Good morning everybody. This is
a brief, this is Dave Weiner
first and this is a
very brief morning coffee notes
for Friday May 13th 2005. Today
I listen to
Chris Leiden's pilot broadcast
or actually pilot podcast of
his new
radio show on PRI called Open
Source and I was gonna write a
little essay and
then I thought well how
appropriate would it be to
write an essay when I
could actually just like open
up my microphone right you know
a little
recorder app and my microphone
and just record a little
response. So anyway let
me just set the stage for you.
I listened to Chris's podcast.
I was walking
north on the beach starting
about a couple miles south of C
rescent Beach in
Florida. I was actually walking
south not north sorry and on
the way south I
walked on the sand. The beach
here is very wide and very flat
and it was it
wasn't exactly low tide but it
certainly wasn't anything
remotely close to high
tide so there was lots and lots
of sand and it's flat and it's
not mushy sand
it's it's sort of like it's
like walking on pavement so it
's not really
comfortable to walk barefoot so
I wear these sandals rubber
sandals and because
you can also walk in the water
with the rubber sandals which
is kind of cool
but they're good for walking on
the sort of hard pack sand
which is much better
than walking on the soft sand
and the soft sand where it's
sort of like every
step is a trudge and this isn't
like that this is like walking
on a sidewalk
it's really comfortable and
every so often you come to an
inlet a little
inlet in the sand where the
water from the waves it's sort
of like a little
tide pool and as the wave comes
in the water comes up and it
never fully goes
all the way out and so you get
your feet a little wet which is
kind of refreshing
the water this time of year
already isn't really very
refreshing it's already
quite warm which makes for good
swimming it's not shocking
although it kind of
liked it when it was really
cold a couple of months ago
when the water was
much colder and then when you
go in swimming of course well
it was kind of
hard to get acclimated but when
you came out your you felt like
good to your
bones it was so nice it's a
really nice sort of nice bony
sort of nice feeling
anyway so I walked a half an
hour south and then I turned
around and walked back
and coming north it took me
more than a half hour because
because I walked a
little more slowly because I
walked in the water up to about
my knees and points
and of course as the waves
would come in and we get deeper
and as the waves would
go out it would get more
shallow and of course I enjoy
that way of walking much
more it's and and on the way
south I mostly listened to Jay
Rosen and Lex
from from Greensboro and on the
way north Lisa Williams who I
think stole the
show she was the star she was
talking about as always I mean
I don't just say
that because I like to sort of
you know I mean sometimes you
feel weird about it
because well you know it's like
people might think what you're
saying that
because she's a woman but Lisa
and you know we try to be
gender balanced in
everything we do right and he
can't do it in the blog world
it's just it's
impossible there just aren't
enough women and so it's you
know it's but I tell
you Lisa is one of those there
are like two kinds of women
there sorry oh boy
like an intro for this whatever
see that that's the problem is
that women have a
so intimidated they make all
kinds of incredibly personal
and deep statements
about men like Halley suit
talks about what it means to be
an alpha male and
and Shelly Powers talks about
she makes my whole gender
responsible for the sort
of pigishness of one group of
people who put on a put on
conferences hey they
exclude me too you know it's
not just they exclude women I
find that places that
exclude people generally I tend
to get excluded you know I
think it'll make a
lot of people uncomfortable
part of it is because I'm like
Jewish and there's a
lot of anti-semitism in the
world and you know and it's not
considered a cause
it's not you don't hear it
people go go let's be balanced
you know ethnically
balanced and I think a lot of
the stuff that I was getting in
Nashville honest
goodness I think a lot of it
was anti-semitism you should
see some of the
cartoons they drew I was
shocked that they made me look
like a rabbi and I
don't really look like a rabbi
I mean I don't think I do I've
got a lot of like
you know non-Jewish blood in me
so you know well you know
whatever I am Jewish
though anyway I digress Lisa
Williams is one of those women
who never
makes an issue out of she just
but she belongs and she's great
and I've
included her as the discussion
leader at BligerCon and she was
one of the
regulars at Berkman Thursdays
and she really she really did
