When I was upgrading the CoolTea phpBB 3.01 bulletin boards, I had many technical issues along the way thus visited other sites around the web in an effort to track down resolve to these issues.
Some of the technical issues were simple like making sure the server path was correctly listed in a section of code. Other issues were more troublesome in that certain plugins had conflicts (e.g., took me better part of two days to find out why my board was not creating thumbnails from image uploads yet did so perfectly before the upgrade).
Along my journeys to find technical answers, clues and/or wisdom, I came across a site listed as an example of a technical fix I needed but also had some wild content about the Secrets of the Mayan Calendar Unveiled.
So I paused and gave myself permission to watch these videos by Ian Lungold as he proceeded to unlock and explain the eternal truths about these Mayan Secrets.
It was a happy find and one of the things I enjoyed learning about the Mayan calendar was the different forms of consciousness that correspond to periods of Earth time and are physically represented in how the Mayan’s construct pyramids. The last and final consciousness Ian claims is “Galactic and/or Universal Consciousness” also the shortest span and represented by a pyramid’s top tier.
So that got me to thinking about all the skeptics I’ve danced with about the realities of aliens and/or angels.
Technically I believe in both, but it does not matter what I believe in because belief is just that, a concept I own or subscribe to but it is not scientific fact. Thus I never try to convince my friends of one or the other, but I do enjoy the dialogue in these depts.
And one of my other beliefs is that if I learn just one thing from something, somebody, some book, some movie, or some song, well then bravo - one thing learned makes that thing worthy.
So years back I started getting emails from a group claiming they were channeling Orion - see Orion Transmissions.
Before these emails, I had read a book by Fran Rosen-Sawyer, aka Parvati, whose book, “I Wish I Had Known” was positive inspiration and instrumental in moving me out of a funk at a time in my life and back into the joy of living.
Thus she is at the center of these Orion Transmissions and while I’ve never met her, I have been admirer of her penmanship and messages so I tried to approach these Orion messages with an open mind.
Over the years, these Orion Transmissions have become great fertilizer for internal thought and reflection, offering new perspectives, friendship, laughter, warnings and wisdom all combined into a format that to this day, I cherish when the latest version hits my inbox.
So back to the Mayan Calendars and my main point of this post, which is this - What do Aliens and Angels share in common?
Given the Mayan Calendar and this final phase of time we are approaching, I would argue that in both cases the Aliens and the Angels have “other worldly view points” - and probably view points that are galactic and universal.
This hit home with the latest Orion messages when they said, “What do you think the purpose of humanity is all about?”
Good question and I thought I knew but below is excerpt from their point of view so you tell me if they are onto something
Quote from Orion:
On our spiritual evolution and Unity
Yes. Yes. We would like to describe to our vehicle what to expect in the coming years from a positive standpoint. We all know what destructive forces are at work on the environment of planet Earth. For every negative force, there are greater numbers of Light Workers being ‘employed’ if you will, by the Light Energy on your planet, to combat the darkness. They are well-armed with positive energies, fuelled by love of a different nature—love of a more universal nature. And indeed, these Light Workers are working feverishly to achieve their goal. We are working together for the sanctity and preservation of our beloved planet Earth, the record-keeper of the universe.
We are walking through mysterious circumstances being heralded as progress by some and digress by others. Still, we are moving through the maze of traps manufactured by those employed by the dark forces on your planet. We do not see them as a threat to the integrity and balance on this planet, because their power is losing the battle. We know the directions they are taking and from whence they come. We are aware of the ‘opposition’ to good, to Light. We are quite aware of the big players in their ultimate world domination game. We have not been dealt a hand. We have created our own solutions. We have created our own force field of protection which cannot be penetrated by those whose natures are not pure, whose goals are not those reflecting the higher purpose of humanity.
