missed

 

Let’s start with a confession: I blew my big chance to get in on the ground floor of podcasting. Way back in August 2004 Dave Slusher <http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress>, world renowned Evil Genius and interviewer extraordinaire, asked me to be the inaugural guest on his podcast Voices in Your Head <http://www.itconversations.com/series/voicesinyourhead.html>. “Sure,” sez I, “but what the hell is a podcast?” Understand that this was scant weeks after the podfather Adam Curry <http://live.curry.com/> launched Ipodder <http://www.ipodder.org/history>. I’d started posting mp3 files of me reading my own stories to my website just six months before and Dave thought I was a natural to join the revolution. He urged me to jump into podcasting.

The thing is, although I’m a geek wannabe, I am also, alas, an often-befuddled English major. This whole podcasting thing gave off a serious early adopter <http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata99.htm> vibe that promised head-aches, heartbreaks, and long hours perusing FAQ’s of obscure websites. I was way overdue on a short novel I was supposed to write for Tachyon Publications <http://www.tachyonpublications.com> so I gave Dave the interview <http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail219.html> and filed podcasting away as a possible subject for a future column.

D’oh! <http://www.snpp.com/guides/dohs.html>

So here’s that column, now that the cutting edge has long since passed me by. Had I been writing this six months ago, at this point in the column, I would give you a short explanation of podcasting. But just to show you how far behind the edge I am here, I just recycled last Sunday’s Boston Globe, and Parade Magazine <http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2005/edition_11-20-2005/featured_3>, ferchrissakes, had an article about podcasting. By the time Parade covers a story, it’s more like history than news. Suffice it to say that anyone who has an iPod or an mp3 player, which I figure must include about 87.4 percent of you, probably has a pretty good idea of what podcasting is and what it can do. If not, just check the Wiki-
pedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting>.

 

 

talknet

 

More people can talk than can write.

This may not seem like the most profound insight that has ever appeared in this space, but it helps explain the avalanche of podcasts that has already come crashing down on us—with many more on the way. Of course, there are hurdles that any would-be podcaster must overcome before she gets onto the talknet; despite assurances from podcast evangelists, the technology is not quite ready for primetime. More on that in a moment. However, while it is certainly the case that there are many barely literate bloggers, the fact is that lack of writing skills has served as a kind of filter for keeping certain people off the net. But once it is possible to plug a microphone into a computer and use a friendly software application to record and post to the talknet, everybody and his cousin will be podcasting. Perhaps you have been put off on occasion by the wrong-headedness and banality of some blogs. Well, it could be worse. Imagine what talk radio would be like if there were no articulate and relatively sane hosts to rein in the rambling and relatively deranged callers. Welcome to the talknet.

It’s been my personal experience, alas, that it’s a hell of a lot easier for me to say something stupid than it is to write something stupid; rarely can I listen to an interview I’ve given without cringing. On some podcasts I’ve listened to, the quantity of chatter seems to matter more than the quality of thought. Oftentimes these shows will consist of two or more speakers who seem to be modeling themselves on drivetime shockjocks. They interrupt and insult one another, often in the process losing their train of thought. They crack wise about sex and beer and skiffy flicks and reward each other with guffaws in a kind of grotesque comedic codependency.

And what’s particularly ominous about these meretricious and babblicious podcasts is that they’ve been created by the smart people. Or at least, smarter than me. I won’t rehearse all the difficulties I had in getting my own podcast on line, other than to say that I spent at least four days of headaches, heartbreaks, and long hours perusing FAQ’s of obscure websites (see above). As it is, I finally had to settle for what feels like a roundabout and kludgy link to the talknet. First, I created a blog on Blogger <http://www.blogger.com>, an easy-to-use free service. My blog points to mp3 files available on the non-podcasting but otherwise downloadable Free Reads <http://www.jimkelly.net/pages/free_reads.htm> page on my website. The problem is that Blogger can only create feeds in the Atom <http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=697> format, but you need a RSS 2.0 <http://www.podcastingnews.com/articles/Understanding_RSS_Feeds.html> feed in order to podcast. Luckily, another free service, Feedburner <http://www.feedburner.com> can translate Atom into RSS. I highly recommend Feedburner, by the way. The support staff rocks! Anyway, there’s a clear explanation of all this on Podcasting News <http://www.podcastingnews.com/articles/Make_Podcast_Blogger.html>, along with all sorts of other information you need to know.

But wait, there’s more! In order to post a podcast, you must first create one. For that, you need an audio editor and recorder. Yes, friends, you too can learn audio engineering in your spare time. The software of choice here is Audacity <http://audacity.sourceforge.net>, freeware available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. I’d be using Audacity myself except that several years ago I popped for a commercial program, Sound Forge Audio Studio <http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/showproduct.asp?pid=975> and I have so much time invested in learning its foibles that I can’t possibly switch at this late date.

