Wednesday, February 22, 2006

The Amazing Ozawa

Ryan Kawailani Ozawa is now my personal celebrity. I started listening to his podcast, HawaiiUp, on a whim last year. My sister had just returned from a honeymoon in Hawaii, so I think that may have triggered my initial interest. The first HawaiiUp episode I listened to had Ryan recording in his car during his drive home. I found it unique and just the right amount of quirky... I was hooked.



I think all of us in this world need a source of stories outside our own life. Most pick movie stars and gossip shows. I enjoy hearing about the exploits of a family in Mililani. So the Ozawa family and Ryan himself are my celebrities, and my gossip magazines are his blog, videoblog, podcast, flickr pages, etc...



Recently the Ozawa couple (Ryan and his wife Jen) hit the big time with their podcast, the Transmission. It was a fan podcast about the ABC show Lost. My wife and I being huge fans of Lost, we became huge fans of the Transmission (okay, I became a huge fan and my wife enjoys the rumors secondhand through me).



The Transmission climbed to high ratings in iTunes and had fans from all over the globe. At least one of the cast members from the show even called in to say hello. Unfortunately the Transmission became more of a burden than a blessing. They decided to end on a high note before it suffered from life overload.



The loss was noticed though. It was mentioned on my other favorite podcast, TWiT, and even had an article written about it in Wired News. If you ask me ABC should have paid them both a full time salary to keep the show going.



Anyway, I can live with the loss of the Transmission as long as the Ozawa family is happy (and gets plenty of rest). As always this post is for my own memory rather than for anyone else, thus all the links.