The Oral Tradition trumps DRM

A little fuss brewing over at the EFF (and now Boing Boing) over the Digital Rights Management of a training book put out by Memletics. Apparently, the buyer's name, phone number, and credit card info are printed throughout the book as a means of preventing unauthorized pass-along. It struck me, though: If your memory is as improved after reading the book as Memletic claims, you should be able to memorize large sections of the book and pass them along orally.

Soundscapes from someone else's life

My new DIY cultural hero is Yuko Nexus6 (though she's been formally "discovered" for close to a decade now). She popularized the idea of "kotatsu top" computer music, and she's become known for comparing the computer to the electric guitar (especially for folks with no musical training).

While Yuko Nexus6 does create what most people would regard as "music," her work ultimately revolves around cut-up and manipulated sounds from everyday life. (There's a good example of her recent work at WFMU). And to this end, in addition to her official recorded work (available through the French Japanese music label, Sonore), she has been keeping an audio blog at a Japanese podcast service provider (now podcast.jp, used to be easy.dedio.jp). Unlike the average English language audio blog, which features a lot of talking, she just records the sounds around her--sometimes her conversations, but often not. This can be pleasantly disorienting with headphones, as you are essentially living in her soundspace for short periods of time.

Good podcast: Daily Sonic

Daily Sonic: A very college radio-like audio magazine, found it via an ad on Boing Boing. Some silliness (pointedly meaningless robot skit), but enthusiastic and informed music and art pieces, and assorted interesting stuff. A good model for other folks to follow.

Gone podcasting...

I'm trying to create a unit on podcasting for one of my classes, so I'm in the midst of experimenting with the process right now. And it is taking a lot of time. I think my years working in radio have made me a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these sorts of things. Why is it that even though I like the roughness and unedited quality of other people's podcasts, I find it impossible to just wing it when it comes to my own? (BTW, the topic of the podcast will probably surprise you).

Free Sounds!

At the Freesound Project. (Requires registration/acceptance of Creative Commons License terms). Among the many free sound effects sites on the web, this is the only one that doesn't make me feel it's feeding me spyware... And it supports a community of like-minded sound fanatics.
More.
Looks like people are geotagging their field recordings (to Google Earth) and remixing each other's sounds.

Ick! Tastes markety!

Boing Boing points to yet another use of the so-called "blog" in marketing, this one for Juicy Fruit gum. And Wired, a couple of months ago, points to a bunch of "corporate-speak" podcasts, such as the abominable GM "Fastlane Radio" ("like sharing a room in hell with a car salesman.")

Is it so hard to conjure authentic human voices? My thinking is, yes, especially in marketing contexts, "authenticity" is actually a tough performance to pull off. It's much easier to stay in the safe genre of marketing speak--it's what everyone around you is using, so why not you too? (Which is why I wince, but I understand, when students deliberately incorporate a "cheese factor" into their ads--it's how ads are "supposed" to sound, after all...)

New Advertising Podcasts

Well, new and kind of new. The first, the Advertising Show (limits of which I discussed a while ago), is now offering mp3 downloads, and apparently gearing up for an iTunes podcast feed. And the show I listened to in my car today featured Joe Jaffe, who is also the host of a brand new podcast with new media PR guy Steve Rubel, Across the Sound. Both worth a listen, though I wish the Ad Show would include chapters so I could skip directly to the interview segments...

Maps!

Map lovers rejoice! David Rumsey has a treasure waiting for you. (via IT Conversations podcast--a little frustrating because he discusses maps you can't see!). Apparently, Rumsey is working with Google Earth to do some historical overlays.

Good podcast: Open Source

Sleepless nights have made for a rather full exploration of the podcast space. I'm a little embarassed to admit it, but the ones I keep returning to are ones that might be regarded as establishment podcasts: professionally written and produced and/or featuring certified experts: such as the BBC Documentary Archive, IT Conversations, On the Media, and the Gillmor Gang. (I am also enjoying the evolution of American Copywriter). But the one I listen to first is now Christopher Lydon's Open Source.

I used to tune into the Connection when Lydon was host, though I only listened in the car and thus never heard a full program. The Open Source podcast is a smaller but more complete dose. I'm also not tapped into the blog aspect of the project (though now I'm tempted to). But what I appreciate about the program, and what makes it different from many talk radio shows, is how strictly topic-oriented it is, and how the guests chosen to discuss the topic are so perfect--not just articulate but enthusiastic enough about the topic that they really seem to care what their counterparts are saying. Case in point: last week's show about Walt Whitman in which Robert Pinksy, John Hollander, and Rosanna Warren have the kind of animated and educated discussion of Whitman that most of us never have a chance to overhear.

On the other hand, the role of "the caller" seems to be downplayed on the show, and I'm not sure that's so bad. Which raises the question whether blogging/podcasting as such are more about democratic conversation itself, or allowing average folks to a wider range of educated, expert commentary.

Oh-no-I'm-not-breathing-again-blues (I've got the)

A month later, I'm still a wreck, but in a different more frustrating way. I seem to be recovering--I'm getting my strength back, I think--but every day features some stunning step backwards. For example, last night, after a pretty good day, I suddenly found that swallowing turned off my breathing. Obviously, I didn't actually stop breathing (a consolation I feel every morning--hey I'm still here!), but something in my body didn't want me to take in air.

So a little detective work and a new emerging narrative--trying to piece all these symptoms together.

The onset of this a month ago was very bad, and I haven't felt quite as awful since--muscles completely stiffened up, dizziness, nausea. Could have been a virus, stress, exhaustion, dehydration, whatever. But what it did was trigger a range of secondary problems, the most acute being GERD (in marketing language, "Acid reflux")and TMJ (I spent about two weeks with my jaws clenched together). Either GERD or TMJ could account for my swallowing issues (I have the notorious TMJ tongue-thrust swallow) and TMJ is well known for spreading problems throughout the nervous system. My doctor suggests I have a hiatal hernia and am probably predisposed to GERD but taking (the evil) ibuprophen triggered a severe case (waking up choking on stomach acid). But what about the breathing?

Here's some notes from a website I've decided to trust.

The throat (including the vocal cords) and the airways of the lungs are (un) able to stand up to the acidity of gastric secretions. Swelling around the vocal cords produces not only a hoarse voice but also spasm of the cords and a frightening narrowing of the air passage into the lungs. This may result in difficulty taking air into the lungs...

The other mechanism of GERD that leads to breathing difficulties is probably one that is designed to be protective. When acid escapes the stomach by backing up into the esophagus, a nerve reflex is stimulated, perhaps signaling the airways of the risk of subsequent acid reflux into the lungs. In order to protect against this event, the airways narrow. While this likely protects against acid aspiration into the lung, it also produces shortness of breath due to the constricted airway.

Now why would swallowing cause this? It seems when I dry swallow I take in a lot of air. This air comes right back up (a burp, you know), and must be a trigger for the defensive reaction. Add that my normal hayfever problems this time of year and the panic of my air passages shrinking and, well, I stop breathing.

So that's my story. How's that for warding off hypochondria!