Friday, June 30, 2006

msb-0031 Shouting Love at the Heart of the World

msb-0031 Shouting Love at the Heart of the World

Think of this as an "Homage" to Harlan Ellison.

He's still around, and "KICK"ing. (http://harlanellison.com/kick/kick_rls.htm )

His is a crusade, naw I hate that word and the religious and political connotations surrounding it.

His is a fight to get copyright works off the internet, without the authors' expressed permission.

Did you get that last part? "Without the author's expressed permission."

He's right in many ways, not the least of which is pecuniary.

In fact, he's at the vanguard. Because his opus can be acquired, legally or otherwise, over the internet.

Because it is so compact, a scant few megabytes as opposed of tens or hundreds of megabytes for audio, or multiple gigabytes for video, its is almost trivial to make off with somebody's, for want of a better word, content.

With all of my ranting about the various **AAs and ASCAP/BMI, you'd think I couldn't care less about intellectual property and you'd be so wrong.

I use the material I'm allowed to use for exactly this kind of a show. Its released by artists as part of a larger body of work. They do it to publicise themselves. Its out there as shameless self promotion.

In Harlan case, it would be like releasing some part of a book, possibly a chapter, to see the interest in it. I think that even Harlan would agree to this kind of a release if it was properly attributed and links were provided to his site so that people could purchase the work.

What Harlan objects to is taking the entire work and his getting nothing for it.

That is where DRM gets involved and there are a few schemes out there, like the FairPlay that Apple in using as well as some others, which could protect his interests.

I have nothing against DRM, just some implementations of it are too restrictive and aren't reality based.

Lets look at podcasting properly. As the kind of venture where:
  • artists put out some of their opus, regardless of the medium, to see if we as podcasters are interested, and
  • when we are, we are given their permission, through a contract with the Podcast Music Network, to use it, with proper credit given on the shows notes, in a show podcast to you, the audience
  • whereupon you, as a member of the audience, can decide wether or not to investigate further.
That's business of podcasting. Clean and simple.

We need access to a network of material that we can use to create derivative works, our podcasts.

You can't use Protected AAC song in a podcast... Apple is making its tunes available as Protected AAC and they are unusable even when I was given explicit permission to do so by the creators of the work.

The iTunes Music Store is a 'final consumer' delivery service and every piece of music acquired through iTunes is a 'final consumer' product. However, when I am putting these broadcasts together I am not a 'final consumer.'

I have to use something else and the sources are very different. Hence, the podcasts will likely not sound like the record companies product and the radio output.

And to be honest, after discovering that Tom Waits has four songs on the PMN, I feel that it won't be too long before the PMN picks up every 'commercially problematic' artist out there for use in podcasts.

The RIAA may have protection rights over a huge back catalog owned by the recording companies, and ASCAP/BMI may be part of the enforcement arm, but the industry habit of 'discovering new artists' and then throwing them away like use condoms, is leaving an awful lot of people who are saying "You screwed me once, shame on you."

To paraphrase Bush: 'Screw me twice... Maw... Hmm. You won't get to do that again.'"

To paraphrase Johnny Paycheck now: "Take this recording contract and shove it."

And the PMN is happy to take the discards from the commercial world.

The commercial world has no memory and no loyalty; and their vision of the future doesn't extend beyond the next fiscal quarter.

That makes for an awful lot of pissed off artists and other content producers, and there's a new game in town, the PMN.

Every podcast has associated show notes, mine are at MSBPodcast.com, listing the music and other media used and where to get it. (I'm such a fan-boy, I even include the show notes in the episode [which libsyn.com screws up handing them off to iTunes] and under the lyrics tab in iTunes.)

----

That's fine, but it doesn't pay the rent.

Podcasting is rarely done professionally. And its just as rarely profesionally done.

Getting it done at all used to be extremely expensive.
  • The guys who owned the transmission towers had the broadcasters by the short and curlies,
  • the broadcasters had the record companies by the short and curlies,
  • the record companies had the artists by the short and curlies
  • and so on.
Its the war between economic models: scarsity versus plenty (and everything gets scarse at some point) and oligopolistic protectionism versus "laisser faire" competition.