This leads us to the next main point. What is the main purpose of Humanity? Do you think that the main purpose is to amass large stores of wealth in order to destroy the planet’s ecosystem? NO. Do you think the main purpose of your individual lives is to hoard wealth, compete with others for the prize of self-importance, fame and pride? NO. Actually, the main purpose for all of HUMANITY is to become enlightened and begin to take your places in the hologram of life, which is ultimately a reflection of the Divine who created all of this—and ultimately, to preserve the Nature which is the reflection of Divinity on the physical plane. In so doing, human beings become elevated to the next dimension and reach a state of ‘I and My Father are ONE.’ Isn’t that the ultimate goal?
Yet, instead of keeping this goal first and foremost in your minds, you fill your minds with daily trivia, who said this to who, who did what, how much, how many, and what is my next conquest? Indeed, one rarely takes time to retreat within to find one’s own direction. One assumes it will simply be revealed to him when the time is right. Well, folks! THE TIME IS RIGHT NOW!
The proverbial saying, “Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today” is an excellent one to adopt when assessing your life, your ‘future’. One should place far less emphasis on Future. The present moment is the only breath you have. The breath you take in this very moment is the one you have in hand.
Establish priorities. What priorities? One places on top of the list all one’s menial tasks, one’s work-related daily errands. One’s life work often takes a back seat to the daily grind, leaving rare the moments of solitude and reflection. Indeed, we see this sorely missing in most beings, even those on a spiritual journey of sorts. Spiritual journey is one which connects one to the cosmos, to the greater whole, to the Universe. It does not necessarily make one appear more ethereal or speak in tongues! Indeed, it may make one more grounded and practical, if it is truly a spiritual journey. The greatest Masters have a grounded focus, a clarity which is far from accidental.
One shall perhaps consider a revision in one’s listing of priorities. Really examine the question ‘WHO AM I?’ followed by ‘What am I here for? What is my true higher work in this incarnation?” Then, when you really realize you are present on this glorious planet for a purpose other than economical or emotional, you can get on with your priorities. At the top of the list should be your spiritual awareness. Do something toward the advancement and enhancement of your spiritual awareness daily.
Seek to SERVE daily.
Seek to perform those beautiful ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ daily.
Seek to make amends to those with whom you have had conflict over the years. Do this daily from your heart, in your own time, in your own way.
Seek to assist in the dissemination of material which will serve to lift up humanity and create a sense of awareness so needed in this world. Do this daily.
Seek to become one with your higher spirit, communicate with the Devas, angels, your Master, GOD, the energy of LOVE daily.
If your daily schedule does not have time for INTROSPECTION (not analysis) revamp your schedule to include at least one, if not many more, periods of meditation, prayer or entreaty to Divine for guidance and direction, and clarity of that direction.
You seek to control your universe, but you do not seek to control your own mental faculties! Do not permit your minds to become engrossed in negativity. There is negativity all around you in the world, but if your mind is always or at least in training to be always in tune with your Higher purpose, the negative energies of the world will have no effect on you! This is entirely possible for each and every one of you who have embarked on an inner journey to the Light.
Look at great Saints and beings who embraced GOD or the concept of Divinity—in whatever way it manifested for them. They remain always in a state of BLISS, in the state of TRUTH, in a state of HARMONY. They exist to teach you all to become more engrossed in Divinity. This requires no adherence to a religious philosophy. THIS IS BEYOND PHILOSOPHY! This requires no membership in any spiritual group or following of any outer agenda. This simply means, one begins the search within to find one’s true spiritual quest. And then, without further delay, one embarks on the journey, fully equipped with all the prerequisites. Do you know what are the prerequisites?
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.
No other prerequisite is required. The Divine will feed your every need. Divine will provide direction, spiritual sustenance, Truth and comfort.
SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND ALL WILL BE ADDED UNTO YOU.
And with that, we close these present transmissions.
Special Thank You to Artist Jeff Bowe for permission to include his images here in this post - for more info about Jeff and his art, contact Jeff Bowe directly!
My first introduction with computers was circa 1975 with mainframes, punch cards and programming simplistic slot machines with random fruits - e.g., cherries, lemons, oranges, and dollar signs - any combination of which would spin and land in three-pane lucky display screen.
