The Podcast Pedant

Oh, what a frabjuous day. Not only is it my last day at my day job, but this popped up on my morning Technorati search:

Podcasts Part 2: Science Fiction or Satanic Fiction?

Tristan, a guest blogger for Shelley the Republican, is on a crusade against podcasting as the next Hot New Immoral Thing. His first article on the subject is all about the iPod and why it’s a ticking heathen time bomb:

Apple neglected to mention that every iPod ever sold included a hidden feature called “Podcasting” which they unveiled in mid 2005.

This feature allows liberal media direct access to young Americans without any of the safeguards that make TV channels like Fox News fair and balanced. A quick scan though some of America’s most popular podcasts is proof enough that a dangerous liberal minority have seized control over this influential channel.

Wow. Just wow.

But the second piece is the beautiful one to me, because he reviews my very own Escape Pod to reveal that we’re leading children down the path of perversity and occultism. He cites a few stories as examples. I don’t know what the hell the “industry standard CAPAlert scoring system” is, but EP apparently scores an 8.2 on it, which means we’re evil incarnate or something.

The blog post wraps up with a petition to the FCC to regulate podcasting, and tips for what to do if your child has become “addicted to science fiction.”

This is my favorite review ever. Now I know, for certain, that we’ve Made It.

From Sam Chupp, on the Yahoo! list:

I’ve found, once you receive your first microphone, it comes coated in some kind of psychotropic virus, that makes you suddenly start thinking about buying hundreds of dollars of additional equipment.

(Sam’s a personal friend of mine — I’ve run into him at various local gathers for years, and his role-playing podcast is philosophical and thought-provoking. I feel somewhat invested in the above quote, since if I recall correctly I pointed him toward his Samson C01U when we were chatting in Skype a while back. Does that make me a pusher?)

Chris Miller, of Unquiet Desperation:

This day is called the day of Podcasting Thursday : He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Paul Puri. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say ‘To-morrow is Podcasting Thursday :’ Then will he strip his earbuds and show his scars. And say ‘These wounds I had on Podcasting Thursday’ Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he’ll remember with advantages What feats he did that day: then shall our names. Familiar in his mouth as household words Michael and Evo, Brian Ibbot and Steve Eley, CC Chapman and Leo Laporte, Curry and Winer, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Podcasting Thursday shall ne’er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember’d; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in cyberspace now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Podcasting Thursday.

Don’t even ask what the context was. It’s not one-tenth as cool as this.

Mr. Nice Guy, on the Yahoo! list:

‘Seems like, much too often, the most analytical comments coming about the medium from within are, more or less, “Oh wow, man, that’s so cool.”

Amen, brother! I’m all for patting each other on the back, but let’s make sure there was a clear reason for patting, and stop before the point where the hand lingers just a moment too long and then gets taken away while both people look away from the other in an embarrassing silence.

(What? I can’t be the only person that happens to!)

I love in-jokes. Especially when I’m the one making them up — because it’s the only time I really know I’m “in.”

The Drinking Game will only make sense to anyone who’s been living on the Yahoo! Podcasters list for the past few months. I started it in a message there because I was tired of Todd Cochrane ragging on Feedburner for the umpteen thousandth time.¹ I figured it was time to reward people with a good drink the next time it happened. And once you start, well, other ideas present themselves…

Since then Paul has immortalized it on the Podcasters Wiki, for which the world shall one day forgive him.  If you have ideas for expanding it, put them there.

1. Yes, Todd, we know you think the guys there are just waiting to get their big sweaty hands on your sweet virgin feed, have their evil way with it, then throw its body into their wood shed. This has never happened and it’s easily preventable if they tried. But your way works too: never let your feed leave the house. ↩