Podcasts and Some Books

For longer that I care to look into I've been promising to restart this blog.  And for most of that time, I seem to have been promising to talk about podcasts.

Perhaps what has been putting me off is that my thoughts on podcasts are really unoriginal.  I'm going to summarise them in a few points

• if you podcast is over an hour and a half long,  it is probably too long
• if you podcast contains a description of how you've edited it, you've failed in the editing process
• nobody wants to listen to you eating or drinking (unless it's a really niche podcast)

There you go.  You can fill in the details yourself with reference to your favorite 'cast.

So what have I been listening to?

I've mentioned the first two before.  Both are from James Holloway.

Monster Man started as 

a podcast that delves into the classic AD&D Monster Manual from 1977. Every episode looks at one or more D&D monsters, digging deeper into their inspirations and uses. 

After 70-odd episodes James finished the Monster Manual.  He's currently doing some specials before moving on the the Fiend Folio sourcebook.

As a spin-off James also started Patreon Deities in which he does the same thing for Demigods and Deities (this one requires a monthly subscription of at least $1.00).

In his discussion of the Norse Pantheon (just completed), James suggested Saga Thing

a podcast hosted by two friends and former grad-school colleagues who have been reading and enjoying the [Icelandic] sagas for years. We’re both professors of medieval literature and we both have beards.  Though we live quite far apart, recording Saga Thing gives us an opportunity to get together again (virtually) and talk about our love of medieval Iceland.  Our goal is to read and review the sagas, one at a time, in an epic quest to put the sagas of the Icelanders on trial and to celebrate the greatness of saga literature.

Which has also joined my listening schedule.

And of course, I wouldn't be me if I hadn't acquired some related books.

This one is a present for The Wife

This one is for me

It has nice pictures

And we both like this film

Meanwhile, in Asgard...

For domestic reasons I didn't blog about it at the time, but last week Oathsworn Miniatures had a short Kickstarter to test the waters for Project Pantheon - figures of gods  from various traditions (starting with the Norse).

The initial aim of this Kickstarter was to see if there was a demand for Odin riding his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir.  It soon became clear that there was, and sculpting is now underway on the next figure in the project - Freyja astride the battle-swine Hildisvini.

Now, as some of you may remember, I signed up for one of Oathsworn's earlier projects and was very impressed, not only with the finished product, but with their whole ethos and communications.  The picture of Hildisvini is from one of their almost daily updates, giving blow-by-blow WIP reports,

The Odin Kickstarter has ended, but it's still possible to make a 'late-bird' (??) pledge.