What the hell is docstodden.com?
It all started with Supernova Earth.
Well, it all goes a little something like this: One night, probably during he summer of 2001 in Spearfish, South Dakota, some young men were hanging around on the balcony of their apartment, discussing the mysteries of the universe, as they are frequently wont to do. The discussion turned to astronomy, and then the topic about causing the earth to supernova was raised. It was announced that the world would have to be as massive as 8 of our suns to have the potential to supernova (the sun won't supernova either for this same reason). It was likely after this discussion that these scholars returned at this point to their previous activity, which probably included consuming various intoxicants.
Soon afterward, future pioneers of internet broadcasting William "Doc" Stodden and Dan Patterson decided that they should form a band. Stodden played drums and Patterson played an acoustic guitar, and they enlisted the help of bassist William Prentice. Throughout that summer they practiced and then played exactly one gig as "Supernova Earth" before disbanding. The band name remained however, in the imaginations of Stodden and Patterson who envisioned the band as a form of art collective. Stodden and Patterson would license the name to any band that wanted to be a part of the collective, so that there would be seven or eight different bands all called "Supernova Earth" travelling the country at the same time. Shows would be based on the idea that local artists could also show up and produce and display art, while kids listened to music of varying quality. Stodden also later reformed the band with local punks, and while this band never amounted to much more than a few really loud practices (mainly because Stodden really couldn't play the drums), "Supernova Earth" became a title of a song on Rapid City punk band The Reddmen's album that was released around the same time.
Fast forward another year into the future, and both Stodden and Patterson had returned to South Dakota from California. Stodden had long been interested in doing a radio program at local college station KBHU but had been constantly thwarted because his "classical music interspliced with political propaganda at 2 am" format was not similar to the radio station's "alternative" format. However, Patterson suggested that they revive his old show, called the "Creepy Sleepy Show" which originally consisted of independent rock music. The new show would feature political commentary and news, along with the indy rock music of the original show. Stodden agreed and their first shows were broadcasted in the fall of 2004. The first half of the show's orginal production dealt with political news surrounding the election, which the CSS covered in depth on election night that year and called every state before networks correctly, with the exception of Iowa. The second half of the programs from the spring of 2005 dealt more with local issues, the War, and stupid national news. In May of 2005, the radio broadcast had run its course.
The interesting thing about this was that at all times during that year, the radio station had been broadcasting over the internet, and people could log into the station and listen to the feed live on the internet. Patterson pointed out years later that these shows could also be aggregated and downlaoded at a later time, making KBHU's programming technically classified as a very early pod cast, one of the first 100 in the country. Those live shows still exist and are currently being edited for redistribution.
In the Spring of 2005, the production moved to strictly internet broadcasting. Patterson began working with aggregation of podcasts, and he and Stodden actually produced 14 podcasts of the Creepy Sleepy Show together before they physically parted ways, due to Stodden relocating to Montana. Soon afterward, "supernovaearth.org" was launched as CSS' first spinoff podcast, while Creepy Sleepy continued on under Patterson. The cast of these shows has varied, though Stodden has regularly been called in as a guest host, and is now again listed on Patterson's site as a full partner.
Meanwhile, supernovaearth.org has produced on its own 21 individual episodes over two years, usually around important events, with Stodden performing primary host and production duties. Stodden and Patterson have produced several joint CSS/SNE shows, and Stodden was recently joined by Quentin Lewis to discuss socialism in the United States. Stodden has also been joined by many other guest contributors, including his brother, Derek DJ Raspy Stodden who has his own internet broadcast, the Brookhaven Chronicles", as well and is currently producing an audio book version of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."
supernovaearth is not a podcast however. The RSS has been rather dicey, due to Stodden's reluctance to interact with new technology, even though all production has always been available for direct download from the site. It is classified by Stodden as an "Internet Broadcast", and while it can be played on an iPod (hence the name "pod cast") it is meant to play on a home computer.
supernovaearth.org also produced a web log of the same title that contains writings and commentary by Stodden. A Data Center is envisoned as well for supernovaearth.org, which will make it a full service stop for Stodden, as well as anyone that shares the same interests as Stodden does. supernovaearth.org is also the front for the "Eternal Order of the Philosophers", an online secret society which you are probably not invited to. In addition, the Supernova Earth Show will still be produced sporadically, though Stodden admits that doing it by himself is sort of a drag, and wishes he could get a full time co-host.
In the summer of 2009, having operated under the banner of supernovaearth.org for three years, Stodden began brand diversification. supernovaearth.org became the name of his podcast and audio archive, but his blog migrated to a new brand called "The New Haberdasher". He also began several full length online book projects, the first and most important called "Ethical Socialism" and the other, a fictional effort called "Project Dyszombie".
In addition, all these various projects were placed under the umbrella URL of docstodden.org. In March 2010, Stodden put most content behind a membership wall. Therefore, if you are interested in reading it, you may need to become a member, though it won't cost you all anything. Future plans include the development of a public content area, and a paper archive.
Welcome to docstodden.com
