A short episode for you this week, to enable you to live your busy life and still listen to the Blueprint Podcast.
We come to you again from Nottingham, and this week we've even got a picture of the hospital, to sort of prove that we were there.
A game if Who On Earth forms the bulk of this week's bitesized chunk of Blueprintery, and fans of monasteries, monks and roofing will be delighted to hear that all three are involved!
Here's the hospital where we hung out for episodes 78 and 79. It's in Nottingham.
We come to you from Nottingham this week, once again out exploring England, its pubs and hospitals. That doesn't mean that we keep getting kicked in.
We found ourselves a friendly pub where we were well looked-after by staff and customers alike. Chris beat the landlord at darts, while Dave did card tricks and played guitar. It was a great night out, and it took us most of the next day to be ready to record podcasts.
Here's Chris, feet well and truly under the table at the pub in Nottingham:
Chris pours a pint in Nottingham
That aside, in this episode we discuss the crazy thing that is a goat, and give advice to people in prison, or hardware shops, or something. I can't remember.
We're also joined by Jason Jones and Toby Teatime, daytime TV astrologers.
Here's a picture of a goat's eye to save you the bother of looking them up when prompted.
A goat's eye yesterday
We'll be back next week with more chat and laughter.
Episode 77 – Doc Doc Doc Doc Doctor Beat
1 May 2009 @ 10:45 am
This week, Chris wants to talk about band names, and why they should be standardised, perhaps by the European Union or United Nations.
Swine flu is big in the news this week, with infections turning up all over the place, and media hysteria already at pandemic stage, which must make the virus itself feel a bit put out.
Luckily, The Blueprint Podcast have a new feature in the form of Doctor's Orders, and this week we deal with how to recognise the tell-tale signs that you are dead.
Saturday Swine Fever. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha.
We'll be back next week, when we'll be coming to you from Nottingham. Because that's what this podcast's all about – shock.
Episode 76 – The Nazis Were Bad
24 Apr 2009 @ 12:00 pm
In Episode 76, we reminisce about our old pal Xavier Laurent, who has refused to speak to us for some time now following the various problems we had with translators. Dave's been putting some work in on that front, so we'll hopefully have some Xavier-based information to give you soon, but not this week.
Dave talks us through how France narrowly avoided becoming a far-right-wing nation, but it soon descends into bum jokes.
Chris has conducted an experiment by reading a load of propaganda to find out what it might have been like to be a Nazi. Happily he managed to avoid becoming one. Phew. We discuss the Nazis in a manner which avoids the use of any facts whatsoever.
All in all, though, we're happy, chuckling dudes. Quite early on, Chris mentions Gil Gerard, who played Buck Rogers in the late 1970s-early 1980s version of the franchise. However, as a kid, Chris had a massive crush on Erin Gray, who played Wilma Deering, so we'll have a picture of her instead.
Erin Gray as Colonel Wilma Deering - yes please.
Episode 75 – Noise Theft
17 Apr 2009 @ 12:00 pm
We like to stick a flag on world events once in a while, and with the recent pointless conviction of the founders of Pirate Bay, we tackle noise theft in this episode.
Having reloaded their special foot-shooting gun some years after taking down Napster and causing file-sharing to become the many-headed monster that it is today, the people who themselves live in order to make huge sums of money from the work of creative people who are paid far less have done it again.
Pirate Bay is still there, and even if it wasn't, Mininova is, and so is Piraboogle and all the rest of them.
Spotify, which is pretty much the same thing that Napster suggested ten years ago, has now occupied a position whereby everything is legal, the music industry make money out of it, and the consumer gets instant access to free tunes. Perfect, if wholly ridiculous that they didn't just let Napster provide the same service back in the day.
They could do the same thing with movies and TV shows if they felt like it. In fact, I can legally watch On Demand television through my Virgin Media connection, but if I miss, say Lost one day and wanted to catch up with it the next, it would be illegal for me to download the episode using bittorrent using the same connection. Mental.
The Napster case just fragmented the issue and made it unmanageable for years. The Pirate Bay issue will do the same thing again, and here's the kicker – it was fragmented already, because bittorrent doesn't rely on one website's existence to work. It relies on bittorrent clients which are available for free download. Even those are plentiful.
The lawyers can play Whack-A-Mole until they retire, and it's they who are really sucking the money out of the music and DVD industries. They're the ones who have somehow got people convinced that chasing website owners is better than actually trying to do something positive about the way that copyrighted content is delivered in the 21st Century.
