Funky, Funky Birthday

This morning my handy Life In Hell calendar and Facebook informed me that my friend Griffey shares a birthday w/ soul legend Wilson Pickett. I couldn't find video of Griffey singing karaoke or anything, so please enjoy this ferocious live version of "Mustang Sally." I dare you to not shake what the good Lord gave ya in your cube/ office.



Right on.

A Perfect Day To Chase Tornadoes

As you probably heard, there were some crazy bad tornadoes over the weekend in Atlanta. There was a lot of destruction in downtown and the path moved very close or through several areas of town where I used to live or spend a lot of time or had friends live. Scary!

Today one ATL friend send me a couple of interesting tornado-related links:

1. Google Map tracking the path of the storms. It has notes about various damaged locations and everything.

2. Flickr set of damage in East Atlanta, the last neighborhood I lived in before moving.

Very cool use of technology to document a disaster in an immediate way. As far as I know, all of my ATL peeps are fine, and perhaps even have power now.

I usually don't document the obscure song references, but the title of this post is a song by an amazing Florida singer/songwriter named Jim White. Here's a video of him singing it on Swedish television.



And for some ATL flavor, here's Jim performing his song "Alabama Chrome" at Criminal Records. I used to spend too much money there. A prize to the first commenter who correctly identifies what "Alabama chrome" refers to.



Unfortunately, I think it is going to take more than Alabama chrome to fix the damage in Atlanta. Take care down there, everyone.

Smash Your Head On The Mashup

Sound Opinions on Chicago Public Radio (and syndicated elsewhere and available as a podcast) is becoming one of my favorite things on the "radio". This week featured a very interesting interview with mashup (for lack of a better word) artist Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk. Gillis uses a laptop to create musical collages from loops of various popular and obscure songs. I'd heard his stuff before and it really is some of the most innovative mashup/ dj type things out there. But maybe the most interesting thing about Girl Talk is his live shows, which are total punk rock dance party insanity. The Sound Opinions guys called him the Iggy Pop of djs or something like that. Take a look at this video to get an idea what he does and see some live clips.



If you dig it, check out this cool movie of him taking a show out on the street in Montreal. And his show at Pitchfork last year got shut down due to crowd control issues. Remember, he is actually playing music live on a laptop by adding and subtracting various loops during all this.

Oh yeah, all of this music is totally illegal. In fact, Gillis records for a label called Illegal Art which is run by someone using the name Philo T. Farnsworth as a protest of copyright law. There is a very thoughtful discussion of the implications of sampling/ mashups/ whatever near the end of the Sound Opinions piece. This undated interview gives some details about the philosophy behind Illegal Art too. Interesting stuff! I'm personally all in favor of this sort of flaunting of our outdated copyright laws. And I have no problem saying that Gillis is as much of a musician as someone who plays guitar or drums or sings. What do you think?

And just to make you hungry, I had an awesome brunch of Huevos Diablos and a bloody mary at the Handlebar in Wicker Park today. Handlebar probably has my favorite brunch and bloody mary in Chicago right now. Sorry Silver Cloud fans (you know who you are). I left my phone in the car, so no documentation. But here is a picture of a spicy alligator sausage from Hot Doug's.



Hot Doug is as much of punk rock mashup artiste as Girl Talk. He just works in encased meats.

I'm Waiting for The Day

Are you waiting for the day when I blog again? Then you are in luck.

A couple of TV ads grabbed my attention in the past day or two, one I like OK and the other really bugs me. The OK one is the Burger King campaign where they take away the Whopper for a day and film customer's reactions hidden camera style. People get pretty worked up! About a burger. I like that BK does interesting, kinda edgy campaigns like the weird plastic King and the Subvervient Chicken. But as a former BK employee, I feel bad for the folks working in the restaurants that had to take the abuse. Maybe they were actors. It also got me thinking about a library version, like take away the Internet for a day. Or make people pay to check out books. Or have their questions answered. Might be a good awareness tool. Or just a train wreck.

The one that really bugs me is the US Celluar ad with the young woman who has just gone off to college and is all happy that the employee at the cell phone store is nice enough to help her Dad with the bills. I didn't catch it the first couple of times, but the implication is that Dad is functionally illiterate. And daughter's solution is to rely on a semi-off-brand cell phone store employee to read his mail to him! There are adult literacy classes @ your library(r) you could point Dad to. Or some other positive community-based individual improvement resource. Anything other than just letting Dad stay illiterate and taking his bills to a cell phone store! While he is sending her off to college. Geez. Bring back Joan Cusak, I beg of you.

This week's consumable is Glenmorangie Ten Year. I'm not a big Scotch (or whiskey in general) drinker, but I had a glass when I was hanging out with my friend John the other night at my current favorite bar in the universe, the Duke of Perth. It was the perfect mix of smooth and warm and tasty. If you're looking for a non-beer compliment to an evening of excellent, wide ranging conversation, you could certainly do a lot worse.

