Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Freestailo #15 - 11/27/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #15 Here

Mallow being told he's not really a frog.
First let me say how pleased I am with how parts of this show came out. I'm seriously, seriously really happy with it, and it's the first show where I've felt that I had a good grasp of the playlist when I went back and looked at it. The arc that I felt within the 3 hours felt tangible, rather than a little chaotic like it usually is.

After listening to the entire show, I'm especially happy with two sets of sound: my video game rant, and my whale sounds set. A lot of you probably know that I LOVE video game music, and if I could have an entire weekly hour of just video game music I totally would...this isn't a bad idea...you may be hearing more video game music in the near future. But ANYWAY, I love talking about retro video games, and it really made my night to listen to/talk about/play for you Super Mario RPG stuff. I think that the music worked really well, and after listening to it I'm sure that you'll enjoy it as well.

"Samson and Delilah" by Peter Paul Rubens
The Titanic set for me was absolutely wonderful, and I really enjoyed listening back on it properly. My original idea came from grabbing the "Titanic Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage" CD and reading the back. Immediately I thought of the "Whale Sounds" vinyl to use for layering, and to play a clip from the actual movie. With all of these ideas. As I went to find the whale sounds I found the Bernie Krause vinyl, which I think added a strange but good variety to the set. Even listening to it I couldn't tell what was from the Krause, and what was from the whale sounds, which I think is pretty cool. They both came out of the "Sound Effects" section, so I guess I should have expected that. Then I saw that "Mon Coeur" was on the Titanic CD, and knew that I had to play that, immediately followed by a recording of the vocal version from the actual opera. This song is one of my favorite songs of all time, across all genres. This almost always makes me want to just sob. Also, did you know that Muse has a version of this?!

Oh, and because it's my blog and I do what I want, I'm going to tell you a little bit about Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns. The story goes that Samson, a hero of the Israelites, is threatening the livelihood of the Philistines. The High Priest asks Dalila to seduce Samson and find his weakness, and she agrees. In the opera, she does this purely for revenge against him, and for her loyalty to her gods. In the original story, she does it purely for money. I can't tell what is more tragic. Anyway, she seduces him and brings him into her bedroom. She asks him what his weakness is 3 times, and each time he lies to her. On the 4th time though, he tells her that his power lies in his hair, and that if it is cut then he is helpless. This is when she sings "Mon coeur S'Ouvre Ta Voix," and very shortly after, as he sleeps with his head in her lap, she calls the Philistine soldiers that have been hiding to come and bind him and cut his hair. The opera ends with Samson crying out in pray to God, and toppling over the pillars of the temple in his despair, crushing himself and the Philistines in the process.

Here's a video of the lovely Shirley Verrett singing the famous aria:


Here are the lyrics/translation to "Mon Coeur 'S'Ouvre A Ta Voix" which I stole from Wikipedia:

Original FrenchEnglish translation
Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix,
comme s'ouvrent les fleurs
aux baisers de l'aurore!
Mais, ô mon bienaimé,
pour mieux sécher mes pleurs,
que ta voix parle encore!
Dis-moi qu'à Dalila
tu reviens pour jamais.
Redis à ma tendresse
les serments d'autrefois,
ces serments que j'aimais!
|: Ah! réponds à ma tendresse!
Verse-moi, verse-moi l'ivresse! :|
Dalila! Dalila! Je t'aime!

Ainsi qu'on voit des blés
les épis onduler
sous la brise légère,
ainsi frémit mon coeur,
prêt à se consoler,
à ta voix qui m'est chère!
La flèche est moins rapide
à porter le trépas,
que ne l'est ton amante
à voler dans tes bras!
|: Ah! réponds à ma tendresse!
Verse-moi, verse-moi l'ivresse! :|
Dalila! Dalila! Je t'aime!
My heart opens to your voice
Like the flowers open
To the kisses of the dawn!
But, oh my beloved,
To better dry my tears,
Let your voice speak again!
Tell me that you are returning
To Delilah forever!
Repeat to my tenderness
The promises of old times,
Those promises that I loved!
|: Ah! respond to my tenderness!
Fill me with ecstasy! :|
Dalila! Dalila! I love you!

Like one sees the blades
Of wheat that wave
In the light wind,
So trembles my heart,
Ready to be consoled,
By your voice that is so dear to me!
The arrow is less rapid
In bringing death,
Than is your lover
To fly into your arms!
|: Ah! respond to my tenderness!
Fill me with ecstasy! :|
Dalila! Dalila! I love you!
Now I really want to watch this opera. Who wants to watch it with me? No? You want the playlist? OK.

