For Christmas I received the best present I have gotten in a really long time…

It was an awesome terra bite drive from the Panman Team. For those of you who don’t know, that’s a lot of space to put lots of media files.  What could make a girl happier? (O.K. flowers are cool. I love  flowers, but you get the point .)

Anyway, as a result of this really great gift, I was inspired to clean up my old storage drives, and during this process I started watching all the work I had shot and edited over the years. (Admittedly some pieces were better than others.) Nevertheless, as we approached a new year, I thought it was appropriate to take a look back …… not just on the last year, but the last ten.

This is a medley. Not just a year in review, but a cleansing of my drives and releasing of content I have been holding onto for years.  Hopefully it is a fond farewell. I like what I have done in the past, but as they say, your only as good as your last story… So alas, I must press on.

This year has been a huge period of change for me. I find myself in a completely different place than I was in January 2009, and I look around with amazement. The only constant in life is change, and therefore I must go with the flow and facilitate that momentum within my work.

I want to re-approach my traditional way of creating content and start the New Year off fresh, with a cleansed pallet.

I am not looking to banish the past, but rather release it. I want to evoke the storyteller inside me and really think about new ways to create and live, but first this process was necessary.

Oh one last thing…

There are a few shots I borrowed from other members of the Panman team, so thanks guys for making me look good….again.

The music is from the “IN C REMIXED” project. I highly recommend music lovers check it out.  Jad Abumrad, a composer and radio producer created the version I used. Among other things he’s one of the hosts and creators of RADIO LAB. I insist if you haven’t heard it, you must. It’s my lifeblood.  If you’re curious, start with THIS EPISODE, but listen to them all. You’ll Laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn something new. This is the direction I hope to take my story telling.
-Abianne Prince

Seriously, it is…well, cable TV to be precise.

I was watching “Six Feet Under” the other night, which I’ve just gotten into and is so far pretty good, and I thought: A couple years ago this wouldn’t even be possible. I had just downloaded the show on itunes, for a couple of bucks, and it doesn’t even have to fully download before you can start viewing. It already seems native, but think back…a few years ago I would have had to clean the snow off the car (it was snowing like crazy) drive fifteen minutes to Blockbuster, only to find that someone had already rented it, and I was out of luck. BUMMER. Not anymore. There are so many ways to ingest on demand media now. There are the legal platforms: itunes, hulu, vimeo, youtube, netflix watch instantly, amazon on demand, abc.com, southpark studios (there are a bunch more, but you get the point). Then there are the illegal ones: bittorent (alas pirate bay is dead), and gnutella (aka frost/limewire), and all the bizarre flash based overseas American TV video hubs (awful quality). You’d think the name of the game here is you get what you pay for, but hulu defies that. (at least as of this writing). Hulu has hinted that there will be a pay model, but I’ve read you won’t lose shows like “the cobert report” and “the office”. They (hulu) has hinted at upselling premium content such as HBO and showtime shows. I say go for it. The keyword here is on demand. If I want to watch a movie and I have the choice of renting it on Amazon on demand and being able to watch it immediately, or downloading it from bittorent and having to wait for it. I’ll take amazon everytime. Here is a brief description of some of the free and pay on demand media services available on the internet right now.

iTunes

Who hasn’t heard of itunes? Aside from offering digital music downloads, itunes now also offers movies and movie rentals. I suggest the rentals if you have a bluray and decent TV, becasue if you are going to own a movie itunes downloads don’t match the quality of bluray.

Amazon on Demand

Amazon is making hand over fist tax free $$ with their retail business (I did all of my Xmas shoping with them online.) So why shouldn’t they compete with apple? They should. Competition is good. Competition means lower prices and a wider range of products/service. Thank god itunes has competition. I think the quality of video is little better here on amazon, but it’s a close tie. The video codec they use seems to be a little easier on you computer as well if you have an older system.

Hulu

Free doesn’t get better than this. Seriously, everything here is free. Hulu is my go to place to watch shows like 30 rock. People my age (28) don’t really have landlines. Services like Hulu allow us to get rid of our cable subscriptions too. Screw you comcastcablevisiontimewarner.

Netflix Watch Instantly

Some great movies and TV here and new ones everyday. You have to pay for this, but if you’re into movies you already have netflix and this comes as part of your built in service. Plug you’re laptop into you’re TV, and you’re good to go. Great stuff here.

