In this episode, we talk about consumerism and the holidays. Obviously this is a hot topic as people responded quicker to this call for contributions than any other, and we received more contributions than any other episode.

This episode’s contributors include:
John Meadows of On the Log
Neil Gorman of Text Edit
The Scarborough Dude of DicksnJanes
Freelance Podcaster MMD
Shelly of Shelly’s Podcast
Cathie of Inspire-Ites (read by Sage Tyrtle of the QN Podcast)
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
and Michael Louis Johnson of Streets are for People and the New Kings

Music was provided by Reverend Billy, the Church of Stop Shopping Choir, and the Not Buying it Band

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In this episode we get back to our original format as four of us talk about their feelings about labels as applied to people. This episode’s contributors include:
Freelance Podcaster MMD
Daryl Cognito of Atomic Suburbia
Valerie of Description
and Sage Tyrtle of the QN Podcast

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First off: It has been almost a year but there is now an FAQ. Please have a look. The number one message I want to get out is this: We are welcoming of new contributors of all skill levels. All you need is an opinion and some recording equipment. If you haven’t participated yet, now’s your chance.

Second: I got a bit tired of the old theme. I realize this one isn’t quite it either but it’s a little brighter and what with winter coming along and along with it the winter blahs, I need some colour in my life.

Third: Commenting on episodes has been a little thin as of late and I’d love to know who is listening. My stats are showing a fair number of folks are downloading but as to who you are, if you’re enjoying it, or if there is anything you’d be interested in hearing talked about, I’ve not heard. I’m sure that our contributors would also love some feedback as well. Please be sure to comment! Let me know also if there is interest in a voicemail line for audio comments. If there is any interest, I’ll set up a number.

In this episode I explore adult rebellion with Toronto graffiti artist, Twelvefingers about why he does what he does, and some of his experiences making graffiti in the city.

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After a few interviews for this show I realized I actually really like doing interviews and so I have finally started another show. I have always wished someone would do a show introducing me to subway musicians and I realize now that if I want to find out about them I’m going to have to do it myself. And so, you can now listen to Underground Music over at Whole Wheat Radio. I’m shooting for one show a week and will post direct download links for each show after it is aired online. The first episode is now available for download. At this point there is not an RSS feed but depending on the preference, I can include it in this RSS feed or create a separate one for it…

Nearly everyone rebels to some extent during their teenage years. However, some folks continue to rebel well beyond their teenage years. In this episode I talk with Shamez Amlani of Streets are for People about what motivates him to keep rebelling as an adult.

Links mentioned inside:
Pedestrian Sundays
Critical Mass Takes the Gardiner
Urban Repair Squad

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Contributors included:
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
Paul Tyrtle
Rose of Ragamuffin Rosie’s
and Neil Gorman

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Contributors included:
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
The Scarborough Dude of the DicksnJanes podcast
Mark Blevis
Michelle Sullivan
Jean-François Blais of Le Bordel de Mer
Rob Lee of Unconventional Wisdom
Krash Coarse of the Oka Zoo
and Kristina Lively and Jim Milles of the Shadow and James show

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That visit changed my life by opening my eyes to what other options there might be. And I began to wonder – how others found out about the existence of options other than the mainstream. On a recent visit to the land, I talked to Kite and the other women about how they found out that there was a path other than that which their parents chose.

How about you? Are you living off the beaten path in some way? Care to share how you found your way there? Leave a note in the comments or send an audio comment!

Contributors included:

Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
Kiteweather of Living Dragon
as well as Barb, Paula, Badger, and Paul Tyrtle

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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Contributors included:

Betty and Krash of the Oka Zoo
Daniele of the Stuttering is Cool podcast
Franca
Katherine of Purl Diving
Jay Moonah
Rob Lee of Unconventional Wisdom
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
Valerie of Description

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
John Meadows of On the Log and
Scarborough Dude of DicksnJanes

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
Scarborough Dude of DicksnJanes
Andrea of Just One More Book
and Valerie of Description: Valerie in Toronto

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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In this episode, we get to hear about and sometimes participate in the commutes of five contributors.

This episode’s contributors include:
Krash Coarse of the Oka Zoo
Sage Tyrtle of the QN Podcast
Karen of Dry Shave
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
and Sean McGaughey of For the Sake of the Song

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
Krash Coarse of the Oka Zoo
Katherine Matthews of Purl Diving
and Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
John Meadows of On the Log
Krash Coarse of the Oka Zoo
Rob Lee of Unconventional Wisdom
and Bruce Murray of the Zedcast

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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I’m working on some new and interesting ways for new and experienced podcasters to join in. Stay tuned for details.

Come on over to the google group and join in the discussion. Don’t be shy – go ahead and introduce yourself and just dive in. We’re all friendly people and love to help new folks get started. All you need is a microphone and an opinion.

