John Walker's Electronic House

In Episode 9 of Rum Doings the topic not under discussion is whether it’s time we stopped funding the NHS. The topic under discussion is Neighbours. And that’s almost it.

No, come back! A Neighbours edition of Rum Doings was inevitable from the moment Nick first said, “Let’s record a podcast because I want to see how difficult it is to be good.” Neighbours – the Australian soap opera – has been something that has fascinated both of us since we’ve known each other – around fourteen years. Although neither of us have watched it for about six or seven. (You may well notice we talk about characters who are currently in it, who we had absolutely no idea were still around.)

There’s brief earlier discussion of Nick’s vestigial reproductive organs, our rule-breaking deviation from rum to a magical flavour-changing elixir, and the grammatical confusion of me/I that introduces our dominating topic.

Despite how rehearsed Nick’s opening to the discussion may seem, it’s all as spontaneous as ever. However, we did secretly decide we’d finally get around to talking about it this time. And we don’t apologise at all: this is our discussing why we found this programme so special for so many years. Although things do deviate in the last fifteen minutes, slightly.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

And another thing. We love that so many people are listening to Rum Doings. It pleases us greatly. So we need you to do something for us. We want none of your money, nor even your blood. We just want you to take the trouble to promote the podcast for us. Just a tweet. Or a Facebook post. Maybe comment on your blog, write a review on iTunes, or refer to it on a forum. Most easily of all, just retweet the link that perhaps alerted you to this post. It’s surprising, and pretty annoying, how few people have taken the time to do this – so come along, give us a link.

If you want to send us an email, it’s podcast@rumdoings.com. Or leave a comment below. We’ll read out emails regarding John’s new botty-friend and baby Judith’s poetic greetings in episode 10.

In the triumphant return of Rum Doings, delayed for a while by the birth of Nick’s daughter, Judith, we celebrate with the consumption of an Asda Smart Price meal. And indeed the possible consumption to follow.

This feast begins with a bowl of Asda Smart Price chicken curry, washed down with Asda Smart Price Dark Rum, with Asda Smart Price Chocolate Mousse to follow. Not discussed in the episode is John and Edward, whatever that might be, with instead the meandering topics covering Judith’s arrival, talking with our mouths full, and then alittlebitofpoliticsladiesandgentlemen. A belated discussion of Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time leads to thoughts on immigration and why we need more of it.

We offer a shout-out that probably won’t be too gratefully received, thoughts on parenting and being honest about ugly babies, considerations on the extraordinary nature of vanishing chocolate puddings, and then important matters of the bottom. John’s senility is gleefully highlighted by Nick, and Nick’s chicken hate hypocrisy is underlined by John. Then an astonishing discovery about chickens is unveiled. Find out about the time John was allowed to work in a hospital pathology lab, and Nick shares memories of his wife’s c-section. Oh, and John’s fat.

To subscribe to Rum Doingsclick here, or you can find it in iTunes here. To download it directly, right-click and save as here.

If you’d like to email Rum Doings, point your comments toward podcast@rumdoings.com. Send in poetic greetings to Judith Mailer, and indeed suggested names for John’s haemorrhoid. Now you want to listen.

We’d like you to encourage others to listen too. Please retweet, re-email, reFacebook, re-high-street-poster-campaign the link, tell friends. Maybe don’t tell them the haemorrhoid part. That can be a surprise for them.

In episode 6 of Rum Doings the topic not under discussion is what we can do about the dumbing down of British culture. Instead we primarily discuss sitcoms – so much so it becomes dangerously close to being a theme. There’s thoughts on what the UK and US sitcoms have in common, and indeed what they do not. Along the way we consider the anti-Semitism of Shakespeare, why Stephanie Cole grew into the wrong old lady (and is brilliant), and why you should never shh a pregnant lady. This, as you’d expect, brings us to our plans for scientific experiments on all 3.5 billion of Earth’s women.

Defining a sitcom proves to be far trickier than you’d imagine. Can it be an hour long, does it require an audience, how important is the situation? And is either nation better at irony? We also ponder on the private life of Jonathan Swift, the peculiarities of Bill Hicks, and the excellent tests on OK Cupid. Oh, and one of us turns out to be a murderer, and the other seeks the wrath of religious fundamentalists.

To subscribe to the podcast click here, or you can find it in iTunes here. To download it directly, right-click and save as here.

Thank you to everyone who’s been plugging this for us. Please keep going. Retweeting it helps it spread for miles, like a ghost-to-ghost call in Alfred Hitchcock’s Three Investigators books. Tell your friends, colleagues, and so on. Make us famous. Make people love us. Or hate us so much they have to listen to the next one. If you want to email us at Rum Doings, send emails to podcast@rumdoings.com.

