History
Hi, I’m Dave, a twentysomething dude living in Wisconsin.
In 2005, I purchased an iPod, and, needing something to put on it, I started listening to podcasts. In the beginning, I only listened to shows by TechTV alumni like Diggnation with Kevin Rose and Infected with Martin Sargent. Then, however, I began to look up casts in the iTunes directory, searching by interests of mine. It was through this that I stumbled upon a podcast named Jpop Blast, created by an English fellow named Robbie Fargo. The show’s format was set up like an audioblog, interspersed with Japanese music. Robbie frequently mentioned “Twinkie” on his show, and eventually I began to listen to Twinkie Beyond, an audioblog hosted by Jackie, a dude living in central Maryland. Intrigued by the thought of doing my own podcast, I, along with a good friend, sat in a basement one evening and recorded a cast using a borrowed mixer. While it was a noble effort, it ultimately never saw the light of day…
In early January of 2006, Mr. Fargo spilled water on his laptop and was unable to cast because of this for several weeks. Eventually, he decided to have guest hosts produce episodes of his show until his laptop was repaired, and so, I hosted an episode. The same evening I finished up production on my guest episode of Jpop Blast, many of my good friends and I decided to head out to our favorite American Chinese restaurant, China Buffet. It was on this evening that we recorded the first episode of our group cast, Fast Times at China Buffet.
As episodes of Fast Times at China Buffet continued to be made, I started up a solo podcast named Stationary Joystick. Unfortunately, this podcast ended after only two episodes. During this time (early 2006), our “podcast brethern” (as Robbie described it) continued to flourish with our own casts, and even with joint casts, as was the case with Twinkie and the Brain(an effort between Jackie and Robbie). An alliance was started that included many of the podcasts in this circle. Entitled n.W.p (New World Podcasts), the alliance certified the success of everyone’s podcasts.
However, in mid 2006, the “empire” crumbled, and many of the podcasts, including Jpop Blast, podfaded away and were forgotten. Some of the casts that survived hit rough spots where episodes were scarcely put out and casters frequently entertained the idea of giving it up. Today, a “new wave” of podcasts have started up, and Twinkie Beyond is still being produced (Fast Times at China Buffet is also still produced, although episode output is infrequent). While the n.W.p community communicated via forums, the new wave’s forum is on Twitter. In the camaraderie of the new wave, I resurrected Stationary Joystick, vowing to stick with it. Maybe one day this podcast won’t be half bad…