The point here is that although someday there may be fairly transparent software that manages all aspects of podcasting from recording to editing to posting, that day is not yet here. Take it from me, creating your own podcasts is not for the timid.

 

 

listen up

 

Okay, okay, maybe you don’t want to make a podcast. You just want to listen to a couple. Fortunately, “podcatching” is pretty straightforward. A major breakthrough for podcasting occurred when Apple’s iTunes <http://www.apple.com/ITunes> opted to carry podcasts. Downloading shows to your iPod is pretty much the same as downloading music onto it, only the podcasts are free. But iTunes is totally Apple-centric. If you have anyone else’s mp3 player, you need a different application. There are scads available, but my two favorites are Juice <http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/index.php> (formerly Ipodder) and Feed Demon <http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon>. How are you going to find podcasts to listen to? Well, keep reading; I promise to give you some pick SF hits. But you should also click over to podcasting directories like Ipodder.org <http://www.ipodder.org>, Podcast.net <http://www.pod cast.net>, and The Science Fiction Podcast Network <http://www.tsfpn.com/tsfpn/index.html>.

So here, in no particular order, are some of the podcasts currently loaded onto my Nomad MuVo <http://www.nomadworld.com/products/muvo>:

The Rev Up Review <http://www.revupreview.co.uk> is an eclectic mix of reviews, comment, rant, and original fiction offered up by one Paul J, from Portsmouth, England. Paul is one of the most astute SF podcasters on the net.

The Dragon Page <http://www.dragonpage.com> is actually home to three, count ’em, three, different podcasts brought to you by the easygoing team of Evo Terra and Michael R. Mennenga. My favorite of these is the Cover to Cover show, which features author interviews. Michael and Evo have a lot of fun with their podcasts and you will too.

The Secrets <http://stormwolf.com/thesecrets/podcasts/index.html> offers “invaluable tips, tricks and tools for serious writers” from writer Michael J. Stackpole. While this podcast may offer too much insider info for the general reader, Michael’s presentation is clear and his points are for the most part well taken. Aspiring writers should check this out forthwith. I must admit, however, that every so often I found myself itching to debate Michael on some of his pronouncements.

I Should Be Writing <http://shouldwrite.blogspot.com>, hosted and produced by Mur Lafferty, is another podcast aimed at new writers. I have to confess that, even though I haven’t been a new writer since Nixon resigned, I was utterly charmed by this sensible and unpretentious show. Highly recommended.

Escape Pod <http://escapepod.org> is one of the most ambitious SF podcasts and probably my current favorite. Produced by Steve Ely, it bills itself as “The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine” and features regular readings of short and flash fiction. Much of what you can hear on Escape Pod are “reprints” previously published in print venues and performed by Steve’s talented stable of readers.

Podiobooks <http://www.podiobooks.com> is still in beta as I write this, but is nonetheless up and running nicely, thank you very much. This site is brought to you by the triumvirate of Evo Terro, Tee Morris, and Chris Miller, and is dedicated to longer works of fiction than Escape Pod. That’s right, novels—but podcast in episodes. I’m watching this one with great anticipation.

Spaceship Radio <http://spaceshipradio.com>, hosted and produced by Andy Doan, plays public domain Sci/Fi radio plays from the forties and fifties (mostly from X Minus 1 so far) as well as new work submitted by listeners. Lest you think this is merely an exercise in nostalgia, Andy does an excellent job of putting the issues raised by these radio plays into the current context.

The Fantasy Times <http://www.thefantasytimes.com/podcast.htm> is home to the Fantasy Times Podcast and The Fantasy Minute. Both are the creations of Galaphile, who is at once a keen observer of the current fantasy scene and a shrewd critic. Galaphile’s tastes are refreshingly eclectic; you’re not going to have to suffer through “me too” opinions about the same tired old subjects on this podcast.

 

 

exit

 

As I said at the outset, I missed out on being a podcast pioneer. But I was intrigued by the idea of podcasting and so I set out to try it. As I write this, I am reading a new novella on my own podcast, Free Reads <http://feeds.feedburner.com/freereads>—a chapter a week for sixteen weeks. But by the time you read this, I will have long since finished. And I must say that, while I certainly don’t regret creating my podcast, I’m not sure just how devoted I am to it. I’m a writer, not an actor or a sound engineer or a webmaster. You may very well click over to Free Reads only to find that it’s a ghost site that hasn’t been updated in months.

And that, I fear, may be the fate of much of the first wave of podcasts. Podcasting is a lot of work for little or no pay or recognition. Because I expect a major shakeout, I haven’t a clue yet as to where this brave new tech is headed or what it means.

But I have my ear on it.