The Savvy Observer

The Savvy Observer went dark a while back but we're dropping one more short episode to tell anyone who may still have the feed active that we're working on a couple of new projects that we'd love to have you subscribe to: The Context - Kate's new podcast about dramaturgy, world-building, and meaning-making. She's already interviewed a burlesque performer and a tiki expert! California Accent - We both host this one! We'll talk about the history, landmarks, culture, and quirks that makes California both the butt of many jokes on the East Coast *and* the place everyone of the East Coast wants to move to.   There's even more on the way! Thank you for listening to The Savvy Observer and we hope you give these new endeavors a listen.

Lordy, lordy, lordy! Look what we've got here! After an extended baby-having/raising hiatus, Kate and Andy return to the podcast arena and come to terms with the myriad ways in which the podcasting game has changed in their absence (lookin' at you, "Serial"). In this episode, we discuss what has happened in the last year & a half and whether peopel will really not buy a couch if the Ikea closes due ot inclement weather.

Back after an extended hiatus, Kate and Andy talk about what's been going on in the world of childbirth education courses (online edition), the truest difference between a hobo and a homeless person, why some people can't help themselves but to correct others on the internet, and the fatal flaws in three recent alcohol commecials, two of which are for honey-flavored whiskeys (one of which is scotch. I know, gross.).

The returning Alicia Brooks has a bone to pick with Andrew Johnson, making a case for placing him at the top of the bizzaro Mount Rushmore (I know Mount Rushmore is in landscape layout but the analogy stands.). We also discuss the proper methods for preventing hobo infestations in one's attic and the Washington Post's Senate Madness tournament.

We celebrate St. Paddy's day by learning the true story of corned beef and cabbage, discussing when it became "cool" to be of Irish descent (to the point where one would embrace every little thread of Irishness, no matter how thin) rather than a source of malignment, and prep our very own corned beef and by Andy drinking whiskey. We also talk about Kate's anxousness "tell" and give you all the fatus pal updates you could ever want (and then some).

We talk about the great whooping cough epidemic going on in Katie's parent's house, what factors will eventually drive your hosts apart . . . mostly the relative merits of Billy Joel (hint: there are none), and how Kate wore herself out at the Library of Congress and wasn't able to enjoy the reenactment of Mosby's Rangers raid on Fairfax Court House. #sadnerd

We discuss doing our taxes the old fashioned way, the prospect of using technology to avoid dealing with supermarket cashiers, and the unresolved domsetic issues that seem to be hinted at in some of the most popular pregnancy and child-care books. Also, this podcast may be about pregnancy and parenting now. Hope that's okay.

Kate talks about how she handles questions about her cane. Andy reveals his (not so secret) secret method for picking the Oscars. We both talk about which bodily fluids we are least excited about cleaning up after they come out of an infant.

We welcome Alicia Brooks (of our championship E-lympics team. Go Panama!) to the parlour to discuss Richard Nixon, the indignity of presidential paper doll books, our respective secret Ska radio show pasts, and the greatest political book of all time. 

The first trimester may have slowed us down but it hasn't stopped us. We discuss divining an unborn child's gender and the appropriateness of certain pieces of attire that we have already been gifted for our child of yet-to-be-determined gender. For those that don't love all the baby talk, we also break down the various innaugural activites that took place recently in our fair city. Vases, unicycles, and poet flop sweat are all on the agenda.

PODCASTER ANNOUNCEMENT! We'll not spoil it in the notes, though. You've got to listen.

The Gordie Howe hat trick* is when a hockey player scores a goal, has an assist, and gets into a fight all in one game. Three self-inflicted injuries during one podcast is a Kate Langsdorf hat trick. We talk about the demographics of the ancestry.com crowd, the planning of patter for physical therapists, and what the appropriate main dish for your various holidays. *I may have referred to it as a "Bobby Orr hat trick" during taping. That was wrong. 

Being from Orange County, we sped a lot of time thinking and talking about Richard Nixon and havign worked at Disneyland. Such is the way of the world, dear listener. We also kick off a new regular segment where we (as seasoned professionals in the relationship game) offer advice to the lovelorn. Mark well our words, kids! Finally, we let even more out of David Petraeus than has been done in the national media all week.

Back for a 5th consecutive week! Our longest streak since time immemorial!  Do you want to hear about the time Katie yelled at some trick-or-treaters? Or how our election day was? Then you should probably listen to this show, eh?

