AudioMo - Just One More Thing...

A few more words about detective resources:

The Thrilling Detective - excellent for all things sleuthing in literary or media form.

Murder, She Watched - deep in the whozit and whatsit for Jessica Flecture fans and also has a lot of info about television detectives.

The Columbophile Blog - lots of folks hugging their inner raincoated detective. 

 

AudioMo Day 27 McCloud

Continuing on the theme of a detective out of his or her element, 

McCloud was part of the NBC Mystery Movie of the Week along with McMillian and Wife and Columbo.

   

 This is #AudioMo, an 30-day international challenge of sound and community. This is my captioned audio about the TV detectives before Columbo. 

 For more info about AudioMo, please visit https://audiomo.vivaldi.net/2024/03/11/what-is-audiomo/

AudioMo Day 26 The Two Mark Sabers

There is a bit of transatlantic confusion. There is the Mark Saber from the UK that work with a U.S. police department. 

Then there is the Mark Saber from London who is an independent private investigator who takes on hard to solve cases. 

In this version, he has a Canadian fellow doing a lot of the leg work. 

   

 This is #AudioMo, an 30-day international challenge of sound and community. This is my captioned audio about the TV detectives before Columbo. 

 For more info about AudioMo, please visit https://audiomo.vivaldi.net/2024/03/11/what-is-audiomo/

AudioMo for 2024

Hi. It has been awhile. 

I'm participating in #AudioMo which is a 30-day challenge of using sound and audio. 

I wanted to create something for deaf, hard of hearing and speakers of other languages. So I have something that I call captioned audio.

Last year I did comic books.

This year it is television detectives before Columbo.

This is the explainer I did to hopefully make it clear to folks what I am doing. Not a lot of people watched it but you do what you can.

Lusting After Duck Fat

It has been a while. I have to re-learn how to do this and convince myself this is what I should do.

Not that I don't want to blog. I do.

But being sucked up into the vortex of information makes it seem like other people's stuff is so much better than your own. 

It isn't. It is just different.

And the time thing. Other things I should be doing that I don't because I'm not good at them.

And when Mr. Toxification came to town, (No, not that guy, the other guy), it made it easier to break free. But I haven't. More like easing my way out. 

Because I have real life and virtual friends in the joint.

Anyway, this is about Duck Fat.

I was messing around Woot. Which I should not do because I get frustrated.

Epic Rendered Duck Fat found on Woot.com

Duck fat is expense. But it is also dang tasty.

Especially on fries.

Being a birth frugalista, it is hard for me to justify buying a jar of duck fat. And lord have I tried to crowbar a reason to buy some duck fat.

Most of the time, the price helps keep me away from it. Usually sells for at least $18 to $20 plus dollars.

But on the day I'm typing this, it is as close to affordable as it is going to get.

I should do this.

• It taste good.
• I could put it on brussels sprouts and broccoli. I need help getting them down my throat.
• I'll never find it cheaper.
• Potatoes!

I shouldn't do this. 

• I've never cooked with it before.
• I'm not supposed to have potatoes on a regular basis.
• It is the lust for the deal, not the value of the deal. Except it does have a value.

So, one of two things will happen. 

I will fret on this all day and not buy it.

Or.

I will buy it and then chastise myself that this might be or not be a good thing to do.

Neither one of those methods are healthy. But it is what I got at the moment.

AudioMo and a Single Picture Audio Text Video

I was pleased with the audio text video. But I wanted more. Not much more. Because some of the things to share really need an image. 

Or maybe me taking the time to figure out how to descript a very visual image.

That time thing is tough.

Yes, you can talk about comic book in a purely audio format. You can talk about the history, the cultural force that affect them and much more.

But what if the comic book character in question was not popular?

Almost everyone has their vision of Batman, even if they have never touched or seen the comic book.

But what about the being known as Fantomah? I can describe her literally being two faced but taking a look at a bit of a cover image saves a lot of time.

This version was created using a service called Headliner. You can upload the audio and image. They will do the transcription and then combine all into a audio-Text video with an image.

I know there are spelling mistakes. I made a poor choice of background and text color. On Twitter it is much smaller so it is hard to read.

Conceptually, it work.

But it doesn't.

But it does.

Figuring Out AudioMo and Audio Text Recordings.

It has been a while since my last post. Pandemics. Social and political upheavals. Embedded stupidity.

