Ambivalent Voices #16: An Interview with Deborah Schneider

The latest episode of Ambivalent Voices is a special back-to-school edition featuring a conversation with Deborah Schneider, co-author of Should You Really Be A Lawyer? If you're a law student or thinking about becoming one, I almost guarantee you'll find this conversation helpful and informative in terms of making the most of law school and finding the right area of law for your own career. Check the show notes for more details of what you'll hear.

Posted 07:32 AM | TrackBack

The Podcast Learning Curve Is A Sine Wave

Blawg Review #22 is up at Blawg Wisdom and it's packed with links about how hurricane Katrina affected the legal community, what's going to happen with the SCOTUS with two new Justices on the way, some great links from various practitioners, and a few notes about people starting and returning to law school. I think it's a fine Review (I'm biased) and I encourage you to check it out. That said, it's not everything I'd hoped it would be.

This was my first time hosting Blawg Review and I wanted it to be special. The theme was back-to-school so I had hoped to read or scan as many law student and law prof blogs as I could and compile more links than you could shake a stick at about the return to school. I also planned to supplement all that law schooly goodness with about 8 great podcasts featuring interviews with students returning to school. Well, I praised Gizmo a while back for giving me one-click, high-quality, phone recording. And while it's great, it has one problem that I didn't discover until way too late: The sound files it creates are not compatible with Garageband! After many attempts to convert the files into something Garageband would accept without destroying their quality, I finally found that all was well if I burned the files to CD as regular aiff files, then imported them into iTunes as mp3s, then imported those files into Garageband. Needless to say, that all takes a lot of time, none of which I was planning on when I sat down to work on the project, so my big plans had to be reduced considerably in order to make the deadline. Oh well.

And then, as I was enjoying a great hike on Labor Day, I realized that I had produced a Blawg Review on Labor Day that said almost nothing about labor. How sad. I was so focused on my big podcast plans that I just forgot. So I'm sorry about that. I know labor is pretty used to be discounted and dismissed, but I really hate being part of that.

In my final podcasting lesson for now, I also learned why Garageband is not the ideal podcast creation tool: It doesn't allow you to create "songs" longer than 999 "measures." That's apparently about 33 minutes, which is fine because I prefer podcasts that are shorter than that and I think most listeners do, to; however, it's not fine when you have a great interview that happens to be longer than that. Garageband also has other drawbacks as a podcast-creator; primarily, it doesn't have a very good way for you to save and reuse bits, such as promos or transitions or little intros or outros that you'd like to use in multiple shows. You can sort of do this with the loops, but it's pretty limited. You can also just create single files with those things and import them again for each project, but that's a pain. I wonder if Apple has any plans to create a real podcasting tool. I hope so. If not, I hope someone else will make one that has Garageband's great mixing capabilities but adds lots of nice little features just for podcasting.

Anyway, as I said here, I'll be working on publishing those interviews w/law students as soon as I can. Meanwhile, thanks to all those I've had the pleasure to interview—your podcast is coming soon!

Posted 07:15 AM | TrackBack

Gizmo Project Rocks

I've had the pleasure in the last couple of weeks to talk to a number of fun, interesting, and knowledgeable people as I prepare the podcast to end all podcasts—the back-to-school podcast for Blawg Review #22, which will be hosted by Blawg Wisdom on September 5. As you may recall, I've been trying to figure out a good way to record phone interviews for podcasting purposes. I started with Slapcast, which allows you to record 5-minute bits of conversation with someone just by creating a 3-way call. Simple, easy, cool, except that 5 minutes is kind off limiting. It's a pain to get into a conversation and then be cut off at the 5 minute mark, redial, get back into it, get cut off, etc. Plus, it means lots of editing to put the bits together later. Then I Iooked into using Skype to record calls, but the only way I found to do that seemed incredibly complicated (and a bit costly in terms of software required). Then the good folks at Slapcast invited me to try a Skype recording beta that allows you to make a 3-way conference call in Skype to record your call—way cool! It's pretty darned close to one-click call-recording. The only real drawback is that Slapcast costs $5 month.

Enter GizmoProject. It's free, it allows you to call any phone in the world (or any other Gizmo user, obviously), and it has true one-click recording that works, well, pretty great. It seems to add a bit of a break to your recording every few minutes—I think it has to do w/disk speed and saving the file as you talk or something. But still, the quality is better than most recorded phone calls, you can talk as long as you want, and, like I said, one click and you're recording. And did I mention it's free? Ok, it's not totally free. The ability to call actual phone numbers requires you to buy call-out credit which is about 1.8 cents/minute. That's not much, and Skype has the same requirement, so on balance Gizmo definitely wins b/c of its ease of recording.

