This year, I made a couple of resolutions. My first one was to do something creatively significant. Specifically, "to create something of merit." Carly considered that a reason to procreate a second time. I mean that I want to write or paint something that I'm proud of. Another genetically engineered semi-clone would be OK, too, I guess.
The second, easier resolution was to read at least one book a month for fun. My first four included:
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
- Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
- Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
I was ahead of schedule for April, so I decided to take the rest of the month to catch up on podcasts. I like podcasts. My favorites include, but are not limited to:
- Love & Radio
- Planet Money
- Welcome to Nightvale
- Radiolab
- Criminal
- and many more (This American Life, Too Much Information, Serial, The Moth, The Truth, FilmSack, Invisibilia, The Soundtrack Series, and so on and so on and so on).
I made Carly download Player FM (these are all so linkworthy) to listen to some of these wonderful things. She, of course, discovered a few more. One of them was Reply All.
The first thing I noticed about the podcast was that all of their episodes were labeled "Explicit Content" on the app. Considering the authors (many of them contributors to other radio shows related to podcasts I listen to), I was somewhat surprised. So I gave it a whirl.
The podcast is ostensibly "about the internet." The hosts are proud of their geekdom and try to make sure that we all get a chance to see inside the weird world they live in. The main part of the show, though, is trying to explain and give context to this bizarre electronic universe that occupies so much of our lives. To accomplish their goals, they heartily utilize the tools of the internet to tell a broader tale--mailing lists, Facebook, Twitter. They respond to their social media commentors during subsequent shows. They have this huge conversation--this huge, interesting conversation--going on, and I only hear a bit of it.
To geek out a bit, it's like reading the Marvel comics Civil War crossover back in the day... but not any of the related sub-parts of the story in the various ongoing series. You only get the highlights, the bold plot changes. You don't see the fine-grained bits of the story.
And I feel like I'm missing out.
They make me want to start a Twitter account again. If only to follow food trucks (to figure out when they'll be near my workplace) and occasionally enter into Reply All contests.
Rotten bastards, those Reply All guys.
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