[Artist: Song - Album]
  1. The Temptations: Cloud Nine - Great Songs and Performances That Inspired the Motown 25th Anniversary T.V. Special
  2. Jon Gillock and Kathleen Bride: Charles Tournemire: Improvisation on the "Te Deum" for Organ - Organ and Harp
  3. Skeleton Key: Watch The Fat Man Swing - Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon
  4. DJ Vadim: Bath in Bleach ft. Monte Smith - The Soundcatcher
  5. Nancy Lesh: Raga Multani: Dhrupad in Chautal - Nancy Lesh, cello
  6. Foster the People: Waster - Torches
  7. Skylab: Seashell - Skylab #1
  8. Urbie Green: On Green Dolphin Street - The Lyrical Language of Urbie Green
  9. Nu-Spirit Helsinki: Afro-Cuban Sunshine - Mundial Muzique
  10. Tom Brosseau: Chandler - Posthumous Success
  11. Bjork: Frosti - Vespertine
  12. Chet Baker: 'Round Midnight (vocal version) - 'Round Midnight
  13. Damu the Fudgemunk: To RBI - Spare Time
  14. Sarolta Zalatnay: Egyser (with Skorpio) - Sarolta Zalatnay
  15. Schneider: Peanut - Skoda Mluvit
  16. REM: Hollow Man - Accelerate
  17. Richard Crandell: Diagonal - Wayfaring Strangers (Guitar Soli)
  18. Sacred Harp Singers At Liberty Church: I'm Going Home - Cold Mountain Soundtrack
  19. Lesser vs. Venetian Snares: Mensa Disco Queers - Return Of The Fight Club
  20. M.I.A.: Bamboo Banga - Kala
  21. Black Heat: Chicken Heads - Declassified Grooves
  22. Nintendo: My Paradise & Monstro Town - Super Mario RPG OST
  23. Nintendo: Still, Road Is Full Of Dangers - Super Mario RPG OST
  24. Nintendo: Super Pipe House - Super Mario RPG OST
  25. Nintendo: Happy Parade, Delightful Parade - Super Mario RPG OST
  26. Nintendo: Sad Song - Super Mario RPG OST
  27. BrandonFX: Waltz of Pain (Sad Song) - Newgrounds Audio Portal
  28. Whales: various whale sounds - Deep Voices
  29. Ian Whitcomb: The Convergence of the Twain - Titanic Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage
  30. Bernie Krause: Fish Wrap - Jungle Shoes
  31. Ian Whitcomb: Mon Coeur S'Ouvre A Ta Voix - Titanic Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage
  32. Olga Borodina: Mon Coeur S'Ouvre A Ta Voix - Saint-Saëns: Samson Et Dalila
  33. Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet: Jack Dies - Titantic
  34. Leo Kottke: Watermelon - Leo Kottke
  35. Com Truise: VHS Sex - Galactic Melt
  36. Aras Ensemble: Sevk-Efzâ: Nûmân Aga - Works by Turkish Composers
  37. Wild Beasts: We Still Got The Taste Dancing On Our Tongues - Two Dancers
  38. Komeda: Elvira Madigan - Kokomemedada
  39. Kononono No. 1: Wumbanzanga - Assume Crash Position
  40. Solvent: Instructograph - Apples and Synthesizers
  41. Les Rosemary's Babies: Les Marins, Les Rats Et La Baleine (Fable) - Lutte de Classe
  42. Tea: Vibration - Dreams
  43. Black Fiction: I spread the disease - Ghost Ride
Good things:
  1. Super Mario RPG set: It seriously makes me so happy to play video game music for you, and I really like the selections that I picked, and how they kind of morphed into what I was talking about. 
  2. Titanic set: I'm so excited for you to hear this so just go download the file. 
  3. Cold Mountain Soundtrack: I was pleasantly surprised with this. Did you know Jack White composed/recorded about half of this album? Wow. 
Bad things:
  1. Huge pause after Titanic: The whale sounds record was actually still playing, but it didn't really sound like it was because the overtones were sooooo low, and the Titanic video cut out earlier than I thought it would. Bu then again, maybe that's cool. Maybe you liked it. I don't know. 
  2. Elvira cutting out: UGH. I HATE doing this. I was swearing like a sailor in the station when this happened. Sorry about that. 
  3. Absolutely slaughtering the pronunciation of "Mon Coeur S'ouvre A Ta Voix": One of my friends in particular is going to really make fun of me for that and I think you know who you are, asshole. I have been mentally kicking myself since then, and it's recorded for all to hear. I am ashamed.
As always, I encourage you to leave me comments/suggestions/requests, and to keep listening to the show. I love the feedback I've been getting, and I can't wait to hear what you think of this show in particular. 

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Subshow #8 - 11/23/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Subshow #8 Here

This week is Thanksgiving (duh), so I decided to take a slot to ease the pain of the good soldiers that stay during Thanksgiving to run marathons of radio. Not that my two hour slot makes a difference, but as Arwulf says to me when he sees me, "What you're doing makes a difference." So there ya go.

Today I did something pretty different: I talked. A lot. I've been getting a lot of feedback from friends and family that they would like to hear me talk more, besides just reading events information and back announcing. This is an idea that I've been toying with especially since coming back from Radiovision, after hearing so many amazing storytellers (Ira Glass, Joe Frank, etc.) talk about their work. I feel really lucky to have the freedom to experiment with that at WCBN, so I hope that you enjoy it. I mostly stuck to explaining what I chose to play, and how it relates to my life, so let me know if that's something I should keep doing.

I also recently talked to a good friend, and one of my favorite listeners while I was home for Thanksgiving, and he gave me some really good suggestions for conscious hip-hop artists to listen to, so expect to hear some more of that over the next few weeks.

[Artist: Song - Album]
  1. Noirkestra: Ectoplasmic Tadpoles (Frog's Neck Bridge) - Psi-Fi-Hi
  2. Himuro: Mild Fantasy Violence - Mild Fantasy Violence
  3. Jean Morel and Royal Opera House Orchestra: Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
  4. Gotan Project: Gotan Project meets Chet Baker Round Midnight - Inspiración-Espiración
  5. Masloboevas: Lasses - Russian Folksongs in the Key of Sadness
  6. St. Tropez: Morning Music - Morning Music
  7. Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade - Scheherazade
  8. Kohwi: Reeling The Warmth - Hidden Trees
  9. Andrew Bird: First Song - Weather Systems
  10. J Dilla: E=MC2 feat. Common - The Shining
  11. Kitty Craft: One Fortune Smile - Beats an Breaks from the Flower Patch
  12. Electric Sandwich: Material Darkness - Electric Sandwich
  13. Anand Badamikar (tabla): Vilambit - Tintal
  14. Slap: Auto-repeat (version 2) - unmodified
  15. Either/Orchestra: Amlak abét abét - Ethiopiques 20
  16. Michael Perkins: Prelude + Esteban - MR 666
  17. Bootsy: Roto-Rooter - Keepin' Dah Funk Alive 2 - 1995
  18. Happy: Like Quicksand - kiss.bang.
Good Turkeys
  1. Swan Lake: Like I mention in the show, I had a watch a clip of this for my ballet class, and I'm really happy I got to listen to more of it for the show. I also think that the track went oddly well as far as length for how long my story was. Haha.
  2. Andrew Bird: Mmmm this was a gooood track. It kind of reminded me of the "Fatal" track from Escaflowne that I played last week. And both of them remind me of that creepy whistling track from Kill Bill...maybe I'll play that next week.
  3. Gotan Project: This track especially was super interesting to me, and kind of reveals the kind of influences that Gotan Project has, if they're making Chet Baker tracks, you know?
Bad Turkeys
  1. Electric Sandwich train wreck: *headdesk* I really didn't mean to stop that track right in the middle. I hit eject on the wrong CD player, and I couldn't think of what else to do. Womp womp.
  2. Ummmmm: I can't think of anything else. Maybe this is where you come in and tell me what I did? I honestly think my show as too short to mess up too much.
FEEDBACK GUYS! FEEDBACK! 

