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Hunter S. Thompson Film: Gonzo June 7, 2008

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Official Gonzo Film Site

The man who invented Gonzo journalism is a guy who I’ve really been meaning to check out on a deeper level for quite some time. I love the film versions of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Where the Buffalo Roam, but I’ve had little exposure to Thompson’s work outside of that.

I actually share a birthday with him - we were born 45 years apart, and he ended up living to be 68.

One of my favorite things about Gonzo Otaku is Flying Dog’s Gonzo Porter - a seasonal beer dedicated to Hunter, featuring the artwork of Ralph Steadman (he does all the art for Flying Dog), with a dog-portrait of the author, clutching his signature cigarette holder and wearing sunglasses. Apparently H.S.T. was a friend of the brewers. He is quoted on their site as saying:

“Good People Drink Good Beer”

So far the closest opening for the film is 4th of July in Atlanta, at Midtown Art Cinemas 8 (an eight-screen art-house? Que?)

In other Gonzo trivia, I would classify local Orlando Weekly columnist Billy Manes as a disciple of that style of journalism, if you’ve never read his weekly back-page column, Blister, you don’t know what you’re getting in to.

Hopefully I’ll have a chance to see the film some time soon, until then, do some LSD, smoke, drink, go for a drive, and don’t forget to bring your lawyer with you!

Falling in Love 5 Minutes at a Time April 25, 2008

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A few years ago at the second Orlando Puppet Festival, I was trying to sell Heather Henson on the idea of my podcasting about the festival becoming official. Needless to say, she’s super-busy running the festival, and we don’t have time to get into all the ins and outs of podcasting, so she asks me to give her a sample. The next time I see Heather I hand her a CD, and she’s grateful for the ability to time-shift her decision-making process.

The following day I see her, she’s a bit frustrated with me, because she says “I put this in my car and nothing happened, you gave me a bad CD!” Oops! Not the case, in fact it was a collection of every podcast I’d released to date - totaling around 80 hours of audio, or about enough to fill 60 regular CDs. “They’re MP3’s” I said, “Normally you’d have to spend hours downloading them all, and I’ve saved you the trouble!” Heather retorts, “But how do I know where to start?” She didn’t like having the entire library of congress and no card catalog (OK, not the ENTIRE library, but still…).

This brings me to an interesting point I haven’t dwelled much on in the past year and a half. How do we begin to introduce people to something like, let’s say Lady Raptastic, which has more than 80 hour-long episodes by itself, not to mention all the other shows Mark Baratelli produces. I suppose the old adage “You’re only as good as your last [whatever]” may come into play here, but that’s just not how it is with blogs and most podcasts.

I was having a conversation with someone at BarCamp about this very subject. She was getting into blogging based on a few pokes by her friends, and she was worried about writing something relevant. I told her “The magic of blogging doesn’t happen in an instant, you sort of fall in love 5 minutes at a time.”

I don’t really know where else to go from here, but suffice it to say there will likely be a “part 2″ of this post, and perhaps more. I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’d especially like to see what the 200+ attendees of BlogOrlando have to say about the subject.

The 80/20 Rule and Win-Win-Win March 21, 2008

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Gary Vaynerchuk talks about a secret that he thinks is at the core of much of his success.

Reposted from: The 80/20 Business rule…..heck Life - my 2 minute take on life

Many folks who were at Future of Web Apps in Miami had nice things to say about Gary V’s talk. I’ve also seen some other really nice videos by this guy on the web, and probably bookmarked them on my Ma.gnolia - check the RSS or link over there to check my bookmarks.

I can’t say that Gary has all these ideas himself, and he does credit Kathy Sierra and Tara Hunt at the beginning of his video (google those people if you don’t know who we’re talking about).

Right, I don’t think all his ideas are too super-original, but he has a very large and very rabid audience, and he understands how he got them, and he also presents it in a very down-to-earth manner. There is no barrier to entry for Gary unless you’re afraid of spelling his name or people from New York.

I also like how he tells us not to channel Calacanis (or whoever), but just to be ourselves and do it really well and look out for other people.

If you look at your seemingly selfless (my brother would say altruistic) efforts in the ways you are benefiting yourself, the other person and those around you (or you, your partners in business and the community, or you, your fellow artists and the people who enjoy your art), you’re going to have not only success, but a great feeling about how you got there.

