Cocktail Confessions

This is more or less a quick entry on the state of affairs over here at my blog.

I’ve got a few things lined up in the coming days and weeks including some additional video’s and a podcast I just recorded with my buddy Brett who visited from Idaho this past week.  I’ll have some new recipes up soon, including Cuban burgers (that were a hit at this Friday’s last BBQ), grilled zucchini boats with a bacon gremolata, a new cocktail recipe dubbed ‘The Camel Toe’ for you vodka and tropical drink lovers, and a refreshing watermelon sangria.

I’ll have a few stories to share that took place with my friend Brett, especially our afternoon visit to Turq’s in Dana Point where we get talked to death by druken senior citizens, some additional video of the San Clemente Pier, a review of the Original Pedro’s tacos, some random shots at Cook’ Corner, Dana Point Harbor, S.C. Pier, and more.

This upcoming weekend, my wife and I are going to the Huck Finn Jubilee up in Victorville, CA with our friends Brian and his fiance Shea as well as my college friend Sam and his wife Alicia.  We’ll be there for the beer, food, and good ‘ole bluegrass music and banjo championships.  I expect to get some good vittles there and hopefully taste some good brews.

On the technical side of things, I just upgraded the NextGen Gallery here to v1.5.3 and I also finally purchased a ‘shoot & share’ video camera in the form of the purple Kodak Playsport along with a 8GB SD card.  I’ve posted a few videos up at YouTube, and I hope to not only use it this weekend at the Jubilee, but also do some grilling recipe and preparation “How-To” videos here in the future.  I also have to finish the Earthbox series that I began a few weeks back.  I already have some great jalepeno peppers and tons of cilantro that we are using.

I did have one bummer issue that happened over the weekend.  This past Saturday my Behringer 502 USB mixing board died on me.  I was actually right in the middle of recording a podcast with Brett and at about the 40 minute mark there was a slight pop in my earphones and when I looked at the screen for status I noticed a flat line on Audacity.  The board is just over a year old (March ’09)  and I purchased it through Amazon.  Of course I don’t have the box anymore, so I’m gonna try and get an RMA straight from Behringer, and looking at their support website it appears that they make you jump through hoops for repair. *Sigh*.  The good news is I picked up my Zoom recorder and was able to finish our podcast, but I’ll have to mash the two files together and do some additional editing before I get the next episode posted….maybe in another week since this weekend is already claimed.

Well, here it is, Episode 15.  I wish I could say I’m really happy with the outcome, but in my own humble opinion, it’s “meh” at best.  Why you ask?  Originally, I had sat down last weekend with my friend Brian Liles (yet again) and had made a sweet recording that was a good solid hour plus.  It could have easily been broken into two seperate Podcasts, and I think it was one of our best yet.  There was a myriad of interesting topics on the table as well as we had at least three to four craft beers in us each as we made it.

However, due to the fact that I hadn’t take the time to reboot my computer after some auto-installed patches from Microsoft prior to our recording, it seems that Audacity (my podcast recording software) somehow corrupted the data.  No matter how many times I tried to recover the orphan files after a failed save attempt, I just couldn’t resurect it.  As I say in this podcast, let that be a lesson to all you tech heads out there.  Always reboot your PC after critical patches are downloaded and installed.  I clearly should have known better, so I have no one to blame but myself.

Feeling somewhat pressed to have a new episode ready, I took my portable Zoom to work and made this recording on my lunch break while sitting in my car.  I’m happy with the audio quality, but as you’ll hear, there was really no set agenda for this one.  It’s about 40 minutes of me ranting on some of my political views, Howard Stern, and my upcoming business trip to Atlanta, GA.  Also, I was able to throw in a cocktail recipe, the ‘original’ Texas-tini (not my version from a few weeks back in which I thought I was so clever with the name), and a recipe for grilling artichokes.  Hence the title ‘Smorgasbord’.

In other news, I’m rapidly approaching my 40th birthday (8 days from this writing) and I am clearly having a mild midlife crisis.  I hope its not too evident in my recording, but I’ve been feeling a bit under pressure lately in various personal aspects: financial, work, trying to be a father to a teenage girl, etc. So perhaps that lends to my somewhat dour attitude in if you pick up on it.  Hopefully I’ll snap out of it soon because it really just doesn’t feel like me and I’m very aware of it.

I’ll work on the show notes and recipes contained within later if I get a chance, but suffice to say I will be out on business the next week (starting tomorrow) so I most likely won’t be making any updates here for at least a week. 

