Another podcast in the can. This week, more comics bidding farewell before the glowing red wall of the DCnU wipes them out, plus a bit of Gronk, some Girl Genius, and a new podcast award for Cover of the Week.
Now with Special Captioning of Covers!
Thanks again to my family for putting up with having their Sunday afternoons and/or evenings interrupted with this stuff.
Now with more comics reviewed than ever before! Yes, 17 comics in 16 minutes 40 seconds. Zowee!
This week’s podcast features a look at some farewell issues of DC comics (before the DCnU reboot in a few weeks), some Fear Itself, plus the Worst Comic of the Week, the Best, and some “Cleopatra in Spaaaace!” action.
I tried something new this week, and instead of spending a bunch of time scripting stuff up before the podcast, I put sticky notes on the comic covers and wrote up my impressions post-reading. It worked okay, except for my awful handwriting and the poor interaction between sticky note stuckum and the covers. I’ll continue to refine my methodology.
Many thanks once again to my family for their support of this and for making room for me to do it.
And another one in the can! Some Fear Itself, some farewells to some favorites, a bit of Charles Vess, and a shout-out to DC Women Kicking Ass.
Also, I mistakenly call Jessica Jones “Jessica Smith.” She’s going to hurt me. (There, I fixed it. If not in the most professionally slick fashion.)
UPDATE (21 Aug.): Apparently this one didn’t get correctly uploaded/categorized, so folks who are pulling it down from places other than my blog didn’t see it for a week. Sorry about that.
Ran a bit under-time this week — just under 13 minutes. I thought I was going to go over, honestly, and had a couple of outs noted. We continue to learn the timing.
Excelsior!
And back for another big week. Several issue #1s, a final issue, a broad mix of comic book companies, and a bit of Eisner Award goodness. The player is at the bottom of the post, after the covers.
Three time’s a charm, and perhaps even a habit. I got my new comic book reviews podcast done up today, and within spitting distance of my 15 minute target. I’ll be following up after I post this to see if all the RSS and iTunes subscription options are working. As always, this podcast is also visible on its own page under the Podcasts tab at the top of the blog. The player on this post is at the bottom of the post.
Comics for this week:
I’m continuing to work on the podcast process, both becoming familiar with Audacity and how to line up the music at the beginning and end of the cast, as well as sound levels and all that, and with how I script things. The prep work for the podcast is taking me longer than I’d expected. I eventually think I should be able to ad lib things, but for the moment, I’m doing detailed outlining of what I want to say about each ish — which, really, almost makes me wonder why I’m not actually doing blog posts about them. 🙂
The post-processing, too, is taking a bit of time — grabbing and uploading and properly formatting the images. That can be made a scosh more time-efficient, but not a lot.
One thing I have noticed about doing the podcast is that it has me focusing more on the comics I read each week, with a critical eye, and gets them read more quickly.
Working on process.
Well, I can now officially call this a weeky podcast because I’ve done two, a week apart. Three’s a charm!
I ran a bit long this week — a bit over 19 minutes rather than the target 15. The focus was the new DC Universe (DCnU) reboot, based on the “DC Comics: The New 52” preview that came out this past week. My picks and pans follow, as well as my sage counsel on the whole reboot (poorly handled, lots of angst, but this, too, shall pass — assuming DC Comics survives).
I also get in a plug for Tiny Titans, which just won an Eisner at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy. The player for the podcast (and a download link) can be found at the bottom of the post, and, long-range, up at the top menu under Podcasts. My next job is to get this thing showing up in iTunes, too.
And now, for De … some pictures. 🙂
Thanks, Les, for getting our podcast from Monday up and on the air. Woot!
We rambled a bit (as inconceivable as that sounds), discussing Sarah Palin, the GOP candidates for President, the putative Democratic candidate for President, how little we understand about Buddhism, medication and mental health, recently read books, current favorite TV shows, and, of course, Patriotism and the Fourth of July.
You can listen to us natter on for 90 minutes by clicking Play on the player below (which also lets you play in a new window or download the file). I’ll be adding it to the Podcasts tab after this post goes up.
EDIT (3/2022): The MP3 for this podcast is here.
The Muse just crept up behind me with a sap and slugged me on the back of the skull, and when I came to, I had this yen to do a podcast.
I’ve done some duo podcasts with Les, and probably it was the most recent one that got me thinking about it.
Of course, as the subject line indicates, it’s not like I’m sitting around, bored, in want of new things to take up my time. So if I do this, I need to do it smart and simple. Some thoughts:
Now the big question becomes, why am I actually doing this? Just to hear myself talk? Because I think have something useful to add to the conversation? Dunno. And do I feel impelled enough by this to actually seek to pick up listeners, advertising and leaving hints on appropriate web pages, or am I going to let word-of-mouth tell the tale, so to speak?
And, of course, there’s the irony that I am just not a podcast person as a listener. I’ve never been someone to download and listen to podcasts; that’s not just the way I rock. But I know there are people who do, so …
I dunno. I don’t even know if I’m going to do it. Or do it more than once.
