Did Lavalantula die in vain?

I've been listening to this one for a few weeks now, and the reason I'm reccing it today is the latest episode.

The Boring Talks is a podcast about the intriguing intricacies of things which most people think are dull. It grabbed me with the first episode, about what the actual date of the end of the world in HHGTTG might be, and the second episode about book pricing algorithms was fascinating too. So I subscribed. And I rather enjoyed the next few episodes.

Then came this week's episode: the Argos Catalogue. And it's not so much a podcast episode as a surrealist, glorious, hilarious, absolutely insane, beautiful piece of performance art.

I listen to a LOT of podcasts. There's very few I listen to more than once. My client is set to delete episodes once they've been listened to. This one? This one is heading for its third listen.

I rec the podcast as a whole, and listening to the first few eps might be enough to adjust your mind enough that it can bend round this episode. Trust me, it's worth it.

Are you a Lib Dem? Do you listen to a lot of podcasts to stop yourself listening to the Today programme and going mad with rage? OK, maybe that second one is just me... Anyway, if you do fit the podcast-listening-Lib-Dem demographic, you might be interested in these two:

• Limehouse Podcast, which is by and for Lib Dems but aims to not be too wonkish.


• Liberated Podcast which is "by Laura Sheeter" but has the smell of LDHQ all over it, not least because every episode just happens to feature Vince Cable.

Limehouse

Of the two, Limehouse has been going for longer. The presenter is... well, he's clearly a lib dem. He has a tendency to slip into 1980s Radio 1 DJ midlantic every so often (even though he's probably too young to remember the 80s radio 1 DJs, the lucky sod), which is both endearing and irritating at the same time. The podcast itself tends also to be a bit "man man manly men... oh yeah, sometimes women have views, especially on sexism, don't they? But on important stuff we're going to solely talk to men. And all the top lib dems in the theme tune are men. Man man manly men." This, as you can imagine, winds me up.

However, all that said? Limehouse feels like a proper podcast made by people who actually get podcasting. They do appear to pay attention to and listen to their audience. It's usually pretty entertaining, and genuinely informative. While it is clearly made on a budget of BEHOLD MY MIGHTY TWENTY PENCE, it still meets sound quality requirements. And the manliness thing should be easy enough to sort out given the will to do it (and the will shows sporadic signs of appearing), so I'm going to keep listening for now.

Recommended eps for Limehouse are: The one with Elaine Bagshawe and Dawn Barnes, and the one with Lynne Featherstone.


Liberated

Liberated, by contrast, feels like in podcast form. The presenter is much slicker than the presenter of Limehouse, and the production values are noticeably higher. Liberated also has the USP of featuring The Views of Our Glorious Leader on every single episode. This means that it sometimes feels like we are being asked to be grateful for pronouncements from on high, but also sometimes means that, when he gets challenged (as in the diversity episode, by Simon from Operation Black Vote) you actually get something really interesting.

Liberated escapes the man man manly men thing by having a female presenter... But in terms of actual guests, actually giving their views? Limehouse is actually doing far better on the gender balance front. Liberated has never had a female guest. Ever. This is simply not good enough. And I'm not even going to go into other protected characteristics in terms of diversity of guests for either of the two podcasts.

I can only really recommend one ep of Liberated so far: the Diversity one with Simon from Operation Black Vote. I'm not going to lie, I really dislike the HQ smell all over Liberated. I'm a paid up member of the Awkward Squad, and if I wanted to be told what to think by the leader I'd actually follow him on twitter... But I do recognise that there is a market for this kind of thing, and perhaps I am being a bit too curmudgeonly.


Conclusions

In terms of which one, if either, you should listen to? That's up to you. I predict that Liberated will become more successful, because it has the not-very-covert backing of the leadership, and even Lib Dems have an unfortunate tendency to bend at the knees (see the Europe vote last conference). But for those of us who have an instinctive urge towards not doing as we are told? I'm rooting for Limehouse. I'll keep listening to both for now, though. For now.

So, those of you who know my podcasting habits will know that one of the few constants is The Wyrd Ways Rock Show. It's the ONLY music podcast that's lasted the distance for me - must be five or six years I've been listening to it now.

There's several reasons for that. It helps me keep up with new music I'll (probably) like in this increasingly fragmented musical world, because it defiantly includes all kinds of rock and metal, and doesn't restrict itself to any of the increasingly narrow bands that modern bands like to slot themselves into. I like Carl's relaxed presenting style, and his comfortingly Yorkshire voice - there's something very reassuring about him. I like Elfie's enthusiasm and joy at finding new stuff to bring to the world. But mostly, I like the attitude of the show, which is: it's the music that matters.

So the Wyrd Ways RS doesn't discriminate if you're black, or LGBT+, or a girl. Orianthi is just a bloody good guitarist. Doro Pesch is just a statesman of rock. Rob Halford is just the singer for Judas Priest. None of that gatekeepy bullshit on the Wyrd Ways RS: if your music is good, you get played, no matter what your non-musical attributes.

Recent events have brought to the forefront just how bloody special this is. Don't even start me on the silliness that is #Metalgate (except that I feel sorry for these Czech festival organisers who have been going since '08 and suddenly got tarred with a very silly brush). So it was with the greatest joy that I listened to the last-but-one episode of the show:

Here is a link to the webplaying version of episode CCXCVI. This episode will be known forever to me as the "what is this female-fronted-metal pigeon-holing bullshit? Women play ALL KINDS OF METAL!" episode. And it's got some bloody astounding music on. Srsly, check the playlist. It's nearly four hours of glorious, joyful, beautiful music that sticks two fingers up at the rest of the world and says: "I don't care what YOU think; this is what I like".