As I usually do, I try an pick an intro song that encapsulates either my mood or something that somehow pertains to the audio content of the episode.  Here, I chose “Take this Job and Shove it” by Johnny Paycheck.  I have two comments about this: 1) Yeah, I’m not gonna be quitting my job anytime soon, but the last few weeks, I really feel as if I’ve been holding back my frustration on various career related issues and I’m just not that happy overall, and 2) I really thought Johnny ‘Paycheck’ was a fake name and he was trying to cash in on the name Johnny Cash, especially when you have a song about a job and then shoving it.  Turns out, I was partially correct, as his real name was Donald Eugene Lytle.

Texas-Tini II

• 3 oz whisky (try a sweet or smooth blend like Crown Royal or Canadian Mist)
• 1.5 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/2 oz Blue Curacao (orange flavored liquer, but blue in color)
• Shake all three ingrediants over ice and pour in sugar rimmed martini glass, or mix all three in lowball glass over ice and skip sugar.

Grilled Artichoke

• 2 fresh artichokes, stems cut at least 1 inch from base.
• Place artichokes in pot of boiling water with the freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon to reduce oxidation of leaves (prevents leaves from turning brown). (Optional: zest some of the lemon peel and add zest (to taste) to fresh mayo.  Mix, and chill in advance for dipping.  Lemon zest adds a nice fresh, flavorful kick to the mayo).
• Remove after 25-28 minutes of cooking, drain excess water, and let cool enough to handle.
• Preheat grill to medium-low heat/flame.
• With sharp knife, cut artichoke in half, lengthwise and remove choke/heart (purpleish center with bristles) with spoon.
• Brush halves with olive oil and season with kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
• Place flat side down on grill, cooking approx 2-3 minutes, then turn 45 degrees and cook additional 2-3 minutes or until nice grill marks appear.  In the last few minutes, ‘drizzle’ some quality balsamic vinegar over artichokes for additional flavor and color.
• Serve with fresh lemon zest mayo (above), and/or melted butter and garlic combo.

Show Notes

• Coming soon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (40.7MB)

Arrgggghhh….I am so bummed. 

Over the weekend my buddy Brian came over from Brians4x4adventures.com and we had recorded a raw podcast that was clocking in at about an hour and a half.  We covered a range of topics including our recent visit to Stone Brewery in Escondidio, his recent engagements, past and upcoming roadtrips, a spirited discussion on the Sony Bloggie vs the upcoming Kodak Playsport for your pocket flasmedia camcorder needs, recent natural disaters, slow cooking brisket and more.

Plenty of content that could have been split into two seperate 45 minute episodes.  I was looking forward to editing last night as I had the house to myself and wouldn’t be interupted and possibly getting one of them up today and part II next week.  However, when I fired up Audacity, it appears there was a file corruption that had taken place.  While the header data is there and shows up, the actual content is not, and I cannot recover anything.

I may just record a small filler episode in the next few days or so to tide myself and feel like I am accomplishing something.  Otherwise I am traveling to Atlanta next week for business and won’t be able to update much here officially, although I am starting to settle into Twitter.  Again, you can follow me at @alonedisciple on Twitter.

It’s been a long time coming, but I spent a lot of the day yesterday editing this podcast episode into something I really wanted it to be.  It took a bit longer than expected to put this together as I was looking for the perfect music (thanks Limewire) for the introduction to set the mood and a great tie in to an overall theme. 

I also kind pushed myself here at a technical level in editing.  First, I used my portable Zoom H2 in the field for the first time.  It worked pretty well, although I did misplace the manual, so I had a few hiccups at first.  I have to work on the microphone gain.  For my initial recording I had set it to medium, and although we were sitting only a few feet from it with no other background noise, the recording seemed somewhat fainter than I expected, so I boosted it in Audacity.  It also took longer than I expected to transfer the raw MP3 from the Zoom to my PC.  This Podcast has a total of 3 mono tracks and 2 stereo tracks that I spliced together, remixed into a single track (to help save on bandwidth and space), faded out some entrance music and for the first time added an end trailer, and I’m pretty happy with the result seeing this is the most complex editing I’ve done thus far.

I also used Limewire for the first time, trying to find the perfect lead in bumper.  I had a specific song in mind, and I actually own a clean copy of the song somewhere but couldn’t find the CD, so I opted to download from the wild-wild-web.  The thing is, you never know exactly what you are going to get in quality or length, and sometime the descriptions don’t always match what you’re looking for so there is a few trial by fire attempts to get the right track.  Anyway, in this case, I chose “Grim Grinning Ghosts“, better known as the overall soundtrack for Disney’s Haunted Mansion.  It appears in a few various incarnations and pressed a few times in some rare LP’s and CD’s many of which are now out of print.  To me it was worth it.  For those that really like the Haunted Mansion, here’s an interesting and detailed site about the ride, it’s history, the story behind it, and its look throughout the various theme parks: DoomBuggies.com.