John Meadows provided Up a Hill by Plunkett

Katherine Matthews provided Too Long by Yael Naim

Valerie provided The Ambers with Since Grade 2

Rob Lee brought us Bad Religion with Supersonic

Krash Coarse gave us Moot with That Bad Mistake

and Todd Tyrtle provided an archived recording of Kiteweather, Sage Tyrtle, and Badger with Waterfall and I Walk Where I Will

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
Mark Blevis of markblevis.com
Valerie of the Description podcast
Scarborough Dude of DicksnJanes
Shelly of Shelly’s Podcast

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
Elizabeth Green Musselman of the Missing Link Podcast
Maureen Blaseckie of Baba’s Beach
Katherine Matthews of Purl Diving

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
Scarborough Dude of the DicksnJanes podcast
Shelly of Shelly’s Podcast
Dave Brodbeck of the Broca’s Area podcast
John Meadows of On the Log

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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Here are some details:
Date of first recording: March 20 (Feel free to fudge the day a little if it is easier to cook on the weekend)
Definition of local: I’ll leave that up to you but be reasonable.
Duration: 5-10 minutes has been par for the course
Format: 160 KBPS mp3 or better. Alternately those who are unable to record audio may provide text submissions – I can find a reader for you.
And then what? If you’re a member of the ning site, join the “Local Eating Four Part Episode” group and post your audio there attached to a forum message. If not, go ahead and join the ning site. Text contributors can email their contributions.

Please RSVP in the comments below (or in the ning group if you prefer) so I can guess at the length of the episode and assess the interest in the idea.

I’ll be joining as long as I can find a source for local food (I’ll be out of town that day).

The Talking Stick podcast isn’t really going exactly the way I had hoped. Not in terms of the content – the contributions have been spectacular. But more like the lack of content. While there has been a great deal of enthusiasm by some, and no shortage of members in the contibutors’ group, the contributions are not coming in as I had expected. Some episodes have been started and fizzled out (so far), while others spend weeks with each contributor. (Before you contributors start sending me hate mail – I do realize you have lives. This is me saying not “you suck” but “Hmmm – my expectations and reality are not matching. I wonder how to make this different.” which may well result in my changing those expectations because they are unrealistic). I had also hoped to see more people starting their own threads but there have been only a couple of those so far.

I realized as I was thinking about this that much of the issue may well have to do with the fact that there’s a lot of general confusion in the group as to what it is we’re actually doing and how we’re doing it. There are still people who are unclear as to how the process works, what the rules are, and the logistics. And I realized, that aside from a relatively incoherent facebook message to a handful of you, I never really shared my vision for what this would be and how it would work.

So the story goes like this. Back in November I was at Uncommon Grounds, a cool little café in the west end of Toronto where some folks were talking about the environment. I couldn’t help but interject (and people who have met me will be shocked as in groups I am rarely one to talk at all with people I KNOW let alone total strangers. So anyway we got to chatting for a while and one of the people at the table enthusiastically mentioned that he’d love to make a podcast where people just met in the café and talked about a particular subject. The podcast would be edited minimally and posted as-is. By the end of the conversation we were pretty excited – they didn’t have any recording equipment, we had an H4 and the knowhow. I passed on my email address and waited for the podcasting to begin. And you guessed it. Nothing happened. I never heard a thing, didn’t have an address to respond to and so it ended there. Except now here I was with all this excitment about an idea that wasn’t going to even happen. (more crass readers can insert the appropriate metaphor here) And then it occurred to me: I didn’t have to do this with that group of people. I could tap into a group of people who I knew had interesting things to say.

Background bit number two (believe me, there is a point to this). While Sage and I were living at the yurt I became very interested in egalitarian intentional communities. I loved the idea behind the lack of hierarchy and the building of consensus in order to make decisions. In fact, had things played out only slightly differently, the Quirky Nomads podcast would probably be being recorded as we speak in a commune in the Ozarks.

The two ideas combined have brought me to where we are today. I have this idea for a podcast in which everyone participates on equal ground. There is no leader, though some seem to think I am, I really am not fond of that “position” – I’m the guy who edits the podcasts, starts and contributes to episodes just like anyone else. I am also the one who occasionally bugs you if you are late with your audio but really I even hate that part as I understand how life happens and people have their issues to deal with and really don’t need to be bugged about the audio they’re late with. That’s what happens at day jobs and that’s what I’m trying to avoid here. Really, if I could set up an automated reminder to do it for me I’d be eternally grateful as receiving a notification from a computer saying “oops did you forget” conveys nothing unintended emotionally.

But I’m getting off the subject. I’m writing this because I am stuck. I have some ideas and I am not really sure how to turn them into reality because I am running into a number of roadblocks. While in my work life (and even in my non-work life as Sage will attest) I am the one who figures out stuff like this, I am at a loss. Any assistance you can give will help tremendously.

Problem number one: Participation, or lack thereof. At the moment I have 34 contributors in the group (and would love more) but as yet have 4 episodes underway. I had originally hoped to have an addition to each episode once per week or two at the most but some are really languishing for weeks with one episode having been started in mid-December. If we got back on track and people were punctual with contributions we’d have about a month before we’re tapped dry. Really to make a weekly podcast (is this even attainable here?) someone needs to start a new thread every week. I can’t do this myself, and really I don’t want to. I like the fact that different participants give a different flavour to the episodes. So the take-away question here is: How do we start and keep content flowing?

