RELEASED: LILITH’S CHILDREN, Ep.8: “The God Complex”

Lilith's Children, episode 8 "The God Complex"

I saw a casting call come through a while ago for someone with a deep, gritty voice needed to replace a regular cast member in an established show. I can do deep and gritty, so I chucked my hat in the ring to see what would come of it.

After some tweaking and a bit of back-and-forth with the producer, Viktor Aurelius, what came of it was me taking the role of Teddy in Lilith’s Children. True, demons and Fantasy stories aren’t usually my thing, but it was a chance to do a role with a different voice and work with a new production group and I like making new contacts in this game.

So now I’m Teddy, a sarcastic, lascivious trog. You’ll have to listen to the back episodes to fully understand the situation and when you hear the original Teddy, you’ll appreciate more the size of the shoes I needed to fill. I won’t say I have filled them, but I hope I haven’t done the role any shame.

Check it out and let me know.

RELEASED: My reading of Certus Per Bellum on Escape Pod

Image borrowed from http://epicgames.com/community/2012/04/the-road-to-pax-east-anya-cosplay-finished/

I had the pleasure of narrating this interesting story about a near future world where lawsuits can be decided by battle, and instead of lawyers you hire champions. Personally, I think this should be an option now…

CLICK HERE to listen

Certus per Bellum (Decided by War)
By S. Hutson Blount (http://www.shutsonblount.com/)

“It’s quiet outside,” Nohaile said, trying to find a comfortable way to sit in his armor suit. “Are you sure it’s started?”

“It’ll get plenty loud,” said the girl. She was armored only in a ratty sweatshirt and a patched bib coverall. She’d entered the bunker with a vest and some sensible-looking boots, but promptly removed them. Her bare feet made her look about twelve years old. “For right now,” she continued after some rapid two-thumb typing on her hand console, “we got time to kill.”

RELEASED: In the Line of Duty prequel

In the Line of Duty: a near-future war audio drama produced by Ben Reed

Here’s a cool project in which I’ve had the privilege of being cast. In the Line of Duty is fixing to be a very well produced audio drama about a near future global war and all the political and personal struggles that go along with it.

Producer Ben Reed has been releasing prequels running up to the show’s premier, and the most recent one features my character Lieutenant Colonel David Williams. My acting in it is a bit over-the-top, but hopefully it doesn’t kill the episode for you. It’s always tricky voice acting when nobody’s in the room with you. I’ll be better in the future, I promise.

In the meantime, check it out and appreciate the well-done production and we’ll get busy making more. PLEASE be sure to leave a comment for Ben also. Things like this are made 100x better with listener feedback!

BEST NEW MEDIA: Flattr.com

Flattr.com is a great way to support online media. Image via CrunchBase

Those of us who dabble in new media have a problem.

We have a lot of great ideas for podcasts, blogs, podiobooks, music and everything else. So we start our projects out of our house, we know how to generate an audience for them so they gain popularity, so we put more time and our own money into them (sometimes as much as adding another full-time job to our lives), and they grow, and this spirals until we have a wealth of artists with thousands of global followers and fans.

That’s not the problem. The problem is that online advertisers only pay-per-click or pay-per-performance, so unless the audience goes to the artists’ sites and clicks through their links daily, they can’t generate any money for their art.

By the way, can you imagine if advertisers only paid-per-performance for TV, radio or print advertising? All pre-internet media would disappear within a month. But that’s another discussion for another time.

The problem is that an online artist can entertain more people globally in a week than the hottest street performer sees in three months, but the guy on the street can live comfortably on his tips and the online artist may never see a penny in return.

But there’s good news! There are a lot of people out there on the internet that want to throw tips to these online artists. We know this is true because they do become paying subscribers of shows when they can. We know it’s true because they do buy Kindle books from indies. We know it’s true because they buy music from indie artists.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that you, me, and everybody else in the world only have a limited amount of money we can share, so when we run out some of our favorite artists get missed for no better reason than the fact that they weren’t in our faces at the moment when we had cash.

Enter Flattr.

Flattr is the closest thing to the realization of a thought many of us have had for years. That thought is, “If I could budget to support all of the things I like online in one place like I do with my phone or cable or magazine subscriptions, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

It works like this:

1. You set up an account with Flattr
2. You put money in your account and tell Flattr how much you want to spend on Flattrs every month.
3. You find online content-creators (like job-creators, except they actually do what their name suggests) that you want to donate to on Flattr’s site and click the button to Flattr them (you can choose to do it on a one-time or recurring basis).
4. At the end of the month, Flattr divvies your budget amount between all of the people/sites/etc. you Flattr’ed and the next month starts anew.

“It’s perfect Mat! What’s the downside?” Well, there are a couple.

• People you Flattr will probably not make as much money from you as they would if you subscribed to them directly. However, if a huge mass of users join this system, the beneficiaries will have the potential to draw in MANY more subscribers. I won’t say quantity of donations trumps amount of an individual donation every time, but in my experience, that’s usually the case. Look at apps, for example. Look at WoW or Farmville. Look at public television.

• Not everybody you want to give money to has a Flattr account to receive it. However, it does let you message them a request that they join via Twitter. If they get enough of them, they’ll join.

The final analysis: the success of Flattr hinges on the number of users, both on the giving and receiving sides. If you’re inclined to give donations to the people online that give you as much enjoyment as all of the other media you pay for without thinking, I encourage you to sign up and to encourage the people you patronize to as well. Even if your budget is set to only $5 per month, their share is money they would not have had otherwise. And if all of their patrons do the same, they’ll get what they need to bring you more and better content.

