I am currently curled up under a blanket, waiting for dinner to finish cooking, reading books with Alan. Life is good.
Sep 072011
Jul 142011
It took me a long time to get into them, but now I must admit that I’m quite a fan of podcasts. I find them good to listen to at work in the mornings as it wakes up my brain a bit more than music. It was when I found that most of my favourite CBC programs were available as podcasts that I started listening to them fairly regularly. I know it’s not for everyone, but I thought I should share some of my favourites with those of you who are podcasting-inclined.
Pop Culture Happy Hour
From NPR’s Monkey See blog. Most of the movies and TV that I have found within the last six months [Downton Abbey, Parks & Rec, Bridesmaids, etc.] that I love is because of the Pop Culture Happy Hour crew. Four NPR editors get together on a mostly weekly basis and talk about books, music, TV, and movies. There are usually three segments per show and each podcast lasts about forty to forty five minutes. At the end of each podcast, they have a segment of things that are making them happy this week. There’s a fun jingle, it’s a very cheerful podcast, and overall, I love it.
Q
Q is a CBC radio program that features long-form interviews. It gained a lot of internet exposure after Billy Bob Thornton sorta imploded. Jian Ghomeshi interviews authors, actors, musicians and all sorts of other cultural figures in a one-hour daily program. A lot of the new music I have found is because of interviews and performances featured on Q [Adele, The Secret Sisters, Janelle Monae, etc.]. Q is awesome and Jian is a great interviewer.
Search Engine
Search Engine is a Canadian podcast that talks about digital culture. Jesse Brown talks a lot about digital rights, usually related with the hijinks of the Canadian government or the CRTC. Each episode is about ten to fifteen minutes. I haven’t found any new TV shows to watch because of this podcast, but I do feel more informed.
This American Life
Ira Glass has an awesome radio voice. Every week, This American Life delivers long-form stories about stuff. Last week, it was about natural gas extraction and it made me mad. Two weeks ago it featured a segment about actors in jail performing act V of Hamlet. The stories are hard to pin down, but they’re always poignant and usually informative.
WTF with Marc Maron
This one isn’t for my Mom. Marc Maron has on mostly comedians and they have a conversation. About once every few weeks, this starts with Marc and the interviewee talking about why Marc didn’t like them in the 90s, then moves on to other things. Rarely is the interview extremely funny, and this is a great thing. Maron’s interview with Amy Poehler, coupled with hearing about it for a year on Pop Culture Happy Hour is led me to try Parks and Rec (which I will tell you all about later — spoilers: it’s great!).
RadioLab
Nerds talk about nerdy things. Awesomely.
So there you are! Podcasts I like. Do any of you listen to good podcasts?
Jun 302011
He invents the phone in order to speak with people remotely. Nobody else has one.
I’m on Google+ now. Now I can give Google even more of my personal information, and Facebook less. Except that nobody is on Google+, so everything will have to be cross-posted on both. Just like with Twitter.
Anyone else out there on this thing? Social networks are boring when there’s nobody to be social with.
Remember when life was easy and all we had were blogs and email? And terrible Geocities home pages? Those were the good old days.
May 022011
I should have been a little more specific when I encouraged people to vote.
Sad face. :(
May 012011
Canada is having a federal election on Monday May 2nd. If you’re over 18 and a Canadian citizen, go vote.
“If you’re between the age of 18 and 25 and you want to scare the hell out of the people who run this country, this time around do the unexpected. Take 20 minutes out of your day and do what young people all around the world are dying to do. Vote.”
-Rick Mercer