With computerization, the costs have shrunk to such an extent that even a handicapped person like me with a little money and some interest in a topic and in music can produce a podcast.

In further reflection on the economic model of scarsity, I am trying to get the message out to advertisers that can't possibly afford or justify advertising in the traditional media for drugs, goods and services dealing with MS.

This podcast doesn't cost them much.

Its by $50/thousand downloads.

I'm definitely not there yet and with a maximum of 350,000 MSers as my downloaders, even if I hit 100% of them, it would cost at most $17,500 to run an ad of unlimited length. Its a podcast, if you need time, you've got time.

Compare that with mass media advertising, with budgets of $10,000,000 to introduce a new brand of dog food. When they can't even be sure that the listener or viewer even has a dog.

Is it any wonder that advertising companies are taking a serious, hard look at podcasting as a means of cutting out the waste inherent in broadcasting.

I could write a song about this:

"Are you there?
Do you care?
Will you remember when and where?"

Enough waxing lyrical.

In fact, with web site banner exchanges for Associations and for small and family owned businesses, it doesn't have to cost them a thing.

By virtue of who will download these episodes, us MSers, they are extremely likely to be in the specific market niche that they want to hit: us MSers.

And we get to find out what's out there for us and our needs.

That's the message I'm trying to send out there.

It'll happen.

Its too inefficient to operate in any other way.

And industry hates inefficiency.

msb-0030 4th of July Special

msb-0030 4th of July Special.

Feedback comes first and I got as good as I gave.

I've been in Touch with another podcaster. (Fozzy Bear Yay!)

Travis Goss of the UnRadio Show ( http://theunradioshow.podomatic.com/ ) hosts a talk type of show. I've just downloaded episode 20. I quite like it and I'm back going for the rest of the episodes.

The show is kind of like OtakuGeneration ( http://www.OtakuGeneration.net ) but without their focus on Otaku (which is a self-descriptive Japanese term for variety of geek or fanboy/fangirl obsessed with anime and manga).

This show is quite unlike mine, which is in the genre of NoIdleFrets ( http://noidlefrets.blogspot.com/ ) or the RoadHouse ( http://www.roadhousepodcast.com/ ) or even PodPyrates ( http://jesterstear.libsyn.com/ ) where the hosts play tunes of the music they like.

He liked my selection of music. What more can I ask for?

Maybe we'll do cross promotion (count on that happening real soon, my late cat Wiki is raring to go,) promos, intros for each other's shows, and maybe we'll do Skype interviews of each other.

Its also encouraged me to get in touch with the PodFather, Adam Curry. (Adam has just lost his mother to lung disease so I'm calling to offer my condoleances. I'll leave off mentionning my show 'till some other day.)

Its how I found out about his show.

Maybe I could reach other listeners.

I have an eclectic style, you never know what you're going to listen to, but I have standards, you know it'll be well played.

----

Canada's national holiday is on the first of July, but I'm a Joysey Boy now so I gotta wait an extra three days. What can I say?

I wish it was all beer, burgers, and corn on the cob at a tailgate party before the game, but its going to be ninety degrees or more out there and I'm not venturing away from the air conditioner. Heat causes noise on my frayed cabling and I do not need to become spastic (well not any more that I already am.)

Tai Chi helps by the way. I'm not graceful anymore but at least I'm not falling down after the sessions.

I'm not really going to rant on today because its a freakin' holiday.

But watch out for Thursday's show about Harlan Ellison, who almost right, DRM which is almost wrong, and the economics of scarsity, which is plenty screwed up.

But for now lets just enjoy some tunes.

Friday, June 23, 2006

msb-0028 Morning mahem & msb-0029 Sounds of Silence 0003

msb-0028 Morning mahem msb-0029 Sounds of Silence 0003

Feedback come first but you didn't send me any.

I'm reminded of a Saturday Night Live skit. I think it was with Bill Murray.

He was hosting a radio call-in show on "Federal Funding of Municipal Bonds".

Needless to say he had no callers. (cricket chirps)

In desperation he changed tack about the topic over and over again, all the way to "Nuns!"

----

I am getting some feed back and correspondence from potential advertisers; small or family owned businesses who'd do an interview with us about their product or service and get a link on the MSBPodcast.com site for as long as we'd could have a link on their site.