So if I could channel Strongbad : Everybody to the Gizmo! (Go here and download the song “Everybody to the Limit” if you don't know what I'm talking about. You'll be glad you did.)

Posted 10:49 AM | Comments (2)

Trouble With Podcasting?

Ok. So I have to confess to spending far too much time creating, thinking about, and listening to podcasts recently. This means I've found some great ones, but I've also gotten a glimpse of the potential pitfalls of this new medium—at least for me.

The first pitfall is that podcasts can be addictive. For example, try listening to just one episode of the Weekly Radio Address and tell me you don't want to listen to another and another and another until you've heard them all. (For some reason I found the July 16 edition especially hilarious.) Bicyclemark's Audiocommunique is the same way for me; at the end of each show I've heard something that makes me want to listen to another to find out what came before. And one show leads to another, and another, and so on until you've got so many to choose from you could listen to nothing but podcasts, 24/7. (Click the image above for a snapshot of my current subscriptions in iTunes.)

So that leads to the second pitfall: In addition to being addictive, listening to podcasts takes a lot of time and it's kind of hard to do anything that takes much thought while you're listening. So podcasts are great for people who drive a lot or spend a lot of time walking or riding public transit, but otherwise, when do you listen? Creating podcasts can also be very time consuming—fun, certainly, but time-consuming. And now, thanks to Bicyclemark, I've discovered this “soundseeing” thing, so obviously I'm going to have to do some of that, too. But where to find the time?

The third pitfall is not really a pitfall, but just a potential blight on the future of podcasting; I'm talking about the commercialization of the medium. Specifically, I got nervous reading the comments on this post asking for speculation about what venture capitalists hope to get out of their investments in podcasting. The basic idea is that the VCs are betting they're going to start making money on selling music and entertainment that somehow competes with the “MSM” (Main Stream Media). I'm not so worried about that, except that it may mean that all the free music at the Podsafe Music Network will only be free so long as only a few people want to use it; as soon as Podshow thinks it can make some real money off of the music (once we're all used to relying on it to make our podcasts fun and cool), it will start charging. And that's fine, I guess. I mean, I'm sure the artists would like to get paid and they deserve some compensation and there are always other sources of free music and maybe we should all be making our own music anyway.... So whatever. I guess there's no free lunch, even in podcasting.

Posted 06:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Voices #14: Lawyers, Liars & Lovers of Life

The latest edition of Ambivalent Voices offers: More kudos to the Legal Underground Podcast (from which I've borrowed many tips and techniques for use in this podcast), when lawyers are neither lawyers nor attorneys, the Politics Minit w/Yubbledew™, upcoming interviews on Ambivalent Voices, and two new and different podcasts for you to check out.

This one's just me again (sorry), but many new voices should be added to the mix in the next few weeks.

UPDATE: Don't miss the Lawyer/Attorney “comic strip” courtesy of the Strip Generator. [via This Dark Qualm]

Posted 10:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Voices Now Available

For the thousands one of you out there who would like to listen to the previously recorded ambivalent voices podcasts, they are once again available here. You can either download each one individually, or subscribe to this feed in iPodder or iTunes or some other podcast aggregator.

You know, if I were a real podcaster I could have done a podcast about all of this, huh?

UPDATE: Ok, so I made a podcast to update listeners on the changes to the location of the feed. I also rambled on about some other things, including primarily the Law School Podcast. Listening to it after the fact I realize my comments about self-censorship and whether the Law School Podcaster is putting too much personal info online are rather hypocritical in light of the fact that so much of my own life is online here, there, and everywhere. How will any of this affect the looming job search? I guess I'll find out, won't I? I also forgot to mention in the upcoming podcasts that once we both have the time I'll also be talking to Andrew Raff about his experience studying for and taking the bar. I also would still like to do something special for one of the Blawg Reviews I'll be involved in hosting, so stay tuned!

Posted 05:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Podcasting with Skype?

Does anyone know of a good way to record Skype calls on a Mac? I've followed these instructions and I think it works fine, but it's so damn complicated! It looks like Gizmo Project allows you to record your calls w/one button—that's the level of complexity I'm looking for. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone uses Gizmo Project and a lot of people use Skype. I guess I could just ask the people I'm interviewing to download the Gizmo so we could make it work, but barring that, does anyone know something simple w/Skype?

