GUITARMAGEDDON - taster

Here's a wee taster - Audio Boo - I can't believe I sound like that!

Guitarmageddon Podcast!

Exciting news!
I'm going to be involved in a brand new podcast which will be coming to your ears soon!
It's called Guitarmageddon and it's what happens when a guitar teacher loses control over his students. I made a logo and everything.

 

So here's the story, I started taking guitar lessons at Glasgow Music Studios with a guy called Adam Millar.
These were group lessons, which went through a few iterations of attendees before it settled down to just myself and a lady called Susan Webster.

It soon became apparent that these lessons were going to be more than just us learning how to play guitar. Every week we chat about different stuff, between learning songs, and we have a proper laugh doing it.

On one of these weeks the idea of a podcast was suggested and so here we are.
Guitarmageddon the Podcast will be arriving on your interwebs soon.

Wednesday Web Wonders

There isn't a proper W3 this week as I have a sore back and I couldn't be bothered to sit at my computer last night to find stuff to look at.

Instead of having nothing I've put together some cool posts from Unreality Mag

A gallery of movies as neon signs:

Mr Whaite has created a whole load of alternative neon signs art, in this post Unreality Mag has collected together some of his movie absed ones. These are very clever and very well done.

30 amazing Stanley Kubrick cinemagraphs:

This post featues cinemagraphs, which are basically animated gifs where there is only one small thing in the image that is moving. The effect is very surreal and quite creepy.

A gallery of very unique superhero art:

Illustrator Christopher Uminga has created an awesome series of superhero pictures that are both extremely cute and extremely sinister at the same time.

Enjoy.

Wednesday Web Wonders

This weeks theme is: Funny YouTube Channels

Improv Everywhere:

This channel has videos that feature an improv group pulling off large scale pranks. Kind of like an in crowd flash mob. Two highlights are: the real life musical, in which a guy in a shopping mall starts singing about how much he loves lunch, and the Best Buy prank in which approximately 100 people go into a Best Buy shop dressed in the staff uniform of blue polo shirt and beige trousers (or khaki pants as those crazy Americans call them). The mild panic experienced by the shop staff is quite funny.

John says: There's a lot of variety on this channel and it's all pretty ballsy and funny. Gid.

Jack Vale Films

Jack likes to prank members of the public in a variety of different ways. Personal highlights for me are the peek-a-boo video, in which he plays peek-a-boo with people as they pass on an escalator, and the pooter video in which he talks to someone on his mobile phone about the farts that he's doing while standing next to an unsuspecting member of the public.

John says: The point where an old lady calls him out on his farting and he says it's his new shoes is genius. Gid.

5 Second Films

The 5 second films people produce a new 5 second film every day, and it just has to be said that some of the movies they produce are absolute genius.

John says: There's not much more I can say about them, you have to go and check them out, in fact stop what you're doing right now and go check them out. Proper gid.

Jenna Marbles

Jenna's a bit of a strange one. I think she might be some kind of podium dancer or something but I'm not sure if that's just part of the act. She's obviously a smart person and she's very funny. She releases a new video every week.

John says: If you like lots of make up, bleached blonde hair, a potty mouth and a wicked sense of humour, Jenna's your girl. Gid.

Wednesday Web Wonders

This weeks W3 theme: techy, designy type stuff

dornob.com:

dornob.com takes all of the cool art and design, furniture, object and interior design innovations from across the web and collates them in one handy place.

John says: There's some pretty swanky and cool stuff here. Gid.

www.yankodesign.com/:

Yanko Design reports on those designs in technology that are trying to be the most innovative. From a device that detects low power consumption from a socket and pops the plug out to a trendy ring that you can use to fire elastic bands at people, it's all here.

John says: Lot's of awesome stuff to see here. Gid.

www.designboom.com:

Designboom is an article driven site featuring articles written about all manner of design from electronics to archictecture. There are also interviews with designers and graphic, logo and furniture design competitions.

John says: There's a lot of really cool content on this site. Gid.

