Marc Maron and Sam Seder to Begin Experimental Vid-cast...The Funny Returns and We Get to Talk Politics Too!

Maron & Seder: everyone's favorite liberal talk radio talk hosts who clawed their way to fame on Air America Radio by delivering the truth and the funny, are launching a new experiment in daring-do, anger, and magic, to bring their very own independent broadcast show, and their actual faces, into your homes and onto your players, via a new video-cast technology that Sam Seder has been playing around with on his much embattled and shuffled around, yet still beloved, Sam Seder Show/Seder on Sundays.


What started as the nicknamed SammyCam, was probably due more to Sam's love of tech and film making, and him trying things out than any grand plan to take over the world. But, it quickly turned into a fun and interesting glimpse into the inner workings of the technical side of broadcasting and also a live back and forth conversation with listeners during the breaks, with the audience on Sam's blog and instant messenger, with Sam making technical adjustments as he got feedback as to the video quality and streaming of the show, and also still talking politics. It seemed to me like it was only a matter of time before it took off, because Sam was running around Yearly Kos2 with a mission, trying it out during his audio interviews, (and Yes I did beg to sit in the corner of that room and watch, but he actually said...er...NO!...damn him!...not even for Joe Conason...)

I can only imagine how quickly this thing would have come together if Mark Green, the terrible new owner of AAR, hadn't taken Sam's daily slot away to give it to his buddy, who I wont even mention here because he makes me nauseous. But considering that he only had Sundays and a few odd trials, he has got it down pretty nicely.




















According to Sam himself, Marc Maron will be joining him on the unnamed-as-of-yet, experimental show that, though still in the planning stages, looks to be a must see/must subscribe to!
The duo will be trying out the format next Tuesday, September 25th, at 11AM EST, as they did this past Tuesday (Check Seder's page for an audio link to the rough first time trial... it will be posted soon,) with a dual screen, dual host, dual coast show, that will, when all the kinks get ironed out, offer a live version with viewer interaction, downloadable video on demand, guests, and who knows what else when you get those two together, working for themselves in a rather unregulated format. Expect politics and expect the funny...expect to feel better about the world in general. This thing will be available on a subscription basis, and I am so there, first on line, for it!
The details, such as cost and how subscriptions will be handled are still in their infancy....But I plan on supporting this no matter what cockamamie scheme they come up with.
Reached for comment for this piece on location in Vancouver, where he is performing at a comedy festival till the 22nd, Marc Maron said something to the effect of..."...its me and Sam on the screen talking about shit."...Which is code for Get ready for the Funny, People!!
More to come from the other coast as soon as he gets some ideas!!
Look for Marc at the UCB Theatre in LA on Oct. 5th and in NYC at Comix Oct 12th and 13th!
Check his page for details and additions!


I am just thrilled that out of the ashes of AAR we are going to see another interesting experiment...and who knows? Old Green might just figure it out somehow...I dunno...but miracles sometimes happen...right?


For a long time I've thought that this sorta streaming wireless content was going to be the wave of the future. I just finished listening to David Pogue's NY Times Circuits Podcast from August 17th, where he discusses radios that have WiFi chips on board. These chips make it possible to tune into any of thousands of streaming Internet radio stations or the Internet streams of terrestrial radio, not to mention podcasts, in pretty sterling clarity, depending on your WiFi setup or the public WiFi available.
I used to covet these very expensive and rare pieces of equipment, which were available at Dell for a while or on the Internet, but in short order, Air America Radio got killed by one Danny Goldberg and another Mark Green scavenging the wreckage, so I put it off until the prices came down.
Still, anyone who knows me knows that this is a big theme around here: Soon all phones will have these chips, all radios, even cheap ones, and the startup streaming content sites will wrestle the cream to the top. To that end Ive been working towards starting up something myself with content produced by my grandfather. That is still in the air, and its very possible that the technology has already gone beyond that old time audio in that, here come Vid-casts for the YouTube generation. Its still going to be all about content and the quality of the content; the talent of the players.
The adoption of this technology will happen passively and be as successful with non-technical people as the tech designers are at integrating a search/scan, and save option into even the smallest transistor radio.
I believe that the future world will have cities and towns with fully free wireless, with America likely lagging behind in our struggle to re-regulate big business and get back to a population that knows whats going on. As more places like Cosi pop up, with their free WiFi and good coffee/better food/comfortable atmosphere and couches, its going to become more and more silly to pay a corporation via Starbucks $10 to get online for a day.
And I do believe, as does my friend from YK2, (who I imagine might be a blogger secretly, as he has a sensitive job but alot to say,) who has been struggling to bring WiFi to another large city, that it is possible. My exasperation with the city of Stamford is that their "free" WiFi that stretches through downtown, past UBS Warburg and on to the train station where the masters of the universe converge with their handhelds on their way to run with the bulls, runs just to the edge of the poor part of town, where too many people cant afford even cable TV much less a cable modem or even a dial up. Add to that the news that the library's hours have been cut back due to budget shortfalls that have hit the schools and public services pretty hard, and here we are.
So, with the understanding that things have to change and my sure feeling that they will first gradually and then all of a sudden, I've been keenly aware of what can be done with the emerging technology and how much of an investment it is in the future to try some of it out.

