>> You Don't Know Flack: Podcast Ideas

[triverse]

Expanding into other genres of entertainment is cool as long as it is natural for you (it is a totally different beast when the subject matter comes across as forced or unintelligible from the hosts point of view).

For me, I have never experienced Laser Tag or any of it's various competitors, even though, growing up I had access to many of these types of arcades (I always talked myself into dropping the price of admission into a Beast Busters unit or a Strider cabinet instead).

The BBS discussion was great to me because I never experienced them. My older brother did but I was into consoles around this time and he was not going to allow me to use his Commodore 64 (he didn't have a modem anyhow till after he moved out).

A M.A.M.E. cabinet building/tips show would be great, I would definitely grab it (though in all honesty, I have grabbed every episode so far and enjoyed them all so it may not mean as much as knowing you gained some more listeners). Currently being in transition of sorts has really made me cut back on my gaming, hopefully soon though, we will be a little more stable and I will be able to expand my gaming out from one console (Dreamcast), handhelds and this older computer (Bejeweled sometimes has trouble running).

My apologies for running off at the mouth there. lol

[AArdvark]

Listening to Flack's phone interview on Retrobits right now. Caught me by surprise!

[Flack]

I'm hoping to finish up 111 (The Gas Chamber) today.

[triverse]

That would be cool to have, just have fun with it though, and enjoy your time doing the podcast.

[Flack]

111 won't go online until next weekend. Momma's out of town, which doesn't leave much quiet time for recording and editing.

[Flack]

111 has been posted. In 112 I will cover Photon and in 113 I will probably talk about arcade auctions, unless something pops up between now and then. I know Jason Scott's documentary about text adventures (Get Lamp) is about to be released, so I might squeeze in an episodes about text adventures between now and then.

[Flack]

I finished the outline for #111 (Photon). I'll record it one night this week and have it out by the weekend.

I'm all text adventures at the moment, so I'm going to bump that to #112, and then talk about arcade games for #113.

[ubikuberalles]

Dang, I don't think I've listened to Episode 110. I thought I was all caught up but I don't remember your talk about the Gas Chamber. That doesn't mean I haven't heard it, it just mean I don't remember it. Nothing memorable, anyway (I'm old, I forget things). Unlike the rock music blog where you sang the cover for that Flock of seagulls song. I'll never forget that. :)

Currently I've been catching up on Earl's podcasts. He's been doing it like a radio show. Maybe you could mix it up a little by changing the format. Talk show host. Bring some guest to your "show" (Mr. Moonpie?...I'm kidding). Like Jason Scott for instance. Maybe you could supplement your interactive review with a phone interview. Know anyone else in the industry? You could do the same.

Even if you don't get the results from the phone interview you'd expect, don't be discouraged. Remember Jason Scott's technique: talk up the interviewee just to get their creative juices flowing and start saying quotable things. Your "interview" might be heavily edited but your listeners will never know!

Just don't do a "Daily show" thing on it: Ask one question but then edit in another totally different question. Example: Rob: "You like working on computers?" Subject: "Yes. Very enjoyable." On the PodCast: Rob: "you like eating Monkey Brains?" Hilarious but once word gets out you'll be no longer in the interviewing business.

[Earl Green]

Currently I've been catching up on Earl's podcasts. He's been doing it like a radio show.

Well, a very dull radio show with no script, no outline (aside from a playlist), and comes out only once a year. Maybe less. And I always seem to have a cold or at least a very sore throat when I record it. I'm a bigger fan of Rob's podcasts than my own. :lol:

[ubikuberalles]

Actually I quite enjoy your podcasts, Earl. I've learned a lot about Roger Joseph Manning, Jellyfish, the Move and so on (I know very little about music history and the background of musicians - I just listen to their music). Periodically you'll be hearing me muttering "pictures of pandas painting" (and no doubt Mr. Flibble will be singing "Penguins proudly parading...").

[Flack]

I like Earl's podcast too. The only problem with it for me is, I just don't have four or six (I forget) hours to dedicate to listening to it! It took me almost two weeks to get through the last one. :)

[ubikuberalles]

Rob, agreed. The 2008 podcast is difficult to get through because of length. It's even more difficult if I want to skip to a specific song. Thankfully Earl broke up the 2010 podcast into one hour segments, which makes it easier to listen to. I think, ideally, the podcast should have a different track for each song with commentary. That'll be cool.

