PodcastMN Live to Hard Drive June 2006

Tonight, PodcastMN was at the Acadia Cafe for the inaugural PodcastMN Live to Hard Drive event.

The line up included:

I had a great time. Learned about how each of us do our show, wine tasting, the word “Amen”, and well, since I’m writing this while The Nameless Band Representing Creot Radio is playing, that’s it thus far.

Cinema Playground went all out with a 3-round movie trivia show with – non-podcasting contestants. Remarkable…and hard.

Overall, a refreshing change from the sitting-around-drinking-talking-geek meetups. About 15 seats were filled at any given time so, I’m declaring it a success. There were even requests for another one. I’m up for it. Who else?

Thanks to Ted and the Acadia Cafe for the space, Matt for running the sound, and everyone that did their show.

J Wynia has took some photos of the evening.

Don Norman – ‘User’ is Derogatory

“Psychologists depersonalize the people they study by calling them ‘subjects.’ We depersonalize the people we study by calling them ‘users.’ Both terms are derogatory. They take us away from our primary mission: to help people.” – Don Norman

Individuals. All of us. Alone together. Even though we hide behind organizations, keyboards, and words – we’re all individual people.

First Crack 81. Omar Ansari Talks Surly Beer

Fewer than 6 months after seling the first keg of Surly Beer, Omar Ansari and I talk about starting a microbrewery in Minnesota. He shares the challenges of finding brewing equipment, zoning, and getting Surly into local bars and restaurants.

We also do a live tasting of Surly’s new Belgian Saison-esque CynicAle

Listen to Omar Ansari talk Surly Beer [34 min]

Abstruse, I Am

My preferences over at AmigoFish were described as ‘abstruse’ (difficult to comprehend) the other day.

Good word and much nicer than, say, ‘hyper-critical’.

In an effort to provide some clarity, here are a few notes on what I’m looking for in (video) podcast-land.

Podcasts in General

  • Enthusiasm and constructiveness.
  • 2-3 people having an intelligent conversation (no panels).
  • Big, deep, timeless conversations, rather than time-sensitive reactions.
  • Interesting-ness. I’m looking to think about things in new ways.
  • Independent publishers – repurposed audio/video is cut right out (On the Media is the sole exception).

Video-specific

  • Low production values (I don’t want it to feel like television)
  • Delivered as .mpg or something I can easily convert to .mpg – because, ironically – I want these on my Tivo.
  • Actually using the video channel, not just audio with pictures.

If you’ve got a podcast you think I’d like, add it to my Backlog channel at GigaDial.

Thanks, and by the way, abstruse has nothing to do with “overbese”.

Maybe It’s a Sign

I’m writing this from a panel discussion for Twin Cities artists on building out a music career. An hour and 15 minutes into it, a question from the audience started out:

“We haven’t talked a lot about making records…”

I chuckled.

Aside from the bits about making sure you’ve correctly setup a small business – the rest of the conversation seemed very backwards-looking. I don’t see a difference between trying to make a living podcasting and make a living as a musician, same for writers/journalists/reporters and bloggers, video too.

I don’t see it. I’ve said that before.

So, what’s a budding creative mind to do? Get a day job?

What’s a “day job”?

Northern Exposure is Identity

We’re working through Season 3: Disc 5 of Northern Exposure (specifically My Sister, My Mother). In it, we find a nameless baby, Adam riding a roller coaster of emotions, and Shelly’s mom pretending to be her sister.

Add these story-lines to the series’ general fish-outta-water-ness and there’s a lot of identity theory – Jewish or otherwise.

Hollywood Video in the Local Supermarket

Ran up to the local Cub Foods for a last minute dinner item this evening and snapped the above photo of the new Hollywood Video Express Kiosk over in a part of the store I never go to (Sturgeon’s Revelation frequently comes to mind while I’m grocery shopping).

I found two things interesting about this moment.

  1. Hollywood Video still exists – and enough to launch A New Thing
  2. Someone was using it

If I wasn’t in a hurry (why hasn’t Cub installed self-checkout?) and wasn’t already a Netflix subscriber, I might have stopped to check it out.

Small MacBook Pro Joys

After living with a 17″ MacBook Pro for a couple weeks, there’s a couple things I’ve been pleasantly surprised with:

  1. MagSafe magnetic power connector
    Connecting the power cord takes far less precise alignment than before. Get the connector near the socket and it’s magnetically pulled in. Small joys.
  2. Horizontal scrolling trackpad
    No, I probably won’t be complaining about horizontal scrolling anymore…probably be encouraging it because it’s just so dang much fun.