Lots of interesting ideas here from Venkatash Rao, although I still don't get the attraction of tweetstorms, or whetever they are called nowadays. Certainly, though, the focus on text as the thing has always made sense to me. Presentation matters, of course it does, but so does content. Just as it does in audio.

Smart piece, pointing out not only the strengths of Clive James as a cultural critic, but also his vision of what the entails.

I find it hard to believe that some university department of media studies, or whatever, isn't falling over itself to take over James' site and give it the care he obviously wanted to give it.

I'm not sure I actually read about any biggest mistake, apart from maybe not being united, in the immensely parochial piece. But I can't disagree with this:

Podcasting didn’t start in control of the monied few and gradually become democratized. Podcasting started as a democracy, and now faces the incursion of the monied few.

And while I don't mind about the monied few taking over (well, not too much) I do mind that they are even called podcasts. They really are radio on demand, and we storied few shouldn't be judged by the same standards.

I did switch to fish, once upon a time. But as I barely understood bash, that was probably a mistake. Anyway, I just want to endorse Dan's idea:

create shells cash, trash, theclash, and bangersandmash.

That is all.

This feels to me like two separate posts, the second building on the first. And while the first fascinated me, as an outsider, the second, although undoubtedly important, was of much less interest. But if you are into culture, give it a try.

Last Christmas I vowed to spend less time on my smartphone. It worked — until a couple of months ago, when I started using Twitter much more. Why? I had something to sell. That seems wretchedly appropriate.

Yup, that seems right. Even when no money actually changes hands.

For one thing, it's a lot easier to call yourself a "nutritionist". Then again, where do food scientists work except in industry, or training more food scientists?

Very good to know.

But seriously: why does it seem so weird to pay for a podcast, when I pay for music, films, TV etc?

And answer came there none.