Steve Holden's Blog

Some Music Podcast Recommendations - Interviews, Blues, Rock, Classical, Electronic

I have a pretty wide set of musical tastes that includes more than just the Jersey Boys, and Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.

There were recently several interesting music related podcasts from San Diego's KPBS These Days:

• The Bird and The Bee
• West Indian Girl
• Oxford American's Southern Music Issue
• Earl Thomas Performs In Studio (Video)
• In Studio Presentation Of A Stradivarius Violin

When I'm in the mood for the blues I always turn to The Roadhouse podcast.

When I'm in the mood for classical music, I find WGBH Classical Performance Podcast to be great.  I also find the classical feed on CBC Radio 2 to be a nice streaming option.

The Magnatune "great pianist" podcast is very good if you want something 'lite' playing in the background.

The Alternative Classix Podcast is a well produced and researched 80s 'new wave' radio show you will not be disappointed with.

For those that like electronica and/or techno ... I highly recommend:

• SomaFM's Grove Salad
• IndieFeed:Electornica
• DJ Amber's iamthedj podcast
• DJ Steve Boy's podrunner
• Radio 538: Tiesto's Club Life

If you want something more mellow but still pretty electronic then check out the Ultima Thule Ambient Music podcast.

I also enjoy the Coverville podcast and the Rock'N'Roll Geek podcast.

Old School Netbook - HP TC1100

The GDGT Podcast #3 with Ryan Block and Peter Rojas finally got around to talking about "netbooks" after teasing us in Podcast #1 and Podcast #2.  It was a great discussion, and they asked for recommendations from listeners on what they would recommend.

My recommendation based on some recent research would be the MSI Wind.  A lot of what I have been able to gather comes from a variety of blogs and gadget sites, but is heavily based on comments/research/analysis made by Kevin Toffel at jkOnTheRun's Mobile Tech Roundup podcast.  The MSI Wind seems like the right mix of features vs. cost -- the biggest bang for your buck.

That being said, for the last couple of years I've been using a Hewlett-Packard (HP) TC1100 as my "netbook" or "Internet tablet" around the house and on family vacations. It continues to fit  many of my needs, and still has a great run down of features:

• pen interface
• Windows XP SP2 the Tablet Extensions
• support for tablet and standard laptop form factors
• pretty good keyboard if needed (I don't use it that often)
• 802.11a/b/g WiFi
• two USB ports
• 1024 x 768 ( XGA )10" LCD screen
• Bluetooth
• 3.5mm headset-microphone jack (great for SKYPE)
• full PC Card slot (like for EVDO)
• ~2 hours of battery life [with 2 backups available]
• SD card slot
• modem (actually useful if you need to send a fax)
• 10/100 Ethernet port

What I use it for:

• browsing (IE, Firefox, Chrome, WebKit, Flock, Safri)
• cloud applications (Google Docs, Gmail, Evernote, Newsgator)
• iTunes 'news' podcasts (Fox, CNN, NYTimes, WSJ, CNET, Stratfor, CBS Radio, InfoWorld, CNET, NPR)
• social networking (Twitter, FriendFeed, Meebo)
• communications (SKYPE, Gizmo, Thunderbird)

If you go the route of trying to find an TC1100, I would definitely recommend the version with an Intel Pentium M chip, and get as much RAM as possible.  Mine has 1.5-GBs.

Any other options for an old school netbook?

Multi-Topic Update: San Diego Fires, Jersey Boys, Technology

The last week or so has been extremely crazy and busy. 

First up the San Diego Wild Fires (aka FireStorm 2007) have been all consuming, and I'm happy to report that my immediate & extended family, friends, and co-workers in the San Diego area have been spared major hardships.  But our hearts go out to those who lost love ones or their homes.  The fire fighters and public safety folks have been outstanding and they deserve a ton of credit & praise.  Thanks!

The weirdest thing about the fires, was that during the whole time it was going on, Christy and I have been in Jersey Boys heaven.  They have released a new Jersey Boys Book, Frankie Valli has an excellent new album out called "Romancing the 60's", the touring cast is in San Diego, and we traveled to New York City (NYC) / New Jersey (NJ) on Sat. 10/20 returning Tue. 10/23 for the Fan Tribute and to interview Tommy DeVito. And did we mention we've seen the musical three times in six days: Fri. 10/19 (Opening Night in San Diego), Sun. 10/21 (Broadway), and Wed. 10/24 (Cast Talk Back in San Diego).  Yes ... we are crazy.