Parts of me want to zoom and go. Other parts just need a refrigerator and a blanked and let the world go by.

For the past twelve years in June, audio blogging aka AudioMo has been happening on Twitter. I've enjoyed listing and every once in a while plunk a recording up.

This year I wanted to participate. It had been such a long time since I've done any group participation type stuff. And I can talk about what I want.

That is usually stuff nobody else in their right or left mind wants to talk about.

Sooo, I'm mindful that audio recording shuts a lot of people out of voice communication. People have been taking about it for years.  Problem is that on the consumer level, software and technology did not make it easy to do open or closed captions to audio. 

Still hasn't really.

So this is a work around is to use audio with open captions in a video. Not a talking head video with captions.

An audio recording with text transcribed on the screen.

For example: a brief take on the 1938 Superman and the need for heroes and superheroes.

I created the video using a company called Descript. It is a service that provides transcription services, some light audio editing and the ability to take two minutes of audio and create a podcast text video clip aka an audiogram.

It does a lot more but I am still learning how to use it.

It works well. But the standard plan only allows for two minutes of text video.

This is both a good and bad thing

I can upload to Twitter and Bob's your uncle, I have an accessible audio recording.

It maintains the spirit of an audio recording. Those that can't turn on the volume or are not native English speakers a way to check out the action.

Work in progress but it is a start.

Lois Lane and 2020. It has been a journey.

When I was a kid and could find enough soda bottles to buy a comic or two, I'd search for the good ones first, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or Batman. If they were gone then I'd pick up a Superman.  If he was gone and I'd really need a fix then I'd pick up Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane.  (There were also the torn cover days. In that case, I'd stock up on the annuals.)

Her prime motivation in the early sixties was to marry Supes by any means necessary. Or marry some other man to "settle".  Only to be metaphorically slapped in the face by a man, alien, or robot that lied to her.  

Toward the late sixties she got a brain, backbone and became her own person. Actually dated other people. Decided to live on her own terms and those did not necessarily include Supes.

Still did dumb stuff but Lois began to evolve as a person, a capable reporter.

Here I am in 2020. Press has been and continues to be a target by the 45th administration and opportunistic crackpots. 

Not saying there isn't an issue with corporate media romping around as journalism. Or pundits pretending to be journalists. Or some (way too many) actually trained journalists not doing their job.

We need reporters and journalists. We really do.

This is a DC graphic novel of a twelve part comic book series.

There are concerns. Still being written by male people. Truly find the cover on the fair right un-appealing.

But here we are, In an alternative universe, journalism is a super power.

In memory of going downtown

 It has been awhile. Lots of stuff happening and not happening.

So, cleaning out some stuff and found some old photos from one of many food festivals that I attended.

I hope that I don't forget what it is like. Or have a permanent fear of being around people.

Well, maybe for the time being that is a wise fear to have. 

Seeing how some folks are packing their Hummers for visits to places they got no reason to be.

Anyway, just a simple video. No words, just memories.

We, As Americans, Are Responsible to Know The Truth

It has been too long and I'm not happy about it. I'm deep into the Anxiety Road podcast trying to lay down information that can be useful. That sucker + a work week + doing other stuff makes for a lonely blog.

But I do want to put this item into place so that it can be found six months or six years from now.

You see, I recently saw a video of a speaker having a roomful of white Americans recite that they are not responsible for the actions of their ancestors, that they have nothing to be ashamed about and are proud to be who they are in this space and time.

Before you can disclaim responsibility you have to know what your ancestors did to native people, Africans, Asians, Latino/Hispanic people and a whole bunch of other folks.

You have to know what you are trying to separate yourself from, and when you do understand what your ancestors did then you might feel a little twitchy about what is going on right now with some of your peers.

Now there are reprints of the magazine from NYT but that shipping cost is twice the cost of the magazine. Not to worry. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has the magazine posted as a pdf and other educational materials to aid in your education.

For those of you that would like to listen to the content there is an audio series by NYT being delivered by podcast at https://www.nytimes.com/column/1619-project

The second part; they have nothing to be ashamed about.

Dude and Dudette, if you are an American citizen, you need to understand this is a shameful part of our collective history. When you take on being an American whether by birth or choice, you take on part of the shame, no matter who you are. These are fact that cannot be smudged away with with emotional feel good blinders.

Now I know that there are folks that do not cotton to reading. Not to worry. There is a podcast for your alternative access to information.




