Introducing my HD food video podcast, Sky Full of Bacon!

Imagine a food show that didn't just teach you how to make store-bought crap into semi-homemade crap... that didn't whiz around from spot to spot, but took the time to explore the subject of food thoughtfully, and to introduce you to the people behind the food and their stories, almost like a kind of foodie "This American Life." And that along the way had great-looking shots of food, and occasional jolts of oddball humor, and all in all, was as quirky and interesting as a cool post on LTHForum.

Well, I wouldn't look for that on any fancy cable network any time soon, but thanks to the invention of the Internets, it can be yours now-- online and at iTunes. It's Sky Full of Bacon, my very own high definition video podcast about food from the most fascinating and lively culinary city on the planet right now, Chicago.

Like in an audio podcast, I'll take you to meet and talk to interesting people in the world of food (especially but not exclusively in Chicago). But because food is interesting to look at as well as to eat, I also show you the food, the techniques, and the people for yourself in yummy, high-quality HD. However, unlike so much food TV, I won't cut what they say down to brief soundbites and move at a frantic, please-don't-switch-the-channel! pace. The goal is a format which allows for thoughtful conversation (and if you just want to listen, you can, the shows will make sense that way too) but also offers the sensory satisfactions of great-looking food.

How can I see this, you ask? Simple:
1) Watch each episode at the SkyFull of Bacon blog (fastest, pretty good HD quality)
2) Watch it at its Vimeo page (pretty fast, better HD quality)
3) View or subscribe (FREE!) at iTunes, which I recommend for the highest, full HD quality— and because it will help me keep going to have real live subscribers more than just viewers (not that I don't love them too!)

For me this is an exciting new direction to take my exploration of the food scene which I've nurtured and expanded here for so long, and I hope many of you will want to check it out. Here's what #1 is about; there's more info at the blog.

Sky Full of Bacon #1: How Local Can You Go?

Local is a hot word in food these days. In How Local Can You Go? I visit two people who are taking different approaches to trying to bring local food into the mainstream in Chicago. Cassie Green runs a market in West Town called (what else?) Green Grocer, which features a lot of the producers who sell at Green City and other farmer's markets. Bruce F. is a Wicker Park resident who read about Earthboxes and subsequently built about 30 DIY ones out of Rubbermaid tubs on his garage, and has a lot of perspective about the broader issues surrounding the act of growing your own food in the city.

Mike,

I look forward to whatever you dream up. I'm sure it will be educational as well as material we wished was on FoodTV and isn't.

Regards,

Just watched episode #1. When will it be airing on PBS? I especially like the way you let the people speak beyond two-second soundbites. Looking forward to the next episode.

I saw the one with Cassie and Bruce and enjoyed it. I've been chatting with Bruce for a few weeks now and we've been sharing ideas about the self-irrigated containers, which I have as well. I thought your piece represented him well and I look forward to future webisodes.

In addition, I think this is definitely PBS worthy and you should be pitching this idea to them. Keep up the good work.

Bruce has a compelling, everyman sort of attitude that I found quite sympathetic. I enjoyed that he for years put provocative statements on his roof, just inviting people to interact, but it took a garden to start real conversations. I’ve had this very same experience in my backyard garden; people just stop on by and we talk: I show them unusual vegetables (fava beans, cardoons, etc) and I can tell that some of them think “This is cool. I could do this…I should do this.” Of course, I hope they do.

I'm a fan of SFOB.

I tried to watch at work, but the computer didn't do well with that media player.

I will have to check it out at home. It seems like a great idea for a show. Congrats on taking the initiative to get out there and do something to spread the word.

Interesting material, articulate people -- well done. I look forward to seeing more.

I very much enjoyed this. Consider me subscribed.

The thing that was most impressive to me was how you were able to tell a story despite the long takes and wide ranging conversations. It only took me one intro journalism class to realize how difficult it is to craft a narrative from an interview. Though the heated debates on the Top Chef thread yield much presumed familiarity with editing, we could all learn by observing how you coaxed tales out of these visits.

