badbirdie productions

mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore

2007-11-30T07:39:16Z

I'm referring, of course, to the maddening lack of appropriate CRM for small and mid-size arts organizations. Not everyone can afford a Tessitura license. MS Access? Do Not Want. I've been looking at Act(!) for awhile now, with trepidation.. but check out the latest Technology in the Arts podcast from Carnegie Mellon, where they discuss novel use of the web-based database Salesforce and special add-ons being developed by the nonprofit community.. the salient conversation starts about 15 mins. in..

mind-meld

2007-11-27T22:22:40Z

In the (sort-of) new web 2.0 department, let me share my enthusiasm for a web-based collaborative 'mindmapping' app called mindmeister. www.mindmeister.com I'm a visual thinker. When it comes to sketching a rough organizational analysis or drafting a major project, mindmapping is a great technique. Up until now, mindmapping software has been clunky, ill-supported, and... face it, fugly. Mindmeister is quick, clean, and AJAX powered, supports notetaking and hyperlinks, collaboration... And oh yeah, the basic account is FREE. An immediate addition to my ridiculously inexpensive online office suite "in three Firefox tabs or less"..

Podcasting for Arts & Cultural Organizations

2007-09-27T12:07:29Z

Many thanks to the folks at Discover Jersey Arts and the South Jersey Cultural Alliance for their support and hospitality.. here are the complete notes and audio from last week's presentation of "Podcasting for Arts and Cultural Organizations" at the annual Media Roundtable in Haddon Township. As always, if you get stuck just drop me an email! Click here for the powerpoint slides, the notes (pdf), and visit the badbirdie podcast page on iTunes. For non-iTunes users, you can subscribe to the badbirdie podcast here.

soft-launch

2007-08-21T04:12:08Z

the new rutgers-camden center for the arts website is in soft-launch.. check it out at www.rutgerscamdenarts.org. it's all in movable type, which I've found to be quite flexible with a little planning.. very small footprint, and incredibly inexpensive to manage. we completed this update in about 48 hrs, including content, CSS and graphic design. more bells and whistles coming soon, including some flash banners, podcasting and so forth. Season announcement goes out Sept 5.

SJCA Media Roundtable, 9/18/07

2007-08-16T02:39:59Z

Just quick note .. I'll be presenting two hour-long workshops on e-marketing - specifically podcasting - at the South Jersey Cultural Alliance Media Roundtable on Sept 18 in Haddon Township, NJ. This will be a real nuts-and-bolts conversation on how to launch, manage and develop podcast and related viral marketing campaigns for performing arts organizations.. likely to veer off into more updated social-networking tools, time permitting! Also highly likely we'll be podcasting the podcast workshop. meta.

viral campaigns: time to get ill?

2007-07-06T03:50:37Z

“People have a tendency to overestimate the short-term consequences of the new social media technologies, and underestimate the long-term consequences.” – New Media Summit 2007

HBR IdeaCast interviewed Duncan Watts recently about some of his latest research into viral marketing .. it's a quick sketch that's worth a listen (if you can ignore the terrible sonic backdrop) and a read, as well as Walter Carl’s critique.. In brief, Watts is pointing out some of the limitations of marketers borrowing too heavily from the world of epidemiology when describing viral marketing campaigns, particularly the “reproduction rate” – that is, the rate of propagation of a virus from one carrier to another, described as a number between zero and one.. where 1 is the so-called “epidemic threshold” (aka malcolm gladwell’s “tipping point” in social terms). Any virus (or marketing message) propagating at a rate of 1 or greater is self-sustaining, anything below 1 is going to fizzle out eventually. As we know, viral marketing is unpredictable and hard to do right – but Watts observes that taking a “Big Seed” approach – infecting a larger number initial of hosts with your marketing message – still produces desirable results even where propagation is considerably below 1.. The takeaways here for cultural marketers are: :: a more precise language for describing viral marketing’s limits and opportunities to anxious ED’s and Boards, :: a framework for planning and budgeting for viral marketing campaigns, and :: new web applications for adding viral components to existing campaigns - and for measuring success. More soon on how I’m working these frameworks into my own campaigns..

what's new

2007-07-02T06:20:45Z

* This week we completed a new media promotion program for the West oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival in conjunction with www.uwishunu.com and the Greater Philadelphia Marketing and Tourism Corporation; liveblogging, podcasting and creating web video of the Festival on-site. You can see and hear the results at www.uwishunu.com or on the projects page. * The badbirdie blog is now hosted here.. read below for the latest posts or click 'blog' to view the archives..

jaiku twitter me

2007-07-01T17:49:11Z

http://twitter.com/badbirdie

jeff parks

2007-06-29T05:54:43Z

Jeff has been dually involved in technology and the arts since the mid-1990's with a resume that spans from label and tour operations to software, new media and business development. While still an undergrad at the Berklee College of Music, he landed his first industry job as road manager to an award-winning Blue Note recording artist, touring and producing live events from NYC to Monterey, from Sao Paolo to Den Haag. He served with the founder of Hear Music in business development for internet retailer/software developer Rock.com, working with major-label clients on early digital media delivery platforms in the late 1990's. Working freelance for several independent artists and labels in the early part of this decade, Jeff served as Programming Manager for the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, presenting several groundbreaking events including The Roots' Kimmel debut, and founding the Center's new media initiatives resulting in Kimmelcast and the Kimmel Center blog. Awarded the Philadelphia CityPaper Editor's Choice Award two years running, Jeff is an Associate Member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, a member of Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation's Jazz Touring Network, and is an active board member with Philadelphia's LifeLine Music Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting and invigorating the region's Jazz community. He currently serves as Deputy Director, External Affairs for the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, heading up Programming, Marketing/Comms and Business Development. Jeff holds an M.B.A. from Temple University, and a B.A. from the Berklee College of Music.