But my Muse has a very smug look on her face, that’s all I know.
I’ll just extensively quote from Les here:
Can you believe that the last SEB Podcast was on August 28 of 2010?! That’s almost 11 months ago!
Personally, I blame ***Dave for being the successful manager guy he is and flying all over the place and taking oodles of vacations and stuff. Yeah, it had nothing to do with my ADD or ongoing addiction to video games and general forgetfulness.
Well, whatever the reason, we’re gearing up for the fifth installment this Saturday so, as always, I’m looking for topics you folks would like to hear us chatter on about for an hour or so. Though, knowing us, it’ll probably be more like two hours or so. What current events would you like us to cover? Any weighty philosophical questions we can totally fail to answer in a coherent fashion for you? Any burning question you’ve been dying to ask one or both of us?
So, whaddaya think, folks? Any thrilling issues we should natter on about in our patented brilliance-free fashion? Politics? Religion? Technology? SF? Books? TV? What we’ve been doing for 11 months?
(Eleven months? Sheesh!)
Les and I did the fourth(ish) Stupid Evil Bastard podcast today. It was much fun, as usual, at least to do (no clue whether it will be fun to listen to).
We nattered on about tipping, Dr. Laura, the skeptic community “Don’t Be a Dick” controversy, hypocrisy, freedom, and a variety of other stuff. This time we clocked in at 2 hours and 8 minutes, which may be case of at least too much of a good thing (or way too of a mediocre thing). Or maybe not enough of a faboo thing. You decide.
In discussing the recent Dr. Laura contretemps, not to mention lack of dickishness, we did engage in a fair amount of, um, NSFW language. So don’t play this over the speakers at the office, or in the streets where you might scare the horses, or if you fear it might burn your cockle-shelled ears.
The podcast can be directly downloaded to your machine here, or you can click on the little player at the bottom of the screen. It, along with the previous iterations in the series, can always be found in the Podcast tab at the top of the page.
[powerpress url=”https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/podcasts/2010-08-28_SEB_Podcast_Ep4.mp3″]
UPDATE: I’m re-listening to the podcast (well, maybe not all tonight), and I’m adding in cross-references and links in the comments.
Les and I are going to do another podcast Saturday (see the Podcasts link at the top of the page for previous installments).
So, does anyone have any interesting, contentious, or intriguing topics for us to tackle?
(Les wrote a much wittier solicitation for suggestions.)
Well, not that serious — but enough so that I’ve …
(The last worked a lot better once I realized that I had created a “podcasts” directory to store them, and then was creating a WP page called “podcasts” — which, not surprisingly, threw a cryptic but quite justifiable error when I’d try to then go to that page. Stupid, stupid rat creature …)
Anyway, now that I have gone to all this effort, we’ll probably never record another one again (that’s how these mad schemes of mine usually go), but I’ll keep my fingers crossed and we’ll see. At the very least, it will be easy to go back and listen to them when I’m sitting in my rocking chair during my approaching dotage.
We recorded the Third Stupid Evil Podcast this afternoon, starring Les, Your Faithful Author, and the Mom of Les. Yes, Mary of “Momma’s Corner” was on the line, and we got many insights into what went into Making Les the Les He Is Today.
No, really, it was a lot of fun, and while I was much less obsessively chatty than usual, I was quite entertained by our discussions of The Last Airbender, The Afterlife, Fruit Preserves, and Making Fun of Guys Who Are Steadily Growing Older.
It really was fun. Les’ mom seems a very nice lady who I’d love to visit some day (I envision her sitting around with my own mom, chatting and laughing with my mom about Where They Went Wrong). It was a pleasure talking with her, and, of course, Les.
You can find the MP3 file here, or go to this SEB post for a convenient playing interface. A link to this podcast will be in the sidebar or some other prominently placed point on this blog for your future podcast-listening pleasure.
UPDATE: And now you can click on the player below to listen to this choice bit of fun.
Stupid Evil Podcast #3 is likely to take place this weekend. Quoth the Bastard himself:
Hey folks! Just a quick note to say that ***Dave and I are getting ready to do the third SEB Podcast this coming Monday. This time out we’ll be joined by a Very Special Guest: My mother.
So, as before, we’re looking for topic ideas that you’d like to hear us talk about. Additionally, if there’s anything you’ve ever wanted to ask my mom then now’s the time. Hell, for that matter, if you have anything specific you ever wanted to ask ***Dave or myself then now’s a good time for that as well.
You’ve got a couple of days to leave a reply with your topics and questions so put on your thinking caps and come up with some good ones.
It’s actually funny — doing a podcast with Les is no worries to me — but having his mother on there? I feel like I should make sure I’m dressed up and using correct posture …
Anyway, feel free to drop some topical topics, some things you’d like to have one or the other or both of us answer, etc. into the comments here or there.
Les and I got the second successful SEB Podcast in the can last evening. We ended up covering a bit of ground from the infamous Lost Podcast, but we got some new material in there as well. I had a lot of fun doing it, and I only hope you have nearly as much fun (if you are so inclined) listening to it.