Win-Win is not enough, you have to look for Win3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, true, but if you paid attention in physics, there is always a release of heat or some byproduct of the reaction. If you can find the way to set up a reaction with a happy byproduct, everyone wins.

Take Hydrogen Fuel Cells. They last longer, they’re sustainable to produce (I think), and the waste product is water. The customers are happy because of the small powerful battery, the business should be happy because they’re not working with a limited supply of something like oil, and the people of the world should be happy because there isn’t a battery rotting in the ground.

Open source is the same. When everyone is giving 80%, expecting 20%, the products are amazing, the community is healthy and the users of the products are happy. Win-Win-Win.

I can see this especially given my new situation with Petentials. We have all been giving so much for so long, but it’s getting so easy to do things now, our vision is getting really razor-sharp, we’re having a napalm-like burst of awesome ideas, and we can see the next plateau.

Things are just going really well right now. I have my complaints, but if there was nothing to reach for, I think I would lock myself in my apartment and curl up in a ball for lack of something to do. I am addicted to this stuff, and I’m starting to see the rewards.

Interesting Brits and Aussies (and Floridians, Michiganders) February 2, 2008

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I’ve certainly noticed the work of Russell Davies before, but somehow I thought he just blogged about food, because he’s written a book about 50 great cafés around the UK called Egg, Bacon, Chips & Beans with an accompanying café blog, as well as one called a good place for a cup of tea and a think.

Then I was talking to Chris Wojda (woidah) from Jacksonville Likemind today about Pecha Kucha Night (more on that later, I promise), and we talked a bit about Florida Creatives and Likemind and a few other fun things. Then I told him I was going out of town, and it came out that I am going to England tomorrow. He absolutely insisted that I email Russell and go have a chat with him while I’m in London, so I started looking into it a bit.

Looks like Russell is an advertising guy, and my friend Chris knew him/ learned about him via Portland, OR. Now Russell writes about all kinds of stuff and has a consultancy with offices in 4 different parts of the world, Sydney, Amsterdam, London and New York. Wow.

Why did Chris think I needed to talk to Russell? Because we have similar goals? Social change? bringing people together? building communities? exploring technology and the future? Yeah, I guess so, but Russell also organizes this event called Interesting. Here’s a great idea. It’s simple. It scratches an itch.

The TED conference has just finished in Monterery. Sounds like a fantastic lot of speakers. I was lucky enough to go last year and I’d put aside the money to go again this year. But, a while ago, it occurred to me that I could take that money and we could maybe organise a conference of our own here in the UK, which might be even more interesting. Or at least easier to get to.

So this is the plan:

We’ve booked the Conway Hall for the 16th of June. Which is a Saturday. It’ll be about £20 to get in. I want to make it something almost anyone can afford.

The plan is to have all sorts of speakers speak about all sorts of stuff. Not brands, advertising, blogging and twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things. I’m hoping to find fascinating people and to just ask them to speak about something they care about. I want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, musics, jokes and whatever. There will be 20 minute slots and 3 minute slots. Some people will play music or sing. And some people who can’t be there will be asked to send three minute videos. Perhaps. I reckon we can squeeze a lot of interestingness into a day. And then have a party afterwards.

But it’ll all be down to the goodwill and enthusiasm of the speakers anyway, because I won’t be able to pay any of them.

There’s been the problem with most of my ideas to date, or the execution of group ideas: too much thinking, too many discussions, too much of everything. This event gets down to the core. No sponsors, nothing frivolous. Just interesting people talking.

Maybe that’s why Florida Creatives works so well. I used to go to these great events in Detroit, but the whole lecture and the product demos and the committee meetings and the agendas were so complex, people would sit at most of the events and then go home right after, but they were missing more than half of the experience by not socializing at the bar across the street.

At my first SEMAFX event, I was begged to come hang out at the bar, but I hadn’t made plans to, and to be honest, the talk was not that interesting. We all tried to get people interested about going to a conference we had all just returned from, but the next event was a year away. I met some cool people and I wanted to network and hang out, but they were asking me to go somewhere else with a group of strangers where I was an outsider, and I didn’t get it.

