Matthew Wayne Selznick

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Time for one of those infrequent television posts.

I’ve been following “Jericho” — the CBS series about a small town in central Kansas after a series of nuclear explosions cuts off the rest of the world — and “Heroes” — the NBC series about an interconnected group of “new mutants” threatened by a pending nuclear detonation in New York City — since the season began.

Originally, I ate up “Heroes” like the best comic-book cake in the bakery, and tolerated “Jericho” because my wife liked it.

Lately, though, I’m flipping.

Now, I’m a huge comics fan — and when I knew “Heroes” was coming, I got pretty excited. I had my TIVO Season Pass all set up before the pilot aired. I wasn’t disappointed by the first few episodes, either, and really dug the cliffhanger episodes.

Then… I started to be able to predict things. Was I discovering a special ability myself? Would I be compelled to “watch the series… save Monday night for the network?” (Since unfortunately “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” isn’t gonna do that.) Nah… I’ve just read too many comic books, and “Heroes” follows comic book conventions so closely, they’ve started depending on comic book cliches. The cliffhangers are less shocking; the coincidences, contrived.

“Jericho,” on the other hand, I was apathetic toward, then intrigued… and now I’m engaged. Much slower than “Heroes,” and that’s all right, because it’s focused on character conflict and growth. People are changing for better and for worse, and characters are making choices that drive the plot, not the other way around. And maybe it says more about me than it does about these television shows, but I have yet to say, “Well, I saw that coming” watching an episode of “Jericho.”

It’s social science fiction, which is a pretty rare thing on television. When the plot twists come, I’m genuinely surprised because they make sense without feeling like mere shock value. I’m interested in the characters on “Jericho.” On “Heroes,” I’m not so concerned. I know New York will be saved. I don’t much care who lives or dies on the way to the season (series?) finale, because the characters are… pardon the blasphemy… too comic-booky!

Just one guy’s opinion, of course. Commence your attack runs..!

On Sunday, I went to the fiftieth wedding anniversary lunch of the parents of a friend. It was held at the Thousand Cranes in the New Otani Hotel Kyoto Grand Hotel & Gardens (new name as of January, 2008) in Los Angeles.

Now, this is a pretty swanky place that caters to Japanese travelers, in the heart of J-Town. I didn’t think twice about the safety of the buffet.

The food was good, the conversation was fun, and that was that.

Monday, I had to do a lot of driving. Got back home… and felt… woozily. Went to bed around nine thirty.

By ten, I was up and feeling horrible. On an almost hourly basis until the morning, I was in the bathroom, engaged in what is best described as a North / South evacuation plan.

It was horrible. Didn’t sleep much. The North evacuation wrapped up around three in the morning. I managed to sleep a little, fitfully, until ten or so the next morning.

Come to find out: at least five other people who were at the anniversary lunch also got sick! That’s potentially very bad, since some of the people are elderly.

Why am I telling you this?

Spite, mostly. I’ve had food poisoning… three times in my life? This was hard core. So watch out for the Thousand Cranes in the New Otani Hotel Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens in Los Angeles.

Probably a good idea to avoid seafood, sushi, and sashimi buffets anyway… but that’s no excuse for this place.

I think it must be time to report on PodCamp West, my first “unconference,” as well as my first opportunity to actually speak at one of these things!

I have to admit I went into this with a combination of anticipation and trepidation. The sessions — including the one I suggested — were confirmed, modified, and modified further seventy two hours before the event began.

What started as a talk called “Community, the DIY Ethic and Podcasting” transformed into a panel with myself, Chris Heuer, and Eric Rice called something like “Community Imperialism and DIY in Podcasting,” and finally ended up as a group conversation with Chris, me, and the audience with no real title. Communication between presenters and organizers was a little lacking, but I don’t really fault the organizers — the entire event went from conception to reality in about six or seven very crazy, crowded weeks. It all worked out okay. Lessons learned, all around.

I drove to PCW in a rented Mazda six-seat minivan thing because my Scion has 85,000 miles on it and didn’t need a thousand more, at least not before a tune up. It was the right decision, since my car is a manual and the Mazda thing was automatic (and had cruise control!) I enjoyed the drive, although it was longer than it should have been due to Friday evening traffic outside of San Francisco.

