BONUS: Interview with the Hideously Beautiful Christeene
FOF #1421 – Social Media Anxiety Disorder – 07.28.11
FOF #1356 – Collaboration is the Future of the Internet – 04.06.11
WCT Article on SXSW Panel
About Fausto Fernós
Fausto Fernós is the host of iTunes’ #1 LGBT talk show, the Feast of Fun podcast, which he produces and hosts with his partner, Marc Felion.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Fausto Fernós created the Feast of Fools in 1998 as wacky artists variety show in Chicago, Illinois. Feast of Fun grew out of an audio blog to promote the live show into the world’s most downloaded talk show aimed for gay people.
When he’s not blogging, recording or sleeping, Fausto can be found at the gym or appreciating the beauty found in nature.
Comments
Love this episode. Great mix of sexy, nerdy stuff. I was definitely feeling the social-media fatigue (it’s part of my job), but Heather got me excited again. Definitely going to SXSW next year.
One note to Fausto, ease off the “Traditional Media” bashing. It’s coming across whiny and tired. Especially for someone like me who is working his ass off to keep our local alt-weekly wired and relevant using social media. Don’t forget, if newspapers can’t pay their bills, they will go away and that means no more reporting on the “hard” stuff that no one wants to do for free online. We can’t live on entertainment and celebrity gossip alone… or can we?
At minimum, please help a hooker out, and refrain from lumping all newspapers together. The chained up dailies and seat-of-their-pants gay rags are definitely in trouble. But, local weeklies are still thriving in small markets (like Burlington, VT http://www.7dvt.com) where the local scene is reflected and reinforced by independent media that’s always been free.
I’ve been a listener for at least 3+ years and this is my first comment. Keep up the great work!
P.S. I do miss Sal-E, Amanda, Ronnie and the like, but I’m sure you have your reasons.
Kind of a back-handed compliment thats for sure, but thanks anyways Don!
I think everyone agrees that investigative journalism is now more than ever critical for the well being of our communities. Unfortunately many people who have dedicated their lives in working in this field look at new media with trepidation, or worse with a condescending eye. Can you blame them?
We need people spending a lot of time chasing after stories, looking out for injustice and abuse and letting it see the light of day. Most bloggers don’t have those resources.
Print media needs to embrace the web, or they simply will not exist. I’m with Heather on this one. Not using Twitter in this day and age is like not using a word processor 10 years ago. Why would you choose to avoid using tools that are free and help increase your revenue? Why not work with individuals who understand the medium instead of trying to re-invent the wheel?
Embrace the people who do quality work and make it available to as wide of an audience as possible.
We’ve done over a thousand shows, and many of our past guests have moved on to other things in life. Google them, or find them on Facebook. Some of them want privacy, so respect their choice for it.
Again, thanks for your feedback.
100% agree about journalists needing to be in the loop and using Twitter.
My comment about traditional media bashing was actually bubbling up from several prior podcasts when you’ve voiced your frustration that advertisers continue to prop up failing print media when pure-play web media outlets like yours are truly viable advertising platforms. Sometimes it feels like you’re selling the kool-aid that print is dead and if you’re not advertising on the web you business might as well be in a nursing home.
I just wanted to point out that there are a lot of media folks out there like me that love your podcast and are constantly trying to bridge that gap from old to new media. This work involves changing the culture where I work and it’s not an easy job. Your guests and your podcast give me a lot of great ideas an ammo for talking to my coworkers about new media — thanks. Ironically, we are dependent on revenue from our print advertisers to fund the work we’re trying to do on the web — banners ads and sponsorships do not, sadly, pay even a fraction of our bills today.
About your “past guests,” I brought that up b/c I was curious about what happened to some of your regulars. I haven’t followed your site too closely, nor do I live in Chicago, so I’m totally out of the loop. I don’t know if there was drama or not. But, because you haven’t talked about them on the podcast, sometimes I’ve feared the worst. Was there a fight? Did people want to get paid? Did egos get in the way?
You guys do a great job, but can you blame me for having a little nostalgia for the FOF family? Anyways, I don’t think it would hurt to let people know where some of these people ended up. I know you think of them as “guests,” but to me they often felt like cast members that dropped off the face of the Earth. Maybe a reunion show?
BTW, my partner and I are FINALLY coming to Chicago (my first time) this summer. I think the Chicago visitor bureau owes you a check for plugging Chi-town. You convinced me!
Wishing you tons of advertisers and lots of celebrity bookings! Keep up the great work.
We just don’t publicly comment on past guests, as it helps to keep everyone out of trouble. They aren’t here to speak for themselves, but I’m sure they are somewhere on Google!
The FOF family is you. It’s those who choose to participate on the site, those who influence what happens on the show by their blog contributions, donations or support.
https://www.feastoffun.com/fresh
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I do think that some (not all) gay print media needs to take a serious hard look at the way they do business and reach out to their community. If they aren’t using tools like Twitter, why support them? We all know of that paper in your city that is filled with mostly AP news stories and rehashed stuff from blogs that’s a week old. That’s not journalism, that’s trash.
And then there are the hard working writers and journalists who actually keep some of the better blogs and publications running, who struggle to make ends meet and are usually harassed and abused by some misanthropic publisher/owner. We’ve traveled a lot and met a lot of great LGBT writers and it’s sadly more common than you think.
And don’t think this doesnt happen on GLBT websites either, because it does.
And full disclosure, I personally witnessed a lot of employee abuse as a former employee of a gay newspaper in Chicago.
Let’s focus on the good things, right? You are right is that sometimes I get too bogged down on negatives and forget about all the amazing things our queer fruity folks do.
@ Don Just wait til you hear the show with Kate X Messer from the Austin Chronicle. He really lets her have it, and she him.
And if you want the skinny of “what happened” with those folks for a story for print, I be happy to give it to you, just make sure it never appears online. 🙂
Have enjoyed the Austin series immensely but in particular this one was outstanding. So fascinating to learn about the beginnings of the show. Heather definitely has a Liz Winstead savvy about her and I loved all the geeky jokes. Really fascinating conversation. Thanks guys!