Podcast Amnesty Week

Every year I check into my Podcast subscriptions. Some are dropped and some stay. Here is my short-list of Podcasts that are in constant rotation on the dolish.com ipod. The '$' dollar sign indicates they have been renewed for another year of donations.

1. No Agenda $
By far the most listened to and most valuable Podcast on my RSS feed. The Podfather himself Adam Curry and Tech veteran John C. Dvorak (otherwise knows as Crackpot and Buzzkill) dish out the news mainstream media doesn't have the time (intelligence) to report. These guys watch C-Span for you, and look deep into the About pages of American Healthcare, H1N2 Flu, the Recession, Genetically Modified Foods and even the odd UFO story. Unlike late-nite fave Coast To Coast, this is an intelligent review of the real news countered with the "Real News" mainstream media wants you to know. They take the time to explain the backstory, and take a lot of time to make the connections for you. I particularly enjoy their reluctance to use the term "Conspiracty Theory" rather, simply, "Marketing." No one seems to be talking about how Big Pharma lost a lot of money on the last "Bird Flu" and they won't let that happen again this time. But Adam and John do. The manufacturers of the swine flu vaccine are going to make a fortune after a less-than-stellar couple of years. A must donate.

2. This Week in Tech $
Down from number one last year, Leo Laporte and the gang offer relevant and intelligent tech news. It's become a bit more chatty/gossipy with a bit less meat. But Leo keeps the show together and I am sure to listen to each episode religiously.

3. Jordan Jesse Go! $
Absolutely irreverant and hilarious comedy podcast produced by the talented Jesse Thorne and Jordan Morris. Apparently every episode involved masturbation and video games, so if you go in expecting a level of humour at that level you will be surprised with the added layer of intelligent and appreciateive guests.

4. The Sound of Young America $
Also produced by Jesse Thorne in his apartment, this podcast is a more subdued interview show with guests that are of interest to Jesse and him alone. It's a hit or miss affair, but provides deep insight into the creative process.

5. CBC Radio 3
Host Grant Lawrence must be a nice guy, but his voice delivery on the Podcast is really starting to annoy me. It would be off the list, except for the fact that the playlist absolutely offers the zeitgeist of modern Canadian indie music.

6. NPR All Songs Considered
Along the same theme as Radio 3, All Songs offers a more global look at interesting music. More often than not, the playlist has a healthy dose of Canadian indie music. Check out the ancillary All Songs concert feed if you want more.

7. Luxology Modcast
On the cusp of popular interest is the modo Podcast hosted by Luxology CEO Brad Peebler. His extremely casual tone introduces me to the cool new features of my favourite modelling app modo. Very geeky and lots of fun.

8. Adam Carolla Show
This nearly daily hour plus show is better than what Howard Stern could have done five years ago when he became disenfranchised with terrestrial media. Carrola is burning through severance with his previous employer and doing what everyone in Hollywood apparently wants to do: sit in a garage and talk about shit for free. His guest have run the gamut of Bob Odenkirk, Mike Tyson, Adam Sandler, and other comedy and Hollywood greats. The week of this post he interviewd one of my heroes Dave Thomas. I hope it's a good interview.

9. Digital Detroit Radio
Finally, poor Matt may have burned out, but the archive of DDR episodes are still relevant and offer some excellent examples of indie new wave tracks. Matt if you're listening: your friends are begging for more!!! Add a donate box - you might be surprised with the results from your fans. Even though your releases have slowed to a trickle, your show is worthy of staying on my list.

"Disney Presents: The Animation Studio for Amiga", or, "Tech Support Before the Internet"

I was reading a Facebook status update from Charles Blaqière about the demise of his Imagine3D for Amiga discs and books.

I dealt with a crate of AmigaOS floppies last year and resigned to sending them to landfill. I spared the Amiga200 and A3000 a similar fate, and I have an impressive shelf dedicated to my Amiga books on animation, programming and design.

One of the cases I'm most impressed with was the software box for the one and only Disney authorized animation creation software, aptly titled "Animation Studio". It's the kind of jewel that the true animation and Amiga fans at Disney obviously snuck through the system in the late 80's. The software was a celebration of animation in the purest form. It supported onion skinning, flipping back and forth, standard colour palettes for ease of skin tone updates, a rudimentary ink-and-paint department, etc. Even the layout of the software was designed to support the idea of the studio: storyboards, then keyframes, the in-between, then ink and paint, and finally a dope sheet that allowed for frame holds and loops of finished artwork. And of course, the Amiga supported video out which allowed you to output frames in real time to tape which was an incredible innovation in the day.


