Category: Podcast

Poetry Submissions Via Fillable Forms

Here’s another piece of my upcoming podcast puzzle: an expiring link that limits a response to 1000 characters for future listeners to submit an episode-inspired poem. Although I figured out the mechanics of providing such a link, five other challenges arose.

First, I didn’t know who submitted what unless the writer included his/her name. Some people naturally did that, whereas others didn’t. I warned a few before they submitted their piece and they identified their work.

Second, the link allowed writers to copy and paste their submission, but it didn’t preserve the poem’s format, so I had to “fix” them manually. I used my best guess. Yet, even among friendly poets, I may have unintentionally offended them with my guesswork formatting.

Third, once my podcast becomes popular, fixing poetry formats manually would not be scalable. I could hire a part-time person to handle poetry submissions, but would that be the best use of their time? After all, that particular aspect of the podcast is free, so the position itself isn’t directly sustainable.

Fourth, one friend submitted a delightful short poem, written by a famous poet, so I can’t put that one on the blog. That submission reminded me that I should have included another response area where poets could type their name in response to a disclaimer that what they’re submitting is their original work, which would actually solve the first challenge as well.

Finally, I came up with the brilliant idea that I’d run my podcast like a seasonal TV show. Meaning, I’d have all episodes in the can before launching the first one. After eight years of having a monthly deadline, there’s no way in hell I want to jump through those temporal hoops again. So, how to handle an “expiring” link when subscribers will have the chance to download all the episodes if they wanted to binge-listen to them all at once rather than listen once a week? Oh, I know, I’m not going to do this bit until the podcast has been around a few seasons and then I can revisit it.

Tenderness  

2019 was a terrible year 
In my personal world 
And the world at large. 
Tenderness is missing.  
Something we search for in the midst of harshness,  indifference, even cruelty.  
How many times have I cried for tenderness.  
As a child I cried for it. As a young woman. 
And now  As I’ve arrived at the door to old age,  I find tenderness has been crying for me.  
~ Grace Lightfoot Chairez
Cowgirl 
 
She is a whirlwind cowgirl in the wild, Wild West.  
She rides fast and unaltered  towards her battle, her quest. 
She keeps truth in her holster, and  knocks dignity from her boot. She is shielding a treasure (Her mind is the loot.) 
Destined for a lofty, pensive plateau, 
She leaves a trail of inspiration wherever she goes. 
The deserts are wide, and the journey is long, 
But the hills on the horizon Prod the cowgirl on. 
The white hat and the black hat, they fit her best 
As she rides hard towards the sun In the wild, Wild West. 
~Becky Rebecca
A Poem For You  

Shall I be witty 
Shall I be cute 
Show you my heart 
Or deny I’m a fluke  
Shall I show you my humor 
In meter and prose 
Or make funny faces 
And tickle your toes  
Shall I sing you a love song 
Seduce you with rhyme 
Or show you my treasures 
And remind you of time  
Shall I brag of adventures 
And the battles I’ve won 
Or talk of my dreams 
And the birth of my sons  
Shall I show you my feelings 
Reveal deepest thoughts 
Or spin a web of deceit 
And hide all my faults  
Shall I tell you of visions 
When I look in your eyes 
Of a mother’s last breath 
And a baby’s first cries   
Shall I whisper of passion 
And desires new flame 
Or hold you beside me 
Softly calling your name  
Shall I tell you I want you  
To have and to hold 
Or pretend I’m indifferent 
Stubborn and cold  
Shall I ask the question 
Down on one knee 
Or let time roll by 
And just let it be  
Shall I tell you 
I love you 
I’m here till the end 
What else can I do 
You’re my best friend                     
~Jim Tenny

Renee’s Visit

Last December, my sister invited herself to the grand finale of The Austin Writers Roulette.

Closing a show that I’d produced and hosted for eight years was stressful enough without entertaining a surprise out-of-town guest. She’d never watched any of the video clips of the show nor looked at any of the mostly pictorial summaries, but she didn’t want to miss the last show.

Around this time, I’d just bought two professional USB microphones and had figured out how to use them after more trial and error than I’d anticipated. Since my sister had invited herself, I figured she’d make an excellent guinea pig to interview, so I could go through the process of recording, running the audio clip through a transcription service and editing it.

Rendering the clip to this point was a tremendous labor of love, but I still have a ways to go.

Spoken Word Audio Clips

Confessions of a Hat: Bamboo and Bones. A member of my writing group brought some of her hat collection. She thought it would be fun for us to wear them during the meeting. At the time, we were seated at a restaurant patio. In 105-degree weather. In the shade. With at least two fans blowing on us. No one wore any hats during that meeting. Instead, we chose to write a hat-inspired poem. I knew just the hat.

It inspired me to write my most haunting poem to date.

