birdman’s blog

THIS WEEK IN GEEK MEDIA ADVISORY TIFFANY GRANT

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:40:36 -0230

This is a press advisory regarding CRNC 90.1 FM's show THIS WEEK IN GEEK with Mike"The Birdman"Dodd and Steve"Snowball" Saylor.

Recently THIS WEEK IN GEEK has conducted an Interview with Tiffany Grant, a voice actress whose work includes Excel Saga,Blueseed, and various commercials and her most famous role of Asuka Langley Sohryu on Neon Genesis Evangelion.

TWIG Hosts, Mike "The Birdman" Dodd and Pierce "The Punk" Derks talk with Tiffany about her career, voice acting, her experiences with Neon Genesis Evangelion as well other topics. This is the latest in a series of interviews that TWIG has conducted with various celebrities in the "Geek" community and certainly will not be the last.

The Interview can be linked to directly here

http://www.thisweekingeek.net/node/74

and Tiffany Grant's website is

http://www.modusproductions.com/eva-r/tiff/main.htm

This Week in Geek is a radio show produced in Welland,Ontario,Canada and whose listeners range from the Niagara Falls Region to the New Zealand coastline. With over 275,000 listeners and over 15,000 downloads of past episodes, the show continues to grow in popularity.

Questions or comments regarding this release can be directed to

Mike Dodd
Executive Producer

mikejdodd@gmail.com

Calling 289 228 1406 during regular business hours

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Birdman speaks....then again when does he shut up?

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:19:03 -0230

Birdman dropping in from places unknown, well not so much as I am sitting at my desk and this time I am working on EST for a change and up early.....this is strange since I was up late last night filling out media forms and what not.

So I decided just before I get into writing scripts for the day and doing all sorts of media stuff, I would write a blog...what do I have to say? Well that's the thing, I am not entirely sure

Recently we got mentioned on Stan Bush's website
http://www.stanbush.com/news.html
Pretty cool stuff actually, we had an icon call US....epic
How the hell cool is that?

So that is pretty cool and all things considered another step on the way to true awesomeness.....and that is what I aspire to....awesome epic-ness in the end

However as much as of a random thought just hit me, I think I found the source of this blog entry.....have you ever heard of the show....COAST TO COAST AM?

It's been around since the mid 80's and it is carried by over 500+ stations and it's a paranormal syndicated talk show...and it's an awesome experience

I usually listen to it via AM 640's website beginning at 1am EST

So anyway, I was listening to it a few nights ago and the topic was about time travel and how one man is determined to go back in time and visit his father or something.
Now the guest is a physicist and has some interesting ideas
Infact, here is a link
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2007/08/08.html#t

So Isn't that cool as hell?
I mean Time Travel by the end of the century?
Assuming the Time curves theory works and we can establish a working set of principles to work by.

Coast to Coast AM has always interested in me and some of their guests have been on my radar for quite sometime and really did peak my interest in radio broadcasting. I suppose it would be cool to be a guest host or even a guest on that show. I have called in a few times and even spoken to Art Bell when he hosted and talked about the collective power of something or another and then another time talked about EVP with another guest.

Para-science has always been an interest of mine and will continue to be so as long as it reminds interesting and the possibility of becoming real science at the same time.

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TWIG relay for life-Birdman Style

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:20:36 -0230

Hey boys and girls
Birdman swooping in from vacation for a second!

As you may have seen from our recent video blog of sorts, TWIG made an appearance for the Canadian Cancer Society for the first ever Cape Croker Relay for life for the Canadian Cancer Society.

My girlfriend Blaire and I drove down from near North Bay to Niagara Falls to come and grab the ever infamous Snowball and bring him back to the area into which we both used to call home at one point. We did however hit WALLS of traffic but that did not dampen our spirits as we trudged northward.

We made it home and just kinda planned out what was going to happen at Cape Croker and how we would handle the event as this was our second MC'ing gig since our C'est What appearance at Podcamp 2007. However we knew in the end we would do fine.....but as always we had a plan for how the evening would go...kick ass as always.

Now I will let the video blog stand for itself and how the event actually went down but I'll share some of my thoughts.

Being at one of these events really does bring out alot in people and especially when you see how this disease has affected people. I know that cancer does bring out some real sources of inner strength in people and it's really inspiring.

I myself have had my life touched by cancer,I lost one of my best teachers pass away due to a brain tumor when I was in grade 4. His name was Dave Dinkel and he was an awesome teacher and I think some of his lessons and kindness survived in me and perhaps my sense of imagination still remembers those books he used to read to us.