Speaking of perfect compliments to a time or mood, a couple of weeks ago I was in a semi-bad mood so I broke down an ordered a 180 gram vinyl copy of Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. As far as I know it's not available on vinyl domestically, and is always quite pricey when I see it in stores. But I didn't pay toooo much on ebay for it. And I'm glad I did because it was waiting for me last Friday at the end of another semi-bad day, or a day I wasn't 100% satisfied with. I can't quite put my finger on why (or maybe I'm just not going to tell you, gentle reader) but listening to that music was exactly the right thing at the right time. And made everything alright. It really is one of the best collections of songs ever. Great lyrics, amazing orchestration. Sunny and moody at the same time. But also smooth and tasty, like a good Scotch with a good friend in the best bar in Chicago.

It's Fun To Stay At The...

For your Thanksgiving reading pleasure, here is an article from today's Sun-Times website about a gentleman who has worked and lived at the Irving Park YMCA for 58 years. He sounds like a nice man. He does seem to really dislike one particular song though, for good reason.

"Whenever I hear it at the Cubs ballpark, I get so aggravated."

In blog news, I'm going to try an experiment where once a week I post something that covers one topic in the library/publishing/social computing world, one food/ drink topic, and one music topic. Look for the first in what will most likely be a one part series tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving. Or Thursday to my Canadian friends.

When I Get To California, I'm Gonna Write My Name In The Sand

In the morning I'm heading out to Monterey for Internet Librarian. David Lee King and I are doing our preconference on Sunday. After that, I have no presentations or anything the rest of the conference. So it will be cool to just relax and go to sessions. And then have a couple of days of vacation time.

I'm especially looking forward to seeing many of my conference/ Internet friends again. And meeting new ones. So if you see me, say hello. And watch this space for blog-style updates.

Don't Call It A Comeback

I know. I know. I said I wasn't going to blog anymore. But I miss typing my random observations into this little box. Ha.

But seriously, I was talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago about why I quit blogging and realized that I, um, still need a place to post stuff from presentations and such. And I can't face not having a Blogger ribbon at Internet Librarian. So I am going to perhaps not retire totally from the blog world.

And speaking of Internet Librarian, I'm doing the Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp preconference workshop with my man David Lee King on Sunday, October 28. Come join us if you want to learn about podcasting and videocasting. We'll make some fun stuff as well! There are a ton of great preconference sessions at the same time, so I'm glad I am teaching one and don't have to choose what to attend!

See you in Monterey, or on the Internets!

Keep Your Eyes On The Road

This evening I'm heading out to Brussels, via a 4 hour layover in London (think there's Old Speckled Hen in the airport?), for the 2007 Ticer Institute. I'm talking on Thursday morning about podcasting and videocasting in academic libraries. There will be a pretty large hands on component to the session, so perhaps look for some audio and video online. I'm excited, and slightly nervous, about talking to a group of librarians whose native language is something other than English, but I'm sure it'll go well.

I'm spending a day and a half in Belgium and a couple of days in Amsterdam after, so look for pics on Flickr. I'll definitely have Internet access in Tilburg and looks pretty plentiful in Amsterdam.

Spring Tour 2007

Let the travelling begin! On Sunday I'm heading up to Chicago for four days to look for a place to live. I've got some good leads thanks to the Chicago Reader and excellent assistance from friends and aquaintances. But wish me luck.

Then on Thursday I fly to DC for ALA Annual. My schedule mainly consists of my participation in the RUSA Reinvented Reference preconference, BIGWIG Social Software Showcase roundtable (Saturday from 1:30-2:30, Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room) and lots of ACRL job related meetings. With some social opportunities and a couple of actual sessions thrown in. I am free pretty much all Monday morning before I fly back to Atlanta at 4pm, so drop me a line if you want to get coffee or lunch or can recommend a good session.

I'm skeptical of my Internet access in Chicago hotel, but will be online daily from someplace with free wifi. So keep the Twitter comments coming. I'm going to try to blog from Annual as well if I can get online. I again can't figure out access possibilities at hotel, so posts might be pretty few and far between.

Questions, comments, and apartment leads are still being accepted at dwfree(at)gmail(dot)com. Hope to run into some of you in DC. If you see me, say hello.

Gotta Move On

Sorry for the lack of non-presentation related blogging lately. I have been incredibly busy with said presentations and work. Another reason for lack of said blogging is that I've been involved in interviewing for a new job. I'm leaving my current position here at Georgia Perimeter at the end of June, moving to Chicago, and starting work at ACRL as editor of College and Research Libraries News (along with some marketing and PR work) in the middle of July.