It was also a time when I started to begin the journey through boyhood puberty and migrate into the ongoing evolution of manhood, personhood, humanhood, et al.
It was during this boyhood time while programming random numbers that I was first exposed to some fundamental concepts for achieving ongoing success with computers (e.g., managing the three levels of inputs, processing, and outputs). Thus part of my early picture included computer teachers and experts beating into my growing computer-awareness, “Garbage-in is Garbage-out.”
This became obvious, tactical, hand-felt wisdom with the early punch cards as those cards that were less than perfectly punched or less than perfectly flat were promptly spit out and rejected as unusable. Thus no amount of nifty logic or elegant programming referencing random fruits, berries, and/or dollar signs would ever see the light of day, but I digress.
Moving forward and years later - circa 2001 during days of explosive growth with DAWS (Digital Audio Workstations), project studios and technical advances across the digital audio spectrum, I enjoyed a conversation with an audio engineering expert and friend who candidly stated, “You know Chuck, in my business they call it turd polishing - if the client gives you inputs that are turds, no matter how much audio polishing you do, it’s still a turd.”
Yikes - new multimedia information and different take on conventional wisdom of garbage-in and turd-polished outs.
However, I was recently reminded that we can work with less than perfect inputs on creative level through some “happy accidents” and turn out good stuff.
Below is my point - visually. One of my clients handed me material that was 5-Diamond in spirit, nature of story, and content level, but it was a lot less radiant in the areas of digital resolution and digital quality.
This is a sensitive area and let me state that I honor all those on the digital paths. We all start somewhere and the spirit of this piece is to highlight how we can work creatively with things we think might not work, yet continue to work with what we have and move forward in getting better in using what we have to accomplish our mission at hand.
In this case, the client handed me 18 minutes of video footage from single-chip camera that was hand-shot (e.g., no tripods, no external mics, no lighting, no script - more akin to documentary style shooting), highly compressed as mpeg1 320×240, along with a handful of stills that were 1-2meg jpegs each.
Mission from client was, “Here is our story - how best can it be told effectively online?”
The answer is in the proof below with the ending video result.
Knowing neither the video or stills were commanding (digital resolution wise that is), we decided best to split the screen and use both videos and pics at the same time to tell the story, thus in part distract you from overly focusing in on either one at a time and seeing the granular pixations or other blemishes.
In the finished clip below, on one side you see pictures with the Ken Burns effect with panning and cropping. On the other side of the screen you see the video that corresponds to the story in the pics moving along.
Whenever either the stills or the video gets weird (e.g., quality of color, lighting, shakiness, etc) we then dropped an effect on that clip and voila - all of a sudden, things that seemed like mistakes (e.g., pictures out of focus) became awesome transitions that moved the story along with added effects and emotional dimensions.
But happy accidents with effects and visual polishing was only part of it.
The other part was how to sonically pull the viewer thru the story and hence the need to find some fun, offbeat music that could drive yet fit with the various live recordings of volunteers, pastor, and background beats -> Enter the soundtrack, “Gobble Gobble Funk” by you know who!
In the end, I think this piece works really, really well in telling the client’s story.
The last thing I will mention is the title, “Feeding the Angels Among Us.”
This was perhaps the hardest part about scripting and editing this piece. My customer who pays the bills is obvious, but his stakeholders and the constituents they dance with is something that is multilateral, highly diverse and commands respect from all levels.
Some how to say, “feeding the needy” seemed untruthful to those pictured here in this video. After all, these “stars” played a part in the role of life’s give-in-take and somehow there seemed to be a higher truth in naming the title, one that those standing in line, when viewing this clip, would also be proud of.
Which leads me to concept of - is it more blessed to receive or to give?
I don’t know but it seems like sometimes those of us who give can feel entitled to a little moment of self righteous - e.g., “Hey, I just did something for somebody - doesn’t that count for something, somewhere, on somekind of karmic scorecard?” - and I often wonder if the other person who receives isn’t really an Angel in disguise who isn’t silently saying, “Dude, if only you really knew - it is I who is willing to serve as your reminder that God gives us each different talents and skills. Thanks for sharing and best of success with your unfolding generosity of time, gifts, talents, investment in Highest Good, et al.”
