Congrats to Michael, Tim, and others who are working on the Disney Podcast project.

I think this is the first time I've disagreed with my pal Suw Charman, who is not thrilled about the relationship between Creative Commons and the word-of-mouth marketing company, BzzAgent.

BzzAgent is a company that I'm lukewarm on--to me, it's all about the context. And now, people are pimping something that a good number of us believe in...Creative Commons.

When I explored how BzzAgent worked, I was highly amused at the first ridiculous thing that they were promoting. A freaking coffeemaker. Please. Yet the second thing was not ridiculous at all. It had intrisinic value to a greater good, beyond just a corporate profit. (Note: I don't engage nor report BzzActivities, but I study them like a mofo)

So here we are with something we believe in... something important. I've often mused about how the one thing blogging/decentralized media/and alllll this ideology we hold dear needs is a guerrilla campaign to get the word out.

To me, that's what BzzAgent is all about. It's a by-any-means-necessary-campaign-organization company. Some of the things they want to pimp, we'll believe in, and some we won't. This life is not black-and-white.

They can suggest I pimp coffeemakers, and I'll cheerfully tell them to sod off. But if they suggest I (and many many others) pimp Creative Commons? Hell yeah, sign me up and get me a flag and a badge.

Suw and I talked about this BzzAgent/Creative Commons thing for a long time over IM. One thing she said to me was, "I suppose what I dislike is the encroachment of orchestrated promotion on serendipitous discovery." I clearly see her point and I naturally disagree. She hails from a journalistic background, while I come from advertising and mass communications and design.

And I think that's the biggest difference. Sure, it's cliche to say that it's a dirty job and someone has to do it. Yet I believe that there's a need for using brute strength, especially in this context.

If it was the RIAA being pimped by BzzAgents, I can almost guarantee we'd unilaterally be screaming bloody murder. No question. But it's not.

This time, we're talking about Creative Commons. And to me, that's a cause worth fighting for, hired hands or otherwise.

I was having a conversation with Jason over at Insomnia Radio, when he brought up about joining AMP. Of course, I hadn't paid much attention to the AMP movement since, well, I'm not a music podcaster, and it hasn't been my super-top priority. Then it dawned on me that *one* of the shows I produce is a music 'cast: the KSSX Music Showcase.

So that's coming up, and I'm really excited to support them (I do know that I was a bit bullish on all the podcast 'associations' and stuff that surfaced, but hey, a guy can change his mind over time).

Also, in the context of indie music, Jason and I talked quite about videoblogging, and there will some announcements on that front in a while.

So, go visit AMP and check out a ton of great music.

Coming soon to KSSX is one of my old pals, smart guy, author, speaker, and all around great guy, Lee Eric Smith, who will be showing up in the KSSX Podcast Showcase....

Watch how Phil Torrone made an actual payphone into a Skype Client. Brilliant!

Thanks to Robbie for the iPodYourPhoto pic of me. Now I'm hungry. Hrmmm.

From Sam Levin. We get a 'las-er' for the iPod among other things.... from Griffin.

Long time Slackstreet Radio fans might remember a show we featured a couple pre-podcast years ago called Arson Factor, hosted by Hooligan and Ruckus.

Well everything old is new again, and the Slackstreet Army is returning.

And it starts with Hooligan, who is heading up the KSSX Music Showcase. He brings us indie rock and a lot of trouble (Duh, he's called 'Hooligan"), and the first artist that he beamed to your MP3 player is Miss Argentina.

KSSX has two podcast feeds, the main podcast showcase and a music-only showcase. In fact, if you download the KSSX edition of iPodder, you get it filled with The Eric Rice Show, the KSSX Podcast Showcase (blog - feed), the KSSX Music Showcase (A href="http://ericrice.audioblog.com/rss/music.xml">feed only), and a couple of other of great podcasts from other people.

The KSSX Podcast Showcase features some stuff we really like, such as Fashiontribes; a new show from Lee and Tracy D; a literary show for you book lovers; and for you storytelling nuts, Fray Radio.

What a wild wild world. (Pardon the mess, we decided to have the doors open during remodeling)

See ya soon!

And the entire crew from The Eric Rice Show will be there.

On a beautiful San Francisco day, from the bridge to Zeum.

