Erik Moe Art & Design

Julien Smith of the previously recommended In Over Your Head podcast has posted a quick and brilliant use of the format. Listen to Your Kids / Talk to Your Parents connects young people who want to be heard with adults (or others) who want to listen. Messages left on the site’s toll-free number are posted to the podcast’s feed. Julien moderates the messages to be sure they are in keeping with the “listen to your kids” theme.

Discovered after my recently posted podcast playlist, the art-talk podcast Bad At Sports is well worthy of its own post. I’ve caught three episodes so far, and each has been at least nine times as entertaining as any artist talk I’ve attended in recent years (and without uncomfortable folding chairs). Though its focus is the Chicago art scene, I’m sure Seattle and Philadelphia will find plenty to love in its brainy and witty dissection of art, art school, and the scary world of the professional artist. The most recent episode (#61) features an excellent interview with Kerry James Marshall.

With this week’s announcement that Chicago’s own This American Life is podcasting its new episodes, I now have a nicely well-rounded weekly playlist of sonic ear and brain candy to entertain me while I work. I play wordy brain candy while doing visual/design work:

• This American Life
• Jazz in Chicago Podcast
• Harry Shearer’s Le Show
• From NPR: Driveway Moments, Shuffle, Pop Culture, Talk of the Nation Opinion, Science Friday
• BBC NewsPod - best of BBC news
• Economist - more world news from the UK. Ryan recently was raving about the print version - which caused me to add this to my rotation.
• Filmspotting - based in Chicago, this podcast discusses film and often has running themes discussed over several weeks (recently: Herzog, Animation, Documentary)
• …and some random podcasts that are published sporadically like Barack Obama’s podcast, and POV’s documentary previews

And I play ear candy when I’m writing or doing work that requires a little more attention from the left side of the brain. Actually, when I’m writing I usually turn things way down or off.

• In Over Your Head - I actually listen to this more for Julien Smith’s rants from Montreal, but the indie hip-hip tracks he plays are also amazing
• Local Support - Philadelphia bands
• CBC Radio 3 - Canadian Indie music
• KEXP Music that matters - long eclectic chuncks of time spent with Seattle indie DJs
• NPR All Songs Considered - a nice mix of new music and discussion of it
• …and a handful of random ’song of the day’ or ’song of the week’ type podcasts I’ve run across here and there, making for a nice mix of new music

I really love being able to listen to what I want, when I want and being able to skip ahead, pause, and rewind whenever I feel the need. Sometimes I miss the immediacy of live radio and the surprises that come with it, but since moving to Chicago I haven’t adjusted well to the daytime schedule offered by Chicago Public Radio - though overall I prefer their offerings over Philly’s WHYY.

So, what are you listening to?

Back in August, Rachel and I captured this mysterious flicker in the basement of my parents’ house. Lets call it “Experimental Film No. 1.”

Note that this post is filed in a new category: “podcasts.” Wordpress has built-in support for podcasting, which means that you can grab my RSS feed (bottom of the page) and use it to automatically download this movie and any future audio/video craziness I post. Enjoy!