Moving from the academic world to the association and publishing setting is going to be pretty huge, but also exciting. I have a graduate degree in English along with my MLIS and had considered working in editing/ publishing in the past. So now I'm going to get to combine both areas of interest in one position. I also hope to be able to do some new things with the online version of C&RL News. I'm not sure what or how quickly anything will change, but I think it is on the radar.

I'm going to also use the move and new job to greatly reduce the amount of speaking I've been doing. I'm getting somewhat burned out on talking about podcasting and really think the topic, or at least me talking about it, is reaching saturation. I'm sure I'll do a few talks here and there, maybe about other things, but after fulfilling the commitments I have the rest of the year it will greatly diminish.

I don't foresee much changing with my blog though. I don't really talk about my work much outside of specific projects, so I expect that to continue. And do more writing about general library topics and other random things. The podcasting content will continue too as I'm still very interested in creating podcasts and keeping up with the technology. Although posts may be pretty spotty and involve ALA Annual and complaining about travelling for the next month or so!

Thanks for reading!

Take Me Down To The Crystal City...

...where the buildings are gray and the streets are windy.

In case you haven't figured out by the live session blogging, I'm in beautiful Crystal City, VA for Computers In Libraries. The conference has been going pretty well so far. All of the sessions I've been to have be very good. I especially enjoyed Helene Blowers' talk on Learning 2.0 yesterday. I'd never seen her speak before and she was great. She walked all over the room w/ her wireless presenter and was very interactive. I couldn't get online for some reason during her session but will post notes to that and the podcasting for library instruction session sometime today.

The space is a little (OK a lot) more crowded than it was at the old hotel, but that's about my only gripe. There have been overflow rooms for some sessions and a room with a pole in the middle too. I had to sit in the floor in the back in a couple so no notes from those.

As always, the best part of the conference is hanging out w/ old friends and making new ones. Talking libraries and Internets or just non-work fun stuff is the highlight for me for sure. And I actually managed to escape to DC for a bit last night for a couple beers at the Brickskeller. And the Twittering. Always the twittering.

One more day and post-conference to go!

The Story of LITA Candidate Podcasts

The LITA blog currently features several podcast interviews with candidates for office in the current round of ALA related elections. I was asked by the folks on the LITA BIGWIG group to help out with the project and thought some out there might be interested in the gory details of how it got done. So here they are.

The questions for the interviews were developed at ALA Midwinter for consistency. I did ask a couple of related follow up questions in some cases to get folks talking a little more but tried to keep them to a minimum.

The interviews were conducted through Skype and recorded using a very cool program called PowerGrammo. PowerGrammo is a plug-in that allows you to easily record both sides of a Skype call. The free version works great of two person calls. I used a Logitech USB headset on my end for talking and listening.

The recordings were exported as .WAV files and run through another cool, free program called Levelator to even out the recording levels. If you're doing any sort of interviewing for podcasts, either over Skype or in person, I would highly recommend Levelator. It saves a ton of time evening things out and making the volume the same for different voices. All editing was done in Audacity and final product saved as MP3. Then the BIGWIG folks got them on the blog. I think they use a WordPress plug-in called PodPress to manage audio/ video content on the blog. It integrates content very nicely and gives lots of listening options.

A couple of things I learned from the project: I did some preliminary chat with the interviewees to get them feeling comfy talking before starting (which is a very good idea) but should have paid a little more attention to background noice and things in that process. I noticed some rattling, breathing and such on a couple of the recordings that I think could have been eliminated with a couple of easy suggestions about mic placement etc. Nobody's fault but mine on that.

Give very, very explicit instructions about the tech side of how it is going to work to the subjects. I think I could have eliminated a few questions and uncertainty by giving a little more technical info in my initial emails. I think this would have helped and saved a little bit of everyone's time. Also, recommend up front that subjects use a headset instead of a desktop mic. It gives a lot better sound and consistency.

Make sure to encode projects like this at 41000 Hz or some multiple there of. Since the LITA blog uses a nifty Flash player to stream content, I had to make sure to change the rate in Audacity to avoid the Alvin and the Chipmunks effect that happens when most Flash players like PodPress or the Odeo player try to play a file encoded at a rate like 48000 Hz. Fortunately we knew about this ahead of time so no time was wasted re-encoding. As far as I know.

That's all I can think of right now. I actually had a great time working on this project and got to talk to some interesting people in the process. So thanks Karen, Michelle and Jason for getting me involved.

Everyday I Write The Book

Or at least every day for the next few months. After a few delays and fits and starts I now have a contract to write what will hopefully be a fairly short but comprehensive book about podcasting in academic libraries for ACRL. A good bit of the research has been done for past and upcoming presentations, so I've got a little head start. I will be asking for input from other library podcasters about their experiences, so keep an eye out. And feel free to send me any ideas or things that you'd like to read about in a book on podcasting in academic libraries. Hopefully it will be out sooner rather than later in 2007. But definitely sometime this year.