Total cost to them: $0.00. Total cost to us: $0.00.

They get to advertise their product to MSers for however long the show is up, at least weeks, and keep a link on our site to send our visitors to their sites and we get to advertise the podcast to their visitors.

I really need to work on getting that mascot so that my link is distinctive, not obstrusive but distinctive.

----

The topic last episode was Faces. I went to www.FaceOfMS.org of course, I get Inside MS like plenty of other MSers.

If anybody wants to see what the weird dude in your ears actually looks like, I included a picture; which you can actually date because it was taken in Central Park during Cristo's "Gates" exposition.

FaceOfMS.org is actually an interesting site. Lots of stories to hear, see and read.

But I'm starting to notice that you're mostly younger than me. I'm undecided how I feel about that. Sigh... I'm getting old. Big shock. You get old anyway, no matter what: Tempus Fugit.

But you're all so young and that's a tragedy.

Everybody's smiling in their pictures but I wonder if that's an artifact of having a camera pointed in your face.

I remember a picture of a young woman looking up at a camera with one of those "I'm smiling because you're supposed to smile in pictures" poses, kneeling in the sand on a crowded New York City beach, while her fiancé in the foreground was nearly drowned and was being seen to by paramedics.

It was on the back cover of "Pictures On A Page" by Harold Evans, ISBN: 0-434-90553-4 .

Why was she smiling?

----

This episode is entitled Morning Mayhem, and or is it because, I've found songs about morning.

I wanted to feature a slice of the calendar, at least the days of the week, but I can't play The Bangles' "Just Another Manic Monday" for you and there aren't enough songs about either months of days yet. It'll have to wait.

Did you like the Grand Planetary Tour of episode msb-0025?

I found music for every planet but one and the missing planets were filled by a sattelite of Uranus, and the last song was produced by Pluto Records.

Lets just listen...

Sunday, June 18, 2006

msb-0027 Links and Daisychainsaws...

Feedback come first, but I'm no Adam Curry of the Daily Source Code, Mark Yashimoto Nemcoff of PacificCoastHellway, Johnny Velcro of PodPyrates or Tim Hanson of The Distorted View (or any of the sixty or so other podcasts that I listen to, [three of wich are by MSers, {take THAT mass media }],) so I don't have that much of an audience or, with my focus on MS, even the potential for that much of an audience.

Its still very much of a vanity project on my part ... for now.

At least until the advertising agencies and other media buyers realize that there podcasting is out here and that podcasts like this one are focused on their respective markets.

And they will, partly through the efforts of Adam Curry, Mark Yashimoto Nemcoff, Johnny Velcro and even Tim Hanson with his 'click grid' advertising.

----

I'm writing these pieces sometimes weeks in advance and editing them to reflect whatever's new or topical.

In my case, its the new equipment and software I'm using to create these podcasts.

But you don't care about that.

Or do you? email me, charles@MSBPodcast.com, or write a comment on the episode, again at MSBPodcast.com, and let me know, or you can write them on the blog which is linked to, again from MSBPodcast.com.

----

This episode is titled Links and Daisychainsaws because we're working to link up with the various print media outlets, with reciprocal links.

Got an MS oriented website? We would love to have a link to you on our website and that you have a link to MSBPodcast.com. We'd keep your links as as long as you keep our link up. (Gotta get that mascot for banners and banner ads.)

----

In other news, I working to start up MSBPodcast en Español. That would allow Spanish speaking MSers to have a show dedicated to their MS needs and with their music. (At least all the Hispanic music we can find on the Podsafe Music Network.)

----

I'm reminded of the song "What its Like" by "Everlast". Sadly I can't play it. Thank you RIAA and ASCAP/BMI. Thank you so very fucking much.

Your greed is why artists go unheard and why every body with any special needs are left out in the quiet, lonely cold.

----

I'm sorry about the stupid souding ad at the end of the podcast. Its got this really brain-damaged sounding announcer, but he means well.

See, they're really trying to get your opinion on whatever the people who are paying them are interested in.

They're offering an iPod nano because your email address as proof of taking the survey is really worth that much to them.

In turn the results they get are really worth that much and more to the the people they represent.

And maybe you can drop them a line and tell them that announcer-voice is a real stupid-sounding insult to anyone with an IQ.

