Author Topic: Dave Shoots First -- My Wannabe Superhero Kids Book/Podcast  (Read 35301 times)

DKT

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It's here!  Episode 1 of my podcast, "The Unbelievable Origin of Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid" is now up at my new website Dave Shot First.  Hear me ramble about secret identies (the real golden rule), would-be superheroes (not to be confused with poser superheroes), Cyberpunk and the Cyber-Commandos (the cool and teh suck).  Like I say in the intro, I wrote this to be an intergenerational thing, so if you have kids, hopefully they'll get a kick out of it, too.

Obviously, all this tech stuff is a work in progress for me.  Any feedback you want to give on the story and the site is greatly appreciated.  (There's no itunes button, yet, but I'm hoping to add that soon.  I'm also going to try and tweak some of the blog formatting, -- i.e., make the red letters bigger.)

Hope you enjoy it!


Swamp

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Reply #1 on: July 03, 2008, 08:43:53 PM
It's a very good listen.  Sounds like it will be a lot of fun.  Bob Smith is a hilarious name for a super hero.  That's even better than Mur's Siesmic Stan. So is his alter ego (when he's at home in his bunny slippers) Dynamic Man or something like that? 

Your next step should be to develop a Promo that Escape Artists and the guys at Farpoint Media, Variant Frequencies, etc. can run on their podcasts.

My only nitpick is that you could add a bit more inflection and excitement to your voice.  The good news is that you've got kind of a Ben Phillips vibe going there.  That's not a bad thing (I enjoy Ben's readings when I catch them on PP), it's just that with a title like Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid, I was expecting something a little more...I don't know..."whiz bang, wowee" in your voice.  But hey whatever you do is fine (like I could do any better).  I like the podcast.

I like that you chose the Toothpick Kid (the sidekick) as the POV character.  Was the name Superspiff inpired by Spaceman Spiff from Calvin and Hobbes?

« Last Edit: July 03, 2008, 08:51:04 PM by Swamp »

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Reply #2 on: July 04, 2008, 02:16:32 AM
Yah DK, make a promo and send it to Drabblecast



stePH

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Reply #3 on: July 04, 2008, 04:54:24 AM
It's a very good listen.  Sounds like it will be a lot of fun.  Bob Smith is a hilarious name for a super hero. 

South Park already had Robert Smith;)

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DKT

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Reply #4 on: July 06, 2008, 05:15:14 AM
It's a very good listen.  Sounds like it will be a lot of fun.  Bob Smith is a hilarious name for a super hero.  That's even better than Mur's Siesmic Stan. So is his alter ego (when he's at home in his bunny slippers) Dynamic Man or something like that?

Your next step should be to develop a Promo that Escape Artists and the guys at Farpoint Media, Variant Frequencies, etc. can run on their podcasts.

My only nitpick is that you could add a bit more inflection and excitement to your voice.  The good news is that you've got kind of a Ben Phillips vibe going there.  That's not a bad thing (I enjoy Ben's readings when I catch them on PP), it's just that with a title like Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid, I was expecting something a little more...I don't know..."whiz bang, wowee" in your voice.  But hey whatever you do is fine (like I could do any better).  I like the podcast.

I like that you chose the Toothpick Kid (the sidekick) as the POV character.  Was the name Superspiff inpired by Spaceman Spiff from Calvin and Hobbes?



Thanks, Swamp.  I'll work at more inflection in my voice -- although I could totally get behind having a Ben Phillips-esque voice :)  It's funny, though.  When I've read this aloud to small audiences, I've been very animated.  I could tell the animation wasn't coming across in the voice recording.  So I'll work on it!

I will definitely work on a promo to get sent out to places.  Hopefully sometime between me recording episodes 2 and 3. 

And I do love those old Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.


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Reply #5 on: July 07, 2008, 05:26:20 PM
It's now in the itunes directory!


Swamp

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Reply #6 on: July 07, 2008, 05:49:33 PM
Bob Smith is a hilarious name for a super hero.

OK. I listened to this again (on iTunes, I'm subscribed). 

Doh!  Bob Smith is not a super hero; he's the comic book writer.  I obviously missed that on the first listen.  You should have told me I was being a dolt. 

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Reply #7 on: July 07, 2008, 10:47:46 PM
Good stuff sir!  Grabbing it now.



DKT

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Reply #8 on: July 07, 2008, 11:07:28 PM
Bob Smith is a hilarious name for a super hero.

OK. I listened to this again (on iTunes, I'm subscribed). 

Doh!  Bob Smith is not a super hero; he's the comic book writer.  I obviously missed that on the first listen.  You should have told me I was being a dolt. 

I may call you many things, but a dolt is not one of them.   ;)

Actually, one thing I've noticed after reading the first chapter is that there's a lot crammed into it, especially a lot of characters.  And you're not the only person to think that superheroes are normal occurences in the story's world.  They aren't, not like they are in Playing for Keeps or Union Dues.  But I think Birdless was also under a similar impression for some reason -- he wondered if the Cyber-Commandos might possibly be government-sanctioned agents.  They aren't. 

As far as most of the world is concerned, superheroes are comic book fodder, and not real.  Grant, Dominic, and a few others are the exception, but they're part of a small minority.


Swamp

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Reply #9 on: July 07, 2008, 11:24:41 PM
I think what set me in that direction is the golden rule that "everyone has a secret identity".  I was looking for it from the start.

