May is a Kickass Month for Arts Events in Orlando May 15, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Orlando, Music, Drupal, Events, Film, Fringe, floridacreatives, Likemind.orl, OrlandoScene, Arts, bloggingfringe , add a commentWhy is May such a great month for holding events? Sure, for our Northern friends, it means the end of bad weather, the opening of roller coaster parks, and a change in the scenery as the trees and flowers start to show their summer colors, but here in Florida, it’s more like the start of the summer’s hot, humid, rainy monotony, the arrival of the tourists, time-share owners, kids on summer vacation, religious zealots protesting Gay Days, and of course, bad drivers in rental cars.
The main reason I look forward to May every year is the arrival of the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival (Thursday the 15th through Monday the 26th). Every year, theatre companies, dancers, comedians, clowns, musicians, improv actors, writer/directors, solo acts and large ensembles, exuberant teenagers and road-hardened veterans alike grace Loch Haven Park with their creativity and energy, and Orlando gives every ounce of it (and more) back to them as many of the national and international acts begin their Canadian Fringe circuit, which brings them to a new city every two weeks. Show prices range from free (as in free software) to $10, and all shows require the one-time purchase of a $6 festival button - 100% of your ticket money goes to the artist. This is one of the only unjuried, uncensored events I know of in Orlando outside of a few open-mic nights, and even some of those are passing judgment on the performers (the other best example here is BarCamp).
18 months ago, I started gathering a group of my friends together every third Monday of the month for an event called Florida Creatives Happy Hour (Monday the 19th, 6PM @ Loch Haven Park). Now, those original 8 friends are hardly in the same room, but the group has grown to something resembling a small political party representing the creative professionals and hobbyists here in Central Florida (with a group getting started in Jacksonville as I write this). This month’s Florida Creatives falls during the Fringe Festival, so at 6PM on the 19th we will be descending upon their “Green Lawn of Fabulousness” to have a beer and some soul food and socialize. At 7:45, we will be attending American Squatter, starring Barry Smith, the creator of last year’s sell-out hit Jesus in Montana. Tickets are $10 plus your $6 Fringe button.
Despite the fact that Fringe starts on the same day every year, another festival seems to think they are better than the Fringe, by starting on the exact same day. Yes, the Florida Music Festival runs Thursday the 15th through Sunday the 18th this year, at pretty much every available venue downtown. In past years, you’ve been able to buy a one-time pass that gets you in to all the shows for the whole weekend, as well as nightly passes - buying a ticket to just one show will hardly do such an event justice. The festival also has a short film as well as an art contest, check these out too if you can find the time in between all of the other events happening at the exact same time.
What other events? How about that bizarre craft bazaar held semi-bi-anually at Stardust Video & Coffee, Grandma Party? (Saturday the 17th, 10AM to Sunset) For some reason they opted out of celebrating Earth Day in favor of overlapping with FMF and Fringe this year - the reason why is left as homework for the reader. Actually, if you find out, please try to explain this one to me too. At G-ma Party, you’ll not only find loads of handmade goods, like the cereal-and-eggs inspired work of the Breakfast Bunch, but trendy t-shirts, buckets of buttons, live music by some of Orlando’s best local bands (at least those who are friends with the festival organizers), a bal-looney community pool, and of course rummage piles and raffles.
Not as culturally significant, but still worth a mention, the second ever Florida Drupal User Group meeting will be held at the offices of MindComet in Maitland this Saturday (May 17th, 1PM). Check out the event and any follow-up at groups.drupal.org/florida.
Still more to come in this round-up of events, because I couldn’t write such a blog post without mentioning the Corazon Art and Music Festival being held at the Orlando Brewing Company (Sunday the 18th, starts 1PM, All Day). As I’m writing this I don’t have access to any listings, but I know tickets are $5, and I can give a serious recommendation, as this event is being thrown by Robert and Jonathan from Gamble Records, the folks who brought us the ELLA Music Festival in October. I expect you will see lots of singer-songwriter type acts, and you can trust Robert Johnson’s rolodex to bring you some great music (and art?).
There must be more happening during the next two weeks, but isn’t that enough? Of course, we can’t forget about this Friday (May 16th, 8AM-11AM) and the Likemind Orlando coffee meetup at the Lake Eola Panera Bread. This month there will be free coffee and hopefully a few free copies of a book called Murketing - I don’t have a lot of details about it, but I know the publishers of the book are sponsoring the coffee and snacks all over the US, so they get serious props.
If I’m missing anything here, please leave a shout-out, and I’ll try to include it in the next bulletin. Until next time, have a great May!
