Goodbye, old friend.

Okay, here's a totally random entry. I haven't even really started it, but I can tell where it's headed. Randomosity.

First up, my beloved Loveline Archive was taken offline sometime last week. I'd been downloading every episode and working my way through the great Adam Carolla ones and into the crappy Stryker ones, and I right in the middle of April 2002 downloads, the site goes down.

Part of me was a little relieved, since I know my personality and I know that I certainly wasn't going to stop listening to old Loveline until every episode was listened to. At 1.5 hours per episode, 5 episodes per week, for 7 years of Adam Carolla goodness, that's a lot of hours of audio for me to work through. So when Loveline Archive was taken down, I figured I could devote my morning commutes and frequent trips to Bloomington to other podcasts and get a little more involved in... ya know... recent events.

And this is where we get random. Hang tight.

So I got some podcasts downloaded and listened to, and... man... there's some crap podcasts out there. Some gems too, but a lot of crap. I listened to one called, I think, "The Guy Podcast", which sounds entertaining in theory. 3 guys who talk about guy stuff, like beer and women and sports. They spent a little over an hour talking about barbecue restaurants, mostly local establishments in places I'd never visit or care about. I'd say that for every 10 podcasts I try out, 1 is actually of decent enough quality to make me listen to more than 1 episode. There is some crap, crap, crappy stuff out there.

But the good news is that I now have a better idea of where my and Wolfie's podcast ranks in terms of others. We don't do an audio one, but I know now there's a market for it, so I may end up doing my own. Even though I haven't a clue what it would be about. Maybe web design or road rage, since I know the most about those 2 topics.

Okay, so then I was interested in some guaranteed good-listening for my car trips, so my quest re-started for old Lovelines. I found a streaming internet radio station for old episodes, but I can't download those for my iPod or car trips. So I turned to peer-to-peer networks, and channels made specifically for swapping Lovelines. I can tell already I'm probably going to get a little obsessed with this and download every single episode ever. I'm going to try to restrain myself, but it'll be tough.

And finally, I know I've been talking a lot about podcasts and such recently, and that's mostly because of the show Wolfie and I do and how much time I devote to the silly thing every week, but I was thinking a little more about it this weekend, so I'm going to spend this random entry talking about it a little more.

I remember growing up, one of my favorite movies was Pump Up the Volume, starring none other than Christian Slater. I've got the DVD and still pop it in once a year or so. I really enjoy it.

But it's about a high school kid who takes a shortwave radio his dad bought him and converts it into a little independent radio station, going on live a couple times a week. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes for 2 minutes. He starts with absolutely no listeners, but slowly people start catching on to his little station, parking in football fields for better reception, hanging on his every word, swapping tapes of him back and forth during school.

Even as a kid, this struck me as really appealing. I've always kind of felt I had something to say that people should listen to.

Anyway, when I was younger that movie made me really want to start my own pirate radio or TV station, where I talk about whatever I want, play the music or movies I want, and have people watch or listen to me and appreciate what I'm saying.

Well, nowadays it's a new world, and you don't need a TV station or radio station to get the word out. You just need a crappy computer, an $8 mic from Radio Shack, and a little motivation, and you can be the new Happy Harry Hardon, or the next Keith and the Girl, or maybe, possibly, even Adam Carolla.

Up until about a week ago, I wondered why more people weren't out there podcasting, putting their words out there for the masses and getting people listening to them. Well, this week of downloading and trying out some podcasts has taught me a very valuable lesson... the podcasters are out there. There's people like me who just want to try it, throw stuff out there and see if it sticks, people like Happy Harry Hardon.

The problem is that most of them suck. They've got nothing new to say. They're not funny, clever, or interesting.

Anyway, Wolfie and I are onto a good thing with ours, although subject matter may be a little limited with the horror thing. I'd really like to try an audio one, but I don't think I know another person who'd be interested in being the next Happy Harry Hardon. And honestly, I've done enough projects alone and I'm a little sick of it.