THIS IS NOT A TEST (1 Viewer)

250 downloads of the Bukowski episode already.

And as of today, 12,024 people have read the blog post.

Those numbers are really nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it's good for what we're doing here. Considering that 1,100 people go to the main site every day and another 800 come here to the forum, twelve thousand article views is a lot.

The current episode might also interest some of you. Ostensibly I'm talking about Internet trolls, but I also talk about my evening at the Huntington museum with Linda Bukowski, and if you haven't heard about that, it's worth a listen.
 
I have, but it's still worth a listen...:wb:

By the way, I don't see a simple way to access all the different podcasts on each podcast page. Is there a centralized location for them? Maybe a link for each on each podcast page would be a good idea. Or am I just an Internet idiot?
 
i'm thinking of restarting my podcast. it's nowhere near as interesting as mjp's, and i only did 3 episodes and then got tired of it. but now i feel like doing some rambling into a cheap headset microphone for 30 - 45 minutes at a time telling jokes that only i think are funny, so i may drop episode four on you soon.

mjp's podcast is good, though. i suggest you listen to it if you haven't yet.
 
I've heard about podcast five or six (probably more) years ago and I'm still not sure what the fucking thing is for.
Yeah, I'm an old foggy hopelessly run over by modern times.
Sue me, kids.
 
zobraks said:
I've heard about podcast five or six (probably more) years ago and I'm still not sure what the fucking thing is for.
Click to expand...
They've been around for more than 10 years, but they really became a thing when more and more people started carrying around smart phones.

As for what they're for, what's any of this for?

To me it's just another way of storytelling. The big advantage of a podcast over a blog (or a book or a magazine) is it's still a relatively uncrowded field. It's a lot easier to get people to listen to a decently-made podcast than it is to get them to read a well-written blog.

It's easier because there are 175 million blogs (really), but only about 250,000 widely available podcasts. And of that quarter million, maybe 2% are listenable (sound-wise and content-wise). That 2% is probably applicable to blogs too, if you're looking at quality. So if it's 2%, when you say to someone, "Go read my blog," you're competing with 3.5 million other blogs. When you say, "Go listen to my podcast," you're competing with 5,000 other podcasts. Slightly better odds, yeah?

And it will probably be that way for a long time, because you can set up a state of the art blog for free in 15 minutes, but it's harder - and more expensive - to set up a podcast and get all the parts working together so people can actually listen to it without jumping through too many hoops. It doesn't look that difficult, but I can say that it was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

I'd still do it over again though, because I think the potential benefits are worth the trouble. Generally speaking, the connection to a listener is much stronger than it is to a reader, because listening to someone's voice in your ears is a more intimate thing than reading words on a page or a screen.

How cool would a Chance Press podcast be? Or a Bottle of Smoke podcast? I'd love to hear those guys talk about what's involved in making those books. And Justine has a wonderful accent that makes everything she says sound fancy.

Really, I'd listen to anyone who does anything interesting.
 
mjp said:
You should. If those were unscripted you have a real talent for speaking off the cuff. That's pretty rare.
Click to expand...
they're minimally scripted. i plan out the segments in advance and have a general idea of what i might say (such as: "i'm going to interview a guest and the joke will be that i don't differentiate my voice at all while playing the guest and 90% of the interview will be me not getting the guy's name right"). but i don't rehearse it, and everything is done in one take.

i hesitate to call it a talent, since it's nonsensical rambling... i'm more impressed with people like mjp who can speak cogently in a soothing voice about interesting things.
 
People who are supposed to love us can have such a negative effect. I think your voice is wonderful, so don't let some jankey-ass Kiwi twat get you down.
jordan said:
i hesitate to call it a talent...
Click to expand...
Talking without a script and without a lot of stumbling or pauses or ah...ah...ah...uh...um's is something most people can't do. So whether it's nonsensical or not is secondary.

90% of what I'm saying on those things I'm reading. So if it's cogent, it's only because I thought about it before I said it.

I suppose the art is making the parts that aren't spontaneous sound like they are. ;)
 
Well, maybe I'm not strictly reading. The main parts are mostly pre-written, the beginning and end of each one is more freestyle. But really, by the time I've typed the main parts out and thought them through I don't really need to read them. It's all there in front of me when I record though, if I need it.

I'd like to do them without the writing - it would make the whole process a lot easier - maybe I'll get there. That's why I keep saying that Jordan has something going for him that most other people don't. Besides his James Bond kind of vibe, I mean.
 