Overall verdict: Triple Gid.

Wednesday Web Wonders

This weeks W3 theme: Alternative News

www.disinfo.com/:

The Disinformation Company are involved in book publishing, film production and home video distribution. Their site, www.disinfo.com/, features user submitted content either collected from the internet or authored by the user.

John says: News you never knew you needed.

www.theonion.com/:

Internet staple The Onion is still a good as it always has been. Parodying real news stories, as well as making up entirely fictional ones, The Onion should be part of your daily routine.

John says: Eye wateringly good.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/:

The Huffington Post is a behemoth of a site with a load of content. Up to the the minute and relevant the content is provided by writers, business people, celebrities, sport stars and more.

John says: Huffing good stuff

W3

This weeks W3 theme: Comedy Podcasts!

I'm quite excited to say that I've got a special guest on W3 this week, though her bit will come at the end.

So here's some podcasts I like.

There's 3 Absolute Radio podcasts that I download so I'll lump them together first.

Frank Skinner:
Frank "Mr Radio" Skinner has two podcasts, one is what goes out live from his Saturday morning breakfast show (minus music, news, travel etc) and the other, the "not the weekend podcast", is just him and his two co-hosts, Emily "Pearl and" Dean and Alun "The Cockerel" Cochrane (who replaced Gareth "Saturday Morning" Richards), having a bit of a chat and banter.
Frank is his usual quick witted self and Emily and Alun provide just as much chuckles and comedy insights as Frank himself. It seems to be a weekly competition to see who can make producer Emma laugh the loudest.

Verdict: Very funny

Dave Gorman:
Like Frank Skinner, Dave also has two podcasts, one of them, the "Sunday podcast" is what goes out live from his Sunday morning breakfast show (minus music, news, travel etc, a point that Dave labours over every single week) and another podcast, the "Some day Podcast" which is released later in the week.
Dave is joined by his two co-hosts Danielle Ward (who I've seen on Mock the Week) and Martin White (who I think sounds a wee bit like Andy Hamilton) to provide a very funny radio show, the highlights of which are Wards Weekly Word (ooh, W3) which is ridiculously hilarious and Martin's amazing ability to sum up the show with a new song every week.
What makes these podcasts really worth downloading though is the stuff that doesn't go out on air, the "correspodcast" as Dave calls it. The correspodcast contains such amazing gems as "Pun Street" and the "Listeners Lexicon". It really is worth a listen.

Verdict: Super funny, also if you've ever heard someone call "Florence and the Machine", "Flo and the Mac", that was because of Dave Gorman.

Iain Lee:
You know Iain Lee? Tall, skinny guy that skilfully asked people really awkward questions without them noticing on the 11 0'clock show? Yeah? Well, he does a call in show an Absolute Radio, with his producer and sometimes co-host Eloise Carr, 4 nights a week. Each show gets turned into an almost 2 hour podcast. This is one of those, anything goes type, call in shows, meaning Iain talks to all manner of inbred dribbling halfwits. The show can be a bit weird at times but in the main it's pretty hilarious.
My personal highlights are when Iain and Eloise chat/argue on air, and when Barry from Watford or Rob Burnett call in.

Verdict: Surreal at times but in the main awesome, also, almost 8 hours of entertainment a week (not including the other podcasts he does) for free is pretty darn good.

NINJA SQUIRREL NEWS FLASH:
I've just discovered that Iain Lee is no longer at Absolute Radio! Shame.
Though his podcasts are still available on iTunes.

Right, that's Absolute out of the way, here's some other stuff.

Pappys Bangers and Mash:
Comedy troupe Pappys (formerly Pappys fun club) do a podcast (though not frequently enough) called "Bangers and Mash" where they record themselves chatting. They then go back and take some ideas from the chat to make sketches. Then they edit the sketches into the chat. The chat is the mash and the sketches are the bangers! Get it? It makes sense when you hear it.

Verdict: If the chat was their pants then the sketches are their wangers. It's that good.

