Shannon O’Neill

Some friends of mine are getting broadband (at last) and I’ve been asked for netcast recommendations.

Over the past few years most of my media consumption has switched to downloads, whether netcasts or torrents, accessed via RSS feeds, aggregated using Google Reader. My use of radio and TV is now mainly for news and occasional sports broadcasts. This feels like an inevitable technological and cultural shift, so I was surprised when I discovered recently that very few of my students subscribe to any netcasts.

Here are my current subscriptions. As you can see, there are a lot of them! I don’t have time to catch every episode, so pick and choose based on episode descriptions.

UPDATE: This post has been receiving links, so I’ll endeavour to keep it updated. I’ve just added some recent finds, such as Are We Alone?, The Bugle, and Epic Fu, and removed several others that I was no longer downloading.

Audio netcasts:

• Adam and Joe BBC 6 Music

Humour is such a personal thing, but Adam and Joe make me laugh. Frequently. I first got into them via their great XFM podcast.

• Alan Watts Podcast

Mostly talks on Eastern philosophy from Alan Watts’ archives.

• All in the Mind

Interesting RN program about psychology, neurology, philosophy of mind, etc.

• anonradio: the next generation

Run by Tom Ellard, this has evolved over the years and is currently mainly providing downloads of John Blades’ 2MBS-FM program ‘Background Noise’.

• Are We Alone?

The SETI Institute’s excellent program about science and skepticism.

• Artworks

A good arts program.

• ASX Investor Update Podcast

Nonsense, but useful if, like me, you’d like to understand the world of finance.

• Background Briefing

RN’s in-depth current affairs program.

• Big Ideas

Mostly public lectures from Australia.

• Blogariddims

Dubstep mixes.

• The Bugle

The Times Online’s satirical podcast, with John Oliver (of The Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman

• CBC Radio: Quirks & Quarks Segmented Show

An entertaining Canadian science show, split into bite-sized chunks.

• CBC Radio: The Best of Ideas

Mostly public lectures from Canada.

• Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com

Cory Doctorow reads his stories, and sometimes others’, such as Bruce Sterling’s excellent non-fiction work, ‘The Hacker Crackdown’.

• Daily GizWiz

A silly program about gadgets, presented by Leo Laporte and Mad Magazine’s Dick DeBartolo.

• First Monday Podcast

Monthly academically-inclined podcast about digital culture.

• FLOSS Weekly

Interviews and discussion about the world of open source software. Often quite technical, which I reckon is a good thing.

• Hindsight

RN history program.

• hungbunny

Experimental music.

• In Conversation

RN interview program.

• In Our Time

Essential. A panel of experts discusses a topic from science, history or the arts. Hosted by Melvyn Bragg.

• KCRW’s Le Show

Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap, The Simpsons) has a voice that could make reading the newspaper sound interesting, which is sort of what he does here, along with sketches and songs. One of my favourite shows.

• Late Night Live

Interviews and current affairs presented by Philip Adams.

• Lingua Franca

A program about language.

• MacBreak Weekly

A favourite, mainly because of the amusing banter between Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann and Andy Ihnatko.

• Movie Time

Movie reviews and interviews, featuring some great collages by Paul Gough (aka Pimmon).

• Mysterious Universe

An Australian show about the paranormal.

• National Interest

Australian national politics and current affairs.

• net@night

Amber Macarthur and Leo Laporte are the engaging hosts of this net-surfing show.

• Ockham’s Razor

Short talks by various Australian thinkers.

• Over The Edge

Negativland’s legendary live mixing show which has been going for decades.

• Overlap.org » symbiosis

I thought this was a sound art show, but now it’s dubstep.

• Philosopher’s Zone

I love this show. Accessible discussion of philosophical issues.

• Eleven Eleven

Excellent sound art and experimental music podcast by Jen Teo.

• Chasing the Tangent

Sofie Loizou presents lovely, soulful electronica.

• Radio Eye

Radiophonic features from RN.

• Read/WriteTalk

From the excellent blog on Web 2.0 etc., this podcast is good when they’re not recording from a speaker phone.

