Bob "the Blade" Robinson

Professional Brand Spokesman-Blade Brilliant

2019-07-09T10:59:00.001-07:00

Stocks Strategist

2018-10-18T11:02:00.002-07:00

Real Estate Testimonial

2018-10-18T10:58:00.002-07:00

Paramantra Real Estate Development

2018-10-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Spokesman: Quantum Physics NeuroScience Center

2018-05-11T06:28:00.003-07:00

Spokesman: CheerUp Mobile App-Your Mental Health

2018-05-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

I'll Be Dead

2018-01-09T03:28:00.002-07:00

Blade Brilliant: I'll Be Dead
January 8, 2018

I've had the glamor and the perks and the notoriety and it was really for not that great a reason.

Radio Disc Jockey. Thirty years.

Who cares about a radio disc jockey? Now I am a bland professional video editor, with a wonderful video editing service in my own home. I am fabulous at editing HD video and even 4K Ultra (which the world isn't ready for), something I've been messing around with since the turn of the century when we could do it all at home. Then it was a hobby, now it's not.

The first digital photo I ever took in 2001 was from a Fujifilm square camera, something like this one, but older.

And when I saw the photo I took in the preview window, I was amazed.

Oh! Well looka there!

The photos looked great when you saved them on your floppy disc and even ok on that inter-web, but they were all so squashed (nothing's changed), the fun wore off quickly.

And so now we have a high definition video quality we can enjoy through these incredible HD cameras that look like a Sony Rebel but shoot video with almost alarming clarity. I am using a Canon 70D and I am thrilled with it.

So to edit it's video, there are hundreds of video editing software programs that are out there, and I have the luxury of playing around with the same software since they went through and conquered the battle with that Vista operating system.

Pinnacle/Avid

Now owned by Corel.

I bought Pinnacle 4 I think, now I am up to Pinnacle 21 Ultimate and I ain't changing now. It's taken 16 years to get this far and I don't have sixteen left, probably. My goodness, if I dedicated myself to knowing Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro like my Pinnacle, I'd have to start now and I'd be dead by the time I figured out how to erase the background from a backyard barbecue party video.

Would anyone believe I did this Travers Lasik Vision Correction explainer with Pinnacle/Avid?

Don't believe it because I did this with After Effects. I do know that stuff well, but still. There's so much to say for a program you know backwards and forwards. I am so lucky that Pinnacle is dedicated to keeping up, they could have bailed when the lemming novice video editors all went to their holier-than-thou Adobe editing software and all this MAC stuff.

As a professional video editor, I will definitely say that all the MAC/Adobe software provides an opportunity for editing technique unlike most, but there aren't enough hours in the day or days left in the year, or years left in your life, to learn it all.

Unless you are about eight years old.

Pinnacle has made learning so easy. Mac/Adobe has not. I don't care how many tutorials there are out there.

The world hasn't figured itself out yet, it changes too quickly. For now, I'm happy with the progress of Pinnacle/Avid, they are progressing nicely at MY pace in this new world. I'll never catch up to all the Mac/Adobe products or whatever it is called. You just keep buying and updating and upgrading 'till bankruptcy.

I'll be happy when I'm dead and gone. One more video editor down the drain not having made a difference at all. But happy to make a nice living at home where I can smoke as I please.

Cause of death? Death by upgrade.

Yeah and I still don't get why they call me a "non-linear" video editor. It all looks like it's in a line to me. It's called a timeline.

You Are Bigger Than Life?

2018-01-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

A Death Defying Act

2018-01-02T10:10:00.001-07:00

"A Death Defying Act"

January 1, 2018 1/2 Featured Posts

Bob "the Blade" Robinson

The comedy profession.

Ask comedian Frank King about it. He'll tell you all about it and yes, he'll be here all week. Frank and I had a conversation about five years ago and in general it was about mental health. I come from a family chock full of mental health issues yet I stop short of using the word "riddled". With a mentally ill father who passed away at 46 and a brother who"suffers from schizophrenia", I have plenty to offer in a conversation as such.

And apparently as a comedian, Frank has plenty to offer also.

Number of shrinks is shrinking https://t.co/dWDO3sA9f1
— Frank King (@theMHcomedian) December 31, 2017

I mean, who would ever think that the people who make us the happiest in the world by making us laugh could in actuality be an incredibly depressed lot themselves? As a mental health comedian (possibly the first using that nomenclature), the niche is based on very funny professional associates and friends of Frank who told their stories to him of ending it all. As I recall, most of his recounts of these friends ends with "and then I took a look at my kids".

Sure!

I've always said if the pain is too much that you can't bear to continue breathing, then go ahead and "self-terminate" as my radio contract language always states.

Ok. So it IS selfish. So what.

But the issue of that thought is this....the thought of it being too much to bear and you're going to off yourself, usually passes! And then it returns, and then it passes again. Maybe so often, that you get used to it? I don't know, I'm not incredibly depressed enough to end my life, although I have been.