I've been able to listen to the PDF podcasts by using the CD player in my car. I turn off the car and the CD player preserves my place on the CD. So that's nice. I don't have to start from scratch each time.

[Earl Green]

So I need to break the next one up a bit more. What if each discrete track featured the comments about [insert tune here] and the music itself? So if you get a couple of minutes into one of these epic-length soundtrack suites that I throw together and say "oh God, not Battlestar Galactica music... AGAIN", you can skip that track and it skips both the music and the comments?

Of course, I could save myself a HEAP of editing if the intros/outros were separate tracks from the music. Because I edit the music throughout the year - I edit the soundtrack suites while I'm obsessively interested in that particular soundtrack, and then go back and record the comments at the end of the year.

I'd love to be doing a podcast a week, but it's just down to time. My web site has gone without any kind of significant update for almost two months now, and I've had to declare defeat on having a book ready to go at OVGE, so that's a pretty good indication of how much free time I've got at the moment: none. :x

Um... we now resume our regularly scheduled broadcast about Rob's podcasts, which don't take the better part of a year to listen to. :lol:

[ubikuberalles]

What if each discrete track featured the comments about [insert tune here] and the music itself?

Yes. Exactly. That's what I was trying to say. It'll be like TCM but with music: Do a little blurb before the music set (one song or multiple songs from the same artist) and then, if it's appropriate, a little blurb about the song/artist just played. End of track. Track #2: repeat.

The only other thing I ask is that when the music ends, wait a few seconds before talking again. A couple times you started talking immediately after the last note played (giving me almost no time to realize the song was over) and it was a little jarring. At first I thought you transformed to an evil AM radio DJ because I thought you were talking before the song ended.

By the way, you have an excellent DJ voice, despite feeling like chicken-fried crap. ;) Clear diction and very concise prose. I like.

[Flack]

Boy, I agree with that -- Earl's got the perfect voice to be doing this stuff.

I have a couple of CD's -- I think the Beavis and Butthead Soundtrack is like this -- where the comments and stuff are AFTER each track, but for the next track. In other words, track 2 contains the music for track two, followed by the commentary for track 3. Then track 3 contains the music for track 3, followed by the commentary for track 4. When you listen to the CD you aren't really aware of the layout, but when you're skipping tracks it means you always end up at a song and not a commentary track. Of course with mp3s you can have as many tracks as you want, so you can just split them up however you want.

My next podcast (the Photon one) is going to have a lot of extra sound effects just because I have the audio CD from Photon.

[Earl Green]

I have the audio CD from Photon.

Kick ass! I love obscure sound FX CDs. Was this something they had for people to buy as a souvenir?

[Flack]

I don't think so. I think the music tracks (which were recorded by Fleetwood Mac!) were only for the game centers. I suspect the tracks were dumped from an original Photon cassette. I found it online somewhere; I'll make it available somewhere.

[Flack]

By the way, I got the Episode 112 (Photon) recorded earlier today. Just need to finish editing it. It'll be out tomorrow.

[triverse]

Just in time for me to goto work, I hope. If not, there is always Monday.

[Earl Green]

Crazy-ass idea: you could interview folks at OVGE and do an "OVGE podcast". Or... not. I mean... you'll already be there.

Just a weird thought.

[KHoos]

My weird idea: do something with other people's retrocomputing/bbs/.. stories. It's your podcast, and your decision but the (great!) subjects you discuss have other similar stories and memories with other people. Maybe interview people. Or ask for audio comments.

[Flack]

Well, the good news is I'll have a co-host for my text adventure podcast. Robb Sherwin, a modern IF author and friend of mine will be joining me.

The bad news is, we haven't worked out all the technological details yet (we're hundreds of miles apart) so I may switch the orders around and do the arcade auction one first.

[AArdvark]

Awesome!


Nuff said

[Flack]

I really need to finish one of these.

[Scarylad]

Yes, you do. It has been far to long.

I actually just got through re-listening to the all past shows. Even better the 2nd time!