Kurt's Thoughts

UPDATED (8/27/2007): 
So Steve Friess chimed in the comments section and noted that he’s never written for the New York Post, so that’s been edited out.  He also noted that I made a snarky "two snaps up" comment which wasn’t necessary, and in the end I agreed so that’s been edited out as well.

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ORIGINAL POST:
Not that anyone actually cares about what I listen to, but if you’re like me and you love hearing about what’s going on in Las Vegas in an entertaining yet well-informed way, there’s a really easy way to stay in the know… and that’s via podcasts oriented around Las Vegas.

Yes, yes, yes.  I know.  95% of all podcasts are utter rubbish.  And you’d be right:  That’s why I’m going to list out the Las Vegas podcasts that I listen to so at least you have one ‘filter’.  And for the record, there are some real stinkers out there – most of them have disappeared but there’s still a couple left which you may assume are the one’s not listed below.

• The Living in Las Vegas Podcast  (http://www.livinginlv.com)
  RSS: http://www.livinginlv.com/podcasts/LivingInLV-PodCast.xml
  OMG.  Married couple Scott & Melissa "Madame Secretary" Whitney need to be institutionalized and by that I mean, in a double entendre sort of way.  They both should be enshrined as well as sent to a sanitarium because their podcast is one of the funniest things I’ve listened to in a while.  Although it helps if you’re married, because clearly these two fall into this category.

  LIVING "MARRIED IN VEGAS"
  Scott and Melissa talk about what it’s like to live in Las Vegas and what’s going on in the city from a married couple’s point of view.  And believe me – this is VERY DIFFERENT from the other podcasts.  I should warn you that most of the podcast is about them and their travails in Las Vegas as opposed to Vegas itself, however every minute is gold.  Sheer 24 karat, baby.

  REGULAR SEGMENTS OF COMEDY, SEVERAL UNINTENTIONAL
  Scott has regular segments to the show including "The Pool Report" where Scott & Melissa discuss the temperature of their home pool relative to the whether, which might not sound funny right now but believe me, it’s such weak sauce at times it’s actually funny… oh, and something called "Hot and Horrible" which I’ll leave you to discover.  In the end, I consider this to be akin to the Comic section of the newspaper, whenever I load up my Zune for playback in the gym.  It’s probably my favorite podcast at the moment.

• The Strip:  Las Vegas Podcast (http://www.thestrippodcast.com)
  RSS:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheStrip 
  Steve Freiss, a journalist for the Vegas Magazine, and the author of books including, "Gay Vegas" along with his partner Miles, does a fairly serious, information packed, and extremely opinionated podcast on the events going on in Vegas, and in particular, includes conversations and interviews with celebrities in Sin City. 

  STEVE GETS THE INTERVIEWS
  Boy, Steve has the hook up.  He interviews Vegas regulars… for example, recently his interviews include the likes of Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Lovitz, the Amazing Johnathan, Mel Brooks, the Killers, Steve Wyrick, Paul Anka, Lance Burton, Paula Poundstone, and Jamie Gold… just for starters.  So there’s undoubtedly going to be content in the podcast that you’ll find interesting.  With all the Hollywood types and famous folks speaking on his podcast, it’s kinda hard to avoid.

  OPINION IS THE KEY WORD
  The thing to note is that Steve is very opinionated and frankly one of the more arrogant people I’ve listened to.  But I think that his snide, "I’m-right-and-everyone-else-can-just-f-off" attitude creates an immediate dialogue in one’s head polarizing your thoughts on whatever it is he’s talking about and that frankly makes for good listening and good journalism… so good for you Steve.  And let’s not kid ourselves:  You, the listener, get the last word all the time since you don’t actually have to listen to the podcast if you don’t like it, and more importantly, you get the satisfaction of deleting his god-awful rubbish off your media player if you think he’s being an ass. 

• Five Hundy By Midnight (http://www.fivehundybymidnight.com)
  RSS:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/FiveHundyByMidnight
  I have a special place in my heart for the two that do this podcast – Tim & Michele Dressen.  In case you’re wondering, it’s called ‘Five Hundy By Midnight’ because of a quote from the movie "Swingers". And they have the best intro of all the Las Vegas podcasts, for certain.

  NPR MEETS LAS VEGAS
  How do you describe Tim & Michele?  Well, their low key demeanor and affable banter make these folks nominees for the "most likely to get a show on NPR".  It really does sound like two somewhat mellow NPR commentators going back and forth with the occasional "drunk dialing" listener phone call.

  SIGMA DERBY LUST
  This always makes me laugh:  They’re major Sigma Derby fans – particularly Michele.  For the uninitiated, Sigma Derby is a old fashioned gambling machine in a table format in which 5 mechanical horses physically race around a track and people win based on the horse they select.  It’s a got a whopping 12% house edge on it, but fans don’t seem to care.  They just love Sigma Derby.  And the sad part is that Sigma Derby is almost extinct:  One of the few remaining machines in Las Vegas was in the Frontier which recently shutdown leaving only one more machine in MGM Grand… and that’s it.

  DRUNK DIALING SPECIALISTS
  Here’s the other thing:  They have tons of fans that are drunk dialers.  I mean we’re talking LEGIONS.  They get all pissed drunk then call up the podcast’s answering machine to leave a message.  And did I mention there’s a lot of these folks?  This gives Tim & Michele a lot of podcast fodder and an infinite source of laughter.

And in case you don’t have a podcast downloader/manager, here’s what I use:

• Juice Receiver (formerly known as iPodder)
  http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/index.php