The other thing that is crystal clear is that the screen is here to stay, and that these shows do great if offered in audio or video versions. When the iPod Nano suddenly has a nice screen and the iPod itself has jumped generations by getting rid of that silly phone part and keeping the touch interface, I am positive that Sam and Marc are investing in the right area of this tech curve. Whats the worst that can happen? Wasted time? Streaming content for their own site? ...not so bad...and besides the fact that we need those intelligent and funny voices in the public discourse,
The obvious is to see the popularity of some of the shows out there like Ricky Gervais in audio, and Diggnation in audio or video (big or small....very cool!) You bring some people and sponsorship follows... or your subscriptions grow and you can offer more content.

This is one show that I will be watching develop.

Another Air America Misstep...Is This Goodbye to Sam Seder?

I love Dan Pashman, (son of Lewis and Linda Pashman.) I got familiar with him as a producer and on air personality on Air America Radio. His work with Brendan McDonald during the Katrina disaster was stellar. They were a couple of, probably not so innocent, producers covering a vacation week for the hosts of late lamented Morning Sedition, when the dam burst and they were in the driver's seat. They did such a great job and their banter on various talk shows that they have produced since then, and particularly with Marc Maron, has been great.
I guess that also, the Dan Pashman laugh has been something that signals to fans of a certain type of comedy that we are all on the same planet.
So, I was sorta thrilled to hear Dan take over for Sam Seder's departing temporary producer, Joel from Al Franken's show. Are you following me?
I shoulda realized, though, that the Pashman laugh is not a sign of comedy anymore....Its a sign of the endtimes!
So, after a pretty straightforward Seder show today, Pashman was heard to say, on the Sammy-cam that had been inadvertently left on, they had to tape the promos for next week and that, after the holidays, Thursday and Friday of next week are their last shows. Pashman himself is moving to Laura Flanders show, which is probably, I'm guessing, moving to a daily slot where maybe we might have seen Maron at some point.
I wrote to the new director of programming, hired on just a a week or so ago, by the Green brothers, David Bernstein ,in my usual style, which is pretty intense and wordy (see my post from the last time they canceled Maron...was that almost a year ago?) and I was very happy to get a response pretty quickly.
The thing is that the response, while kind, thoughtful, and thorough, sort of goes against what I'm pretty sure is happening. Unless there are some last minute talks going on, the reply I got was either a bit of a snow job, or the words of someone who isn't fully into the job and up on whats happening yet.

So, while my own ears, and the ears of many of my fellow bloggers heard one thing come out of Pashman, David Bernstein claims that he will listen to listeners and station managers around the country in order to make a decision....a decison that I think has already been made.

I'm upset, but not as upset as I guess I have been in the past. I think I may be writing Air America off. It was a voice of reason in the darkness 3 years ago, and a grand experiment that was new and very real in a sea of crazy lies. Now, its become another hack network that needs to scramble to meet revenue requirements. I should add that those requirements are arbitrary and set by some business plan that shouldn't exist at all, considering what we're dealing with here.

If there is to be no fairness doctrine, and the FCC has moved again and again to allow conglomeration of media outlets, and then the liberal voice has been silenced methodically by the big bucks of the right, who have created a strong foundation over many years, and using bluster, lies, fear, and hate...and drama...to spin a story and a following that puts them not only in the black but in the driver's seat as far as the information getting out to the American people, then the American people have been robbed of their right to know....Is this not the Pony Express or the Guy riding into town shouting "The British are coming, the British are coming!"
Are Americans expected to live in a world of propaganda with an educational system that is hell bent on dumbing down the masses? Don't we have a RIGHT to hear both sides?...or is that up to the president and Karl Rove to decide?

Air America is as important to the American people as the assurance of a free flow of information and ideas. An assurance that has been stifled in a campaign by the right to ensure that the masses don't find out the truth. The lies that pass for "news" coming out of the likes of the Limbaugh's and O'Reilly's out there would be laughable of they weren't so tragically accepted as the gospel truth.
The fair exchange if ideas should be subsidized by the government if the marketplace does not allow for a balance.