YouTube

Funny cat videos and people getting hit in the balls is hilarious! I never get bored of it. Check out their screening room for more highbrow content, plus they have a new tv and movies section with a bunch of content (most not that great).

Vimeo

Art house YouTube. Cool stuff here.

Daily motion

Youtube uncensored. Kind of a cool platform, but aside from showing boobs (which is great) I don’t really see how it separates from the pack.

12Seconds.tv

My grandmas spoiled chihuahua on 12seconds.tv (sorry the embed wasn’t working here : )

Cool platform. Short videos.

So…check out these platforms. Invest in a cable to hook up you’re laptop to you’re TV. Cancel you’re cable subscrition. Take a trip with the money you’ll save. Besides, you watch WAY to much fucking TV.

John Birdsong is a Producer Director Editor with Panman Productions and lives in Williamsburg BKLYN with his girlfriend Morgan-Jo and their cat Fanny Fae McNamara.

As an appreciation for all of the support we received in 2009, the Roger Smith Hotel will be giving away one room every day in the month of January to our online community.   We will be releasing information regarding Roger Smith Room giveaways with the twitter hashtag “#Rogersrooms” so that you will be able to track the promotion.

How does the Rogers Rooms promotion work? 

Roger Smith Rooms will be given away by members of your community. Every day at 11 am we will announce who will be giving the room away and how they plan to do it. At 4 pm, we will announce a winner and that person will be able to pick a date in the month of January to come and visit us. Based on the scheduled availability plan on staying in Suite 1102.

Participation is the name of the game!

Each day a room will be given away through an online interactive method. It could be trivia, a creative competition, or just a first initiated response. For more information regarding this promotion please engage with us on Twitter with #Rogersrooms and we will answer any questions you might have. As an added bonus, even if you are not picked for a free night, we will Direct Message all participants an exclusive promo code (only offered here) for substantial savings when booking a room in the future.

We aim to engage with you as a member of the Roger Smith Community. What better initiation, than to have you stay with us and experience the pride of Roger Smith, his rooms. 

We look forward to having you as our guest.  Thanks for the support.

See you soon. 

Roger Smith.

True Fictions – Live Performance Trailer from THE LIGHT SURGEONS on Vimeo.

Today it would seem that something that was working upon my subconscious has ascended into the conscious mind. Like a diver who had been stroking the depths has finally made himself known. Emerging through the water –with him he brings news of great treasures that lay at the bottom waiting to be extracted.

Being part of Panman Productions all of us have been mauling over this piece of human psychology, this treasure waiting to be exhumed from the depths. We all know it’s there, at the bottom, but everyone’s perception is different of what that treasure may be.

Within each persons different perception lays a different reality. Our minds build walls around each of our own realities and we stand at the gates to defend our very fragile- indispensable kingdoms.

I say to myself, my kingdom should be sacred.  Believing this to be true I want to share it with others. My kingdom could be my aspirations and ambitions, it should involve my imagination and creativity pushed through the lens of action and exploration. My kingdom reveals itself as a world that I have called, FreakCast, my kingdom has many worlds within it. Each world bearing its own province: Pilgrims of Pleiades, Hooligans Under The Sun of the Littlest Little Skitbook, Penguins in the City Inc., and Nargile Productions, these are just a few examples. Without these para-realities I would be lost. There would be no compass to guide me, no purpose to explore, no reason behind why I am. Fundamentally I exist because of the worlds I have created for myself and adapt into reality. Those around me who inhabit similar dimensions/kingdoms/universes can walk as freely into mine as I can into theirs. Once we are interacting on this level, communication begins to evolve as a byproduct.

As a recent example I look towards Pancity. Pancity opened its gates to me and said, here is where all your dreams come true. No shit! It took some time to adapt this very earth shattering mantra but it was repeated enough where I gained the courage to test it out.

Panman had put out a petri-dish and said, go ahead colonize it. In this boundless petri-dish I saw no competition and ripe soil and went for it. What I realized seems that the petri-dish was designed for me. And that everyone in Pancity gets their own dish. We don’t have to compete for real-estate. Besides that, these dishes are boundless, morphing, vessels for our creativity. They interject, cross-multiply, and reverberate through all of Pancity in a holographic composite image that bends through space.

Even better, we may set out our own petri-dishes if that is our cause.

