Image of Margaret Cho via mousebrat2006.
Every time I walk across my apartment today I skip, skip, skip! Ever since Margaret Cho emailed me yesterday and asked if I was coming to see her Beautiful show at the Warfield saturday night! Yes, and yesyesyes! As many readers know, I *heart* Cho (and not just because we have matching tattoos and I got to interview her for the Chron, among other outlets). She is just as cool as you’d hope she’d be, but even more times a billion. So I think I’ve secured a date for saturday and am going to the late show.
The plan is to see Margaret, too — not just onstage, but to also bear witness to the backstage chaos. I’m armed with my B-cups, fabulous lashes, big hugs and smooches for MCho, and a couple gadgets for fun. I’ll be taking along the Nokia N-95 that Justin.tv and Qik let me run off with, so I’ll try to livestream some of the activity. Livestreaming with the Nokia has been frustrating: the camera keeps crashing, my gorgeous Justin.tv page isn’t hooked into the camera’s feed yet so you have to watch my Qik page (or grab its RSS, which is the URL) or follow me on Twitter to get an instant notification when I go live wherever I am and whatever I’m doing. It’s also very dependent on getting a good signal: I’ve had several great videos (like this one from the Monochrom Guerrilla tech transgression presentation Q and A) wind up very choppy because of the building’s signal interference.
So it’s a crapshoot, sometimes literally. I’ll think I’m getting a good long funny video when I got nothing at all. Or I’ll get a fun couple minutes of hilarious WTF-ness. After, I try and comb back through what actually uploaded to Qik and I’ll title videos I think people will want to see. Like my few precious post-panel, post-BBC interview minutes with sweetie Girl With A One Track Mind, UK Guardian author and outed sex blogger Zoe Margolis. Abruptly at the end, the Nokia lost signal.
Qik has emailed me suggesting that I reduce the quality of the video I’m streaming, but I wish I didn’t have to in order to get reliability. Still, on saturday night I’ll stream what I can of my adventures, and do my usual photo and video after-wrap. It’s all fun with new tools, and I think they’ll only get better… Hope you don’t mind the spontaneity, bizarre moments and occasional disappointment. Also, contrary to the chat windows, I can’t text/chat while filming, it’s not qwerty or even remotely easy with the Nokia while filming.
there are creative, non-creepy, mutually beneficial ways of advertising on podcasts. i’m sure you know that’s how some podcasters stay in business full-time.
advertising in the mainstream sense has a deservedly bad rep. if you think of it in terms of accepting sponsorship from an ethical company that’s looking to introduce its products/services to a not-so-mainstream audience, the possibilities of making a little money for your efforts look less creepy.
i’ve always admired your personal policies towards free access to sex ed. but, miss violet, you *deserve* financial compensation for a lot of the things you do for free. that stuff, especially podcasting, takes a lot more time and energy than people realize.
with your audience numbers and your solid reputation (by this point, violet blue is a pretty solid interweb ‘brand’), i think a no-ad-dollar policy for your podcast is admirable, but financially short-sighted.
not all advertising is evil. a lot of it can help make people’s lives better. and it always helps to get paid for your hard efforts.
if you ever want some ideas, ya gots me email :).
mynx, next time you should be my date!
David — it’s been way too long since I’ve done a podcast. I have tons of material, but as everyone probably knows by now, it’s just me and my ancient laptop (no crew, studio, etc.) so it’s a matter of time, quiet, and I’ve been so busy trying to keep the freelance $ coming in that it’s set me back. I’ll never stop podcasting, but there may be gaps. of course, if someone wanted to pay me for it (content, studio time, a little cat food money), I’d do one every week. but I refuse to put ads on it (I HATE ads) and I insist on keeping it free (as in, I’m not interested in making a paid subscription service). it has to stay free — I fiercely believe that accurate, nonbiased, all-orientation, nonjudgmental sex ed needs to be available to everyone, as well as titillating, respectful erotica. we all deserve access to this.
so I don’t fit into “monetization” models, and have to squeeze in a podcast when I can. don’t give up on it! I still love doing it, and will be back in my crappy Logitech headset soon :)
ooh-whee! i’m jealous. just a teeny tiny bit. ;)
just a question, I know you have been just super uber busy, however if or when do you think you will be able to do another Open source Sex podcast? Just wondering about it. It was how I found your fantastically wonderful site.
Have a Great Day!
David Shorb