Review of Lombardis

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PodCamp Ireland - One Month From Today

With today being August 29th it means we’re one month away from PodCamp Ireland. If you haven’t already signed up or you’re still debating whether to go to Kilkenny for this free event then have a read of Krishna’s latest post to the PCI blog where it is well highlighted that PodCamp isn’t just for techies and blokes!

The point is quite valid too!

I’ve been stirring the conversation in the music and theatre circles that I travel in and the responses have all been positive with bands, solo performers, and arts groups all interested. There might not be a techie among them but they’re all aware of the power of podcasting, the freedom of the medium and they’re all eager to learn more.

So whether you’re a techie or not, a podcaster or not, a blogger or not - it doesn’t really matter! There’s a wealth of things to learn at PodCamp and more to come before we open the doors on the 29th of September in Killkenny.

Discover it all so far on PodCampIreland.com and don’t be afraid to register - it is free after all!

Nokia N95 8GB - Christmas Present Dressed In Black

When I was down in the O2 store recently to collect a Nokia E50 for KilkennyMusic.com I toyed around a little with a Nokia N95 display model and thought - yep, sure is pretty. Then you read God knows how many good things about it online, see the blog reports, the videos, catch photos of people with N95’s dotted around them…

Then yesterday I was driving through Waterford in search of breakfast and passed the big billboard at the outer ring round (by the RSC) which had a massive N95 on it with the tagline “Its What Computers Have Become” underneath. They’re right too.

Then this morning I’ve been following the likes of Bernie Goldbach, Damien Mulley and Conor O’Neill tracking the Nokia event in London where the next issue of the N95 has been touted.

It looks nice in silver, but it sure packs a punch in black.

With my personal O2 contract up for discussion / renewal in October and an upgrade on the cards I reckon I’ve just found my Christmas present. Why couldn’t the iPhone have a 5mp camera?

Regaining A Sense Of Normality, Reviews To Come

Half twelve at night, I’ve a house to be tidying and I’m finding myself overly distracted by twitter, jaiku, bebo and God knows what else on the internet. Must mean I’m regaining a sense of normality.

Back to the office tomorrow after slogging it out in the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny, this past week for Cannibal! The Musical. Judging by the estimated crowd numbers we’ve gone down well in Kilkenny - judging by feedback from those in attendance we’ve gone down ridiculously well in Kilkenny. Next thing is to find about 30,000 euro and take this baby of ours on tour in 2008 - any takers?

So much buzzing around my head for this past week, so much to do and write about having almost cut myself off completely from the online world, barring my Nokia E50 which was picking up Twitter / Jaiku SMS deliveries for the week. Note to self… don’t let the phone die out. I lost it for the bulk of one of the days this week (lost the use of it that is for not having one of the newer Nokia chargers in the theatre) and of course this resulted in a seriously scatty delivered of messages from Twitter which confused the hell out of me where I’d been monitoring certain discussions.

That said.. there’ll be a few reviews on the table, now that I’ve also added in the LouderVoice review plugin to Wordpress (which drives kenmc.com and all my other blogs).

These come in the form of

• Nokia E50 - purchased around ten days ago or so with the intention of allowing me follow twitter / jaiku and divide GPRS use away from main mobile.
• Nintendo Wii, which I’ve treated myself to after Cannibal! (no, not with theatre profits, more with cheering up and wanting to experience more interactive gaming).

and likely more besides.

Reality sinks in hitting the road to Waterford tomorrow morning bright and early before getting back to the office for around 10:30am to fight my way through a week’s worth of emails.

I sure will miss the show though….

The End Product Of A Theatrical Production Line

Cannibal! The Musical! which opens tonight is the latest end product off what has been a long production line running for The Devious Theatre Company of whom I am ‘Technical Director’. Where we have made efforts to make our job titles and job descriptions within the group quite refined and specific, when it all boils down to it you are the jack of all trades, similar I reckon in running any organisation where you’re a startup figure.

I’m on a week’s holiday from the office to concentrate on one of my other ventures and loves, the afore mentioned Devious Theatre Company which was established between myself and three others almost 18 months ago. In that period we’ve produced three shows, sold the rights to one, have become an arts-funded theatre group and have been able to drum up attention for ourselves in the local, regional and national press as well as regional airwaves (South East) thanks largely in part to our production of Trey Parker’s Cannibal! The Musical!

Opening tonight in the Watergate Theatre Kilkenny (and running until Saturday) means that myself and the rest of the DTC committee (or board) have been working quite literally around the clock to get the show to the a good state of readiness for tonight. EPKs were issued again on Monday, I did a radio interview with Beat 102-103 Monday evening which ran on the hour yesterday, props made and finished, set constructed and painting, lighting set - I spent the bulk of yesterday with the KilkennyMusic.com crew (great how all of these ventures have a connection to one another) organising the sound setup in the Watergate Theatre - programmes are being collected today, final touches being put to costumes, batteries replaced or charged for radio mics, front of house team organised, extra makeup being bought…. as I said - you are the jack of all trades. Well, we are the jack of all trades as no matter what our job title for the group, we’re doing it all…

Of course, its keeping me away from the blog for the bulk of the week as I’m sure as hell going to enjoy an extra hour or two in bed tomorrow morning. There’s a victory pint due in Cleere’s Theatre I’d say around 10:40 tonight (gives time to get out of makeup, costume, make notes ahead of tomorrow’s call) - victory at least in the sense that after 9 months of preproduction we’ve reached the opening night of one very large (and expensive) show and that much in itself for the core of us at DTC is a crowning achievement.

