San Diego Indie Showcase

Podfading

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:19:31 PDT

Well, it was great fun doing interviews with Squiddo, Peps, Christopher Cash, Willie Ames, and Chris Bearden. I hope you enjoy these interviews and keep up with all their future creative efforts.

As for me, I've begun a new project that consumes my time, and makes it impractical to continue with this podcast. My new project is political/social in nature, and it concerns the decline and fall of the United States of America, with special emphasis on poverty, the wealth gap, and debtors imprisonment. It's gonna be one hell of a ride!

If that interests you, you're welcome to join me at my new home on the net, the Third World American podcast. See you there!

All the best,
Paul

Interview With Chris Bearden

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:20:14 PDT

Listen To The Show (mp3 - 22.9MB, 40 minutes)
(To download, right-click link above and choose "Save Target As")

Chris Bearden talks about why he began writing his own songs after playing in a band, progress on his upcoming EP, advice for young musicians, and more.

Songs: In The Dirt, Maudlin Hubris, and Retrograde

Show Notes:

Chris' MySpace website may be found here

Interview With Willie Ames

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:20:39 PDT

Listen To The Show (mp3 - 17.9MB, 32 minutes)
(To download, right-click link above and choose "Save Target As")

Interview with San Diego Musician Willie Ames, who discusses his acoustic fingerpicking guitar style, influences, his approach to songwriting and other topics.

Original Songs: None (see #1 below)

Show Notes:

This episode opens with an unusually long 5 minute introduction, which explains why this episode does not include Willie's music in the podcast itself. (Hint: The music industry strikes again).
Visit Willie's website at www.willieames.com, and his MySpace website at www.myspace.com/willieames.
Visit Kelli Baker's MySpace site at www.myspace.com/kellibaker.
Visit Baker & Ames MySpace site at www.myspace.com/bakerandames.

Interview With Christopher Cash

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:17:45 PDT

Listen To The Show (mp3 - 18.1MB, 40 minutes)
(To download, right-click link above and choose "Save Target As")

Interview with San Diego Musician Christopher Cash, who discusses the making of his independent CD, Hollywood Mirage, his approach to songwriting, media imagery, and other topics.

Original Songs: Flicker of Light, Hollywood Mirage, Under the Table, and Three Minutes Late

Show Notes:

Christopher's inspiration for the featured song and title track from his CD, Hollywood Mirage, was the life and death of adult film star Savannah.
Be sure to visit Christopher's website at www.christophercash.com to order a CD and learn about upcoming live performances.
Christopher's CD was produced by Joe Ongie. You can visit Joe's website here.

The local San Diego music website run by Cathryn Beeks that Christopher referred to is www.listenlocalsd.com.

The Everquest online game that Christopher referred to as his inspiration for Kithicor Wood may be found at www.everquest.com.

03/05/06 Update: Christopher's CD Hollywood Mirage has been nominated for the Kweevak 2006 Music Project of the Year Award. Please take a moment to support Christopher by voting for him here. Hollywood Mirage definitely deserves the prize!

Interview with Peps

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:21:09 PDT

Listen To The Show (mp3 - 13.8MB, 31 minutes)
(To download, right-click link above and choose "Save Target As")

Interview with beat poet Peps, who talks about beat poetry, drugs, Kerouac, freedom, money, grafitti, artists supporting each other, and what art means to him.

Original Poems: Beatnik, Ignition, Caveman, and My Interpretation of the News

Show Notes:

The crappy theme music during my introduction is just something I did live while recording the intro. No point expecting anything better either--I'm a drummer.
The book Peps mentioned, Happy Birthday of Death, by Gregory Corso, can be viewed/purchased here.

Jack Kerouac's classic book, On The Road, may be viewed/purchased here.

Two of the best graffiti art books Peps and I discussed may be found here and here.

Interview with Squiddo

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:21:38 PDT

Listen To The Show (mp3 - 17.1MB, 37 minutes)
(To download, right-click link above and choose "Save Target As")

Maren and Hector from San Diego rock & roll band Squiddo (www.squiddotheband.com) discuss a variety of topics, including their passion for music, the enormous amount of preparatory work that goes on offstage, the mystery of Maren's accent, and the unique ecosystem that is Hector's drum kit.

Songs: You Gotta Be High and Silver Dancing Strings

Show Notes:

Just for the record, I did not mean "Austria" when I said "Australia". I was trying to make a joke about Maren's accent, and failed.
Again, for the record, the snake inside Hector's bass drum is not a real live snake; it's a stuffed animal.
The Australian band called The Sleepy Jackson that Hector referred to may be found here.

Giving Credit Where It's Due

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 19:00:55 PST

When I decided to begin podcasting, I assumed it would be as easy to figure out as every previous adventure I've had with new computer technologies, going all the way back to when I used the MS-DOS program DEBUG.EXE on my high school's state-of-the-art Franklin Ace 1000 computers to teach myself low-level programming--especially when I learned that RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". How much easier can it get than "Really Simple"?

Well, it ain't simple at all, friends! I finally met my match with RSS, and this podcast almost never existed despite my best efforts to figure it out on my own, using readily available tutorials on the web.

So without going into too much detail, let me just say Thank You to Steve Borsch and Todd Cochrane for helping me to finally figure out the RSS feed so that you could enjoy these interviews with independent artists in San Diego. Steve helped me with a few good answers by email, and Todd helped me by writing his book Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide. Sure, I had to pay for the book, but Todd clearly took the time to share a wealth of useful information (not to mention his enthusiasm for podcasting) in an affordable, easy-to-read book. And Steve was undeniably generous with his time to answer questions from a man he'd never met via email.

To me, that's what podcasting is all about: ordinary people working together to take control of the internet "airwaves" before the corporate monstrosities can find a way to prevent people like you and me from being heard in that forum, as they have in nearly every other forum.

So let me just say Thank You to Steve and Todd for helping me out, and as I gain more experience I hope I can do the same for some of YOU who might be considering starting your own podcast!

Check out Steve Borsch's blog and podcast, Connect The Dots

Check out Todd Cochrane's blog and podcast, Geek News Central

Welcome!

paul@t-shirtprophecy.com (Paul) — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 09:33:32 PST

Welcome to the San Diego Indie Showcase blog and podcast! Here you'll find interviews with and samples of original work from independent artists (primarily musicians) living in the area of sunny San Diego, California.

Please note that the term "independent" usually means someone who created their own recording label, publishing company, film production company, etc., apart from the gargantuan corporations that dominate these industries. However, this show uses the term in a much broader sense to include talented and passionate amateurs who have no "corporate" entity whatsoever, and may not even desire any affiliation with one. What they do have in common is passion for what they are doing.

I'm still working out the technology for the podcast, but the first episode is already recorded and ready to roll (an interview with Squiddo), and it will be available here ASAP.

Please feel free to comment on the podcasts here, to help make it the best show of its kind. I'd also be happy to hear from other San Diego independent musicians, filmmakers, writers and other artists who would like to be featured here.