August 13th, 2009

In my recent post on games writing I made the assertion that podcasts will overtake text as the preferred source of news and opinion online. Over the course of each week I spend an entire day’s worth of time listening to podcasts. Not with my full attention, mind — I multitask. I listen to podcasts while playing games, while I browse the web, and while I eat. Listening to podcasts is, for the most part, an auxiliary activity. There are a few select shows for which I make an effort to devote special attention; I’ve decided to share.


Buzz Out Loud's logo

Buzz Out Loud is a daily technology news podcast from CNet.com. Each episode is thirty to forty minutes long and is hosted by Tom Merritt with two or more others from a rotating group of regular guests. BOL has become a part of my routine; I listen to or watch the show with my morning coffee while I scroll through my RSS reader. As such, it’s my first stop for tech news and opinion. I still subscribe to the news feeds of sites like Engadget and Arstechnica, but much of what’s discussed on BOL every day is picked from their headlines anyway; it’s like a tech news “best of.”

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July 21st, 2009

By now, especially if you’re a listener of such gaming podcasts as A Life Well Wasted, Out of The Game or the Bitmob Mobcast, you may have caught wind of the self-titled debut album from Robert Ashley and Sam Frigard’s genre-defying band I Come to Shanghai. Robert and Sam’s labor of love was three years in the making, having co-written and co-produced each of the album’s ten tracks themselves. “Another Sunday Morning,” the song I’ve selected to feature below was, as I understand it, written foremost by Robert Ashley, and is one that I like on a personal level very much.

I Come to Shanghai is being distributed under Creative Commons with a “name your price” model at the band’s official website.