The next month I went to both parts - the lecture and the socializing at the bar - what a huge difference! There was time for talkback with the presenters, meeting the important people who ran the organization, drinking beer, eating exotic foods, it was great!

In Orlando, the local SIGGRAPH chapter holds 3-4 events a year. At least one of them involves people who work at huge public companies like Pixar, LucasFilm, Electronic Arts or NASA. Before the events they have an hour of socializing, but it feels more like a minature expo, because companies buy tables and there are soft drinks for a dollar and a nice college student smiles and reaches into the ice to grab you a Sprite or a Diet Coke, and people wear nametags and give powerpoint slideshows or bring demonstration hardware for their video compressor/decompressor. Then when the lecture is over, everyone drives home, a bit more educated, but none the more stimulated.

In late 2006 when I was talking to John about doing an important cultural event in Orlando, we soon realized that we had neither the time, the influence or the healthy community to pull off such a grand event, so I tried thinking smaller. What got me motivated about the events at SEMAFX and the local SIGGRAPH? Why had I joined 2 community service organizations at school? I wanted to socialize, I needed a safe haven to be surrounded by likeminded people and think things out, and I’m sure loads of other people had the same desire.

So Florida Creatives became an event where we didn’t care about whether you were a hacker or a filmmaker or a blogger or a photographer or an improviser or a poet or an advertiser or a designer or whether you didn’t professionally, or if you were just getting started, or… anything. Come as you are. Don’t wear a nametag. Join the gang. Feel the embrace of the community. Cory writes about it a lot, and I really appreciate that outspokenness.

Chris (remember, from Jacksonville) started talking about doing a Florida Creatives up there, so it’s been on my brain. I’ve spoken to a few other people about doing an event where they are, but I think in order to be qualified, you need to be missing the community you once had in another town or at another school, or even at a bigger company. Maybe that’s the only qualification: to have an empty place that only your peers, superiors and protégés can fill.

I’ve been noticing particularly this week that a good idea must get harder and stronger and bigger simply by sharing it with people: the idea of having to sell someone on a thought you had in a dream and the subsequent brainstorm becomes difficult if they are critical, or if they play Devil’s Advocate. I’ve always known Florida Creatives should go to other places, but I guess I haven’t had to sell too many people on starting their own, and particularly people that fill the only qualification.

Russell, Chris, John, Cory, Alex, Jake, Scott, Randy, Brad, Jason, Charlie and oh so many others, thanks for getting me here.

Orlando Travel & Visitors Bureau Knows Podcasting? October 11, 2007

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No, they don’t. Honestly, this thing doesn’t even deserve any Google juice I might be inadvertently throwing at them by linking to them. Orlando Travel & Visitors Bureau - Orlando Florida Vacation - Podcasts

After checking out what they had to offer (I listened to one episode out of 3), I sent this email through their ONE contact form - no comments, no email addresses, just this dinky little form where you type a subject line, your email and a very small message box. I think it’s designed that way so you feel insignificant and to give you the feeling that nobody will ever read or respond to your message. If it’s not, you should work on that, guys.

Here’s my first message:

This is not a podcast. Your RSS feed doesn’t work. The first and only requirement of a podcast is the ability to SUBSCRIBE to it. Also, any podcast with a transcript defeats the point of it being audio or video. Give them bullet points and links to rich media or other guides (particularly those written by local bloggers, newspapers, etc.)

I’ve been participating in podcasting for 2 years now, and I’d love to talk to someone from TVB about the production and release of these.

A huge point is the difference in production and sound quality between your intro/exit and the rest of the show - I realise you guys must have paid some money for that Orlando theme song, but it doesn’t get me excited about taking a vacation.

If you want to talk, come down to the Crooked Bayou on Monday the 15th for Florida Creatives Happy Hour. There you will meet a group of passionate independent people who really love this town and all it has to offer. A number of us have our own podcasts, blogs, and videoblogs and we have great conversations about what’s happening in Orlando right now. Your podcast is almost 2 years old now - has Orlando stayed the same in the last 2 years? Really.

I would very much like to interview someone from your office for my video podcast, OrlandoScene.TV - if we can arrange something like this, give me a call or email.

P.S. That comment about transcripts was mostly a heat-of-the-moment statement. My commenters have let me know that transcripts can be useful, but I think in this case they still didn’t have any forethought applied to them.

