What with having a drop taken and/or a mind wandering common on both branches of the family tree it behooves a fella from time to time to test-drive what remains of his wits, if any.
It struck me recently that for perfectly sound (har de har har) reasons I hadn’t done an episode of Radio Free Dogpatch since February 2025. But times pass and things change and people clearly aren’t getting any smarter, especially me.
So here we are so, dusting off what few of the mad skills I possessed only in theory not so very long ago and taking them for a spin around the old podcasting studio to see what falls off.
For openers, the 24-inch LG display that now supplements the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro in my main office is no longer attached to the MacBook Pro in the studio, which is 10 years older and an inch smaller, displaywise, and I cannot recommend such a tiny stage for audio theater as senescence staggers forward, trying to remember where it left its spectacles (atop its head).
Auphonic is no longer a strictly free app, which failed to astonish me in this, the New Gilded Age, so creator and audience must deal with what they call a “Jingle” fore and aft. Jingle me bollocks, boys … I’ll be looking for some other way to give me chin music a tuneup before I next set it out on its street corner to busk for nothing.
Finally, Libsyn has gotten a makeover as well, but if you’re reading this you can be sure that I managed to negotiate their maze. An old ratoncito can still cut the cheese. Find the cheese! I meant find the cheese! Where the hell are my spectacles? Oh … never mind.
Could this be the start of something big? Probably not. Mostly I wanted to see if I could still get ’er done. Also, I was bored. Giving the old brain-box a wee scrape and a splash of paint is a fine way to stay out of the wind, which is full of allergens and other evil tidings. Extra credit to anyone who can find the Firesign Theatre reference in this mess.
• Click here for the latest episode.
• Technical notes: RFD uses the Ethos mic from Earthworks Audio; Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones; Zoom H5 Handy Recorder; Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack; Apple’s GarageBand, and Auphonic for a wash and brushup. Clip from Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” lifted from YouTube. Booing crowd, kicked-in door, and Celtic tune from Freesound. “Out of Step,” which you’ve heard here before, comes from Audio Hero via Zapsplat. Special guest appearance from Miss Mia Sopaipilla, who despite a screechy meow is healthy as a horse as she approaches her 19th (!) birthday.
Mad Blog Media 
Tried to listen, and got this.
Error: 404 Not Found
There was a problem processing your request!
Details:
Attempting to load:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/radiofreedogpatch/RFD-Midnight_Train_to_Gitmo.mp3/%5D
Previous URL:
https://maddogmedia.com/
Try ’er again, K. I just dropped in a plain link while I try to debug the audio player.
Worked this time!
Libsyn and WordPress apparently quit making nice while I was AWOL. I need to find a player mechanism that doesn’t require a clickthrough to the RFD page; SoundCloud’s may work.
But not tonight. It’s dinnertime!
It’s good to hear you exercising your radio voice again, PO’G.
It appears you found the little chromium switch.
Aha! You found the Firesign. Well done indeed. And thank you.
I just felt like trying something different to distract myself from the same ol’, same ol’. And I thought it might be wise to do something with all that podcasting gear before Herself noticed the dust building up on it and confiscated the lot for her eBay side hustle.
Now that I’ve reacquainted myself with the process, if I want to crank out a Radio Free Dogpatch episode every now and then I need to resolve that WordPress-Libsyn player issue and either add an external display to the 2014 MacBook Pro or try podcasting with the M4 MBP, with its bigger brain and newer software.
Everybody needs a hobby, they say.
• Addendum: Hah. Finally found the appropriate player. Even a dumb dog finds a Milk-Bone if you give him enough leash.
Tech-no-logical implementation is the bane of my digital endeavors. As you found, the “upgrade” train left the station while I was kicking a vending machine trying to get my Clark bar to come down. That is to say just when I learn a few keyboard moves well damnit…here comes another software update that festers everything. On any given day half my Apple apps are wonky until they get a swift kick in the ass from cyberspace. For us amateurs, who only occasionally monkey with video compression or say, a music streaming app, we often find that what was working no longer does.
Got an impressive CD library? Well it’s obsolete now cause there’s SACD. What? Your stove doesn’t have dual infrared bacon warmers? Wow..how can you function without these things?
I love me a Clark bar! Haven’t had one since I was a kid, if memory serves. It rarely does these days.
Sometimes I feel like a system administrator when it is time to software update and sync all the TimCook bits and pieces around here, including my two old Airport routers. They still work like a charm. Allo fiber optic coming to Casa O’Be pretty soon. 500 mbs for $80 a month. Cox can go pound sand.
Pat that commercial leaves nothing to chance eh? By god he’s gonna get that Clark bar even if the Voice has to kill him. I wonder if the other candy shown was under the same company umbrella? In today’s world Milk Duds would have sued for damages after not having been selected.
Zagnut and Clark bars were from the same company but not Milk Duds. That company went bankrupt in 2018, and they are now made by Boyer in Altoona, PA.
It’s exasperating, innit? Thank Dog I had some notes from 2025, when I last cranked up the old Bad Noise Machine. They helped me remember how I used to do it before learning how I have to do it now, a year further on down the bumpy ol’ road to the boneyard.
I suppose I should engage in some serious technological decluttering here. That 2014 MacBook Pro is a leetle long in the tooth and short on storage and it seems to have developed a bit of a hitch in its gitalong after 12 years of riding the digital range. Still fine for road trips, checking mail, reading the news, even blogging; just a tad flabby in the upper body for heavy lifting.
Its main attraction is convenience — it just sits in the other office, which is much quieter than the main one for podcasting purposes, plugged into this, that, and the other, awaiting the call to duty.
