Kop Hill Climb 2011

 In 1910 one of the first hill climbs in the country took place on a hill in the Buckinghamshire countryside. 100 years later cars are here tearing up the hill again. The Kop Hill Climb is one of the oldest motorsport events on the country, and a few years ago it was revived. A beautiful location within the Chiltern Hills and beautiful old cars spanning 11 decades can be seen. This is the best £5 you will spend on a day out.

  

 The cars can be best seen in the paddock, cars from 1903 to present day, road cars, race cars, concept cars... you never know what you might find next.

 

 This is like the Goodwood Revival, but on a personal level, you can meet the car owners, touch the cars, open the bonnets and generally get involved. So if you like a Talbot, a Rolls, a Ferrari, or a Mini... this is the place to come next year!

 

Favourite Podcasts - 9 - Dr Karl on Up All Night

Dr Karl is a super celebrity in Australia, he is the Brian Cox of down under... yet he seems to know so little, but he communicates his lack of knowledge well!

Let me explain, early on Thursday mornings BBC 5live has a science phone in hosted by the brilliant Rhod Sharp, and then Dr Karl Kruszelnicki joins down the line from Australia to answer questions. Mostly mad people ring in with science questions. Dr Karl is usually out of his depth with the questions (although about one in 5 he answers very well) and calls for an expert to ring in and help him.

This should be annoying, someone like Dr Chris Smith (we will come to him on a later blog entry) would have the answer there and then, but Dr Karl will fumble about, try and work something out from 'first principles' on the spot, give half an answer and then give up.

But I love this approach, it gives me hope that I can work some science stuff out for myself, and even a super star like Dr Karl needs experts in the field to help him. He makes me feel less stupid and gives me pointers on how a normal person can work stuff out for themselves... in fact he is a great Skeptic (see Pod Delusion).

Oh, and also it is great fun to laugh at the strange people who ring in to the show...

Download at BBC 5live website here.

Favourite Podcasts - 8 - Ricky Gervais

It could probably be argued that the idea of the 'podcast' was popularised in the UK by Ricky Gervais, many people did not know what a podcast was until he came along, and his was certainly one of the first few podcasts that I ever found.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant presented a radio show on the then trendy indie station XFM (not sure when it went out of fashion, but you hardly hear of the station anymore!), and XFM then edited the show down into a series of podcasts. Ricky is funny, and even when he is not funny he laughs at his own jokes in a way that is infectiously funny.

Stephen Merchant is always funny, and is a calming influence on Ricky's sometimes over exuberant style of broadcasting.

The genius of the XFM podcasts was the producer Karl Pilkington. I am sure I don't need to say anything about him, he has become a super celebrity in his own right, but in the early days of the podcast you were never sure if Karl was a character, a spoof, or quite to to make of him. This tension made his absurd comments even funnier.

The podcast then broke free of XFM, and eventually became a pay-to-download affair. The idea had become a bit tired by then and I gave up paying for it. But this podcast had a huge influence on the world of downloads, it inspired many comedians to create podcasts, and helped commercial radio to break into the podcast market as well.

I am not sure if the podcast is still going in any way, I know some of it was animated for television, but can't be sure if there are any new ones.

Find out more here.

Things I have seen around Aylesbury (Part Five)

Scotch people.

Favourite Podcasts - 7 - Filmspotting

This podcast was a game changer in the world of podcasts for me, for several reasons.

It was the first podcast that I found that had a reasonable back catalogue online to download the whole of.

It was the first podcast to gain it's own folder on my Mp3 player.

It was the first podcast I listened to that was not related to a British radio show.

Filmspotting is a film podcast based in Chicago, the two presenters Adam Kempenaar and Matty (ballgame) Robinson are passionate and knowledgeable about film in an extraordinary way.

In the early days that I was listening the podcast was called Cinecast, and came out twice a week. Matty was just an occasional guest and the other host was Sam Van Hallgren  I was a little into films at that point, but this podcast really got me interested. I signed up to the Lovefilm rental service and started adding loads of films that they had been talking about onto my list. I watched films and genres that I would never have thought about watching before.

It was this podcast that prompted me to watch 5 Woody Allen films in 3 days, watch Citizen Kane for the first time, made me decide to become a member of our local independent cinema, and much much more.

Cinecast had to change names for legal reasons, Sam left to do other things, and it went to once a week. It is still a fantastic listen though, and although I don't watch that many films these days (these things come in cycles for me) I still love listening to their witty, smart and insightful chat.

Each episode reviews a new film at the start, has some listeners feedback, usually an older film is reviewed (as part of themed 'marathons') and then they do a top themed 5 at the end (in a homage to Nick Hornby).

Download Filmspotting here.

Favourite Podcasts - 6 - Adam and Joe

Adam and Joe are just naturally funny, every line they say makes you smile, every silly childish noise raises a chuckle, every long winded jingle or song makes you laugh. If Adam and Joe made a cup of tea it would be a funny beverage.

If I were ranking podcasts (which I am not) then this would be in the top 3, in fact this blog is named after one of their catchphrases.

This is another podcast based on a radio show (BBC 6music) with a few download bonuses. it features Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish. You are as likely to find them talking about a random and unpredictable selection of topics each week such made up jokes, film scenes, train announcers or the Points of View theme tune.

What really shows their comedy genius is the songs they write, from a brand new Bond theme to a pop song about a lizard in a blizzard. Go to You Tube and search for Song Wars or Adam and Joe songs and you will get a good taste of what they can do.

Listening is like a club, Twitter is always alight with in jokes and quotes from shows, there is even an identifying action for listeners to find each other in public spaces... but even if you are a first time listener you will soon pick it up in a few shows, and in fact in jokes are created and dropped all the time, so even if you don't feel involved in one you will soon be part of a brand new one.

Adam and Joe are on a break at the moment, but I implore you to download some of the last series of podcasts, Adam and Joe is what podcasts were made for.

Download at the BBC 6music site here.

Favourite Podcasts - 5 - Dave Gorman

The Merchant of Tennis, Indiana Bones and the Temple of Groom, Much ado about toys, Tina we salute you!

Anyone who does not listen to the Dave Gorman podcast from Absolute Radio will not understand what just happened, regular listeners will already be smiling at reading this list.

This podcast is, like many others, an edited version of a radio show. Dave Gorman is host, Danielle Ward and Martin White the trusty co-hosts. The edited show is really great listening on it's own (Martin actually writes a song based on the show during the show each and every week!), but the genius is the podcast extras that are recorded after the show, Listeners Lexicon, correspodcast and the hilarious Pun Street.

Dave Gorman is a brilliant comic, and this podcast shows he does not just do great scripted stand up comedy (His live show from last year is one of my favourite comedy shows I have ever seen) but he can also do great spontaneous humour too.

So many comedians have a podcast these days, some just don't work all that well, but this one really is a treasure, and makes me look like a grinning idiot on the bus every Monday.

Dowload at the Absolute Radio site here.