I had this epiphany today:

"When I have blogs located at MSN Spaces, Yahoo 360, AOL Journals, Live Journal, Blogger, and others, it feels like I have a differently-themed chain of restaurants or stores in various locations around the world---it's still my own content, but slightly different for the neighborhood."

And so it starts....

Know thy vlogger. Although I haven't seen any data on the vlogging demographic, based on the vlogs I've seen it's a younger, tech-savvy market -- ages 15-34. They are, of course, the most highly coveted consumer market, as they are the cultural tastemakers.

And all you analysts out there.....imagine if you ran across a cultural tastemaker who is starting to understand the economics of vlogging without pissing anyone off....

My number is listed. ;-) An Early Peek into the Vlogosphere

Heh. Do I make you horrrny, baybee? Do I? ;-)

Video cameras are getting smaller. They're now standard fare in most new mobile phones. I have this crazy and romantic image in my head of a James Bond-like vlogger (think Eric Rice in a tux) shooting some evil corporation's evil doings with a camera-pen or something and uploading it almost instantaneously to his blog via Wi-Fi as he escapes in an invisible jet.

Via: Esoteric Rabbit Films

Thank goodness for Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine and the fact that he pointed to a book that I predict, has illustrated some of the gut instincts I've felt about mass media/popular culture. I value the Birkenstock ideology that can be easily seen throughout the blogosphere. But I also have my own reality distortion field in place that knows that media, culture, and everything surrounding it, is a very, very, very big and complex game to be played. The difference now, is that we can be the players.

In the book, Johnson says that TV -- and other popular culture -- is more complex than it used to be and challenges us to think; it makes us smarter. I'm not sure which way the cause-and-effect really works. I believe that popular culture is just now catching up to us and that is because all our tools of choice -- remote control, cable box, TiVo -- are forcing popular culture to chase us, to get as smart as we are. In any case, TV is getting smarter and both TV and we are smarter than conventional wisdom ever held.

Make no mistake that with my own two hands, I'm making myself into a media property---except I'm doing it by my rules and in my own way. And if that means that I eventually adapt to a larger infrastructure, then so be it. That's how the game might need to be played.

And I'll certainly take my place in a culture that watches the show 24 and Eric Rice.

That's a game I feel I can win.

Full article and book quotes from: BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

Part of the reason I'm so cranky is that there are a dozen workers and constant stream of people in our house getting it ready to sell. So I'm working amongst children, paint fumes, boxes, boxes, boxes, landscapers, the whole nine.

I just need someone to hammer and buzzsaw things to make it even more funny.

(Although the construction people ARE coming, no doubt.)

The chaos is much better visually. So, yeah. Moving. Video. Soon.

Marc's got an interesting post about Joi Ito's travels to and fro around various conferences. I have to say, I do have a little annoyance at some exclusive, insider conferences (especially since we're talking about frigging BLOGGING of all things... power to the people, remember? Well unless you're a (snide comment about all bloggers being like Republicans deleted).

I challenge any Upper Bloggosphere member to hold a meetup at a cafe, in some public place and reach out to those 'beneath you'.... Not me, but the kids. The newbies. The people who just learned about RSS and sorta glaze over when they hear the phrase "Cluetrain".

I triple dog dare you. Try it. You might like it.

Marc's Voice: The elite insider's blogging scene

Maybe it's a limitation of Drupal, the CMS that is used to power the front end of Ourmedia.org, but posting is frustrating.... On my blog on Ourmedia, I can't successfully see the Audioblog.com player, unless, I click through to the permalink.

I can however take my Ourmedia blog RSS feed and run it through Feedburner to get a smarter RSS feed, so my Ourmedia blog can podcast.

I also will be able to post videoblog players, just not visible on my main blog page.

Urgh.

From Matt Hartley comes the Gnomedex Fan Film

I've retired my instrumental polyphonic version of Guily Conscious by Eminem and Dr. Dre and replaced it with the MP3 of Get Back by Ludacris.

Why you all in my ear? Talkin' a whole bunch a shit that I ain't tryin to hear.
Get Back! Get Back! You don't know me like that.
Get back! Get Back! You don't know me like that.

Yeek yeek, woop woop.

Neat!`xecouteur