The following is an account of a missing office chair and happy customer service ending … the essence of which can be enjoyed per the following letter and here is the pdf version
22 April 2008
Mr. Ronald L. Sargent
Chairman & CEO Staples.com
500 Staples Drive
Framingham, MA 01702
Re: Take a Seat and Sit on This - Herculean Customer Service in Danbury CT
Dear Mr. Sargent and Team Staples:
As I pen this thank you note, I am happily sitting on my new cushy, replacement Global Task Chair courtesy of many honorable customer service efforts on behalf of store personnel at your Staples Mill Plain Road, Danbury Connecticut location.
My ordeal started several years ago when I first started hunting for office chair replacements. My multimedia studio had several beautiful Herman Miller Aeron chairs that I spent dearly for but since a car accident and new found titanium-infused bones, the Aeron’s rounded hard-plastic sculpting at the bottom of the sitting surface dug into my left femur bone such that I needed to find replacement chairs effective immediately.
Enter Staples and your line of Global Task chairs.
My initial customer-buying sales reasoning echoed , “Hey, the cushioning is right, the grey color pleasing, and the multi-directional levers to tilt in almost any manner were all very exciting options, but it was the lifetime warranty that sealed the deal.”
My Staples Global Task chair enjoyed a pleasant average life in my studio - bouncing between video edit station, adjusting nicely for 88-weighted musical keyboard station, plus wheeling over to the office station.
A couple of puppy-dog bite marks and scratches here-and-there on the wheel base, and a plastic right arm rest requiring duck tape given some of the repeated desk bumps over the years, all said and done it was a good trusty chair.
But then one day the back broke - just snapped as I leaned back. Screws, or at least partial pieces along with wood shavings fell to the floor and I immediately knew another office chair adventure was in the cards.
None of the Staples store personnel where thrilled to see me when I came wheeling through the automatic glass sliding doors with my broken chair in the lead. An announcement from the customer service counter was made that could be heard throughout the store’s PA, and soon a young gentleman approached offering to help. I showed him the guarantee and the Staples product bar codes under the sitting-part of the chair, and he asked for time to confer with store management.
When he returned, I was given two options - I could either get a store credit for the current retail value of the chair ($125 versus the $300-plus I initially paid), or I could leave the chair there and see if they could order the replacement parts.
Neither of us had been down this path before so I asked him what his preference would be, and he said, “Chuck, your warranty does state that we have first option to replace defective parts. The guy who services our furniture is gonna be in here tomorrow, so if it’s all right with you, I’d prefer we see if we can get the replacement parts, and I’ll give you a call once I hear back.”
Fair enough. I left without my chair but felt great that a warranty / guarantee effort was set in motion. I wasn’t sure going in if I would be tossed out because the manufacturer went out of business, lack of store receipt, etc., so just knowing that options were on deck was a breath of fresh air in our seemingly time crunched, often unresponsive, mega-store, impersonal, not-my-problem, hurried culture of ours but I digress.
Two days went by when a voicemail was left, “Mr. Scott, we spoke to the Global rep. Your new chair back is on order. We are also going to replace your tape-ducked arm rest as a professional courtesy. Parts should be in during the next couple of weeks, so I’ll call you when it’s ready.”
Yippee! My old, trusty chair that had been with me during so many late night editing sessions and played the seat to many a musical performance would be returned, to be somewhat akin to the comfort of a favorite old shoe.
For several weeks I sat on a hard metal fold-up chair. Then after four weeks I decided to call to check on the status. My Staples customer service champion was not in, so I asked to leave a message for him, which they reluctantly took down. I could almost hear his inner voice say to me over the phone, “Dude - I’m busy. Why do I have to write down this message, and why can’t you just call back tomorrow morning when he’s in?”