Spotify works, so create the exact same service for movies and TV shows, you absolute bunch of idiots.
Rant over. We also give you a scat singing masterclass during this episode, but not before a thrilling game of Dog Bingo.
We hope you enjoy this week's podcast. This week's photo is of some file sharing.
File sharing - Always use clean files
And for good measure, here's a picture of Reveen as well, since we talk about him this week.
Reveen. He wants you to relax with him
Episode 74 – You Have Been Watching…
10 Apr 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Remember when British sitcoms used to end with “You Have Been Watching…” and then a montage of clips of each of the stars with their name captioned on the screen? There were quite a few of them, and we tackle the inaccuracies and untruths within one British sitcom this week, or at least Chris does despite Dave's protests that it wasn't meant to be real.
We're coming to you from Barnsley once again, and although we are still a bit hungover, we're a using sentences a bit more than we were last week.
Ruth Madoc in Hi-De-Hi. Chris met her at the Billingham Forum when he was about 18, fact fans. She was very nice.
PS – while looking for Hi-De-Hi related stuff, I've just discovered that actress Dianne Holland, who played Yvonne Stewart-Hargreaves in the show, died this February aged 78. Apparently she was a good laugh in real life.
We greet you this week from some nursing accommodation in a Barnsley hospital, the morning after one of those big nights out where the world becomes your friend and everyone wakes up wondering what day it is and where they are.
We pick our way through the previous evening, and along the way find time for the noble signwriting profession and how it would fit into life in the distant future.
We have to say a very special hello and thanks to John and Patrick, whose 40th birthday party we found ourselves attending in Barnsley. Thanks to you guys, and to your friends and family for making us feel so very welcome, and for letting us have loads of goes on the karaoke and buffet.
Here's the hospital we recorded this podcast at.
Greetings from Barnsley, one friendly town.
We'll be back with another Barnsley-based episode next week, join us then at www.blueprintpodcast.com.
Episode 72 – Highlander II is Rubbish
27 Mar 2009 @ 06:54 am
Hope you've been enjoying the daily thrill of moustache updates, but I'm going to have to tear you away from that for a while so that you can listen to Episode 72.
Nerds are on my mind again. Possibly I think of nerds because I am one. Possibly because I worry about them and how upset they get about things like the new Star Trek film.
It's for this reason that I regale you with the story ofhow myself, Dave and some other old pals all went to watch Highlander II together, and the way we felt about that.
Oh no! I'm in Highlander bloody two!!!
Next week we'll be welcoming Dave back to the podcast, so come back then and hear what he'sbeen up to.
Tell the people, episode 71 is here. Once again it's Chris podcasting on his own, which sounds totally rude.
We bring you the lastest from The Blueprint Podcast News Roundup, which this week focuses on the worlds of Law, Twitter, celebrities, The Cure, The Ting Tings, and quasi-computer-illiterate office workers.
Then, it's a journey into the World of Men via their facial hair. If you think about it for long enough, any hair is a bit weird, and the way we style it and cut it and so on is even weirder. Facial hair seems doubly so.
Some moustaches yesterday - which one should I go for?
This train of thought comes about because Chris is about to embark on a most male trial, that of the growing of a charity moustache. If you'd like to sponsor Chris to grow a moustache and help terminally-ill people and their loved ones to enjoy a better quality of life, please go to http://www.justgiving.com/chris-tash and give as much or as little as you feel comfortable with.
Episode 72 will be steaming your way in but a week from now.
Episode 70 – War! Heeurgh! Good God Y'all
13 Mar 2009 @ 01:00 am
Episode 70 is a Chris-only episode. Dave is out of circulation at the moment, learning the ways of the people in a far flung part of the world and healing their ills. He'll be back in a couple of weeks or so.
There's a News Roundup this week, with stories from the worlds of speaking, the economic downturn and housing market, bears, anti-smoking hypocrisy, Facebook, and wheelie bin collections.
Other than that, it's just Chris and a bit of a rant about relationships and how most people in the world don't actually seem to like each other very much.
Please sponsor Chris to grow a moustache throughout the month of April. You can leave a donation, however large or small, by going to http://www.justgiving.com/chris-tash.
Here's a couple who are reaching relationship Armageddon.
Buster Keaton and the timeless custard pie
The Blueprint Podcast will return next week with episode 71, see you then.