Is Mister Don Real?

I've been asked that question, along with the subtly different "Is Mister Don FOR real", several times over the past couple weeks and the answer is an unequivocal YES.

Here are some of the facts:

• Mister Don is a real person and a real (and very talented) photographer.
  
  
• Although he has been involved in a couple photoshoots that I was a part of, he does not actually take all my stock photos. (I could not afford him.)
  
  
• It is true that he never pushes the shutter release himself (that is the job of Big Bobby).
  
  
• It is extremely unlikely that he will consent to shoot your wedding, Bar Mitzva, etc., but fell free to ask.
  
  
• He personally makes all of his 'signature' hats.

Thanks for you comments. I'm sure we'll see more of Mister Don in future episodes.
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SKETCH Episode 3

This being Saturday, the week's episode was posted today. We did a longer SKETCH (actually a little longer than the original intent for the main show - although what length of show means in this discussion is a different matter) as an interlude to next week's episode - which has turned out to have several technical challenges. These aren't super-tough challenges, they are tedious, grunt work challenges that take a bit of time. So, this week we have a SKETCH.

At some point in the near future I'm going to have a meeting with myself to work through whether there is a need for the distinction between a regular episode of PORTFOLIO and a SKETCH episode. As it stands I think there is; if for no other reason than to show that a given episode has briefly broken the 'theme' of the episodes that surround it.

These first 7 or so episodes have been (loosely) about Stock Art, but that mini-series will be coming to an end shortly and we will be wondering off in search of very different forms of creativity. I'd be very surprised if we did not come back to Stock Art, and artists, from time to time, but the show was never intended to focus solely on that topic.

There are so many ways and things that people create, and so many that I know almost nothing about. The show's primary purpose is to give me a reason and a method for doing just that; finding out more about all that cool stuff, and the people who do it.

So, for this week, I hope you'll take a moment to learn a little more about the musical work and current projects of Thomas Dolby. He's been an innovator a couple times in a couple different fields, and - hopefully - he may be creating some crazy new stuff very soon. If you have iTunes, you can hear pieces of almost all his music there. It's a good place to start.

Dragon*Con 2006

PORTFOLIO will be taking the show on the road next week, attending Dragon*Con 2006 in Atlanta, GA.

We will be holding power lunches with two of the show's executive producers (and fantastic artists) Sam Hogg and Angela Sasser, conducting interviews with all sorts of creative types, meeting the analog versions of friends who have up to this point been purely digital, and basically drifting in a sea of art, ideas, and wackiness.

Look forward to seeing much of the adventure on future episodes of PORTFOLIO or SKETCH. If you are going to be there, please drop a line - we'd love to meet you.

More of me screwing up...YAY!

I've been thinking about a new page associated with the PORTFOLIO site that would feature outtakes, bloopers, and footage that we've had to cut from the episodes due to time and size limitations.

If this sounds like something you'd like to see, send a note or leave a comment.

Other than that today was pretty busy; finished this week's episode and started doing the detail work on P7 (which I think will be pretty snazzy).

Guy's Kawasaki's "10 Things to Learn This School Year"

I've been a big fan of Guy Kawasaki for just about as long as it has been possible to be a big fan. I've always found his ideas to have that ring of "gee, I think I was just about to think that." He's inspiring without being cultish, and he has that hard to define quality of seeming to be more or less a pretty normal guy (no pun) - albeit one who has a sizable share of good ideas.

Since it's that time of year for many, and since these days we are all going to school in one way or another most of the time, I thought it would be good to highlight his post on "10 Things to Learn This School Year". Although many of these may seem to be geared to "big business", I can vouch for the fact that whether you spend most of your time next to a conference table, an easel, a pad of paper, or a computer - they all come into play sooner or later.

Spot on, every one of them. (Pay special attention to #3, #4, #6, and his end point.)

