MWGblog

I am itching to do some Reel Reviews. I have a backlog of films I’d love to do but thought a theme might be fun. How about a week of the definitive midnight films: El Topo, Pink Flamingos, The Harder They Come, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Eraserhead? Yes, no, maybe so?

Wolverines! The victory call from Red Dawn. Either you get it or you don’t.

I love when you are greeted by a little 80’s cult nostalgic gem when perusing the new DVD releases. A great young cast including Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey before Dirty Dancing, C.Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Charlie Sheen in his first movie. Pair that will film fan favorites like Powers Booth, William Smith, Harry Dean Staton, Ben Johnson and don’t forget Ron O’neal - Superfly, as a Cuban military commander. Directed by John Milius. Come on! You know it is a good time.

I’m feeling a Reel Review coming on.

Today I quickly experimented with Chris Penn’s new application that renders an iPhone friendly podcast page for your website. It was easy to set up and worked as promised. On Reel Reviews I use a special RSS feed that contains just the podcast entries. I loaded it into the kit and “voila” - ready to go on the iPhone. Just click on a link and it plays the podcast. You can check it out here: Reel Reviews iPhone page.

To see a full resolution screenshot as it appears on an iPhone just click on the iPhone graphic on the left.

Check it out Chris’ application: Podcaster iPhone Kit.

I have decided that for the two year anniversary of Reel Reviews, it is time to tackle one of my all time favorites: Seven Samurai. For a film guy, this is a big deal; to take on one of the all time greatest films is a commitment. I’ll post it on October 17th, the two-year anniversary of my entry into podcasting. Curious how the whole thing started? Here is the first edition of Reel Reviews: Sam Peckinpah’s original, The Getaway. Unlike many, I have kept up every show, including the always embarrassing #1.

Since I was feeling a little nostalgic - here is my first appearance on the Daily Source Code from September 15th 2004. As you might guess, I am asking audio quality questions.

By the way, anyone want to hear DSC #1? Being early to the podcast game means I have most podcast pioneer’s episode #1. Last week Dave Slusher and I ended up having a great discussion with some folks at the Portable Media Expo explaining the history of podcasting. It is a bit weird to be an authority on the real history of podcasting. I must say, as exciting as it is now, it was also a great time when it was a small community.

Update: OK, so I got delayed. What else is new? I ordered some new gear for the podcast studio and it has not arrived yet. It is something I’d like to use on this episode. Please be patient.

I am pleased to announce that GigaVox Media launched this week with our three initial channels. My partner, Doug Kaye, and I decided that an appropriate launch would be one with little fanfare - why talk about it, when we could just do it. Doing it, however, was a lot of work and is the main reason things have been quiet here recently. (It is also the reason I haven’t done a Reel Review in a while - though I plan to rectify that.)

For the last few months, Doug and I have been hard at work shaping the vision for GigaVox and handling all the details it takes to role an established brand like IT Conversations (with over 1200 episodes) into our new company as well as to begin the initial expansion of the network. Every startup tells you they have great plans - I’ll just tell you what we can confirm publicly.

IT Conversations has so much content we split off a channel devoted to open source and open standards called Open Source Conversations. We are pleased to have Zend as a sponsor at launch. We have also created an entire channel devoted to podcasting with BSW as an initial sponsor. The Podcast Academy Channel will have content from the Podcast Academy events - coming up now on #4 - as well as conference content. We will begin releasing the audio from the Corporate Podcasting Summit next week as well as our own Podcast Academy #2 which was a sold out event held at Boston University in April of this year. We will debut a hosted show, by yours truly, called Behind the Mic which will focus on the timely and topical events in podcasting. We are also pleased to announce that we are the exclusive audio content partner of the upcoming Podcast & Portable Media Expo.

Speaking of the Expo, we are producing a blockbuster Podcast Academy on Thursday, September 28th, the day before the Expo. It is a schedule chocked full of luminaries in the podcast and videocast fields. This Academy is aimed at Corporate users as well as Podcast Experts and Consultants. We have included an entire afternoon on the cutting edge in video podcasting. Confirmed Instructors include, Leo Laporte from TWiT, Alex Lindsay from MacBreak, Craig Syverson from gruntmedia, Tim Street from French Maid TV, Noah Bonnett and Rachel Rhodes from 88Slide, Denise Howell from Bag and Baggage, Greg Cangialosi from Blue Sky Factory and Kris Smith from Croncast. We worked hard on this line-up and we are extremely pleased with the instructors. This is a not t be missed event. You can register now at a reduced rate at the Podcast Academy.

For ITC fans, IT Conversations will continue to bring you great conference content - in fact we have just completed deals with a number of exciting events as well as informative hosted shows. ITC is our flagship channel and we intend to keep it that way.

While the real work is still ahead of us, I’d like to offer a thank you to my partner Doug Kaye, who has worked tirelessly, as well as Tim McNerney, Paul Figgiani and Darusha Wehm who, among many others, have made this possible. Thank you.

I have just turned on the newest feature at Reel Reviews in all its AJAX goodness: the DVD List. I am often asked whether or not I have a particular film, now people can check for themselves and request a Reel Review. We have created a catalog section that lists all the DVDs in my collection. It allows visitors to browse the collection, purchase via Amazon (thanks for the support) but most importantly it lets people request a review. The review requests are tabulated and displayed in the admin panel. Here are some screenshots and explanations.

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