The next day I was about to follow-up until I played back the morning voice mails, and there was one of panic from my Staples customer service hero. “Mr. Scott. Can you please call me at your earliest convenience. It’s Important.”
With that I thought, “Okay - here we go, they changed their mind and the parts were never ordered, not available, or management changed their mind about supporting the guarantee.”
It turned out that parts arrived, but during the waiting process my chair was mistaken as junk and tossed out.
Then the drama started to play out. Apparently a frustrated management team mused, “How could we let this happen. Now we owe the guy a new chair. Somebody is gonna have to buy this guy a new chair, and it’s not me. I just hope he doesn’t want one of those $600 leather chairs. How the heck …”
When my hero replied and chimed in during management huddle, ” … but he’s the customer. He had a guarantee. We promised.” Said hero was promptly told to leave work effective immediately hence the cell phone call I got from him as he was driving home per management request.
I asked if this was just bad timing and if better picked up another day or two once management cooled down. I asked if he would prefer I support his suggested next steps or if he’d prefer I deal with management directly, which is what happened next.
I was given the name and number for head manager. I called and got directed to his office when an assistant picked up, claimed the manager was busy, and asked if he could take a message.
At this point, I started to laugh at what kind of message to leave given all the twists and turns, so I started at the top,
“This is Chuck Scott, and I’m the guy with the missing chair.”
“Oh, yea! We know who you are. How can I help you?”
I asked if my customer service hero’s job was in trouble and what could we reasonably work out given all that went on.
Suffice it to say, I drove up there that afternoon before the assistant manager’s shift ended and rolled away with a floor demo model that is very close in style to my original trusted old one.
Without naming names, Jonathan, Jim and Rob at Team Staples know who they are, and I just wanted to go on record of appreciation for all of your Danbury CT Staples customer service efforts.
Cordially,
Chuck Scott
PS - On the way out, I did purchase an extra padded memory foam cushion. Now, only if you sold designer foot-stoles to accompany said chairs!
Below is the seven minute video produced by Guiding Eyes for the Blind that features a licensed version of Katie Scott’s Song for VanDyke which can be heard around 5 minutes into the clip - congratulations Katie!
Katie and I just got back from whirlwind vacation in the Carolinas with Kasha. One of our stops was Charleston South Carolina, which despite its magical beauty also has history of America’s most active port for Slave Trading - this history was something I wasn’t comfortable with and was reluctant to visit the area but Katie pervailed and I’m glad she did.
Charleston was good to us and an eye opener on many levels (note I snapped over 1500 high rez pictures, recorded 8 gigs of audio data from birds to dinner interviews, and shot 1.5 hours of awesome video footage so more on the Carolinas to come).
During our trip, one of my church clients asked me to post the following video clip on their home page. Both Katie and I love Amazing Grace but did not know of the origins or history of this song.
As an aside, I also now love to play just the black keys on the piano which was something I first started doing five years ago when I was in the hospital recovering for three months from nasty car incident on black ice and the black keys were the only ones my fingers could reach and play given that both arms were in casts (as well as host of other broken bones).
Here is the copy that I posted on my client’s site:
Below is a clip from GodTube featuring Wintley Phipps, President of the US Dream Academy - an organization for children of prisoners … “If the mountain was smooth you couldn’t climb it … Five black notes per scale on the piano and you can play almost any Negro Spiritual by playing just the black notes … Slave Ship Captain, John Newtown, penned the words for Amazing Grace after he became a Christian but the melody was based on the West African Sorrow Chant he heard rising from the belly of the slave ships he sailed …”
In addition to installing and customizing Wordpress blogs for clients, I also am retained to do some “care and feeding” with blog content and here is a brief story of over doing it, but I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
It started a couple weeks back when one of my church clients asked me to post on their site the Red Skelton’s Pledge of Allegiance clip that is featured below. The part that is implied with such requests is, “and Chuck, can you also draft some copy that we can use to explain / build / position the clip” which is something I thoroughly enjoy doing.