steal the show
she has this sort of charm to
her that is just you know it's
refreshing and then
Doug K came on and Doug
explained what podcasting was
about and and then Ben
Walker who Ben Ben doesn't like
me and I know that because he's
come out and
said it quite a few times and
and I think he doesn't like me
because I said
some things that he didn't like
about public radio we had a you
know whatever
he asked me what I thought once
he he said you're actually he
told me what I
thought he said you like public
radio because he gives you all
this
information and you know it
keeps you informed and I raised
my hand I said no
no that's not why I like public
radio because I do like public
radio and I
said I like it because it's
relaxing and it's true I mean I
don't really listen
public radio very much now I
don't know why I can't tell you
why but it's the
truth but you know when I lived
in Boston when I would be
working I would keep
public radio on all the time
while I was doing you know
technical work or writing
work or whatever and I believe
me if it weren't relaxing I
couldn't if it were
mentally and intellectually
stimulating I couldn't have it
on while I was working
and so Ben you know you gotta
sort of trust me on that and so
one of the things
that I was evangelizing and one
of the reasons Ben didn't like
me or if so I
gathered was because I was you
know an evangelist of podcast
ing and although
it wasn't at the time called
podcasting it is in every sense
what eventually
became to be known as podcast
ing and it was kind of
interesting I wanted Chris
if Chris were sort of more and
Chris is a friend of Ben's and
he said as much and
and maybe this is why you don't
want friends interview and
other friends
because now one question I
would have asked Ben had I been
interviewing and
was hey Ben am I okay now that
you like podcasting because I
mean Ben has the
podcasting religion he really
gets it he although I have to
say that Chris could
use a kick in the ass about
podcasting which is why I
picked up the microphone
and decided to do this podcast
today because Chris well I love
you and I
think you're great and I really
hope I expect your show is
gonna be great the
sooner you get this particular
bug out of your butt the sooner
your show is
gonna go and soar to great new
heights and the problem is this
is that and I'm
gonna project wildly here and I
'm gonna tell you why Chris has
the attitude
that he has and I could be way
wrong but honestly I don't
think I am and Chris
gotta know I hope you're
listening to this you gotta
know that this is I'm in
the spirit of of wanting to be
helpful and and and to sort of
like save you
some time basically it this is
what I think they're a Chris is
a radio
professional and does a
wonderful job of interviewing
people and and his polish
is you know second to none and
you know their show you know
they hit all the
marks I don't even know how
they do it I mean you know it's
sort of like you know
how to how does somebody make a
website flow well well that I
know how to do but
how do you make a radio show
flow the way Chris does it and
Mary and whoever
else is working on it you know
maybe at some point I'll be
that way but it's
really actually not one of my
goals you know I like doing a
rough radio program
I like doing a rough podcast
which is what you're listening
to right now I
like it rough I like it rough
because as I've said so many
times before is that
when it's too processed I'm
suspicious that you know it's
my clue that the
humanity has been sucked out of
it and it's that's the
nutrition you know that
I get from it's when it becomes
soothing and relaxing but if it
if it has a rough
sort of miss to it a lack of
production well you can't
listen to that in the
background it's sort of like
hey this guy's talking to me
and you know it's
kind of distracting if somebody
's talking to you while you're
trying to get
some work done so so when a
professional hears podcasts
what do they snap to
what's there how do they you
know what do they come on to oh
well quality is
really bad it's really shit it
's awful stuff most of its crap
blah blah blah
blah well no Chris it's not
crap somebody thinks it's not
crap somebody
thinks it's good okay and this
whole idea that has to be high
quality is such a
20th century idea and that idea
just has to die it just has to
go it's going to
go and if you want to have your
feet planted firmly in blogging
and in
podcasting if you want to be a
conduit for the ideas that flow
out of this space
you have to learn to stop
insisting on the highest
quality of production or a
highest or the most beautiful
voice the most malefluous voice
the most sonorous
voice the most beautiful voice
you know listen to the last
podcast that I did
the Pisa podcast Pisa as in the