However, I'll keep this short and sweet and I'll say that the Relay for Life is truly inspiring and I recommend listening to the survivor stories...and I'll always remember this from the event
When life kicks you....kick back.

I'll remember that for quite some time.

Birdman
out!

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Busy @ This Week in Geek and a round up

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 04:04:38 -0230

Greetings mortals and autobots alike!

Birdman as always reporting in from the Birdman Blog and as you can see by the time stamp, it's late and if it's late...it means I am up working and doing some sort of production work or I am doing some ludacris amount of show research or emails...man I work ALOT.

Anyway, as things have been progressing here at TWIG at a breakneck pace..........actually Steve and I have recently done an interview on Tv Cogeco for thier show "In Touch" and it was fun experience. Actually alot of things were discussed in the green room and one of them was....pitching TWIG as a TV show...so whose to say that we won't bring TWIG into your home. However, we went out there and recorded our set with the host and it went really well. So watch our Interview to be playing this week on Tv Cogeco in the Niagara region and it will certainly NOT be the last you see of us on TV.

So the fundraiser is starting to come up on the weekend and I personally will be thankful for the end of the stress but I have made ALOT of really cool contacts from this and even have made some interesting things happen for TWIG for the summer. I really have to make a particular shout out to Betsy Weber and the group at TechSmith and to all our other sponsors like Motorola and Lexmark who have really gone above and beyond and stayed in constant contact with me and been amazingly friendly.

I have finally got a list of the prizes confirmed and there sitting in the studio and thier presence will be missed as mostly they make a nice place to put stuff on when I walk into the studio. So it has really been a smashing good time going around and doing what I can for littlegeeks.org and has even spun into several new oppourtunities for myself and my fundraising skills.

So now as the time has wound down, I wonder what TWIG will be headed into the new season as the summer moves forward, well we have some ideas. I have been working with some ideas and actually will have some cool stuff for the summer and will include specials on the Transformers and actually have press kits from Hasbro and Paramount and will even do shows on Ghost Hunting and space sciences and so much more.

However, the Birdman will be flying the coop for a few weeks on a much deserved vacation and Steve "Snowball" Saylor will be having various guest hosts during that time. However you all know me by now. you know I'll end up doing some work doing . Which reminds me....

Steve and I will be MC'ing a Canadian Cancer event for the Cape Croker Relay for life on June 22nd from 7pm till 7am...that's right, Steve and I will be on the air for 12 hours. So this will be our third MC event in as many months more or less, so we will have done the Podcamp C'est what event, and our Littlegeeks.org Fundraiser and now this. This is a great event and many like them are held in communties across this country. However, I'll post a brief link here but this will be as best as I can do

http://www.thehealthline.ca/eventdetails.asp?eventid=1629

and here

http://www.cancer.ca/ccs/internet/standard/0,3182,3543_354813_1753836594_langId-en,00.html

In closing, we have an Interview with the composer of Battlestar Galactica and his name is Bear McCreary and his website can be found at http://www.bearmccreary.com/

We are recording this tommorow and hopefully should be up ASAP but we'll be LIVE this week at 1pm from Mt Bellies here in Welland as first remote on location

I'll post our talkshoe stuff as soon as I know it.

Anyway, folks

Birdman

OUT!

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TWIG Is BACK! 60,000 Hits and 2500 downloads? WHOA!

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:04:19 -0230

Hey guys

Birdman reporting in from the NEWLY moved in TWIG studios and finally getting around to getting the equipment wired and the debts paid off for the new stuff and figuring what wires and cords go where but we are comfortably getting settled into our new surroundings.

So anyway, I am back from the week and change hitaus and it finally feels good get to back on the horse and get back to work. Which means I have a slew of emails and phone calls to return and see what I can to get my charity event moving a bit further along. I have made some progress and gotten some confirmations but I'll have to make some additional follow up emails and phone calls and work with Andy Walker and see what I can find our little geeks fundraiser.

I am excited for this event to happen as I see it as a major step in Steve and I's career as broadcasters. Speaking of that, I have applied for a scholarship from Native Affairs which would outfit us with new media equipment worth 5000 bucks. I am fairly optimistic about being able to receive this and with that, we'll get some snazzy new equipment and really take things up a notch and increase our media presence.

