Podcast Ping

A Podcast Ping Christmas This is a reworking of the Podcast Ping Christmas Calendar from 2009. I took all the poems and music and compiled them together into a single episode. Doing this made me realize how much work I put into the Calendar. Just putting this together took a couple of hours even though I had everything else already done. The episode runs more than an hour and a half. I did have to redo the credits which themselves run about a minute and a half, and that's after compressing them. I used all the old recordings of the poems instead of re-recording them. They probably would sound better had I re-recorded them but I wanted to save some time and effort. Re-recording would likely have taken a few days to record and edit, and it may not have made that much difference. The original recordings aren't that bad. The idea was really to give people the convince of getting all the songs and poems from the Christmas Calendar in one file. This way the special can be played as background for a Christmas party. And I'm sure there's many who will be surprised to hear so many Christmas songs that they may never have heard before. Since the Christmas Calendar was twenty-five days long, this special contains twenty-five songs and poems about Christmas. That means I've written about twenty-five Christmas poems, although some are just seasonal poems about winter. It's likely that I wouldn't have written many of them if I didn't have to do them for the calendar. As for further episodes of Podcast Ping, it's going to be a matter of wait-and-see. I would like to do more but it does take time. But it's not so much the time it takes, it's more that I've just got so many other things to work on, and working on Podcast Ping takes time and effort away from those. But I never really quit Podcast Ping, I just put it aside. And this is the second special I've done since the wrap-up show. I did have an idea for another podcast but I've been unable to get into that. And it's really hard to get an audience now for a new podcast. The podcast market is over-saturated and people can find streaming video very easily. It's hard to justify the work when you're struggling to get even twenty people to listen. But if I do more Podcast Ping episodes it will be because I want to listen to them. And Podcast Ping is sufficiently established that I could get a decent sized audience. But I will have to spend some time writing poems and I've been busy with other writing lately so it could be a while. If I can sit down and crank out a few hundred poems it won't be hard to put episodes together. And I expect I will need that much because it would only really be worth doing if I was doing them weekly; monthly shows would not likely hold a large enough audience.