leading power of Pisa which was
a speech that I
delivered I don't even know if
they actually ever listen to it
I hope they
did but it was done for a
conference of technology users
in Pisa Italy and I
explained it's 25 minutes it's
definitely worth listening to I
'd say listen to it
all the way through because
because the point is as we and
I want to repeat
myself is that creativity is so
important creativity you know
when you
when your kid brings home a
drawing from school that they
created themselves that
reflects some story that they
want to tell you don't call
that crap right in
fact it's not hard to see the
beauty in that that there's a
little human being
there the new human being who
is creating something and this
is reflective
of something inside of them
that they're that they're
wanting to communicate to
you they've chosen to show this
to you because they want you to
understand this
part of themselves they want
you to see that they're
beautiful but they they are
colorful that they see
something that they have
perhaps some difficulty
explaining but if that if you
'll just look more closely you
'll see that it's
really very nice so you don't
hand it back to a child and say
hey you know come
back to me when you have all
the production values down and
when you know
you hit all those cues when you
're as good as Chris Leiden is
you don't hand
that back to the child and say
this crap where you don't look
at a classroom full
of art produced by young people
you know new people and say you
know most of the
art that's created in
kindergarten is crap we don't
do that we don't do that
because we love them because we
love because we love them we we
appreciate
their struggle and we we makes
it brings a tear to your eye to
think about this
beautiful new person who wants
to say something now understand
that I know
this is kind of sloppy okay get
it but it's true it inside of
all of us it's
still that little kindergartner
who wants to say something
beautiful maybe we
don't even know what it is but
we love the idea of saying
something that moves
other people and that we've had
this beaten out of us we've had
this this
idea that we're that we're good
enough to do a painting we didn
't need permission
to do that when we were
children we we believed in our
ability to be creative
when we were children nobody
told us we had to be the best
we knew that what we
had to say was important so we
said it nobody ever said that
you had to be
better than anybody in fact
they taught us the opposite
that just being yourself
was good enough and it's still
true that's my point it didn't
change nothing
changed we just took some wrong
turns we really went in the
wrong direction in a
lot of ways and thank God we
get to correct that now we get
to do it right
and that means we have to stamp
out these attitudes these
attitudes that the
people aren't their creativity
isn't important because it's
everything it's
what we need to tap into to
make this world work and you
know Chris God bless
you for stepping up to the
plate again and you know I'm
putting your heart
into your work into what you do
you're an incredible teacher
but you know what
they say about teachers is that
we always teach what we need to
learn the
most right so you know it we're
on this journey we're all in it
together and I
think that's the real message
that's the real lesson you know
Marshall McLuhan
said it the medium is the
message so it's still true it's
still it's still
really what we're doing it
still is it it still is what we
do so you know my
motto about this and about blog
ging is come as you are we're
all just folks so
that's why I didn't turn off
the dishwasher before I started
this and
that's why I left the roughness
in there the stuff that's
likely to get me into
total shitload of trouble you
know even though I am a
feminist even though I was
raised in a feminist context
even though I believe in
everybody's right to
participate and I don't think
that it's more important or
less important that
men or women or Jews or Gent
iles or people with disabilities
or young or
old think that we want
everybody's gifts we want
everybody to be part of what
we're if everything they want
to be part of and so anyway
that's my podcast for
the day it's a it's one it's a
17 minute on going on 18 minute
special my name is
Dave Weiner it's Friday the 13
th one more thing to call out to
Adam Curry who
has got his pod show on Sirius
is is debuting right now as we
speak I wish I
could listen to it I don't have
a serious satellite radio but
you know I'm
gonna be listening to the you
know what everybody has to say
about it good luck
to you Adam knock him dead
break a leg you know all the
rest that shit and I
don't know boy okay everybody
see y'all later bye this is
Dave