Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

Four Podcasts in one day. Well, for reasons I'm about to describe, I didn't listen to two of them for long.

Shakespeare's Sonnets, Read by a Guy From NY
I didn't even make it past the introduction, which started: "They say I have to read this stuff and hey, service is better served than time, y'know? So here are Shakespeare's sonnets and I'm supposed to say what I think about them. I feel so stupid. Here goes."
*click*

Shakespeare-on-iPod
Still love the title. Loathe the person doing it, and the "scholarship" he rode in on. This is one of those "Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare" people, which is already putting my back up, but I'd be willing to listen to an argument about how Hamlet is based on events in the life of Edward de Vere. Well, I would if there was an actual *argument,* with, like, proof or context or petty details of that ilk. I'm picky like that.

What I got? A couple of sentences about how de Vere "met this Prince who had lots of retainers and it made de Vere feel bad" as a lead-in to "and we see this in the play when Hamlet commented on Fortinbras' army" without so much as an attempt to point out that in context Fortinbras was an invading usurper and maybe that context has something to do with anything... I can't even finish this sentence without going into italics and all caps and far too many exclamation points. I certainly couldn't finish the podcast.

Someone needs to take some authors aside - Patricia Cornwall, I'm looking at you too - and point out that "I'm smarter than all you sheeple because I say so, so NYAH! So bow in amazement at the power of my ego proclamations unsubstantiated argument" is not form of debate that should be used past the age of 7.

Reduced Shakespeare Company
I don't know why I hesitated, I should have just up and subscribed to this right away. Commentary on acting, their shows & how they're developed, etc. It's actually more about the theater life than Shakespeare, but it's informative and silly. Can't get better than that.

Will@Warwick
A podcast associated with the Warwick conference on Shakespeare (hey, thanatos_kalos! Grab someone out of the A/V department and see what they can set up for the Whovian conference!), it is 20ish minutes with some of the presenters, and therefore a wide range of actual experts and scholars. It is no longer active as the conference is over (I could weep) but well worth the retro-download. So far I've listened to "Editing Shakespeare," wherein the guy who edited the Oxford Edition talks about what went out, what went in, and what regrets he has in retrospect. (I had no idea there were two different versions of Lear in the Oxford.) I've also listened to "Shakespeare in Manga," about adapting the Bard to that form, and right now I'm in the middle of an absolutely riveting cast about language in Shakespeare which includes people delivering lines in Original Pronunciation (and the jokes that have been lost without that) and also an actor going through multiple lines in multiple deliveries/accents. Abso-friggin-lutely fascinating.

The web page has full details of all episodes. Checking out their related iCast page archive digs up podcasts on things such as nanotechnology in daily life (for those who voted for science), women in the gaming industry (I know that's going to ring a few flister bells), and other things. Check out the archives from previous seasons as well.


No vote tonight, I'm off to knit. New vote tomorrow in the afternoon.

That thing where I said I'd do a poll a week? I lied. I listened to two episodes of Dragon Page while commuting and, based on omahastar, an episode of Slice of Sci-Fi while pulling soniclipstick together.

It turns out that both podcasts are run by the same people, using the same format. It's just that Dragon Page focuses more on sci-fi literature (in all formats) and Slice of Sci-Fi focuses more on visual media. Both are available from their web pages or American iTunes.

( They also both have the same strengths and weaknesses. )


New poll below. There is no "Jane Austen" option because I've been looking and all I can find is people reading her books, and I already own my favorites on CD. Voting at least until tomorrow night; probably until Wednesday night.


[Poll #1231285]

Oh, and lefaym applies the Bechdel Test to New Who, episode by episode. Interesting analysis

I've been mooching around the podcast directory in iTunes, and sweet tinkerbell time lord, talk about drinking from the fire hose! The only way I'm going to find things is to break it up into more bite-sized searches, maybe one a fortnight.

And then I thought: People like polls. I wouldn't hurt for a little direction. So y'all get to vote, I pick a podcast from the list, listen to one episode, and review. If you're interested, click away! (You'll notice no Doctor Who. Everyone else who's interested has already found those podcasts.)

[Poll #1230133]


PS - Although I have not actually *listened* to any of the podcasts, I'm going to point y'all at the Colonial Williamsburg Podcast page anyway, because it has something for just about everyone on the flist: archeology, book binding, historical clothing, the story of a man who bought his family out of slavery, historical documents read by the interpreters who play those characters, and even "favorite escapes from the Williamsburg gaol."