Also appearing in this episode is yet another libation.  The website is called ‘Cocktail Confessions’ for a reason, and so it keeping that dream alive I bring you Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale from Michelob.  It’s a seasonal beer (fall) that clocks in at 5.5% alcohol with hints of cloves, nutmeg and allspice.  As I explain in the podcast, this years batch didn’t taste all that ‘pumpkiny’ to me, and I might suggest you try Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale or even Blue Moon’s, Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale.  Both of these have a richer pumpkin and spice taste, and there are plenty of others.  If you know of any good ones you’d like to suggest, please drop me a line.

The meat and potatoes of this podcast however is the interview I recorded with my grandfather Harold.  He recently just turned 91 years old, and I kinda wanted to get some time with him before it was too late.  We’re all lucky he is still around after surviving being a tail gunner in a B-17 during WWII, having had open heart surgery, a pacemaker installed and a few other medical issues.  He’s still going strong…at least mentally.  He’s 100% Italian, being born here but his parents were immigrants.  I initially wanted the recording to be about his days being a master carpenter and working on the early builds of the Tiki Room, some of the facades on Main Street, and other contributions he made at the park, but after 40 minutes of great stories, I realized I wasn’t recording properly.  So instead of having him rehash everything all over, we just segued into his early days growing up in Wakefield, Michigan then eventually moving out to Anaheim, CA.  The actual recording was almost an hour long, and for this podcast I decided to break it up into a smaller segment I’m calling part 1, which is approx. 20 minutes long.

Finally my garage door died a loud and expensive death last week.  We had to buy a new one, and thus opted for the Heritage 3000, triple layer door: steel + insulation + steel.  It looks very nice, much quieter than the old one, and will hopefully help in reducing both our cooling and heating costs in the long run.  The really funny thing to me is how my neighbors have reacted.  To me, it’s just a garage door.  It’s white, it opens, it closes and does what any other garage door was designed for.  However, many of the men on my street have taken a very keen interest in its look, its operation, and overall functionality.  A real ‘Tim the Tool Guy Taylor’ moment where they all had to check it out and kick the tires per-se.  I personally found it very amusing that the men were all into it as much as they were.  In the end, it’s still a garage door.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (29.5MB)

First of all, I’d like to thank all of my friends who have so far visited my page and took the time to download or listen to my first trial episode and provide either words of encouragment and some helpful feedback.  Personally, I’ve been both excited and frustrated with this experience. 

The positive part is the feeling that I am indeed learning something new, and get to enjoy messing around with the technology and flexing a little bit more of my creativity.  For those that think I have ADHD, well maybe I do, and this is just another outlet for my sometimes idle mind.  I do have a lot of great friends and stories and I only get more excited when I think of future episodes when one of you is sitting across from me on the mic, sharing a beer, and just shooting the breeze.

The frustrating parts is the amount of work leading up to this and the continual tweak and modifications.  I really didn’t realize how much goes into a podcast, let alone oen that garners others people interest and word of mouth.  If you think about it, there are many components in the production of a blog: style, hosting services, various software applications, plug-ins, editing, feeds, post production, transfer and exportings of files, ID tagging, audio conversions, etc.  It can be really difficult when you discover than ‘current’ manuals are hard to find, and many things that appear to be compatible actually aren’t. 

You have a vision of how things are supposed to look and work on paper or in your head, but in actuality it doesn’t always pan out.  I’ve run across obsolete plug-ins, technical hurdles, vague or non-exsitant instructions, false data capturing and statistics, and more passwords and logins than I can shake a stick at.  To illustrate, despite how ‘easy’ various white papers say how easy it is to podcast, here are the various components I work with just to get this far:  GoDaddy as my hosting site, WordPress as my main blogging software, Audacity as my audio capture and editing device, FeedBurner along with Google accounts to provide an enhanced RSS feed, BluBrry as an embedded flash player and download tool.  That doesn’t even incorporate the various plug-ins: wordpress statististics for data capture, Social to share posts on social networking sites, and a few others.  Each time you install one, you need to make sure that it not only looks right on teh main page, but that it is compatible and actually works as described.  Easier said than done.  There were plenty of installs, just to rip it back out and look for a comparable alternative and I’m sure there will be more of that in the future as well. 

