Archive for Production Stuff
2 October, 2006 | 1 comment
Return of the four-minute ceiling
We’ve spent a lot of time editing video over the past week or so. Of course we’ve been getting lots of advice that no one watches anything online that’s over about 3 or 4 minutes long. How are you supposed to even pretend to do anything with any depth in 3-minute chunks? I can’t help but be reminded of the good old Oligarchy days of the music industry with the 03:30 pop song rule (watch out, you’re edging dangerously close to that 3:59 mark!)
Of course maybe we’ll just refuse to act as an enabler for ADD. People scoffed at posting 2 hour radio shows as a weekly podcast, too — and someone is still listening. Right? Right? Hello?
25 September, 2006 | No comments
Rockin’ the Racetrack
We’re back in town after a long, exhausting but fun trip to Baltimore for the Virgin Festival. The day-long event took place at Pimlico Race Track and was apparently the first time the horses made way for rock bands to play in the middle of their playground. We shot some good video and even managed a bit of sound for your audiovisual enjoyment. We’re heading into the studio this Friday to tie it all together and add some more interviews, so look for Part 1 this coming weekend. We’ll have plenty to talk about… Let’s see, a parking ticket, a robbery / stabbing in our hotel, frantic searches for missing equipment, even more frantic races to closing stores. Oh yeah, I think there was a concert in there somewhere, too. It’s good to be home and sunburnt.
7 September, 2006 | No comments
Ba-ha-ha-hack
Wow, it’s been like three months since we put out a show. But the wait is almost over. We intended to do a short set of shows over the summer, but things got crazy across the board for us and… well, it didn’t happen. I would cue a bad MIDI file of “Cruel Summer” if I had one on hand.
But that’s all behind us now, and we can’t wait to get back in the swing of things! We’re kicking off with a great show that we actually began in June, before the dung hit the wiper blades. Part 1 will be posted within the next couple of days, assuming our RSS feed hasn’t atrophied in the meantime. Grab a can of WD-40.
Oh, and the website has been updated a bit. Check out our new online guide, a listing of all our shows and guests. It’s fun to look at that long list of previous guests and be proud of what we’ve accomplished so far.
Oh, and we are retiring the discussion board for now. It was just filling up with spam accounts and cheesy rerouting posts to Viagra ads and the like, and really became hard to sort out the 1 out of 100 posts that was from a legit listener. Apologies to all 5 or 6 of you that were posting interesting stuff there, and we encourage you to still send us stuff and ask questions via email or through this blog’s comments… at least for now.
And away we go!
14 May, 2006 | 3 comments
Chris Cornell, audio slave
We’ve been having a rough time of it this semester, between some annoying technical difficulties and a truckload of school work that has prevented us from adequately dealing with those issues. Due to ongoing phone malfunctions in the studio, we’ve had quite a bit of cleanup to do on some of the interviews. Hopefully this will all change in a couple of weeks when we bag the FM portion of our show and go mobile with podcasting.
Fortunately, my colleagues have a good, if somewhat sadistic, sense of humor. Colin the audio guy recently handed off this CD to me to straighten out some noise issues on an interview. Actually I think the best thing about the interview is the title of the CD:
Ha. Ha.
Because of these issues Irene has also been forced to record some interviews at home using a digital lecture recorder and her home phone line. She’s recently joined Colin in attempting to brighten my day with fun CD titles:
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Oh well, it’s nice to feel needed. Although I have to admit that in this case I would rather toss that clipping recorder in a trash bin and not feel so needed. Soon, very soon!
9 May, 2006 | 4 comments
Wanna B On The Show?
Call for all N1L’overs… we’re doing the studio for the last time this Friday! From here (hear) on out (shout) we will be recording out of our in home studio… AND since NONE of us own a home (albeit Skye does live with her ‘rents… but it’s still not her home) anyhooters we will be recording out of one of our tiny SF apartments…
M’kayDokey so if you have an N1L story… perhaps how we met (parasocially of course… if you don’t know what parasocial means then you missed the definition a couple blogs back).