Ebullient Frog. Occasionally, I attend a monthly writers’ event, which features a theme word. Throughout the course of a word’s existence, not only may its connotation change, but thanks to the changing times, its definition may take on a slightly different meaning, while at the same time retain the original meaning. Here’s my take on the meaning of the word “ebullient.”

Black Hair Products. Ten years ago, I joined a hot yoga studio. Although my main objective then, as is now, was to strengthen both physical and mental health, I’ve had the most wonderful opportunities to exchange a wealth of information and ideas with other women yogis in the locker room. This PSA-styled poem sprang to life after a yoga class when I struck up a conversation with a woman who identified as being white who was using a “mixed hair” product.

Success! But What Did I Do?

When it came to recording audio for my upcoming podcast, I thought it was merely an issue of buying professional-quality microphones, plugging them in and then riding that steep GarageBand learning curve. There were many more invisible steps involved in this journey, which didn’t take me very far, but I needed to take them.

Once I watched several YouTube videos and read many Googled articles, both URL microphones activated at the same time. I consulted more videos and online articles to learn how to record each microphone on two separate tracks.

After several failed attempts, I invited my roommate to watch the latest batch of videos with me to see if I’d missed anything while reviewing the notes I took the first few times I watched them.

This time around, I did something different. And that magical moment, in all its profanity, is captured below:

If I’ve ever teased my parents as they grappled with new technology, they have now been avenged!

Testing Out the Microphones

This past July, I signed up to sell CBD even before I’d tried this particular formulation. When I attended the Zilis business presentation, I jumped at the opportunity to make residual income since I had grown tired of trading time for money. The compensation program appealed to me. Plus, I figured with the rising popularity of CBD and after the passing of Farm Bill 2018, the time was right to launch a business that wouldn’t take any salesy technique to attract people. As a matter of fact, all the company asked us to do was share our experience with the product with other people.

Once I received my starter kit and began microdosing CBD daily, my priorities reversed. I slept better, experienced less stress, and the inflammation throughout my body lessened to the extent that I achieved far more flexibility in yoga classes.

My friends and fellow yogis bought CBD sublingual and topical from me based solely on my experience. Even so, my passion has never been in sales. My first career had been teaching secondary math and science. The teacher in me wanted to more know about hemp products and their interaction with the endocannabinoid system.

Yet, I’d signed up to sell CBD products. I had to find a way to undertake the endeavor that best suited my skill set.

For over a year, I explored the film industry. I checked out different aspects of the industry to see where I could land. Since I’d produced and hosted a spoken word and storytelling show for the past 8 years and had written 2 books, the natural fits seemed to be writing and directing. Even so, something about my current finances and the expense to make even a crappy short film turned me off.

While attending a film producers’ Meetup, I had a conversation with another writer who had produced a few scenes of a show that she’d written, but had to put on hold because she’d run out of money. Another producer suggested that if her show was more narrative based versus visual, she’d save a lot of money turning her show into a podcast.

The suggestion energized me.

Instead of begging for money to make a movie, I’d write scripts for a podcast. After all, I’d completed a screenwriting class at the beginning of 2019, so I knew that I could tweak the one script I’d written for audio.

By the time I’d signed up to sell CBD and heard their suggestion to share my CBD experience, I married that idea with launching a podcast. By producing a podcast about CBD, I could merge two objectives rather than continue juggling many divergent projects, which would divide up my time.

I signed up for a daylong podcasting workshop. The most vital content consideration for creating a successful podcast is writing an engaging story. Regardless of whether the story was fiction or nonfiction, stories entertain the masses. I’d learned that as the producer of The Austin Writers Roulette.

The most vital technical aspect is capturing high quality sound. I sprung for 2 high-quality microphones since I plan to have one-on-one interviews with CBD users and experts.

I waited until the weekend to test the mics by interviewing my roommate. At least that was the plan. I never want to induce insomnia by trying out a new technology during the week after work. I’ve lived and learned. Once again, that was the correct choice.

I started very simply and naively by plugging in both USB mics. I immediately saw that another step was needed since I could select one or the other mic, but not both at the same time. I searched on Google and found several videos. I took notes about creating an “aggregate device.”

Past that hurdle, I spent nearly an hour figuring out GarageBand. Namely, how to get my roommate’s and my recordings on separate tracks. I watched video after video, all overlapping in most areas. Any unique tidbit of information had me tearing off to review what I’ve done, the specs of my laptop OS, the version of GarageBand…Turns out, most of the videos were showing older versions of mics and GarageBand. Commands weren’t found in the same places are called the same thing.

Then, I got my golden piece of information: enable multitrack or whatever the hell it’s called. I can’t even remember what all I did because during the umpteenth thing that I tried and it worked, I was no longer taking notes. My roommate and I were just talking about the process instead of the interview I’d planned to have with her. But the point is, we recorded on separate tracks!

Now, I wonder how I edit it?