Pappys Flatshare Slamdown:
Comedy troupe Pappys (yeah, them again) do another podcast (nowhere near frequently enough) called Flatshare Slamdown. This podcast is a panel game show in which Matthew is the host/landlord while Ben and Tom do battle to avoid doing a household chore, each joined by a celebrity guest to help them.
Show highlights for me have been, an appearance by a very drunk Rufus Hound, The Right Honourable Fanshaw Standon and the stings for each round, particularly the quickfire round.

Verdict: Download them all now, you will literally ROFL!

Answer Me This:
The Answer Me This podcast is a home made podcast hosted by Helen Zaltzman (I'm sure you've heard of her, the podcast is very successful, but if you haven't then she's comedian Andy Zaltzman's sister, sculptor Zack Zaltzman's daughter and Soundman Martin "Martin the soundman" Austwick's wife), Olly "Oliver" Mann and Martin "Martin the soundman" Austwick. Basically they answer peoples questions on a weekly basis. Whimsically and comically at first but then they do give a serious and well researched attempt at an answer. The questions are separated by jingles, recorded mainly by other comedians, a particular favourite of mine is Josie Long's.

Verdict: Informative and hilarious.

Rhod Gilbert's best bits:
Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert does a radio show on BBC Radio Wales every Saturday. Most weeks he's accompanied by Chris "corky" Corcoran (the dude from doodle do) and he's also been joined by Lloyd (related to Bonnie?) Langford and several of GLC. This is only a best bits podcast and therefore is not very long, but it is very funny. Rhod's grumpy persona makes for enjoyable listening.
Personal highlights include, long running feature "celebrity out of context bingo" and answering almost every piece of listener correspondence with "never contact the show again".

Verdict: Short and sweet.

Comedy of the week:
Comedy of the Week is a podcast from the BBC and it features a variety of comedy from BBC Radio 4. It's kind of a taster of what comedy there is to listen to on Radio 4 and it's a good place to find some really funny stuff.
I've heard comedy from the likes of Sarah Milliken, Mark Thomas, Lenny Henry and Tom Wrigglesworth.

Verdict: Good source of comedy.

Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4:
This is the podcast version of two Friday night BBC Radio 4 comedy shows, The Now Show and The News Quiz. You don't get them both on one podcast though, you'll get a run of one then a run of the other. Both are really good but I think The News Quiz is slightly funnier, especially the clippings from newspapers.

Verdict: Very funny.

There are two other comedians who are very prolific podcasters, too prolific for me to mention all their podcasts here, and I would highly recommend downloading all of the podcasts that they have done. These two men probably don't get mentioned in the same sentence very often, they are Richard Herring and Ricky Gervais. They both have a lot of material out there and it's all great, personal highlights for me are As It Occurs To Me for Richard Herring and The Ricky Gervais Guide To...for Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington.

Happy listening :)

Now it's the turn of my special guest, Gina Scott!

WTF with Marc Maron:
American comedian Marc Maron has been involved in the comedy scene since the 90's. Whether he's performing stand up, hosting a radio show or appearing on TV, this guy has a huge amount of knowledge and stories that he shares in the twice weekly podcast, WTF with Marc Maron.

In WTF, Maron invites Comedians and celebrities to his studio-cum-garage (also known as the cat ranch) in LA to take part in a free form discussion encouraging honest opinions about their careers, personal lives, state of the entertainment industry and often turbulent journey through it. Having crossed paths with many of the guests previously, Maron is openly honest about his feelings (both positive and negative) toward them. Also - his ability to keep you engaged in an interview with someone you've never heard of means there is always a podcast to listen to and really enjoy.

WTF is free every Monday and Thursday.
(Check out wtfpod.com to sign up for the premium package which gives you access to all of Marc's old podcasts with people like Ben Stiller, Ed helms, Robin Williams, Andrew Dice Clay, Dane Cook and special live show recordings. There are literally hundreds to choose from.)

Verdict: Awfy gid.

Nice work Gina, you can come back.