uwishunu: West Oak Lane Jazz Festival

2007-06-29T03:16:41Z

What a weekend -- the weather was perfect and the funk was most definitely in effect with sets by Roy Ayers, WAR and The Ohio Players -- but the show-stoppers of the weekend were Philly's own supremely funky Urban Guerilla Orchestra on Sunday afternoon! Check out their clip below.. This year's Festival exceeded all expectations, doubling last year's attendance record with crowds topping 200,000 and drawing audience from all over the country! Our hats are off to festival organizers and the West Oak Lane community for their dedication and hard work in making this world-class event a reality - now recognized as one of the largest and most eclectic free outdoor festivals in the nation. And thanks again goes out to the folks at uwishunu for sponsoring the free shuttle! Visit the uwishunu flickr page to see photos from the weekend!

uwishunu: Funk Advisory in Effect for Philadelphia Region

2007-06-23T03:13:58Z

FUNK ADVISORY: Near-perfect weather conditions and early summer hormonal recalibration patterns will leave residents of the Philadelphia region on the verge of getting it on throughout the weekend. Under no circumstances should you be caught indoors from Friday through Saturday. Adverse effects may include dizziness, excess clothing, cheap beer and other indicators of hipsterati nervosa. Residents are advised to proceed immediately to the 4th Annual West Oak Lane Jazz & Arts Festival for a four-stage infusion of Soul, Skronk and Old Skool Funk courtesy of The Ohio Players, War, Roy Ayers and some 500 of Philadelphia's finest musicians and spoken-word artists. It all kicks off Friday night with sets by Roy Ayers, Pieces of a Dream, and a complete city block of food, drink, art and street vendors! UWISHUNU is providing free round-trip transportation from 2pm-10pm on the hour this Saturday and Sunday from the Independence Visitors Center on 6th and Market. For more information, visit www.westoaklanefestival.com or stay tuned to UWISHUNU for audio & video updates from the scene! Audio: Interview with Festival founders Warren & Graziella Clips: Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, Ohio Players, Pat Martino

Interview with Philip Glass

2007-05-01T03:09:01Z

Joe Schiavo of the Rutgers-Camden Fine Arts Department hosted last night's pre-concert talk with Philip Glass, a low-key discussion ranging from topics of scoring for film and theater to studying composition under Nadia Boulanger in Paris.. audio is available in the podcast feed..

CityPaper: Philip Glass

2007-04-26T03:05:35Z

Philadelphia CityPaper April 25, 2007 by Mickey Jou

You might not recognize the name Philip Glass, but you know his work: He's the all-but-ubiquitous composer behind the scores of films such as Candyman, The Hours and, more recently, Notes on a Scandal. For the last month and a half, the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts' Stedman Gallery has screened films scored by Glass in anticipation the Oscar-nominated composer's April 29 visit. Glass will participate in a moderated discussion and perform selections of his work in a solo piano performance.

]]> Born in Baltimore in 1937, Glass studied flute at Peabody and picked up math and philosophy at the University of Chicago at the age of 15. By the time he finished his musical education at Juilliard, he had become interested in experimenting with how sounds form the texture and rhythm of narration. Glass' first score came in 1982, when he collaborated with director Godfrey Reggio on Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. The experimental montage film consisted of a series of conservation-themed images (such as shots of factory workers juxtaposed with idyllic nature scenes) without the direct connections of a plot. "[Glass] has a larger understanding that movies exist because of the music," says Robert Emmons, curator of the Glass on Film series and associate director of Rutgers' Fine Arts honors program."His scores are never behind the images - sometimes, [they're] even pushing the images forward." The last two films in the series, 1997's Kundun (the Scorsese-helmed biopic about Tibet's 14th Dalai Lama) and 2006's The Illusionist (a thriller about a magician, a prince and the woman they both love), see the practicing Buddhist branching into contemporary drama. The films may be more conventional, but Glass' tense trademarks - repetitive notes, eerie melodies and minimal instrumentation - are far from absent. Adds Jeffrey Parks, coordinator of the Glass retrospective and external affairs associate director of the Rutgers-Camden Center, "[Though] his sound is more complex now, his hypnotic, subtle motifs and orchestrations [give films] an otherworldly quality." In other words, without Glass, many films would come off as nothing more than Powerpoint slides; after all, audiences are paying to be immersed, not to stare idly at pretty pictures. "Music has always had a strong relationship with movies," says Emmons. "[Glass' music is what] moves the story along."

HerJazz: DJ Spooky's "Birth of a Nation"

2007-04-14T03:03:58Z

HerJazz by Maria Tessa Sciarrino

OK, if I wasn’t in the throes of covering the Popped! festival, I would be totally going to this...