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Freestailo #14 - 11/20/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #14 Here

Hedwig clearly wants you to listen to WCBN.
Hello Earthlings.

I've been thinking a lot about the decisions that affect taking requests as a DJ. Hopefully you know this, but at WCBN, we take requests all the time. Every time I get a request, my gut feeling is, "I have to make this happen no matter what." First I run around the station frantically trying to find a hard copy of it (CD/Vinyl), but if I can't find it, I then have four options, in this order:
  1. My Personal Library
  2. Umich Streaming Audio via the Music Library Website
  3. Grooveshark
  4. Google (I am so, so sorry)
If I can't find it after that, it simply doesn't exist. Here's my moral dilemma though: should I even be considering any of these options (or the last 3 options)? The ultimate goal of the radio station is to give listeners high quality music over the airwaves. Am I betraying them if I play a YouTube clip, even if it was a listener that requested this song? A major problem I come to is this: if a listener requests something, they REALLY want to hear it. They wouldn't tell me to play a song that they didn't absolutely love. I want to give them what they want, and I want to share it with them. When I've had to tell someone that I can't play a request, it's like I told them their dog died. And if I can't please my one listener at 4:30 in the morning, then who am I trying to please?

Tell me what you think about this: would you rather have only high quality recordings, or have requests but at the cost of using a low quality recording? Does it matter to you? Can you tell the difference?

[Artist: Song - Album]
  1. Victims Family: New World Hors D'Oeuvre - The Germ
  2. M.I.A.: Galang - Arular
  3. Anne Hills: Cloudships - Bittersweet Street
  4. Ladytron: Destroy Everything You Touch - Witching Hour
  5. Bob and Danny Weller: Cranning Call - Tree of Thorns
  6. The Dells: Oh, What A Night - The Best of Chess Vocal Groups
  7. Yoko Kanno: Go Ri A Te - Macross Plus OST II
  8. Coco Montoya: Do What You Want To Do - The Essential Coco Montoya
  9. Astor Piazzolla: Tanguedia - Luna
  10. Kanda Bongo Man: Liza - Soukous in Central Park
  11. Black Taj: L.A. Shift - Beyonder
  12. Soupy Sales: Somebody Else Knockin' At My Door - Still Soupy After All These Years
  13. Labelle: Sunday's News - Moon Shadow
  14. Genoa Keawe: Pupu A'o Niihau - Legends of Falsetto
  15. Skinless: Deathwork - From Sacrifice to Survival
  16. Maxwell St. Klezmer Band: Hopkele - You Should Be So Lucky!
  17. Uriah Heep: Devil's Daughter - Return to Fantasy
  18. Eroc: Feuerwolken - Eroc3
  19. Carlo Curley Concert Curios: Camille Saint-Saens: Fantasie in E-flat Major - The Allen Digital Computer Organ
  20. Evgeny Masloboev and Anastasia Masloboeva: Kvanshnya - Russian Folksongs in the Key of Rhythm
  21. Fred Wesley: Herbal Turkey Breast - Amalgamation
  22. Bon Iver: Perth - Sparks and Glowsticks
  23. Recorded by Alain Weber: Hilal Gesture (in Harmont alBabur) - Music of the Nile Valley
  24. (unknown): Steam and Diesel Locomotives - Railroad Sounds
  25. Luke Temple: The Owl Song - snowbeast
  26. Air: Il Secondo Giorno (Instrumental) - Marie Antoinette Soundtrack
  27. Erich Kunzel and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra: Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter - Epics
  28. Quetzalcoatl: La Gallina (Mexico) - Quetzalcoatl
  29. The Antlers: Bear - Hospice
  30. Värttinä: Vihma - Vihma
  31. Randy Grief: Octopus Robot - War of the World, an Emergency Broadcast
  32. Louis Prima: Route 66 - YouTube
  33. Brave Combo: J'ai Faim, Toujours - Kiss of Fire
  34. Jurassic 5: Brown Girl - Feedback
  35. Franz Ferdinand: I'm Your Villain - Remixes
  36. Embryo: Dreaming Girls - Steig aus
  37. Brad Adkins: Imitating Walking + Lying for a Living - Big Red
  38. Curve: Zoo - Pubic Fruit
  39. Supersprite: Ghost at the Fireworks Factory - Color Mixing
  40. Bootsy: The Pinocchio Theory - Ahh...The Name's Bootsy, Baby!
I'm Your Hero
  1. Trains!: Like I said on air, I love trains. I love riding them, I love the sound of them, I love the view, the people, the bumpy feeling of the tracks. I think the tracks I layered with the train sound effects were perfect, ESPECIALLY "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter. It's like we're going to Hogwarts!
  2. Luke Temple: This was a really nice surprise, because I literally grabbed this CD because the album name was "snowbeast" which reminds me of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for some reason. Also...more owls.
  3. Hafiz and Rumi: Thanks to my good friend Katie, you got a beautiful Hafiz poem for your ears to process. This reminded me of Rumi's poetry, which is also lush and beautiful. Layered with the Nile Valley music, I think it came off well.
I'm Your Villain
  1. Ladytron Interruption: Right on the inside of the cover there was a sign that said, "Track 2 stops in middle! Bad rip!" But silly me decided to play track 2 anyway. So of course it stopped.
  2. Vielle Pause: I feel like I was not on top of the transitions today. Nothing in particular stood out to me, but I felt like it happened a few too many times for my comfort. I swear I will get better at that.
  3. Too much rock?: I realized after I came back from the rock section that half my pile of music for the show was rock. I hope I was still able to balance it out, but it still felt a little weird. What do you think?
Tune in next time, and keep giving me feedback! I really appreciate it!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Freestailo #13 - 11/13/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #13 Here

Guys. I just realized that my 13th Freestailo happened on the 11/13. THIRTEENS! AND 11 and 13 are both prime numbers. How cool is that?!
See?! 11 and 13!
This show was pretty fun, mostly because I felt like there was a little less pressure to have a great show because I subbed Kirsten's show on the Thursday before. I did a lot less layering, and I played mostly straight tracks, but I thought a lot about how I wanted to order things. I picked a pretty big stack of CDs, and used almost all of it, while gradually adding LPs and more CDs throughout the night for variety. It was a good challenge for myself to keep the level of variety (and aesthetic) that I usually have for my show in that way. Verstehst du mich? Das its nicht so klar.

