Ash Wednesday

Gotta love the person slingin' dice in the alley with Rachel. That's actually the neighborhood handyman, recently woken up from a nap to take part in our one-minute episode.


I tacked on a lil' promo with tomorrow's guest star Iku at the end to round out the 60 seconds. It's gonna be a great episode.

Starting to think of a special episode for Monday, our one month anniversary going live.

Got an email re: the show from someone in Delhi, India today - which is where I was just travelling in December, very cool. I'm sort of curious how someone in Delhi finds out about 88SLIDE: The Daily One Minute Trivia Challenge...Do they see it on the iTunes music store? From a friend stateside? Does he like video podcasts? Bored with Indian TV and looking for an alternative? I dunno. Just curious and amazed how this type of entertainment can almost find an audience itself through tagging, keywords, etc...people are contacting us from all over the world (like my old ham radio days).

OK, tomorrow, Thursday: special guest Iku Annunaki....Friday: uppin' the ante...

Daily emails go out in 15 minutes from the server....later

Sunny Days at 88SLIDE HQ

The sun is back and the sky is super clear b/c of the rain dumped over 88SLIDE headquarters.

So it looks like Apple didn't release a new video iPod today as everyone expected.

We're getting a lot of positive feedback on today's "celebratory" nature of the Mardi Gras episode. Special thanks again goes out to our buddy Chef K.G.

(Rachel and Chef K.G....I think his shirt says 'GOT GUMBO?')

In tomorrow's episode, we'll be exploring Ash Wednesday - the first day of lent. What happens when you try to give something up, if just for a minute?

(Sneak peek of tomorrow's Ash Wednesday episode)

Take a second to check out our video podcast feed over at the iTunes music store.



Will update later tonight when I stitch this episode back together....

Mardi Gras!

Just uploaded tomorrows episode entitled "Mardi Gras!"


I think this is the first time we've included an exclamation point within the title...

Got to the restaurant in this ep just as they were opening...spoke with the owner the previous day and he was totally cool. The chef in the video isn't the owner; he was breading some fish when we got there...never been to Market Street in Inglewood, but it was very nice. We taped the "back-end" of the episode across the street. The orange worked well with the Mardi Gras spirit...

Ah, the music! I actually shelled out (just a few nominal) bucks for this track to do it the right way. I searched for a while for some public domain Zydeco music, but there isn't too much out there...lots of stuff from back in the day just doesn't cut it b/c it sounds too scracthy...good music, don't get me wrong, but not for production.

Uh, what else...I'm getting some help on some Web site niceties we'll be introducing shortly...maybe as early as this weekend. I won't ruin the surprise, but it'll make my life a lot easier at night.

Tomorrow we'll be exploring Ash Wednesday, Thursday we have a special guest, and Friday we're upping the ante.

Had some issues with iTunes video podcast section today, but seemed to fix itself when I pinged the server. I guess tomorrow Apple might be releasing a new iPod? If we're on the demo iPod on stage, its game over.

Enjoy Fat Tuesday. If it stops raining, I might just drive down to Inglewood to show the chef the finished product on the video iPod (read: get myself a bowl of gumbo).

Tomorrow's One Minute Celebration of Mardi Gras

Here's a sneak peek of tomorrow's episode, celebrating Mardi Gras down in Inglewood:



It's raining here in LA...I'd actually consider heading out for a bowl of gumbo, but the traffic would kill me.

Today we received more submissions than ever before, very thankful for that. We're seeing the same names stop by day after day. We really appreciate you all checking us out for one minute, daily. I'll head up to Blaine's in a few hours to tape today's randomly selected correct entry.

88SLIDE Promo with Iku Annunaki, Founder of Spaceology

Just posted a new 88SLIDE promo featuring Iku Annunaki, Founder of Spaceology. For more info on Spaceology, visit spaceology.org. Look for Iku in an upcoming episode of 88SLIDE: The Daily One Minute Trivia Challenge.

Click here to view the Quicktime formatted promo.

"Sets on the Beach"

So today, Monday, we're releasing "Sets on the Beach"...

I forgot to bring the volleyball that I bought, was going to use, and then return - so we had to ask some players on the beach to borrow their ball for the shoot. I did have a basketball in the car (just as surprised as you are), which we were gonna throw to Rachel and have her say "this isn't a volleyball you idiot" - and then throw it back...also, we never planned on 'literally' dropping to the knees until we got onto the beach. I guess Rachel used to play volleyball back in the day? We discussed Monica Lewinsky's "Presidential Knee-pads" comment on the way there.

Here's a screen-shot of Rachel looking over some lines:



You know, it wasn't that sunny out there...a little secret - I amp'd up the RGB levels in Final Cut to make it seem sunnier than it is...thats why we lost some of the contrast in the clouds...(Wow, what a secret)

Here's a picture of Production Designer Extraordinaire, Louis, flinging mascot Funderbunk through the air:



Uh, what else...if you've found this 88SLIDE blog (so sick of that word, but if you can't beat 'em...), you're probably already part of our growing community...

Tomorrow, let's talk tomorrow for a sec...we'll celebrate Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday (all the same thing) by partying it up CAJUN style down in Inglewood.

FRIDAY. Let's talk Friday now...we're upping the ante, just a bit, on the giveaway. Here's a hint of where we'll be:



OK, couple minutes to midnight here on the West Coast...gonna get some sleep, the daily email reminders get automatically sent at 12 AM PST/ 3 AM PST. You can sign up at 88slide.com and click on EMAIL UPDATES on the left.

Can't wait to wake up, stretch, and check to see how many submissions we get from the East Coast. And then walk to Stir Crazy to get a cup of coffee.

Thanks Blaine.

Shot more eps today

Just came back form shooting some new one-minute episodes of 88SLIDE. Spent some time both in Inglewood and Venice...stopped at Zankou Chicken up on Sepulveda on the West side....so good...

A friend showed me a not-so-great mention of 88SLIDE from this blogger Rob Rohr. He actually does a pretty good job of breaking down this format, second-by-second. The funny thing is, this guy won last week! All good though, because we're gettin' some traffic through his post.

Monday's footage is digitizing now, which I'll cut up, head to Blaine's - and tighten everything up for tonight.

Here's to a great week. We've added this blog to Technorati, Feedburner, and all the requisite sites. I'm working on enabling the functionality of adding an 88SLIDE module to your MyYahoo, AOL, and Google front pages...will keep you posted.

If you'd like to be on our daily email list, head over to www.888slide.com and click on EMAIL UPDATES on the left.

OK, footage seems to be almost done digitizing...over to Final Cut...

Official First Post/Semi-Test

It's midday Saturday and we're working on some more episodes. Today, like every Saturday, we've posted another OUTTAKES & BLOOPERS episode.

When I go over to Blaine's place at night, we basically just let the camera roll until we find the "hook" in the name to be announced. Blaine once said he'd give up that entire record collection behind him for $10K. Any buyers?

I'm curious how many of you are watching via the Web vs. iTunes. The picture and audio quality are much better on iTunes...give it a try...