The podcast is just something I want to do more strongly than posting on this one.

Thanks for reading! You can get Alternative Airwaves from http://alternativeairwaves.blogspot.com

Working on the first show right now, picking the music. Not sure when it will be done, though.

So the other day I co-hosted a live radio program with a friend on community radio.  It was fun – I used to host my own show in college in the radio broadcasting program (and although the music was pre-selected, it was pretty cool music and we could talk about virtually anything), as well as some university radio elsewhere.  I have a lot of fun doing it, and part of the fun is playing my own choice of music and just talking over the air to anyone who’ll listen.

I’ve been told before that I’m good at the whole talking over the air thing – and that’s great, but personally I feel that I’m at the hobby level.  I don’t think I could get paid serious money to do it, or at least paid enough to live comfortably.  And even though I enjoy commercial radio, doing a show for a proper radio station that’s in it to make money is not entirely the same as putting your own music together for an hour or two and just playing around.

For various reasons it’s difficult for me to find any time to volunteer for on air shifts at the university stations.  So my only outlet for this kind of thing is to put together a podcast.  The only problem is that I don’t think I have an audience – at least, I have an audience of maybe 2-3 people.  Which is not a big deal, I’m sure I had less listeners than that when I was actually on radio airwaves.

The biggest problem with doing a podcast is that I really only CAN distribute it to close friends, or else I face legal issues from the likes of SOCAN and RIAA or whatever the Americans are.  Unless I pick music that is 100% free, like Creative Commons stuff.

Who knows, I might end up doing just that – digging through 100%, legally free and distributable music to find some hidden gems and yak about it into my terrible, terrible microphone.

I still haven’t heard of most of them before, but after a really slow start (I was second last after the first week), I made some tweaks to my line-up and I’ve put together a real good powerhouse.  I’ve moved up to third place now with only 4 games back – so I have to say it’s working well.  Here’s my roster:

C – Rod Barajas (Toronto), Jorge Posada (NYY, DL) – Will need to make a decision re: Barajas vs Posada, but I have some time while he’s on the DL

1B – Derrek Lee (ChC), Carlos Pena (TB) – I usually start Lee, but I like having the option of starting Pena.  Both are good players.

2B – Kelly Johnson (Atl), Ian Kinsler (Tex), Brian Roberts (BAL) - Kinsler is my go-to second baseman.  Awesome stats this year.  Roberts is in there as an extra IF, he’s good for stolen bases.

3B – Russell Martin (LAD) – No idea who this guy is, but he’s my third-baseman.  Doubles also as a catcher!

SS – Derek Jeter (NYY) – Need I say anything about Jeter?

LF – Carlos Quentin (CWS), Carlos Lee (Hou), Ryan Braun - Quentin is usually the one slotted in there, though Lee gets a few games.  Love my Carlos LF team.  Braun is in the OF slot.

CF – Nate McLouth (PIT) – I like the guy’s name.  Rolls off the tongue.  He’s also a terriffic player.

RF – Jayson Werth (Phi), Milton Bradley (Chc) – Werth is usually slotted in there, but the great thing about Werth is that Yahoo lets me put him at any OF position.

Starting Pitchers – Josh Beckett (Bos), Yovani Gallardo (Mil), Jarrod Washburn (Sea), Ubaldo Jimenez (Col), Roy Halladay (Tor), Ricky Romero (Tor, DL) – Not sure if I’m going to end up keeping Romero when he’s off the DL, because I don’t know how many games he’ll get with the way the Jays staff is pitching.  But the rest of my staff is pretty solid!

Relief Pitchers – Mike Gonzalez (Atl), Huston Street (Col), Joe Nathan (Min), Brian Fuentes (LAA) – My relief pitchers are okay, they give me the bulk of my pitching stats since not all of my starters pitch every week.

So yeah, with that team I’ve clawed my way back from the bottom of the standings to #3.  I have a good feeling about this year!

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Starting with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this summer is looking to be no different.  There are so many big ones that Wolverine flew completely below my radar.  Star Trek is the one that’s going to get the biggest attention from me, I think, because it’s always really cool to have a Trek picture on the big screen.  Even if it’s as terrible as Nemesis.

Here’s the list of major blockbusters coming out this year:

May 1: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

May 8:  Star Trek

May 15: Angels & Demons (sequel, I guess, to The DaVinci Code)

May 21: Terminator Salvation (hoping for the best, expecting mediocrity)

May 22: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (looking forward to this, liked the first one)

May 29: Drag Me To Hell (I believe this is a Sam Raimi horror picture, and it looks appropriately ridiculous)

June 24: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (did people really hate the first movie?  The one that was only supposed to be an action movie with a loose plot?  Really?  Definitely seeing this one)

July 1: Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (there’s three of these already?)

July 15: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (gotta be among one of the bigger ones!)

August 7: G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (okay seriously…why didn’t anyone tell me this was coming?)

August 14: The Time Traveler’s Wife (it’s got time travel, gotta be good)

August 28: Final Destination: Death Trip 3D (I don’t think this even needs a comment)

October 16: Where the Wild Things Are (I know, not technically a summer blockbuster, but a very big movie nonetheless)

October 23: Astro Boy (see above)

*sigh* my wallet will take a beating I think.

Spider-Man is one of those movies that I didn’t particularly like when I first saw it opening night in the theatres, but eventually grew on me on future viewings.   There are just some little things in there that makes me really enjoy it every time I see it now.

I can’t even remember why I didn’t initially like the movie – but the reason I do like it is because it really captures the campy feel of the comic book movie that something like Spider-Man should have.  Batman Begins and The Dark Knight should have that dark feeling – I mean Batman is a pretty brooding guy.  But Spider-Man is full of crazy villains (I mean you’ve got mutating lizards, space aliens, and a crazy hunter) that probably wouldn’t work well in a serious setting.

The other really great thing about the first Spider-Man movie is the editing and pace of the film.  You can tell a lot of work went into shaping this movie.  It doesn’t feel like it’s running too long (and actually, at 121 minutes this is the shortest of the three), and the story is straightforward and easy to follow.  It goes from Point A to B to C without deviating.

With such a rich history and multitude of backstory re-tellings, this movie needed to be strict with its story telling.  I think it says a lot when you can feel Peter Parker’s awkwardness around Mary-Jane through high school when the movie spends all of 20 minutes in that time frame.  As Peter learns of his new powers (and the responsibilities that come with it), he’s thrust into the real world where he has to learn about different priorities and responsibilities.

But there’s other things that make me enjoy the movie when watched in retrospect, after having seen the two sequels.  Remember that part in Spider-Man 3 where he poses by the American flag?  Well, check out the final scene in Spider-Man.  Pretty similar, I think!

Overall, this movie is well-produced and works with the vast array of source material efficiently.  If you haven’t seen it, where have you been for the past 7 years?

But I’ve been reading a few articles here and there about blogging in general and did some thinking based on my own experiences in the last few months.  Here’s what I’ve come up with:

- It’s great if I can get people to read this, but I’m not going to worry about that as my main focus.  I’m just going to write what I write, on my own schedule.  I don’t have time to do regular updates anymore.

- I’m putting less focus on other blogs that I’ve started.  In fact I deleted a bunch of them just now.  I’m still going to keep my Stargate Universe blog because it’s so specific, but it’s on hold until that show launches in Canada.  I have a separate movie review blog that I started before this one, but I’ve never really updated that one on a regular basis in the first place.

- In summary, I’m not in the market to try and monetize blogs or make money online anymore.  I have other things I need to focus on without having to worry about blogs.

I’ll still be writing, so if you enjoy the blog, please keep reading! :)

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