Posted 09:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

My Doorbell

Last year at the beginning of the summer I heard a song that was so catchy and infectious I just knew I would play it all summer long -- that was Float On, by Modest Mouse. This year, now that the summer is finally over, I've got another song of the summer: “My Doorbell” by the White Stripes (lyrics/iTMS). Catchy. Infectious. Great when played very loud.

So when you gonna ring it?

And since y'all gave me so many great recommendations last summer (Killers, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand and more), what should I be listening to now to make Paris Hilton say “that's hot”?

Oh, and speaking of listening to things, check out the latest Legal Underground Podcast for some great bits about John Roberts, blawgging, and podcasting. But also listen to check out how polished and professional the podcast sounds—it's amazing! When I said I was going to try to record more podcasts I didn't realize the quality bar had been raised so high since the early early days when I was just playing around. Yikes. But, well, I'm thinking I'll remain an amateur and just leave the pro field to Evan.

(Note: None of those old podcasts are currently available b/c of a server issue that is supposedly being fixed. I'm going to move them all soon to eliminate this problem and then I'll post the new links. Sorry about that!)

Posted 07:16 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Voices and Choices

I just noticed that Blonde Justice is starting to get into listening to podcasts. She's asking for recommendations, so if you have any, please let her know. I don't really have any because, well, the only podcast I listen to w/any regularity is Dave Winer's Morning Coffee Notes. Strange, I know. There are probably lots of good legal podcasts, but, well, I don't know. I'm such an NPR addict that I don't often feel like I have time to listen to other things. What I'd really like a podcast of is This American Life—without question the best radio evar! I assume they don't make mp3 versions available because it would hurt cd sales or something. Too bad.

But hey, even if I don't listen to any podcasts regularly or religiously, I haven't forgotten about podcasting. In fact, I'm thinking it's about time to crank up the “ambivalent voices” machine again and see what we can come up with. Would you like to be a “guest” on the “show”? If so, drop a line in the comments or send me an email. It's pretty painless—I call you, we talk, I add some music and edit out the parts where we both sound stupid, and then I post it online for all the world to hear. This is looking at you, Blonde Justice, as well as all of you cool cats who have just taken passed the bar. I would love to talk to you about the experience while it's still fresh in your mind, and I'm sure lots of people would like to hear about it. Other people/topics also welcome, of course, but those are what come to mind at the moment.

Oh, and looking ahead, Blawg Wisdom will be hosting Blawg Review on Sept. 5th, and then the review will be here at ai on Sept. 26th. (Geez, how did that happen?!?) The Blawg Wisdom version is supposed to be a special “back to school” edition of the review, so I'm thinking it would be great to have a podcast with lots of voices talking about going back to school. Perhaps I could get a dozen (or half dozen?) people to just say briefly the one piece of advice they'd give to students about law school, or describe briefly the most important thing to do or remember or not do or forget. What do you all think? Other ideas for incorporating a podcast into the back-to-school blawg review are welcome.

Finally, I'd also like to experiment w/Skype as our medium of communication/recording, so if you're into that, let me know that, too. I was going to do that w/Dave! long ago, but maybe when he gets back from London. (WTH? Why is he in London, anyway?)

Posted 03:58 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Buzzwords in Alaska

Hear ye! Hear ye! The latest edition of Ambivalent Voices features a conversation with Monica of buzzwords in which we talk about the lawyerly art of waiting, the awesome possibilities of student practice permits, the amazing beauty of Alaska, the cost of living in Alaska, and the Northeastern cooperative education plan that allows Monica to be in Alaska while most law students are still sitting in classrooms. Click below to listen, or right-click to download the mp3.

For more about Monica's great Alaska experience, be sure to read Alaska Update and Men In Jail. It sounds like Monica is having an incredible time in Alaska, and it just keeps getting better—as we speak, she's probably in trial! While you might not be lucky enough to be working in Alaska at the moment, if you would like to be part of a future episode of Ambivalent Voices, please drop me a line. (Use the email link in the top right of this page.) As I learned yesterday, you get more bees with honey, and what could be sweeter than an ambivalent podcast? Technotes: This podcast was recorded by phone via Slapcast.com. I added bumpers via Garageband (using loops that come w/the program) and compressed the mp3 in iTunes. To subscribe to Ambivalent Voices in a podcast aggregator, add this link to your aggregator's subscription list. You can access these recordings via the Ambivalent Voices Slapcast page, or find the local posts about each recording conveniently collected in the voices category here on ai.

