4: Codex Seraphinianus March 23, 2007 3:52 PM Subscribe
Episode 4 of the MetaFilter Podcast is now up, featuring recaps from me and jessamyn.
Oh, and this week ran kind of long, so it finished at 30 minutes with the music at the end and the file is about 28Mb.
Next time up I'll get jessamyn to turn down her levels a bit, since she clipped a lot during recording and I couldn't really fix it in GarageBand.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:57 PM on March 23, 2007
Next time up I'll get jessamyn to turn down her levels a bit, since she clipped a lot during recording and I couldn't really fix it in GarageBand.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:57 PM on March 23, 2007
Shorpy: the old photo blog so nice we posted it twice.
And jesus, we need a whole Ken Burns' Metafilter episode, buddy.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:57 PM on March 23, 2007
And jesus, we need a whole Ken Burns' Metafilter episode, buddy.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:57 PM on March 23, 2007
And yes, Jessamyn, you have to come to the meetup.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:00 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:00 PM on March 23, 2007
My apologies for spacing the names of sleepy pete, Melissa May's partner, and amusebuche, qwip's partner. I remembered everyone's real name, but I'm never sure how "out" people are with their real life vs. MeFi identities and didn't want to inadvertently leak someone's personal info if it was semi-private.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:30 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:30 PM on March 23, 2007
Very nice.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:32 PM on March 23, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:32 PM on March 23, 2007 [1 favorite]
That was very enjoyable. Both mathowie and jessamyn were pleasant to listen to, but I think jessamyn was particularly good this week.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 4:34 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 4:34 PM on March 23, 2007
Well done again, folks! My mum's visiting and she enjoyed it as well.
posted by deborah at 4:58 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by deborah at 4:58 PM on March 23, 2007
I've never met Jessamyn or heard her talk, but I love that I can detect the teeninest New England via Seattle accent on her. Heh. And Matt sounds 125% like I thought he would.
posted by tristeza at 5:08 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by tristeza at 5:08 PM on March 23, 2007
good plan mathowie. the levels will work out but yeah, jessamyn's clipping.
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:10 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:10 PM on March 23, 2007
...you need to match her fascinating energy, though...
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:16 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:16 PM on March 23, 2007
yeah, I didn't get much sleep last night and we recorded early in the morning so I was kind of tired. I actually had to edit out a yawn I busted out near the end.
Thursday afternoon recordings might go better since I'll be higher energy then.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:40 PM on March 23, 2007
Thursday afternoon recordings might go better since I'll be higher energy then.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:40 PM on March 23, 2007
Matt sounds remarkably like a guy who works in our Government IT agency. He's freakishly tall, but a nice guy. He's also the guy I have to go to to clear all my crazy-ask gummint website ideas that develop from things I find on MetaFilter. So the irony is now fairly thick.
posted by mmahaffie at 6:59 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by mmahaffie at 6:59 PM on March 23, 2007
You guys are fun to listen to, what with the f-bombs and the OMG!!!s.
posted by carsonb at 8:06 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by carsonb at 8:06 PM on March 23, 2007
Wow. This one was smooth and really engaging! And the subject matter was ok - I think its that you two sound much more comfortable in this environment than you did in the previous podcasts.
I do have to admit though that Matt, though smoother, still sounds like a geek with a microphone (no offense, Matt!) whereas Jessamyn has the charm of a full-blown radio personality!
posted by vacapinta at 9:31 PM on March 23, 2007
I do have to admit though that Matt, though smoother, still sounds like a geek with a microphone (no offense, Matt!) whereas Jessamyn has the charm of a full-blown radio personality!
posted by vacapinta at 9:31 PM on March 23, 2007
Yeah, I didn't want to insult Matt while praising Jessamyn, but I agree. I kept thinking that jessamyn could work a morning show. And I used to be (long, long ago) in commercial radio.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:34 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 9:34 PM on March 23, 2007
Yeah, jessamyn is really sharp on them. I think she did college radio, but she reminds me of the DJs I've interacted with when doing radio interviews. I'll try to up my game over time so it's not so lopsided.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:43 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:43 PM on March 23, 2007
Oh also, I think this one worked because I truly hadn't seen any of the threads she liked and she hadn't seen the ones I mentioned, so we each got to play the part of the audience that didn't read absolutely everything on the site.
We'll need to try and do that in the future, I think it helped immensely.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:45 PM on March 23, 2007
We'll need to try and do that in the future, I think it helped immensely.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:45 PM on March 23, 2007
Aw thanks. I used to have a radio show in high school. Being a librarian means you pretty much have to be able to talk to anyone about anything. I had literally woken up 40 minutes before we spoke and was just getting the jolt from my first cup of coffee. I'm also always worried about coming across like an unprepared spazz and so I read up on stuff beforehand. But really, with material like all of AskMe, it's pretty easy to have fun stuff to talk about.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:53 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:53 PM on March 23, 2007
There's a real skill associated with two or more people being on mikes at the same time. I never acquired that skill because I was rarely in a position to need it. Of course, there are other venues than radio where you do such things, other kinds of performances.
