Totally Rad Shows

As much time as I spend in the air and on the road, I've little time for TV. And hotel TV is the worst of all possible TV. Apparently it's the same TV networks and shows and blather wherever you live. But for some unknown reason, nothing interesting ever seems to be televised when I'm on the road. After trying to find something decent to watch, it's far too tempting to end up flipping channels with about as much energy as a diabetic retiree next to a Vegas slot machine. And with little more chance of winning.

Why don't hotels just have a special channel that automatically changes the channel for you? Flip blather. Flip blather. Flip blather. At least you could get some work done to the background noise since you wouldn't have to keep pointing and clicking with the remote thingy.

Anyway - by the time I decide to turn off the TV - I'll usually preform one last dry run through the channels. You know, one last cast of the day. And more often than to be mere coincidence, the Discovery Channel is showing a UFO/Alien/Paranormal "documentary". So now it's 2am. I'm alone. And people on TV are being abducted by aliens.

All evening, nothing interesting has been on TV. And now they decide to show something that scares the bejezus out of me? I think it all started with the credits at the end of Star Trek. I love your work Gene (wherever you are) but showing the above image during the end credits of Star Trek wasn't the last thing a 5 year old needed to see before being told to go to bed. Upstairs. At night. In New Jersey.

Fortunately, there's some hope. Interesting, pithy, quick witted and honestly entertaining content is being developed by interesting, pithy, quick witted and honestly entertaining people. Perhaps they're too impatient to wait for an ecosystem of lawyers, advertisers, censors, striking writers, etc. to bless their efforts.

I'm talking about the Totally Rad Show, a weekly video podcast from four guys (one insists or remaining behind the camera). Just a few years ago, they'd have been assigned to the bargin bin of cable access. Fortunately, technology found a better way. It's streamed online, or can be downloaded in many formats and resolutions. How easy is that? You can even subscribe via iTunes. All four presently live in Los Angeles, California.


As CAD is to BIM - these guys represent the best and brightest of this generation's ability to use new technology to create and distribute new ideas.

If you're new to the Totally Rad Show podcast - I'd recommend Episode 29. The Austin Powers sendup is laugh out loud funny. And by the end of the show you'll learn that Dan has trouble drinking tea from a delicate china cup. Sober. Nor does Dan fare well with sake and sushi...but that's a whole nuther story. ;)

Two are actors. One is a director. One is the editor. How these four guys have enough time for day jobs AND this time consuming passionate hobby is difficult to imagine. But they don't simply manage, week after week to review TV, Movies, Video Games, Comic Trades and Viewer Mail. They positively excel.

Discussions are equally filled portions of passion, fact, experience, opinion, off-topic distraction and periodic dash of bawdy innuendo.

In two words: 1) Effing 2) Brilliant.

Did I mention that they just took home a 2008 Webby Award for Online Film and Video?

Do these guys have sponsors? Yes. Do they make you sit through 20 minutes of advertisements to get to 40 minutes of real (or as is the case with a lot of what's on network TV - imagined) content. Absolutely not. Will they sue you if you take their content and rip it to watch on something other than a 40lb. paperweight? Nope.

Network TV may be able to compete for advertising dollars (for now). But I'm not sure how they'll compete for viewers. And certainly not when networks have to compete with four extremely talented guys doing weekly end runs around outdated, inane, enclosed distribution models.

So while airport TV drones the latest 24 hours flapping anchor head - look around. You'll notice that more and more people aren't watching the TV. They're wearing headphones and watching their Laptop/iPod/iPhone/ Blackberry/Zune/ DVD Player/Playstation Portable/etc. And if you look over someone's shoulder to glance at what they're watching, don't be surprised if they're watching these four guys: Doing. What. They. Love.

Four guys passionately talking about TV, movies, video games while using in-house pre-production, post-production and editing. And their target audience? Creative, technology savvy individuals that will fully embrace applications and tools that design, develop and deliver new ideas with new processes. What sort of sponsor could possibly show the most genuine interest in supporting an ecosystem that absolutely has a direct influence on the stuff that these guys love?

TV?
Movies?
Video Games?
Film Editing?
Design?
Technology?

Someone at Autodesk should give these guys a call.