But for now, it looks as if I have the main gist of everything working properly.  The last two major hurdles, which so far appear to be the most daunting to date is the ability to learn MP3 ID tagging, not just for Windows (that’s easy), but the scripting/coding for iTunes.  Once that is done, then it will be submitting the appropriate feed to both Microsoft Zune and iTunes to have them be approved and available for everyone to subscribe from there.  The good news is I did a prelim test last night with iTunes, and it did indeed detect my feed and registered my episode (sans artwork and proper tags, but it is there in its raw format).

So on to the other stuff:  I added the first episode to the ‘Podcast‘ page.  This is where all epsiodes will reside via a download link without all the show notes, links, pictures, etc.  Think of it as the one-stop-shop for past episodes.  I also added another page, ‘Patrons‘  in which over time will be populated with a few lines of guest biographies and headshot pictures….just so you can put a face/name to the voices you may hear.

Whew, that was a mouthful.  Now hopefully from here on out, I’ll get to the fun stuff and leave the majority of this techo crap and geek speak behind. 

Now, let’s look forward to the next episode, so stock the fridge with some cold ones.

Behringer all-in-one kit

When I first got the idea of wanting to do a podcast while chatting with my friend Brian and goofing around with yet another new hobby, a few questions arose.  Sure there was the whole ‘What the hell random subject am I gonna rant on about?’ but also I had to think about the hardware I was going to use to create said verbal tangents.

Since I knew nothing about mixers, condenser microphones, editing/production software, let alone hosting sites, feeds, RSS and the like, I decided to begin my research on amateur, yet affordable ’starter’ equipment.  I came to grips early on that I knew this whole experiment was to be a hobby and not a career, so I needed to find something preferably on the cheaper end of the money spectrum without sacrificing quality and a name brand I could trust.  The problem was, I didn’t know where to begin or what was even out there.

Fortunately after some brief Google searches and a look at various ‘podcasting’ sites as well as Amazon.com, I came across an all in one kit by Behringer. Although the the pictured USB Podcasting Kit lists for $149, you can easily find it for $99 online if you shop around a bit.  In reading various reviews on this product and those of the competitors, it seemed to me that this kit had more going for it with solid reviews than many of the others, so I chose to purchase this one from an Amazon affiliate.

The kit includes:

• A high-resolution 2 In / 2 Out USB audio interface with plug-and-play for Windows XP and Mac OS X operating systems.
• A studio-class 5-input 2-bus mixer with a premium mic preamp and 2-band “British EQ”. (model: Xenyx 502)
• A Dynamic broadcast-style microphone with a 2-stage pop filter.
• High performance studio headphones with ultra-wide frequency response.
• A tripod microphone stand, XLR mic cable, and 2 stereo RCA cables.
• Podifier, Juice, PodNova, and Golden Ear podcasting software.
• Kristal Audio Engine multi-track sequencer and Audacity audio editor software.

Okay a few additional notes on the items within the box.  First, the microphone, cables, mixer, stand and preamp are totally worth the $100 you have to spend.  However, that being said, I have a few ‘issues’ with the rest that was included.  Audacity, out of the box is an older version….sure it’ll work, but don’t bother installing this one at all…go straight out to the web and downloadthe newest version (it’s free anyway) and you’ll be much happier.  Second, the “How to Podcast” quick sheet manual that comes pre-packaged kinda sucks.  Assuming you are not a techie at all, this sheet seems to be written by someone in Jr. High detention and is all of two pages long and very vague.  Lastly, the other software included may indeed be nice, but they are all on one disc and the on-disc manuals are pretty lack-luster as well.  Yeah, you can get by with them, but clearly this is just a bundle package they threw some software in to help sell and make more attractive to the consumer, but I’m not a fan of vague manuals or non-descript software that you have no idea on how it’s going to change your PC once loaded.

So for me, it’s all about the hardware and this is a perfect starting kit for the solo hobbyist.  I suppose if I get a bit advanced and require an additional mic for a second guest, I may go up to the next mixing board model, the Xenyx 802  (8 input, 2 bus) that will allow for two plug-in mics.  However, I’m not too worried as I have done a few tests in my ‘studio’ (read: spare bedroom), and the single mic can pick up two or more voices just fine anywhere in the room.  Reserve the headphones for the host and mixer, as your interviewee really doesn’t need it.

Feedburner logo

I have just spent the last hour or so signing up and tinkering with Feedburner.  You should see the appropriate RSS chicklet banner now at the top of the sidebar to the right.  It should rotate the latest 5 posts for those that are just taking a gander.

