Steal with a capital S. When we get DRM-free movie downloads (akin to all the DRM-free MP3s we've seen floating around), then there will be no need for videos like this.

In a highly unusual move for any political group today, the Greens EFA party of the European Parliament have publicly expressed their support for file sharing on the Net.

Via Mashable

Alex Rudloff asks, Why Does Orlando Radio Suck?

I guess I just don't understand the business behind local radio. I'm sure margins are tight and everything is pre-planned and digital now. It just sucks, that's all.

Thank god for my iPod and my tape deck connector.... New school meets the old.

My response:

There IS an alternative - it's produced for exactly $0, so it's not like it promises to blow you away - it's Rollins' College Radio Station, 91.5 FM. Some talk, some classical, some of everything else. Every 12:00-1:00PM hour is talk, and there are varying degrees of shows in other parts of the day. It is never the same, unless you listen to too much of it, then a pattern emerges, but it takes a LOOOONG time (months) to get sick of anything on that station (if you didn't mind it to start). You can also call anytime (just about) 24/7 and have your request played - anything - and they have thousands of titles and genres available. Check them out.

WPRK 91.5 FM

And if you are inside or out of range, try WPRKDJ.org

They also have a cool thing called Audio Postings (open forum) at the top of every hour - supposedly anyone with a non-commercial message can get their audio clips played as a public service to the listeners. Very cool.

Florida Creatives
RSVP & Event Info

Monday, January 21, 2008
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Crooked Bayou
50 E Central Blvd #D
Orlando, FL

Yes, it's the first month of the new year, but the holiday hangovers are a long-gone memory. It's just the right time to head downtown for a drink!

Come meet some new people, catch up with old friends and get a clue about what's going on in the coming year.

IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN TO FLORIDA CREATIVES NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME. It's the start of a new year, and one of your resolutions should be to "Get out more", "Meet new people in my field", "Follow up with the people I swapped business cards with a few months ago". If you feel you're doing fine in all these areas, INVITE SOME FRIENDS.

Don't experience Florida Creatives through a second-hand account - like a boyfriend or an intern - the event exists for you to attend, you are meant to participate, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. All of us are doing amazing things, and we all hold great potential, and mixing things up, rearranging the pieces, and otherwise adding catalysts to a beaker full of volatile chemicals can only be seen as a good thing. The problem is, our community contains so many different ingredients, and we have barely begun to scratch the surface. Make 2008 the year you got off your duff and became part of the solution.

The FLCreatives Wiki is starting to take shape, but you can help! Create an account or edit anonymously. Add something about one of your friends, and ask them to add something about you! If you think we're missing a category or a metro area, go ahead and add a new page.

Florida Creatives is a networking group currently serving Central Florida and looking to expand to schools and other metro areas. Membership is comprised of people who pursue creative activities for work or pleasure. Each month we get together to discuss what we do, share stories, make connections, catch up with friends and have a drink.

Too cool. Orlando needs stuff like this. I wonder if you can make anything out of an orange (without getting too sticky).

Vegetable orchestra - Boing Boing
Gabrielle sez, "This is a youtube of an orchestra entirely comprised of modified vegetables. There's a trumpet made from a carrot and a pepper, a carrot flute, and amazing percussion." Catchy tune, too -- delicious! Link to video, Link to Vienna Vegetable Orchestra site (Thanks, Gabrielle!)

Last night, I talked to (more like was interviewed by) Stephen McKenney Steck, the President Emeritus of the local PBS and NPR affiliates here in town. He was very interested in what I've done and what I'm doing, and he asked me several times to send him links to everything I talked about. While composing the email, I noticed a pattern. I would talk about the project and then I felt compelled to say "but this is what it's really supposed to accomplish". This gets me thinking...

It's no secret that I'm making most of my bread and butter working for a local startup, but there's a catch: I can't keep myself stocked too well with bread and butter this month. This is no slight to Darren, Michael and Kia, it just happens that I need to find some additional sources of income.

I actually had a decent amount of inquiry about my person and my skills pre-holidays, but then the holidays happened and I don't know the status of any of these requests. I'm thinking it's time for a little of Plan A, a lot of Plan B. More on Plan B in the future, I promise.

For now, here's how I described my past work to Mr. Public Broadcasting Himself:

Florida Creatives Happy Hour

The Florida Creatives is a networking group that meets every Third Monday of the month in downtown Orlando. I was inspired to form this group by several usergroups and meetups I've participated in the past - we meet in bars, because the best friendships and conversations are often had in the hallways after an event or in the bar across the street. In addition to our standalone after-work events, we've also hosted Happy Hours after the Enzian Film Slam and the Orlando Fringe Festival. I'd really like to have a program that lets us get in touch with students, both college and high school, and a long-term goal would be to have a summer camp for High School students to encourage them to pursue creative careers and programs of study.
Our Email Announcement List

Blogging Fringe

A community site built around the Orlando Fringe Festival. The Fringe is arguably the best 2 weeks of the year in Orlando, and I thought it deserved a fan site. I always try to get multiple people involved in writing reviews, posting updates or making videos, and in 2007 we were given the "Fringe of the Fringe" Award, which is exactly what we try to be. I was always hoping that my work on this website would get me some paying jobs, but artists don't have any money, so it's mostly a labor of love.

