This is a different component to this website. It is an audio journal that highlights photography, book reviews, geocaching and other areas of interest.
Episodes will be five minutes or less and distributed once a week on Apple and Spotify platforms.
Season 1
Episode 1 released on 2024-02-17
Episode 2 released on 2024-02-24
Episode 3 released on 2024-03-02
Episode 4 released on 2024-03-09
Episode 4.5 released on 2024-03-16
Episode 5 released on 2024-03-23
Episode 6 released on 2024-04-13
Episode 7 released on 2024-05-05
Episode 8 released on 2024-05-18
Episode 9 released on 2024-06-09
Episode 10 released on 2024-09-07 That’s A Wrap For Season 1
Season 2
Episode 1 released on 2024-09-29 Interview With Google
For the past few months I have been slowly acquiring digital music files cheaply either through small purchases at record stores or through local libraries. The idea being is to minimize subscriptions and future costs.
The feeling of taking old media and converting it into new media formats takes me back to the days of LPs, cassettes and CDs where you would insert the media format onto a player, set it to the desired side or song and then study the inside jacket for the band’s cover art/bio/lyrics as the music played. Today I slide compact discs into the Apple SuperDrive CD reader connected to the MacBook Pro (aka Mac), and do the same thing- study the over art/bio/lyrics as the files are converted. Eject, plug a new compact disc in and then overtime, your digital library grows.
Then all of these freshly ripped music files are transferred quickly via the internal home network to be stored inside my local server (Minnie.)
Now whenever I need to I can stream/download these files to my iPhone and/or iPod and be on my merry musical way.
Recent haul from a local library and the SuperDrive on bottom.
While editing this post I was listening to an album I ripped:
While driving through the hills of Cincinnati, I came across a record store and decided to pop in to see if there were any good deals to be had on jazz, blues or classic rock albums. Then I remembered that my recently re-acquired record player doesn’t spin effectively. But while I was there, I was reminded of how much I missed album covers. Just like the recent post about book covers, I find the cover art on music releases is a lost art form. So I got to thinking what were, to me, some of the most iconic album covers of all time? Well there is a chore, trying to figure that one out but I did manage to come up with a few. And who knows, maybe when I get back home I can find a vintage record player to spin those classics on.
Side Note: This article was originally published on 2023/10/10 from my old website.
Side Note II: I’ve moved away from expensive LPs to more cost effective and better quality compact discs.
While driving through the hills of Cincinnati, I came across a record store and decided to pop in to see if there were any good deals to be had on jazz, blues or classic rock albums. Then I remembered that my recently re-acquired record player doesn’t spin effectively. But while I was there, I was reminded of how much I missed album covers. Just like the recent post about book covers, I find the cover art on music releases is a lost art form. So I got to thinking what were, to me, some of the most iconic album covers of all time? Well there is a chore, trying to figure that one out but I did manage to come up with a few. And who knows, maybe when I get back home I can find a vintage record player to spin those classics on.
Side Note: This article was originally published on 2023/10/10 from my old website.
Side Note II: I’ve moved away from expensive LPs to more cost effective and better quality compact discs.
Not sure how long this will last but I’ll give it a go. The idea is to change up text blogging for audio posts.
Update
The Audio Mojo podcast is now available to stream on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you want to add it to either one of those or in your feed reader, the RSS url is https://anchor.fm/s/d991b480/podcast/rss
Not too many things can beat a free public library card paired with the Libby e-reader app. I’ve downloaded and read so many e-books from there this year that I’ve beaten my goal of twenty two books for 2022. I knocked out that goal by March and I am still going. I do want to try my luck and download the audio book to listen to during the day, and finish the day with the digital form as well but I haven’t been that lucky to get both at the same time so far.
Since cancelling my Apple One subscription, I’ve lost out on the News app which includes magazines. Well, thankfully they are available through the library/Libby app as well. Huzzah!
And here is another plug for book titles in the public domain. Project Gutenberg and Standard E-Books help fill in the gap on classic literature reading. My digital bookshelf is stocked.
“There is now a little question that how one uses one’s attention, moment to moment, largely determines what kind of person one becomes. Our minds, our lives are largely shaped by how we use them.” – Sam Harris
In other words, we are what we consume. I want to create a monthly log of my media consumption that tracks my passivity, and cultivates my creativity. Example: If I go further, I could map how reading a book sparks a desire to see a show based on it for a broader perspective. A podcast could point me towards a book I otherwise would have passed up.
