It’s another Notes from Spain podcast! First part of a series on living in Spain.
Where to Live and work in Spain – show notes:
Click here to listen (30 mins, 13 mb).
23:55 – 22 ºC – rain, refreshing
I passed my motrbike test the other day. A horrible business in Spain – driving around a series of cones before negotiating a 5 m long, 6inch wide raised iron bar. I saw several people fail on this part of the exam, including one poor girl who was moved to tears, before finally managing to pass the test myself. Incredible… I was sure I was bound to fail. So now I am in the market for a medium sized motorbike. Luckily I have my friends at motos.net to help… this is the power of the net, where everyone is an expert in something and happy to help anyone with questions. Great.
So, should it be a honda cbf 500, or a suzuki? It’s all academic really as I haven’t got a penny to spare! Still, por ahora tengo la Vespa, asi que… paciencia…
A podcast is a radio show that is downloaded straight to the computer from the internet and then listened to either on the computer itself or on any mp3 music player (it doesnt have to be an Apple ipod player.) A podcast might be a talk show, an audio travelogue, a ‘sound seeing tour‘, a dj ruminating on life whilst playing favourite songs, a weekly showcase of new comedy or unknown bands, or a combination of all of the above.
The point is that a podcast can consist of any format already found in traditional radio. Its secret, and often the key to its success, is the ability to focus on specific audience profiles – this is why it is often described as niche radio. For example the ‘Costa del Podcast’ might be a programme aimed specifically towards the expat community on the Costa del Sol.
For more info on podcasting check out the following links:
www.podcastalley.com – podcasts, forums, interviews and more
www.ipodder.org – a comprehensive directory of podcasts
www.curry.com – the ‘podfather’, including daily show and blogs on podcasting
www.scripting.com – the podcast creator, geeky stuff on blogging, the web and more, but great if you like that sort of thing
Saturday afternoon, 7 p.m., 34 degrees in the flat. This country is crazy.
One minute it’s a nice kind of spring, (almost literally a minute, spring is usually as short-lived as it is pleasant – i.e. very), and the next thing you know, bang! mid-thirties all day and all night long. It plays tricks on the brain, the siesta becomes a total necessity, not just some funny Spanish stereotype. Worst of all is what my wife has just informed me is known as a ‘Bochorno’ – heavy weather, formation of cloud, very hot – but there’s no way it’s going to give in and clear the air with a nice burst of rain.
Damn it’s hot. And this is only the beginning, from here on up into the 40’s – yipee!
Much as I love it, the internet used to worry me, I thought it may have the power to turn us all into recluses, shut up at home ‘surfing’, or blogging away to ourselves… But quite the opposite is occuring. Forums, blogosheres, yahoo groups – they are bringing people together in person, not just in cyberspace as I had once feared. For example, local motorcyclists are meeting other motorbike enthusiasts through forums, and organising weekly bike rides around Madrid; last week I heard a podcast with Clark Boyd, a BBC podcaster from the states who was interested in meeting podcast listeners whilst on a trip to Spain, and indeed we are set to meet up in a couple of weeks. How the hell did people ever meet other like-minded people in the past? Well, I suppose it justy took a little longer…
So, it’s no longer just lovers and conferencing bloggers that are getting together via the net – there’s a big shared interests thing taking off here and I think it’s going to be big. Thank God – I thought for a minute that the net, despite all its wonders, might become a hinderance to a large part of (social) life as we know it….
Podcast – 25th May 2005 !
It’s another Notes from Spain podcast! This one is basically a terraza cast rambler including:
Click here to listen (16mins, 7mb).
A helicopter has broken all height records by managing to land on everest. How cool is that? I would feel a lot safer now if ever I decided to climb it….. hmmmm…..
‘I do wish bombs would stop going off near me in Madrid’ – was probably the wrong text message to send to my wife, at least that’s what she told me when my mobile rand 20 seconds later. But it’s true. We were 200 m away from Atotcha station when the bombs went off there on March 11th last year, blowing apart train carriages and many of the people inside them. I recognise the sound of a bomb now, a booming iron thud, quite different from any of the other booms one hears in Madrid (like the sound of an empty skip dropped on tarmac).
What I really wish is that bombs would stop going off anywhere, near me or not. It is all quite unfathomable. I wonder what ETA hoped to achieve with this? Perhaps El Mundo can explain it to me later on. More on this later in a podcast…
One of those hectic days characterised by translations and more translations.. and trying to fit in a driving lesson and a morning ‘job’ teaching (without actually teaching but hanging around a lot…)
So I’m off to see the Revenge of the Sith, although I have to say that I could live without it… I’ve got a podcast to make god dammit! Maybe when I get back. Continuity is the key! It’s 28 degrees outside, at half past eight-ish (p.m.). Just got an email from a friend of ours in London, a Spanish girl who has just moved over there with her husband. She says “Por cierto. En tu pais hace muy mal tiempo!!!” – By the way, in your country the weather is terrible!!! Poor girl, she doesn’t know the half of it – this is May, wait until she gets to November 😦
OK, off to the cinema, the podcast will be coming very soon…. on the off chance that someone actually listens…
In the meantime, if you’re bored, check out flickr and have a look around.
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 