With a little help from friends

Two episodes of the Implausipod came out this past week:

(Though not necessarily in that order.)

The first one was stuck in a bit of a research and timing feedback loop, which is fine, it happens, but it kind of through off the order, and the urge and/or need to get the following episodes out meant it kept getting pushed back. (There was life reasons for some delays as well, which I won’t get into on the web.)

But I’m so happy to see both of them released this week, mostly because I was joined (figuratively or literally) by some friends on these episodes, and it made both experiences super fun, and I hope that came across in the audio.

Mr. Calvin Becker, a long time friend and amazing musician provided the music that formed the interludes for episode 16, and I’m so thrilled he was able to jump in. He’s made another significant contribution to the show which I think will show up in Episode 20 or 21, which should be available in about a week or so. You can check out his work at calvinbecker.com

And in episode 19, Dr. Aiden Buckland joined in to provide some amazing insight to the background of the Who-niverse that I, as a total noob, was completely unaware of. I’ve known Aiden in a professional, academic content for over 15 years, and have had many discussions in the past, and it was wonderful for him to be able to join in here too. You can reach him at doctoraidenwho@gmail.com

Again, thanks to both these amazing friends for joining in and making the podcast that much better as we dive deeper into this journey. I hope they can join us again soon.

Hilarious in hindsight

Sometimes going through old9er) books can be quite revealing. Looking through Jenkins, Ford and Green (2013/2018) Spreadable Media, from the paperback version there was this gem of a quote:

The popularity of Twitter, for instance, was driven by how efficiently the site facilities [sic] the types of resource sharing, conversation, and coordination that communities have long engaged in. The site’s early success owes little to official brand presence; big-name entertainment properties, companies, and celebrities began flocking to the microblogging platform only after its success was considered buzzworthy

(p.30)

In light of the events of November 29th and 30th, 2023, this is revelatory, and somewhat amusing as well.

The Star Beast

Finally watched a Dr Who episode. Seriously, hadn’t seen more than a clip or three before. Full thoughts will come in episode 19 of the Implausipod.

An odd episode: it felt like a speedrun through the required story beats to link everything together, and a lot of the rest was elided. So I’m not sure it was a representative story of the franchise; we got equal parts “very special episode” and “fanservice”, and while I was able to make some external connections early (and by the midpoint too), by the end it was all internally referential, and the titular Star Beast was a very thin foil for the rest of the internal narrative that the showrunner wanted to hang over the episode.

As a new viewer, I’m not entirely convinced to stick around. Let’s see how the next one goes…

Month of posting

After the monthly WordPress Meet-up group (which I highly recommend if one is in your area; well worth it!), one of the members issued a challenge to post daily for a month.

Part of this was to get into the habit of doing it, of getting it done, and partly to learn more about WordPress through the repeated exposure to it.

So I said, sure, I’ll join you.

And as with anything, even if the best time to start was 5 years ago, the second best time to start is right now. There’s no sense in waiting to make a positive change, to put something off until New Years or whatever.

So let’s get started. 30 days of posting, starting right now.

…

(This one counts, right? Right?)

Alright, see you tomorrow or sooner.

Content (it’s all content)

There’s a post that pops up on occasion on Mastodon or the other socials from time to time, where an artist or creator chafes at their work being labelled as ‘content’.

And while I can sympathize, I hate to break it to them, but the genie is out of the bottle.

It’s all content.

It has been since the late 1900s.

I was reading Jenkins et. al. (2018) recently while prepping Episode 16 of the Implausipod, and even there “content” was being referenced.

So for future reference, let’s cover off why ‘content’ is fine.

Imagine, you have a pizza shop. You make some fantastic pizza. Best in town. Maybe as a customer I’m feeling like a pizza, maybe deep dish, maybe thin crust, maybe even a calzone. I’m not being picky.

But sometimes I’m feeling like a steak, or a stir fry, or a pho, or a Reuben, or breadsticks, or whatever. (Clearly I need to stop writing this before dinner).

And maybe, just maybe, I want to make something myself. At home, or on a campfire in the mountains (or whatever).

Regardless of what I’m having, we can all agree that we’re talking about food.

So too with content: it doesn’t matter if it’s a video or a blog post or a podcast or a digital comic, or even traditional art. It’s a bit of a mouthful to spell it all out, listing each and every type. Especially if we’re really interested in talking about food (sorry, content) in general.

And if someone objects, and says “I don’t make food, I make pizza!“, well, you go, you do you. But it comes across as weird to deny that what you’re making counts as food too.

So, yeah, let’s not do that. We used to call it “media”, and while that still holds true, in the 21st century we refer to it as “content” too.

So enjoy! Mange! Dig in. Find something tasty.