Lastly a quick update on some technology stuff.  Things are still going on over at TechNewsRadio but a little slower than I'd like.  My fellow FriendsInTech members have put together another new Halloween special called "It's The Great Server Chuck and Kreg."

Other quick tech mentions:

I recently upgraded from a Cingular 8125 to an AT&T Tilt and I'm really loving the new phone with high speed 3G/UMTS/HSDPA connectivity plus Windows Mobile 6 and integrated GPS.  The camera is also a big improvement, as is the keyboard/button interfaces.

A couple of weeks ago I did upgrade my 8-GB 2nd Gen Apple iPod Nano to an 8-GB 3rd Gen Apple iPod Nano.  I have some unboxing pictures posted to Google.  I like the video option a great deal. I used it to watch dozens of video podcasts recently on the trip back to NYC/NJ.  I have also been using it a lot at home sitting in bed or by my computer using a DIY  Lego stand.

I have also picked up a copy of Apple's new OS X via Amazon.  I hope it gets here soon so I can rebuild my old G4 iBook for Christy and finally get her off of Windows XP and spare her the horror of Vista.

Brewery Recommendation: Mad Anthony in Warsaw, Indiana

I am working through my stack of stuff to blog about and I am up to my endorsement of a great brewery in the Warsaw, Indiana area:

Mad Anthony's Lake City Tap House

113 East Center Street, Warsaw, Indiana 46580

574-268-2537

www.madbrew.com

We had a great dinner there, amazing microbrews, and a great cover band called The Fabulous Rhythm Kids was on stage for several hours. They played some very good rock and blues covers.

Podcast Recommendation - Interview With New Media Author Philip Meza

Chris Gondek over at the Invisible Hand Podcast had a great interview with Philip Meza the author of the book "Coming Attractions: Hollywood, High Tech, and the Future of Entertainment" that is definitely worth a listen.

The one great thing in the podcast was that Chris let Philip outline some key recommendations that companies and organizations should be doing to excel in this new media world.

Internet Radio / Streaming Issues

I haven't been following this story very closely but I just read this article at CNN because it had a picture of Rusty Hodge (Grove Salad) who does Soma.fm which I do enjoy from time from time.

It looks like some changes in the royalty business and regulatory oversight that makes doing future Internet radio/streaming very difficult. 

From a technical standpoint I think this is going to bleed over to podcasting, since a lot of listeners are effectively streaming from website links.

More info from the Pandora Blog also on this topic, that links to some resources to help fight these changes.

RocketBoom Almost Makes Me Famous?

I was just catching up with my RocketBoom viewing and the 12Feb07 edition started off with what I originally thought was my ground breaking CountryWest-MP3 background track made popular in podcasts for TechNewsRadio.com.

Unfortunately, I forgot to publish it, making someone using my version highly unlikely unless they had PaulDotCom hacking skills.

So, reality has sunk in, and it is highly more probable that someone ended up using the same sound bed in Apple's GarageBand with Harmonica tracks in a pretty similar fashion.  Bummer ...

 (Size 464-KB, Running Time 0m28s)

ESPN Announcing System - Secret Podcast Tool?!?

ESPN PlayByPlay is a potentially interesting product geared for turning young kids into sports announcers.  It includes signature ESPN sounds, stadium chants, an 'on-air' light, 3 microphone jacks, one line in jack (for an MP3 player or other audio in), and speaker system.

No word if there is a mix out.  But there is an extra audio port that online resources fail to mention what its purpose is.  If it did do an audio mix out, then it could be a great podcast tool.

Rare Event - Music Video Recommendation

I really enjoyed this muisc video from Regina Spektor on YouTube.com.

Techno Music Recommendation - Techno Squirrels

I signed up for IODA at the recent podcast expo.  Not sure why ... I pretty much know where my Jersey Boys Podcast related music is going to be coming from (thank you Rhino), but the service seemed interesting for music distribution and it is very podcast friendly.

One of the bands that recently contacted me for some 'air time' on the podcast circuit was Techno Squirrels.

After giving them a listen, I have to recommend checking them out if you are a techno fan, good stuff.