I often will read poetry on my show, but instead of taking up large chunks of time to read and maybe explain the poetry, I decided to just read it. How did you feel about that? Did you like that more than me talking about it more? I would really like to know. Also, here's a list of the poetry I read:

  • "Sonnet: To Eva" by Sylvia Plath
  • "Sonnet V: If I should learn" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • "Sonnet #5" by William Shakespeare
Auch, ich habe eine Frage für meine Deutsche Leute: wer ist dein Lieblingsdichter, oder dein Lieblingsgedicht? Ich möchte etwas gute Gedichte lesen kommende Woche.

[Artist: Song - Album]
  1. Divine Styler: Grey Matter (Cosmos Mix) - Grey Mater
  2. Hiromi: Music for 3-Piece Orchestra: Déjà vu - Spiral
  3. Yamantaka: Reverse Crystal // Murder of a Spider - Sonic Titan
  4. Dan Deacon: my own face is F word - Meetle Mice
  5. Bio Ritmo: La hamaca - Bio Ritmo
  6. Bootsy: Fat Cat - Ultra Wave
  7. Sarasota: Tethered - Things Alive
  8. Hill of Beans: Satan, Lend Me A Dollar - Hill of Beans
  9. Boris Grebenshikov: Gertruda - Russian Songwriter
  10. Field recorder August Schmidhofer: Revoro - Madagascar: Music in Tromba and Bilo Trance Rituals
  11. Yoko Kanno: Fatal - Vision of Escaflowne OST 3
  12. Celestial Navigations: Janitor III: The Vacation - Chapter V
  13. xeno & oaklander: Blue Flower - Vigils
  14. Groove and the Gang: Soul Conga - Mr. Boogaloo
  15. All Out Water: Two Thousand Years - Condemned to Suffer
  16. Deepspace5: Wingspan - Unique, Just LIke Everyone Else
  17. Chirgilchin: Kara Drya (Black Crane) - The Wolf & The Kid
  18. The Rembrandts: I'll Be There For You - Friend's Theme
  19. Vector: Dreams and Realization - Synthonic
  20. Sarasota: I Fled To The Midwest - I'm Not My Bad Habits
  21. Sarasate: Habanera (Heifetz) - Sarasate
  22. Al Mayadine Quartet: 1st Movement - Jadal (Oud Duo)
  23. Sierra's Leone's Refugee All Stars: Soda Soap - Living Like A Refugee
  24. Kraftwerk: Spacelab - The Man Machine
  25. Urbie Green: Manteca - The Fox
  26. Mashkoor Ali Khan: Raga Lalit: Vilambit bandish in jhumra tal - Mashkoor Ali Khan
  27. The Christal Methodists: Backwards Masking/Dick Smarmey - New World Order
  28. Zara: Anadolu - Avuntu
  29. Luis Bonfá: Manhã de Carnaval - Solo in Rio 1959
  30. IAM: Bouger La Tête - L'ecole du Micro D'argent
  31. Prince Charles and the City Beat Band: Jungle Stomp (Extended Version) - Cash (Cash Money)
  32. Menthols: Fire Fire Fire - Michigan Works
  33. Mia Boyle: I Am A Diver - I Am A Diver
  34. Paul Stookey: Get Together - One Night Stand
  35. Lester Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble: Funky T - Funky T. Cool T.
Good T.
  1. Transition of moods: The transition between Deepspace5 and Chirgilchin was oddly appropriate, since Deepspace5 had a small amount of Tuvan throat singing in the background. That was not planned, except for the face that I linked their covers for a visual transition for myself. The same thing happened with Hill of Beans to Boris Grebenshikov, and from that to the Madagascar recording.
  2. I found the Urbie Green album!: I tried to find it for the show on Thursday but failed, because all I could remember was that it had the word "Fox" in the title, which gives me nothing essentially. If we had an online database maybe it would have been easier, but I think I really liked having to hunt for it. It's like winning an eBay auction. 
  3. Escaflowne OSTs: Soooo apparently we have like 4 Vision of Escaflowne soundtracks in the soundtrack section. This means 4 CDs of mostly Yoko Kanno. I think I literally screamed when I found it. Also, the particular Yoko Kanno track I played was, like, ecstasy. It also reminded me of Kill Bill. Hahaha. 
Bad T.
  1. Messing up Kim's requests: Yeah so my friend Kim requested Sarasate near the middle of the first hour, and I ended up playing Sarasota because I thought that's what he meant. Turns out, he really did mean Sarasate. Good rule to live by: just go with what your requester says and don't question, otherwise you'll look like an ass. 
  2. Big pause in first hour: For some reason I couldn't get the promo to play right away, so there was a big pause. C'est la vie. 
  3. Transition from Yoko Kanno to Celestial Navigations: I love these two tracks. I just don't love them together. The Yoko Kanno track was so beautiful, and I don't know what I was thinking picking a track like "Janitor III" to go after. It sounds fine, and I'm sure people will like it, but I wanted something more...subtle. Oddly enough though, the track reminds me of the 3 old guys in Cowboy Bebop, whose soundtrack was incidentally done by Yoko Kanno. So maybe this was actually perfect. >_<
Make sure to leave comments! Feedback, please?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Subshow #7 - 11/10/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Subshow #7 Here

OMG I'M DJING AGAIN! I can feel like a real person again!


I'm so happy to be back at the station DJing. I really enjoyed Radiovision, and I'm glad that I took last week off to recuperate, and I really do love being on the Board of Directors and getting involved with the station happenings, but there's really nothing like DJing guys. The rush of adrenaline. The absolutely feeling of spontaneity and chance. It's like a game or a puzzle, but like a puzzle you can share with others and say, "Did I solve it? What do you think?"

Something I really liked about this show was that it came right after Arwulf's show. Arwulf has been a big inspiration since I started DJing, so it was nice to visit his show again, and to feed off of the amazing energy that he gives when he plays music. I think that it really helped my show immensely, and I'm so grateful to share the same station as him. I also was affected by having only 2 hours, rather than 3, to play around with. It was a nice balance, because it helped me focus my set, and not fool around too much about what I wanted to do. Condensing a lot of ideas into a short amount of time is something that Arwulf is really amazing at, and also for that reason I was grateful for following him.