We all have a kingdom. We were all once children. Some of us have taken that world with us and nurtured it, others tried to shed that world. The reasons are boundless, but be aware that if you are not living in your kingdom then you are living in someone else’s. If that could be the case what role do you play?

Few kingdoms are out there to Make YOUR dreams come true. No wonder we are skeptical.

First I had to believe. Then I had to stake my belief and take a risk. Dreams don’t come true out of nowhere and out of nothing. First you have to have a dream. Even for me this seems vague and uncertain since the fear of this dream coming true exists. What do you do next? How do you operate without your dream once it has come true? What if it’s a disappointment? Dream Again?

I realized that these were all traps and that dreams innately carry the DNA of your personal survival and evolution.

I realized that these were all traps and that dreams innately carry the DNA of your personal survival and evolution.

The process of finding your dream should be figuring out what you would like to create. It may be anything. The end result carries no significant importance. Going through the process of creation reverberates historically as an important element linking creativity with survival. Process unlocks realization. That realization should be the next process: evolution.

Evolution as defined by me: change over time that increases chance of survival and improves quality of life.

Evolution of self leads to evolution of community.

To get to the process you will have to do things that you will generate a million excuses as to why not to do.

On the other hand your process may be to create a circumstance in which you will have to do nothing, relax, meditate, find out how to get back to or explore your infinite kingdom.

When you present the product that has come from going through a process, Panman will respond. The new level of communication could seem as concise and unexpected.

I believe in this one tenet as a module to making the culture of our company as strong as water (apply personal elemental analogy here.)

Several realizations that I believe I have made through process.

1.Extract truth and realization from tribulation. For some reason it seems more impacting than from positive experiences and seems to last longer. Its longevity offers more time and abilities to study the realization and to extract its character.
2.Play games with yourself and others. Games should be how we learn and check paradigms.
3.Do not accept mediocrity, be weird.
4.The universe or ether, god, subconscious, shows it self as a fabric of humor. Gut-wrenching humor. Often you come off as the butt of the joke.
5.Be afraid. Be afraid to confront your fear. Confront it anyway.
6.Don’t do things as if you are doing them for someone. Do things for yourself.
7.Don’t believe anything anyone tells you. Especially when they sound really convincing. Always test their advice and opinions. Rely on your won experiences. It should be your kingdom after all.

A wise old sage was once asked what is one piece of advice you can share with the world. His response was, don’t trust what wise old sages tell you. There is a deeper meaning to this than the one that is obvious at first glance.

The hard part is remembering what I have realized. Memory can be tuff rubber. It feels great to have people around that have made similar realizations. I suppose that maybe what community could be based on.

This year there were no HUGE advancements in technology (on the consumer level), but it was the year WE really embraced technology.  For example my entire family is on Facebook now.  If I want to share something with them it’s ridiculously easy.  Hi Mom!  The point is, the longer this stuff is around, particularly the advancements in communication the more we begin to rely on them not as a novelty, but as a necessity. For example, when cell phones first came out they were very much a novelty. Now, when your plane lands the first thing you do is fire up the iPhone (if you have one) check your messages (voice and email), send a few texts, and probably update your FB status. Another example is GPS, and I’m completely lost without mine. What will we rely on in 2010, and furthermore what will be the next big thing in 2010? (Comments plz).

Without further adieu, here is my list of top tech in the year that was 2009

iPhone 3gs

This smart-phone will now shoot video (unhacked) and send it to YouTube, and if you get lost in the woods you have a nifty compass to guide you out! Price: Your f%*ing soul.

New Intel CPUs

Code named “Nehalem” i5 and i7 core chips with “turbo”. Put them in mac books already!!! I’m waiting ’till they do to upgrade. Price: Get one with a new computer (27″ iMac).

Twitter

This micro blogging service exploded in 2009. Words like “Tweet-up” “Tweets-giving” and “Tw-izzlers” entered our vocab. I’m @johnbirdsong, holla. Price: Free (or ALL of your free time).

Tinychat.com/Skype

Skype, one of the most effective low/no cost communication tools has been around for a while. The new version allows screen sharing which is AWESOME. Tinychat.com takes it a step further and allows groups (up to 12 cameras) to communicate with a/v in a virtual room. Perfect for online meetings, and bizarre 3.0 interaction. Price: Free

Facebook

This year my mom and dad both joined Facebook, and they use it (a lot). Price: All of you free time.