Mike,

I've watched the first video a couple times now and I'm eagerly awaiting more. I think your efforts are more proof that Chicago's alternative food media has grown up and is achieving things that are way ahead of the old-media stalwarts.

Great work.

Best,
Michael

Great job. I look forward to seeing more. I'll stop by the Green Grocer this weekend too and see what I can pick up for dinner.

Thanks, everybody for the comments. Glad people found it pretty smooth (in a homemade way; I'm not going for food TV level of slickness) and more to the point, interesting. There is more to come...

If you're having technical problems, try the full download from Vimeo (over on the right hand side of the page). It will take a long time, you should set it and forget it, but once it's fully downloaded you should be free of problems, unless your computer is just too old and slow to play a big Quicktime movie at all.

Just subscribed via Itunes, really enjoyed the first installment (though I wound up watching on Vimeo, as I had some kind of glitch)

Good work, Mike!

Mhays wrote:Just subscribed via Itunes, really enjoyed the first installment (though I wound up watching on Vimeo, as I had some kind of glitch)

Good work, Mike!

I also subscribed, and ditto on the kudos.

The food-photography looks really good, too.

How lucky were you to actually find a sign that says "noir" in Algren territory?!

Hey subscribers, I didn't realize that repeating the embedded video in my blog (for Dish readers) would make iTunes alert you that I had a "new" episode, which I don't. Sorry, still learning this stuff. Only one so far, new one coming soon. Thanks for your support.

Now there's a new episode!



Sky Full of Bacon #2: Duck School

Sun Wah BBQ has been serving Chinese barbecue-- chicken heads and all-- for 22 years. I talk to Eric Cheng about how he settled in the Vietnamese "New Chinatown" on Argyle Street on Chicago's north side, and to his daughter Kelly, who with two of her siblings is training to take over the restaurant-- introducing new ideas of her own along the way. It runs just over 15 minutes and I think you'll find it an interesting look at the generational changes lurking behind the smiling facade of a Chinese restaurant... and at all the work and thought that goes into a seemingly straightforward dish like barbecued duck.

Plus, it has cameos by two LTHers recruited to comment on the Peking duck at the end. And if you thought the tone of Sky Full of Bacon was set by all the pretty vegetables in the first one, be prepared for a very meaty look at the delectable duck, pork and other dishes coming out of Sun Wah's kitchen.

How to watch it:
1) Watch each episode at the SkyFull of Bacon blog (fastest, pretty good HD quality)
2) Watch the new one at its Vimeo page (pretty fast, better HD quality)
3) View or subscribe (FREE!) at iTunes, which I recommend for the highest, full HD quality— and because it will help me keep going to have real live subscribers more than just viewers (not that I don't love them too!)

I'm sure things will pick up over time, but so far, iTunes has offered your show long enough after you've announced it that I've just ended up watching it on your blog, even though I've subscribed to iTunes.

Another great show. I definitely need to get to Sun Wah.

This is the second time I told myself: go to sleep, it will be there in the morning. But the soft intros are so immediately attention-grabbing that I have to sit down and watch the whole thing. Well shot, with good narrative. As I mentioned above, I am impressed by your editing job to cohere a story from sit-down interviews. This takes real skill.

So now, instead of winding down, my mind is working, my salivary glands are going - it'll be a wonder if I don't eat my pillow.

It also just occurred to me that it should have felt odd that the first episode of a show called Sky Full of Bacon featured green green vegetables - except it didn't feel odd at all.

Mike G wrote:3) View or subscribe (FREE!) at iTunes, which I recommend for the highest, full HD quality— and because it will help me keep going to have real live subscribers more than just viewers (not that I don't love them too!)

Cynthia wrote:...so far, iTunes has offered your show long enough after you've announced it that I've just ended up watching it on your blog, even though I've subscribed to iTunes.