I had watched this Red Skelton clip earlier in the day then went for a walk with the dog. Along our walk we met some movers from Russia and Serbia. They were taking a break and wanted to pet the dog, Kasha, so we got to chatting.
When we got to the part where I asked them about the conditions and economy in their countries and what they thought of the USA, they both stopped petting the dog. They both stood up, faced me directly, pulled the cigs out of their mouths, looked at me wild-eyed and said, “What happened to America? You know, you used to be something and meant something around the world…”
I knew exactly what they meant and explained that nobody I know is happy with the theft of our Republic by incompetent, corrupt leadership and corporate interests run a muck.
More on this “moving conversation” in upcoming blog post but when I got back home, I drafted the following for my client’s blog and sent it to the Pastor to preview and approve before going public with the copy and video. I confessed in my email that I “might have over done it” and here is what I originally wrote:
The Youtube clip below is from the Red Skelton Show that first aired on January 14th 1969 on CBS. Red’s Pledge has since been twice read into the Congressional Record of The United States and has received numerous Awards.
It is a POWERFUL reminder of truth, one which those in Washington seemed to have abandoned - e.g., sovereign powers with people-first and leaders-second and not Federal-leaders dictating to the people; freedom for all and the right to live one’s own life as one sees fit even if that includes home schooling; to live one’s life without threats and fear or deceit or lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction; justice and principles of dealing fairly with others which is sorely absent in political races where the drive to win at any cost dominates …
Regardless of political sensibilities, Red Skelton’s version of The Pledge of Allegiance is a reminder for each of us, I, me, committees of one, to get off our apathetic butts, stop complaining about the state of our world, our country, our lives, our economy, and go out and live the positive change God wants us to live and bring back the respect for this great country our forefathers worked so hard to earn.
It’s not too late to be the change, live the change, and kick some butt in a positive way, one that would make Red blush with pride when he looks down from Heaven and says to Our Father, “Yep - that’s them all right. We The People!”
The Pastor has great sense of humor and sent back very funny email:
“… you had me whoopin’ and hollerin’ in agreement with your sentiment… however, I feel the need to tone it down for the sensibilities of our intended e-viewers. The following is an edited version - Rated W for wimpy pastors! …”
Needless to say I edited the copy per his direction and this is what “officially aired” on their site:
This Youtube clip below is from the Red Skelton Show that first aired on January 14th 1969 on CBS. Red’s Pledge has since been twice read into the Congressional Record of The United States and has received numerous Awards. It is a POWERFUL reminder of truth.
But this got me to thinking some more - e.g., What else could Rated W mean? After all, anybody who ventures out to use new media and Web 2.0 technologies is anything but wimpy in my opinion - it takes real leadership and courage to venture into new waters, especially those that are not certain or clear, like blogging with one’s congregation.
Thus when the site was updated, I sent back the following email:
… edits done and home page is live :>) … i’d say Rated W = “Wow - Thanks for Sharing!”
On December 11th 2007, Frankie Vinci, Triple Platinum Singer-Songwriter (Tim McGraw), lead a workshop about getting to the soul of songwriting, which was hosted at the Georgetown Saloon … Accordingly, here are some clips from that evening - enjoy!