(Actually these kinds of ads are why PodShow.com is running a contest, the Earthlink Challenge, to change the face of advertising at adchallenge.podshow.com )

We're afflicted by enough in our lives without having to cope with what only an advertising person could think of as acceptable.

Still, you might be interested. (And I might just be interested in steering you that way because of what I might from them.)

And getting some statistics about my audience is an interesting idea. I know you're out there. The show is downloaded.

Since I got MSBPodcast back up and running properly, maybe you'd like to take the audience survey on MSBPodcast.com. (And then maybe you could email or use either voice link or Skype to tell me what you think of and about it too.)

I really do care about you and were all MSers in the same boat together.

----

I don't marry any stupid women.

My wife Lee is out there beating the bushes and talking with people about this site and this podcast.

She's having more success than I am.

She has much better entre-gens than I do.

My wife has finally 'got it', not MS but about MS, and got with the program and the podcast.

We're sending out copies of our 'Magic Bullet' blurb to the companies that want to advertise on this podcast.

She has also come up with how to apply the barter system for small and family owned businesses.

We will feature their content about their product or service on the podcast and keep a link on our website in exchange for a presence from them: a link from their website.

This will not be an endorsement (unless of course I actually use their product,) but their chance to try out an advertisement for no money exchanged and at a minimum expenditure.

They help us with our advertising and we help them with theirs. They establish a persistent presence on our site and we have a persistent presence in return.

You'll get to hear about what's available to you, for your MS.

Instead of just suffering in the silence enforced by the economics of comprising just 0.0833% of the population.

Because, here, you're 100%!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

msb-0026 I Don't Have the Blues, but I play 'em

Johnny Velcro of Pod Pyrates Podcast ( http://jesterstear.libsyn.com/ ) is a great and gracious host.

Mostly, he has impeccable taste and does the research necessary to keep crud out of your ears.

I try to, but sometimes, I have to admit, the selection for certain themes is still poor in podsafe music.

You heard part of the intro for his show on my last episode ( msb-0025 The Grand Tour ).

All the song info is in the show notes. The photo or illustration credits are in the show notes. You can pick up the notes at MSBPodcast.com or look for them on the episodes or they are repeated on the lyrics tab in iTunes. (The formatting of little info button on the right of the episode is screwy with HTML tags. Libsyn is aware of the problem. They aren't __doing__ anything but I've made them aware.)

And a comment left for the episode you liked, or didn't like, would be appreciated, and you can email me: charles@msbpodcast.com.

----

You may have noticed that the episode ran for nine songs, which is more than a half-hour.

Yup. I've finally switched podcasting platform to break through the 30 minute barrier.

Well, mostly.

I still enjoy recording on my laptop which has a Samson C01U mike hooked up.

As opposed to using the iMac which has an M-Audio MobilePre USB preamp | Audio interface with a pair of AKG C1000S mikes hooked up.

I'm still waiting to record an interview or something that would need my Marantz 670 recorder.

Typical nerd/Boy Scout. All the toys I'm ever likely to need, if the need ever comes up.

I'm off my aging early 2002, 1/2 gig RAM, TiTanium PowerBook and I'm now using my late 2004, 2 gig RAM, G5 iMac.

I've also got a Linux box and a Windows box. They're both using AMD Athlon 64 bit chips and 1+gigs RAM and a storage farm (160, 200, 250, 400 and 400 GB NAS drives).

I don't use those boxes for anything but business.

Its fun being a nerd. I have lots of neat toys.

Well enough with the geek talk.

----

Some MSBPodcast news. I have just received by corporate seal, incorporation papers and things that you don't need to be bothered about. I opened my bank account so that I can accept money from anybody and write cheques to anybody. The legal structure is slowly comin to completion.

----

I wish I could still draw.

I've got an idea for a mascot for this corporation. (Sorry Todd and Kim Maffin but "Larry the Lesion" is one ug-ly, repulsive sucker.

And your 'dating tips' for people with MS had to be the most inane piece I'd heard in a long time.

Either MS is not a factor in a relationship because you don't know, or it is because you do know.