One of the counterintuitive things about radio announcing is that to sound natural and casual you have to not talk the way you normally talk. Not just in eliminating the usual sorts of stutters and whatnot, but also in cadence and changing intonation. The trick is to hit the sweet spot where you're doing the right things to make it more comfortable for a listener to listen yet keeping that below the threshold where they will be consciously aware of it. To the degree the listener is aware of it, it sounds phony. Just my two cents.
As far as interaction goes—and, again, I can't claim much of that skill myself—my sense of why jessamyn sounded good in this podcast was because she seemed to have a good sense of working with your conversational timing, adding short interjections without talking over you. Some of this is very like so-called "active listening". It works (when it's not too heavy handed) in performance situations because the person at any given time who's the active listener is effectively standing in for the audience. The active listener's participation helps draw the audience into the conversation. Maybe. I'm just thinking out loud.
jessamyn, you also have a pretty good radio voice. The timbre of your voice is pleasant.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:05 PM on March 23, 2007 [1 favorite]
One of the counterintuitive things about radio announcing is that to sound natural and casual you have to not talk the way you normally talk. Not just in eliminating the usual sorts of stutters and whatnot, but also in cadence and changing intonation. The trick is to hit the sweet spot where you're doing the right things to make it more comfortable for a listener to listen yet keeping that below the threshold where they will be consciously aware of it. To the degree the listener is aware of it, it sounds phony. Just my two cents.
As far as interaction goes—and, again, I can't claim much of that skill myself—my sense of why jessamyn sounded good in this podcast was because she seemed to have a good sense of working with your conversational timing, adding short interjections without talking over you. Some of this is very like so-called "active listening". It works (when it's not too heavy handed) in performance situations because the person at any given time who's the active listener is effectively standing in for the audience. The active listener's participation helps draw the audience into the conversation. Maybe. I'm just thinking out loud.
jessamyn, you also have a pretty good radio voice. The timbre of your voice is pleasant.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:05 PM on March 23, 2007 [1 favorite]
You failed to link to the Codex Seraphinianus thread, which I only grouse about because it sounded interesting enough for me to track down (and I couldn't tell what Jessamyn had said exactly, just codex something...) and now I'm completely bowled over.
posted by hindmost at 10:56 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by hindmost at 10:56 PM on March 23, 2007
At first glance, I thought the post said "featuring recipes from me and jessamyn", and I thought the podcast was going all Martha Stewart. Imagine my combined disappointment and relief.
Thanks matt and jessamyn! Always a pleasure to hear from you guys.
posted by trip and a half at 3:20 AM on March 24, 2007
Thanks matt and jessamyn! Always a pleasure to hear from you guys.
posted by trip and a half at 3:20 AM on March 24, 2007
EB, that's a very nice summation of how to do talk radio well. There are a few local AM/FM yakkers I may have to send that to! National ones as well.
posted by mmahaffie at 6:50 AM on March 24, 2007
posted by mmahaffie at 6:50 AM on March 24, 2007
I really like the way these podcasts add dimension to the idea of MetaFilter as a community. It's just wonderful. Thanks for doing this. Of course, I'm a radio geek and can never get enough voice transmission and ambient sound, but to have it be about MetaFilter? Fantastic. Thanks you guys!
posted by Miko at 8:46 AM on March 24, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Miko at 8:46 AM on March 24, 2007 [1 favorite]
I love the podcasts - they allow me to connect with MeFi in an entirely new way. One tiny thing that does annoy me, though - mathowie, you need to stay the same distance from the microphone or something, because you seem to fade in and out, which makes it hard to concentrate on what you are saying. The two of you work well together, though and there seems to be a natural affinity in timing terms, as Ethereal Bligh noted. Good stuff.
posted by dg at 3:44 PM on March 26, 2007
posted by dg at 3:44 PM on March 26, 2007
I just finally listened to this, and, jeez, mathowie's rapturous ode to my performance in the first MetaFilter Runs challenge is making me feel really guilty about SUCKING THE BIG ONE in the second. :(
posted by web-goddess at 2:55 AM on March 28, 2007
posted by web-goddess at 2:55 AM on March 28, 2007
Keep up the good work on the podcasts, I read mefi religiously five days a week, and I'm always shocked by the cool things I've missed.
posted by drezdn at 12:49 PM on March 30, 2007
posted by drezdn at 12:49 PM on March 30, 2007
I somehow missed the "Help me squish my food" thread, so it cracked me up to hear jessamyn talk about it in the podcast! Thank you guys.
posted by catburger at 11:08 PM on March 30, 2007
posted by catburger at 11:08 PM on March 30, 2007
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Stuff mentioned in this week's podcast:
Sailor's Psalm by Baby_Balrog
Jack and Jill relationship thread on Ask MeFi.
Help me squish my food on Ask MeFi.
MeFi thread on Elephant Seals featuring this story from Rumple.
Murder etiquette thread on Ask MeFi
BBC Movie Editing documentary on MeFi (and here's the gardening one I mention)
jonmc's blog mentioned on MeFi
Codex Seraphinianus on MeFi
Intelligent podcasts thread on Ask MeFi has tons of good suggested audio shows
Chris Ware/This American Life post on MeFi
Visualization of MeFi users from monju_bosatsu at MetaTalk
MetaTalk post on how it's hard to find archived stuff in Ask MeFi
Shorpy, the 100 year old photo blog on MeFi
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:54 PM on March 23, 2007