I’ll attempt to track the shows and movies I stream (no cable service for me!), books I’ve read, podcasts/music I’ve listened to and the rare YT video I watch. This second edition to the media log rounds out the month of May.
The iPod is a discontinued 1(as of May 10, 2022) portable media player designed by Apple in 2001. At 20 years, the iPod brand is the oldest device to be discontinued by Apple. It’s the end of an era, that’s for sure.
Apple iPod Classic (5th Generation, 2005)
I fondly recall my first Sony Walkman that had the ability to not only listen to AM/FM radio, but play 90 minutes of music on cassette tape. We maxed in as many songs as we could on that tape drive, but it was never enough, so we had collections of cassette tapes lying around to keep track of.
And when Steve Jobs promised “thousands of songs in your pocket”, most of us were amazed and just.had.to.have.it. It was portable music freedom. I’ve owned three iPods, the original (sadly lost forever, a 5th generation classic iPod (shown below) and an iPod Touch that closely resembled an iPhone. My toddler daughter quickly assumed ownership of that last one.
The iconic iPod adverts
After this month’s announcement, I decided to grab as many compact discs as I can find to then load onto my MacBook and transfer my songs to the iPod. It’s a multistep hassle for sure, but they are there. They are mine. I don’t have to pay a monthly subscription for them. I don’t need Wi-Fi or cellular connection to play them. There are no notifications or interruptions when I have those wired earbuds in. I’m amazed at how much I have relied on Bluetooth wireless AirPods and streaming music.
This 5th gen iPod was the first to play video, review photos and still retain the classic, iconic scroll wheel. Podcasts, audiobooks, videos, and photos are all synced to the device when plugged into my computer via iTunes. Can a podcast still be called a podcast without iPods? What do we call them now, “Netcasts?”
This iPod projects me back in time, and I am overwhelmed by the nostalgia. It feels less like a novelty item, but a more pure form of music ownership and enjoyment.
“There is now a little question that how one uses one’s attention, moment to moment, largely determines what kind of person one becomes. Our minds, our lives are largely shaped by how we use them.”
Sam Harris
In other words, we are what we consume. I want to create a monthly1 maybe? log of my media consumption that tracks my passivity, and cultivates my creativity. Example: If I go further, I could map how reading a book sparks a desire to see a show based on it for a broader perspective. A podcast could point me towards a book I otherwise would have passed up.
I’ll attempt to track the shows and movies I stream (no cable service for me!), books I’ve read, podcasts/music I’ve listened to and the rare YT video I watch. Don’t judge me. I’ve been in bed for almost three weeks nursing an ankle issue(!) I may even expand this log to web links I’ve enjoyed and favorited for future use 2eventually. To kick off, I’ll just log what I can remember from April and May of this year.
Viewed
Suspicion- Apple TV
The Machine That Kills Mean People- HBO
Severance- Apple TV
Outer Ridge- Amazon
Devs- Hulu
Tehran- Apple TV
Frasier- Hulu
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds- Paramount
Star Trek: Picard season 2- Paramount
Star Trek: Discovery- Paramount
Star Trek: Generations- Paramount
Reservoir Dogs- HBO
The Book of Boba Fett- Disney
The King’s Man- HBO
The Batman- 1/2 in theater, 100% on HBO
Strange New Worlds
Read
Ghost Fleet
You Are An Artist
The Nowhere Man
Orphan X
Reliquary
Kaiju Preservation Society
The Return
Jurassic Park but bigger critters
Listened
Not Lost
iPhoneography Podcast
Dialogues
Focused
Mac Power Users
Music- I borrowed a lot of compact discs from the library to transfer music to my iPod. Remember those?
With some extra time on my hands the past few days, I’ve explored and played around with a few things like adding video to my photography website. Today, I played with GarageBand, the stock music -making app from Apple.
I don’t know what will come out of it, honestly, but it can be fun. As someone who appreciates music but can barely work the triangle instrument, I am learning a lot. The girlfriend, MissAdventure, can play any instrument she picks up, so maybe she can teach me a few things.
I digress. I discovered that I can add my music tracks to iMovie and create my own montage. Yes, I know they’ve been around forever, but I couldn’t be bothered until now.
“Neon Funk” is a combination of neon images I captured along with the newly created “Mojo Funk” soundtrack added.