If your disease progresses like most peoples you're going to be on the 'dating circuit' at several points in your life, because people with any kind of chronic disease can't keep their partners. It takes a very special person to do that and, frankly, most people aren't that special.

At some point, like when your mobility is permanently affected, you may have to decide to stand on the side lines to avoid getting smacked in the face by a semi.

Harsh, but life shouldnt require that both parners wear rose tinted glasses so dark that its just a shade off of seeing red.)

Anyway, I was talking to you about my idea for a mascot Mascot: Wiki.

Its an upright back cat, wearing a pale linen jacket and leaning on a red cane.

I thought of getting Bill Holbrook of Kevin and Kell ( http://www.herdthinners.com/ ) to do it for me because his style of art is great. But what he would charge me sort of put that idea on a back burner.

I had $2.5K to 'waste' on the Amanda Monaco, the Lascivious Biddies supporting the "Walk for MS" thing (which was a rained out mess in a lot of ways,) but I think I'll save the money for the art-work until I actually get some income.

----

Lets play some Blues.


msb-0026 I don't have the Blues, but I play 'em.

Theme and 'incidental music' from:
"The Universe of the Blue",
by "Ichiro Makagawa",
http://ichiro-nakagawa-music.blogspirit.com/
no album,
via http://music.podshow.com/

""

Song list:

"Leaving Town Blues",
by "Matt Thorpe",
http://www.onlinerock.com/musicians/mattthorpe/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"Wine-o-blues",
by "Mike Ratza",
http://www.mikeratza.com/Home.html
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"Down And Out Blues",
by "Ricky Lewis",
http://rickylewisband.com/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"Keep Your Motor Running",
by "Dave Hole",
http://www.alligatorrecords.com/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"New Stagger Lee Blues",
by "Ross Neilsen",
http://www.rossneilsen.com/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"Amin BAM Blues",
by "Pierre Journel",
http://www.lepcc.net/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"Going Back To Allabama",
by "Siegel-Schwall Band",
http://www.alligatorrecords.com/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"Cold and Blue",
by "Monkeyshine,
http://www.monkeyshineonline.com/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

"Landlord a my Door",
by "Son Seals,
http://www.alligatorrecords.com/
album: "none",
via http://music.podshow.com/

----

Photo Credits:

Intro Image:
Photo credit http://www.electricedge.com/greymatter/images2/billsteber.jpg

All the rest are images from:
http://music.podshow.com
or from
the artist's website

----

I'm still rehabbing/redesigning the msb.libsyn.com, MSBPodast.com web site.

None of the links work right now. (Yes they do. :-)

It should be back in operation by next week. (That what I said last week. Right? :-)

You can still leave me comments of the episode at MSBPodcast.com or email me at charles@MSBPodcast.com

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

msb-0025 Another Kind of Grand Tour

Feedback comes first but there was nothing I have any permissions for, except for Johnny Velcro of the PodPyrates Podcast.

----

I'm a little bit of an astromony geek, so I went on a grand tour of the solar system.

Mercury The Reverse Engineers MERCURY IN RETROGRADE
Venus KCentric Venus
earth berman Fall Off The Earth
mars Bubble Christmas Here on Mars
Jupiter after touch Jupiter Blue
Saturn Alexye Nov Dance Of Life on Saturn
Uranus Marc Gunn Titania, Wake My Sweet Queen (Moon of)
Neptune Brent Pocker Neptune's Water
Pluto Pluto Records HORSE the band / Cutsman

Leave the Kuiper belt objects alone.

Like just don't go there man. Just don't go there.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

msb-0024 Isn't work wonderful? I could watch it all day...

msb-0024 Isn't work wonderful? I could watch it all day...

Feedback goes first but there isn't any.

Phew!

I'm too friggin' busy with this "making a friend from scratch" project.

I'm finally getting to try out some ideas that have been percolating in my mind for years.

I see Objects, instances; Relationships and connections.

Its not just metaphorical. Its hallucinatory. I actually percieve systems that way.

I blame it on my MS.

I used the down time while I was in hospital having an exacerbation, twice, to really think about objects and once again to come up with a descriptive scheme for expressing them visually.

That required thinking about relationships and coming up with some VRML code to present the lot in a browser.