BarCampOrlando Downtown April 5th and 6th, 10AM - 6PM April 1, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Podcasts, Orlando, SEO, Music, Links, Events, Video, Coworking, Trends, Standards, floridacreatives, mashups, Graphics, OrlandoScene, Teaching, open source, BarCamp, PodCamp, Storytelling, phone, Web Services, Social Media Events, Social Networking, Programming , add a comment
BarCamp Orlando is a weekend for all types of creative folks to come together and share with each other. The event is dubbed an “unconference”, a format which derives power from the people instead of the event organizers or the presenters. Everyone has an equal opportunity to get on stage and speak, teach or lead a discussion, playing off of the idea that at any given conference, the people in the audience have more knowledge collectively than the presenter(s) on stage.
This second installment of BarCamp will be held over 2 days, Saturday and Sunday, April 5th and 6th, in downtown Orlando at the Wall Street complex, from 10AM - 6PM each day. Registration is free, and a registration promises a shirt and lunch on the sponsors of BarCamp, businesses who are passionate about the technology and media communities of Central Florida.
Saturday is the designated “Dev Day”, playing host to everything from web programming to robot building and video game development and everything in between. iPhone hackers, guys with soldering irons, the latest technologies, and plenty that haven’t been realized yet. Every 30 minutes, both venues will have a different talk going on, so if you’re feeling lost in the jargon, apply the “rule of 2 feet” and check out what’s happening in the other room!
Sunday is dubbed “Media Day”, and is the place for storytellers, journalists, writers, designers, filmmakers, musicians, 2D and 3D artists, podcasters, bloggers and social networkers to show off their work, share their tricks or talk about the state of the industry. From 12 to 1 we will be talking about the “Past, Present and Future of Media in Central Florida”, hoping to give our community a sense of our story, and where we’re headed.
Registration is free, and the event runs from 10AM - 6PM both days with a lunch break at 1PM. The event will be housed in Slingapour’s and One-Eyed-Jack’s, with Wall St Cantina acting as our “hallway”. There will be projectors and microphones, chairs and a space to speak. All you have to do is write your name on the whiteboard and you get 20-25 minutes to share your passions with a group of energetic, engaged geeks and creatives. I would not use the words “captive audience” to describe the BarCamp crowd, because they all want to get involved.
Visit www.barcamporlando.org today and register for Dev Day, Media Day or both days. Wall Street Plaza is at 18 Wall Street Plaza, Orlando, FL 32801 - barcamporlando.org/where has a map to the venue and information about parking.
Tell those bitches! March 4, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Markteting, Blogging, Music, MySpace, Public Relations, Friends , 8 commentsDon’t you love all those form letters you get about “We can get you to the top of search engines”, and “I’d like to buy text links from you”? I know I do, and I’m not alone…
My friend Marc, otherwise known as “marc with a c” to the music community of Orlando, has recently decided to let ‘em have it. He was contacted by a chain-lettering, canvassing, music rep from Hitt Music Group.
Here’s a sample of Marc’s reply from his MySpace blog:
You mean that THE Hitt Music Group is interested in me? Oh my God. Here I was thinking that MySpace was just A Place For Friends, but no… you really do make dreams come true.
Of course, you must be joking, right? This CANNOT be the same Hitt Music Group that brought us such unmitigated talents as Friday Night Gunfight and the Lords Of Conversation, can it?
OH MY GOD, I JUST CHECKED OUT YOUR WEBSITE. You guys TOTALLY are *that* Hitt Music Group.
One of the modern conveniences technology affords us - the ability to spam thousands of independent musicians on MySpace… yes!
This is good for a laugh, and probably an indicator that no matter how much transparency and genuineness gain value in the marketplace, there will always be a Hitt Music Group.
Cookie cutter PR is bad PR - but I’m no expert.
WEEN Live? February 1, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Blogging, Music, Reviews, OrlandoScene , 1 comment so farReposted to Last.fm
I really expected more from this show. I wanted to be on one extreme or the other:
1) Completely abusing the audience, like the story Marc tells about how Gene and Dean won’t start the show until someone orders them a pizza.
2) Completely entertaining at every moment, like a Flaming Lips show. There was no stage banter, the guys were very dry on stage - the drummer and keyboardist had more personality than the Ween Brothers.
The stuff from “La Cucaracha” is fine, I take all of the Ween albums except for White Pepper about equally, with Quebec and Pure Guava coming in second and third, but this album is just a slight evolution, I haven’t had enough time with it to consider it anything but par for the course.
Also, I didn’t know what the audience would be like, but it made a lot of sense. Lots of rednecks, lots of nerds. Not Geeks, who I’m very used to, people who are passionate about something to the point of being a bit weird and anti-social, just straight up nerds, folks who can’t help but be a little awkward, and they’re very proud of it.
My friend Jake is a good example of a nerd.
