After hours of sweating, screaming at my computer screen and missing out on what looked another beautiful day in the Buenos Aires spring, I have finally mixed and, if you’re reading this, successfully uploaded the first ever Hand Of Pod podcast. Dan, Dan, Gerardo, Pablo and I discuss Tuesday evening’s superclásico between River Plate and Boca Juniors, as well as briefly looking at some of the issues surrounding the Argentine national side as they prepare to face Brazil in Qatar later in the week. Tell your family and friends, tell your colleagues, and feel free to spread links to this page anywhere around the internet you fancy. For now, the episode is only available in mp3 format, but depending on demand future ones may be available in others.
Apologies for any sound problems – we recorded outdoors as it was such a lovely day, and in one or two places the volume does drop somewhat for a few seconds. I’ve edited out some parts that were completely inaudible, but please bear in mind this is my first attempt at editing sound, and as such future pods will only get better.
Thanks to my best friend in the whole wide world, Nick Ball, for the theme tune and incidental music.
Listen here (update from original upload: the podcast is now hosted on Soundcloud, but the file’s exactly the same as what you’ve heard if you’ve already listened. click on the downward-pointing arrow if you’d prefer to download the file)
Hand Of Pod 
Very good guys. Enjoyed!
Great job guys, really good listen, being outside and with the dogs added a bit of atmosphere to it, looking forward to the next one, you should get it on iTunes too.
Good stuff. ‘Twas an inspired decision to record it outside: it doesn’t have that eerily clean quality that many other ‘bedroom’ podcasts have; eerie because of the dirty lameness one usually associates with podcasters’ bedrooms. Plus the dogs were a lovely touch! Though the Guardian may sue, there was a lovely moment where someone was talking about a relegation battle and you could hear one of them panting in the background. All it was missing was the sound of clinking glasses – though maybe they were edited out this afternoon.
Happily, i’m not so wretched yet as to dare give you ‘notes’. It’s a very good idea and I hope it goes well in the future. Despite the football getting worse and worse – or perhaps because of it – there’s a hell of a lot of interesting aspects to Argieball these days (says the guy who hasn’t bothered to write anything in five months). A podcast could well be a better tool than a blog for capturing the ‘voice’ of Argieball, what the people sound like, what the atmosphere is like, the pageantry, its spontaneity, its unpredictablility. One of the reasons I dislike Fútbol para todos is the loss of the brilliant intro to the old highlights show on Sunday nights (equivalent to kidnapping, torture and murder according to la Presi) and the celebration of the pageantry that it was. you don’t get that in prose, unless you’re Tom Wolfe or some shit. Even if you had to translate and ‘act out’ the dialogues/interviews, there’s an untouched flagon of Chabona out there that could be slurped up in all its teeth-rotting glory.
Suerte.
Funtastic. Raw. Very ghetto. Mongrel fighting dogs, wind, sirens… were those gunshots in the background? I reckon the content turned out to be interesting, and thanks especially to the Argentine guests for sharing their viewpoints so candidly. Favourite moment: Gerardo explaining “bosteros”.
Nice work ! Gerardo could get work as Ariel Garce’s body double.
Excellent work guys, when can we expect the next one? A post-Superclásico and post-Arg-Bras review perhaps?
As long as you can keep the sound strong, I think the outside recording sounds great. Makes me yearn for the sounds of Buenos Aires …. but I don’t think that Argentine weather will permit it always.
Excellent attempt at explaining “bosteros”, perhaps you can give newcomers to Argentine football a regular introduction to the lexicon. My suggestion for next time .. why Newell’s are called “Leprosos”, I love that story.
We’re going to try and make it weekly, Fer, but it’ll depend partly on Australian Dan’s schedule as he’s got a proper job that doesn’t involve talking about football.
No doubt the vast vocabulary of Argentine football will be explained little by little… though the way Central are playing this season, it might be a while before we get a clásico rosarino as an excuse to explain Newell’s nickname, so maybe we should try and engineer another situation for that at some point!
My job driving taxis is fairly flexible, so I don’t think a weekly podcast will be a problem. I think we’ll have a better microphone next time, which should help cut out the wind, and we’ll be sure to keep it still to maintain a consistent sound quality.
I like the idea of focusing a little on some of the ‘quirkier’ aspect of Arg football.
Pega, we only drink out of plastic cups. Hence no clinking.
Loving it, agree with everyone about recording outside. Adds a lot, feels like we’re sitting out on the porch or patio with you guys.
A storming début guys, really enjoyed listening. Try not to cut out too many of the sounds of your locale- it all adds to the flavour, dog or no dog. And yeah, any education on Argentine football vocabulary can only help. Looking forward to the next one.
Awesome job! it was a great debate between locals and foreing soccer lovers!!!!
I think the best explanation was the one Gerardo gave. It made me understand in a better way what’s going on with my fav team River Plate. I wish I was there for the superclassic.
I like this press site, I hope you are having a good time in Argentina, and that Gerko is being a great host.
I am Gerko’s number 1 fan! and always will be
love u broda!!!! missing u
Flora
love the Pods so far – excuse my ignorance but what is the music you are using as theme music?
cheers
Scott
Hi Scott, glad you’re enjoying them! As it says in the post above, the theme music is composed by my best friend, Nick Ball. He’s a professional musician and composer and is rather bad at publicising himself on t’internet, but you can find his Myspace page here.