But anywho, here's the list:

[Artist: Song - Album]
  1. Bootsy: Shejam (Almost Bootsy Show) - Bootsy's Rubber Band
  2. Dracula's Music-Cabinet: Eine Handvoll Nitro (A Handful of Nitro) - The Vampires of Dartmoore
  3. Americans in France: Sylvia! - Crawling
  4. Frank Foster and Frank Wess: La Jolie - 2 Franks Please
  5. Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria: Holm - Balkan
  6. Fusioon: Tucata Y Fuga - Absolute Belter
  7. Yokota: Follow the Sonic Leader - The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection
  8. Jozef van Wissem: Various Selections - A Rose By Any Other Name
  9. Sloan: Underwhelmed - Smeared
  10. Wagner Pá: Plexo Solar - el imparable transeúnte
  11. Professor and Maryann: Cadillac (I'm Still In Love With You) - Lead Us Not Into Penn Station
  12. The Supremes: Stop! In the Name of Love - More Hits By The Supremes
  13. W.A. Mozart: Tuba miram - Mozart: Requiem, K. 626
  14. Koo Nimo: Abena - Tete Wobi Ka
  15. Kris Ellestad: Run Me Down - No Man Is Land
  16. Tom Waits: Ice Cream Man - Closing Time
  17. Chöying Drolma & Steve Tibbetts: Song of Realization - Selma
  18. underworld: mmm skyscraper i love you - dubbasswithmyheart
  19. Weird Al: UHF - WCBN Movie Night
  20. Tomorrowland: People Mover - Peoplemover/Subtractive Synthesis
  21. Reinhard Flatischler: Olua - Layers of Time
  22. The GC5: Sparkling Streets - Never Bet the Devil Your Head
  23. Thomas Fersen: Les malheurs du lion - Thom4s Fersen
  24. Thelonious Monk: Evidence - In Action
Party Animals: 
  1. Beginning with Bootsy: I don't think I will ever be sick of Bootsy. I love Bootsy. He loves me. I should remember that ANY Bootsy track is a good starter. 
  2. Tuba Canon: One of my better ideas for sure was to play 3 different recordings of "Tuba miram" from the Mozart Requiem, but at slightly different times. I think this come out quite well, and there were quite a few harmonically ambiguous moments where I wasn't sure about where we were. I think I will try that again sometime. 
  3. Kris Ellestad: This is a new CD that Pascal put in the station recently, and he let me rip it before he even put it in the station. I'm really in love with Kris Ellestad's music
Party Fouls:
  1. Extra Supremes: I didn't mean to play that couple of seconds of The Supremes for a transition. Choose the wrong turntable to press the cue button!
  2. Continuous multi-track CD for filler: I used the lute CD as background for the events information, but there were some weird pauses because I decided to set the CD player to continuous. I didn't think about that happening since with records it goes pretty quickly. And usually I use a long track anyway. I will use long tracks in the future and not numerous short tracks. I should also loop tracks more often. 
  3. Same track for multiple track times: I think the playlist had me playing "Sylvia!" for quite a long time. I kept thinking I was messing up which cue I was using, but really I just kept moving up the track unnecessarily. Whoops! Sorry if you were depending on the playlist to know what you were hearing! 
Tune in  from 3-6am this weekend for my regular show! I can't wait to do some real damage to your brainwaves! 

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Radiovision Day 3 - This...is...RADIOVISION!!!

The official Radiovision conference went underway this day. This day was the official symposium of panels, workshops, and presentations, which were all held in one room in the Metropolitan Pavilion in Brooklyn, NYC. I learned a lot from every single event, and just as much while talking to other students, professionals, fans, etc. during the breaks. Here's how it went down:

-----------------


LE SCHEDULE
9:30 - Registration
After running out of the house, we ended up waiting for the metro longer than we thought, and I was practically sprinting in my heeled ankle boots to the door because I thought we would be late. Turns out, as it usually does with any new event, IT was the one running late. We settled down, met David and Pascal at our seats, and I chatted with a couple of boys from Brooklyn that were big fans of Marc Maron. They listen to his show every time its on, and one by does some sort of comedy news show for his high school's station. It was amazing to see people of all ages representing the entire spectrum at the conference, and to see kids that are as motivated about protecting radio as we are. I also realized that all in all, there weren't that many people at the conference. It was a relatively small audience, which I felt very proud to be a part of.

9:50 - Welcoming Remarks - Benjamen Walker and Ken Freedman

10:00 - Origin Stories - Ira Glass, Marc Maron, and Tom Scharpling. Moderator: Therese Mahler
After the very brief opening remarks, came what I had been waiting for since I signed up for this conference: to see Ira Glass. I've been a big fan of 'This American Life' ever since I first started listening to radio podcasts at my library job while I was shelving microfiche and magazines. That, Radiolab, and Liz Berg's podcast (of WFMU) were pretty much all I listened to for my 8-hour work days during the summer. It really made me want to do what they were doing, and when my friend Lady K at WCBN suggested I DJ, I went full force.

Anyway, the topic of this panel was to point out the different routes that any individual can take to get into radio. Ira Glass went the traditional public radio route, Marc Maron was a host on Comedy Central who then got into doing podcasts in his garage, and Tom Scharpling started with freeform music and came back to WFMU for a freeform talk-show radio setting. After getting introductions out of the way, the conversation got much deeper into the psyche of a professional radio personality/artist. Each of them talked about their insecurities in putting themselves out there, whether its with their ideas, their personalities, or whatever. Each of them had the fear that they would mess something up, but all handled it in different ways. Ira Glass didn't really like the idea of being on live radio, because he's used to editing stories over long periods to make sure that everything's perfect, whereas Marc Maron doesn't edit anything, and Tom Scharpling's right-out live on the radio. I thought this brought a nice spectrum of possibilities for all personality types by having these three people represent on this panel.

A small but important point for a DJ to think about is the topic of listening to your own show. All three of them have some sort of aversion to watching their show, unless they take a long time (a year for Ira) to listen to it. All of them had the same opinion that you should just let your show "exist" and not try to become too involved with it. This is interesting to me, because I try to make it a point to listen to my show after I've performed, so that I can critique myself while my feelings and inner thoughts are still relevant and present. This could also be the difference between being an amateur student radio DJ and a professional, so who knows.

