Earlier this year, Jen and I started a “band.” And by that, I mean I took a recording from last year and built a MySpace Music profile around it. Due to the genral craptacularness of MySpace, I’ve had a few people contact me who are unable to hear the song through the MySpace music player. So I’ve decided to post it here. You can read more about the song here. We’ll be working on more recordings just as soon as I get the maintenance work done on my guitar.

This is my fourteenth podcast for NaPodPoMo 2008.

I was intrigued to see a MySpace bulletin from musician Josh Ritter announcing his new “podcast” called “Audio Postcards.” Considering that I’ve enjoyed reading Josh’s blog, I figured “Audio Postcards” would make for some interesting listening. I clicked over to the page where the “podcast” is supposed to exist, and was surprised to find that there are no RSS subscription options. I also searched the iTunes Music Store, just to see if maybe “Audio Postcards” was listed there. But it isn’t. So, I’m sorry to say, Josh, you don’t really have a podcast. You’ve got a static audio file, available for download. Which means you’re audio blogging circa 2003. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’re going to call this project a “podcast,” then please add a subscription method to your site.

Once you do, I’ll gladly be your first subscriber!

Jen’s been working on a book about her experiences as a teacher in Illinois. Awhile back, she submitted some of the manuscript to a contest held by The Memoirists Collective. Jen didn’t win the contest. But as a “consolation prize,” the Collective has been posting the contest entrants’ submissions on its MySpace blog. Jen’s writing was chosen for the Collective’s latest blog post. What’s posted is from the second draft of her book. She’s still in the process of revising and editing. Anyway, I’m proud of her for putting her work out there, and I think she’s got a great story to tell. Now she just needs to get it published, get it on Oprah, and wait for the sweet, sweet cash money to roll in.

Yesterday morning, I was surfing around on MySpace when I saw this:

Look closely at the second line of text. You’ll see the non-word “electic.” Must be a typo. Just to be sure, I checked with Google. Nothing there. I also checked with Urban Dictionary, just to make sure that “electic” isn’t some new form of web 2.0 speak. Still nothing.

While Tom and his cronies may have a lot of Rupert Murdoch’s money, it looks like they still need to invest in the basics.

Like a spell checker. I also wonder if in place of “electic,” they meant to put “eclectic” or “electric.” We may never know.

(Photo also available through Flickr.)