Wednesday Web Wonders

This weeks W3 is brought to you by theme LOLZ

cheezburger.com/

cheezburger.com has been an internet lolz staple for quite a while now and it just keeps on getting bigger and better. My own personal highlights: totally looks like, fail blog and engrish.

John says: ROFL

http://nedroid.com/

Nedroid is home to the awesome Beartato and other web comics. These surreal comic strips started out quite basic but have got more sophisticated, and funnier, over time.

John says: LMAO

www.overheardinnewyork.com/

Overheard in New York features user submitted overheard conversations. It's not just New York though, there's also overheard: in the office, at the beach and everywhere. There's also a celebrity wit section. Each section is updated regularly.

John says: ROFLMAO

This weeks theme has been rofltastic, next weeks theme might be arts and crafts. Maybe, if a certain someone gets her act together :)

Wednesday Web Wonders

New and improved W3 this week. I've decided to ditch The Metro's choices and go out exploring the web on my own.

I'm not quite sure how to do this and it'll hopefully evolve naturally over time.

Well here goes, first up is www.uproxx.com

Internet magazine type thing

I meant to write this ages ago but I was far too busy reading uproxx. There's just so much content here it's hard to tear yourself away, and it's good. From the best of Phil Dunphy to Ben and Jerry's, Jack Donaghy's Scotch flavoured ice cream "Power Lunch", it's all gold.

Verdict: Proper gid.

mentalfloss.com/

Another internet magazine thing

Another site that's got loads of content to keep you amused, there's the magazine section but there's also blogs, trivia, quizzes, amazing facts and a store.

Verdict: Quite gid.

Last but not least www.stumbleupon.com

If you've not heard of Stumblepon then you probably shouldn't be on the internet. If it wasn't for StumbleUpon I wouldn't know about uproxx or mentalfloss.

Verdict: A procrastinators must have.

Well that's it for this week, feel free to leave me a comment to let me know if this was any good and if I should keep doing it or if I should go and put my face under a rock and never touch a computer again.
YF

Wednesday Web Wonders

http://www.tayait.com/apps/tawla

The Metro says: "If you would like a new game on your iPhone or iPad to keep your brain ticking, try Tawla - a recreation of the authentic Arabian style backgammon game. You can play against the AI opponent or use the multiplayer feature to battle against your friends. There are two versions available on the app store, the full version and a free 'lite' one."

John says: "Seriously, The Metro? Seriously? Now you're just touting games!"

Official verdict: Looks like someone at The Metro is friends with someone at tayait.com.

http://www.qzik.me/

The Metro says: "There are many websites where people can build their own online music playlist but if you haven't done it yet or are looking for an alternative, try this new social networking site. When you first access qzik you can listen to tracks added by other users but to get the best out of the site, you need a facebook account. It offers all the services you would expect, such as the ability to build your own music/video library, share your playlists with others and discover music with your friends. If you just want to listen to music, then the site has 4 music categories to choose from, easy, romance, party and bad day."

John says: "I'm not keen on this. I don't like the interface, the choice of music isn't very good (Whigfield, seriously?) and the Facebook interaction doesn't work."

Official verdict: Disappointed.

http://www.jellycam.co.uk/

The Metro says: "Making stop motion films can be a time consuming and painstakingly tricky thing to do but JellyCam is great for mucking about. The application is basic and you can only create simple stop motion films with it but it is still useful if you would like to play around and see what you can come up with. To create stop motion movies in JellyCam you can incorporate your webcam and photos but remember it is just a bit of fun so do not expect exceptional quality. The site also has a useful video tutorial from the creator."

John says: "YAY! This one is excellent. You do have to download a piece of software but it's not very big and it's really good. The Metro have over played the simplicity of it a little unfairly I feel. The interface is great, the end result is great and you can use the webcam or saved pictures and there's an onion skinning option."

Official verdict: Very good, download it now!

Overall verdict: A poor week I feel with the exception of jellycam.

BONUS EXTRA SITE

http://www.rhettandlink.com/

Check these guys out, they're hilarious.