They also talked about how radio will exist in the future, which is one a new side of Ira Glass came out that I have never seen. We shall call this Mad Ira. When Therese asked the question about keeping radio alive, Mad Ira practically started pounding on the table and basically said that the question is totally irrelevant, and is over-asked. The fact of the matter is that radio has existed for so long, and still continues to exist, so there isn't much question that it CAN exist. And if someday it ceases to exist, it doesn't matter, because that means that something else came along to replace it. Something that we probably can't even conceive of yet. Something that will be amazing. This was definitely top 5 moments of the conference for me, and what Mad Ira said while metaphorically ripping his shirt and pouncing on the table will stick with me for a long time. "Who cares if radio survives? Something else will happen." He also said that there has never been a better time to do creative work in radio than right now. That we can really do anything.

11:00 - Vicki Bennett
Vicki's presentation was all about audio/visual collages that she had made. They were essentially short films, but they had a heavy emphasis on the music and sounds associated with the films, as well as the idea of integrating media together to create new ways of thinking, and new ways for our audience to consume ideas. The most important thing I got from this is that by thinking about combing media in difference, you are essentially redesigning a deeper essence of media. Her project is called 'People Like Us' and has a heavy emphasis on horror movies.

11:15 - Break 1
The most important thing about this break was that I MET IRA GLASS. In the flesh. Shook his hand, told him my name, and got a legal ID for WCBN (which actually isn't legal yet and I need to edit it). He even asked me, since I was the first person to come up to him, "So, what is this conference for?" Hahaha! He was so down to Earth. I then also grabbed Tom Scharpling to get a legal ID, which is actually legal. Super cool guy, and all the other WCBN DJs are excited to start using the legal iD.

This first break was also interesting, because after everyone was dismissed for 15 minutes, WCBN dispersed for bathroom/networking, so I went up to a man sitting in about the 5th row of my section of the room and introduced myself and asked him what he did, if he did radio, etc. Turns out folks, that he worked for Ira Glass on 'This American Life' for 2 years. LIterally, he said, "Yeah, Ira's was my boss." After I collected myself I asked him what kind of stuff he did, but he seemed more interested in asking about my life. We talked about classical music a bit, roles I would want to do, and he shared some ideas he had for radio shows that he had, and I told him a bit about the kind of stuff I try to do.  It felt great to have that kind of connection with someone so early in the conference, and I think it really helped me open up to more people throughout.

11:30 - Virtual Communities - Gabriella Coleman, Kenyatta Cheese, and Bre Pettis. Moderator: Tim Hwang
This was a very multi-faceted panel, and one of the ones I was most excited about. It consisted of Gabriella Coleman (professor at NYU), Kenyatta Cheese (KnowYourMeme), and Bre Pettis (Thingiverse), with moderator Tim Hwang (ROFLcon). Soooo, we got the big guns here, basically.
The biggest and most important thing that I got out of this panel was the the internet is our new God. All of these people have utilized the internet to empower their users to come together as a community, and all in different ways. Gabriella started Anonymous as a sort of hacking community, which then became a sort of political movement. Kenyatta basically organized all internet memes into one arena. Bre found an effective way to link his users together, and ultimately found that with very little push on his own part, they will form together to create other websites with the ideas he gives them. Internet makes community bigger, and will make radio bigger. This is imperative.

Another important idea is that a lot of these people emphasized making a physical place for their community possible, like with Anonymous or ROFLcon even. And they created a real relationship with the community so that when there was a "call to action," the community would respond right away. This "call to action" idea is something that radio could truly benefit from, especially in the digital medium. It makes a community yours, and allows your community feel like they own you as well. It was also made clear that radio is similar to a focused/specific internet community, such as Thingiverse or KnowYourMeme. Our listeners/users may not be widely spread, but they are dedicated, and we need to be able to appreciate them for what they are.

Meme culture was also a big topic, and oddly applicable to radio. The meme has become a sort of new language for the internet, in the way that you can now use images/gifs/videos/whatever to communicate with other users without ever saying a word. A great example of this is the Rage Face, which I actually have an iPhone app for, and often I will communicate only by pictures with friends that know the Rage Face meme well. Translating this to radio could be a very interesting concept, and I'm excited to see where the radio community could take it. This idea is what the panelists deemed as "micro-impact." Another important topic they talked about was the Protect IP Act, which is something I didn't know about before this, but is vital to the survival of the internet, and everything that we know is true and free about the internet. I would suggest that you sign this petition to oppose it, if you like your internet the way it is.

Something I briefly mentioned before but was a big point by the end was that all digital communities that have a wide audience and wide success have some sort of non-digital component, and that's what makes them effective. For example, Reddit has gift exchanges, Anonymous has meet-ups, etc. Communities aren't separate anymore. The need to conjoin mediums is more important than ever for getting people involved with your cause/radio.

12:30 - DJ/rupture
When DJ/rupture went up to give his presentation, I really was not sure what to expect, but I was so surprised, and there really wasn't anything else like it on the program for the day. He talked about how he spent a lot of time in Morocco researching their traditional music, but also their popular music. He said that in Morocco, it is very common--and has been common for the past 10 years or so--to autotune their music. This has a very cool effect, and you might be able to imagine it if you've ever listened to Middle-Eastern or classical Indian music. The tonal structure for these styles is not like Western classical music, but utilizes notes in between the Western notes, like on a piano.

He also talked about the language of the Moroccans does not conform to the Roman alphabet, and thus isn't represented in software like he thinks it deserves to be, and is created a software which he is developing a digital form of the written language for. It was a beautiful contrast to the other presentations, and put everything else following it in a sort of global or universal context. This project is called 'Beyond Digital' and I highly suggest you check it out.

12:45 - Lunch
Lunchtime was funny because the music director of WPRB (Princeton) was chatting with us and suggested we talk to his kids. Because I felt like I was on a bit of a roll with this networking thing, I took the initiative and asked them if they wanted to have lunch together.

