Field of Streams is my Field of Dreams
Did you know I will read my writing to you on my podcast?
At the beginning of 2023, I declared to myself that this would be my “Prolific AF Year”. I even renamed all my devices—my phone, my laptop, my home wifi—as Prolific AF. And I wrote about it.
And then I got to work.
It started with the decision to add a paid option to The Stream (turned off for this hiatus) which included audio recordings. And then I decided I should go back and record everything, right from that first post, and make the whole thing as a Podcast of sorts (I’d say it’s more like an audiobook with commentary), which I called Field of Streams. Hilarious, right? There’s another dumb play on words by me.
Will I ever learn?
Never!
Here’s my plug:
FOLLOW THE PODCAST. IT’S GREAT. IT’S ME AT MY FINEST VOICE, DELIVERING THINGS I’VE WRITTEN WITH SOME BACKSTORY ON WHERE THE INSPIRATION CAME FOR EACH. YOU’LL LOVE IT. PUT IT IN YOUR EARS. LET ME IN.
Episodes are—for the most part—blissfully short. (Except for the one on The Darkness—that’ was a 30-minute travelog on me going to a rock concert) Episodes are, on average, a 10-minute listen. There are even some 5-minute episodes near the start of this caper.
There are already over 50 episodes if you want to binge on your holiday drive or flight. I almost can’t believe it. Fifty already.
Where can you find it?
Click this image (or here). It will take you to a page that will take you to your favorite podcasting platform to subscribe. Subscribe or follow the podcast when you get there so you get notifications when they go up. Oh, and then go binge the whole thing. Or cherry-pick things that sound interesting. You do you. 🫡
Below this image are some thoughts on the endeavor so far. Once you’ve followed the pod, keep scrolling.
How’s it going?
Honestly, I wish I’d been doing the podcast right from the start. I realized quite quickly that I love speaking into microphones. Or one big burly microphone that I ordered from B&H in particular.
I’m learning stuff. Like furniture will randomly make a cracking sound for no reason while you’re recording. Houses creak and groan. Fridges are noisy. Living near a fire station sucks. Cars are a menace. Capitola has a low and persistent hum, which is new and I think may be a generator over at the wharf rebuild. I hear everything now.
I hear it all.
I don’t have a studio—I just record in my living room, usually a night because it’s quieter—and every noise outside of me talking makes itself known, and usually at the worst possible time. Fun story: on more than one occasion, I’ve forgotten to plug the fridge back in after recording and not realized until the next morning. I get so mad at myself when that happens.
Anyway, the point is, I love making them and I hope you love listening to them. And if you haven’t listened to any, please do. I’ve put a handy Top 5 episode list (based on listens) below.
The editing learning curve—I edit in Adobe Audition because it’s part of Creative Cloud—has been steep. Things are sounding better, but I make a weird honk in my voice when I speak occasionally and I’d never noticed that before. At the top and back of my throat. It’s weird.
Seriously. Did I mention this? I hope people like listening to them.
So… are people listening to them?
Yes. And I guess a bit of no, depending on what your scale of success is. I’m saying YES. The listens per episode have been slowly growing from episode to episode. (Well, they were until recently. It’s dropped a bit, but I’m putting that down to end-of-year holiday slowness. Right? Has to be that. I wish I’d stop looking at numbers.)
But speaking of numbers, let’s up the year with the most popular episodes for 2023, top to bottom, in a nice and handy Spotify playlist.
My favs so far?
As I was recording this one last week, I remembered how much I liked it. You are the masterpiece.
I also really liked the episode “Pig. It Tastes Good”, if for no other reason than to hear my spirited voice note that I sent to my friend on why he should watch the movie Pig.
Let’s wrap this up, for real.
I appreciate everyone who listens to me talk into the microphone. I don’t know how to get this podcast discovered, or even if that’s the goal. I’m assuming that only happens when you take the time to put it out there. The key word there is TIME. What I’m saying is, should the spirit move you, share episodes you like around your circles, tell your pals about it. I love hype friends. Hype friends are the best.
OK. I’m out. 🫡 🎤