina Kimberly the Merciless seemed like it would be all girly and cutesy, until I started listening to it. If the rest of the series is anything like the first episode, I'm going to love it. It's not girly and cutesy: it's a parody of that. There is blood, violence (like, right away), and not-in-any-way-subtle innuendo, though nothing on the level of Taken Liberty.
The author really does an outstanding job on the voices; the main character's read is spot-on. The music is really good (miles above the awful MIDI-sounding stuff in Taken Liberty), and the sound effects are used sparingly and for good effect. Can't wait to hear the rest of the series.
Taken Liberty is a sci-fi story about an escaped slave girl threatened with recapture. I downloaded the first couple episodes of this and wasn't digging it right away, but for some reason I just kept on listening. By the end I really enjoyed it, so much so that I actually made a donation to the author.
Speaking of the author, he does a very good job voicing all the characters. In fact, I think I prefer his reads of the characters to the ones on his main podcast, where the characters are all voiced by different people and the sound effects are rather annoying.
Taken Liberty has a lot of sex in it. It's not graphic in any way, it's just that everyone's fucking everyone. It seems a bit farfetched to have all this fucking going on in a military context, but I got over it quickly enough.
Podiobooks hosts both Nina Kimberly and Taken Liberty. I've been aware of Podiobooks for a while but never really bothered to check it out. Part of the reason is that I don't like going there and seeing lots of completed podiobooks; one of the things I find so compelling about podcasting is following along with things that are brand new.
Podiobooks does have a solution, though: if you create an account, you can get a personalized RSS feed for each book that will give you the episodes one at a time, on a schedule you specify (like once a week). It's still not the same as listening to the shows as they're created, but it's better than just downloading them all at once.
As far as I can tell, Podiobooks doesn't have a recommendation system, which I think it desperately needs. There are too many books, and just finding stuff that interests me by chance requires a lot of time or extremely good luck.
Corporate Watchdog Radio was recommended to me after my last post, courtesy of the ever-studly Dave Gray of The Global Geek Podcast, which you damn well better be listening to. This was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Mad props, Dave.
SModcast is the podcast of none other than filmmaker Kevin Smith and partner-in-crime Scott Mosier. Many of you know that I've been a big fan of Kevin Smith's films for a long time now. If you remember the conversation between Smith and Mosier that opened the Clerks 10th Anniversary DVD, you'll know what to expect from SModcast. I dig the music and sound effects they add to the background, which follow along with the conversation, but I doubt they'll last more than a couple months before whoever edits the show gets tired of doing them.
3 Wine Guys is a show I enjoy even though I hardly drink at all anymore, and I almost never drink wine when I do. I've never heard people so passionate about wine that they get profane when they talk about it. "This wine was fucking tremendous." I respect that kind of enthusiasm. And they really seem to know their shit, too.
TelonCast is also entertaining for me, despite the fact that I play Vanguard even less than I drink wine. I was kind of stunned at how strong Mikael's show was right out of the gate; most podcasts usually take at least an episode or two to get up to speed. Good thing, too, because the other Vanguard podcast out there was kind of awful when I listened to it.
Also, anyone starting a podcast, look at the TelonCast page to see how to do it right. No fancy crap, no dancing animated GIFs, no hidden RSS links, no having to dig through a bunch of fucking navigation, it is exactly how a podcast home page should be organized.
History According to Bob fills the void left in my life when The History Channel went back to showing World War II documentaries 24/7 after an amazing couple years of millennium-related programming in 2000-2001. Thankfully, Professor Bob is picking up the slack with a short, daily (!) podcast on a variety of historical topics. Very informative, and often pretty funny too. Perfect for my commute each morning.
LearnItalianPod is quite nice, even though you'd think that foreign language podcasts would be the last thing I'd want to listen to. But my limited Spanish from high school means I can actually understand bits and pieces. This makes me feel better when I start to get angry about how completely fucking incomprehensible Japanese is to me. The hosts sound good, work together well, and are very professional.
So go fucking listen to something already.