Related articles

• Flattr: The World’s Next Social Sharing Button? (webpronews.com)
• Richer button enabled for all (flattr.net)
• Flattr and Free Money For You (evilgeniuschronicles.org)

RELEASED: My narration of Counting Cracks on Escape Pod

Counting Cracks by George R. Galuschack

I’m not sure about my job on this one at all. The story’s solid, but I missed giving several lines the right inflection, and I foolishly didn’t record enough in advance to make a lot of changes. Hopefully, the author won’t be too upset. In the end, that’s always the main thing I’m worried about.

Enough whining. Here’s an excerpt and a link to where you should go to get it.

Counting Cracks
By George R. Galuschak

Four of us, jammed into my sister’s Ford Festiva, going to kill the monster. Sylvia drives. The Hum has left her untouched, so she’s the only one left in town who can drive. My sister licks the palm of her hand, touches it to her nose and bumps her forehead against the steering wheel. Then she does it again.

“Today would be nice, sis.” I say. I’m in the back seat with June, a twelve-year old girl clutching a teddy bear to her chest.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” she tells me. “It’s bad today.”

“The Shop-Rite has three hundred and fifty-seven ceiling tiles,” Michael tells me. He’s a little kid, nine years old, sitting up front with Sylvia. “I counted them.”

“Inpatient oranges creep handsome banisters,” June says, rolling her eyes.

“Good for you,” I say. My left leg hurts, which I guess is a good sign. My left arm feels like dead weight except for the tips of my fingers, which are tingly.

“Do you count tiles, Mr. Bruschi?” Michael asks.

“No. I counted cracks on the sidewalk. When I was a kid.”

A sparrow collides with the windshield. It bounces off and skitters to the pavement, where it thrashes. I haven’t seen a living bird in days. It must have flown into the Hum.

“Swill,” June says, pointing at the bird. “Maraschino cherries. Skittles. Cocktail weenies.”

“All right. I’m ready.” Sylvia twists the key, and the car starts. We back out of the driveway.

“The streets are so empty,” she says.

“That’s because everyone is dead,” Michael tells her. “They listened to the Hum and went into their houses and pulled the covers over their heads and died. I had a hamster that died, once. It got real old, so it made a little nest, and then it laid down in it and died.”

“We’re not dead,” I say.

“Not yet,” Michael corrects me. “Give it time.”

Pay me to dance for you

Zumba for Life!

Here’s the thing, guys: I’m fat. At 35, something triggered in my body turning all the muscle to fat and the result is not pretty. I’m working on changing this, but there’s no escaping the present reality. While I fancy myself fairly graceful for a big dude, I’m sure from eyes outside my own, it’s more of a Chris Farley in the Chippendales Audition Skit – kinda graceful.

That being said, I am going to this Zumba for Life event. If you’re in the area, I would love for you to come too. The $5 admission goes to my Relay for Life team, and you get to see me salsa-sweaty and Farley-shameless in person. If you can’t go, I intend for there to be video, which I will put on YouTube to share my embarrassment with the world. IF you will donate to my Relay campaign. I need $205 to reach my goal, but I will share some video if I get $100 in donations. I’ll share all of the video if I meet my goal.

DONATE HERE: http://tinyurl.com/MatWeller2012

So spread the word, help me raise some money, and pop some popcorn for some undoubtedly classic comedy.

Where your mouth is

Each of the Republican candidates has raised tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for their campaigns. At the end of the primaries, they will have a national convention that will be a hundred million dollar party to accomplish nothing more than what has already been done over the past several months of primary votes in each state and which could be done for $0 by the head of the GOP on YouTube.

Each of these men has told the people of the US they are shining examples of Christianity. But with all of this fundraising, how much has any of them raised to feed, clothe, house or provide medicine for those in need?

We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we’ll guard each one’s dignity and save each one’s pride
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love

They’ll know we are Christians by Carolyn Arends

It’s not that the Democrats have done much better. The problem is that if you want to claim a religion as the central pillar of your political philosophy, but you can’t recognize or demonstrate the single core principal of that religion, then every word out of your mouth is a lie to me and you will never have my vote.

How can you expect me to put my trust in someone who can’t live what they claim to be most sacred? If that’s negotiable, what isn’t?

RELEASED: Jim Nolan – The Death of Anderson Buchwald

Jim Nolan, Private Eye at Misfits audio

I had just a small part in this one, but the production quality on this one bears a listen even without me. Whether you’re into classic noire-style audio drama or you’re just looking for a way to burn 40 minutes during your commute, I recommend you give this one a listen.

CLICK HERE to download

or go to the Misfits Audio website for more information and douwnload options: http://misfitsaudio.com/comments/archives/1435

 

Real Life Action Movie : Story Swap 1

Have you ever lived through a moment that felt like it was pulled from an action movie? Do you know someone who has? My father has, and this is my attempt to tell that story. If hearing this makes you think of a story from your life, share it back with me.

 

 

This video is part of a Storytelling project I am putting together. Get more information about the whole project here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA74ALuMdvE

I propose that we shoot the breeze together.

Just a little announcement for a storytelling project I’m starting. I’m going to start recording some stories from my live and from the life of my family for my kids to enjoy or be embarrassed about later. I’m hoping that friends will see them and be like “that story reminds me of another one…” and they’ll share back and maybe we can assemble the stories into a podcast or something. Not everybody has a million stories worth sharing, but everybody has one.

Side note: recording this on video was a good thing as it has helped me become aware of how truly fat I am. Must – lose – weight. Hopefully you’ll get to see my size reduce as these videos progress.