Part 1 - Introduction - Topics include: Tim McGraw clip; Frankie bio; CBS Football theme clip …
This audio clip is 2:29 minutes in length and 1.1 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Part 2 - The Music Business and Being Pro - Topics covered in this clip include: Question - How did you get to where you got; Story of Tim McGraw Cut; All About Nashville; Song for Faith; Breaking into Nashville; I Got Signed = Fluke; Reality of getting signed; Realities for publishers; Writing songs for others; Luck of the chicken of the sea; Gotta be there; How much you can make from one song …
This audio clip is 15:18 minutes in length and 7.2 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Part 3 - The Art of Songwriting and Jinglewriting - Topics in this clip include: Jingle vs Songwriting; How to get a jingle; Chevy jingle example; What Comes first - ideas, hooks; Songwriters don’t be blatant; First lines have to nail ‘em; Writing rock songs is hard; What else has to grab them; What makes it a hit …
This audio clip is 15:01 minutes in length and 7 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Part 4 - Performance Example - Frankie goes live with song writing example and shares path from idea development to finished song with, “Slow it Down” - which first showcased on Dec 11th :>)
This audio clip is 6:44 minutes in length and 3.2 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Songwriting Critiques from Dec 11th
The following five songs were critiqued during the evening:
Critique 01 - Michel climbs on stage with her guitar and recently minted song, “Time to Break Free” … a haunting song about bad marriages and corporate transfers …
This audio clip is 10 minutes in length and 5.1 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Critique 02 - Tom gets on stage and plays his new song, “I Can’t believe how you make me feel - I wish you were mine” - Frankie tunes in with harmonica and great audio fun unfurls …
This audio clip is 4:28 minutes in length and 2.1 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Critique 03 - Roger shares a track from his CD - a song called, “The Last Barbeque” and the secret sauce lies in the end when you find out who licensed this novelty song …
This audio clip is 5:38 minutes in length and 2.65 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Critique 04 - Marc and Lindsay unfold with an impromptu duo akin to Spanish-funk guitar mixed with gospel-soul vocals - great fun and as Frankie comments post, “… that is exactly what songwriting is all about!” …
This audio clip is 5:11 minutes in length and 2.4 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Critique 05 - John shares a track from his CD - a song called, “It’ll be all right” - which is mostly about living through problems and having loved ones to get us through …” … it is also an example of turning seamingly “dark stuff” into happy, upbeat songs and melodies …
This audio clip is 8:06 minutes in length and 3.8 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip …
Earlier today I posted the Elliott Scheiner audio clips and am now in the process of archiving the project files when I came across a handwritten note to myself -
Mono Wins
The note was written in the middle of the night when the computer was busy rendering the master files and was a reminder to me for the next morning as to where to pick-up and which files would ultimately get published and streamed on this web site.
The original recordings were 44.1khz stereo wave files and I did all the editing at this resolution yet knowing I was ultimately going to kick it down and go to the web with mp3 clips. Thus part of the compression issue became one of stereo vs mono and balancing finished compressed file size with server-bandwidth costs and audio-quality.
Consider the fourth clip - Part 4 of 4 - it was the largest master file weighing in at 212 megs as finished stereo wave cd quality. I knew I wanted FM-radio quality for the mp3 versions (not CD but not AM either) thus rendered all four wave files first to stereo 96kbits 44.1khz for a total file weight of 40.9 megs as compressed mp3s … then I rendered separate versions to mono 64kbits 44.1khz for total weight of 26.9 megs.
While the audio quality is slightly inferior, the mono version was the winner because most of the audio is speech - thus the need for preserving sonic spectrum wasn’t truly necessary except for the killer sonic bug at the beginning of each clip that features me on keys, Jeff Wells on Sax, and Kasha (my 19 month old Labrador Retreiver - or perhpas better stated, “my wife’s Lab …”).
Sonic branding is a term I first heard a couple years back when talking to a staff composer for one of the most successful Soap Opera’s on air. We were talking about his business and skills when he said, “You know Chuck, the best shows on TV have Sonic Brands - that signature ditty that you can hear from another room and know that someone in your house just tuned into Cheers, Seinfeld, Taxi, American Idol…”
He went on to add that from his perspective, not enough American corporate managers are even aware of the importance of this branding let alone using or managing it effectively.
Point noted and ever since our discussion, I’ve been mindful about developing and managing my own sonic brands as well as those for clients for whom I’m retained.
Previous to my discussion with composer friend, I had composed a neat ditty for many of the CoolTea and GoBoardRoom audio clips - one which I referred to internally as “Purple Guy” but when I found myself selling a variation of this mix to a client, I was then at a cross roads for developing a new, more updated, more me, kind of signature for ChuckingIt.com and ChuckScott.com branding.
Hence the ditty, aka Sonic Brand, you hear in the Elliott Scheiner clips.
