I was listening to Mark Johnson's Board Games To Go podcast on the way in to work this morning, and he said something that struck a chord with me.  He mentioned that there are so many podcasts coming out that it's getting hard to listen to all of them without skipping through some of the content.  The problem, he points out, is two-fold.  First, there are a lot of new podcasts competing for attention.  And second, sometimes he just wants to listen to the radio, but this takes away from his podcast consumption.

Since college, I've always been a media snob, no matter what the medium.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist family where music didn't have much value placed on it if it didn't have a Christian message (or come from a musical).  So it wasn't until late high school / early college that I discovered really great music.  At the time, Nirvana and the Foo Fighters were in full swing, and I got sucked into alternative rock.  At the same time, I was listening to The Beatles, The Who, The Stones and Led Zepplin for the first time.  It was a new experience, and I felt like there was an entire new world opened up to me.  For the past few years, my tastes have gone indie, favoring bands like The Shins, The Postal Service and Wilco.

The problem is, being an indie music fan is hard work.  With the prevalence of Clear Channel in Dallas, radio no longer breaks cool new artists.  The internet is where it's at.  But combing through the reviews at Pitchfork and Metacritic, downloading new albums, loading them on the MP3 player and finding time to give them a fair listen is work.  It takes time.  My morning commute (20 minutes) used to be the time I would discover new bands.

Mark's problem is now my problem.  That time I used to spend discovering new bands has been replaced with a tidal wave of gaming podcasts.  Now Tom and Joe, Mark, and several others accompany my morning commute.  Unfortunately, that means I haven't heard a decent new band in months.

The problem doesn't just exist in audio, either.  In addition to this wonderful world of great boardgames, I'm also discovering comics aren't just about superheroes anymore.  A friend pointed me in the direction of Neil Gaiman's Sandman collection a few months ago, and now I've got stacks and stacks of graphic novels that compete for my media attention.  As a result, other media outlets suffer.  My Netflix DVDs go unwatched.  I used to call myself a bit of a film buff, but this year I'm ashamed to admit I've only seen one of the Academy Awards Best Picture movies.  (Crash, if you're curious - which I thought was dreadful)

In addition, that copy of Civilization IV has been played exactly twice, friends have loaned me a number of Xbox games that have gone unplayed, I've read only two books cover-to-cover since the beginning of the year, and I close my newsreader at the end of the day with several hundred unread articles.

I'm drowning in a sea of media.

Life would be easier if I hated to read or didn't enjoy movies.  Or if I thought video games were a waste of time.  But I don't.  I love consuming media - movies, music, books, comics, video games, podcasts, RSS feeds.  I'm a media junkie.  In fact, the only media outlet I don't get a lot of enjoyment of is television.  I watch exactly one show with regularity (The WB's Gilmore Girls - partly for the wonderfully witty & reference-filled writing, partly for Lauren Graham's ass).  Aside from sports and Seinfeld reruns, television is largely background noise in my house.  (though I have found myself aimlessly channel surfing lately, which is disturbing)

But despite not spending much time watching television, I still feel like there's not enough time to consume all the media I want to enjoy.  That's especially true now that I have a large extended gaming network.  I play games with my Friday night guys, I'm getting the work guys interested in playing more often, Christina and I get in some 2-player gaming on weekends, and there's always Tuesday night @ Borders / Thursday at Half Price Books.  All those nights playing games means less time reading, watching movies, etc.

I suppose this is a silly topic to complain about, but Mark's podcast really got me thinking about it.  With more media outlets competing for attention, I'll have to be more selective in what I consume.  That line of reasoning has always worked for music & movies, and I suppose it will now have to extend to gaming podcasts, too.

It's a good problem to have.