But that was only after a fifth of Pepe Lopez.

YOU drink a fifth of that stuff. Believe me, you'll know what I'm talking about.

"Choosing to live on, is a death defying act" says Frank King. Brilliant. Perfectly brilliant.

Take a look at my Warehouse Interview with Frank himself and how he has the story of the hilarious heart attack he suffered through recently. How can you go wrong with the old "probe in the femoral artery" material?? Tragedy begats comedy, but you have to give it time. Frank said that. Or something a lot funnier than that. -Blade

Episode 5 Trailer "Funny As A Heart Attack"

2017-12-24T07:14:00.001-07:00

Subscribe Now! Exclusive Releases of Full Brand New Episodes!
www.bladebrilliant.com/blade-tv

New Web TV Series!

2017-12-14T05:42:00.003-07:00

Trailer: Episode 4 "Sitting In Danica Patrick's Lap"

2017-12-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

EXTRA! The Blade Theatre "Marvelous Bartender Trick"

2017-12-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

All New Web TV Series "There's Nothing Louder Than Dead Air"

2017-11-24T09:39:00.001-07:00

Upcoming From "The WQDR Project" Trailer "Some Girls"

2017-09-16T04:50:00.001-07:00

From the upcoming documentary: Blade reveals the "agreement" with the security guard for late night visitors at the station. But there's a catch.

The latest scene from Kevin Dill "The WQDR Project".

Intuitive Entertainment

Producer: Kevin Dill IMDB Profile

I Get Tired Of Laughing. Who Says That.

2017-07-01T13:47:00.001-07:00

The Five Greatest Quotes That Stuck

2017-02-01T16:11:00.001-07:00

Review: "There's Nothing Louder Than Dead Air"

2017-01-26T18:22:00.004-07:00

*****

Anyone remotely interested in FM rock radio should give this a read. There's only three real cons to speak of that make me rate this 4 stars instead of five (I would have given it 4 and a half if Goodreads let me), so I'll get them out of the way first:

1. Blade is a DJ by trade, not a writer. This isn't to say the writing's bad (it most certainly isn't), but the chronology does tend to jump around a bit.
2. Very little time is devoted to the WQDR year; I agree with Blade that it is probably the best station that ever existed in central North Carolina and just wanted to hear more.
3. He gives high marks to Bob Dumas who is, was, and remains a complete hack; his modern shock-jock persona doesn't hold much water when I remember his "hey, call in and tell us what kind of halloween candy is YOUR favorite!" guy-and-hole show from the mid-90s, or his "just two guys" format of the early 90s. Yes, I despise Bob and his stupid Showgram just that much.

With that out of the way, this memoir effectively tells two stories: that of Blade's ascent from college radio to one of the more memorable DJs in central North Carolina at WQDR and WRDU when rock radio peaked, and the story of how terrestrial radio rose and fell into the sad, sorry state it is in now. The first story has some real pathos to it (the story of Blade's father and brother are just heartbreaking), but also some hilarious highlights that range from the almost-cliche (DJ locks himself out of the studio while getting stoned) to the sort of hilarious-in-hindsight shameful decadence that only someone with constant access to booze, drugs, beautiful women, and bands ever gets to enjoy.

The second story is heartbreaking in a different way. Blade was there for the rise and fall of FM radio as an art form (and make no mistake, at it's best it was just that) from the trailblazing free-form AOR of WQDR (perhaps the only station in North Carolina to ever play something like "Friends of Mr. Cairo" during afternoon drive), to the somewhat-safer early WRDU, all the way through WRDU's Clear Channel-orchestrated death spiral and one of the best ways anyone has ever publically quit their job.

If you want to know what it was like being there, read this book. Blade is one of the last of a dying breed who have been forced off the air in favor of jukeboxes you can't control and has a story worth telling. As far as I'm concerned, the end of Blade's time at WRDU and the firing of Jim Ladd several years later were the last two nails in the coffin.

-Matt Sides Goodreads.com
REVIEW

Review: "There's Nothing Louder Than Dead Air"

2017-01-26T18:14:00.001-07:00

Blade's List Greatest Rock Songs of The Eighties Numbers 2 and 1

2017-01-03T19:53:00.001-07:00

Blade's List Greatest Rock Songs of The Eighties Numbers 4 and 3

2016-12-24T05:30:00.001-07:00

Blade's List Greatest Rock Songs of The Eighties Number 6 and 5

2016-12-19T18:51:00.001-07:00

Blade's List Greatest Rock Songs of The Eighties Numbers 8 and 7

2016-12-15T17:36:00.001-07:00

The Greatest Rock Songs That Seeped Through A Soggy, Muddled Eighties

2016-12-12T17:26:00.004-07:00

Here is one from the upcoming list from Bob "the Blade" <-br>

I'm So Down Today

2016-12-08T19:10:00.001-07:00