The M Show made an appearance this weekend:
You can also get more marketing goodness from The Beancast:
And for audio variety, I post things that I want to check out to my Gigadial channel, you can subscribe via iTunes to get the same stuff automatically – it’s like I’m hunting down interesting audio content for you.
I am a big fan of this show that at least does something. When you think about it, every other show exists only to sell ads.
So I had a widget for Extreme Home Makeover here, but it broke the formatting for the page so it’s gone.
The latest video edition of the digital photography podcast Tips from the Top Floor has everyone from the Portland, Maine photo workshop that I was at over Labor Day Weekend. Check out the video, and if you want to see the pictures, here’s the flickr tag.
Working on our modeling skills was interesting, here’s me doing the “White guy lamely attempts street cred by standing behind graffiti”.
Shel Holtz, of FIR fame, was writing about editing podcasts and I started to comment but after it got to three paragraphs I thought it would be better to just bring it over here. I’m not buying the “no edits, no second takes” argument. You can rationalize it as “more energy, more real feeling” but the reality is that editing is a lot of work, and leaving that part of the workflow out makes it much easier to create podcasts (and perhaps stay motivated in the long run).
I’m honored to be on Shel’s “must listen” list, and by adding us to the “live to the hard drive” group, he proves his own argument. I’m glad we get the “live” sound across, but the Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast goes through an editing process very similar to FIR. Every episode gets a full audio review, often sections are cut out or cleaned up. The recording session is free form so occasionally it goes into topics too tech heavy, too gray to talk about in public, or because it’s early morning either of us can break into the classic New England coughing/hacking fit.
You’ll note that Mitch and C.C. both podcast solo, which makes one-take easier, and both of them do a great job of speaking extemporaneously, which not everyone can do (radio or public speaking experience makes a huge difference here).
One other thing, many people record with headphones and don’t think about all the people who listen in the car, which is a much less forgiving playback environment. The Levelator, or more advanced tools like compressors and limiters are an absolute must (I’ve also found the cheap edition of SoundSoap to do a nice job cleaning things up). It’s tough to listen when you have to turn the guest up to 28 on the dial and then the host renders you deaf. I’ve given up many casts that were fantastic content but were just to hard to listen or understand while driving. I could call out some of my friends here, but why pick on them when I have the same complaint with some great content, big name shows like the New York Times’ Times Talks podcasts.
I’ve never really bought the “it has to be unedited” argument. If you feel it’s more sincere if it’s untouched that’s fine, but don’t expect other people to sit through a bunch of boring stuff, especially when they now have options that Doug Haslam mentioned like NPR, or the BBC (I am going to be on Steve Wright’s show one day) which are professionally recorded and edited to flow seamlessly.
Would you even send all your email without using the delete or backspace key? Would you write a brochure without having anyone edit it? Would you get dressed in the morning without looking in the mirror? Are you going for the thrill of “Live without a Net” or do you want your content perfect? There’s no “right” answer, it’s just about creating great stuff. If Saturday Night Live was done by some random people on your street you’d never stay up to watch that, but on the other hand if it’s taking you 10 hours of recording and post-production to do a 20 minute podcast maybe you could be more productive by lightening up a bit.
I can give you one right answer though: if you cut out the crummy parts, it will suck less.
ps – this post had no editing of any kind.
Over on Marketing Over Coffee a few weeks back we talked about manipulating perceptions – creating story and reality that the customer wants to see. This is nothing new, Seth Godin made the bold proclaimation “All Marketers are Liars”.
While Mr. Godin’s title embraces irony, using the word “manipulate” creates a sinister impression that is rather severe. Of course it fits well within the Red Saber attitude of the show, but is not perhaps the best marketing. For those who see the concept instead of the literal word it’s not a problem, otherwise it needs some copywriting. This becomes a guiding force during campaign times, with calculated phrases such as the more acceptable “climate change” replacing the more menacing “global warming”.
Rather than debate the semantics, this video demonstrates bending the will of others while using the power for good.[youtube]zyGEEamz7ZM[/youtube] Â Â
One of my favorite podcasts is Steve Wright over on BBC2. It started out a few years ago with just his “Ask Elvis” segment, but they started throwing in some of the interviews he gets with big names (Jack Nicholson, Billy Joel, David Tennant etc.) and then I was hooked for good.The one I listened to today had Ian McKellen (fanboys will know him as either Magneto or Gandalf), who mentioned that he was working on a 6 part re-imagining of The Prisoner. 
Originally broadcast as a series in the late sixties, Patrick McGoohan played a Secret Agent Man who was kept as a prisoner on an island village. You could never tell who exactly was keeping him or why exactly was he was being kept. He said he wanted to retire, was it his own agency locking him down? An enemy spy agency trying to break him? Every week he, referred to only as “Number 6”, would try to escape or the leader “Number 2” (who was played by different actors as the series progressed) would have a scheme to try and break him.
The original series is kind of odd in that the final episode is very strange and it’s not really clear what the hell was going on at all. Long before “Lost” or “The X Files” this series presented a story that really made you think, and forced you to think long after it was over.
As they say in the Village… “Be seeing you”.
Marketing Over Coffee is out with a review of Google chrome.
This weekend I recorded a special M Show with C.C. Chapman, who hasn’t been on in about 100 shows.
Photo on Flickr by alzimmermanoh.
So after a few hours of using Chrome the only bad thing I have to say is that I’m missing my Delicious tags. Aside from that there are some very interesting things:
But it’s not perfect
Aside from that, I’m very impressed and it’s already taken the top spot.Â
Another browser? Google announces their browser: Chrome
This comic tells the story and here’s what I’m thinking so far.
“Wouldn’t it be great to start from scratch”
Uh. No. Web designers and marketers have taken years to get things to work on 2 platforms, nobody wants a third. You could consider Vista an attempt at starting from scratch, that’s gone well.
P5 and 6 – Multi-threaded browser that’s less of a memory hog – Ok, so I’m a little interested.
P11 – They talk about QA, yeah that’s not a revolution.
P12 – Uses Webkit just like Android. Give me your best Spock… “Fascinating”
P22 – Porn mode, you can open a tab that saves no history. Great, the politician’s dream.
“It’s good for developers because it’s open source” That’s debatable. My ultimate question is: can you get more standardization by further segmenting the market? I doubt it, they have to be counting on wiping out the competition.
Camp is over, but it was a great 4 days of shooting. You can check out my shots here. And then click this link to search the tag “tfttf2008me” for pictures from everyone at the session.
Thanks to Chris Marquardt for putting on a great show, if you are into photography you should check out his podcast on photography.