• RRR FM (Byte Into It)

Tech news from Melbourne community station RRR FM. Of interest to me is that the cast includes some members of the experimental music scene.

• SALT - Seminars About Long Term Thinking

Interesting lectures from people such as Brian Eno, Joline Blais & Jon Ippolito.

• Science With Dr Karl

Australian celebrity scientist Dr Karl takes listeners’ questions on this BBC show.

• Some Assembly Required

A musical fix for the Negativland/John Oswald style cutup scene.

• StarShipSofa: Science Fiction Audio Podcast

Spoken short stories, mostly, including some well-known names from the genre.

• Stephen Fry’s Podgrams

I wish I could live in Stephen Fry’s world.

• The Amazing Show starring James Randi

Sporadic at best, I heard about it through the Skeptics’ Guide.

• The Book Show

Reviews and interviews.

• The Economist

A recent subscription, I’m still making up my mind about this. Mainly short but serious political commentaries.

• The Media Report

When the topics interest me, this is a great program, with insights into the media industries.

• The Music Show

Andrew Ford is a respected classical composer who is open-minded enough to engage with all sorts of music makers on this program.

• The Night Air

Radio art is increasingly rare on the ABC, but The Night Air maintains the tradition. Its emphasis is on collage and remixing from the ABC’s archives.

• The Science Show

An Australian national treasure, the ABC’s flagship science program.

• The Skeptics’ Guide 5X5

The mini-me version of:

• The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe

Your escape to reality. The panel of rogues turn debunking feeble-minded superstition into laugh-out-loud fun. Cruel, but fair.

• The Sound of Young America

One of my faves. Entertaining interviews with smart people - mostly writers, comedians and media makers.

• The SubGenius Hour of Slack Podcast

Church of the SubGenius. Nuff said.

• The VFX Show

Mainly concerned with feature film CGI and compositing. One of the hosts is Australian, which is nice.

• this WEEK in TECH

I’m a big fan of Leo Laporte - he’s the consumate, charming tech broadcaster. The panel usually includes John C. Dvorak and others with plenty of personality, chatting about the week’s tech news.

• triple j’s This Sporting Life

From the legenday Australian characters Roy and H.G.

• WFMU’s Codpaste with People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz

Amusing mixing from two well-known collagists. See also their individual shows below.

• WFMU’s Do or DIY with People Like Us
• WFMU’s Phuj Phactory with Ergo Phizmiz
• WFMU’s Seven Second Delay with Ken and Andy Breckman

Live radio shenanigans.

• WFMU’s The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling

Cult radio from WFMU.

• Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott

Insights into the Windows world with Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott. Not as much fun as MacBreak Weekly, but still interesting for the hardcore geek.

• WNYC’s Radio Lab

Essential. This is one of the most interesting programs anywhere. Ostensibly a science feature program, the radiophonic production techniques take it into the realm of art.

• You Look Nice Today

Merlin Mann and friends being silly.

Video netcasts:

• Boing Boing TV

Xeni Jardin is a good presenter, and there’s plenty of the weirdness one would expect from Boing Boing, but I want more from this show. Maybe longer, less frequent episodes, rather than the current morsels which leave me remembering the ads more than the content.

• Cranky Geeks

John C. Dvorak is indeed a very cranky geek, which makes this otherwise typical discussion of tech news entertaining. Some of the guests are interesting, too.

• David Wain

If you liked Stella you’ll like this.

• Diggnation

I watch this so that I don’t have to read Digg.com. Like many Revision3 shows, it can be painfully frat-boy, but Alex Albrecht & Kevin Rose have enough charisma to carry it off.

• Epic Fu

At last, a Revision 3 show that has a clue about art and music. This is quickly becoming a favourite.

• Howard Rheingold’s Vlog

The author of Smart Mobs takes us into the classroom and his freaky wardrobe.

• iFanboy

I don’t have time to read comics these days, so I watch this instead.

• Internet Superstar

Martin Sargent is my Internet superstar. He’s obsessed with the weirder side of the web and presents it for our pleasure.

