All posts by Mike O'Connor

GC071 – Enough is enough: back after four and a half years

Heather Heyer – RIP

I’m returning with a podcast to my unborn grandchildren that puts me on record in opposition to the Charlottesville protest.  This is a reflection about the paradox of tolerance and the need for speaking out against hatred and violence.  It’s been four and a half years since the last episode, so there are more stories to tell, but those will keep for another time.

 

GC069 – ICANN

The second in a double-header day of Geezercasting.  This is a really brief discussion of ICANN, where I’ve been volunteering a fair amount of my time over the past 7 years or so.  ICANN manages the domain-name and numbering systems that glue the Internet together and I helps wid dat.  My unborn grandchildren may get a charge out of all this.

Click HERE to listen to this 17 minute podcast.

GC068 – Frac Sand

 Hi all, a somewhat gloomy (not grouchy, just gloomy) Geezercast that started off perky but got dragged off into Frac Sand Land by accident.  This issue has soaked up a lot of time for Marcie and me over the last several months.  So my unborn grandchildren need to hear about it.

Definitely click on Jim Tittle’s photo if you want to see what we’re up against.

Click HERE to listen to this 20 minute podcast.

 

GC067 — A 1-year anniversary “Best Darn Government Money Can Buy” podcast

This time I explore the real-life embodiment of “the parting on the left is now parting on the right” lyric by the Who (bonus points for the name of the song).  Y’see, I’m starting to think that the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street people could actually find themselves agreeing with each other if they’re not careful.  Far be it from me to bring that up, though.

Click HERE to listen to this 11-minute podcast.

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

GC066 — A “layered” tune, annotated

A friend of mine asked that I explain my latest parlor-trick approach to music making.  There are lots of different ways of making tunes on computers, but I’ve been fiddling around with a sortof “live layered jam” approach where I cycle through a loop, adding an instrumental part each time through.  Loads of fun to do.

So click HERE to listen to this 11 minute podcast of a little 12-bar tune being built up layer by layer.

GC065 — What if Google turns evil?

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

All kinds of news from the farm (big new-bird news for Marcie, big new-fiber news for me).  Plus the big story of the last few weeks — online privacy.  Which then morphs into my personal story of moving myself off of Google services as much as I can.  I tell a bit about what’s been bothering me about all that information that Google collects, plus ruminating about the delicious application-candy they use as bait to draw me in.

Click HERE to listen to this 17 minute podcast.

Geezercast Special — the Bounty Boogie

Richard, and the rest of the crew of the tall ship Bounty, are heading out in a couple days.  They’re leaving from San Juan Puerto Rico with a destination of St Petersburg, Russia — so this is a two-way crossing of the Atlantic.

I decided to dedicate this little tune to the Bounty.  It’s long, much like this voyage — and the many watches that they will all be standing.  It’s a little boring, which is my fondest hope for the voyage as well.  It’s in the key of E, so Rich and his crew mates can jam along on just about any instrument that’s likely to show up on the ship.  It’s a bit of a lullaby, for those moments when things are hard.  But it’s also a little jaunty, which describes Rich and the rest of the crew to a T.

Best listened to under headphones (think, iPod) — the bass part totally disappears when I listen to it on my PC.

Safe journey and smooth sailing.

Click HERE to listen to this 14 minute MP3.

 

GC064 — ICANN .XXX and Japan Tsunami

Image credit

This Geezercast is a reflection on my recent trip to the ICANN meetings (in San Francisco this time), the huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan that happened just as I was flying out there and the continuing hijinks of the Republican governor and legislature here in Wisconsin.

Click HERE to listen to this 13 minute podcast.