Katie makes friends with a gregarious woman on the Metro. We stand in line for early voting. And who doesn't have stress dreams about menial jobs they left nearly ten years ago? Besides Andy. And almost everyone who didn't work Jungle Cruise at Disneyland back in the early day of the 21st century. Anyway . . . podcast.

Sandy storm! Frankencane! Rain and stuff!  Some folks do sandbags and plywood their windows when a hurricane is coming through. We record a podcast before we lose power. It's that joie de vivre that makes this must-listen-to podcasting.

If you were a spy, would you blow your own cover to get a dollar off on admission to the Spy Museum? We say "yes." You should also spend some time thinking about your personal brand. Like, if it's Friday, maybe wear a Hawaiian shirt if you want to. Also, we reminisce about the crazy crap we learned in elementary school . . . Well, mostly Kate reminisces while Andy is amazed that any of this took place in a public school.

Finally, Katie and Andy are both in the wood paneled basement at the same time and ready to BS with you for an hour and a half. We discuss our recent trips out of town (some business, some pleasure), awkward gender-based segregation within organizations that also frown on homosexuality and (not coincidentally) church retreats, the most wonderful time of year (which is right now), and living in the post-pre-digital age.  We missed you, too.

Mixing metaphors like a bull in a haystack, we discuss imaginary friends, say "heyo, maggots!," and press the flesh on the campaign trail. We also continue to toy with the idea of spinoff podcasts (spinoffcasts?), and get a little inside baseball on social media.

Despite Kate's continued black lung, we return from sick leave for an episode almost entirely about how life has been kicking us in the collective nad proverbial dick. Repeatedly. We still squeeze in some talk about matching tattoos and when you want to shout at morons but can't due to social norms. 

One head cold per every two hosts of the podcast doesn't slow us down. We discuss the relative merits of "The Best Li'l Whorehouse in Texas" and Sheamus, the current World Heavyweight Champion in the WWE. We also have more than million dollar business idea. They involve birds, grapefruit, and cheese knives withuot cheese.

Alternate title: Giant Sized Savvy Observer #1. We go on for neigh unto 2 hours and cover such topics as: our excellence at E-lympics, our new kitten (his name is Buster and we call him Baby Buster), domestic terrorism, GLBT issues, and our disparate plans for Sunday night. Quite a mouthful. We may need more than one episode a week.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, we've not run out of things to talk about as we offer our third podcast in a week. We talk about names for our impending cat, our hopes and dreams for the future, and yard work. Also, the GOP have a veep nominee and we get a little political on it.

Inspired by the will of Olympians who had been banned from competition for taking "male enhancement" pills, we're back for the second time in a week! We talk about the newspapers we read as kids, the 100 metre Lincoln Impersonation event, and the new addition to our family that will surely prove to be a disappointment to our mothers when we phrase it in that way.

This is what the elympics are all about: flags, Van Halen, and Noriega. Enjoy the games!

No one's thrown themselves in front of a train (though we have been collectively bitten in the face by a dog and broken our back falling down the stairs), so it must be time for a podcast! We've got a fever and the only cure is more Olympics.

Kate and Andy take their new blender for a test run of pina coladas and a podcast ensues! We discuss the abysmal state of Emmy nominations, the suckers bet of buying vita-mixes (or whatever those fancy blenders are called) and "your baby can read" courses, and the magical world of perscription side effects!

We jam pack this episode with talk of marketing (both targeted via social media and hot sauce), names (both for our house and our impending string band), and follow up on Holland Oat's hit song "I Can't Go For That." Turns out we had a lot to say on the matter. It's a classic Savvy Observer Supershow!

Kate and Andy discuss the recent storm and its effect on local traffic, social event turnout, and Andy's allergies. We also obsess over our Klout scores, talk about Andy's allergies, and bemoan the liquor laws in our new home state. Also, did Andy mention that his allergies are bugging him? This is episode 2 of season 2 and it's done in a super professional manner.

We're back! And we're calling it episode one of season two! And we describe episodes in sentence fragments with exclamation points! We talk about what we've been up to during our sabbatical, our respective musical watershed moments, and the songs that we're pretty sure are about butt sex. With a bit of luck, grandparents will be listening.

Kate and Andy discuss kitchen accidents, emergency room visits, the ridiculous would of house paint color names, and introduce their new segment "House Talk," in which they talk about their new house. You may hate them for it but no more than they already hate themselves.

It's been 5 years since we moved from California to the Greater Washington, DC area. Naturally, we celebrate by arguing about Maryland and Virginia's respective positions and actions during the Civil War. We also cover life as a cane user, make fun of NPR, and hypothosize about human lifespan in the future and whether bears will ever need corrective lenses.