While talking to them, I was really surprised, but mostly pleased to find that they were really different from us. On a basic level, our group personalities contrasted completely. WCBN is kind of the weird, quirky kid with strange hobbies of student radio, and WPRB seems to be the cool kid station. We both have really great things going for both of us, and it was cool to hear what kind of stuff they did. They have a freeform style going too, but each DJ feels super comfortable digging into one thing or another sometimes. They also like to do co-hosted shows a lot, which seems to take a lot of pressure out off of individual DJs, and allows for less trouble when someone can't come to their slot, which has occasionally been a problem at WCBN.

1:45 - Andy Baio
I didn't recognize him by face or name, but there were quite a few people that give Andy Baio a nice applause before he even got to the stage, so I expected something great from this panel, and I wasn't disappointed. Andy Baio is the man behind the Star Wars kid, and for putting The Grey Album on the web. He spread Kind of Bloop, and has done a lot of research in Super Cuts, and creator of Waxy.org. Aside from taking the idea of using super cuts for my freeform show, he made an interesting point about how free access to editing and unlimited access to torrents and video made super cuts such a possible thing, and how when people are really engaged with something that they like, they will find ways to obsess about it. He also is the master of making viral videos/files, which is a useful skill to have for doing radio and promoting your station/show.

2:00 - How to Pay For It - Yancey Strickler, Christina Xu, Jeff Tammes. Moderator: Rebecca Gates
This was quite a controversial topic a lot of the people at the conference. A lot of people had mixed feelings about it on multiple levels, one of the most prominent being some of the ideas that Jeff Tammes was putting out about cooperating with brand names to get studio time for artists. On one level this is great because it gives artists the chance to get free studio time and get their name out there, but it also is still controlled by a brand name, and also isn't a very helpful idea for funding radio stations or radio projects in general. Even Yancey Strickler (from Kickstarter) and Christina Xu (from Awesome Foundation, yes that's their name) had fundraising ideas that were more geared towards smaller groups, or for one-instance projects, rather than long-running radio stations that need a consistent amount of funding. Perhaps what they were saying was useful to other people at the conference, but I didn't take much away from it in conjunction with WCBN, but rather for future personal use if I may need it. Despite that though, Christina Xu in particular was very eloquent, and a lot of things that she said resonated with everyone at the conference.
The only ideas that I really got to help WCBN were these:
  • Make relationships with people with deep pockets
  • Make relationships on a local level
  • ANYONE can launch a project if they want
  • Technology empowerment
  • Be capable of convincing people of your cause
  • Find friends to help
  • Be able to articulate your ideas to rally people
  • Be true to what you do and who your fans are
  • Important to have mentors and peers to bounce ideas and frustrations off of
  • Find out where there is a void, and how you can fill it
3:00 - Break 2
This break was relatively short, but I decided to walk over to a woman sitting by herself looking very nice in a blue suit. I asked her if she was with a radio station, or if not what she did. Turns out that she works for Google, and that she had just come in during the Andy Baio presentation. She said that was was especially excited about the Brooke Gladstone presentation, and that she was here to research Google's use of radio for advertisements.
She also was interested in knowing my opinion about internet radio like Pandora, or alternative radio like Sirius or XM. Although this may be blasphemous as a DJ, I admitted that I used to listen to Pandora a lot, and retrospectively I remember now that I used to listen to XM quite a lot, because my dad bought me an XM radio for the house because I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Although I'm a bigger proponent of local radio, I definitely see the use for Pandora, Last.fm, Grooveshark, what-have-you, and still use each of them intermittently when I'm looking for music in a specific way, whether by artist, genre, or specific style like with Pandora. It's all a matter of what you want at the time, and the internet has so many possibilities. Unfortunately, most people use ONLY Pandora, or ONLY Last.fm for their music radio needs, which definitely needs to be remedied.

Anyway, it was great talking to her, because it put radio in the context of the internet in general, which is a truly universal concept. In a way this set up perfectly for the next couple of panels, which were specifically about using the internet to expand the concept of radio.

3:15 - Kenneth Goldsmith (aka Kenny G)
Kenneth Goldsmith had quite a bit to say in a short amount of time, and a few controversial statements that WCBN DJs continued to think about into the week. One of the main things that really shook everyone was that music has to be shared and digitized. He doesn't care about objects at all like he used to, and wants to make the music have its own existence and live in the internet. He is more interested in the hunt rather than the prey, and believes that moving information is more interesting than the actual thing now. As a performer, this really tore me down a bit, because it means that pushing and moving files is better than listening to an actual file of a performance, but the interesting conclusion that I came to is that the moving of files really is important, because that means that someone WILL listen to it at some point, just maybe not as immediately as you want or expect. Perhaps only a few people would listen to a file immediately if I posted on my blog, but if the file gets moved across the globe, then someone in Algeria can listen to it. HOW COOL IS THAT?! I wouldn't be able to know how to push my own file there, but the internet finds its ways, and it's beautiful.

He also mentioned that radio is a beautiful filter for music, because now that he is in the business of uploading obscure files to the internet (ala Ubu), he has too many files and cannot listen to them all. He wouldn't even know where to start. But radio is great because someone else is structuring what you listen to, so that you can really just enjoy the experience, rather than going through files that you might not even like.

3:30 - The Future - Ken Freedman, Jake Shapiro, Kara Oehler, and Glenn Otis Brown. Moderator: Benjamen Walker
This was absolutely the most involved panel out of the entire conference, and I think the culmination of all of the ideas that had been building up throughout the day, which was really great planning on Benjamen Walker's part. This panel was composed of Ken Freedman (general manager of WFMU), Kara Oehler (Zeega), Jake Shapiro (PRX), and Glenn Brown (Twitter). There is a long list of things that were valuable about this panel, so I'm just going to dive right in.


Ken Freedman mostly talked about how he engages his audience when he DJs. He has a database of pictures which he updates pretty much every day, and adds tags to each picture. So then when he is updating his live playlist, he also attaches a picture, and very often a .gif that is in the rhythm of the song. He also has a live chat that is open for  his 3-hour set, so that his listeners can engage each other as well. I recently participated in one, and it was a lot of fun, and I can easily see how this would build up a community/fanbase very quickly. He also talked about his non-listening listeners which can participate this way.

