Podcasts

I need to get some of the writings I've got in my notebooks out there - not all of them, but I've got a few things that I'm hanging on to that I think people would like to read.  This one is ratings and reviews of podcasts I've listened to over the last week.  I'm keeping tabs on what I'm listening to on a daily basis and writing things down (giving them a rating out of 5) so this kind of thing will pop up again to be sure.

I think the next thing I'll put up here will be relating to web comics.  On to the podcasts for now.  I'll try to group episodes under the same podcast title where I can to reduce the size of the list.  Notes in italics are notes I've added after writing it in my notebook.

• Anthology - #27 - A Passage For Trumpet - 2/5
• Low-rated because it couldn't hold my interest.  I barely followed the recap and I didn't follow the discussion after.  This podcast is covering anthology TV shows in the "Golden Age" of Television.  Right now it's covering The Twilight Zone; I started watching along with the host at first, but I no longer have the time.  Usually he does a good job of recapping the episode covered.
• Toronto Blue Jays Podcast - Dec 5 2016 - 3/5
• Informative, short recap of the [MLB] GM Winter Meetings
• Birds All Day
• #92 - 4/5 - In-depth discussion of what the Blue Jays are doing this off-season, and looking ahead past 2017.
• #93 - 4/5 - I gave this one a high rating because it was short and contained good information/discussion about the Blue Jays and baseball.  I should have deducted a point, because they buried a major story (Chris Sale to Boston).
• Effectively Wild - #986 - 3/5
• Good overall discussion about Winter Meeting stuff.  Some of it glossed over for me.  
• Hokey Religion - #32 - 3/5
• Started off as a 2 - I was getting annoyed at the itnro talk about tickets [for Rogue One].  Overall good Star Wars discussion, especially the Vader comic series.  I don't get enough Star Wars character talk these days.  
• Writing Excuses - 11.49 - 3.5/5
• Great discussion to introduce the "Ensemble" elemental genre.  A bit too broad but information presented was good.
• Make Dad Read Comics - Hawkeye - 3.5/5
• I enjoyed this one for the overall discussion, but didn't' find the subject material (Hawkeye) to be all that interesting.  I still enjoyed listening to it.
• Secrets, Crimes and Audiotape - Wait Wait, Don't Kill Me Part 2 - 2.5/5
• This audio musical is holding my interest a lot more than I expected it to, but my major complaint about this episode was that the audio levels were way too low overall.  And some parts were far lower than others, making the dialogue difficult to hear.
• Beware & Warning - The Cave of Time - 3/5
• I'm really enjoying this podcast.  Unfortunately it can feel a little "vulgar" for the sake of being vulgar, sometimes.  This episode was fairly good - it featured book characters riding mammoths.  I like the post-read discussion as well.  Gives me an idea for something else. 
• Here's The Thing - Sandra Bernhard - 3.5/5
• Alec Baldwin always delivers on interesting interviews.  I'm not really familiar with Sandra Bernhard, but I still found it interesting to hear her background and enjoyed the conversation.  Probably would earn a half-point higher if it was someone I was more familiar with.
• Cynical Cartoons - Gargoyles - 4.5/5
• This was a really good episode.  The guest (Erik from the Poprika podcast) was really knowledgeable about the Gargoyles cartoon, and had some good discussion with Tyler.  The reason for missing the half-point for a perfect score is because I still feel like they only scratched the surface of the discussion, which is a side effect of the constant rotating guest host.  Great chemistry for a first time pairing though!
• CBC Radio 3 Podcast #363 - 3.5/5
• The continued gold standard for podcast structure for me.  The music in this episode didn't really do it for me this time, but I liked the interviews featured in the episode.  The structure is still good too - 5 song categories, 5 songs.