The Drabblecast

Norm, good for you for being a frequent cohost over there. I find yours and Rick's productions to be some of the best in the business (though I am a sucker for WTT as well)*


*This post does reflect my bias towards the markets who have had the brass tacks to try my fiction on their 'feeds, but should in no way be inferred as a cheapening of the legitimate praise for said markets.

StalinSays wrote:Pseudopod is my podcast home away from home: love their story selection, never miss an episode. It's never the same thing twice. If podcasting itself was in front of a firing squad, I'd leap to take the bullet for Norm, but my arms would be extended as far as they could to deflect whatever was aimed at Ben Phillips.

Don't forget about saving Allister. I agree about Pseudopod which is funny considering that I've never really been a fan of horror.

I like running into familiar voices all over the audio-verse. And running into Norm's voice, that's extra awesome of course! He brings a nice new flavor to the EP club, while being very familiar Drabblecasty at the same time.

Oo, and about PseudoPod: I too wasn't really interested in horror before I met PseudoPod, they do have a great story collection.

But of course, DC is my all-time favorite! No matter where else Norm puts his mike.

Your stuff on the Boyfriend episode was aboso-friggin-lutely hilarious Norm. It's good to have you on that show. It'll be so much fun each time you pop up.

Hehe thanks. I've already got a handful of "hataz" on their discussion boards. But that's ok, everyone being nice is boring.

Well, duh, you're competition. I mean, coming as far as you have, and now co-hosting, it's threatening to peeps.

And I know this sounds strange, us knowing you et al, but to someone who doesn't know you well, you come across as "The Cool Guy". That is very threatening to many of the geeks who got beat up in school by the cool guy. I would've been one of them except I was taller and bigger than everyone else. And I was home-schooled.

tbaker2500 wrote:Well, duh, you're competition. I mean, coming as far as you have, and now co-hosting, it's threatening to peeps.

And I know this sounds strange, us knowing you et al, but to someone who doesn't know you well, you come across as "The Cool Guy". That is very threatening to many of the geeks who got beat up in school by the cool guy. I would've been one of them except I was taller and bigger than everyone else. And I was home-schooled.

Tha's right Norm. If you hadn't been such an asshole to them and beat them up and humiliated them and dumped buckets of pigs blood on their prommy heads, the doors wouldn't have locked on the fiery inferno, and they would all be alive today, battling Al Qaeda with their telekinetic powers. I don't know what the hell Steve Eley was thinking. You're not the Cool Guy. You're Carrie's mom.

"They're gonna laugh at you"

As fun as it is to go "Carrie" on everyone's ass, I'll probably just slack off and forget about it, cuz that;s what I do. I do hope that the new "Norm as Co-Host" Escapepod civil war threads don't detract from our clearly more important Solar Bear vs. Venus Die Trap threads that are to come here at Drabblecast.
Keep your priorities people, this is Venus Die Trap we are talking about....

Civil War threads? Oh, I am so there.

Surely you are confident enough in who you are and what you do that you view such threads as the welcome mint on the hotel pillow that is your next level of success in podcasting. (parse THAT sentence, Miss G...)

(And no, I won't stop calling you Shirley...)

Hey, why don't we have those? Civil war threads sound like fun.

First, Norm should select a controvesial new co-host for the Drabblecast (this guy would do the trick [ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32914989/ns ... nd_courts/ ]), and then we can all pick sides.

Phenopath wrote:Hey, why don't we have those? Civil war threads sound like fun.

First, Norm should select a controvesial new co-host for the Drabblecast (this guy would do the trick [ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32914989/ns ... nd_courts/ ]), and then we can all pick sides.

bing bing bing!

The whole EP thing makes me think of James Ist of England and IVth of Scotland, with EP playing the role of England and DC playing the role of Scotland. England's like, "Hey, our monarch died and didn't whelp. We need yours!" And Scotland's like, "No, go find your own." And England's all, "Na-uh, we're bigger, and James is dying to be our monarch. See, look at his face?" So they crown him in England...and then the English start complaining. He talks funny, he dresses funny, he doesn't get along with the forums. And Scotland's like, "You took our monarch and then have the balls to complain about him?! Jerks!"

Seriously, though, they'll come around. Norm is consistently hilarious, and if they don't like the first joke or the second joke, they'll like the third.

Here's the big difference I see between Norm's hosting style and Steve's. Steve was transparent. He shared real details of his life, including his name. Norm Sherman is only Norm Sherman "sometimes." He's funnier and slicker than Steve could ever be, but he's not transparent. That's what EP will have to get used to.

Does it feel weird to be talked about like you're a product or commodity, something like a computer-generated avatar rather than a flesh-and-blood human being with real feelings, no matter how clever, intelligent and funny you are? I think it's rather amazing how people can do that, like you're just a D & D figure.

I mean, you're in the room, for G*d's sake!

Reminds me of the story Ghosts and Simulations. Squids and Simulations.

F5iver wrote:Does it feel weird to be talked about like you're a product or commodity, something like a computer-generated avatar rather than a flesh-and-blood human being with real feelings, no matter how clever, intelligent and funny you are? I think it's rather amazing how people can do that, like you're just a D & D figure.

I mean, you're in the room, for G*d's sake!

I think it's a pretty common tendency in online communities for there to always be that segment of the population that forgets that behind every posting there is (usually) a flesh and blood person with real thoughts and human emotions.

Not that I'm free from doing that, too. There are plenty of people I've talked with online (present company excepted) who are miserable failures when taking the Turing Test.

F5iver wrote:I think it's rather amazing how people can do that, like you're just a D & D figure.

I was only deconstructing the character, and did not mean to be offensive. I meant that Norm Sherman is, at least partially, an invention of the brilliant and highly charaismatic musician who is, of course, in the room. I think that's beyond awesome. It's certainly something I'm not any good at.

I made the post because I had just wandered over to EP's forums and looked at some of what they were saying, and it made me feel bad for Norm. Dude, if they don't want our monarch, we'll keep him! I was thinking about the differences between Steve Eley's hosting style and Norm's because I have actually listened to just about every episode of EP and DC. It's true that they are totally different.

So, anyway, Norm, I'll listen to anything you host and enjoy it that much more for the hilarity you bring. The Boyfriend episode made me laugh out loud after a very stressful day. Thanks much. It's possible that I should just not post for the next few months. They keep me so tired here that I don't have good social filters. Sorry...

Alhilton, I think F5iver was referring to the EP civil war posts. not the post you made.

Don't stop posting. You are an important part of the PDX Delegation.

Amen

Abbie, F5iver was definitely referring to the Escapepod anti-Norm faction (which shall be crushed I tell you!-- if not by my talent for pandering, by my talent for crushing.) Not your post!
Of course you don't treat me like an avatar! And even if you did I still wouldn't complain cuz u always say such nice things about me/my avatar/singularity-Norm.

If you quite posting I'll quite Drabblecast... how bout that, huh?!
you're move my friend...
Do you really want to see ROU weep with utter abandon? I know I don't. Nobody does. Somebody start a non-profit to prevent that from ever happening.

Besides, who can afford social filters in today's economy?
You tell them that you just want a frikkin social oil change but they always come out afterword and pull out your social filter, sayin something like "maam, uhm, thought I'd show you this. You really need a new one, see all this brown-stuff-that-I-promise-I-didn't-smear-on-it-myself covering it? That's really bad."

And you're like, 'yah, I had really bad sashimi once and thought I might get tapeworm from it, but things turned out alright and I was fine, can I just get my frikkin' bill?'
SO ANNOYING. We wouldn't put you through that. Nurse and post, nurse and post.