FWIW, of the options, I have found the iTunes one to work best on my computer. Not just because of the HD, but because it plays flawlessly, sans hiccups, unlike the other two options. This might just mean I have to get one of them new Intel-based Macs to replace my aging (2003) model, but this is the one I've got, so I'll wait patiently for the iTunes version of episode #2 to show up. Looking forward to it!

Opened Itunes for a completely different reason, and realized that the episode is right there, waiting for me - can't wait to watch!

My Ep #2 downloaded automatically into iTunes yesterday afternoon also. Watched it. Learned a lot. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate hearing how things are working technically, you can't always know from this end.

Also, anyone who is subscribing, it would be great if you could take a minute to look at this

http://skyfullofbacon.com/blog/?p=37

and offer any feedback you have, or respond to me by email. Thanks for the support and most of all, for watching.

FWIW, I seem to be downloading air from itunes (finally watched it on the blog) I don't know if it's the HD thing, or the Mac-to-PC thing (I did alert itunes per their little button)

At any rate, keep up the good work and don't listen to the yahoos who can't sit still long enough to enjoy a duck dinner ! I enjoyed getting the full history of the restaurant, and it was particularly fun seeing the group of esteemed LTHers having a go at the finished product!

Hmm, it's definitely on the server, not sure why you're having that problem. In any case, that's why there's more than one way to watch it!

Do I smell barbecue? Texas barbecue?



Sky Full of Bacon #3: The Last Brisket Show

Just soak in the smoky atmosphere of old-time Texas barbecue as I take you to the small town of Taylor, Texas, home of some of Texas's most legendary BBQ joints (including Rudy Mikeska's, where Smoque gets its sausage-- though that's not one I visit). Instead, I go inside Louie Mueller's (where the image above comes from), the most smoke-stained restaurant in America, as owner Bobby Mueller shows how it's done. And I pull up a chair at the bar to talk with Vencil Mares, 84-year-old proprietor of Taylor Cafe, as he talks about the wild old honky tonk days in his establishment.

How to watch it:
1) Watch each episode at the SkyFull of Bacon blog (fastest, pretty good HD quality)
2) Watch the new one at its Vimeo page (pretty fast, better HD quality)
3) View or subscribe (FREE!) at iTunes, which I recommend for the highest, full HD quality— and because it will help me keep going to have real live subscribers more than just viewers (not that I don't love them too!)

Highly enjoyable 13 mins, Mike. Great selections, beautiful shots, and the interviews are priceless. You nailed it.

We lost another good one.

Bobby Mueller: 1939-2008.

I am shocked to hear this, he was a great pitmaster and a gracious host during the time I spent in his restaurant.

Insert head joke of your choice here.



Sky Full of Bacon #4: A Head's Tale

Could eating head cheese be a moral act? We’ve gotten so used to only eating anonymous squares of meat that it’s shocking to encounter a piece of meat with a face. Yet traditional cultures have always used every part of the animal, and there are sound environmental and moral reasons for doing so… not to mention the culinary ones for not letting some of the most delicious meat go uneaten. In this Sky Full of Bacon, I follow the progress of an organically-raised pig’s head acquired by locavore blogger Rob Gardner, from the farmer to a restaurant, Mado, where chefs Rob and Allison Levitt turn it into testa, Italian head cheese, and make a strong case for restaurants taking on the responsibility of using the whole animal. It’s a thought-provoking piece about what we owe to farmers and the animals we eat. Watch for prominent LTHers as official headcheese tasters toward the end.

How to watch it:
1) Watch each episode at the SkyFull of Bacon blog (fastest, pretty good quality)
2) Watch the new one at its Vimeo page (pretty fast, better HD quality)
3) View or subscribe (FREE!) at iTunes, and get the highest, full HD quality.
4) Watch below (but it will be bigger if you follow the links in #1 and #2)

Got some nice comment here, fyi.

Hey Mike:

Way cool! Talk about off the beaten path... Man, you are deep in the woods!
With each episode, the depth and comprehension gets better. (Aw man, I should have asked that question.)
I really enjoy your hard work.
Thank you.