Before I got out of Los Angeles, I stopped at the home of Michael W. Dean, where I was treated to coffee, bagels, and a fun conversation that you can find on the next few episodes of Michael’s “Clone the Homeless” podcast. After knowing Michael virtually for more than a few years, I really enjoyed sitting down face to face. Thanks for the hospitality, Michael!

I got into town too late (I thought) to attend the pre-party at the Mint, turned in after some potstickers and mushu pork… and that brings us to Saturday morning and the beginning of the unconference.

Check out the Swedish American Hall, the 100-year-old building where the event took place. In the main auditorium, speakers had the distinct honor of planting their podcasting asses in giant wooden chairs carved from the thickest branches of Yggdrasil itself. I mean, these things were freakin’ thrones, set high above the audience. If you didn’t have one eye and twin ravens as shoulder pads, you didn’t belong in these chairs. Kinda took away from the “let’s all have a conversation” and “this is your conference” intention of the event, and organizer Vic Podcaster recognized that pretty quick. The thrones were retired by the middle of the day.

I had a nice conversation with Yukako “Tajee” Tajima before the event started. She’s trying to save the world with podcasting, which is something I could relate to, even if Japan’s ambassador of podcasting and I had a bit of trouble understanding each other.

During the “Up and Running With Podcasting” panel, which was good stuff for the newbies in the crowd, I was joined by one of my favorite people from the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, Cassandra, who was there with her partner in the Paradigm Girls podcast, Jenna. Small world that it is, both of these gals are pals with “Robots Robots Robots” creator Steve Smith, who has been an internet friend of mine for months. I’ll be voicing of one of the characters in Steve’s 3D cartoon, and it turns out Cassandra plays my sister!

Some of the other fine folks I met or connected with on Saturday and Sunday:

• Nolan Apostle of Event City Network — full of energy, openness, and great optimism, Nolan inspired a rapport with everyone he met, myself included.
• Tim Street of French Maid TV — I saw the first two episodes, and while they were fun, I am, after all, five years past the high end of their target demographic. All the same, Tim was good company with his dry humor, deadpan delivery, and Hollywood (by way of Pasadena) shades. We were both on the last panel of the weekend with Shahram Shokrian, Chris MacDonald, and Gini Nelson.
• Alex and Dean — the husbands from “Alex and Dean: Gay Men Talking” had some nice things to say about “Brave Men Run,” and we had a good conversation about how the story of an outsider teen finding his place resonates in the gay community as well.
• Sallie Goetsch — Tee Morris praises the head professor at the Podcast Asylum, and after the weekend, I can see why. Sallie is personable, bright, and a fun conversationalist. She’s squeezing into twenty hours a week everything I can’t manage to handle in fifty! The lesson’s not lost on me!
• Scott Simpson from iTunes — I liked him, we had fun, and he was open and willing to hear my criticisms of the iTunes music store. Even shares some of them!
• The Goza family from Act!vated Storytellers — Kimberly, Dennis, and Zephyr roam the earth telling stories… and podcast about it, too! If Zephyr could only utter a certain two-syllable word and transform into a superhero in his thirties, we’d have a seventies live-action Saturday morning kids’ show. Even without that, these three are doing admirable and, yes, even important work.
• Martin McKeay of the Network Security Blog — we met briefly during the Slice of SciFi recording at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo a month ago. It’s a testament to the social nature of these events that we could have a few conversations and interactions at PCW as if we had known each other for some time.
• Gini Nelson of the Engaging Conflicts Blog — I don’t know if all conflict management and mediation experts are like this, but Gini is so warm, open, and utterly delightful, it’s difficult to see how she ever finds any conflict to manage. Niceness expands from her like the soothing shadow of opened wings.
• Colette Vogele - Vogele and Associates. Absolutely my favorite lawyer ever — the fact that I don’t really know all that many lawyers does not diminish that statement, I promise. We met at the first Portable Media Expo, fairly briefly. Between then and an even more fleeting encounter at PPME 2006, we had a few interactions (mostly around her Podcasting Legal Guide) and I sensed a kindred spirit. Now, after some good conversation and camaraderie, I’m pleased to call her a friend. Her podcast is coming!
• There are others, of course: Brian McQueen of youSENDit; Chris Christensen from the Amateur Traveler; Fred Castaneda from Arriba!; Patrick Reilly of ipsociety… and the inevitable bunch I am forgetting or didn’t get cards from.

