Big Red Podcast

I just found the Big Red Podcast. This is a pop culture show comprised of TV reviews with a smattering of literature. The audio is very good and the talking heads take turns and control their interactions well. I haven't heard a single earsplitting outburst. They make allusion to a breakfast meeting where the group has already hashed out what they might say and where the emotional reactions, full of swearing and spitting of egg, are discreetly kept away from my tender ears. Thank you.

One thing you might want to say to these people is “put the TiVo down.” They seem to be consuming way more TV than is necessary. But this works to the listener's advantage...at least in the short term. I have listened to four episodes and these have either confirmed a presumption about certain on-going series or made me excited to netflix a new series that I was unaware of. In short, the Big Red Podcast is a winner. I will return to one of the criticisms the Big Red Podcast made last year about Madmen. This would bear upon one of my past blog entries. I will comment back in that blog 7/23/07.


Some podcast losers. (evil snicker)

In the same arena, but not in the same league are “Hey, want to watch a movie?” podcast and “Destroy All Media” Show. I have been looking for new shows at Podcast Pickle instead of Podcast Alley. I have found hidden gems at Pickle before. However these two did not fall into that category.

First of all the sound of Want to Watch a Movie? is atrocious. When I explain the nature of the show one can understand why. This show creates commentary tracks meant to accompany favorite movies. The first minutes are an explanation of this, then an introduction of the cast and finally a countdown to sync your pod-cast up with the movie. The Hollywood Saloon did this once with much higher production values. Please refer back to my November 2007 blog. The key problem for Want to Watch a Movie? is the group commenting on the film seem to be linked via skype. Skype seems to be a highly compressed scheme for phoning through your computer. I've heard call-ins to podcasts from listeners using a skype connection and the hosts regularly hang up on them. This tells you how poor the sound quality can be, because programs recorded live are very desirous of a decent call in from a listener. So now imagine a show based entirely on this type of sound. Additionally, this show introduces a huge number of people who, in theory, would be adding comments. It would be far too many to keep tabs on if they actually all did have comments, but there are frequent dead silences which make you want to check if your headphones came unplugged, but no, it is just where (10?) people have nothing to say. To be fair, I didn't listen while I was synced. But still...Skip this show, it is still in hobby mode. It isn't that the comments for the movies aren't funny and intelligent, but I found it not worth the trouble given the movie selections.

Better is Destroy All Media, but not by any great margin. Three guys discuss tv and movies in this podcast. One of these men is a huge nerd. Star Trek knowledge, a full-blown goober. This makes the other two speakers cool in proximity, and there is a friendly awareness of this dynamic. The sound quality here is not so great. The nerd is heard most clearly, with his hipper peanut-gallery off mic or at some greater distance (besides a degree of hipper style). This is the opposite arrangement for optimum enjoyment. You want a know-it-all to chime in with some trivia occasionally, not run the show. Also if you have a Cliff Claven happening, you want to double-check his info. Nerdman went off on a tangent about the director Coen Brothers when he actually meant the director Wawkowski Brothers. Ooops! My inner nerd is showing.

Still, You might want to take a chance on this show. It could be made better with the a couple more mics and a bit more structure.

In Praise of the Saloon

Wow...an actual comment! My evil plan is working! Now I haven't posted in a long while. In fact, it has been so long, that my last posting, especially in light of the nice comment, needs a brief explanation. Since I mentioned a couple of podcasts dedicated to film review, I left the impression that I favored "Movies You Should See" possibly more than "Hollywood Saloon." I had just started listening to the Saloon. And since that posting, I have enjoyed the "Hollywood Saloon" quite extensively. In particular, I watched a movie I own on my computer for which the Saloon guys made a commentary track. This audio file I downloaded from their website. This is a fantastic idea! It was also an especially brave thing to do following their through critique of the many types of DVD commentary tracks that are being made, both scholarly and ridiculous. I thought the track was quite good. I'm not sure I learned that much, but, it did what I enjoy about commentary. It made a film I'd seen many times before fresh. I hope they continue this type thing.

Mad Men “Ad-pointment” TV

The first Mad Men aired this week. It looked like it was going to be good. The pilot was terrific. It’s full of attitudes we have left behind in our cultural history. The characters were very simplified, maybe as an introduction they need to be. I guest I most enjoyed the advertising agency (staff?) research psychologist. She has a German /Austrian accent (of course) and is as cold as ice. We know that cliché. In reality she would’ve been a temporarily hired team of geeks in white coats probably all male. That still might be giving Madison Avenue too much science cred. Probably her role would’ve been filled by a survey conducted with a cross-section of types who would have been rewarded for the their time. I’m not complaining. The women researcher has greater story potential. Maybe we will learn in future episodes the accent isn’t real.

Then there is a seemingly closeted gay Italian graphic artist who works closely with the lead ad-man. The artist’s life-choice is so telegraphed, how he talks about his enjoyment at using his relaxed male neighbor for his artist model in a drawing for a future Lucky’s billboard. The joke seems to be everyone around him is “gay” blind. His gay remarks go un-noticed except by a stray women in a strip club and by us the TV audience. Maybe in future episodes we will find that lots of people know about his secret. Maybe only the junior executives will be caught unawares. They are the college boys running amok like a pack of wolfs.

All in all I am hooked already. I really think this period was way cool. Maybe in one episode they will show someone watching an old Dick Van Dyke Show. They did mentioned, in a condescending fashion, the Danny Thomas Show as a good advertising position for their new Jewish client.

It’s a battle of the sexes, but Madmen would collapse very fast if the writers did not create a balance. The balance seemed only to be implied in this introduction. The women have knowledge of and power over one another, and indirectly their bosses careers. The only women who maybe somewhat powerless to begin with is the lead ad-man’s wife. She is a surprise reveal at the end, as the lead ad-man’s actions do not indicate a married man with children. He seems to have been away from home for days not merely during office hours in the city. If the clichés hold true, his wife will start a drug habit of barbiturates and maybe lose one of their 2.5 children. I don’t know if I will still be watching if that happens. We shall see.