After a week steeped in calamity, Kate and Andy debrief. We also discuss the heirarchy of treenuts, give DC tourism advice to a listener, and announce our plans to form an old time string band. We're accepting setlist and group name recommendations.

Journey with us, if you will, to a simpler time (November 28th 2010) when The Savvy Observer Podcast was nameless and guileless. It's our first episode, thought lost to time and available for download for the first time in over a year. Our "I'm sorry" gift for not having an episode up this week.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We get more than a little tipsy and podcast about lucid dreaming, the statute of limitations on ruining endings and plot twists, and Michael Haggins' seminal classic, "Daybreak." Also I feel like I (because of the drinks) breathe a little heavier into the microphone than usual. It won't be a regular thing.

Back for the second time in a week, we set the bar way higher for regular episodes than we have in the past 4 months! We discuss whether it's a good idea to send Katie's grandma a disc of our past episodes, whether giving the cat a bath is ever a good idea (pro tip: it's not.), and whether our differing opinions on Les Miserables, Billy Joel and Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket will be the end of our podcasting and marital partnership. Fun!

OMG, you guys! It's a new episode of The Savvy Observer! We discuss the perils of the home buying process, the relative merits of the restaurant Chic-Fil-A, and the questionable merits of Napoleon Dynamite. We also enjoy a meandering "Is This Really a Thing," asking the question, "do hipsters drink PBR ironically or because it's cheap?" Also, plenty of dick jokes. Joining us, seven time guest, Col. Nick.

We celebrate the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 by dicussing whether the Mayans (or was it the Aztecs?) were serious about the end of the world. Andy also does an incredibly accurate job of describing the Iowa caucus, just for the praty that has no contest this year.

If any of you are still subscribing, we have a new episode in which we make a half-assed attempt to explain why we've been gone for so long. We also continue our discussion of gender roles in America and how people dress like dips. Joining us is 6 time guest, Col. Nick Langsdorf.

After an unusually long absence, we return to talk about the inexplicable commercial jingles of the past, the middling movies that middling people state are their favorites, and Kate tells the story of the time she found what appeared to be a dead person by her bus stop.

Andy's brother, The Colonel, makes his triumphant return to Savvy Observer. He tells us all about the rich history of tradition at the school where he is a grad student. Nudity is involved (not on the podcast. At the school.). We also discuss last week's hurricane, do our darnedest to help Virginia find a state song that isn't horribly offensive, and the tricky business of ID photography. Bonus: our most surreal call-in segment yet!

We don't know if you heard but there was an earthquake in DC today. We'll discuss that, earthquake hipsters from out west, fake names based on classic literature, and how Kate can't drink like she used to. What a fun show!

We reboot our audio quality like a comicbook reboots it's hero's ethnicity! In this episode, we discuss the tyranny of summer foods and why Kate hates them, whether Andy's dream of owning a seersucker suit has once again passed him by this summer season, dad fashion as an American constant, and Salon's strawman of an arugement against enjoying the olde tymey. Two episodes in one week, you'd better get your hopes up!

After a brief hiatus, we return with all of the hijinks you love (and some audio problems)! We discuss the effectivness of the Ludovico Treatment, wrestling with olive oil and wrestling in olive oil. We also invent a board game and an exciting new sport called "Lawyer Ball."

Our most sports talk heavy episode, yet. No kidding, you'll think you're listening to Sportzilla and the Jabber Jocks. We discuss the difficulties of mashing potatoes with a fork, the relative merits of cushioned floor seating, and why there are Americans who are mad at the sport of soccer.

We declare war on summer, picnics, and the entire state of Maryland. Also, the return of "Is This Really a Thing?"

In our most disturbinging episode yet, we talk church-produced kids' videos and the terror they inspire in the hearts of men, the do's and do not do's of men's hat wearing, and The Unbucket List (things you want to avoid doing up to and including the day you die).

Our Father's Day spectacular, in which we talk a little bit about our fathers and fatherhood. We also talk about the ruiniation of Old Vegas, East Coast bros v. West Coast bros, and mimosas. Oh, the mimosas!

We're back from a week's hiatus to talk about our various broken appliances and the ability of our listeners to predict which will break next, the joys and perils of going on a good daytime drunk, and going to swanky galas. Plus, Andy lays out the necessary basics to be a stylish and sharply dressed man.

We lament the change in weather, discuss the overall sadness of the concept of a zoo in Phoenix (regardless of whether the elephant paints pictures), reveal the latest calamity to befall our appliances, and talk about working the long con. Bonus: realtime laundry shenanigans!