Things I like...AND YOU SHOULD TOO!!

The Bugle! Audio Newspaper for a visual World!

For a little over a year and a half now, The Bugle has been my favorite podcast. I would even go so far as to say that it is indeed, the best podcast in the history of the world ever. Amen. The basic premise of the 'cast is that John Oliver (pictured on the left, him of The Daily Show fame) and his friend Andy Zaltzman (of whom I can honestly say, I had never heard of before). Every week, these two jokers get together (via the internet) and take the piss out of global current events. I guess a more genteel way of putting it would be that they highlight the absurdities of international events, Often using pretty awful puns. Luckily the puns don't overshadow the avalanche of awesome that generally follows.

The show roughly follows the format of a news show, with segments dedicated to current events, sports and listener emails, as well the occasional guest commentator. The duo does have a stable of favorite targets that generally consists of dictators of the ridiculous variety (Hugo Chavez, Col. Gadaffi, Kim Jong Il), sports stars heralding from the lunatic fringe (Delonte West) and Italian Prime Minister and lecherous octogenarian satyr Silvio Berlusconi. The "occasional guest commentator" I mentioned earlier takes the form of The American, a caricature portrayed by comedian Rory Albanese (a producer at The Daily Show) who is basically every stereotype of a Newark resident combined with a dictionary of American exceptionalism and xenophobia.

Completing this confederacy of dunces is the producer Chris, who only recently took over the position from his predecessor, Tom the Producer. Bugle listeners welcomed the new arrival by inundating the poor bastard with so many good natured "fuck you" emails that the movement metastasized into a website. Which just shows you what types of asshats listen to The Bugle, and why I am proud to count myself among them.

In essence, it is hysterically funny, it comes on every week and you all should listen to it. Do it. I am waiting. SUBSCRIBE YOU BASTARD!

Things I Like - Mediamonkey

In general I have always been fairly late to the party where digital music is concerned. In high school, I only had one disc of music that had been lent to me by a friend, and I played it on the most basic version of winamp there was. No different skins, no apps (though I don't think apps really existed then). My stay in digital music purgatory lasted until college, where I discovered the glory that was Napster. Backed by the power of the colleges T1 servers, I went on a music downloading binge. 24/7 that program was running on my laptop. I was still playing it all on winamp, but at least I had some quality music to play. After college I got my first iPod and iTunes has been a constant and often frustrating companion since then. Recently though I have been getting truly fed up with it. The software is bloated, taking up massive amounts of ram and constantly tries to get you download Safari and Mobile Me. You also never truly get rid of the feeling that you are somehow Apple's bitch. The worst aspect of the program however, was how difficult it made sorting, relabeling and adjusting your files. Most of the time, changes had to be made to individual tracks, and when your library is in excess of 5,000 songs and podcasts, that is just unacceptable. So, spurred by the fact that my girlfriend needed a program that would allow her to rebuild her library from her iPod, I searched for a suitable alternative. I found Mediamonkey.