Ryan Price vs. the Media

My personal blog. I talk about media, technology, local happenings and whatever is on my mind.

Orlando Scene TV

The evolution of the Blogging Fringe concept, applied to Central Florida, with the caveat that all the posts would be video-centric, and another collaboration-heavy project. My friend Rebekah Lane is an actress, so she and I produce most of the videos together. We have also had other contributors, each with varying degrees of acting and production experience. I had always hoped this could be an open channel for anyone to submit video, and I hope we can get to that point as a city some day.

Pop Means Cuddle

A show "just for fun" I record with my friend Marc. He runs a music and media review site, and we get some music and interviews with musicians, and we've also interviewed the creators of an Internet TV show. So far, it appears we have a little Internet and a little music, which makes lots of sense if you look at the two people who host the show

Liberatr.net

This is the home of any podcast or blog I have produced myself, and those of a few friends. Many of the shows are co-hosted by friends, and 4 of them were produced solely by other authors, while I provided technical support. I had hoped that by having multiple "channels" we could attract a larger audience and become more attractive to advertisers. Now I am seeing the podcasts and blogs as a great way to support a larger content network and vice versa.

I realize as I read these descriptions back to myself that I always state a goal that is very far in the future or very much unrealized. I don't doubt that if I could quit my job and apply 40+ hours a week to any one of these projects, I could reach said goals.

I have now come up with an even bigger, better project that is a real sink or swim scenario. I must either quit my job and start making money at this idea or decide that I'm still not ready and continue freelancing and consulting for a few years until I come up with another crazy scheme. I suppose this is the same dilemma all entrepreneurs face. The real kicker is the fact that there's no easy answer to this question: When do you take the plunge?

Florida Creatives Meetup 1/5/08, originally uploaded by hyperlinkguerrilla.

Here I am sitting with Stephen McKenny Steck from WMFE, Orlando's PBS/NPR affiliate.

Photo by Jim Hathaway

Check out more photos in the Florida Creatives Photo Pool.

I was charged almost $12 on top of the ticket price. For that amount of money I could have driven all the way to the venue and bought dinner and a beer and back!!

Ticketmaster Sucks, originally uploaded by Liberatr.net.

At least I get to see one of my favorite bands of all time. Other than that, I have a strange sore feeling on my backside, because ticketmaster just butt raped me like a large 300-pound convict in a dirty prison.

More than a year ago, I hatched an idea about uniting the creative communities around Florida under a common banner at a Creative Summit. We are much closer to such an event now, but still so far away. After doing a dance in several directions, we came up with a Think and Drink.

Event Info & RSVP

This Saturday at 5:30, local media producers will gather at Red Light Red Light in Winter Park (map) for perhaps the first event of its kind in Central Forida. 2008 will see the coming of age of many types of new media. Blogging will become a pre-teen; podcasting is no longer a toddler; YouTube even turns 3 this year. As we start to see the hardening and refactoring of several popular and useful services and standards, it becomes more important for the enthusiasts and early adopters to come together to get on common footing and think about the future of media.

Orlando's technology, media and other creative communities have been growing along side each other for the past few years in a collection of several small fast and focused movements. What better way to start a new year than with a gathering with the purpose of setting goals and recording the words of the trend-setters of our community.

We've been setting aside January 5th on our calendars for some time now as a day to share our thoughts and experiences with new media. In December, a few of us got together to discuss what we'd like to get out of a PodCamp or a New Media day. Everyone agreed we should plan to have a much larger and more ambitious event later in the year, perhaps this summer, but a small event would help us get a solid idea about what sorts of topics to discuss and how we sell the event to the community.

BarCamp was a great event that really brought a lot of the community out in force, but the focus on programming made the video people, the podcasters, the storytellers and the writers believe that we could have our own Unconference. Enter this PodCamp Party.

Be sure and hop on the Facebook Group and to add some of your favorite sites and links to the Ma.gnolia Bookmarks Group. We'll make it worth writing home about.

P.S. I'm also trying to plan a "Photowalk" at 3PM for all the photographers and people who might like to take a walk around Winter Park and grab some food before the Happy Hour. Reply via Facebook if you'd like to go.

I finally got to watch John Rife's awesome locavore video, and I now feel very educated and inspired to explore and sample some of the places and foods he intoduces us to in his first installment of A Local Folkus.

It's also nice seeing this project happen, because John is renting space on our server, and I helped him set up the Wordpress (a bit).

I'd like to post a lot of relevant links to go with this video, but that will take a little while. Check back soon for some more info.

Download the Video (iPhone)