Flip ultra HD

Best flash memory video recorder. Reliable, tough, fantastic daylight video, not to bad indoor/low light video. A lesson in minimalism. Price: $170

Any of the LED back lit flat panel HD TVs

Energy sipping, high quality displays for Bluray, DVD, Hulu, Netflix, web browsing, Amazon on Demand, gaming, and oh yeah…cable.  Price: $1,000+ (for Samsung, Panasonic, etc) less $$ for Vizio (which gets very high ratings).

Canon D7 Digital SLR

I havn’t gotten to use this pro-sumer still camera yet, but the picture quality and videos I’ve seen are beautiful. With the D7, Canon has embraced creative filmmaking. The cam features full 1080p HD video @24 fps, adjustable exposure control, and a large CMOS sensor to mimic the shallow depth of field look of motion picture film cameras. Price: $1,899 with a 28-135 lens.

17″ Mac book Pro

This behemoth of a laptop has an 8hr battery, two video cards, up to 8GB RAM, and a 3.06GHZ duo core Intel CPU.  Price: starting around $3,000

Amazon Kindle 2

Paper books are so passe. JK, but the Kindle is a pretty amazing device. First of all:  electronic ink is really cool. Kind of like a 21st century etch a sketch, but with Hemingway and J.K. Rowling instead of that dumb staircase you’d draw over and over.  One of the coolest things about the Kindle 2 is that it comes with FREE wireless. The browser is not perfect, but it gets the job done (for the most part).  Price: $259

Looking forward to 2010:  What’s Next?

1. Wireless electricity…coming soon

2. A proper upgrade for the iPhone…better battery, HD video recording, front facing camera for video chat

3. Faster computers (plz)

4. 3D HDTV

5. Larger capacity more reliable SD cards

6. Flip camera with wireless, optical stabilization, mic jack, AND headphone jack

7. WiMax

8. A redesigned Facebook

9. A new more efficient, less processor intensive video codec. H.264 is great, but is really CPU intensive…takes 20min to transcode a 3 min video. S-L-O-W.

10. A video camera for every cop that records 24/7 and cannot be tampered with, and a less lethal taser. Police need WAY more oversight.

What did I miss? What tech trends do you see for 2010?

Do you disagree? Please let me know.

-John Birdsong

Part 1

Part 2

When asked who his mustache role-model is, Jeremy with confidence stated Ron Burgundy! And why not. His sense of style and charisma is a perfect aspiration when trying to sculpt and model your Movember Mustache.

If you are not familiar with Movember, for the month of November, gentlemen from across the world have come together to raise money for Prostate Cancer research, and the Live strong foundation through the sponsorship of their upper lip. I have personally donated to Jeremy Thompson’s Mustache and applaud him for his courageous dedication to the cause. I must also give props to my sister Allie who has lived with it for the last month.

If you have not yet donated, please take a second to support Jeremy Thompson’s Mustache.

http://us.movember.com/mospace/10038

I am happy to be a supporter of Movember and am proud of Jeremy Thompson for being a team player while sporting a fantastic Stash. Congrats JT!

Fryingpan Session #4

Pink Floyd Animals on Vinyl, Panman Mixtape no 51. WFMU Record Fair.

Record Dig, So Danco Samba, Jazz Samba. Sunday May 31, 2009.

Our visit to the Magic Castle was truely a Freakcast. I almost got turned down at the door for wearing sneakers. fortunately they had an extra pair of shoes in the back. Marlo wore his mask, as Abi and I cringed at the guy who was eating light bulbs at the Freak show Deluxe. A highlight of the night was in the parlor room when the magician read Abi’s mind and made a table levitate. The magic castle is a truly unique experience of hospitality, dance theater, acts of awe and of course magic.

The Magic Castle is the private clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc, a very special organization devoted to the advancement of the ancient art of magic. The purpose of The Academy is to encourage and promote public interest in the art of magic with particular emphasis on preserving its history as an art form, entertainment medium, and hobby. Beginning with a charter membership of 150, the Academy has grown into a world-renowned fraternal organization with a membership of nearly 5,000.

Only Magic at the Magic Castle in LA. What a great stay in the Hotel of the Magic Castle. Free mini bar. Great Service. and large rooms.

Brett Siddell Reporting from Bryant Park Ice Rink.