This summer is already shaping up to be fairly busy and already I am thinking of applying for the Canadian Television Fund and seeing if we can take TWIG to a broadcaster like G4 or even someone like City or something like that. It'll be a project that I'll develop as time goes on and who knows it could be something to do after I am done school. I also have been toying with the idea of a TWIG movie....or more like a documentary and have it be Steve and I's evolution from podcast to Broadcast or even something like our trip across North Amercia to the San Diego Comic con or some HUGE geek event and have it be our adventure and see where it goes.

Alot of this depends on luck and happenstance but I am a huge believer in that good things will happen if you work hard enough at time and are persistant. I said to Steve, a few weeks ago, prepare to be famous and I most certainly meant it....i intend to be successful before I have a diploma....I have a grand vision and I believe I already have all the right people in my life to make it happen....

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So this is down time? I don't like it

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:51:27 -0230

Hey guys,

Birdman reporting from a hacked wireless internet connection...that's right thanks country bumpkins.

Anyway, I have been home for a few days here in Shallow lake and just the very thought of being without internet is damned frightning. I mean, imagine being disconnected from the world and that is almost pure hell for someone like me who is permenantly jacked in the www all the time.

However, I have been making some headway into getting done for TWIG, yes even on vacation and hitatus I am still working as hard as ever. I am attempting to get some giveaways and some people have saidn yes and some people have said no...I can't reveal who they because that would be unprofessional but you know how it is

It looks like the TWIG studios should be up and going in about a week's time and I already have secured my new microphone, an Electrovoice RE510....a sexy as hell condensor microphone and even a cute little mic stand. So that also comes into play what am I going to make the TWIG studios going to look like, I really haven't put alot of professional thought into that other then the tech specs....which will be a dedicated MacBook Pro and our mixer and our mics and hopefully we'll get some really nice digital audio equipment like a Marantz recorder or something similar so that we can do RENG stuff.

Man, I just realized that is a huge run on sentence....

I want cereal.

It's so weird having all this down time, waiting for my exam marks to come in and see how i did after year one, and prep for year two and that means getting my A game ready....and that also means programming an entire summer's worth of shows which is worth it to me in the end.

I'd like to pitch TWIG to CBC or something like that and have this show carry on as far as it can. I am hoping Steve and I will cut a new demo to get picked up for next season's on CRNC 90.1 FM, then again I don't see why we would not get picked up from our win at the awards show this season.

I know we have alot of summer programming coming up and alot of cool interviews and hopefully some cool giveaways and with our launch part at Mt Bellies with Littlegeeks.org.

Wow, I kinda realize that I never quite switch off....even when I am sick.....yeah I am still without a voice and with some kind of an "itcis" or something

Anyway.....likely will find something to do with my vacation time....

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TWIG & Pure Pwnage Toronto

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 01:14:33 -0230

Hey guys,

Mike "Birdman" Dodd reporting in from yet another long weekend in Toronto but as always it was fun as hell.

So Steve and I headed down to T.O and stayed with my friend Brent from (www.closetgeekshow.com) and we had an adventure with Pierce and Megan who were our drivers and our entainment.

Still, to summarize a chunk of that night, touch Megan and Brent's knees and they speak in tounges and scream, so damned funny, I was hard not to wet myself from laughing. Still, we had a blast and we headed to Geoff and Jeremy's place from Pure Pwnage and it was a surreal experience.

Now, I'll admit, I had only seen the first episode a few hours before we headed over to their house and it was a neat experience all things considered. We had met them while they were editing the episode that was to premiere in less then 24 hours and he was editing on Adobe Preimere.

So Brent, Snowball and myself arrived and we conducted the interview and you can listen to that so I won't go into too much detail here but I'll say ANY host who supplies energry drinks to guests is a KING in my books.

Afterwards the trio of us headed back to Brent's place for punch and pie....well not really but anyway, it was a well deserved rest and funny conversation.

As a side note, eating two day old pizza will NOT kill you

Saturday was the day....and of course, I was up early and doing PR stuff at 9 am while Steve and Brent slept till Noon and 2pm respectively.

We spent the better part of the awake time trying to decide weather we wanted food or wi fi, but we were able to find both which was nice at the Fox and fiddle near Bloor st, I think. Regardless, had a wicked lunch there and then proceeded to head down to the Bloor st Cinemas and get our backstage entrance.

Just prior to going in we got to hang with the voice of the TEH MASTERER, and it was a surreal experience to meet one from the cast who was UBER approachable. We must have talked with Bill for like 15 minutes.