Beyond that, whoever takes on Air America is not taking on an entity that is anywhere near to being profitable...and thats not the point....Just like funding failed campaign after failed campaign is about ideas, this project should also be looked at as a campaign. The return is not going to be something to put in the bank right away, but the social return will be great...and in funding this venture, the Greens will ensure themselves a great place in history as the Pony Express when the right would have cut off the news and the mail. Air America will surely become more important as the country turns more and more blue. So its a little troubling to me to have the programming manager email to me:

It is a business as well as a platform. Air America had a horrible financial showing and ended up in bankruptcy.
New owners have a mission of reviving the brand name Air America and making it a financial success, or else there will be no liberal talk radio at all.

He then went on to say that he was still going to talk to listeners and program managers around the country and then because "majority rules," he will make his decision.
This is a decision that seems to already have been made and I don't think that majority rules...usually in these parts, bullshit rules.

So, as much as I want to think that the new Air America owners get it, I expect that we are looking at more of the same. There will be a business plan that is not profitable and is reworked every quarter in the futile effort to try to wring something out of this mess, and the money brother will sink just as much money into a format that will resemble NPR and still not be profitable....The same amount of money risked on exciting and edgy talkers would at least make history and a statement.
Unfortunately, it looks to me that this thing is going to go out with a small fizzle rather than a bang....and the sad thing is that it doesn't have to go out at all.

Hopefully I'm wrong...hopefully they will pull a Maron/Seder show out of their butts, but I'm not counting my joy before its hatched.
I'm expecting a Mark Green Show, that will have poor ratings but will never be canceled, and more of the Thom Hartmann sort of somnambulists intelligencia shows.
What do these people have against comedy?? Why do liberals have to be so freakin' serious? A huge part of our inability to get anything done is that we take ourselves too seriously...as Maron put it "..progressive utopians with no sense of humor..."



Sam Seder is one of the best talkers on liberal radio right now, and he is funny and cool too...The Greens are fools if they let him go...lets hope they come to their senses, but I am sort of doubting it....In the meantime: Buy Sam's great book FUBAR. I have the book and the audio book and they are both great and make great gifts! Look for it in soft cover in the coming months too!




In bird news, the Parrot store is bulging with babies of all sizes and they are CUTE!! They even have EGGS in the incubator! I will have to get more pictures pronto.The baby bunnies are hopping around in their mini perfection (thats gonna end in a second as soon as they start to get big enough to become the poop factories that rabbits are.)
I know that Todd wasn't thinking about cuteness last night when he was up every 3 hours feeding pink squirmy birds, but hell, Will spent a few months waking every hour and didn't sleep through the night till...well, recently...(and then, welcome to the teen years, aka, you think you had it bad before this!...)
Todd says that every time he sees one of the little pinkys he thinks of buffalo wings! Now, of course, he is a bird lover, and is only kidding (so PETA folk, don't bother with the hate mail,) But they are so cute when they are naked and helpless...and then when they get their fuzz and pin feathers. I could be very happy with a job at the bird store as my final career move.
In the meantime, and while i work out the nasty details of my little life here, my breeding baby parrotlets are doing well (cute,) but they wont breed till next year. the beautiful breeding pair of Yellow Side Conures are comfortably ensconced in their new home, which I refer to as the den of sexual iniquity, complete with private nest box that I am thinking of outfitting with a night vision webcam for when and if I get babies...we'll see. Someone need to be getting some around here, so I hope they are getting busy!
For birds that have been breeding stock for the past 3 years, they are very nice, and only bite a little. They have an incredible interest in being part of the household and interacting....so I'm working towards taming them (which might hurt their breeding potential, but oh well...I think that every bird should have the opportunity to know what its like to be part of a family, if they can't be in the wild or in a huge aviary.)




Thats all I have. I could get in bed and just stay there for the entire weekend, but I think I'm going to try to go to a bird show tomorrow and then I have to go to the city on Sunday to bring the boys to the Origami USA club at the Museum of Natural History (where I am still hoping to have time to get to the evolution exhibit when it doesn't have a freakin' cocktail party going on,) see grandpa and do some stuff there, and hopefully head downtown to walk around SoHo with mom a bit. She found a great new store that I have to go to...today she brought me some of those Chinese articulated fish charms and a silver skull charm....and I need more STUFF...right???

Lets hope for some good news in the world, from Air America, and from whatever lucky media outlet(s) is/are gonna get Marc and Sam...

And maybe we need to think a little bit more about our rights, and the need to have as much information from both sides as is possible under law.