Problem number two: There seems to be lack of clarity in the “rules”. Probably this is due largely to the fact that I haven’t clearly defined them and at the beginning that was intentional. I don’t really want to stifle creativity. If I say “No episodes over 20 min” or “please talk for 3-5 minutes per subject” I think I would lose a lot. Like it or not, most of us were educated in schools where an authority figure dictated how we were to create and some of us continue to work in environs where our creativity is assigned to us on sometimes a daily basis. I feel like maybe I’ve tossed a bunch of art supplies a room and said “Here are some great supplies. Everyone work together and make something really cool.” But maybe I need to say “Here are some cool art supplies. Make something on a 9 x 12 canvas that describes how you feel right this minute.” While avoiding going so far as “Here is a piece of paper and some crayons. Everyone draw a picture of Montreal.” Take away question here is: Is the lack of “rules and an authority figure preventing people from participating? If so, do we need rules, then?

Problem number three: Technology is being a royal pain in the ass. Everyone is really social-networked out. Finding a platform for everyone to work and participate in has been a process and I’ve already changed it once. Facebook worked great at first but provided no facility for uploading content, no good means for letting people know when discussion threads were being responded to, and a platform that for privacy reasons many potential contributors were opposed to joining. Ning was a good solution but has been of limited use probably because for many contributors on facebook, they aren’t checking ning all the time. Question here: Are we using the right platform for our collaboration?

Problem number four: Uploading and passing the stick. I think if ning is the right platform and starts being used this might be solved by the file attachment thing and simply notifying others that it is their turn. Question: Anyone have any good ideas for handling transferring files?

Final Problem (I’ve ranted enough): More of a question. Is the format working for you? Does the “one person starts” followed by another who passes it on to someone they choose and so forth working in your opinion? There are some who are concerned that it might result in some exclusion of others, and in some cases it might lead to certain people being chosen over others. Question: Is there another method (free for all: “I just recorded this – eveyrone respond who has an opinion, for example) that would work better in your opinion?

So I’ve just ranted at you for about an hour (by my clock) about what I think isn’t working. However, the reason I am writing this at all is that I am frustrated because the content that has come out has been so good, I don’t want to see the whole group of us podfade. I mean really – 34 people folks! There must be 3-5 of you inspired enough at any one time to make an episode happen in the course of 4-6 weeks, yes?

So let me close with what is my vision for this since I realize I never actually shared it with anyone:

In my life I am a problem solver and an enabler. In many cases (both at work and at home) I come up with ideas and then other people either help me develop them or develop them themselves without me involved. I want to see this become the same sort of thing. I want to see this become a community run egalitarian podcast that follows the whim of the masses. In an ideal world, much of the stick passing (hell, even the editing would be automated or even taken on in a rotating basis. Perhaps the person who comes up with the idea shepherds it through the process, edits it and posts it (I can certainly add folks to this wordpress site easily enough!). People with or without podcasting experience could contribute either by PC submission, telephone, or text – the point is that they’re heard. I dream of seeing this project develop a life of its own. There has been no shortage of folks who are really enthused about the idea but the question is, how do we get from great idea to regular content?

Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes brought Josh Woodward’s Incoherent
Katherine Matthews of Purl Diving brought Kou Chou Ching and Civil Revolt Part 1
Sylvain Grand’Maison of Le Quebec en Baladodiffusion brought Amplifico
Ted Riecken of Island Podcasting brought us Young Galaxy with Swing your Heartache

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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Feel free to leave an audio comment or make your own contribution at 206-202-3235.

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This episode’s contributors include:
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
Daryl Cognito of Atomic Suburbia.

Yes, only two of us this week as I was a bit long-winded and we hit the 25 min mark (a sort of unofficial target I have) after only two. Good news is that this one should continue in future episode(s)

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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This episode’s contributors include:
Mark Blevis of markblevis.com
Tim Coyne of the Hollywood Podcast
Sage Tyrtle of Quirky Nomads
Adam Gratrix of Suburban Transpondency.

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

Feel free to leave an audio comment or make your own contribution at 206-202-3235.

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This episodes contributors include:
Jim Kloss of Whole Wheat Radio
Katherine Matthews of the Purl Diving podcast
Rob Lee of Unconventional Wisdom
Chris Sherry of Kaflooey

Theme music was by Josh Woodward

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Feel free to leave an audio comment or make your own contribution at 206-202-3235.

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This episodes contributors include:
Todd Tyrtle of Quirky Outtakes
Maureen Blaseckie of the Baba’s Beach podcast
Tim Ralphs of the Room Behind the Bookcase podcast
Brenda Dayne of Cast-on

Music was “Kiss Me One More Time” by Larry Murante used with permission. Theme music was by Josh Woodward

Feel free to leave an audio comment or make your own contribution at 206-202-3235.

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