• Lynchland: The Liam Lynch Podcast

The guy who sang ‘The United States of Whatever’ and directed ‘Jesus is Magic’ makes this amazing-looking show full of music and humour.

• MacBreak

Not, as one might assume, a show about Apple computers, but mostly little tutorials about high end media production technology. Which is interesting to me anyway.

• My Damn Channel - Big Fat Brain

The ‘You Suck at Photoshop’ series is already a classic.

• My Damn Channel - Harry Shearer

Occasional satirical sketches and songs from Harry Shearer.

• PixelPerfect

Photoshop tutorials by someone from the Mafia, apparently.

• popSiren

A show hosted by women, for… guys? I’m not yet sure about this new Revision3 show, although Dr Kiki’s science demonstrations are fun.

• Rocketboom

I love this show. One never knows whether to expect serious news or something completely whimsical. Often it’s somewhere in-between.

• Tekzilla

Hosted by Patrick Norton, this Revision3 show isn’t sure what it is yet, but I think it’s intended to become a relatively mainstream, viewer-friendly tech show. UPDATE: The wonderful Veronica Belmont, whose talents had been wasted at Mahalo Daily, is now co-host of Tekzilla. Roger Chang is getting more screen time too. This bodes well.

• The Digg Reel

A compilation of popular videos from around the net. It’s funny downloading a huge HD file to watch lo-res YouTube videos.

• The Totally Rad Show

Reviews of TV, films, comics, etc. by ‘three rad dudes’. Good production values.

• Tiki Bar TV

A very silly show featuring Dr Tiki, Johnny Johnny and Lala.

• UChannel Video Podcast

Video recordings of lectures. Sometimes fascinating, sometimes dull.

• Wallstrip

A humorous show about the stock market? It shouldn’t work, but it kinda does, mainly cos it keeps things short and punchy, with each episode focusing on a single stock.

• Web Drifter

Martin Sargent meeting Internet weirdos again, this time on their turf.

• XLR8R TV

Whether it’s checking out Matmos’ record collection, or getting Ableton Live tips from Christopher Willits, this is a cool show for music geeks.

• Yacht Rock

A brilliant, melodramatic piss-take of the world of 70s smooth rock.

Any others you’d recommend?

I’m cancelling my Foxtel subscription. Foxtel = Murdoch+Packer+Telstra and I’m tired of giving them my money. I also don’t have as much time to watch TV as I used to. The only things that I watch on Foxtel these days that I wouldn’t be able to see on free to air are the 24 hour news channels (mainly Sky News and BBC World) occasional international cricket matches, and the Comedy Channel. For news, I can make do with ABC and SBS, the cricket I can live without (especially after the tedium of the World Cup) and for comedy there’s DVDs and downloads.

What I will miss is the iQ recorder, but as I’m about to buy a Macbook Pro, I reckon I might turn my old WinXP desktop PC* into a media center.

Do you have any recommendations for this? I’ll need a tuner/capture device and software - ideally cross-platform and open-source as eventually I’d like to convert the PC from XP to Linux (I’m going to test the waters first by converting my old Dell laptop to Ubuntu, and maybe experiment with Windows on the the Macbook Pro).

This is all new to me, and I’m confused by the options, so I’d appreciate any advice on how best to set up a media center PC.

* P4 2.8GHz, 1 GB RAM, 256MB ATI Radeon 9600, 3x 320GB HD, oh and a Canopus ADVC 100 video capture box, if that’s any help.

So TV weatherman Mike Bailey has decided to stand as a Labor candidate at the next federal election.

I always loved the dramatic way he’d say ‘the pressure is rising’ when giving the barometric report. The pressure always seemed to be rising. For a long time I’ve had the idea of taking a year of his barometric reports and turning them into a sound piece. But like most of my ideas for artworks (and blog posts) I couldn’t be bothered with the execution. Well, I have plenty of other things to be getting on with.

