General

Some days are wonderful because of what happens. Some days are wonderful because of the people you’re with. Some days are wonderful because of where you are. Today was wonderful because of all of the above.

My wife Cinda and I set out this morning on a drive toward Greenville, South Carolina where we met our friend Pam Tierney. Pam is an actress and voice talent who lives in the Midwest and was in Atlanta for a few days, visiting family. Since Greenville is half-way between Atlanta and Charlotte, it made for a good place to connect without too much driving for any of us.

We had a truly delightful lunch at a little cafe called Melvenas. The food was wonderful and the conversation even more so.

Pam, me and Cinda just before we left the restaurant.

Not too many minutes before that photo was taken, I had checked my email with my phone (I love my Palm Treo Pro!) and saw that my agent in Cleveland (The Talent Group) had an audition they needed to get back from me before 5:00 PM Eastern. Anticipating that something like this might happen, I had my travel recording gear along for even this little day trip. I’d heard from multiple sources, including the great Joe Cipriano, that in a pinch an automobile can make for a pretty decent recording booth. I was about to find out.

The parking lot behind the restaurant was well back from the street so I thought it might just work. Using my anniversary gift from Cinda (an application from Best Buy called HotSpot that lets me turn my phone into a WiFi source) I was able to connect to the Internet, download the copy from my agent and …

… do the audition in the back seat of my car. Cinda was in the front seat serving at the photographer and director. I had my microphone stand sitting on my computer bag.

Once I finished recording, we started up the car so we could have the air conditioning on. I edited, saved and emailed the audition to my agent and about 30 minutes later we were on our way.

Cinda and I took our time driving back home, going through the Blue Ridge mountains rather than the Interstate back. Like I said, a wonderful day!

With thanks to my friend Dave Courvoisier for the link, check out this video trailer for the new Star Wars game. Not a single line of text in the game for a player to read. Voice actors read every line.

(Update: With thanks to Erik Sheppard, there’s much more detail about the game at Massively.com) Oh, and here’s the trailer.

A devastatingly accurate look at the shifting world of advertisting and media set to the tune of Don McLean’s American Pie. It’s worth it to listen to all 9+ minutes.

Wow. My thanks to L. McDuff who wrote this parody and to the anonymous individual who posted the link to it on the Yahoo! Voiceover Group.

In the event you would like to follow me, I’m now on Twitter.

Three of the most important words to say in a conversation, especially when they are true.

I don’t know.

For some further insight on the subject, don’t miss Seth Godin’s blog post today about Smart People.

From my friend and manager Stacey Stahl comes this lovely thought today.

Each day comes bearing its own gifts.  Untie the ribbon.

— Ruth Ann Schabaker

As that last post illustrated quite clearly for anyone who has worked in or around the radio game for the last three and a half decades, the old saying is true: The only constant is change. Change is in the air for The Voiceover Boblog. Good change. More as the time draws closer.

According to Inside Radio (and with thanks to my friend Dan Nachtrab for mentioning this on the VO-BB), R&R has been shuttered by the Nielsen Co., the owners of the 36 year old publication.