Monday, April 24, 2006

Welcome to 2003, Cupcake!

So in my pursuit of songs for my MixCD project, I finally downloaded iTunes (I use Dell MusicMatch because it came loaded on my computer and I don't like to waste time thinking for myself.) Well, well, well. No one told me that podcasts are free! You know this appeals to me as both an audiophile and a cheap bastard! I subscribed to a few including the Ricky Gervais podcast, Cast-On (knitting related), Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me (NPR), Studio 360 (PRI) and Echo der Zeit (Swiss German) and Wahnzeit (German).

So, this begs two questions. 1) What other great podcasts am I missing out on because I'm too lazy to browse around? and 2) Why don't I have my own podcast? A cursory search for "cupcakes" revealed no cupcake podcasts. Or, I could take a page from Kellior and present "A Cupcake Home Companion." Well, it's been a quiet week in Prospect Heights, my neighborhood. A guy walking home from a seder at 2am was attacked from behind when an unidentified youth punched him in the head....

Well, at least I'm not the only one behind the times. It seems in Germany the working mother is a rare species. Women are either leaving their careers to have children and not returning, or professional women are not having children, resulting in a low birth rate and future population decline. Perhaps this trend is colored by the nasty word Germans have work working mothers, "Rabenmutter". Chancellor Angela Merkl has appointed Ursula von der Leyen, a working mother of seven, to address this issue. From the Times article:

Social attitudes only deepen the problems. While the law entitles men to paid
family leave, few take it, fearing it will cripple their careers. Yet women who
work while rearing children meet disapproval from colleagues and bosses. On a
recent television talk show, the male host showed Dr. von der Leyen a fictitious
newspaper front page, with a smiling photo of her and a headline, "Mama, Where
Were You When I Was Small?"


I can't just can't believe that. I know that women also face this challenging decision in the states and that others are often too quick to weigh in with their own judgements on a woman's choice, but I can't imagine that happening to a woman on national television here. Come on Deutschies, get it together now!

8 comments:

Beta said...

Good choice picking Cast-on. She's my fav.
I also like NPR: Story of the Day and Quirky Nomads

Anonymous said...

Search for JANE. You can get some fun stuff, of the LaHipster persuasion.

JMc said...

Great FREE podcasts are:
Slate podcasts, esp. the Friday "Gabfest"
KCRW's "To the Point" and "Left, Right and Center."
Michael Kraskin and David Terry's "Catalogue of Ships" (just run a search in the iTunes music store)
"Love and Radio" (same thing- run a search)
WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show"
WNYC's "On the Media"
Benjamin Walker's "The Theory of Everything"

The following are good but require a fancy video iPod (which I don't have, but you can watch them on iTunes in your PC):
"Ask a Ninja"
"Homestarrunner Strong Bad emails" and "Teen Girl Squad"

Can you tell that I am a podcast dork?

Cupcake said...

Thanks guys. I downloaded a bunch of Quirky Nomads, Catalog of Ships and Love and Radio. I'll check them out tonight. But no one has told me yet how difficult it would be for me to launch my own podcast. I'm hysterical, remember? But often, poignant too. In my head. Not so much in real life.

Dawn Z(ed) said...

My absolute favourite podcast is Zee and Zed.

I recommend Bob and AJ, The Catfish Show, and I would have recommended Quirky Nomads as well if I hadn't been beaten to it.

If you want to watch a great video podcast that is short, and funny as hell, I'd recommend Tiki Bar TV. Each episode tends to be between 3 and 5 minutes.

JMc said...

Some of the "Catalogue" eps are better than others. My personal faves are five, two, twenty-one and twenty-three.

JMc said...

Wait, I meant "twenty-four" when I said "twenty-three."

Cupcake said...

Gibson, I just listened to CoS 2 and I really liked it. I'm having fun exploring these podcasts, thanks for the suggestions everyone. Maybe I'll post some links in the future for everyone to enjoy.