At least they played a few of my favorites - like “Bananas and Blow” in the finale, and “Zoloft”.
I also wonder if they knew about the outbreak over at UCF when they played the “Spinal Meningitis” song.
Also, I have a huge complaint with the venue - the music was too damn loud. The house was probably sold to 60-70% capacity, and there was no way we could be heard over the sound system. That’s too loud. Even in the back of the venue, my ears were bleeding a bit. When part of your standard concert-going apparel is the ironic t-shirt and earplugs, that’s when you’ve got serious problems. Get over it, Hard Rock.
I wouldn’t Steal, but I download movies January 20, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Music, Video, Film, Trends, DRM , add a commentSteal with a capital S. When we get DRM-free movie downloads (akin to all the DRM-free MP3s we’ve seen floating around), then there will be no need for videos like this.
In a highly unusual move for any political group today, the Greens EFA party of the European Parliament have publicly expressed their support for file sharing on the Net.
Badass Vegetable Orchestra via Boing Boing January 9, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Music, Video , 1 comment so farToo cool. Orlando needs stuff like this. I wonder if you can make anything out of an orange (without getting too sticky).
Vegetable orchestra - Boing Boing
Gabrielle sez, “This is a youtube of an orchestra entirely comprised of modified vegetables. There’s a trumpet made from a carrot and a pepper, a carrot flute, and amazing percussion.” Catchy tune, too — delicious! Link to video, Link to Vienna Vegetable Orchestra site (Thanks, Gabrielle!)
Ticketmaster Sucks January 4, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Orlando, Music, Events, Reviews , 1 comment so farI was charged almost $12 on top of the ticket price. For that amount of money I could have driven all the way to the venue and bought dinner and a beer and back!!
At least I get to see one of my favorite bands of all time. Other than that, I have a strange sore feeling on my backside, because ticketmaster just butt raped me like a large 300-pound convict in a dirty prison.
Flock and Facebook Screencast November 21, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Podcasts, Music, HowTo, Video, Browsers, Trends, Web Sites, mashups, Facebook, interface, Teaching, Friends , add a comment
The new Flock is out and better than ever, so I’m inspired yet again to screencast about it and show you more about this browser. In this edition we talk about how Flock has integrated your Facebook friends (and Flickr, MySpace, YouTube) right into the sidebar. You can keep the People bar open while you surf the web and make updates to your status, write messages, subscribe to media and share with your friends with just a simple drag-and-drop. This is the version of Flock you’ve been waiting for, trust me.
Download the Screencast (iPhone friendly!)
If you want to see anything else demonstrated, like if you want to teach your boss how to upload YouTube videos, I would be happy to create something custom for you. We do dedications!
OSTV ELLA Music Fest Teaser November 18, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Podcasts, Music, Events, Video, Travel, Liberatr, Contributors, OrlandoScene, Arts , add a commentThe first ever ELLA Music Festival took place at the Rogers Building in downtown Orlando in October 2007. The festival was a celebration of female singer/songwriters and female fronted bands.
In this video, one of the performers, Rachel Goodrich, turns the tables and interviews our host Becky for a change! We also get a sample of Rachel’s musical stylings in the background, recorded upstairs just minutes earlier.
This is just a tiny sample of what happened at the ELLA Fest. Subscribe to OrlandoScene.TV to get updated when new videos are posted.
More videos coming out every week on Miro and iTunes. If you’d like to get involved by suggesting an event or venue for us to highlight, get in touch with us at OrlandoScene.TV - thanks for watching.
Coworking London, any takers? November 8, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Music, Coworking, Trends, Travel, London, Friends, Arts , 1 comment so farIf anyone has Google Alerts set for CoworkingLondon, they’ll come across this blog post and reply soon.
I am currently staying in Northern London, and I’m now an expert at the tubes and trains here, so I can get to anyplace I like. I have a day off tomorrow until around 1600 (that’s 4PM for you non-Europeans), and I’d like to co-work somewhere in town.
The easiest way to be in touch is by email < rprice AT ryanpricemedia.com >. I also have a phone, but I don’t have the number handy. I’m hoping to get a response from Noel, because I know he’s been here on a coworking expedition before.
This has been a fun trip, the other day we rode a boat down to Greenwich (as in Greenwich, Mean Time or GMT) where all time begins and saw the “Painted Hall”. Been to some other random places in town, and went to an awesome french horn concert the other night, followed by a “buttoned down” concert with period instruments and guys wearing trainers (sneakers). It was really neat, an event called The Night Shift, wherein the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment gets on stage for just such a no-collars-required concert every so-often. You can bring your wine and beer in the hall, get up during the performance, and actually hear a bit of talkback from the conductor and the host instead of having to read it all off the program (or have your girlfriend whisper it in your ear).
