Antiwave back online

[roddy]

Signs of life at Antiwave again after two or three months of downtime, which is great news - by far and away the best of the Chinese language podcasts for my money, both in terms of content and production values. They're jumping right in with 超级难说1 - 我们能不能喜欢日本 which I've got downloading now, and if you are looking for a fairly accessible place to start then the 办公室的故事 series is worth a look.

It's not designed for learners at all, but is infinitely more interesting than any advanced listening courses out there.

[imron]

I like their logo

[zhwj]

Hmm...I thought I'd be notified via RSS when they started updating again, but it seems the way they incorporate iTunes tags doesn't agree with my feed reader. The Atom feed seems to work, though.

[yonitabonita]

Wow. Just had a listen to a couple of their files and from from my sample size of 2, I'd say it really beats Chinesepod in terms of thoughtful, interesting content.

So what does subscription get you if you can already listen to the files?

Anyway, thanks for another good tip and happy new year to you all.

Y

[roddy]

There's no subscription option, it's all free. It's just a Chinese language podcast, aimed at Chinese people - but it's actually interesting, and is therefore more useful than a lot of radio / textbook content. Some of their stuff can be quite funny, although that obviously depends on your sense of humor - try 北京下土了 for example.

I've been subscribing to the atom feed (antiwave.net/atom.xml) with Thunderbird and it's still working fine.

Bonus geek points if you can identify the guy 'reporting from Jianwai Sohu' in the intro to this clip.

[imron]

try 北京下土了 for example.

Hahaha that's great

[roddy]

It is quite cute - I managed to listen to it just after they published it, while everyone in Beijing was still wading through dust. This one is also worth a listen if you followed the World Cup.

[Meng Lelan]

Roddy -

Any written transcripts (in Chinese not English) so I can read what they are saying? - I'm deaf so obviously can't go the auditory route here ---

Lelan

[roddy]

No, there's nothing transcribed, I'm afraid.

[imron]

I found a copy of the 北京下土了article online here. Although it has a little more than what was read out on the podcast, I think the written version doesn't have quite the same effect.

The podcast has cheesy, upbeat children's music playing in the background, and the podcaster is reading it in the same excited voice and tone one might use to describe the first snow fall of the year, which just adds to the biting satire.

[Meng Lelan]

Imron,

Great description imron and many thanks. Of course I won't ever be able to hear the podcast itself but reading the online article I could actually imagine what you described as upbeat music playing in the background and the satiric sound of the announcer. Now if I can only do that for the other Antiwaves...

Lelan

[roddy]

Interview with Al-Jazeera English's correspondent in Beijing up today. Haven't listened to this yet, but downloading it now for my subway journey later . . .

[Meng Lelan]

Let me know when you do listen Roddy, in the meantime I'm trying to hunt down the written version.

Lelan

[roddy]

Wasn't actually that interesting to be honest.

Antiwave don't, as far as I'm aware, produce transcripts for any of their stuff. If anyone else is doing it I'd love to know about it. Your best bet is probably to look at the older stuff back in the archives - the longer it's been up, the greater chance someone somewhere has transcribed it.

[zhwj]

Has anyone listened to podcasts by Zheng Yuanjie (郑渊洁)? He has a series that's up to 60-some episodes now that primarily features him making small talk while on the can. The first episode, where he is approached to judge a bra contest, has a transcript.

The rest are hit or miss, and he adds in a laugh track which is kind of lame.

[venture160]

Just started listening to antiwave after I watched the interview on danwei, I too find listening to my advanced books on tape boring as all **$%$, and Chinesepod is no better. BBC is great for news, but Antiwave is awesome for listening to some actual interesting material!

I wonder if there is anything else out there along the lines of what these guys are doing, or are they pretty much 播客上最先锋的吗？

[flameproof]

Is there anything out there that IS interesting and WITH transcript (just Chinese is perfectly OK).

Antiwave does look very interesting, but with no write up it maybe be impossible for me to catch, at least for now.

[roddy]

How many regular Antiwave listeners do we have? If there's enough interest I should be able to use their RSS feed to automatically add a new thread to the forum when they publish a new show, and that thread could then be used for comments on and questions about the content. If I can get a handful of people who reckon they will participate I'd be happy to go ahead and do that.

[bagz007]

That's a phenomenal idea--count me in.

Glad to see other people also desperately in search of interesting, REAL material to listen to over the net. I enjoyed the advanced ChinesePods for a while, but they're all starting to sound the same...antiwave rocks.

[yonitabonita]

I'm in.

I never understand the entire program but I'm always listening.

It had occurred to me that it would be great to have an antiwave discussion thread too. So, yep, great idea Roddy!

Y