This Week: City Guides

This week's focus is on city guides for Las Vegas, Atlanta and San Francisco. Every city has its own personality and flavor. While reviews and articles are helpful to learn about a city, sometimes you learn more from personal accounts of people who live there. Their viewpoints give a unique perspective whether you are interested in visiting or moving there.

Title: Living in Las Vegas
Average Length: About 33 minutes
Number of Episodes: 17
Frequency: Once A Week
Podcasters: Scott & Melissa Whitney
Audio or Video: Audio
Quality: Good
Language: PG
Website: http://www.livinginlv.com/index.cfm

Hearing the opening introduction, you can almost see the neon lights flashing from your iPod. Scott and Melissa are a married couple who moved from the Bay Area in California to Las Vegas last year. They share their experiences of buying a brand new house, checking out restaurants and shows, getting around town, getting jobs and other things they have learned since moving there. They show you the side of Vegas you never see when you just go there to gamble. The show is fun to listen to mainly because of their chemistry and banter. Scott's fondness for corny sound effects just adds to the Vegas type atmosphere of the show. In addition to enjoying yourself, you also learn from the things they did right and wrong. If it weren't for my complete loathing of hot weather, they'd make me want to move there.

Time Worthy: Yes
Subscription Worthy: Yes
Grade: A "Top of the Class"

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Title: Atlantacast
Average Length: About 46 minutes
Number of Episodes: 9
Frequency: No Pattern
Podcasters: Brent
Audio or Video: Audio
Quality: Fair
Language: PG
Website: http://www.atlantacast.com/

I think Brent's attempt for this show was to introduce you to restaurants and places around Atlanta, but I'm not exactly sure because his podcasts sound like long answering machine messages that he is leaving for one of his friends. They are difficult to sit through without wondering where he is going with his story. He doesn't explain who the people are that he references. He spends more time on detailing the food that he ordered than on an overview of the restaurant and experience itself. Maybe if he got someone else to host with him, it wouldn't sound so much like rambling on with no point. After a few episodes, he starts adding songs to break up his ramblings. If you think the songs he chooses are about Atlanta or are local bands, you may be right and you may be wrong. I couldn't say, because all he says is the name of the band and song title. No background. It's frustrating because I would love to know more about Atlanta, but this just has poor planning and execution.

Time Worthy: No
Subscription Worthy: No
Grade: D "Will be held back if no improvement is made"

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Title: Field Trip
Average Length: About 28 minutes
Number of Episodes: 8
Frequency: Weekly, but last episode was 3/3/06
Podcasters: Doug Favero
Audio or Video: Audio
Quality: Poor
Language: PG
Website: http://faveroso.com/?ABCDEFGH

The first three episodes are unbearably bad. The sound quality is practically non-existent. San Francisco is a city rich with culture and there are tons of things to talk about that are interesting. However, Doug spends his first episode talking about the docks and giving random statistics about what the US imports and exports. It's as bad as the worst field trip you remember as a kid. His second show starts with a toilet flushing, which sums up the whole episode right there. The remainder of the episodes sound like he is either asleep or stoned. Such a phenomenal let down, as there is so much I would love to hear about San Francisco beyond going to a Macworld convention and a trip to a medicinal marijuana dispensary.

Time Worthy: No
Subscription Worthy: No
Grade: F "Pull out the Dunce Cap"

Next week, come back to check out travel tips from three different podcasts just in time for summer vacation. Come back this Thursday for an interview with Scott & Melissa Whitney from "Living in Las Vegas."

Powering off.