Britt's Blog

There’s this radio station called “Bob FM” out of Rockford, which is actually not out of Rockford. It’s actually programmed by some soulless corporation somewhere, as is the way of radio these days, it would seem, especially in the smaller markets. (I thought it was a Clearchannel station, but I was mistaken.)

The station’s catchphrase is “Bob plays everything,” which is not true of course. What Bob plays is Top-40 rock from the 60s though the present, though the modern stuff is mostly just mainstream-alternative or adult-contemporary or whatever you want to call the sort of nostalgic and safe middle-of-the-road pop music that appeals to Persons of a Certain Demographic of Which Your Humble Author is a Member.

I listen to Bob in the morning while I brush my teeth because I have a heck of a time tuning the radio in the bathroom to either of the two public radio stations in our area. They get drowned out by a Christian station which is apparently amplified by the plumbing—or maybe God is trying to tell me something. I dunno. Every other station in the area has some kind of ultra-hilarious morning show, a genre I find about as entertaining as chewing tinfoil. And we listen to Bob in the car if there’s nothing good on the public radio.

I’m making it out like it’s a station of last resort, but it’s not really bad at all. If I have my druthers, I’d prefer public radio, ’cause I feel like I’m doing something good for my brain, and also, the older I get, and the less TV I watch, the less tolerant I am of being advertised to. But because I am now an Old Person, I do enjoy the classic rock-and-roll music, and even if nothing on Bob is particularly daring, they do at least have a lot of material to rotate through.

Setting aside the music, though, I find the whole Bob FM schtick strangely appealing.

See, there’s this guy, Bob. And he really loves music. He’s kind of a loser, but he’s a lovable loser, and he really, really loves music and he’s got this incredible record collection and he has (we are given to understand) wildly eclectic tastes. Bob randomly chooses music for his collection for us to listen to.

Bob is from Rockford, Illinois. You can tell because you’re always hearing how “Bob used to go to [well-known local hangout] and [engage in specific activity hangout is known for]” and “Bob remembers when [local landmark] was [different / extant / regarded in a different manner than it is today].”

It’s an utterly transparent ploy, naturally. It takes about two 15-minute listening sessions to catch on. But I find the Myth of Bob oddly compelling.

They have these clips of people who are either actors exquisitely trained to sound like the sort of random, not particularly articulate people who call in to radio stations, or they are Actual Humans who have decided for one reason or another to support the Myth of Bob by describing how they used to do [stereotypical local behavior] with Bob back in the day.

There is, very rarely, an actual live anonymous DJ, but mostly just lots and lots of bumps by this announcer-voice guy talking about Bob.

Or is he?

I’ve developed this hypothesis that announcer-voice guy isn’t talking about Bob, he is Bob, talking about himself in the third person. He of course wouldn’t be the first Bob to do so. My little Bob-FM game is listening carefully to announcer-voice guy to see if there are any clues one way or another.

I’m hoping to catch announcer-voice guy talking about specific knowledge that Bob himself is not privy to, e.g. “Bob doesn’t know that [local personality] has a crush on him,” or “Bob never figured out where his [object stereotypical of a certain decade] went to. It’s in [nearby small town.]” I’m not sure if there would be any conclusive way to show that announcer-voice guy actually is Bob, though.

I’m at the end of my queue of podcasts, with just two more to share with you.

Continuing the trend of completely irrelevant introductions, I would like to say that I love comment spam. I approve all posters in order to ensure the high quality of commentary that you have come to expect from blurrypicturesofmycat, and I don’t have any kind of a spam filter, which means I have to go through and disapprove a staggering amount of comment spam.

I have to applaud the more clever random-text comment spam that actually get me to hesitate a moment before I realize they’re just a random excerpt from a novel or news article that happens to be bizarrely apropos. The comments which are nothing but a deluge of filthy, filthy descriptions of porn have a charm all their own, but my favorites are the comments that try to coax me into accepting them through pure flattery. “This is amazing sight! I thank you!!!” “You are stunnning brilliant!” “I read your blog everyday. You have excellant info!” I know, rationally, that it’s bot-generated bullshit, but it still warms me, somehow.

As such, it also pleases me to assume that all the Cyrillic comment spam is saying the same thing, but in Russian.

Getting on to the podcasts:

Radio Lab
I haven’t been listening to Radio Lab for very long, (it’s a relatively new show). They’re pretty experimental, playing around with sound, sound effects, and different ways of presenting information, but the content us usually interesting enough to sustain me through the weirder parts. Each week’s show is on a different topic, and it’s a little more unified than This American Life, and a little more fact-delivery-oriented, but some part of me keeps wanting to lump it in as the same genre. It’s the same, yet different. “Real different,” as they say in the Midwest. ;) I’ll leave it at that. :)

X Minus One
This is nothing more than the classic 50′s SF radio program, featuring dramatic productions of the work of all the great authors of the day. They’re wrapped up, irritatingly, in lots of ads for the US Navy. (I haven’t exactly figured that out yet. They’re public domain, so I guess somebody just picked ‘em up and sold advertising on them. To the gubmint. Well, I guess it makes sense for a lot of the stories, thematically.) No host, no intros, just classic science fiction radio drama Lotsa, “Now, see here!” and “Well, I’ll be…” plus suggestions that you’d be really cool if you joined the Navy.