Now I'm thinking about how to automagically generate classes from partially filled object descriptions and instances from partially filled rows of data. But the relationships between the objects are being a bear to come to grips with.

AI is fun! Specially when I'm getting some people to believe in me and my ideas. That makes for a real change.

Oh! Here's a kind of feedback.

You are in for a special treat. Kaye Brewster just got in touch with me. If you liked her music back in episode msb-0004 The Princess of Twee and Rachel Knight, you'll appreciate the upcoming interview. (Then again, like I said, I'm a fan boy.)

Kaye finally got back to me after dealing with college. Having just graduated myself, (I did get an Associates degree,) I can relate to how busy she must have been.

She is recording her portion of the interview we'd agreed upon all those episodes ago.

----

The theme of the last show, msb-0023, was "Waiting".

----

Did you read the review of Teri Garr's Speedbumps in the June/July issue of "inside MS." As glad I am she got the glowing review (it deserves much more. ;-)

However I am the son of a librarian and as such, I am miffed that the editors still don't seem to know about the ISBN code.

There's one on every book that clearly and unambigously identifies the revision/edition, the book, the publisher, the city and country of origin of the book. It looks like a bar code but it clearly identifies the book, Believe it or not.

If you go to Google, Amazon, Borders or even you local public library, all you need is the ISBN to get the book you're looking for. Like ISBN: 1-59463-007-0 will get you Teri Garr's Speedbumps.

There is also something known as an ISSN which would do the same for every issue of "inside MS." But they aren't using it. Heck, I'm applying for the audio equivalent for MSBPodcast.

-----

Now on with the show...

Work is hard to come by when you've got a disease which induces chronic disability.

Its even worse when its episodic, relapsing/remitting.

Worst of all, when it has no outward, visible sign; as long as you don't have to move or talk.

Prejudice is a "knee-jerk" reaction which save a lot of time and which is based on the detection of "otherness".

Its bad to encounter prejudice in our relationship with others.

Living in the 'States now, I am astonished as to how deeply the issue of slavery, and of the prejudice associated with it, runs and how much it has cost everybody because individuals are fundamentally different.

I suffered from, or is it with, the Canadian Franco versus Anglo equivalent. Unlike the black/white situation in the 'States, we didn't even have skin complexion to guide us. We had to "learn" to be ass-holes, it wasn't immediately obvious.

MSers are afflicted enough with having metaphorical wire strippers taken to our nervous systems. We don't need to be further afflicted with the stupidity of people who won't look at you when you're ordering food in a restaurant but instead will ask the person you came with what you'd like to have to eat.

That's just downright rude.

----

Notice that I don't expect you to understand object-oriented programming, or even what I'm on about half the time, but that doesn't mean that I'm taking my audience for a bunch of idiots.

For all I know, maybe one of you knows object-oriented programming and could even teach me a thing or two. (I can hope.)

----

You're bound to know something about something and MS is a part of what we all know.

Like Sting sang: "We share the same biology, regardless of ideology." Of course he was concerned with Russia and America and Reagan vs Gorbachov.

----

There are somethings I'm glad for. The last class of the week was Economic Philosophy. Sitting in that class room fighting to say awake and not run screaming from the entire building as it exploded behind me, (of course not being able to run sort of made that entire scenario impossible.)

I was introduced to the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) who published "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (ISBN: 0061330086, that's ALL you need, really,) in which he coined the phrase: "creative destruction".

Schumpeter thought that capitalism could not survive, not because it would be overthrown by a Marxist proletariat, but because it would be destroyed by its successes.

Hey, that sounds like podcasting versus broadcasting. The new media versus the old media. (But that's a simplistic view. Its not an A versus B position but one of A+B with A and B having to learn to live with each other.)

He believed that capitalism would give rise to a large intellectual class that subsisted by attacking the bourgeois system of private property and freedom which were necessary for the class's existence.

Hey! That sounds like me and my podcast.

But I don't attack anyone. I'm just providing a new medium that we can use instead of being ignored by the economics of broadcasting.

Capitalism is accretive. There may be something new out there but the old doesn't truely disappear.

Its the inevitable shift in economic importance of things that gets people all upset.

There are still buggy whip makers out there, despite the coming of the automobile.

Likewise there will always be broadcasters despite the coming of the internet.