Then I watched the video they had available, which was produced a whole year after the first two episodes, thinking maybe they learned something… they didn’t. Here’s my second message:

I’m now watching the video you made, and this is so clearly scripted, but the interviewer is on a phone line for some reason, and she keeps saying “um” while she looks at her script. If you’re going to create an audio brochure and not provide an RSS feed, don’t call it a podcast.

A HUGE point I have here - where is the feedback channel? if I want to ask a question about a podcast I just listened to or watched, I have to use this contact form. For all I know there is a person in India reading all of these. What’s the deal with that? Give us some space to comment and discuss what we just saw. You’ll be amazed when you see the visitors to your site actually coming back to check the comments.

I don’t care if they never contact me. This whole experience does not assume any intelligence on the part of the person doing the “Vacation Planning”. If they’re thinking about it before they go, give them a little credit. The entire podcast is just a brochure for their OrlandoInfo.com website and nothing else. Really. I know I said that already, but it’s so true.

If you’re reading this and you’d like to produce something real, email me - rprice AT ryanpricemedia DOT com and we’ll show these jokers what it means to podcast.

Jessica Clark almost gets Coworking October 3, 2007

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Jessica Clark recently wrote a web-only article for The American Prospect, “an authoritative magazine of liberal ideas” about our new friends at Independent’s Hall called Coworkers of the World, Unite! She gets all of the factual information correct:

Co-working goes hand-in-hand with the volatile startup lifestyle, offering a haven between gigs and a spot to generate new projects and connections. The trend started in the capital of what business writer Daniel Pink has dubbed the “free agent nation” — San Francisco. There, Chris Messina, 26, and Tara Hunt, 34, run Citizen Agency, a marketing and design firm that advises clients on how to develop brand communities, and Citizen Space, a co-working office.

Fine piece of journalism, really. I think this could help a newbie understand coworking. I disagree with the last 3 paragraphs. I left a comment, but it feels like I didn’t think it all the way through.

Am I too whiny? I felt like a kid defending his Ninja Turtles:

How can you say “for Hunt and others, these new ties are just as valid as the old connections of blood, proximity and race.” and then include these comments?

“no number of Facebook friendships will serve as a safety net if you go bankrupt”

“Incubate their startups so that they can cash in and move on to other projects.”

You have a theoretical knowledge of what all these buzzwords mean - social interaction, barcamp, coworking - but would you have written that if you knew what it was like? The bonds you make because of these common goals are far stronger than those you make with an everyday working relationship. To quote Chris Heuer from an unconference this week, “Business is personal again”. I won’t hire anyone I wouldn’t invite into my home, or go on a weekend camping trip with.

The people I’ve met because of my interest in coworking are getting invited to my wedding. I mean that.

She goes through several thousand words building up Coworking, BarCamp and other such geeky topics as new ways of holding a community together, and then accuses us of being hollow, shallow capitalists in the same breath.

Jessica, I charge you to go work at Indy Hall for a month and read your article to yourself; then we’ll talk.

Will’s Pub announces (another) new location September 27, 2007

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We heard long ago that Will would be moving into the old theatre-looking space next to the Cruises Only building, but later found out he was bogged down in legislation, or something to that effect. Here’s the first I’ve heard about Will re-re-re-relocating (if you count the Will’s Pub South incident and his current arrangement with TASTE).

From Orlando Metromix:

Will’s Pub is coming back to not only Orlando, but Mills Avenue. Here’s an excerpt from my column that is running in the Orlando Sentinel this Friday about it:

“I may not have come back with a dime from Vegas last week, but I felt like I hit the jackpot when I got home that night and found out Will Walker has found a new space for Will’s Pub. Better news is it’s on Mills Avenue in Orlando, not far from where the old place once stood, but closer to the Wally’s, Uncle Lou’s, Paradise and Peacock Room end of the action.

According to Walker, the space is roughly the same size as the old pub with three rooms instead of two. You should see the opening of the bar at 1040 N. Mills Ave. in the next month or two.”

One thing I noticed is that this is just one street south of Say It Loud. Julio must be beaming.


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Miro is stepping it up September 5, 2007

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Miro player (formerly Democracy) is an internet TV application that works on a subscribe and download model. Some would call it a podcatcher. Others would say it’s ready to leave the other podcatchers in the dust.