NPR interviews Nicole Hanna Jones on the 1619 Project.


As to the third item. I can't speak to that.

So yeah, I'm gonna dive in because I know I have culturally induced patches in my historical education. And I am still and American, unless somebody starts messing with an amendment and then yeah, we'll have a situation or two if that happens.

Don't let it happen. 

Fighting the Fear Bots Anyway I Can

So, a FB friend posed something and somebody reported it and it was removed.

Happens everyday.

Happens to people I know and care about.

And it doesn't mater if it was a bot or a human censor; this was her page, her post and somebody didn't like it and had it removed.

I'm going to set a photocopy of it right here.

So it doesn't get lost again.

Now to me this is more like announcing water is wet. But not everybody understands the concept of water. When you do understand then you want to tell somebody.

Messing Around With Pixlr X and Fastcut and This is What I Got

I had a bunch of old photo that I never threw away but didn't know what to do with them. Time marched on and I have Fastcut on my computer and access to the newer quick photo editor Pixlr X.




Now, the thing is that bothers me is that I had limited input. I did pick the photos.

I changed some of the aspect ratios, rotated or colored the images.

But the animation is based on the music. Change the music and you have a different animation style and effects. That can render a different video each and every time.

Still, I can see some uses for this and I am delighted that Autodesk is replacing the original Pixlr Express.

Being Dragged to Pleasantville Against My Will

Trying to make sense of a different reality. Sometimes you have to look back to see a forward path. Or maybe I'm grasping at anything to help me understand why this has happened.

Once upon a time there was a 1998 movie called Pleasantville. A modern young man is fixated on a television show from the 1950's called Pleasantville.

This is the trailer for the movie.





It is a good movie and even though the trailer telegraphs the movie I still recommend it being seen.

But back to why I think it is relevant.

I kept hearing during the election that people want  to take their country back. What if they meant back to Pleasantville?

A time where you did not have to consider the other. There was no other?

No African Americans
No Latinix
No Asians
No LGBTQA
No other places, no other countries, nothing but themselves and each other.

You would have a class system.
You would have strictly defined culture roles
You would have permanent employment.

And all would be right with your world.
Because it would be a simple place.
A simple time.

So I heard people saying take American back, make it great again.

Back when? Who is included?

In Pleasantville, not me.

Not ever me.

But you say that is just a movie. I'm making too much of this. I have no proof of 21 century people wanting to return back to the 1950's.

Well, I kinda sorta do.

I can post a photos of people showing up at a veteran' parade in Petaluma, CA with the Confederate flag. I won't post it here.

I could point to the KKK parade planned for December 4, 2016 in North Carolina to celebrate the election of P45 not to mention the resurgence of their participation in mainstream society. Or I could point you to the one in Anaheim, CA.

I could ask a friend or two that moderate comment message boards how much hate speech has increased since the election. A lot. A whole freaking lot.

I could post news articles about the increase in racial profiling and attacks on elementary, high school and college campuses.

But facts and empirical proof doesn't mean anything anymore.

As I have been recently told,  I am promoting hate rhetoric.  My feelings are not important. Get over it.

So yeah. I am being dragged to Pleasantville where there is no place for me.

By y'all say wait. Give it time. "It won't be as bad as you think it will be."

L7 babe. The square root of nothingness.

Black Folks Should See Moonlight - They Probably Won't

The only reason I know about this movie is that there was a trailer before the Obama date movie while I was munching on an overpriced hot dog.



From the trailer it was real oblique about what the movie was about. Then I sat with it abit and then I understood.

"Oh, wow. Huh? Oh."

Below is a clip from a British Film Institute presentation about the movie Moonlight.



It looks beautifully mounted. I would like to be proven wrong.

There are a lot of reasons why folks may not show for the film.

They don't know about it.  The have seen more about the Madea Halloween movie than this one.

Their faith based house of worship tells them that homosexuality is a sin.

It seems to be ok for the pastor to have relations with multiple members of the choir.

It seems to be ok to proudly proclaim that women have no place in the pulpit or in church leadership.

It even is tolerable to use shame and bigotry to enhance your political alliances but we don't want to talk about our gay sons and daughters.

Unless we cuss them back to the cave.
Unless they are doing our hair, our food or our comedy.

Then they are acceptable so long as they are out of sight when the door closes for the night.

By the way,  this is just my opinion about the attendance of the movie. 

Don't come drive by rolling up to tell me your house of faith is different or that scripture says.......