So go listen to it. Go on. You can do it in chunks if you like. Then go subscribe and help pay for the upkeep of the show: it's worth it, I promise.

The Requiem Metal Podcast can be a bit patchy, and tends towards the black/death metal end of things a bit much for my tastes, but this week's edition is a bit of a corker.

They do episodes themed around a band, or a particular aspect of a band's output - I recommend listening to their Monster Magnet, Bruce Dickinson solo, and Alice in Chains editions. The latest edition is The History of the World According to Iron Maiden Part 1 (Stone Age to c.1300CE), and because one of the hosts is a history teacher there's some interesting commentary between tracks. To give you a flavour of the kind of commentary you're getting, they explain the Gordian knot as "Alexander the Great's Kobayishi Maru scenario" ;) They don't take themselves too seriously, they occasionally segue off on tangents, and the music is (obviously) good. It's well worth a listen, and I'm looking forward to next week's slice of world history Maiden style.

So today's plan was to record an interview with a Very Important Person for the Pod Delusion. This had been set up some weeks in advance, and the VIP had kindly set aside some time for me, and all was cool. As the allotted time approached I was contacted by an underling: they were having some problems with Skype, could I bear with them while the IT person sorted it out? Obviously, I said of course, and hung around watching lips move but no sound appearing on an increasingly frustrated underling's face as Skype steadfastly refused to work at their end. Apparently they could hear me fine, but up here? Nothing.

My time slot ran out, but the VIP very graciously offered to try again later. Later came around and again, Skype wouldn't work. I suggested that given my mobile phone has recording software, we try doing it that way instead. So the VIP rang me up, and I set the recording software going and all was going swimmingly.

About two minutes into the interview, my mother tried to ring on my mobile phone. I ignored the incoming call and thought nothing of it. After around 20 minutes of conversation, which I thought had gone reasonably well and would probably edit down to ten minutes of solid interview, I thanked the VIP and hung up and checked the recording software. And thought

Hang on, why have I only got two minutes of recording...

So, apparently, if you're recording a phone call and someone else rings, EVEN IF YOU DON'T ANSWER, the recording software will stop. Who knew? Not me, and clearly not my mother.

This means that I have a totally useless recording of a couple of minutes of how are you? and other such pleasantries AND I have wasted the time of a really nice and really busy person with nothing to show for it. I think I am justified in saying AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!

On the plus side, having rung my mother back to find out what she wanted, hoping that at least it would be something important, at least she now knows that I am working this evening...

... for the pod_together Dreamwidth/LJ community, which matches podcasters with fanfic authors, hopefully to exciting effect.

I didn't write it, I just read it, but I'm still quite proud of it. It features the three witches and Death. You can check it out here.

((X-posted personal DW & pterry_fans))

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Both of them have a slightly sweary contribution from me. On the Pod Delusion I am only slightly sweary; it's an adaptation and expansion of this blog post from the other day. The Pod Delusion is one of my very favourite podcasts, and I always get squeeful when I'm on it.

On the Eleventh Hour I am very sweary indeed, partly because they asked for contributions from female listeners about swearing in the show, and the use of one particular word. So if you don't like that word, and I think you can guess what word it is, don't listen. Also, if you don't like long and rambling podcasts about Doctor Who you'll probably not want to listen to it.

Just a quick note before I drag myself into work. Episode one of my new podcast is out now, so if you've got 46 minutes to spare at some point and you'd give it a listen I'll be grateful.

Constructive crit gratefully recieved. I know there are some sound quality issues, and I have already had some advice on that from m'freind in Ealing. Content-wise, though... Do you think we're striking the right balance? Do you have a contribution for the audience participation topic? Do you want to enter the Exciting Competition^TM?

Do let me know.

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I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but I appear to have become a semi-regular contributor to The Pod Delusion, by dint of being able to toss off random bollocks at half an hour's notice if the show is short on content. If you don't subscribe to PD, I would recommend it. It's always interesting even when I'm not on it. For instance, Alex Foster's piece on Letterboxes in episode 53 should be of interest to all Lib Dems - and why not join The Campaign For Humane Letterboxes while you're listening?

If you want to just listen to me, though, I have so far appeared on episodes 48, 49 and 54, and there is an RSS feed of eps featuring me here. Give me a holler if you want me to set up DW or LJ syndication.

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I got the results from Byron's biopsy just now. It is/was a soft tissue sarcoma. It's benign, and wasn't very aggressive, so is very unlikely to metastasise, but it's fairly likely to recur in the same spot.

It's unlikely to kill him even if it does recur.

So, you know. It could have been a lot worse.

In other news, I just got my first piece accepted for the Pod Delusion, so listen out on Friday when the episode comes out for a bit by me.

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This blog is proudly sponsored by

For those of you who are interested in my appearances elsewhere, I have a guest post up on Geeka Chicas (again) about the FFW, and I have a three minute speechy bit (and lots of mentions) in this week's Eleventh Hour podcast. They also go on about how brilliant my lovely sponsor is, with which I can only agree...

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This blog is proudly sponsored by

If you would like to view this entry with a pale colour scheme click here. If you would like to subscribe to my blog click here for RSS or here for atom.

Yay! I'm ridiculously excited by this. Dirty Whoers is my favourite Who podcast by a long long way, and you should all listen to it.

I feel comforted that their views on the most recent episode pretty much chimed with mine, even if they did blather on about the Labservativers and barely mention the Lib Dems in their election section.

Anyway, whofans on my f-list: go subscribe!