Of the sessions I attended, most didn’t really knock my socks off — in fact, there was quite a bit of ego and self-promotion in sessions that were supposed to be interactive conversations, especially from some of the so-called “veterans” of podcasting. This was on the first day, when the most people were there, and I gotta wonder if that’s why there were so many fewer people there on Sunday.

The exception was a product demo from Foneshow — a new service that provides podcasts for cell phones. Erik Schwartz was very open to suggestions and questions aimed at making his service better. As I sat there taking it in, the wheels started to turn. Look for a podcast from me specifically for a cell phone… in a month or so. It’s gonna be fun.

The session Chris Heuer and I led worked out great, I thought. We broke down the audience in two groups, and presented the following question to them: “Should we invest our time in helping other podcasters learn, and if so, why is it important?”

The answer pretty quickly was agreed to be “yes, and it’s important because this is citizen media, and the citizens who have been doing it for a while have a responsibility to serve as mentors for the newcomers.” We left the session with a pledge to each other: we would leave PodCamp West and “make a newbie;” in other words, we would introduce someone to podcasting and help them become podcasters.

To me, that was freakin’ mission accomplished for the weekend — remind people that it’s not all about what can I get out of podcasting. There’s a responsibility there, too, and answering that responsibility can only make the community, and the medium, stronger.

Right after that, I found myself jumping on a panel on marketing. I wanted to offer the DIY ethical perspective on marketing and emphasize the relationship between content creator and content consumer. So I went from never speaking at a conference to speaking on two panels for three hours. Next!

After-hours activities:

Saturday night, the club next to the hall was reserved for us from six to eight. I mostly hung out with Colette, Tim, Scott, and Nolan. Good fun… the place had… how to explain this? It had “club smell.” Not necessarily as bad as you might think: a slightly musty mix of humans, alcohol, vinyl seating, old carpet, and time. The scent brought back memories of the Doheney Saloon, the Doll Hut, and other venues from one of my former lives.

After it came time to vacate the club, Colette was kind enough to drive some of us to the 11th anniversary party for Laughing Squid, a production / web hosting company. The party was in a big warehouse / club structure, and featured marrow-dissolving bass and stage acts that made conversation and bonding difficult. I met people whose names I can’t recall, including someone from Pandora (I thanked him for creating the service), hung out with Scott, Tim, and Colette, and talked briefly again with Tajee. At one point, I discovered that the tiny Thai restaurant next door was open, so Colette and I got some grub. That was a good break from the mini-burning-man vibe.

The evening ended at a nice little bar with a grouchy bartender and a fresh, passionate young jazz combo. It was a great palate-cleanser. I wish to hell I had a place like the Revolution Cafe somewhere nearby. As the song says, “A steady place… to study and drink.” Good call, Colette.

Sunday night, after Chris Fisher showed me some excellent rough thumbnails for the cover of “Light of the Outsider,” she husband Henry treated me to my first real sushi in months. I first met Chris at the PPME a few months ago. We had some good conversation over dinner; very mellow and fun — a nice way to balance the alcohol and noise of the night before. Both were good in different ways!

And that was my PodCamp West. I got home in the early evening on Monday, tired and sore and… calm. There’s something about an eight hour drive that really puts a buffer on that post-conference enthusiasm!

So… take-aways?

• I’ve been inspired to do yet another podcasting project, this one tailored for the mobile phone user.
• I had some genuine, warm connections with people I respect and admire
• I committed to participating in another PodCamp… one a tad further south. Wait and see.
• I popped my conference-speaker cherry! As it were. Now I want to talk at all of ‘em.

One last note: I realized I thrive on these events because it’s the only time I get to spend with people I relate to, enjoy, and connect with on many, many levels. I’ve come to understand what’s meant by “finding one’s tribe,” and this is it. When I come back to Hesperia, I feel a little like I’m going back into exile. So whatever else is on the agenda for 2007, it must include a whole lot more of things like this.

Matthew Wayne Selznick will be attending PodCamp West in San Francisco on November 18th and 19th. On the 19th, he will lead a panel, “Community and the DIY Ethic in Podcasting,” with Eric Rice and Chris Heuer.

PodCamp West is free to attend, but you must register. If you intend to be at this “unconference,” don’t delay — there are only a few slots left as of this writing.