I simply cannot believer how popular this thing actually was...it actually blew me right away.

Steve,Brent and I got in early to help out and move T shirts and other merch into the Noob Store and it was work to help our new media friends and it was fun.

We got into the preimere and eventually it started and we watched a few of the previous episodes before the new season two start.

Now this is really the first time I got to watch some of this stuff and honestly I am glad that i got sucked into it at this time, more specfically the end of the first season one with the cliff hanger is what got me .

Now, I am NOT going to into what happened in the episode as that would make me a "Noob" and let me tell you some of that slang is kinda catchy.

So I'll close this blog entry in a second or two, cause this Pwn'er has to get up for a job interview in the morning but I will expanded upon the Pure Pwnage experience as seen thru the eyes of a "noob" but let me tell you one thing

I think I am in for the full run now....I joined the gamer army and even bought a shirt and may get thier full range of gear...what can I say?

They....

PWN"ed the Birdman....

Signing off for now

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TWIG @ Pure Pwnage

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:48:24 -0230

Hey guys

This is Birdman reporting in from some hijacked wi fi here in Toronto. So that means I'd like everone to come the Bloor st Cinemas

Check it out and come and meet us :)

We're expecting a crowd of 800+ people and we get EXCLUSIVE media access :)

It shall kick ass basiclaly but come out to the screening and become legendary.

anyway folks
If you in the TO area, CALL Me @ 289 228 1406 and we'll do what we can to come and meet our fans and listeners and just hang out.

See you at Pure Pwnage!

Birdman out!
Live free or die hard!

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TWiG @ Podcamp 2007--BIRDMAN EDITION-Part 33 1/4

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 03:06:59 -0330

Welcome back ladies and gentleman,

The Birdman of Niagara College returns to you and of course, it's time for my final blog of Sunday @ Podcamp Toronto 2007.

So Sunday morning, as it was came entirely too early and we had been sleeping since about 4 am and were up @ 9 am. Eventually we got up and got dressed in our typical geek-ish uniforms and headed to the convetion centre.

Sunday morning seemed alot more low key then the day previously and attendants had gotten into thier grooves. Snowball and I were sitting on a panel that morning for "Will podcasting: Kill Radio?". We did however sit on the panel and gave our point of view how we think, it'll do something for radio and it will basically bring the radio back to the audiences that it used to enjoy with the intergration of podcasts and streaming technology.

We then had a tour of Ryerson University's Broadcasting Department

and here are the pics that I took of that event....

and

Our tour guide Brad Fortner

and

Thier technical station to which I would LOVE to work @

A switcher that I fell in love with

Thier studio lighting grid

and thier studio cameras

Snowball in AWE from the sheer size of their studio

And now for a tour of thier Radio labs

This would be a place I would love to be broadcast from.....yes I left a business card there :)

it;'s cool, they stream to the web and there is a studio camera to watch the radio op

Here is Snowball and I on a piece of History, we are on the orginal CTV News set

Hopefully a sign of things to come....

After our tour concluded, we continued to work the floor and made more connections with the fellow podcasters and broadcasters. I was so tired at this point, that I was falling asleep at times during some of the presentations, see this is why we need sponsorship by JOLT COLA, or perhaps Red Bull or something....it's kinda sad when the Birdman gets tired.

LOL

So, anyway...Snowball sat on a panel regarding web tools

and then a close up

There are some more photos available on our flickr account.

Now, there was more or less the closing or our day and we had to leave early because our ride came early but she did take us out for what would the most awesome wings in the universe :)

So uber shout out to Kathryn :)

Anyway, that is all I got for right now, I am tired :)

So this is Mike "Birdman" Dodd signing off for

THIS WEEK IN GEEK

Podcamp Toronto 2007

Stay tuned for even more!

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TWiG @ Podcamp 2007 PART DUEX---BIRDMAN EDITION!

nobody@vox.com(birdman) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:16:55 -0330

Evening ladies and gentleman and all other sorts of genetic mutations out there in the Blog O' sphere

As you have read in the part of one of these entries, We attended PODCAMP TORONTO 2007 and it's was very cool and so I shall continue with the Breakdown of the rest of the conference....

So here we go.....PUNCH IT!

Mike "Birdman" Dodd and his interpid co host and personal savior Steve "Snowball" Saylor headed back to thier lair, which was temporarily in the hotel @ the Comfort Inn Suites and getting to check in was a mess and a half to say the very least....easily a boot to the skull to those of you that know me personally it was restraint and not anything else holding me back there...

