Sprial Frog.

Love the name. It’s coming in December. What is it?

SpiralFrog is a new online music destination, offering ad-supported legal downloads of audio and video content licensed from the catalogs of the world’s major and independent record labels.

Kudos to my Personal News Network, so to speak, as brother Scott sent this to me.

BBC story on Sprial Frog and free legal downloads.

I’m Proud of You Boy.

I attended my daughter’s “mini-school” session last night at the middle school. “Mini-school” is where we get to walk in the shoes of our kids, going to their classes, in the same order they attend. Rather than spend an hour in each class, we get about 10 minutes before we move on to the next.

I sat outside this classroom taking break when an older man and a kid approached to look out the window. He looked haggard, with a worn face and oil-stained fingers. He reminded me of my grandfather, a gas station owner for many decades, although this guy did not smell of Camel cigarettes and gas.

I thought for sure this guy, tall as a bean pole, who wore suspenders with a belt, was the kid’s grandfather, but I was not sure. Obviously very proud of the boy, the man said, as they turned away from a window and headed to the next class, “I’m proud of you boy. Get all the education you can.”

It was a nice reminder, no matter who you are or what your station is in life, to take education seriously. Now, in middle school, or in college, or in grad school. We’re at one of those unique times in human history where the world around us is changing rapidly, and those who are prepared have the best chance of succeeding.

Like that kid.

Blogging and Storytelling.

Janice Quick ran across this article from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And, yes, it does encompass two of my favorite subjects: blogging and storytelling. Thanks, Janice. I’m adding it to the suggested reading list.
Pew Internet & American Life Project:  Bloggers: A Portrait of the
Internet’s New Storytellers. (published July 19, 2006)

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/186/report_display.asp

Janice Brings on the (Alternative) Country Music!

Janice Quick

I love seeing the students reach out and find podcasts, or videocasts, of their interest, many of which I have not found myself. Janice contributes one about unheard and unsigned musicians living in Nashville.

The Nashville Nobody Knows – www.nashvillenobodyknows.com

30 minute podcasts each month spotlighting Nashville musicians who are not
famous, but should be.  It is a great collection of alternative country
music.

The podcast is produced and hosted by Candace Corrigan, herself a songwriter
and producer for public radio and telelvision.

I found this podcast through podcastalley.com by drilling down through the
Music/Radio genre.
The great thing about discovering a podcast is that you get to go back and
listen to all the archived podcasts.

Janice, I agree with your last statement. And I’ve wondered: If a podcaster gets a following, and we download their shows each week, or month, would we be willing to pay a small amount for access to archives without having to download them?

One Up Show.

From Brent Ozaeta

I don’t reguarly frequent audio podcasts so I’ll get back to you with one of those.
One video podcasts that I do watch frequently is the 1UP Show, which is basically gaming reviews/previews/news from various gaming magazine editors/writers.
http://the1upshow.1up.com/

I think it is produced very well and a lot of the people in it are pretty intelligeble gamers. Episode 41 covered Quakecon which was an event that happened in Dallas that I attended and they also interviewed the designer for the upcoming game Okami. Episode 42 covered a really cool ryhthm game I want to get my hands on. And the most recent episode was more a filler since the staff was out covering an event. It was a taped podcast session with different people from the 1up community showcasing old games and discussing.

Out of curiosity, why do you choose videocasts over podcasts?

Brent Ozaeta’s Blog aleatoric

Brent has posted his class blog here. He notes:

Initially I wanted to suggest that I make a sort of casual movie review site since I watch so many films.  My taste tends to lean towards the more obscure foreign and indie films people might be interested in.  But since I probably won’t be reviewing 3 films a week I will try and focus on other things as well.

The challenge here will be to find a voice and a point of view. There are a lot of movie critics and commentators in the blogosphere. Why would I read you over someone else? You’re right: 3 reviews might be too much per week. What else can you contribute? What other information about movies crosses your path during the day that might be of interest to your readers, with you comments as well?

I am going to make note of Brent’s other blog, which I will investigate because I love music. His comments are:

I mentioned before that I maintain an mp3 blog which gets updated on average about 6 times a month.  At the end of every month I try to make a compilation of songs in the fashion of the traditional mix-tape.  Some of my files may not be safe from the RIAA but I share them anyway.  That blog is located here:  http://paco.planetgoodyy.com/wp

Janice Quick’s Blog: the Patton Family

Janice Quick

Janice has set up here blog here. Janice has an interest in geneology and public history, so I am interested in seeing what he will do with the blog. If you have not figured out how to upload pictures, we will need to do that in class. Pictures will help all of us to get to know the family. Also, what’s the reaction of the family to the blog — if there is one yet?

Personal Synopsis: Bidasaria

Rachna Bidasaria is a new student and will be joining the class on Thursday. Rachna contributed a bio for all of us to read.

I am an ATEC major student at UTD in my senior year. Hopefully I will
graduate next semester.

I have a passion for jewelry design. Infact I used to run my own jewelry
design business few years ago. And then marriage happened. I am primarily
interested in design and more particularly the interactive media design.
After my graduation I am hoping to find some work related to design. At some
point in life ( I hope pretty soon) I want to start my own design studio.

I am well versed with illustration and photo editing softwares. I am on the
net pretty much the whole day. I can do a little bit of programming in java,
html etc. I love to dream about my own company and my own range of products
and services. I maintain this whole book of ideas about what I would love to
build for the mass market and ofcourse earn the big bucks.

This is going to be my first encounter with the medias like the blog,
podcast etc. Although I know what they are I am not a regular user or for
that matter I am not at all currently involved in blogging or podcasting .
But I would love to learn more about it and explore the oppotunities that
come along with it.

Aimee Rocks.

Aimee Watkins

Aimee explored some podcasts and found one that is a true podcast, and one of my early favorites: The Rock ‘n Roll Geek Show.  Aimee’s comments:

I searched quite a few podcasts and finally found one I liked. I am not much for talk radio but I found one that is talk and music! It is called Rock and Roll Geek Indiecast 48. It is a show dedicated to new bands and playing their music. I like that the talk portion of the show is dedicated to describing the bands. The music is new but with an old world style. Gotta love Rock N Roll!!

Here is the link: http://www.podshow.com/showguide/?key_id=200&feed_type=pdn

Like Pitchfork among blogs for new bands, shows like the Rock ‘n Roll Geek are great for introducing us to new bands — which places us further away from the recording industry and the dreaded RIAA. Michael Butler, the geek, was one of the first to podcast indie music and is one of the most successful. I highly recommend it if you like music. The guy’s smart, too.

Aimee Watkins’s Blog.

Aimee posted her blog here at WordPress.She plans to use it to record her journey becoming a graphic artist. This can be interesting, in a lot of ways. There is a great deal of interest by graphic designers in blogging and all of new media, actually. So how will Aimee use these new tools to start and further her career as a graphic designer? What does she think about becoming a graphic designer today and all the competition? Just a few thoughts.