In Episode 5 of Rum Doings not under discussion is whether we should bring back conscription for unruly teens. More discussed are matters of repetition, the changing face of the cinemas, and we respond to a complaint regarding our being rude to Phil Collins. There’s chat about how a splendid friend of ours changed his mind about the ownership of music, and thoughts on the potential for democratising paying for media. We bring up another rule to join those from Episode Four, the No False Modesty Rule. Which leads naturally to the moral implications of teleporting clones. And the likelihood of coincidence. And of course cream teas. It’s probably safe to say that this is the first of the Rum Doings where the doings of rum played their part by the end.

The name of the film I couldn’t remember the name of is RIP, and you can get it here (so long as you’re in the right region!).

To subscribe to the podcast click here, or you can find it in iTunes here. To download it directly, right-click and save as here.

For a podcast put out there without any promotion we’re delighted by how many people are listening. However, we’d be more delighted if it were more. We’ve levelled off in numbers in the last couple, and we want to see it climbing each time – or at least, we reject false modesty and believe that’s what it merits. To help that happen, please let people know it exists. Please blog, tweet, IM, telephone, write and paint on cave walls about it. Spread the word and make us happy. Oh, and to aid that, by next week we should have a website for the podcast outside of my blog.

A new Rum Doings, and it comes with a warning: Nick Mailer is a very, very bad man. What should have been a perfectly nice discussion of interesting matters descends into an explosion of libel and offense. Some people may find some of the content a tiny bit naughty. I can only apologise, hold my head in my hands, and beg for your forgiveness. He’s out of control. He’ll be going to prison alone.

Not under discussion in episode four is whether we should stop funding the BBC with a license fee. More under discussion are the fine Murdoch Family, the ecclecticism of Radio Three, the RSPCP, annoying habits of Cub Scouts and the introduction of New Rules concerning the use of Wikipedia on The Now Show. Have we mentioned The Now Show before? Really?

To subscribe to the podcast click here, or you can find it in iTunes here. To download it directly, right-click and save as here. I forgot the id3 tags. I’ll fix that later.

We’re delighted by how many people are listening. We’ll be astonished if they continue listening after this episode. But we’d love it to be more. Please email, IM, tweet and blog about there wherever you can. It makes a big difference. Get us linked or mentioned on some giant site – we probably deserve it.

It’s a third episode of the Rum Doings podcast. This week the topic not under discussion is: Are exams getting easier?

Topics that do get discussed include preferred forms of alcohol, the tricks behind sleeping on planes, the nature of cruising, hypermobility syndrome and other medical conditions. Nick (and Nick alone) attempts to win the legal attention of one of the richest men on Earth, then we’re very rude about poor Rick Astley. Find out whether all South Africans are evil, and whether there’s a left or right wing left to enjoy.

To subscribe to the podcast click here, or you can find it in iTunes here. To download it directly, right-click and save as here.

Thank you so much to so many people for kind and encouraging comments. We’re getting close to kind and encouraging numbers of people listening too. But not quite. If you enjoy it, or hate it and want others to agree with you, please email, IM, tweet and blog your interests. It makes a big difference. If you’re a very famous person, do it very publicly, so we are inundated – it’s okay, Nick owns the hosting service.

Episode 2 of Rum Doings is up. This week the topic not under discussion is “Whatever happened to good old fashioned manners?”

What is instead discussed includes puns in other languages, the horrible quality of commercial radio, extensive discussions of the tricks behind homeopathy, and can you be proud of collectives?

To subscribe to the podcast click here, or you can find it in iTunes here. To download it directly, right-click and save as here.

Please let us know your comments below, and if you enjoy it, tell others. The more that listen, the longer it will survive.

Obviously what you were thinking was, “There aren’t enough podcasts around at the moment.” The more astute would be thinking, “There aren’t enough podcasts with John Walker in them.” Fortunately in whichever circle of this diagram you fall, rewards await.

With my good friend Nicholas Mailer, a podcast was recorded this weekend – called Rum Doings – with one aim in mind: to not be on topic.

Something Nick and I have often felt when listening to favourite podcasts, radio programmes, or even television programmes, is that the best bits are always when those participating go off the planned topic and start rambling in surprise directions. It is always received with great disappointment when the host pulls everyone back on track. So the idea behind Rum Doings was to see if it was possible to begin with a topic in mind and then see how quickly it can be abandoned, and indeed forgotten. It seemed to go well. In episode one we didn’t discuss why Claire Fox should be fired from Radio 4’s The Moral Maze.

There is no particular theme. Nick’s primary goal was to not discuss videogames, which makes his extensive discussion of Star Glider a bold move. Also discussed is how to win at Countdown, why the letter Q has got above its station, and how to write music with sine waves. Amongst a great deal else.

You can listen to the programme via this link here, or get the mp3 directly by clicking here, and when it finishes tunnelling under the iTunes concrete walls I’ll link to that too.

As this is the first episode, and as we’re doing this without the launchpad of an established site or mag, we’re going to rely on word of mouth/rampant linking. So if you feel the compulsion, please blog/tweet/IM/scrawl the URL on toilet walls as much as you can. If enough people are interested, we’ll carry on. Let me know what you think below, or write it on a brick and throw it through my window.