Listened to the first four yesterday afternoon at my desk. Liked the conversational style. I think MJP made a very good point when he talked about how it's a shame that kids now have so much choice that they listen to what they want to listen to, whereas in ye olden times we had the radio and not much else. This meant you were forced to listen to a load of dross but you were also able to discover a load of new artists that you would never normally have chosen to listen to. It reminded me of being young and tuning into John Peel on late night radio. He would play some dodgy stuff but he was prepared to play such a wide variety of acts that you inevitably stumbled across something obscure which would blow your mind. I remember hearing Beaumont Hannant on there for the first time (obscure but very talented electronic artist who was active during the 90s) and subsequently becoming a big fan. MJP's comments reminded of that Canadian DJ listening to Nickleback for 168 hours for charity. Obviously that's extreme and it's being done as a joke too but I can imagine young kids listening to hour upon hour of music from within a very small niche.
Incidentally, I'm not suggesting that's the only interesting topic that was raised ;)
I guess it just resonated with me.
 
Yeah, even the stuff that didn't "blow your mind" at the time is still imprinted and it can come back to surprise you later. It's like discovering that you like to eat broccoli when it made you gag as a kid. Not that I recall my mother ever making broccoli, but you get the drift.

Thanks, any time someone listens to more than one episode I consider it a win. ;)
 
Listened to three of them so far. Very interesting.

The one about your life reminded me about a novel in progress you once spoke about, about your time in the bands? Do I remember correctly?

How is this coming along?
 
The first draft is pretty much finished. I just need to go back through it and make up some exciting lies, throw in some jokes, that kind of thing. You know how it is.
 
It's a good microphone. Makes anyone who talks into it sound smart. You pay extra for that, but it's worth it.
 
Ha. "Everybody agrees that vinyl sounds better than digital - except audio engineers, and the people who invented the compact disc."

Thanks, I hadn't read that. Even though it was published at the same time I was writing the podcast. I wish I had read it, I could have used some of that stuff. But Bob Clearmountain makes my point for me when he says, "That's what it sounded like. That's what I remember doing in the studio."

And all of this:

...it's not clean reproduction of a recording that makes vinyl a preferred format; it's the affect the vinyl adds to a recording that people find pleasing.

"I think some people interpret the lack of top end [on vinyl] and interpret an analog type of distortion as warmth," says Jim Anderson, a Grammy-winning recording engineer and professor at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. "It's a misinterpretation of it. But if they like it, they like it. That's fine."

"Every way you can measure it, digital is going to be superior," Metcalfe says. "It really does come down to the preference of the end user."

Or, as Kees Immink says: "Some people like marmalade and some people like mustard. If people like to listen to vinyl, do so, enjoy life. But don't say that the sound is better."
 
Johannes said:
The one about your life reminded me about a novel in progress you once spoke about, about your time in the bands? Do I remember correctly?

How is this coming along?
Click to expand...

the galley proof was leaked online today...

mjp.jpg


can't wait.
 
jordan said:
i'm thinking of restarting my podcast. it's nowhere near as interesting as mjp's, and i only did 3 episodes and then got tired of it. but now i feel like doing some rambling into a cheap headset microphone for 30 - 45 minutes at a time telling jokes that only i think are funny, so i may drop episode four on you soon.

mjp's podcast is good, though. i suggest you listen to it if you haven't yet.
Click to expand...
I'd be happy to have a listen if you stick the url up on here.
 
Just listened to the first one. I liked it even though (or maybe because) it's pretty stupid. The arts and culture section about the importance of dirt :D
 
The Oscars one is pretty funny. We recently had The Brits (British Phonograph Industry Awards). You may have seen the footage of the attempted strangulation of Ramona (lucky she was miming, eh?) which has also pretty much become a parody of an awards. Perhaps it always was. And I agree about Patricia Arquette. I loved her in Boardwalk Empire too.
 
#13 was real good. and mat was great. he'd be a good regular guest.

look forward to part 2.

btw his "top 10 most overrated painters in art history" article was pretty funny.

whether he was serious or not he was spot on about renoir and chagall ...

...but modigliani??? how dare he!
 
Whenever he talks about something being overrated you can be pretty sure he's serious.

I'll definitely have him on again, there's a lot to talk to Mat about. I steered him down the punk rock road on this one because he's been interviewed a thousand times and no one has ever come at him from that angle. Seems obvious to me though that the punk era/attitude made him who he is. It made a lot of us who we are.

Glad you liked it. I'm sure when he promotes it to his crowd I'm going to hear a lot of criticism from them. Some of them spend too much time trying to "out-Mat" him, at least in the way they see him. But you know how people are, they see or hear a guy like that and they think it's all about being abrasive, so when they try to be like him they get it all wrong.

We see that here all the time. ;)
 

Similar threads

hoochmonkey9
I'm not sure what this movie is about
Replies
1
Views
2K
mjp
mjp
mjp
Is this prog folk?
Replies
6
Views
2K
mjp
mjp
Short Bus
Who is the guy not gram?
Replies
2
Views
1K
roni
roni
S
This is a Poll-Who would you rather see?
Replies
23
Views
3K
Bukfan
Bukfan
mjp
Michael Jackson, This Is It
Replies
16
Views
3K
nervas
nervas

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top