Cast of the Week XXI

Welcome to the 21st edition of the Cast of the Week awards (Breaking out of Lockdown Edition). Got the sick of home blues? Get outside! But first, read on for a double dose of winners and important info.

You can find this week’s nominees can be found at https://ykyz.com/f/cotwxxi.
 
Junior Microcaster Prizes
We will be experimenting with a dedicated Junior Microcaster award and might do a summer program. This would be open to anyone 18 or younger. We hope to offer at least one prize per week in this category, and if we get enough participants, we might offer a Junior Microcaster of the summer award. This is a great way for a teen to launch a career in casting. Note that if you take a teenage caster under your wing, you are eligible for our Mentor program, and will get referral credit for anyone you bring on.
 

And now, on to the CotW XXI winners! But first, some shoutouts:
 
Shoutout to PracticalMagic for episode 73. It is OKAY to rest!  and the reminder that during the pandemic, lowering expectations for what you get done may be the only way to stay sane.
 
Shoutout to Rebekah of the SmartMoney microcast for a solid review of pay-to-play games in episode 318. Paid to Play Apps – Worth It?
 
Shoutout to BorisTheBlade for touching a nerve with the title and content of his 175th microcast episode Fat is not beautiful, Adele’s weight loss and Social Justice Warrior fascists pt. 2.
 
Shoutout to Asi the Voluptuous Voyager for episode 191. Ramblings… and her thoughts about the goal of her cast and reaching out to others.
 
Shoutout to Mistress of the Microcast for fearlessly asking the question no one else dares to ask in her episode 260. What happened to the Bermuda Triangle?
 
A few microcasters had episode milestones recently. Shoutouts to Snippets With Sophia, Doctor Irish, and Smart Money for hitting the big 300. Whoot whoot!
 

And now, on to the winners! But first, a few honorable mentions:

Honorable mentions:
Poegosi The Poet for his intriguing and highly interacted with episode 195. Selling feet pics online strange ways to earn online
 
Snippets With Sophia for episode 302. Food-Based Insults, an excellent overview of the many ways to label another nation based on their food preferences, from Limeys to Krouts to Butter Stinkers (who knew!)
 
ThatbeardedSwede for episode 262. Nordic Walking voice chat debates online! Apparently, this awkward looking activity works not just for the elderly but can be good for fitness if you swap out lightweight poles for ones that weigh as much as mid-sized chickens.
 

And now, and this time we really mean it, on to the winners:
 
Bleats of the week:
This award goes to the most listened to (non-microcast) bleat of the past week. Since two weeks have gone by, we have two winners.
 
Should they be allowed? by Muslim Things
 
and
 
Live now 🔴 Gaming chat at 5 pm Friday! by Maleficent Gaming
 

Quote of the week:
This award goes to my favorite quote taken from a microcast episode or bleat. The two winners this time are:
 
“It’s as if you  asked me what colors I would want the walls of my apartment painted while there’s a gaping hole in the floors and also the kitchen is on fire”, by Just Thinking Aloud in episode 186. Right/Left Wing and Other Pipe Dreams.
 
And
 
“Covid. I blame Covid. The entire last three months I blame solely on Covid. I mean, don’t you?”, by jenagain in episode 87. Ready or Not, pt 1.
 

For our regular microcast awards, we have:
 
Fourth prize:
In episode 242. Street Corn by Black Girl Baker, we get a great explanation of how to debug dense cake as well as a mouth-watering description of how to make homemade Street corn.
 
Third prize:
In Greek mythology, the Titans were pre-Olympian gods. In episode 260. Story Time: The Titans, Astrocast By Diz tells their wild and disturbing story with a mix of drama and delightfully strange detail.
 
Second prize:
Addie, of Music and Peace, gets a silver star and second prize for episode 384. Give Addie A Sticker – Rough And Rowdy Controversy, for her excellent contextualization of Bob Dylan’s latest album. In this packed cast, Addie covers the questions of how to judge new work of an old artist, music in the time of pandemics, and, as the title suggests, stickers.
 
First prize:
A Brewtiful Mind takes top prize for episode 189. Could You Drink 101 Beers in a Week? In it, Micah tells the true tale of a former school track star who drank 101 beers in a week and ran 101 miles in that same week. Mixing self-indulgence, Covid relief (funds were raised), excess drinking, and the return to much-neglected exercise, this cast perfectly captures our current moment.

Cast of the Week XII

CotW XII
You’ll find all the nominees for this week at https://ykyz.com/c/na?faveOf=cotwxii

Here are the winners of Cast of the Week XII.

But first, some shoutouts:

Shoutout to our newest members of the 100 club: Andrew Steiner of Steinerland and Brian Thornsburg of Ranting and Raving. Put on your monogrammed green jackets, light up a cigar, and welcome to our exclusive club.

Shoutout to Sophia for spicing up our first week of March Madness with several episodes about the strange human custom of intentionally consuming things that burn our mouths.

Shoutout to Joel for finding a way to make a cast even more micro with his Bleat March Madness – The Micromicrocast. Unfortunately, I had to listen twice to realize the feeling of micro-deja-vu was well earned.

Shoutout to Kayla aka Violaceous Curiosity for jumping hard into March Madness with some well-done swaps.


Before we get to the winners, here are the honorable mentions for this past week.

15. Pumped Up Kicks by BeyondRhythm
He gives us the background on Foster for the People’s wonderfully cheerful song about teen angst with an imaginary(?) body count. Props to Cyannade for ending this episode the best possible way, with that maddeningly catchy whistling.


38. Earn online with the right chair by Poegosi The Poet
Microcasts call for micro topics, and Poegosi gets that right in this lovely little episode about finding just the right chair to keep you comfy, but not so comfy that you drift off. For my own part, I recommend adding a recliner to your office to give yourself a dedicated napping chair.


And now, on to the winners:

Runner-up:
124. To my wife by Aspie and Proud.
Elsa penned, then pronounced and posted this perfectly lovely ode to her partner. Well done and well within the spirit of March Madness experimentation.


Grand prize:
159. Use Headphones for this exercise by Doctor Irish
The good doctor picks up the top prize with this audio experiment, complete with show notes in an informative reply. We also strongly recommend listening to episode 160. Try this -Ambient Sound- Story Time an Audio Experience. Which uses background noises to great effect.


You may have noticed that we only gave out two prizes this week, yet we promised three during this month. In a moment of mixing things up ourselves, we’ve decided to give at least one prize next week to a swap cast, and offer a bounty to both the swapper and the swappe for double-dipping fun. Stay tuned to ykyz and don’t forget to get weird this March while you still can, it’s back to gray jackets and Cisco’s hold music next month.