Right now, I’m off to collect some of the cast, make tracks for KCLR for an in-studio appearance around 11am. Streaming is available online at KCLR96FM.com (just beneath the ‘Under Construction’ sign). I will say though, the Twitter and Jaiku delivery via SMS is keeping me up-to-date with all the goings on. Might find the time to make a few tweets during the interval tonight

Finding Me Online Made Easier

Given that so many of us have online presences across various networks I’ve decided to add a little feature to the header of the blog, replacing my 468*60 AdSense text banner with shortcut icons (links) to my Twitter, Jaiku, Bebo, MySpace, Skype, Podcast and RSS feed.

I’m leaving out one or two links for the time being including Linked In (which I don’t really use at all) and Facebook (which I’m only recently getting into).

I should also note that the Sound System Podcast isn’t just from me, though in most cases I’m acting as the anchor for the show, but it is hosted by the KilkennyMusic.com team.

The icons do add a little splash of colour to the header don’t ya think?

On Holiday, Putting Work On Hold For A Week

About 5:40pm yesterday it dawned on me that I’m on holiday. Or I should say “on holiday”, knowing that the meaning is pretty much useless to me as it involves no travel, no sun, no breaks, nada. Now, the trip I’m lining up to Toronto in November - that will be a holiday - until then I’ll enjoy these few days.

I’m checked out of the office for a full week but trading one long day for another with the opening of Cannibal! The Musical to the public on Wednesday. Having the holiday from work means I get to put time into the last minute advertising, set construction, moving into the theatre, liasing with lighting designer, organising the technical aspects of the production, taking technical rehearsals, dress rehearsals, more meetings than you can shake a stick at while hopefully getting at least one extra hour in bed in the morning.

Even though its not a holiday in the traditional sense of the word I’ll promise you that I’ll still get as much enjoyment out of it. I take a lot of pride in my work and have a great sense of job satisfaction, something I think we all find when working for ourselves and while I leave the office behind for a week I’ll draw the same sense of satisfaction out of The Devious Theatre Company. There’s something to be said to taking to the stage and performing in front of an audience - whether in the business sense where you’re delivering a presentation (last week) or in the arts sense where you’ve got a few hundred people in front of you (says he in absolute hope) enjoying (again in hope) the work that you and the others on your team have created.

When everyone sitting down is enjoying it you can trust that we’re enjoying it more.

Toronto won’t be able to come soon enough for me, or will the first weekend of September (Electric Picnic weekend, me having sold my ticket in order to cut myself off in Sligo for a weekend) as a real holiday will be in dire need come the final curtain next Saturday night.

For now though, my bag is packed and I’m looking forward to a week under 20k lights, wearing some kind of stage makeup, prancing around pretending to build a snowman, getting shot in the face, and all that goes on in between…. and I wouldn’t trade it for any holiday in the sun.

40 Minutes Of Video Form Open Coffee Cork

I’ve been watching Conor O’Neill, Will Knott, Tom Raftery (who never tweets from his mobile), Conn Ó Muíneacháin and other talk up Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook and some of the spin-off conversation in the aftermath of yesterday’s DOCC.

Great point from Tom raised in relation to podcasting (about 15 minutes in), something I haven’t thought of when we’re recording the Sound System / One Take podcasts for KilkennyMusic.com. When you’re starting to record a poscast, release a tweet asking for questions, responding to them during the recording process. That would make certain sense to us anyway, bringing a live element - or at least an interactive element - to the podcasting process.

Nice going on the Q&A session as well, fielding questions from the chat window (as per Dublin yesterday).

Whatever about the streaming, having the cached video accessible after-the-fact is a great plus, something that was missing out of Dublin’s session yesterday. I’ve been gone from the office since 8 this morning but taking some time out for lunch it’s also nice to be able to drop in on the Coffee Club on my own time.

You can watch the footage here courtesy of Edgecast (Conn) - see the “past clips” section, it will be the first in the list..

A Devious Radio Advertisement

As some of you may know I’m directing (and appearing in) Cannibal! The Musical next week in Kilkenny. Given that we’re going all out on the promotion front (there should be severed bloody hands clutching press releases on various desks at Hot Press, The Irish Times, national and regional radio stations and more) with our press releases, posters, leaflets, costume walk abouts, the next thing to hit is the radio advertising which runs for the week of the show.

Yours truly was given the task of assembling the ad, 20 seconds in length which it turns out is due in the radio station (KCLR96FM, Kilkenny / Carlow) tomorrow morning for scheduling in next week’s calendar.

So with about an hour, a cup of tea, an SM58, a Xenyx 502 hooked into my Creative Audigy 2ZS card (recording on the PC) and a copy of Audition for some processing work I’ve banged out the following after a few rounds of various scripts and takes. Having the dual monitor setup - recording on one screen, reading script from other - pays off.

I will say one thing, it ain’t easy trying to squeeze loads of information into a 20 second clip.

Here’s the clip itself (or a take of it anyway)… If anyone is recording a podcast this week and wants to drop it into their show it’d be great. I’ll gladly return the favour on the next Sound System Podcast (this week’s one available from since yesterday).

The Devious Theatre Company - Cannibal! Radio Advert

Open Coffee Dublin Streaming Now

OpenCoffeeDublin now streaming live thanks to Eoghan McCabe.

Update: After a great Q&A session / round table discussion as people found their groove while on camera there’s a recap from Eoghan McCabe and some great notes from James Corbett to be found online. More of the same from Cork OC tomorrow?

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