Glen Brown had a lot of interesting things to say, and especially with the psychology/philosophy behind Twitter. He said that People will always gather around something, and that people always want to share spectacle. It's like when you hear something on the radio and call a friend to tell them to turn it on. Except now we're using the internet to tell people to turn on their radios. He also said to offer 3 things on your show: spontaneity, organization, and artfulness. These will attract your audience, and will make it easy for your audience to stay engaged. An important idea is also that no one invites someone to tweet something: they do it on their own accord. You have to have something worth sharing to make it worth it.

Kara Oehler is behind the Zeega project (which was one of the workshops on the Hack Day that we didn't get to attend), and she had a really interesting perspective on the topic, because she is a documentary filmmaker. She created a project called "Making Main St." which reached out to all kinds of different people and invited them to create their own documentary experience through photos and video. Zeega is similar in that it's an open source way to create documentaries, and in a very freeform sort of way. For example, she showed us a little sticker that you put on the outside of a building, and when you call a certain number, you can hear a loop of a recording of the inside of the building. SO COOL! That's called the Fermata Project.

Jake Shapiro was from PRX (Public Radio Exchange), and he told us about the concept behind PRX, and that it was established with the notion of how you would make radio now in the present, with all available facilities. It's a combination of national and local level radio, and connects them very fluidly by sharing content. He also mentioned their mobile app, and showd us a video of how it worked, and how a lot of radio stations are starting to make mobile apps to engage their listeners. The interesting thing is that you can't just make an app with a link to your website anymore, or with just your live stream. You have to have some sort of valuable content to share. A good example of this was KCRW's mobile app.

Benjamin Walker, who organized Radiovision, had a lot to say about the podcast revolution and how it gives a lot of chance for people to hear radio, but what the internet lacks is LIVE radio. WFMU is a good split between live and on-demand audio. He also talked about Soundcloud and how it gives users a chance to comment at specific moments, which is so helpful, and how to use the listening community to preserve that.

An idea that was thrown around that I like was the metaphor of a DJ being a party host. Everything you need to be a good host is what you need to be a DJ, because it's like you're hosting a listening party. There was also the question of what do you want to get from people to help you tell a story? Must it be surprising? And a lot of times as a DJ you are not in control of what your listeners think and feel, and you have to be OK with that. Another big question was how local radio fit into the picture. It was concluded that local radio allows for a more specific fit so that listeners can hear their stories being reflected through their station. The future involves storytellers. It can be a distinctive connection, and ties the physical community to the virtual community to have a local station involving and trying to relate to its listeners. And also, being commmitted to local listeners isn't lost to listeners outside of your local arena. An example that was made was when WFMU did an easter egg hunt around New Jersey. Despite it being a very locally driven event, a lot of international listeners were excited about it as well, thus proof that keeping local doesn't really alienate audiences.

4:30 - Break 3
Honestly, I think that I went to the bathroom for the first time all day during this break, and thus nothing interesting happened and I talked to no one. Sorry if that was TMI. No I'm not.

4:45 - Brooke Gladstone
For this presentation, Brooke Gladstone, a co-host and managing editor for 'On The Media', came to talk about her comic that she wrote called 'The Influencing Machine'. She talked about how respect for the media is in decline and how the media is criticized when they aren't covering something enough. She said it has to do with how the media is a mirror of what we care about (or tries to be), and so if the media isn't reflecting that well, the people will get upset. Another thing she mentioned is that sometimes the people that we know the least will be the people to throw you things you didn't expect, and that cartoons are like radio in the way that they make an intimate connection, which is something we desperately need. One thought that really caught me is that "pictures are sticky" and even if radio is successful, it helps to have associated content with it.

5:00 - Keynote: The Best Party Jón Gnarr and Heiða Helgadóttir. Moderator: Bronwyn Carlton
The keynote speech was definitely one of the best moments of the entire conference, and a beautiful way to cap off the discussions of the day. Jón Gnarr is the current mayor of Reykjavík, Iceland, and was elected after forming a satirical and anarchical party known as "The Best Party." Oh, and also, he's a former comedian and actor. His philosophy and religion, he says, is based off of humour, comedy, and nonsense. He tries to keep things as simple as possible, and reacts to other politicians radically different than they do to him. If someone says that he is stupid, inadequate, a joke, whatever, he simply says, "I'm sorry you feel that way, I do not feel the same about you." And his only campaign promise was this: "We will break all of our campaign promises."

Jón sees comedy as a sign of intelligence, and makes pure decisions because he has nothing to lose. He really doesn't care if he gets elected again, but wants to at least make a difference while he's in office. He also believes that everyone has a sense of fairness. He prides himself in knowing that no one has quit working for him once they started. He loves his country, and wants to work hard for it. He doesn't understand why you can't just elect good people into office, and why there are so many corrupt politicians in the world still. He thinks it may be a matter of people just not caring, and not participating. Jon makes a difference in this by participating with his community. He even led the gay pride parade in drag this year! A major thing he said is this: he is OK with failing, because that only means that someone will do better later. IF ONLY everyone could understand this. And he also believes that politicians now don't know how to deal with love or humour, and so he usees that to his advantage.

Something that Brooke Gladstone said to him was that she believes that his philosophy of nonsense is actually a very pure form of idealism, but that you can't overanalyze, otherwise it becomes tainted, just like a joke that is analyzed. After listening to him speak, I had an overwhelming love for this man, and overwhelming optimism for the world after speaking to him.

---------------


Post-Conference:
After the conference we all went to the record fair, where I proceeded to be completely overwhelmed by the actual amount of records. I ended up buying three $1 CDs, two of which were pretty good, and I got to talk with Brooke Gladstone in person for a second. I also bought a WFMU t-shirt. And then we went to dinner and said hey to DJ/rupture, who just happened to pick the same post-conference snack as us.

Regrets:
Although I got to do a lot of stuff at the concert, I still have a few regrets, some of which I couldn't really control. For one, I wish I just had more time to talk to people and get a sense of the people there. Although I talked to the Princeton crew, the Yale kids, and a few professionals, as well as the panelists, I would have loved to chat with some more of the WFMU folk, since we really do the same thing, but on a smaller, student level. One of my favorite DJs that I mentioned before, Liz Berg, was apparently there, but I didn't get to meet her.

So there you go folks. It took me long enough to cover, but I loved every minute of it, and I really think that WCBN is going to benefit from the ideas that came out of this. I also hope that you as a listener will be able to take something away from this, because I think that a lot of the ideas that were spread in this conference are highly applicable to all walks of life.