Postcards from the Funny Farm

I grew up loving the radio.  In the early 80’s I remember listening to Casey Kasem’s American top 40 on my stereo in my room.  It had an 8-track.  I suppose that ages me.  8-tracks were cool though.  It was a thick magnetic tape that held a string of songs on 8 different tracks.  You could skip sections but not yet song to song.  That would come later with the CD … much later.  I also used to listen to Dr. Demento.  That was where I first heard “Weird Al” and others like him.  In fact, believe it or not, that was where I heard REM for the first time.  Who would have thought to hear them on a joke show.

Later in life I started listening to NPR, National Public Radio.  Show hosts like Terry Gross and Larry Mantle just mesmerized me.  I listened to their talk shows in my car delivering pizzas and at night going to sleep.  I could see the studio listening in my mind.  The subjects ranged from “The Life of Woody Allen” to “Baking your meals for the month in one day.”  I loved them all.  I even bought an electric timer to record the shows when I was out.  This was way before DVR or digital radio.

This is why I started a weekly podcast.  It pales in comparison to the great shows I have mentioned but I am improving it as I go.  It’s my attempt at recreating that magic of the 80’s and 90’s again when I enjoyed talk radio so much.

I had been recording each Saturday night and upolading the episodes but it wasn’t until last week that I had a really neat moment to convince me this is a great idea for me. Recently you may have seen I put GTalk links in my sidebars on all the blogs. My intent was to connect in real time with people reading my blogs. Tonight a guy from Japan sent me a message on GTalk and we had a brief conversation where he told me he was listening to and finding inspiration from my new podcast I call D-Cast. This was so great to hear. If you are a blogger working at your craft in silence, hang in there … often people are listening!

This week marks the anniversary of 2 years blogging. It’s been an amazing ride with ups and downs and ins and outs. I feel excited going into year three. I wanted to let all my readers know I recorded a podcast message reflecting on what I ran across in the past two years. Feel free to check it out. Thanks for reading and listening through the years.  If you want you can find the growing archive there so check out the titles that interest you.

I started a podcast today.  If you haven’t heard of those, it’s simply a set of posts with an MP3 or Video file added.  I was joking yesterday with Jessica about how it was my garage “Radio Show.”  I wouldn’t really go that far!  Maybe in time.  If you have an Ipod or other way of subscribing to my podcast, you may do so at this separate feed address: feeds.feedburner.com/PostcardsFromTheFunnyFarmPodc...

If all this sounds Greek to you, not to worry.  These posts will show up here as usual and they’ll have a small player in the footer that will play the MP3 on demand.  Thanks as always for reading my blog and now trying out my podcast.

Music is a powerful medium on our psyche.  Specifically, pop music is It is a space of 3 minutes (average). It is amazing and I don’t know why scientifically. It might be due to the fact that people allow their minds to open to ideas in a song while they might not through normal conversation. It can be like a whole movie message in the space of three minutes. Just like walking around on a lazy Saturdy in your Dansko shoes, so the right music can utterly relax and inspire you. I have had many favorites through the years, most of which you can find on my last.fm account. My name there is rileycentral. I have been changed in the space of three minutes. Music has been and will continue to be my primary source of inspiration. Make sure you turn on your radio if you are not regularly. You might be absolutely amazed at what can happen in your head and heart in the space of 3 minutes.