The manual was most incredible: it is a condensed version of the seminal "The Illusion of Life", offering thoughts on the entire animation process with an ominous tiny final chapter, "Computer Animation" which consisted of a few words along with a black and white photo of an animation printer hooked up to a Cray supercomputer.

But it wasn't all great; it seems in the winter of 1990 I had a problem with the Exposure Sheet. Remarkably, I grabbed a pencil and paper and wrote down my problem, then went to the post office and mailed the question in to Disney Software in Burbank California. Several weeks later, I received a response:



Kids: this is how we did tech support before the Internet!!!!!

Oh wait, in the last paragraph he did give me the Disney 300-9600bps BBS (note the handshake protocol 8, N, 1). I recall the line was always busy! :)

I'm amazed this is how things were done just a few years ago, and more impressed that I had the sense to keep this piece of history. It's safely tucked away in my manual of Disney Presents, and has become all the more valuable in the process.

And if you're reading this Mike Weiner, drop me a line. In the month between my letter and yours I figured out the problem! :) It would be great to catch up.

Now all I need to find is my copy of Jim Butterfield's, "Machine Language for the Commodore 64 and other Commodore Computers".

Michigan Central Station Adventure (part 1)

To view the trailer for "Depot" click here.

Growing up in Windsor, I've often wondered about the hulking structure just north of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan. It wasn't until the Internet when I was able to conduct searches of what I knew about the building and piece it all together. And since then, I've been obsessed with viewing any images or scarce video I could find of the place. I dreamed of an opportunity to photograph it myself in high quality, somewhat better than cameraphone safaris I've taken in the past.

You can read about the history of the magnificent building on Wikipedia, but suffice to say the world's tallest train station was a grand structure upon it's completion in 1913, and has come to symbolize many frustrated Detroiter's views on local politics and urban decay.

When Detroit City Council decided to appropriate Federal 'stimulus' money to demolish the building as soon as within a month, I raced to action.

Two people immediately came to mind to join me. I would be taking some expensive gear into the building and needed a posse.

I've known Mir Lada from our time at Ryerson's Photo Arts program, and he's gone on to become one of Canada's top photographers. You can visit Mir's site here. He knew about the building and photographed the exterior on a recent trip to Chicago.

Our other member of the team was Chris Barnes, who has picked up on my love of urban decay through Facebook and commented on a number of posts involving abandoned buildings and cities.

With a team firmly assembled it was time to secure a guide. Within minutes of posting a "help wanted" ad of craigslist.org, we had dozens of responses. Interested guides included college girls, a teacher, a paranormal advisor, and a local filmmaker who shot a segment for current.tv a few years ago and had a quality segment to show for it. With Brad we found our guide.

The trip to Detroit was quick and enjoyable. Having made that drive hundreds of times to visit family in Windsor and Detroit, I am very familiar with the route. It's also second nature to me to bring lots of ID (especially with the passport requirements changing June 1 2009), but I guess Chris didn't get that memo! At the border, all he had was a birth certificate, which got us a trip to a holding area for clearance.

The border agents were curt at best, but once they realized we were all photographers just hoping to take some pictures, one of the agents whispered under his breath, "I'm a photographer too, watch out at night". With that, we were back on the road, our orifices intact.

A word of caution: if you're entering another country as a photographer and in an immigration holding area, avoid using the word "shoot" as I did.

After clearing customs, it was a quick three minute drive to the base of the Station. We piled out of the car and pressed up against the razor wire, enjoying a spectacular sunset and total solitude. If it wasn't for the crack whore passing by on her way to 'the ho-down' I would say we were pretty much on our own. And yes, I had to look it up, there was in fact a downtown Detroit 'ho-down' happening at the same time as our trip.

After a quick survey of the building, we headed downtown to check into our hotel. The Book-Cadillac has a storied past and was slated for demolition no less than two times in recent years. But $180M has created a hotel that is nothing short of a modern wonder. In fact, perhaps a bit too modern judging by the 42" plasma screen and double-sized bathroom. But the exterior is stunning and the neighbourhood surrounding Washington Blvd. is showing tremendous signs of positive energy. There are of course office towers that sit completely empty with trees growing on the roof, if you care to look up. The city is certainly a place of contrast, which makes for an interesting adventure.

After a refreshing late-night dinner in Mexicantown, we headed back to the hotel to check our batteries, clean our lenses, and try to get some sleep. We had a 9AM call time with our guide and we didn't want to be late.

To view the trailer for "Depot" click here.

In the next chapter, a "Soul Food" breakfast, the Obama calming effect, getting inside and almost not getting back out.

Also, a detailed look at the innovative gear and tech we brought in to document the building.