Posted 08:29 AM | Comments (1)

DJ Sui G. Spins da Podcast

Now available for your weekend listening pleasure: The latest edition of Ambivalent Voices featuring a conversation with Sui Generis, a current 0L who is not yet sure if or where he's going to go to law school this fall. Sui G. and I talk about his current reign as Master of Patience as he waits to hear about acceptance to law school, leisure reading, being a DJ, and writing a novel in 15 days or less (which Sui G. did last November). Click below to listen (or right-click to download the mp3):

Thanks for the conversation Sui G! If you would like to be part of a future episode of Ambivalent Voices, please drop me a line. (Use the email link in the top right of this page.) It'll be fun; you can tell me about your summer with your uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines! Technotes: This podcast was recorded by phone via Slapcast.com. I added bumpers via Garageband and compressed the mp3 in iTunes. To subscribe to Ambivalent Voices in a podcast aggregator, add this link to your aggregator's subscription list. In addition to being able to access these recordings via the Ambivalent Voices Slapcast page, you can also find the local posts about each recording conveniently collected in the voices category here on ai.

Posted 09:25 AM

Baby Talk with Famous P.

In a break from the recent string of amusing interviews with fellow law students, the latest edition of Ambivalent Voices features a conversation with Famous P., an old friend from graduate school who became a new father just three months ago. Famous P. and I talk about how he got his nickname and what it's like to be a father for the very first time. Click below to listen, or right-click to download the mp3.

Famous P. and I always have a lot to talk about, so stay tuned for future episodes in which he may explain why the world misunderstood Hegel for the last 150 years, why graduate school in English is both a paradise on earth and a soul-sucking self-flagellation, and the art of pouring a truly wonderful Tucher Bräu. If you would like to be part of a future episode of Ambivalent Voices, please drop me a line. (Use the email link in the top right of this page.) It's lots of fun. I promise! Technotes: This podcast was recorded by phone via Slapcast.com. I added bumpers via Garageband and compressed the mp3 in iTunes. Baby sounds are courtesy of here and the Absolute Sound Effects Archive. To subscribe to Ambivalent Voices in a podcast aggregator, add this link to your aggregator's subscription list. In addition to being able to access these recordings via the Ambivalent Voices Slapcast page, you can also find the local posts about each recording conveniently collected in the voices category here on ai.

Posted 07:37 AM | Comments (2)

Going to the Movies with E. McPan!

And now for more voyeuristic listening pleasure, check out the latest edition of Ambivalent Voices (mp3), in which E. McPan of the Neutral Zone Trap turns the tables and manages to spend the bulk of our conversation asking me questions, including whether I'm really a student or just taking out a bunch of loans to fund my blogging habit (apologies if my sarcastic response came off sounding harsh; it's only b/c I fear it's all too true!), and whether my double-dipping at the movies (which is practically nonexistent, honestly!) extends to candy and condiments. Ms. McPan explains why this mortifies her so (it has something to do with a grande frappucino and the price of Diet Dr. Pepper) and then tells us very briefly a bit about why she's in law school and how the Department of Defense might be monitoring her site. After talking with her, I can assure the DOD that they should watch her carefully or risk allowing society to become a much more fun and more just place. Oh, and if she ruled the world, no movie theater would ever be hopped, and the DOD has got to love that. (Note: What you hear is basically the unedited file except that we got cut off halfway through so I had to splice two files together in the middle of the frappucino at the movies story and there's a bit of jump there. Sorry about that.) One thing that didn't make it into the recording was E. asking whether it was strange for me to be calling and talking to people whom I've never met or spoken with before. The answer is, yes, it is . . . a little weird. (Think here about the first “Matrix” movie when Neo wakes up on the Nebuchadnezzar (the ship) and he's in the chair for the first time and just before Morpheus puts the jack in the back of his head for the first time Morpheus says, “this will feel . . . a little weird. Yeah, it's kinda like that. Damn, I love that movie!) I'm also just making this podcasting thing up as I go along. The three terrific people I've spoken with so far have been great sports, absolutely a joy to talk with, and have helped cover the awkward moments when I'm not sure what to say—and for that I thank them. John Stewart I'm not, but it's fun to talk to interesting people and I never know what I might learn. There's obviously an immediacy to speaking with someone directly, rather than just communicating via posts and comments or emails. As with any new ”activity,“ there's been a bit of learning curve to figure out how to turn these phone calls into little ”pieces“ of audio fun, but the time each one takes is getting shorter and shorter, even as each individual ”episode“ gets longer. At any rate, I hope you're all enjoying it as much as I am. As always, if you would like to join me for an edition of Ambivalent Voices, it would be great to talk with you so please drop me an email (via the ”contact ai“ link above right) and we'll set it up. Technotes: This podcast was recorded by phone via Slapcast.com. I added bumpers via Garageband and compressed the mp3 in iTunes. To subscribe to Ambivalent Voices in a podcast aggregator, add this link to your aggregator's subscription list. Or you can simply right-click here to download the file directly. (Clicking that link should open the mp3 in your browser, too.) In addition to being able to access these recordings via my Slapcast page, you can also find the local posts about each recording conveniently collected in the voices category here on ai.

