iMurphy

There are so many good podcasts, I don’t know what to do! I don’t have time to listen to all this great stuff! Here are som good ones and highlights:

5 Minutes with Wichita

No, I didn’t hear about this on Podfinder, I searched for bluegrass and found it! Ignoring the upcoming vlog entries about the gay, Elvis-impersonating, Ozzy-covering, bluegrass legend, this is a hilarious podcast featuring a hilarious interviewer talking casually with the biggest stars in bluegrass. Always short, sweet and funny.

Rip-n-Read

Charlie Quidnunc is from Seattle, but you’d never know it by his deeply conservative politics. He avidly trolls the blogosphere and C-SPAN for the glaringly obvious truth in the midst of the media blitz to the Left. He solid, hype-free take on the news is always sober and refreshing. Looking for a way through the fluff? Look no further.

The Signal

I’m sure all of you good Browncoats went and saw the movie 28 times in the theater, and are uncontrollably eager for the DVD, but you really should listen to this podcast to meet the true Firefly geeks. These guys mouth-breathe their way through several cool interviews with cast and crew and offer evangelistic tip for converting and hosting shindigs. The Chinese section is not to missed either.

The Bored Again Christian

I’m not 100% on this guys theology, but he finds great, Christian, podsafe, downloadable music from beyond the pale and makes wonderfully thematic podcasts out of them. I recommend this one and the music it contains to any one (as well as Dave’s Lounge).

I have degenerated into an addict. I’ve had an eggnog latte everyday for the past week and many intermittent days before that. But today was the worst: I took my latte into the shower with me! Actually, it was a pumpkin latte today, and it stank. (It wasn’t pretty.) Perhaps, because I don’t have any mocha mix, I’ve been forced to go to Cruisin Coffee. I probably get a headache, but I’m determined to quit caffine cold turkey.

    Rocketboom skiped their usual geek news read by hot chick routine the other day, and instead hosted a bizarre greyscale (not just black and white) animated video of birds attacking a British man in the bath. I’m seriously considering buying the album on iTunes. The song is “Bathtime in Clarkenville” by (The Real) Tuesday Weld, which samples “Sweeter than Sugah” by The Mills Brothers. It is playing over and over again in my mind; it’s an earworm.

    One of my favorite podcasts is IT Conversations. I subscribe to the ‘everything’ feed, and man is it diverse! If you want to hear about things you never knew you never knew, check them out. I can’t believe it’s free. Actually, they need donations, so if you’re wealthier than me, consider chipping in. And give to Wikipedia while you’re at it. Anyway, I heard a fantastic podcast unlike any other episode today.

    Normally, all the tech people who get interviewed on ITC are pretty liberal. I haven’t really come across any political shows, but there is the general, underlying assumption that you too hate the President and are embarassed to be an America. But today, I heard George Gilder’s politically charged interview on the ‘Larrys World’ section of ITC. He talked about China not being communist any more and about energy infrastructure in America. I could tell the interviewer was rubbed a little the wrong way with so much conservativism. The part that really gave me pause, however, was when they spoke of the media and entertainment.

    Two things must happen to reform our videocracy, accord to George Gilder. First, true broadband connectivity must become highly distributed so as to facilitate easy downloading of video. Such access is commonplace in Japan and Korea. Second, the purveyors and peddlers of television and video must wake up to what consumers really want. Mr. Gilder quotes Chris Anderson’s statistic: 60 percent of Amazon’s book sales are from items outside the top 150,000. People buy the book they want, not what the publisher is pushing. When TV and video get to this point, the fear-mongering, liberal media elite will find themselves out of the street!

    My summary is highly colored by my own opinion, so be sure to download the original show yourself. Enjoy!

    I have now scene all the epidodes of Firefly, the failed TV show by Joss Whedon. I used ‘failed’ without great hesitency because the show is practically perfect in every way: I can’t imagine why in the ‘verse they cancelled it! The DVD Boxed set of all 11 aired episodes, with un-aired episodes and special features is great. The movie comes out in a few weeks, and my wife and I are hoping to go as soon as possible after opening. My sister successfully converted us and we hope to bring others into the light. You should go rent it!

    Scowering the internet, I found a good wiki and fan site for the movie. I’ve also started saying lots of the gorram Chinese from the show, dong-ma? I hope, however, that if you haven’t seen any of it yet, that you will trust me and go see it before clicking on any of these links. It’s funny, compelling, sublime, base and thought-provoking. Go see ‘Serenity’ and promote good film-making.

    I subscribe to many RSS feeds in my attempt to not have to re-surf the entire internet each day. Even so, I can still end up with way too many feeds and too many posts to read, everyday. Recently, I removed my old favorite, VersionTracker, from my RSS reader (NetNewsWire Lite) and decided to just go with Apple’s Mac OS X downloads page, so as to not get the same stuff twice. I am currently wrestling with several news site’s feeds in an attempt to whittle down the four mountains of stuff I get every hour. I could probably simplify further in other areas as well.

    I have just decided to no longer subscribe to Christdot anymore. For one thing, their name reveals that they are just a reinterpretation of Slashdot, which itself is often 1800 pounds of lame opinions per teaspoon of usefulness. No issue is approached with the assuredness of Truth that is our’s as Christians to claim. I assume that they are attempting to cater to Catholics, Pentacostals, Anglicans, Homophiles, Universalists and Mormons all at once, so they end up sounding no different than the liberal media. A moment ago, while scanning their FAQ, I was appalled to discover that they cannot even answer such basic questions as to the meaning of our lives. Yuck!

    The World Magazine Blog is not as expansive, and doesn’t cover every issue that Christdot touches on, but what they do cover, they cover from the Christian perspective. I wish I still got the magazine, but the wallet is thin and there’s enough free stuff on the Net to satisfy anyone. World’s sub-blogs on the evils of the TNIV and movies are worthwhile too. I think their RSS feed will keep me busy enough.

    As an aside, the one thing Christdot said that I agreed with concerned the use of ‘X’, as in X-mas or Xian. I have heard people decry this practice for a long time, saying that those who write this way, even for shorthand purposes, are “as bad as heathens trying to take Christ out of Christmas”. Give me a break! TheΙΧΘΥΣ (fish) bumper-sticker we all support abbreviates Christ with the Greek ‘X’. Ban the bumper sticker before you ban ‘X-mas’.

    Normally I hate all celebrity gossip and I am trying to shy away from my usual prying into other people’s lives. However, I have long been curious about Bono from U2. I put “40″ from War on my Christian mix tapes and I have long thought that “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” must be a Christian song. But Bono’s politics and rebellion put me off over the years, and they didn’t release any new songs to confirm a Christian faith.

    This new article in World Magazine, now, has renewed my belief! Bono is not only a Christian, but is heard evangelizing to an heathen interviewers who knew nothing of the faith. His politics may be quite left-of-center, but he has always struck me as being very sincere and very concerned about humanity. I hope, however, that there might be a song or two in the future to care for the souls of people, not just their bodies.