GeezerCast

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

Mike O'Connor — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:32:23 +0000

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

Mike O'Connor — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:19:07 +0000

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?

Mike O'Connor — Sun, 08 May 2011 16:46:35 +0000

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

Mike O'Connor — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 02:03:00 +0000

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

Mike O'Connor — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 20:59:27 +0000

: 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.

GC063 — Madison protests

Mike O'Connor — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:19:43 +0000

This Geezercast focuses on the giant labor protests in Madison, WI over the last week. Takes me back to the days when I lived there (early ’70′s) and all the community organizing stuff that was going on.

Click HERE to listen to this 14 minute podcast.

Photo Credit

GC062 — Best Darn University Money Can Buy

Mike O'Connor — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:21:33 +0000

Ah. The government isn’t the only place where I can find examples of the power of corporate money. The University of Minnesota had a rough go with the way they squashed a pretty innocuous film about the impact of Big Agriculture on the Mississippi River. I explain the situation to my unborn grandchildren.

Click HERE to listen to this 15 minute podcast.

Photo credit

GC061 — Best Darn Government Money Can Buy

Mike O'Connor — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 21:45:30 +0000

Some observations about the mid-term elections, the Tea Party movement, 400 rich folks that are probably *really* running things and so forth.

Click HERE to listen to this 13 minute podcast

GC060 — 60th Birthday Geezercast

Mike O'Connor — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:52:33 +0000

Hey! It’s my 60th birthday today AND this is the 60th Geezercast. How ’bout that? This one is really short — just a 5 minute intro to a new tune that I built to learn about “slicing” — a musical technique that Robert Perry (son of Marcie’s cousin Joan Perry) taught me about when he came to visit a month or so ago.

Click HERE to listen to this 10 minute podcast.

GC059 — GeezerCast Returns

Mike O'Connor — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:11:41 +0000

Yep. Got all the hardware troubles fixed — just in time for a new crop of economic troubles to GeezerCast about. Topics include weird US stock-market gyrations, weird Greek currency gyrations and weird political gyrations. Since GeezerCasts are really just a chronicle of weird events for my unborn grandchildren, it looks like the pace may pick up.

Click HERE to listen to this 12 minute podcast.