I don't care. I have seen and smelt the shit that passes for faith.

Some of y'all would let a person die of hunger before you step a foot forward to help but run ragged to put a coin in a rich man's pocket.

I care about real people.

Even Jesus, who I have a on-going non-aggression agreement with (I don't blame him for the dumb ass shit that humans do in his name and he loves me or not but accept me for the human I am) would be shaking his head about the implementation of his statements.

What else? Inadequate sexual education. Biology. The true diversity of human beings that has been hidden and suppressed.

Toxic forms of masculinity.
Toxic forms of survival as rights of passage.

Distinction between sexual exploration and exploitation.

I think folks should pay attention to this movie. Could be good. Could be flawed. But is is one of the first mainstream American movies to deal with a coming of age story of a young boy that grows into a gay man.

The movie will come and go. Maybe folks will watch it on Netflix or Amazon.

Maybe.
Maybe
Maybe.

American In the Nexus of Race and Guns Part 4

I guess one of the unasked questions in current movie fiction is can you be a strong man solving problems without a gun.

We know men can be goofs.

They can be con men.

Beloved hump fiends with their own private sex shooter.

But when was the last time you remember a movie that did not have the male hero/protagonist without using a gun (bomb, rocket, robot, spaceship with photon torpedoes) to solve the problem or be restored whole?

I know that this movie is based on a series of famous books.

I've never read them.

Spy genre is not my preferred reading area of interest.

The thing is that variations of this poster is on every bus, shuttle, cab and transportation device.
I have no choice but to see this image of a man with a gun.

Still with the Orlando shooting in my mind. Still with the most recent death by cop videos. Still with all the yakity yak about 2nd amendments vs gun control talk.

This is how I wind up in the nexus.

Because in the United States, that piece of metal means more than any one individual's life be it a child, woman or man.

And we are so connected to the gun.

Attitudes have to change. How we tell stories about guns and power might have to change.

And we are not there yet.

American In the Nexus of Race and Guns Part 3

Now if you want to really get down to it we'd have to talk about Spaghetti westerns. Sorry about the ads, the other versions are getting yanked down. Because cultural memories are DCMA protected.





One man as hero/anti-hero.

Dark skinned people as bad guys or poor preyed upon town folk.

Good and evil.

Law and Disorder.

The gun is used as a tool for respect compensation.

And in-between the JuJu Beans and 25 cent Coca Cola I learned that a man and a gun were all you needed to get by.

That messaged is ingrained in our fiction, history and cultural expression.

So maybe when we attempt to talk about gun control what we might be doing is talking about changing our belief systems.

And Americans are a loath to do that as they are to admit that there might be some structural problems that require more than sound bites to solve.

American In the Nexus of Race and Guns Part 2

My gun education was passive; meaning I didn't have to do much to be indoctrinated. Saturday mornings television had adventure, sci-fi and westerns.




Guns played a major role in almost all of them.

This is an episode of the Lone Ranger animated series; it was steampunk before steampunkers were born.

Bad guys have the Gatling gun, good guys have pistols and arrows.

Bad guys have fire rain machine, good guys has pistols and a rope.

Lone Ranger stops army of bad men.

I would not have know about Latinos or people in the Southwest. I would not have questioned an army garrison or why Tonto was so bounded to the Ranger. And why didn't the horse catch a bullet or two?"

So I would have learned:

• The myth that one man can stop an army. 
• Guns save a nation.
• Bad guys are stupid, why didn't Agent Z blow up the garrison and any other military support?

Misconceptions and Fear Equal Confusion

I love mass transit. It is a laboratory. It is a rolling mental health waiting room. It is the best of us and the worst of us locked in communion.

This is my testimony.

I was gazing out the window, looking at the mountains behind man-made buildings and wondering for the #1875 time what have they witness, what came and disappeared.

I noticed a group of people waking down the street. Two by two. Focused.

There was a sign but I couldn't read it. Then a whole bunch more people started walking down the street. They appeared to be almost all white people.

"That's strange."

I thought to myself. I kept trying to look for a sign or a reason for this to be happening. Was it right-wingers or Tea Party people?

I didn't see any sheets or confederate flags tatted on anybody's body.

They weren't loud, or talkative. They just walked.

Still, I got a little twitchy. Recent events have made everybody a bit more nervous.

The gentleman in the seat behind me was beginning to freak out.