Additionally, got some IDEAS and/or SPECIAL requests… or QUESTIONS… let us know and we’ll set you up with a call in time for Friday’s show… this way we can parasocially love you back (ok the word was used improperly as parasocial relates to mediated relationships only… )
I need to be working on my finals. If I got paid for procrastinating I would be SO rich… and I would use that money to purchase a pink jet to fly us around town to our new home away from school…
28 April, 2006 | 1 comment
The BEST part of Vegas
… is leaving
25 February, 2006 | No comments
Busy busy
The bad news is that our workload has tripled, and we’re bogged down a bit. The great news, though, is we’re doing three times as much stuff! We have added the second show on FreeFM, and we’ve started shooting videos each week; in theory, we’re going to start updating the blog, forum and website a lot more often as well. Plus there’s the minor detail that we’re all in grad school!
Due to exhaustion, last night was the first week that we didn’t go out barhopping after wrapping our FreeFM show. (How can you stay on the air until 12 AM and not drink afterwards?) But it’s a good tired. We’re feeling privileged to get involved in so much stuff, and to get so much great feedback. (Along with the occasional hatemail, which tells us we’re finally getting out there and reaching the Flame community, which can’t be all bad!)
Anyway, please bear with us as we slowly get things geared up. We’re taking a week off from the podcast to get this backlog of stuff under control. And I’m sure we’ll be back to late-night shenanigans next week.
28 January, 2006 | No comments
The Show Must (Eventually) Go On
We’ve been receiving a lot of comments wondering where the new season of N1L podcasts is already. Believe me, we can’t wait to get into the studio again. And rest assured that Season 2 is only going to be bigger and better. We’ve outlined the first half dozen shows or so, and I really can’t wait. The time is near, o patient ones, and thanks so much for your encouragement.
The FreeFM side project has been an interesting experiment. I’m still not sure where it’s going — if anywhere — but it has certainly been a great learning experience for us. The biggest thing I’ve taken away so far is a greater appreciation for the whole N1L crew and how well we’ve actually done so far. We’ve worked with two engineers so far, and both have miscued music and breaks, and generally made a lot of the same mistakes that we make on a weekly basis. That doesn’t mean they’re not great at what they do; more to the point, it validates the job we’ve been doing as amateurs. So, even though we’re the New Kids on the Block and they’re entitled to give us regular lectures on how we “need to be more professional,” the truth is that we are already holding our own with a major radio station, and that makes me happy.
Ben Fong-Torres continues to be a true class act. He seems to know just when to phone in or contact us and let us know that we are doing a great job, when we’re not hearing it from others. I hope we continue to do justice to his support of the show.
We’re almost there, NoOne’sListeners! Don’t give up on us yet! The first Season 2 podcast will be up early in February. And we will soon have a few more exciting announcements about upcoming events in N1L land.
16 January, 2006 | No comments
After the Fact
Wow! Our trial show for Free FM is over. Talk about a different experience. I am so used to running in and handing Irene slips of paper, or pointing to the ghetto alarm clock overhead. It was a very different experience to sit on the other side of the glass, screen callers, cue the engineer and send messages to Irene’s screen. I am really proud of everyone on the crew and I think we pulled off a great show, even within our limitations — and especially coming in cold to an actual functioning studio, dealing with commercial breaks and all that.
The one slight disappointment is that it turned out to be more of an informal talk-radio-style chat that didn’t really feel like a true N1L show. But that’s to be expected when we’re dealing with 50 minutes after commercials, actual live callers and whatnot. I think that if we get the opportunity to continue, and get comfortable with the studio and the entirely new team dynamic, we can create a show that is different but still reflects what N1L is all about.
I suck at screening callers. I usually didn’t even notice when new calls came in for a few minutes. But damn, it was fun. Whatever else, it was a fun time. Oh, and you’ll be able to hear it via our podcasting site within a day or so.
4 December, 2005 | No comments
Meet the Press
Ben Fong-Torres’ Radio Waves column about Irene and the show is now available online! We N1L staffers are busily buying up newspapers (you remember, those folded things that are actually printed on paper) as well. Melissa’s getting a complex about her missing last name, but I think it’s a sign that she should join the single-name crowd: Prince, Madonna, Shakira, Melissa. It has a ring to it… or are my ears still ringing from editing this week’s show?
Ben continues to be amazing in his support for the show. We’ll have an amusing video up soon that he shot of Irene reading an advance copy of the article.
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