When Zarah a.k.a VJ Lady Firefly, told me that she was devising a project that involved beaming media into space, my mind ran amok. So many possibilities and so little time. Then again, time may only be an invented concept. Nothing is real, everything is permitted…

“On April 15, 16, and 17, a series of sonic, visual, and kinetic performances will be created into virtual time capsules for broadcast to outer space.  It is one of the few space broadcasts created by artists from all walks of life, without affiliations to government, military, or educational institutions.  Designed to be received by extraterrestrial life,Time Capsules to Space is an artistic and sociological collection of human interpretations regarding life on Earth as the Earth itself continues on a path of accelerating and irreversible change. What would people “send off” to space given the opportunity?

Transmission #1 takes place at Here in New York City. Each night calls for a select group of artists, aka Astronauts, to celebrate a different time of earth through their performances. The 1st night celebrates the Past, the 2nd night the Present, the 3rd night the Future. From audiovisual jams, to stick fighting demonstrations, to dance performances, each artist is asked to create a specific piece for the specific purposes of the broadcast.  Audiences have the opportunity to participate by leaving written messages through the website as well as leaving video messages immediately after the show.”

After much soul searching, Laugh Years Light Trax, became the undertaking that Nick Shifrin, Lucinda Lin, and myself, FreakCast, decided upon.

We are looking to stimulate and record human laughter, both with video and audio devices. Then, during the live performance, to both condense and amplify these recordings via the use of audio and video processing.

Using the live mix of audio and video, Lulu, will be reinterpreting the live mix with a dance-tickle-theatre performance. She will be clad in her own hand designed plastic bag macramé costume echoing the Heyoka traditions.

Laughter for more reasons than can be listed here seems to be the most obvious form of democratic, healing, “absolute” communication that exists beyond even our own species. There is almost nothing negative that can be derived from laughter and that is the message we would like to send.

The major question is, if this is a universal vessel of communication on earth between the human species and beyond, will extraterrestrial-unidentified

life forms understand what we regard as “fundamental” communication?

There was a moment when a mixtape was gestures of friendship… well, probably more than friendship. In fact it was a gift predominantly made from a male to a female or vice versa, that indicated a common interest in music and style. You sought to impress through your taste in song selection, sequence and novelty. Past mix tapes read like a chronology of ones past experiences.

In the classic compilation, “We both know why you are here” mix, my brother James crafted an arrangement of sexy songs with objective of setting the perfect mood. The mix was designed to start off innocent enough… only to progress so that at the perfect moment for both parties would happen to a great soundtrack.

Speaking of my brother’s influence, I want to introduce DJ Jimbo to the scene. Undoubtedly the product of some grimy beats this kid is destined for music genius. With practice and guidance from uncle Panman, this kid will be creating hot tracks before his second birthday.

My objective is to sort through this collection of tapes and sample the best moments into a new compilation.  With a sense of the history of the music and the people who listened to it, I will dive into it with style and grace. To keep the listener intrigued and excited with anticipation for each consecutive track is an objective.

Who gave you your first mix tape? What did it mean to you? What was on it? I am interested in hearing about you past music experiences.  Please comment, share and engage.

Thanks

Panman

“XTREEM FAN, a sports show for the uncommon fan.”

Premise: Two sports fans compete for the title of most xtreem fan. Host Wayne Soares will put two superfans to the test in front of a live internet audience.

About host Wayne Soares: 6′4′ 250lb, former announcer for the NY Mets and ESPN Radio.  Xtreemly passionate about his New England sports teams; Pats, Sox, Celts & Bruins.  Loves late night ham n’ cheese sangies w/ a few cold ones.

How to play: from June 29th – July 14th video submissions will be accepted at facebook.com/xtreemfan In order to participate one must submit a video response telling us what makes you an extreme fan. Please title your video with the words “re: (your name here) is the most Xtreem Fan”. Submissions will ONLY be accepted via facebook.com/xtreemfan

Two fans will be chosen to participate in a head to head competition for the glory of being known as the most Xtreem Fan.

How the game works: Based on a bracket/tier system contestants will compete to advance to the next round of competition.
Within each round there are prizes awarded for displays of Xtreem fandom. Each round will be broadcast LIVE as a half hour show, taking place at the Roger Smith Hotel in NYC.

There will be three rounds of competition. Quarter, semis, and finals.

first round prize: Goods and services valued at approximately $250
second round prize: Goods and services valued at approximately $500
grand prize: Goods and services valued at approximately $1,500

After a successful 2009 festival, the 2010 Roger Smith Shorts film series’s is teaming up with The Brooklyn International Film Festival to bring our audience five new films, from five new directors. The Panman Team will be tackling this challenge and look forward to shooting throughout the month of April. Casting is now opened for select roles listed below.

Opened casting call will be held at the Roger Smith Hotel please e-mail head-shots and resumes to abiprince@gmail.com for details.

Film #1 : “Out of the Bag” Director John Birdsong
Black comedy based on ruse with an unexpected ending.

Concierge: 40-50 year old male Caucassian 5′8-6′4. Wiry. Potential for evil. Corporate. Leading man. Sophisticated.

Sylvia Goodman: 60+ white woman (jewish grandmother type), a little disheveled a little quirky, authoritative, nasty and sweet. Leading lady.

Connie (maid): female hispanic 40-60 heavyset, supporting role

Mrs. Larson: young pretty swedish woman 18-25 (must speak swedish),
supporting role

Film #2: “Room 1410″ Director Melissa Gonzales
A touching story of love reunited. Story takes place both in modern day time and the 1940’s.

Young Samuel: Leading man. Handsome, naturally charming but genuine. Be able to
speak proper American dialect. No taller than 6ft. Blue or green eyes. Can play mid 20’s.

Older Samuel: Distinguished, 70-75 years old. No taller than 6ft. Blue or green eyes.

Film #3:”Sushi Talks” Director Abianne Prince

A quirky love story about two misfits meant to inspire each other.

The Plate: 20-30 year old Asian woman, Beautiful, strong, forward but classy, street smart, comfortable in her own skin, mysterious,
adventurous, not intimidated by men hitting on her, comfortable with partial nudity.

Jeff: 27- 35 male, lead character, sympathetic, trying to get ahead but always hitting obstacles. Hard working,cynical and a bit of an
underdog.

Film #4: “Ink Spoil” Director Marlo Brown
A surreal dream-scape where a man is in search of his lost / stolen shoes.

John: 25 – 35 year old male lead. Expressive face and eyes. Contemplative, dreamer.

Front Desk Women : 25 – 45 female, patient, kind, understanding.

Bellman: 20-30 year old blond male.

Guest of Honor #1: 45 – 55 year old African American male. Distinguished, powerful, cold.

Guest of Honor #2: 25 – 35 year old Asian woman.

Piano Player: 20 – 55 male who can play piano.

Doctor: 35 – 50 year old man. Strong facial features, intense eyes, cold, a little creepy.

Nurse: 25 – 35 year old woman. Sexy, tall, powerful, intense.

Film #5: “Dreams in a Frying Pan” – Director John Knowles
A fairy tale about a young boy and the lessons he learns in creativity from his grandmother.

Brooks: young boy – 6 – 9 years old, curious, smart youngster who
learns about himself through his grandmother’s story telling.

Nana: 60 – 75 year old grandmother, kind, gentle, creative, loving, unexpected.

We are looking for Non-union actors to participate in the casting. All Films will be screened at the Brooklyn
International Film Festival and be IMDB accredited. In addition Actors will receive copies of films.
To submit your head shot and reel please email : abiprince@gmail.com.

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