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DKT

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Reply #10 on: July 07, 2008, 11:29:35 PM
I think what set me in that direction is the golden rule that "everyone has a secret identity".  I was looking for it from the start.

As you should be!  ;D


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Reply #11 on: July 08, 2008, 02:09:40 AM
It's here!  Episode 1 of my podcast, "The Unbelievable Origin of Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid" is now up at my new website Dave Shot First

Do let us know when you have a feed that I can subscribe to.

Downloading ep1 now.

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deflective

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Reply #12 on: July 08, 2008, 05:57:40 AM
entertaining, but i had some serious issues with the audio; especially the vocals were swung all the way to the left. the music was ok but vocals were left ear only.



DKT

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Reply #13 on: July 08, 2008, 06:29:15 AM
entertaining, but i had some serious issues with the audio; especially the vocals were swung all the way to the left. the music was ok but vocals were left ear only.

Hrm.  I do apologize on that.  Not at all sure why that happened but it will be corrected the next time around. 

Steph, I'm working on getting the feed correct (it's at the bottom of the page).  There's been some problems with half the computers/browsers it seems (comes up fine for me at home on Firefox, no dice at work on Internet Explorer...).  I'm trying to get it figured out, but I'm not the most tech-savvy, so it might take a couple of days. 

Also, it's now available in the itunes store if that's your thing.


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Reply #14 on: July 08, 2008, 01:21:49 PM
Steph, I'm working on getting the feed correct (it's at the bottom of the page).  There's been some problems with half the computers/browsers it seems (comes up fine for me at home on Firefox, no dice at work on Internet Explorer...).  I'm trying to get it figured out, but I'm not the most tech-savvy, so it might take a couple of days. 

Bollocks Internet Explorer.  The sooner it's fallen into complete disuse the better off we'll all be.

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DKT

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Reply #15 on: July 14, 2008, 04:21:52 PM
Episode 2 up! 

The secrets of Wayne Enterprises REVEALED! 

(And best of all, I think the sound quality is fixed.  Or at least, improved.)


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Reply #16 on: July 14, 2008, 05:20:34 PM
Also, it's now available in the itunes store if that's your thing.

Just noticed that.  Will download tonight/tomorrow.

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Reply #17 on: July 16, 2008, 11:19:31 AM
I enjoyed it.  The whole Wayne Enterprises thing was a nice touch.

I get the feeling this is more Dominic's story than Grant's.  Maybe that's me.

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Reply #18 on: July 22, 2008, 04:33:23 PM
Episode 3: Special Edition, is out now!  I'll try to get Episode out before next weekend's over. 


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Reply #19 on: July 24, 2008, 01:28:56 AM
The audio balance on the intro was a bit weird; perhaps it wasn't balanced quite right for a multi-speaker system.  I don't know.  (My car has six.)  Also, you popped a lot of consonants in the beginning.  Do you have a microphone condom?  (Mic shield.)  They're a few bucks at most music stores, or you can speak across the microphone's pickup area -- that is, point the mic straight down and speak at the area below the microphone, going perpendicular into it instead of straight in.

Just a few small suggestions from a former radio guy.

I'm still wondering how Annoying Girl is going to work into the story.

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Reply #20 on: July 24, 2008, 05:33:21 AM
All the feedback is much appreciated.

I need a condom, I think.  I can't stop popping consonants, especially P's.  I'll look into picking one up.  The audio balance is still off and for the life of me I can't figure out how the hell to correct it.  With the first episode, I realized the balance had been accidentally tweaked, which was easy to fix.  But for some reason, the audio still favors the left speaker... ???

Also, I should apologize.  For some reason, I completely screwed up the editing at the end.  So I took it down, re-edited it, and posted it again (just now).  It should be better now.  I really don't know how I messed it up. 

The next chapter will give you a lot more of annoying girl, and will give a bit of insight into what her purpose is.  Hope you dig it and thanks for listening!


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Reply #21 on: July 24, 2008, 12:47:21 PM
All the feedback is much appreciated.

I need a condom, I think.  I can't stop popping consonants, especially P's.  I'll look into picking one up. 

Trust me, I still do this all the time, even sometimes with a condom.  It all comes down to practice, and to... I guess you could say "controlling"... the way you say hard consonants.  I can't really explain it in words.  There's a chance I'm coming out to LA sometime in the next six months; we can hang out.  I can show you.  :D

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Reply #22 on: July 24, 2008, 04:30:48 PM
Sounds good.  You've got my email address!


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Reply #23 on: July 25, 2008, 01:05:43 AM
Episode 3: Special Edition, is out now!  I'll try to get Episode out before next weekend's over. 
PLEASE fix the voice balance so it's more evenly spread across both channels.  It's really bothersome to have it almost completely in the left ear; sometimes when I listen I can only have one earphone and it's usually the right.

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DKT

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Reply #24 on: July 25, 2008, 03:55:04 PM
Episode 3: Special Edition, is out now!  I'll try to get Episode out before next weekend's over. 
PLEASE fix the voice balance so it's more evenly spread across both channels.  It's really bothersome to have it almost completely in the left ear; sometimes when I listen I can only have one earphone and it's usually the right.

I'll work on it some more.  Honestly, I'm having a bitch of the time figuring out what the problem is.  It doesn't seem to be an equalizer problem (although it was on the first episode).  The music plays it both ears, right?  Maybe I should just record everything next time on the music track/channel.

Anyway, I will work on it.  Thanks for caring enough to mention it again and stick with it.