The Infinite Tunnel of Squidoo(tm)

First, I must say that although I am (so far) very impressed with the service and the site, I find the name, SQUIDOO, to be odd. But, then again, I can't stand the word 'blog' and I refuse to speak Starbucks-ese.

Goofy name aside, though, Squidoo is a very interesting site that allows one to create a Lens (as many as you like) on a certain topic or theme. What is a Lens? you ask.

"...A lens is one person's view on a topic that matters to her. It's an easy-to-build, single web page that can point to blogs, favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr photos, Google maps, eBay auctions, CafePress designs, Amazon books or music, and thousands of products from hundreds of other trusted merchants. You can pick whatever content you want to put in your lens to bring context to your topic. Then, when someone is looking for recommended information, fast, your lens gets him started and sends him off in the right direction. It's a place to start, not finish..."

The Lenses are easy to construct, have a clean and consistent look and feel, and provide a broad range of modules with which to customize your page.

The most intriguing part of the site, however, may be the fact that it is run as a co-op. The pages are liberally splashed with Google Ads (although I should note not more so than most sites these days) and the revenue from those and from other forms of referrals is divided up between operating expenses, CHARITIES (you can pick 'em) and your wallet (if you so chose to claim any of your swag).

Give Squidoo a look, you may find it interesting. Here is the link for the PORTFOLIO Lens. If you already have some Lenses, let me know about them - I'd like to take a look.

PS. Also, let me know if you get the reference in the title of this post.

PORTFOLIO's Intro Music

Several people have asked about the intro music for PORTFOLIO (and for SKETCH, for that matter). Although I'm pretty sure my daughter could play that piece, it is not in fact her.

It is simply a loop from Apple's GarageBand, tweaked almost not at all, and then messed with slightly in each episode as the timing and situation dictate. The specific loop is 'Orchestra Strings 8'.
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Snippets

Regarding the previous post:

These little missives will likely be just that: little. I'm planning to just swoop in and make a point or propose an idea or mention a good product or service that is useful in the creation of a show like PORTFOLIO.

And then swoop back out...

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Why, Oh Why

Mainly because I don't really know what I'm doing; especially when it comes to producing a new show at least once a week. So I figure I'm going to have to learn a lot of stuff really fast if I'm going to keep up and live up to the Mission Statement:

Produce at least one (1) episode of PORTFOLIO or portfolio_SKETCH per week.

I can do more, but the goal is to not do less.

[And just for you nit-picky types out there; no, I would not consider a normal SKETCH episode to meet this goal. Mainly because a normal SKETCH episode is only about 2-4 minutes in length, whereas a normal PORTFOLIO is planned to be in the neighborhood of 5-7 minutes. But I would count a long SKETCH. (I love it when I get to decide if the mission is a success.)]

So, since I'm gonna have to figure a bunch of stuff out along the way, I thought some of that might be useful to some of you. If not, then I'm pretty sure you'll at least get a laugh out of how goofy/naive/Pollyanna-ish I am in my belief that I can pull this off.

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Let the inanity begin!

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Since there are so many exciting things going on I thought I'd put up another, slightly more mainstream, web journal. This one is to deal more with the day-to-day project stuff; working on PORTFOLIO, doing stuff with Team Djinn, designing fights, developing new and even goofier projects with...well...all of you, I suppose.

It's not that there was anything wrong with the other journal, it's just that it was hard to tell the conjecture from the fancy from the all-out fiction (wink).

So tonight has been spent in updating the jademacalla.com site, of which this WEB JOURNAL is a part. (I still try very hard never to say the work 'blog'; I dislike it that much, even after all these years). I hadn't intended to work on this, but the stream of consciousness work flow just took over. But now it is more or less complete and all the people who have been trying to desperately to get ahold of me now have a place to go. [yes, intended]

On a side note, I was very interested to find that inanity is a real word; or, I should say, a real form of a real word. I thought I was intentionally warping the root into an unacceptable form - imagine my surprise. I like it so much, I might rename this WEB JOURNAL.
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