pic courtesy hollywoodphony.wordpress.com
After hearing that Facebook.com is suing Teachbook.com for use of the word "book" in their domain name, I thought I'd combine this with some personal events of the day to discuss the concept of Awareness.
via vimeo.com
When music doesn't end at instruments, and everything around you can be played, what might you end up with if you let creativity run wild? A really cool merging of audio, video and, of course, Vimeo.
This audio/video exploration called "Quad Time" by The Joy of Box does rely heavily on digital loop technology, but there has to be some leeway for three guys making tunes in such a unique way.
I really dug it and maybe when you have enough time to kick back and relax for about 7 minutes, you can dig it too.
A brief recollection of some of my dalliances with everything from beer to liquor to liqueur to Polish grain alcohol.
You can talk about your XBoxes and PS3s all you like, but nothing beat head-to-head action in the early 80s more than Archon: The Light and The Dark. Although it started on Atari, I played mainly on the Commodore port of the game.
Many an evening was wasted away taking turns kicking ass in low-res glory. This game was awesome. A crapload of D&D-like characters swinging clubs and swords, firing energy bolts and casting spells on a chess board with power squares: nothing less than kickass!
Now you get to see what all the fuss is about.
I told you it was awesome... maybe a bit dated... and simplistic... and geeky... BUT AWESOME NONETHELESS!
A question by Cheryl following the Why Do I Do This Shit I Do? podcast inspired the following post on methodology and gear.
"I am astounded at the number of podcasts you put together in a week -- how long does each one take? Do you script any of them? What about production, is it just record and go? What software/hardware are you using?"
My long-winded answer... because I don't do anything short-winded.
Nothing is scripted anymore. If you were to hear some of the lovehate podcasts from a year and a half ago, you'd find they were all readings of the blog posts - which used to be LONG. I used to keep the "scripted" and impromptu podcasts numbered separately, but as my time for writing became scarce I went completely extempore and merged the two streams at Podcast #42 of each and call the next podcast Episode 85. Most of the time, other than a basic premise to kick off the festivities, I have no idea where the LHT podcasts will end up.
The current lovehatethings podcasts are generally recorded in real time (10m) and then I drop some mildly meaningful music in the background, save it to mp3 and post it - total time about 25m.
For my other podcasts, DyscultureD and TV, Eh are just riffing off of whatever links we've collected. Best Episode Ever is riffing off of the show's Wikipedia page and personal recollections.
LHT is recorded directly into Cool Edit Pro 2.1 which is an old program that is absolutely brilliant and uses a ridiculously small footprint of the processor. The program is also used to edit all of the other podcasts. DYS and TV, Eh are recorded over Skype using a program called Call Graph.
The time investment for Best Episode Ever is very similar to lovehatethings unless I'm recording an episode with someone else over Skype.
TV, Eh editing is generally not too demanding unless I have to post-process an interview. I generally just add opening theme and closing theme and mixdown to mp3.
DyscultureD takes the longest just because we do segments and break between them. The breaks necessitate some editing and insertion of stingers. Since the new theme song, I've also taken a couple of minutes to record the intro as well. A no-nonsense quick edit of the podcast is usually 30m, but the process takes quite a bit longer as my upload speeds often add 20 minutes to everything.
As for hardware, I've got a REALLY fast Dell PC box with 9GB of RAM that helps speed the process. My newest toy is the Australian Rode Procaster microphone with shockmount and boom that I've had for about half a year now. (see top of post)
I also use a Behringer Eurorack UB802 mixer as I really prefer the sound of a mic going directly into the analog port instead of USB. (Maybe it's just the old musician in me, though I do still have a USB Blue Snowball and a USB headset mic for trips with my laptop. The Eurorack also facilitates anything else I want to plug in if I'm going to record music and add a keyboard or other instrument.
Posterous has really made everything else easy. I'd rather spend time on content creation instead of webpage coding, so I'm relieved that the advent of Posterous and my relaunch into blogging and subsequently podcasting had a serendipitous synchronicity.
Probably more than anyone wanted to know. While it may sound a complex, I have also recorded about ten podcasts from Las Vegas casinos with my iPhone and nothing else. Engaging content and style will trump gear any day of the week.
A reflection on how and why I jumped into the social media sphere when I did, and some of the benefits I reap from participating in its inherent creative outlets.
After going through much of my teenage years and early 20s delving back decades in progressive rock that was recording before my time, and shunning much of 80's New Wave because of my disdain of sequences and samples, when grunge evolved, I started listening to the radio again.
While I love Pearl Jam, and they certainly were spawned from this movement, they always really just seemed to be a rock band dressed in plaid.
For me, the crest of the Grunge wave always was and will ever be Soundgarden. Now they've released a new/old song called Black Rain from the dusted off tapes of my favourite CD, Badmotorfinger and I couldn't be happier.
Hopefully this will bring back some good feelings about when the charts weren't ruled by Radio Gaga or feelings that tonight's gonna be a good night.
Power, passion, energy, packed into a wall of sound... garden that is.
via vimeo.com
I like sharing some of the great work I find at Vimeo.com, especially when I find something short that I know you can't get fired for watching at work. Here's another animated gem called "dilla" about an armadillo who is hounded until receiving poetic justice in under 3 minutes.
Yet another great reason to check out Vimeo yourself, or, if you like waiting for my picks, that's cool too.
What if the US remembered that Canadians burned down the White House in the War of 1812? Would they tear down the 14 Tim Horton's location in NYC in the same way they're opposed to a mosque?
Note: all regular content of me ranting in this podcast is Creative Commons, but I took the unusual step of adding a song at the end. I cannot attest to their views on the issue or inclusion in my rants... deliberations.
If you like the song (it's called The War of 1812 (The White House Burned) by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie) find somewhere to buy it online... I couldn't find a link or I would have provided it here. Here's their website store regardless.