"What all them white folks walking down the street for? It is a protest or parade or something?
You know they don't walk if they don't have to; must be something bad going on!"

And then his imagination leaped like a rocket; pulling up all the recent pain and hurts. He went from zero to 60 in two minutes, getting louder and more agitated.

I'm still looking for a sign. A poster. Anything to restore the silence quo.

This is my fault. I should have had my glasses fixed. I got to where I needed to be and got off the bus.

I crossed the street.
I stood on the corner.
From a small distance, I watched them go by.

It was a walk for suicide prevention. Many had tee-shirts with the phase Out of the Darkness.

Oh. Yes. People been off worlding themselves at an accelerated rate.

And then I kept looking. Where the black folks? The Asians and Latinos?

Might have been in another part of the line.

I don't know.  I was having a moment of intersectionality* between mental health, race, fear, depression, the unknown and burning desire for some Blue Moon bread.

Some days are just so dang confusing.


 *Intersectionality (or intersectional theory) is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination.

Bonding with Tewt

Not too many animated cartoons got past me as a kid. I even watched the ones I didn't like just to be informed of how much I didn't like it. I was a shade too young to catch up with The Mighty Hercules.

The initial run of the Trans-Lux Hercules was from 1963 to 1966  and I managed to miss it. I was hip deep into the Mighty Marvel Marching Society.


This is Tewt.

Me and Tewt have bonded and I wished I had seen him as a kid. I like the little fella.The kid's got sense and spunk.

The Mighty Hercules had better animation than Clutch Cargo. Clutch, you might remember was the animation where only the lips moved. Human lips.

It was creepy. It was fascinating. It was extremely limited animation.

Hercules does move but they recycled a lot of board work. After the third episode you get the gist of what is happening, what is going to happen and oh yeah, Olympia!




You don't have to watch it but just in case you were curious.

Now, Hercules is not the brights bulb but he gets the job done. He is befriended by Newton who is a centaur that says almost everything twice. If Newton is really upset he doesn't repeat everything. That doesn't happen very often.

Newton has four legs, Tewt has two. Just so you don't get confused.

Tewt doesn't speak. He has a pan pipe that has to be interpreted by those around him.

Tewt is pro-active. If he is saved or gets away from trouble my boy is running and not looking back until he finds himself some rocks to hide behind. He is not a coward. Tewt just want to get a breath of safety before he dives back into action.

Tewt does help and sometimes he saves folks. Out of all the characters in the cartoon, he seems to be the only one that is willing to step up and help. It doesn't always work out but you'd have to look at all the taller folks in his world to see who and what he has to deal with.

I'm feeling ya dude.

Yeah, yeah Hercules has iron in his thighs and when he remembers to put on the ring he is powerful. He does not always remember to put on the ring. Sometimes that blasted ring doesn't always solve the problem.

Tewt is a better wing man, er satyr.  He deals with what he can and is loyal but does not want to wind up something close to dead.

So what I have learned doing a crash course on The Mighty Hercules is that good friends are important. Choose your friends wisely. We could all stand a few more Tewts in our lives.




P.S. Episode 005 of the Anxiety Road Podcast is now up for grabs. Still struggling with the format and those got dang plosives and SSSS but can't turn back now.

A Bit of Music on This Mighty Fine Day

On this day it seems that everyone was out on the street. The cars and buses were full of people needed a dose of warmth and sunlight.

Granted there were only two days of rain in Los Angeles; it was a hardship to delay doing what you wanted to do because of the weather.

I kid, truly. I know what is it like to live in a blizzard. To function and live your life no matter what the elements dictate. I don't do negative four degrees well and I never want to understand negative four plus wind chill factor.

I can speak from recent experience that when the heavy rains occurred these wimps...er citizens of the south land were incapacitated. Unfortunately they were driving behind the wheel of a car so, yeah. There is that.



So I went out to see what I could see. And do some shopping. If you are open to it and not to stuck up on yourself you will find amazing things and people here including mighty fine Pozole.

Once again I found myself at the Grand Central Market. I wish I knew who the band was so that I could give them credit but there was no signage that I could see to identify the musicians.

There was a sign in back of them from the International House of Music; perhaps they were the company that was sponsoring the performance. I don't know.  I checked the websites of the music store and Grand Central Market, there was no listing for the band.

There was nothing on Twitter either. Which should be a lesson to companies using social media. Use it correctly or give up the ghost.