Which this time around took a little longer than a year. No wonder it seemed a tad confused. “Huh? You want me to do what?”
I liked it. Your voice is very soothing to me, like the ultimate bed time story voice. Is that weird? I dunno POG. In my retirement I have pursued several ventures:
Rebuild of Jill’s Pike Select including the damper which is what is holding me up, waiting for a specific jaw block to hold it whilest I wrench upon it’s wretchedness.
Rebuild of a MEC Jr this shyster sold me that was supposed to be good to go. Yep, shot and powder falls all over the place while attempting to use this simple gadget to make me some dam shells. I got voted into the local gun club where the popular bumper sticker is 0% liberal. I just avoid political discussions.
Then I’ll be onto the Dillon 550 I bought new in OH and has been collecting dust in a box for ~ 10 years. Doing an ASI pistol shoot on Sat so I can exercise my “Plastic Fantastic” and poke some holes in targets. Trap is fun, as is handgunning (not with my own) and I look forward to some rifel shootin’ of my meager Mauser collection. I really appreciate what you do. I’m 26K words into my scribbling and told my boyhood friend he only gets a mention from me about not turning homosexual based upon his exploits with the various (C)rappers around ATL notable Lil Nax X.
Clyde, y’ol’ pistolero, glad to hear they done give ya a key to the Boom-Boom Room. I haven’t done any reloading since … 1982? The business editor at the Corvallis Gazette-Times was a Wyoming boy and .44 Mag fiend who hotloaded his own ammo. I had two S&W hand cannons then, the .357 and a .41, and we used to make a lot of noise down to the local gravel pit.
Sounds like you’re keeping busy. Nice to be handy out there where the hoot owls court the chickens. I had zero skills when we dwelt on that rockpile in CrustyTucky and was easy pickins for every self-styled handyman for miles around.
Thanks for the attaboy on the revived podcast. My voice is what you wind up with if you move a metric shit-ton as a child and want to blend in fast at a new school, town, or job. You’ll hear it at almost any old NPR affiliate. To this day I have to be careful not to automatically absorb accents and mannerisms when talking to strangers, some of whom may think they’re being mocked.
You don’t wanna go all Hillbilly Classic on some big ol’ boy you don’t know lest he unscrew yore haid and drank you like a sody pop.
When I worked at the gun shop, Smith and Wesson revolvers chambered for .41 Remington Magnum were hard to sell. It is actually a very good white tail deer cartridge for a revolver or the short barrel, 18 to 20 inch, Marlin 1894 rifle.
I recall the .41 Mag being pitched as the optimum antipersonnel weapon. Cactus Ed Abbey liked it too. In “The Fool’s Progress” he had a character say, “Better range and more knockdown power than the .357, less recoil and more accuracy than the .44 or a .45.”
That was certainly the case in my limited experience. That hotloaded Colt .44 Mag my colleague favored kicked like a mule, and so did the only .45 I ever fired. But my S&W .41 with the 6-inch barrel was a pleasure to shoot. I never should’ve gotten rid of it. But then again, I’m overgunned as it is and would be only more so were it still around.
It was developed as a law enforcement cartridge. Stop or I will make you dead. Civilized, que no?
Yell “Halt!” three times fast and shoot to kill, hey? Well, at least they only had six tries at you back then. What are the gendarmes packing these days? A Glock with 17 9mm rounds? Give a fella more holes than Albert Hall in less than a heartbeat, of which he will not be having many more.
None of these devices is strictly for fun, I s’pose.
I just recently sold a Ruger Hunter Bisley in the .41 remmag. Too much value to keep, and I didn’t like the single action handle funkiness. Now my hunting weapin is a 10mm FN that has factory 22 rd magz in case of zzzooommbies / Iceeeees or other aggressive opponents. + it is threaded making it possible to squeeze off a few not louder than my chili expulsion gas checks. Would love to find a lever in a pistol caliber affordable and decent. The public hunting land around me would be perfect for open sights or peep even better.
Thanks for the DogPatch talk. I appreciate the effort you put into them and enjoy your audio musings. Here’s to wishing that you have pleasant sunny weather for your next ride or run.
Glad you liked it, Shawn. To call me “rusty” on this one would be an insult to corrosion. We’re talking podcasting in slo-mo here. If I told you how long it took me to come up with just over four minutes of audio you’d call me a fibber.
Ah yes the dulcet voice of POG is a relief from the belligerent tone that announcers, broadcasters and podcasters seem to favor these days. Except for Tristan Ridley. He makes his bike tour adventures sound glorious no matter what. And the “what” includes 40 mph headwinds, super glue mud, arctic temperatures. For those of us who have parked the bike due to real winter, his YouTube videos are inspiring.
Gracias, hombre. It was just one of those things, y’know?
Herself had noticed a credit-card charge from Hindenburg — an annual subscription to their audio-editing software that I’d completely forgotten about — and when she asked about it I went all like, “Hmmmm. …”
Then just before one of her gal pals was to arrive for a visit, I was tidying up, giving the side-eye to all this pricey audio gear gathering dust in my other office, and going all like, “Hmmm. …” again.
“What the hell,” I sez to myself I sez. “Chase some of the mice out of the attic.” Beats riding a bike in 50-mph winds. And that was that.
Tristan Ridley, eh? I’m not familiar with him, but then I’m not following the bike world all that closely these days … though I have noticed that the Rebellion croaked the Empire’s plans to sell the Adventure Cycling Association’s HQ in Missoula.
Here’s where Tristan parks when he’s not logging the big miles. Let’s all of us give him an eye and ear. Not for reals an eye or ear …. he’s carrying enough weight. I’m speaking figuratively here. Look and listen.