Holy bejeebers, is it cold out. It doesn’t make me all that eager to start classes again when Nature is all like, “Stay inside! Stay inside and drink cocoa!”

But, what the hell, if our hominid ancestors listened to the Howling Voice of Winter we’d all be hangin’ out in Africa…. where the snot doesn’t freeze in your nose.

Hmmmm….

Anyway, here’s your next installment of podcasts, which you should pay attention to, because apparently I am now a famous podcast reviewer.

Public Radio Exchange (PRX)
PRX is a clearinghouse for radio pieces, offering tons of original use for use by public radio stations, with peer review. Kind of like Flickr for radio expression. The podcast offers the occasional select short piece. The wide variety makes it hit or miss, according to your taste, but I’ve heard some real gems. Indeed, PRX is where I was introduced to Pferdzwackur’s Tin Man, a series which I still maintain is the single most brilliant thing I’ve ever heard.

Are We Alone?
The podcast of the SETI Institute rocks because the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence encompasses all the most exciting aspects of science: astronomy, space exploration, evolution, the paranormal and skepticism, artificial intelligence, environmental science, transhumanism, and much much more. Seth Shostak (astronomer and punster) and Molly Bentley (radio-savvy mad scientist’s daughter) deliver it all with a quirky, enthusiastic amateurism and lots of help from experts.

This American Life
TAL is such a public radio bastion that I hope I don’t have to explain it, but if not, each week, of course, they pick a theme, and bring your a variety of stories about that theme. The TAL slots on our local public radio stations just doesn’t seem to conform to our radio-listening schedule, so I’m gettin’ my Ira Glass fix online.

It must be time for more podcasts!

Point of Inquiry
The Podcast of the Center for Inquiry, whose mission (from their website) is “to contribute to the public understanding and appreciation of science and reason, and their applications to human conduct.” The podcast deals with science, medicine, religion, and ethics from an atheist/rationalist/skeptical viewpoint, and in a somewhat heavy-handed manner, sometimes. Thankfully they’ve eliminated some of the commentary (which was often sophomoric and over-the-top) and stuck to what they do well, interviews by D.J. Grothe with intellectuals, mostly on their own side, but sometimes not. Plenty of food for thought.

Selected Shorts
This PRI program of short stories read by respected actors is hit or miss for me. Sometimes I’m really interested in the story, and sometimes it’s just not my taste. It’s always of very good quality, though.

Studio 360
Kurt Anderson brings us the public radio spin on art, TV, music, et cetera. Another quality PRI podcast, making it easy to get you public radio fix over the internets. Because it’s so varied, I always find something fascinating in each show.

More podcasts, in easy-to-digest tripartite format. In other news, I’m still passin’. I made the questionable fashion choice to wear blue jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, and a pony tail to the office today. On my way over to the mail center, a custodian fixed me with the most dazzling smile, and said, “It’s so great to see students back on campus!”

Carrying on…

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me
Exactly how much NPR news do you listen to? There was a time when I could answer a truly embarrassing percentage of Wait Wait questions correctly. Wait Wait… is a transcendently excellent news quiz show, hosted by Peter Sagal, with Carl Kasell (you know, the guy who reads the news on the hour on NPR), and, on some sort of arcane rotating schedule, the inimitable Paula Poundstone, the unspeakably brilliant but oddly named Mo Rocca, the disarmingly folksy and subversively sharp Tom Bodett, and several other bright and clever panelists. One of my favorite features is “Not My Job,” where they bring on a famous person and then ask them a bunch of questions that they would have no real reason to know the answers to. This segment is somehow always a raging success, whether the guest is a prospective Republican First Lady, George Bush’s press secretary, an infamous left-wing movie director, or a basketball star. In what is sure to loom as one of the greatest mistakes of my life, I missed a taping of the show at Beloit College because I went to a stupid meeting of the stupid Division for Planetary Sciences of the stupid American Astronomical Society.

Ockham’s Razor
From the Austrialian public radio network, ABC, an interesting show hosted by Robyn-with-a-y Williams, who invites an Australian intellectual from some random field to have their say for about 15 minutes on a subject they think is interesting. Sometimes the topic is current events, sometimes it’s historical, and sometimes it’s scientific, often with a skeptical bent. I love the variety, and I especially like getting a non-US perspective on historical events or current scientific concerns.

On the Media
We’re so saturated with media for so many of the hours of the day, and I think it’s good to take a step back and think about it all on some kind of a meta level. I like how Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield balance earnestness with irreverence, sometimes playing the role of ruthless gadflies, sometimes confused media consumers, and sometimes admirers of the artistic.

Your intrepid reviewer has taken a break from dodging tornadoes (no joke: actual tornado the next county over today… in January) to bring you three more of the podcasts near and dear to my heart.

Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas
I probably should admit that I mostly listen to KAMN because of the theme song, but also because of their interesting reminiscence and analysis of classic sci fi. The subject matter runs the gamut from the intellectual (Stranger in a Strange Land, Left Hand of Darkness, etc.) to the goofy (Knight Rider, Airwolf), and everything in between. This is definitely on the casual end of the podcast spectrum, basically some friends sitting around chatting.

NPR Playback
This amusing little show features NPR news stories each month, from 25 years ago. Explore the politics, pop culture and events of 1982… and the January 1983 show should be coming up soon.

NPR Shuffle
My 20-minute commute to work wasn’t very environmentally friendly, but it did give me a daily double dose of intelligent news and information. Now that I walk to work, I listen to NPR shuffle instead, which features an assortment of stories—and they’re not just from Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

I thought it might be nice to kick off the new year by giving some props to the podcasts I like. (Does one still give ‘props’ or do I sound like I just stumbled out of 1994?) So here they are, a few ‘casts a day, in iTunes-approved alphabetical order.

Coverville
This is the only music podcast I listen to. Brian Ibbott is one of the Grand Old Men of podcasting, having reliably cranked out something like three episodes a week since 2004, and he still has a great ear for surprising takes on familiar pop songs. He also provides a quality product, while retaining the casual and familiar tone that distinguishes podcasts from other media. [UPDATE: OMG, Brian mentioned my goofy little blog on the virtual air, in nearly the same breath as another podcasting pioneer, Scott Sigler, and linked to my humble weblog at the Coverville Blog. Whoa!]

Escape Pod
It’s an SF magazine, like Asimov’s, F&SF, or Analog, for your ears. The authors, including some big names, are paid for their stories, which are read by your host, Steve Ely, or one of his stable of fine readers. Probably the best compliment I can pay is that it seems that I’m constantly telling J, “Oh, that reminds me of a story on Escape Pod…”

Handwritten Theatre
It’s hard to explain the appeal of these little dramatic vignettes, written by veteran TV and movie writer Jonathan Dougherty, supposedly with a fountain pen, in a little black notebook. (Moleskine, one presumes, but one is perhaps just being snobby.) They’re a lavishly self-indulgent, but, IMHO, always intriguing. (Note: I’m linking to the podcastdirectory listing, not the homepage, because the homepage, handwrittentheatre.blogspot.com reliably freezes up my browser window. Approach with caution.)

43 Folders has an interesting post titled Death and Underachievement, which is about reassessing how hard you are trying to “achieve.”

This is resonating with a bunch of stuff I have been reading and thinking about lately.

Yoga is supposed to be all about loving kindness and acceptance of the self, and I actually do try to embrace that philosophy, but, really, that just ain’t my groove. I’m a Type-A yoga personality. I am taking the time and paying the money to take yoga and I am going to achieve (there’s that word!) maximum benefit through maximum effort, damnit! I put a lot of pressure on myself to strive for perfect form and to stretch right to the edge of my envelope. Otherwise, I’m basically wasting money and time (mine and my teacher’s—though I’m sure Melinda would totally freak out, in a calm, supportive, and yogic way, over the notion that I was wasting her time!)

But sometimes when we get to one of my least favorite poses, I just think, “Oh, well, I’m going to totally suck at this.” Then, surprisingly, I am able to stretch much, much further than I think I can. Because I’ve given up, because I’m not pressuring myself to achieve, I can relax and actually achieve more that if I had tried my hardest.

It’s a general principle. You need to put a little bit of pressure on yourself to motivate yourself to get working, but it’s very easy to go beyond that and try so hard that you stress yourself out and make yourself less efficient. And you can even go beyond that point, and put so much pressure on yourself that you are paralyzed by fear of failure–or fear of success—and procrastinate so you don’t get anything done.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the learning curve, lately, too, and giving yourself permission to be less than perfect. This has two components, it seems: not trying to over-prepare and make everything perfect ahead of time, and also learning from your mistakes without feeling the need to flagellate yourself for an eternity.

As I prepare for the new semester, I want to plan new things, but I’m trying to give myself permission to screw up. I’m trying to resist the urge to plan everything out in minute detail, to try to think out every possible contingency, to try to make it all perfect the very first time I try it. I’ve realized that most of the innovations that worked best for me in the past were not the ones that I obsessed over for months and months. Indeed, some of those details that I fixed on and insisted on honing to perfection were, in the end, mistakes, and turned into painful thorns in my side. Contrarywise, I often had spectacular success with the things that I just tried on a whim, and now, after developing them further, I use them extensively. Sure, some of the stuff I tried on a whim went down in spectacular flames, but hey, that’s life. I just sifted the ashes for whatever was worth keeping, graded leniently, and stumbled onward.

I have to keep in mind that students (and faculty, for that matter) are resilient creatures, and if I, or they, or we screw up on one point, that doesn’t mean that we will have learned nothing. I have to remember to give myself—and my classes—credit for the things we learn to do well, and not put all my focus on the few things that don’t go well.

So, inasmuch as I have a New Year’s resolution, I think that’s it: I give myself permission to learn from my mistakes of the past and move on. I give myself permission to be imperfect in the future. I am not going to aim for perfect mastery; I am going to aim for the learning experience.