I finally got a chance to check out the Sound Opinions podcast with Anthony Bourdain, G. E. Bowles and Doug Sohn yesterday. Pretty good stuff. I also caught up by listening to a few more shows that I’d missed over the last year. The one thing you can say about DeRo and Kot is that those dudes, even after all these years, are still passionate about their craft. They work hard at staying relevant and are good at what they do. I wish I could say the same about our prominent local food critics.

One minor quibble. I think Derogatis says something like he admires Bourdain because the guy is just as comfortable eating a mediocre hot dog at the back of the bar as he is at a four star restaurant. That being said, lately Derogatis and Kot seem to snicker at the mediocre hot dogs of music, going to town on Amy Winehouse for Rehab, etc. They badmouth Winehouse because she seems to be rehashing the Shirley Bassey ethos without adding anything new. I think while Bassey at her baddest was lyrically tongue-in-cheek, Winehouse’s brash no bullshit-o-meter bollocking on a song like Fuck Me Pumps brings something new to the turntable.

While I’d like to send Britney Spears into whatever crack den Winehouse lives in and have those two bitch slap each other over who’s the harder living nervous break down rock cliche, I actually like Winehouse’s music. I know DeRo and Kot aren’t music snobs by any means, I think they recently talked about how Miley Cyrus isn’t half bad, but I just wanted to shout out a reminder, lest they start skewing toward Pitchfork high mindedness.

Finally, since this is a food website, you can find my own podcasts with Graham Elliot Bowles and Doug Sohn of Hot Doug’s, which also discuss their musical tastes and cooking proclivities. As these were some of my early podcasts, I can’t help but laugh at how my whispered stilted intros sound like a 13 year old broadcasting from his parent’s basement in the middle of the night….that or maybe a bad imitation of Leonard Cohen The interviews are good though.