Here, have a song:

Luke Haines - Bailed Out (from Luke Haines is Dead)

Your star is descending
Round here blindly
Tell your dancing daughter
That there’s no room
on the wing
We can bitch
but it ain’t tinsel town
Hey! Starchild
Can’t dance
Left out on a useless limb

This party will start
To drag you down
Slap your face
and pull your hair

Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this skin is shed
Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this thing is dead

I was in traction
started off smiling
Couldn’t help laughing
I was astounded when
They caught you unaware
And some missionary said
That this week
we’ve got to shoot
All the dancing girls
And then replace them
With satellites instead.

This party will start
To drag you down
Slap your face
and pull your hair

Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this skin is shed
Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this thing is dead

Like to see something change
Around here, around there

I’ve been watching TV Carnage. Here’s some more:

I’ll be on ABCTV’s program Set tonight from 11:05pm, playing Korg MS20 with the Splinter Orchestra.

To all NSW Film and TV Industry technicians,

Please read this letter of explanation from the NSW Film Makers Group regarding our concerns and objectives for the state of our industry.
This concerns you all, and your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

NSW Film Makers Group update - June 1, 2006

A meeting was called 6 weeks ago when a group of concerned technicians met informally at Canal Road Film Centre. The significant lack of work in all areas of film and television production including television advertising, and the restriction of NSW technicians working in Victoria, had brought this small group together. Several members of the group had written to government expressing the plight of the industry. The group has now had 6 meetings and this letter is to update and inform those interested in the outcome of those meetings. The group has been communicating with the Victorian Guild and as a consequence an open letter has been sent and distributed by the technicians booking agents from the Victorian Guild, to all NSW technicians. This letter explains that it was not the intention of the Victorian Guild to stop any interstate technicians from working in Victoria. The group is still pursuing the reasons why NSW technicians were not welcome to work in Victoria.
The group has identified and recognized the core reasons why the film industry (including feature, TV and TVC’s) is in unprecedented depression. These are listed as follows -

* Support for the film industry by Governments is not effective.
* Location costs - council charges, service charges and location fees.
* Contractual arrangements for cast/extras.
* Technicians’ rates and conditions in Sydney.

The group also recognises that the problems that ail our industry are not unique to NSW. The group has discussed including all stakeholders -suppliers, actors, extras, writers, directors, producers, editors, post production houses, service providers, etc. - in helping with the endeavours of the group, because it is in everyone’s interest. The group recognizes that a technician only organisation will not be effective to try and solve the industries problems. Anyone or any organisation that is involved in the production of film and television, in any form, will be welcome to join the group. As this is a national issue, the group will also pioneer a nation wide filmmakers group, in conjunction with other state film groups.
The group’s objectives are focusing on the following -

* Encourage all contributors and stakeholders in the film and television industry to join the group.
* Create an electronic mechanism to allow the efficient and speedy communication of information to all those wishing to support the endeavours of the group.
* Engage a professional lobbyist and strategists to assist in communicating the group’s needs to all members and Government bodies and agents.

Two weeks ago, the group decided on a name for the organisation - The NSW Film Makers Group. This should be formalized within the next few weeks. Last week, the group formalised its’ vision statement and top 10 objectives. The group has been offered generous financial support from some technicians and suppliers. Canal Road Film Centre has very generously offered, not only considerable finances, but also office space and the address for the organisation. The group will also be advertising for a co-ordinater to assist with the formation of the organisation.
The group has received the lists from the booking agents 3 week ago with the names of all of those technicians keen to show their support for the group. Thanks to all of you who have offered help and support.

The group apologises to all of those that have felt left out. To be a success, the group will need everyone’s support but please be patient. Once the website and internet forum are up and going we can all communicate directly and information, input and the hard work can all be realized with a great deal more efficiency and speed. The structure and the management of the organization have not been formalised. Once we are all communicating we can then all have a say on who is to represent this organisation and what we want to say.

David Nichols on behalf of Ray Brown, Tristran Milani, Reg Garside, Sean Conway, Jane Griffin, Penny Baldwin, Anna Howard, Simon Williams, Michael Adcock, Adrien Seffrin, Nikki Long, John Osmond, Gary Lincloln, Paul Booth, Michi Marosszeky, Moses Fotofili, Geoff Wharton, Michael Phillips, Paul Arnott, Sally Eccleston, Jeremy Fitzgerald, Brian Breheny, David Lee, Matt Toll, Warren Grieef, KenHazelwood, Dugal Campbell, Harry Dakanalis, Paul Thompson, Richard Mason.

