To Air or Not To Air

So, Big finally finished up our latest episode, Liz's "Cinezas and the Ash King." It's the first of our Broken Mirror stories, and it was a long time in coming. A long time to think about what the reaction might be.

You see, we recorded the show like we regularly do, with no real planning for what we'd say, and certainly no intention to offend anyone* . . . but I have issues and things I'm passionate about, and Big's got his own opinions, and the conversation followed an unknown path.

As soon as the microphone came off, Big started to worry. What if we had said something that would truly bother people, would piss them off enough to stop listening to the show, or worse, shout out their righteous indignation in our forums, causing either Big or I to be so hurt WE quit doing the show? Big reminded me that we had two forbidden subjects on our show: Politics and Religion. And we'd just mentioned both of them.

Even though it was late at night, Big and I spent another hour talking about how divisive those two topics are, and he brought up my George W. Bush-bashing in an episode a year ago, and how he very nearly deleted it from the show for fear of alienating listeners.

So we talked, and I started to worry, and he was already worried, and I started to get paranoid about what to do about it. Was just bringing up the subject enough to offend people? Would a disclaimer be alright? Would it be enough? Might people choose to be offended?

Well, Big asked listeners in public what they thought, and I emailed a couple of people close to the show to ask their advice. Liz was willing to jump on the grenade and have the episode not air because she thought (at least I believe she did) that it was her story that was outrageous rather than anything we might have said. But pretty much everybody said, "Go ahead and air it, after a disclaimer, and if people have a problem with it, the problem is theirs."

Cool.

We have had headaches before due to statements on the show, but with no idea of what might happen, we forged on. We recorded an episode of That Gets My Goat inspired by an experience I had after work, and my hatred of the Lifetime Movie Network. We had a laugh, and I vented, and once it was done, and the heat of the moment had passed . . . I started to wonder again, if maybe this would be the show that folks would freak out about. Even though nobody listens to That Gets My Goat.

Well, the more I thought about it, the more worried I became. To me, context is a big deal--the kind of thing that everything hinges upon--but to a lot of people, there's no such things as circumstances and intention. Bad is bad, black is black, wrong is wrong, even if the picture is incomplete.

Ultimately, I decided to shelve the episode. I didn't set out to piss people off, but I didn't want any additional controversy or angry cowgirls on their moral high horses. I guess that was cowardly, but having not yet aired the potentially inflammatory Cinezas show, I was already in a sensitive place.

And I can always unshelve it later on.

It's nice to have a voice and a forum to speak, whether it's doing funny voices, making a statement, or just shooting the breeze. Big and I got together this week, and instead of complaining about things that upset us, we each talked about something positive(ish) that had been going on in our lives. I shared more than I had on the show before, and Big . . . well, he's just so darn handsome, isn't he?

I imagine those episodes will go over well.

I don't know if this blog entry was a worthwhile one or not. Perhaps I should've been more specific about statements made and worries I've felt, or maybe this wasn't necessary at all. Maybe nobody cares about the thought processes of a couple of podcasters.

If the latter's the case, though, I gotta wonder why you're reading this right now. Yes, sir, you.

Rish "Jean Doumanian" Outfield

*If you've listened to the episode, I really didn't cut much of what we said out. Maybe it was innocuous, but you really never know what will bother people.

That Gets My Goat: Unlucky Thirteen

TGMG returns with Rish complaining about Auto-Tune. There may be singing involved.

'Nuff said.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

That Gets My Goat 12

We've decided to combine our regular Dunesteef podcast and "That Gets My Goat" this week, and stick it on the main page (and in the main feed), so people can tell us where it belongs. Also, to give us another week to catch up on story episodes.

Check it out here!

That Gets My Goat: The Outfield Strikes It Big

In the final part of our conversation about 3D, Rish and Big finally get back to the subject at hand . . . STAR WARS in 3D. Along with:

BACK TO THE FUTURE. THE NEVERENDING STORY. MARMADUKE. "Battlestar Galactica." TRON 2. "Thundercats." Pro football. It's too much for a regular-length episode. There's complaints about the release order, complaints about the 3D cash-in, complaints about "The Holiday Special," complaints about Pepsi cans, complaints about Lucas's priorities, complaints about CG, complaints about the Prequels, complaints about the scrapped attempt at a live-action TV series.

If you listen carefully, Rish gives his personal credo when it comes to movies. And then...one of them confesses that he enjoys giving George Lucas his money. And one confesses...that he likes the Smurfs. Parental discretion is advised, kids.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Was It A Misstep?

Last night, Rish and I got together for our usual weekly marathon podcasting session. After stumbling out of the gate (we found that the battery in the mixer had died on us because we'd left it turned on for the whole week, so we had to back to the Walmart we had just come from a few minutes earlier to buy a new one), we got churning, and recorded a couple of stories.

Then it came time to do the episode to the first Broken Mirror story that we will be airing. The conversation strayed into realms that we almost always avoid like the plague. When we started the show we made two promises, we would never do a story that is religious or anti-religious in nature, because it's too divisive of an issue, and we're sure to anger a portion of our audience no matter what. The other promise, we wouldn't do anything political in nature, because, again, it's a divisive subject, and we want to bring folks together, not drive them apart.

For some reason, though, last night we started talking about subjects that were religious in nature and other subjects that were political hot points. After we finished the episode, even though it was super late, Rish and I stood around on the porch and talked about whether we'd made a mistake with this episode and how many listeners we might anger or lose because of it.

So, what's my point with this post? I'm not sure. I guess to warn you all that we went there, even though we said we never would. We didn't purposefully try to say anything offensive, disrespectful, or divisive. Please take it with a grain of salt, if you can. Don't turn your back on us if you are offended by what we say because it's not the same as how you feel, and we promise that we really won't go there again next time.

Rish wonders what kind of disclaimer we need to put on the show (so as not to offend religious people or political people, or the opposite of those), or if a disclaimer is enough?