Posted 08:40 AM | Comments (4)

Birthday Podcast With Denise

The latest edition of Ambivalent Voices is a conversation about birthdays with Denise of Life, Law, Gender on her 50th birthday. As part of her celebration of this milestone, Denise talks about what birthdays mean to her, great gifts, favorite and not so favorite birthdays past, her favorite birthday drink (you'll love this one!), and a bit of advice from the perspective of a woman who has lived a very full life already. Happy birthday, Denise, and may you have many more great birthdays to come! Technotes: This podcast was recorded by phone via Slapcast.com—just call an 800-number, record a message, and publish the mp3 to the web! I added bumpers via Garageband and compressed the mp3 in iTunes. Special thanks to Luciano's Piano Bar for the MIDI piano version of “Happy Birthday” playing in the background. To subscribe to Ambivalent Voices in a podcast aggregator, add this link to your aggregator's subscription list. Or you can simply right-click here to download the file directly. (Clicking that link should open the mp3 in your browser, too.) As always, if you would like to join me for an edition of Ambivalent Voices, please drop me an email (via the “contact ai” link above right) and we'll set it up.

Posted 12:07 AM | Comments (3)

Podcasting w/a Superhero:

Friday Fun: Check out the latest edition of Ambivalent Voices, where Energy Spatula of Will Work for Favorable Dicta tells us all about:

• How to prevent drunk dialing.
• Drunk podcasting—the future of blogging.
• Saving parents the trouble of teaching their kids about the birds and the bees.
• Babysitting as birth control.
• Cabana Boys!

Thanks Energy Spatula! You make podcasting fun! Technotes: This podcast was recorded by phone via Slapcast.com—just call an 800-number, record a message, and publish the mp3 to the web! It doesn't get much easier than that. Like last time, I added bumpers via Garageband and compressed the mp3 in ITunes. Apologies for the sound quality in places. Trying to keep the file size down means quality suffers. Did I mention that this is all still a “wicked dorky” experiment? Is it true that dorks have the most fun? To subscribe to Ambivalent Voices in a podcast aggregator, add this link to your aggregator's subscription list. p.s.: If you would like to join me for an edition of Ambivalent Voices, please drop me an email (via the link above right) and we'll set it up. We can't all be superheroes, but we can all use a telephone, right?

Posted 08:40 AM | Comments (9)

Ambivalent Voices: Synecdochic

The latest edition of Ambivalent Voices is now available for your downloading pleasure (or you can get it via RSS here). This edition explains why “synecdoche” or some variation of it would make a great blog/blawg name. After recording it, I decided my favorite variation would be “synecdochic,” because it could be pronounced so many different ways, depending on where you put the emphasis, and it just looks and sounds cool. The podcasting experiment continues to slowly evolve, this time with the introduction of simple “bumpers” —little bits of music to lead into and out of the podcast. The bumpers come by means of GarageBand, which also helped reduce a little of the background noise in the recording and helped cut the file size in half for faster downloading. (Side note: This was my first time playing w/GarageBand and I can already see I probably shouldn't have started b/c I might never want to stop. It's very cool, esp. for something that comes free w/new macs.) If you would like to say anything at all on Ambivalent Voices (ok, anything w/in reason that can be said in five minutes or less), let me know and we'll set it up. Your soapbox or comedic stage is waiting!

Posted 06:46 AM | Comments (3)