After hearing about them everywhere in recent months I finally checked out the music of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, two projects of American indie singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard.

Both bands have similar songs, with a tendency for bittersweet lyrics and melodies, but whereas Death Cab is an indie rock band that has been active since the mid 90s, Postal is a more recent collaboration with electronic music producer Jimmy Tamborello aka Dntel.

I listened to nearly all of their recordings. They’re very enjoyable and catchy (especially the recent albums) albeit somewhat innocuous. And I watched their videos, including the Death Cab tour film Drive Well, Sleep Carefully which like most rockumentaries isn’t very good, but worth a look if you like the music.

Then a funny thing happened. For the next few days my mind started creating Gibbard-style tunes. There were several of them, a few of which I imagined being good enough to record. I soon forgot most of them but managed to record one using software. The results were disappointing, which reminded me that pop music is as much about the sound as the song, and I’m not setup for making pop sounds at the moment (although I’m well sorted for experimental music!).

One of the keys to Gibbard’s music is his voice, which really is the perfect American indiepop nerdboy voice, with a pure, vibratoless tone. (Although his singing is much less convincing live (on the videos I’ve seen) which is OK when he’s among fans, but really not very good on TV show appearances.)

Death Cab for Cutie - Ben Gibbard, second from left

I still don’t have the confidence to record my singing with any conviction (I’ll occasionally sing a part as a way of sketching it before replacing it with another sound). I really believe I could, but need to get over the fear - of my music snob friends laughing at me as much as of just not being very good. Maybe some lessons would help me get over that hurdle. Likewise with guitar.

Not that I want to emulate Gibbard’s music - that was just an exercise, as I wanted to do something with those tunes that were popping into my head. If I actually developed any of them I’m sure they’d mutate into something quite different. But the experience did reinforce my ongoing urge to do some sort of vocal/song project. I’m just not sure of the best way to approach it. I guess the easiest way would be to start as a solo electronic project, that way I wouldn’t have to show it to anyone until I was happy with it. But it would be nice to have collaborators…

The thing is that although I love a lot of indie music I’m not into the indie scene at all. The Broken Social Scene gig that I went to recently was great musically, but I found the majority of the audience incredibly annoying. I’m much more at home in my experimental music ghetto.

But I’ve been listening to so much indie lately (I blame Last.fm) that it’s beginning to affect me. The other day I found myself wearing a short sleeve t shirt over a long sleeve t shirt! And I even dug out my old Chuck Taylors which I hadn’t worn since the 80s, but the rubber had turned to chalk. I went online and discovered to my delight that Converse now make them in black monochrome! I almost bought them until I discovered that they charge about 50 bucks for postage, and they won’t deliver to P.O. boxes (what’s up with that?).

What’s happening to me?? I hope I’m not becoming a grup! Nah, it’s probably just a phase I’m going through…

is Beauty and the Geek. I just saw the first ep and it was both hilarious and quite touching, watching socially retarded nerds and airheaded barbies trying to learn from each other.

My favourite part of this ep was when the med student geek Chuck got a nosebleed at the very thought of having to learn how to dance!

I don’t know if I could watch a whole season of it, let alone the three that have been produced, but as someone who generally can’t stand ‘reality TV’ I’m surprised I made it through a whole episode and enjoyed it.

These were given out at Max’s funeral. I wanted to post them earlier, but my scanner stopped working and I’ve only just got a new one.

Click on this image to read the story of an amazing life:

Actor-network theory

Feel Tank Chicago

Global Cemetary Online with Sad News Update

The Interruptor - VST Devices

Possible and Impossible Aporias

Resounding the Cinematic - Resonance, Proximity and the Acousmatic in the Apparatus

The Shannonizer

Sprockets (television)

Through the Keyhole

Urbanomic