As the year comes to a close, so does Podcast Ping. This is the final episode of Podcast Ping, although it's not the end of the feed. I will eventually have some new things posted here, but I explain more in the podcast. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsWrapUpShow/PPWrapUp.mp3 Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 25. Christmas Day! http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay25/ppcc25.mp3 For this show I have something special. Some people might find the song I chose, “Rainbow Christmas” to have a little too much “rainbow” in it. But it's the sort of song that makes for a big production number that closes out a show and I felt it suitable for that. It's been a long run starting back on December 1st of 25 shows, and there was a lot of work that went into making them even before that. The biggest job was in coming up with enough poetry to fill the shows. And since I only had about five or six Christmas poems, I had to write about twenty. Now writing twenty poems isn't that difficult, but having to make them all tie in with a theme like Christmas--while still keeping them from sounding too much alike--is. This last poem, “How Jamie MacPherson Saved Christmas” is one I wrote some while back. And to make it extra special I decided to have the cast of the Blue Hot Gossip Comedy show read it. Part of this decision was because I had just come off of doing the Halloween episodes and was sort of in a mood for it, but I also wanted the poem to be a little more than just me reading it. Some might notice a similarity of approach as with “A Pickle for Christmas,” the poem I wrote for the Podcast Pickle Christmas skit a couple years ago. I likely would have used this poem for that, but there wasn't enough interest. And in some ways it works out a little better since I know the rhythm of the poem which is thrown off when trying to get a number of people reading it. I've been fortunate that there's not been any major outages with Internet Archive or Blogger. And even though Mininova, where I post the torrentcast, changed over about a week before I was to start, it's turned out to be a big benefit since I'm seeing much higher download numbers than I've seen before. The 24 posted episodes so far have exceeded 42,000 downloads with many individual episodes exceeding 2,500 downloads. It might not be cash, but it helps to make the work worthwhile. This post finishes Podcast Ping's Christmas Calendar. The next one should be the New Year's episode, provided I can get it done. It won't be a regular episode, but I'll explain that more then. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 24. Christmas Eve. Just one more sleep until Christmas--unless you're Santa Claus. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay24/ppcc24.mp3 Christmas Eve is often a quiet time around our house. Most of the real celebrating--and noise--comes on Christmas. And with Christmas falling on a Friday this year it seems to make for a short week. Nobody works on Christmas Eve, even if they have to. Next year it hits on a Saturday, so the week will feel more normal. The following year it it falls on a Sunday, which as kids we use to like because it meant only going to mass once in the week. I'll most likely get to the early mass on Christmas Eve, which typically means arriving up to an hour early just to get a seat. But there's something relaxing about coming home afterward; it feels like I'm starting Christmas early. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 23. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay23/ppcc23.mp3 Another song about toys. Although "The Wonderful World of Toys" wasn't really a Christmas song even though it did talk about toys. But most Christmas songs tend to be more about snow and socializing than the part most really look forward to--the presents. A couple more posts and the Calendar will be finished. But then I've got to start working on the New Year's show. It's not a lot of work but between Halloween and the Calendar I've been working on the podcast almost every day since August. Of course there were many days I didn't get anything done, but there was still the need to get it done. Doing the Calendar on it's own wouldn't have been so bad but I started on it before even posting the last Halloween episode. Most episodes just take a few days of occasional work and then I'm done, so between the two it's felt like a marathon.I did fine the Halloween episodes more fun, but I had more time to do them and it took only two weeks to post them. Although because of the scripting I probably did just as much writing, if not more, for the 13 Days than for the Calendar. The Calendar was sort of like running a marathon the day after running one. I just didn't have as much energy. I could skip the New Year's episode, or just make it a run of music, but I already worked out an idea for it that I want to do. It shouldn't be too difficult, it's just a matter of doing the prep work. And for the idea I have, New Year's seems appropriate. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 22. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay22/ppcc22.mp3 No matter how busy one is, someone else always seems to find more work for one to do. I'm not in too bad a shape. I've still got a couple gifts to make, but those don't have to be done until after Christmas. The ones for Christmas are already wrapped and under the tree. I planned on getting some baking done early, but I never found the time. However, I expect there will be a fair bit of baking going on over the next couple days. Although it's not been a real chore, I will be glad to finish the Calendar. It's a bit of a nuisance to have to post every evening. It doesn't take that long, depending upon how long a writeup I do, but it is disruptive. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 21. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay21/ppcc21.mp3 Only three days left (after today/Monday). Although there's four shows left because I'm putting one out on Christmas as well. (Although I'll actually be posting it the night before as I have been with the other episodes.) And I have something somewhat special planned for the Christmas show. I always listen to episodes of my own show before posting, and often afterwords as well. Usually I wind up listening to each episode at least five or ten times, aside from the time I spend listening while putting the show together. The first few times are to listen for any mistakes, and I've sometimes re-done a show because I didn't like how something sounded. I didn't have time to redo these shows, although if the recording was obviously noisy when I first recorded it I did redo it at the time, so none of them are too severe. However, there's a few I would have rerecorded to get rid of a bit of hiss. Still, I haven't heard any complaints. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 20. Already. The Three Wise Men arrive. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay20/ppcc20.mp3 I've got a few modern renditions of classic carols throughout the calendar. It's interesting to hear how something with which everyone is very familiar can be made to sound new and interesting. There are many versions of We Three Kings that leave out the third chorus, feeling that it's too dark and grim for the season. But it's what makes it one of my favorite carols. It helps to encompass the entirety of what Christmas means. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 19. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay19/ppcc19.mp3 The song for this episode, "The Wonderful World of Toys," is one that I was mildly interested in the first time listening to but have grown to really like with repeated listenings. Most podcasts that play music will list the songs in their show notes. I've tended not to do that for a few reasons. For one, I never really got in the habit and it's a little late to start now. I also like to keep the music a bit of surprise. When one listens to music on the radio they don't know what the next song is until it comes on. But when show notes list the music it tends to be a bit of a spoiler. Just knowing the title of a song can set up expectations as to what the song is about, especially in the case of a cover version. And I do list all the songs and poems at the end of the show. If a person is listening to the show anyways they can hear the credits. Those familiar with the show know that it would be disruptive to announce the music during the show. It's simply part of the formula to run the music and poetry together. It helps create an atmosphere. Podcast Ping isn't a DJ style show but more of a musical experience. I have been trying to keep the same order in the credits as the song played, so that the third song mentioned in the credits is the third song in the show. I'm assuming that if someone really is interested in a particular song they'll search for it or the artist. Most of the material is from Mevio, which use to be Podshow. And I try to credit the source if it isn't from there. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.

Day 18. One more week until Christmas. http://www.archive.org/download/PodcastPingsChristmasCalendarDay18/ppcc18.mp3 Now things get busy. I expect the stores will be really busy this weekend. Podcast Ping is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0. My online toy shop can be found at http://patrickjmcnamara.webs.com.