On February 4th 2008, legendary audio recording engineer Elliott Scheiner (Beck, The Eagles, Steely Dan, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Natalie Cole, Bruce Hornsby, plus others) spoke at East Coast Music Mall about his record producing experience and take on the music industry today.
I was lucky enough to attend this free recording workshop and had my trusty portable recorder with me hence the following four clips from that evening - enjoy!
Part 1 - The Music Business Industry and Trends
This audio clip is 10 minutes in length and 4.9 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: How he got started as New York’s first freelance recording engineer; Where to find the most work; Why The Eagles did not release their album on iTunes but went with Walmart instead; The reality of copy protection; Radio Head’s experience selling albums; and, How our culture has completely failed musicians and artists.
Part 2 - Working with Recording Artists
This audio clip is 12 minutes in length and 5.7 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: Common denominator in working with great artists; Getting the unique piano sound for Bruce Hornsby; Tracking vocals for Toto and how technology has made artist lazy; Crazy guitar players and their signature sounds; and, Getting work that is just fine vs good or great.
In my opinion, the story Elliott shares about Bruce Hornsby is really powerful lesson for all business people - it is one about the power of creative-tension, working with people who don’t get along, and the difficulty in selling something new - in this case, a new piano sound - and one that would go on to break the charts!
Part 3 - Mixing, Mastering and Surround Sound
This audio clip is 14 minutes in length and 6.8 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: The amount of time it takes to mix a record; Working with samples; Mixing Steely Dan’s Gaucho in surround sound; Mixing with satellite speakers; XM and Sirius codecs changing the surround mix changes the copyright; Monitoring levels and speakers; Kids and bass today; Loudness wars; Getting country music to sound great; Order of mixing instruments; and, the importance of hiring mastering engineers.
Part 4 - Audio Recording Tools, Technology and Techniques
This audio clip is 20 minutes in length and 9.5 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: Going digital vs analog; Software effects and EQ vs their hardware equivalents; Being a minimalist and using mics properly; Not depending on compressors and having the artist work the mic; Salvaging old reel-to-reel tape recordings; Consoles; Tips for people running project studios; Watching the levels in a mix; Cost of building analog room vs digital room; and, the cost and risks when working in new rooms.
Okay - here is a video clip that I did everything on - filmed, edited, recorded audio, photographed, special effects, compression, etc …
I had been working with my client earlier that day doing an audio meditation and had my camera in the car when Father Chip said, “Hey - lets go look at the church and I’ll show you some of the water damage we are working on” and so I gave him a mic with DAT recorder, grabbed the camera and voila - the resulting video.
I should also mention that I shot this during the summer of 2007 not knowing what I now know about setting up shots, using tripods, etc. (and it was the last time I would use a DAT recorder and went out and promptly replaced it with a new direct-to-smartcard portable disk recorder).
Thus it was really difficult in post to tell this story since a lot of the footage had camera shake from me walking around the grounds and in the church doing free-form shooting.
Thus my wife, Katie, created a little sign that hung on my desk during the editing process that said,
Wobbly = Still!!!
Which was my reminder to keep stripping out any shaky footage and replace with stills and then use keyframes with the pan-and-crop features to make the story move along.
Here is the lead copy on their site that sets up the clip -
“Take a tour of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral with Father Chip and Colleen … Filmed during the summer of 2007 and published in Feb 2008, this 13 minute clip takes you on a journey of the elusive source of the water damage that was being addressed during the recent renovations - enjoy!”
When I was upgrading the CoolTea phpBB 3.01 bulletin boards, I had many technical issues along the way thus visited other sites around the web in an effort to track down resolve to these issues.
My first introduction with computers was circa 1975 with mainframes, punch cards and programming simplistic slot machines with random fruits - e.g., cherries, lemons, oranges, and dollar signs - any combination of which would spin and land in three-pane lucky display screen. 
In addition to installing and customizing Wordpress blogs for clients, I also am retained to do some “care and feeding” with blog content and here is a brief story of over doing it, but I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
Earlier today I posted the 