You can download the MP3 from here, or go to Les’ page here and both read his comments and click on the little player to listen to the whole from the little player at the bottom of the post.
We nattered about 36Mb worth, or about an hour and a half.
Many thanks to Les for making it happen. As always, the podcast link will be in the sidebar for future reference.
UPDATE: You can click in the player below to hear the podcast.
… but, unfortunately, a technical gaffe meant that the Second Stupid Evil Bastard Podcast vanished into the aether / bit bucket.
Which doesn’t mean that we didn’t have fun. Chatting with Les about Doctor Who, the Catholic Church scandal, South Park, Sarah Palin, and whatever else came into our heads over the course of an hour was a blast, the contemporary equivalent of a faboo college bull session, stimulating and intoxicating and just damned enjoyable.
My biggest regret is that everyone else missed it.
We’re going to give it another go next weekend, but we probably won’t (re)cover the same items. I look forward to it.
As Les mentions, we’re probably going to be doing Round 2 of the Stupid Evil Bastard Podcast sometime soon — perhaps Saturday. (Round 1 is linked to here.)
Any topics of importance you think we should tackle head-on … for a few moments, at least, before we devolve into nattering about something completely different and utterly inconsequential? I mean, don’t worry — we can sound wise and insightful about, oh, pretty much anything!
Leave suggestions in the comments.
What hath God wrought?, as someone once posted.
The podcast that Les and I did last weekend is now online. Les gives good summary:
We cover a number of topics starting with Podcasts and moving on to a question from Decrepit Old Fool that we talk about a lot, but never actually answer. That’s followed by tangents galore that are related to DOF’s question by only the thinest of hairs and then a little gushing over the fact that George reads our blogs and some discussion of our religions backgrounds, faith healing, and politics and how we should be the leaders of the world except that we’re too lazy. We close it out with a discussion of James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar which may contain a couple of spoilers so you may want to stop listening at that point if you haven’t seen the movie.
The management disclaims any permanent mental or emotional damage from listening to the podcast. No refunds will be given for burning 1 hour and 22 minutes of your precious life listening to it.
Kudos to Les for actually doing all the technological heavy lifting on this — helping me figure out the voice client to use (we spared no expense, i.e., we spent no money), and then tweaking the sound levels (to make up for the fact that we spared no expense). He also set up our individual channels so that one of us is talking in one of your ears, the other of us in the other. I’ll leave to you which of us plays which memetic role.
Anyway, enjoy. The downloadable file is here (57Mb), or there’s an RSS feed, or you can even just go to Les’ page and play it there. (Mom, that last option is probably easiest.) Let me know what you think in the comments. That may decide (through interest, lack of interest, or brickbats) whether there’s an Episode 2, or we just sit on our laurels. (Constructive criticism is always welcome, natch.)
I have one great comfort — no matter how bad it is, it’s gotta be better than what some guys do behind a microphone.
UPDATE: The player below will actually play the podcast for you! Amazing!
Les and I did the inaugural SEB Podcast this evening. What I’d thought would be about half an hour ran nearly three times that length, but it was just plain ol’ good fun, akin to sitting back with a couple of beers and shooting the breeze on everything from “Avatar” to the Episcopal Church to DOF to Awful Internet Pictures … but far less coherent than that makes it sound.
It was fun to do. I have no idea if it will be fun to listen to. I suspect that, if/when we ever do it again, we’ll end up trying to (a) zero in on a topic for (b) a shorter period of time.
Les is busy doing some clean-up and tweaking of the recording. I’ll let you know when it’s available online, so we can be totally embarrassed by sounding like a couple of geeks with microphones.
Les (of Stupid Evil Bastard fame) has been planning on doing a podcast for quite some time, and has been gracious enough to invite me to join him. He’s soliciting questions for us to discuss …
Here’s the thing: As most of you who follow both SEB and ***Dave Does the Blog already know, outside of him being a theist and me an atheist, we have more in common than not. My concern is that we’re going to ask each other questions about topical items and we’re going to agree with each other so much that the entire podcast will be similar to this:
Me: I think Pat Robertson is stone-cold crazy.
***Dave: I agree completely. And I think the Teabaggers are a wee bit deluded.
Me: I totally agree.
I suppose there’s some risk there — though I think we could probably both speak at length (and not necessarily in full concord) on why Pat is an idjit, or in what ways the Teabaggers are deluded. That gets into further questions or discussion about religion, society, political liberty, the media, etc. Still …
Which is going to make for a fairly boring podcast. So I’m opening this up for you guys to participate. Got a topic you’d like to hear us pontificate on? A question burning a hole in your brain? A query you’re curious if we can help you with? Leave it in the comments or alternatively drop me an email or drop ***Dave an email if you prefer. Topics can be anything you want – politics, religion, technology, pop culture – and we’ll do our damnedest to talk about them in an amusing manner.
And I throw the same invitation open here. Drop either of us a line, or leave a comment.
We’d been planning on Saturday night to finally get this done, but that’s turned out to be Date Night at the Consortium, so I’m working with Les to reschedule. But soon! Soon!
