I have this nasty tendency to subscribe to RSS and podcast feeds, then never listen to or read the content. My Google.Homepage functions like a cemetery with every changing epigraphs. Some of these originate from Web pages that I view daily at their home URL, so the redundancy is well, useless. Other feeds are memorials to my many regular but short lived edicts. “I really am going to follow baseball this year! And real simple syndication will keep me on top of my game!” Still other feeds I subscribe to merely as a self-contained outward facing fan club.

For the last reason I subscribed to the feed for The Aural Times, back in march of 2006. At the time I was an intern reporter and absolutely tired of reading the same news story again, and again, and again, each time the only difference being the byline. That frustration drew me immediately to The Aural Times, where the promise that “We sing the news so you don’t have to” was too good to pass up.

In short, editor Josh Millard would eek out the most redundant details from those iterative news stories and plop the facts into an equally generic music. In the least Millard’s work is the equivalent of a musical snack. Short on substance, but providing enough rhythm and energy to keep one engage throughout the workday.

In its height The Aural Times published some excellently delicious and weird news irony. Among my favorites are: VP Cheney Accidentally Shoots Man During Hunting Trip, German Cat Had Deadly Strain of Bird Flu, Thousands March Against Immigration Crackdown, Swedish Academy Welcomes W Into Alphabet, Ghana Team Upsets Czech Republic, Jersey Girl Wins Spelling Bee, Bush And Koizumi Visit Graceland, and Scientists Find Compelling Evidence For Dark Matter.

Unfortunately, the high-times at The Aural Times were short lived. Launched in February 2006 the site published frequently until August. Then from September to October there were only two posts, the last stating that The Aural Times is Back. A dubious statement that disappointed me every time I checked my RSS reader for the following ten months.

That was until today when visiting my Google.Homepage I noticed that there was a new The Aural Times post in which Millard modestly apologized and then recommitted his promise to sing the news from time to time.

I know better than to expect a glorious return to the days of newsy drum machine laden auto-harmonizing fun. That being said, I am joyous to see some traces of life in a long since stagnant RSS headstone.