Why would I say such things about a project that’s been around for so long? Because they changed their name and branding? Because they’re doing some nice user-friendly screencasts? Because of bittorrent support? No. Well, maybe bittorrent. But that’s not what I mean. Check this list of recent updates:
From the Miro Blog:

# OPML import and export allows lists of channels to be shared.
# The Windows Options panel has been reorganized into pretty tabs.
# Miro will return to the last place visited in the Miro Guide when you click away and return.
# If you add an alternate channel guide, Miro will display the name and icon for that site.
# Single file downloads are now supported.
# Mefeedia, Yahoo! and Yahoo! Video are added as search engines.
# Veoh has been temporarily removed due to compatibility problems.

OPML import and export allows lists of channels to be shared. Also, notice where it says an alternate channel guide… I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it sounds cool.

Why is OPML cool? Well, OPML is a way of describing a list, or a list of lists. Feeds are lists. I can make a list of all the feeds I’m watching (we are talking video here) and then share it with a friend. Or anyone who reads my blog. Or my pownce friends. Or people using the Share my OPML site, or even people on the NetVibes Ecosystem. How cool is that? You can’t do that in iTunes. Can’t.

Alternate Channel Guide? The CG is the screen that loads when you first start up Miro (Democracy). Here’s what the Miro blog has to say about new channel guides:

Use the Channels -> Add Channel Guide menu to add the likes of blip.tv, mefeedia and even digg. You can browse for videos and feeds. With the blip.tv subscribe button, you can add a channel directly into Miro.

You can’t do that in iTunes. I give iTunes a lot of credit for being the best (easiest to use) podcatcher out there, but combining Miro and a great audio browser like Songbird, you can duplicate and outgrow all the features of iTunes (especially since Songbird has a pluggable interface like Firefox) without having to use a proprietary system like iTunes, because these two systems are open-source. Now you can get your music and video from anywhere, even iTunes in the case of Songbird, and enjoy it alongside the best content streamed from around the web.

Startups, Don’t Count on So-Called Customer Interest August 16, 2007

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So says Dan Rua in his recent post on Florida Venture Blog:

Demonstrating customer interest jumps an entrepreneur ahead of all the idea-on-a-napkin entrepreneurs who just assume customers will flock to their big idea. However, when institutional investors ask questions about the size of the opportunity, including market size and scalability, referring to current customer interest really doesn’t address the question.

This is very interesting, because while I agree with this idea (as far as raising capital, making a great business), I think that building the community around your product is equally as important as the business plan, the branding and the viability of the idea. I’ve seen the power of communities to let the powers that be know what they’re doing wrong, in content consumption and creation both.

I’d like to write more, but I’ve got to get back to my content creating.

Chris Pirillo’s iPhone Rant, plus Why no Flash July 3, 2007

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I started this morning with “The iPhone doesn’t have video”. That is Chris’ reason #17 of 20 reasons why he didn’t buy an iPhone on day 1. I agree with several of his points. This video is about 20 minutes long - I found it very easy to watch the whole thing, despite the fact that Chris gets a little agitated at times during the video.

The iPhone Rant ~ The Chris Pirillo Show

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

I also saw a fantastic post on RoughlyDrafted.com called The iPhone Threat to Adobe, Microsoft, Sun, Real, BREW, Symbian. The gist of the article is this:

If Apple’s purposeful omission of Flash on the iPhone is giving you déjà vu, it’s probably because Apple did the very same thing to rid the world of Microsoft’s domination of the online music, media, and DRM industry.

Three years ago, Apple refused to include support for Windows Media on the iPod. That resulted in the online music market being opened up and pushed toward the vendor agnostic MPEG AAC format.

The exclusion of flash makes sense. Embed a multimedia object that can be played by your local player - in this case, Quicktime, but the files (MP4, MP3, AAC) are open standards so any environment with a native player should support them. I think Zune plays AAC… I know PSP does. Everyone plays MP4 - everyone.

As for video recording, this tweet by Scott points to a PDF that supposedly says iPhone includes an h.263/h.264 encoder as well as decoder - meaning it should be able to do videoconferencing (that’s h.263) and recording. When that comes and the price drops about $250, I’ll consider iPhone again.