So we arrived and got into a room which was ALOT larger then we expected but lacked one vital component that we needed.....internet access without wires....of course we did not have any RJ-45 cable on us so...we had to mosey down to the lobby and begin the geek process there.

Down in the lobby we ran into a few more fellow podcasters and there is where we began our plan of attack for the evening which was to include a round table show....which is now AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD via Itunes or at our website www.thisweekingeek.net

and of course, party it up and schmooze @ C'est What in Toronto which is a local bar/pub/cool place to go.

We had dinner with Andy Walker from www.labrats.tv and Gary Marriot from www.littlegeeks.org and Steve whose last name escapes me but he was a wicked funny guy. I'd also like to mention that Andy is a RIOT! He was poking jokes left right and centre and joked about clan XBOX and made up some other really funny one liners. It was a blast to be had before the real show really began.

Earlier in the day, Snowball and I had joked with one of the organizers if we could MC the evening and figured they would have already asked one of the more established audio podcast guys to do so but in the end....we got a surprise vist from our friend Brent from

http://closetgeekshow.com/

We got offically asked to do the MC'ing for the night and Snowball and I excited looks of "WTF" and then argeed to do so....and did we mention we had about 20 minutes to prepare for something like this and all we had was a set list and some names to go from. We sat down at our table and of course, logged what we could from our lap tops and went promptly into updating and while doing that planning as well

Eventually the time came and The Birdman and Snowball made thier TRUE Podcamp 2007 Debt, which did I mention was LIVE streaming to the Internet....to COUNTLESS people listening at home. As the song goes....we stepped on stage.....

and then there was.....

So we started out our set and I should mention that within a day or two, we will have clips of our MC audio which we were able to capture thanks to Doc Wu from http://wnypodcast.com/

Actually moments before I stepped on stage, I had to call someone and tell them what I was about to do and when I had to do something important, I immediately thought of them and that person knows who they are.

So we hit the stage and run some of our usual witty banter back and forth and of course, play it up as if we're actually recording our orginal show

We opened up for Sean McGaughey whose music can be found @

http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/bands/600/

His duct tape song was amazing :)

It had the whole bar going there for a little bit and it was a bit of a tough act to follow up.

However, his music was great and he was an awesome and friendly guy and I hope we're able to play some of his music on our podcast or perhaps do what Brent does and offer a mix tape every so often

So we returned to stage and then it clicked in that WE were being broadcast LIVE to the Internet and it was time to step things up a bit and of course, that meant hamming it up like you have come to expect from Snowball and I. This time we were setting up for the Band Uncle Seth from http://musicface.com/uncleseth/

They set up and just BLEW away the audience with thier set, I loved the singer Tara's voice and the guitars behind her were absolutely AWESOME

These pics were taken by Myself of course

Suffice to say, it was awesome and I really enjoyed it and my throat was hoarse from screaming that loud during that concert. I just realized, this was my first concert where I did not sustain any real serious injuries...woo for me!

Podsafe music from now on.....

After a huge round of applause and cheers, we returned to the stage and immediately asked ourselves, how in the hell are we going to follow that up? However fortune favors the unprepared and we had 20 minutes of time to kill before

Nurse came on stage from http://www.myspace.com/nurseband

TWiG basically went into what was more or less an impromptu show with no show notes or anything else, just us on stage while they set up. This was unexpectedly long set and we just had to keep adlibbing and so we talked about our show, Niagara College, our change from TV to Radio likely and all sorts of other things and eventually Nurse got involved and joked around with us but it was awesome in the end. It was like speaking to the world when you were in front of that mic and just letting it roll and not once did I become nervous or really stumble for words. It was that moment that I realized how much I love being in with an audience.

Nurse came on stage and literally shook the place with the power contained within thier instruments and it was more my speed of music which is loud and rawking :)

I went upstairs to get a coffee to power my body which was only running on 6 hours of sleep in 48 hours and I could feel the music from the building next door in the coffee shop.

It was awesome :)

Anyway, TWiG came back and finished our set with the club and we thanked everyone who showed up and we bit everyone a good night for a few minutes....

THERE IS STILL MORE TO TELL!!!!

So stay tuned for PART THREE and our regular episode which will be made available for download tommorow afternoon and maybe some new content also available :)

This is

Mike "Birdman" Dodd signing off for now!

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