Feedburner itself just relocated over to Google, and thus you need a Google account to activate Feedburner and everything that goes with it.  While it is currently active now on this site, I still need to make some additional configuration changes, such as adding personal artwork so when my podcasts eventually show up on iTunes, or other pod catching services that support pictures, my podcasts will have a little flair.  I already know the picture I’m gonna use, but it’s stowed on another PC right now, and I’ll have to upload it to my WP server anyway for it to show up.

Since I just activated it less than an hour ago, so it may take a few extra hours before I start catching statistics and data collection for analyzing.  This may sound a little boring to you, and in all honesty, it may end up being a bit boring for me in the long run as well, so I’ll definitely have a drink when I occasionally glance how many of you aren’t that interested in anything I have to say or write about.

So far, everything I have done on this site I have taught myself from reading various forums, wiki’s, and other Internet articles, solely by trial and error.  I feel like I’m pretty close to actually starting the real podcasting I had previously intended to do from the get go.  It’s been a bit slow on the creativity end as I am using more of my techie side (not the happy fun, go-lucky side) to get this up and running.

I also added some option to help share posts to Digg, Facebook, Vinenews, Technorati, Stumble It, and a few others too.  So we’ll see if those kick in or not.

I may even do a dry run ‘break the ice’ podcast tonight.  You know, get the opening down, introduce a drink, tell a story or two and discuss the future format of the show.  I’d like to shoot for about 20-30 minutes for my initial cast, and of course there is the editing again back in Audacity.  So while I may indeed record tonight, it may be a day or two before I actually post.

I want to post a picture of my ad-hoc studio as well (i.e. my spare bedroom where my PC and podcasting kit is located), and also do a quick write up on my Behringer mixing board, microphone, and packaged software as well.

Even though there are many different audio and video editing packages out there in the market, it seems the defacto standard for Windows users is the freeware version of Audacity.  I currently downloaded version 1.2.6 although a 1.3.7 beta is available at their website here. 

Many of the online sources I have been using as reference and even my ‘Podcasting for Dummies’ book have sections that source Audacity, so “When in Rome….”

Download and install was pretty easy, and for most beginner podcasters, you’ll use much of the defaults.  Sure you can tinker with some on the bit and sample rates, but why?  Unless you’re using Audacity as your garage bands post production editing source, for most people’s podcasting efforts, there really is no need to tinker with anything.  You know the old saying, “If it ain’t broke….”.

The only things you’ll really want to play with in your initial setup attempts is the microphone input selections, some basic leveling techniques, and depending on how you want your finished podcast to be exported as, you’ll need to chose the appropriate file type, such as .MP3.  Oh, and while you’re at it, you’ll also need the LAME (no, I’m not kidding…that’s what they call it.) encoder as well.  This is an essential piece to Audacity if you are going to export to .MP3…you really can’t do it otherwise, so read up.

The only drawback to Audacity is a comprehensive manual, but what do you expect for freeware?  The online ‘manual’ is basically written by volunteers so I’m not sure how often it is updated as new releases to the software are made public.  I also can’t verify that everything is correctly described, so there may be a bit of trial and error on your part.  That’s what happened to me last night as I was able to make my first 30 second test podcast.  Nothing fancy at all, no ID3 tagging, no embedded artwork for iTunes or Zune….just the merging of 10 seconds of intro music and 20 seconds of my voice.

And beleive me, for my first attempt, my 30 second clip took me about an hour to do.  I’m sure in time I can really reduce the pose production and edits, but since I’m not working with a definitive manual, I had to re-edit many times before I coudl figure out what I was doing.

For my intro music, I ripped a song from a CD to .MP3 format (default 128 kbps) and imported it into Audacity and selected a 10 second sample from the 3+ minute song and saved that as a stero track.  I then took that track and converted it to mono (just for ease sake) since I knew I was going to marry it with my mono tracked voice.  Secondly, I recored a 20 second voice track and this took a while due to input and microphone ‘leveling’.  It didn’t help that my dog kep barking at impromptu times so I had many retakes.

Once I had the two individual tracks (music and voice), I merged them together into one track, and then played with the ‘envelope’ settings to begin to fade the music towards the end before my actual voice started.  Sound easy?  Well, it will become easier in time, but there was a lot fo trial and error and plenty of undo’s. 

There are some Audacity ‘tutorials’ out there on the web, but they are unofficial as well.  They are done by people like me, putting them together to help teach others, and yuou can find them on YouTube.com or do a Google search.  I tried looking on Amazon.com, and I was surprised there was not an ‘Audacity for Dummies’, because this just seems like a no-brainer to me.  So if anyone knows of printed source material, reference guides, or some defacto manual for Audacity, please let me know.

Anyway, here is my sample file.  Listen to my first test here: audtest01