Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Marathon Concludes; Seedling Contrudes

Hey bgooplets! So the WFMU fundraising marathon has drawn to a close, and we reached our goal. YAY! [cymbal crash!] Thanks to everyone who pledged, and a special thanks-with-a-big-kiss-Brazilian-style to everyone who pledged to my show. And thanks to my co-hosts Mark Allen and Pseu Braun for getting me through my shows; and thanks to everyone who came out to help at FMU. I have to say: Since this was my first marathon, I had no idea what to expect from it, and didn't expect much more than just an unusual couple of weeks. I certainly didn't envision getting as swept up by the excitement of it all as I did. It was really fun! You could really feel a sense of celebration and camaraderie. I did my part by doing phone duty and bringing cakes, and sending out mass emails to my friends with voodoo curses and all. OK, I didn't really send out voodoo curses. (Wink!) I was a li'l nervous that we wouldn't make the goal, and thought Could this be the end of The Ed Shepp Radio Experiment???!!! But luckily it all worked out at the 9th hour. So thanks for all who pledged, and also congratulations to all who got my prize!!!

I suppose it's appropriate to add here that I can't believe I forgot to list here what was on my premium and what my prizes were. Well, I don't have my premium in front of me (and I'm too lazy to get up--and knowing me, if I do, I'll get distracted by something shiny and won't come back to writing for another month), so I can't give you a track listing, but here's some of what was on it: A section of Reverend Jen from the (Un)Cool show; How Ed Shepp Saved Halloween and the Scenes from a Life from the Halloween Spooktacular; Ed Shepp's The First Thanksgiving; a section of Michael Collins from the Drugs show; me singing Auld Lang Syne from the Happy New Year show; and my peculiarly-accented reading of a piece from Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet from the Dear Diary show. All in all, it was a truly BEEPTACULAR premium, more than living up to its subtitle (Beeptacular moments from The Ed Shepp Radio Experiment). My prize added to the beeptacularity: A handcrafted (don't you just hate that word?!?!) Ed Shepp Is Love T-Shirt, replete with fake flowers, glitter and a paper plate and balloon, with a copy of my CD Five and a CD called Ed Shepp Presents Mark Baratelli, a compendium of works by the comic genius himself. Both were totally homemade in myne own handwriting. I hope everyone who gets them gleans hours and hours of enjoyment from them.

One prize moment was noteable: In a startling turn of events, my sister, who pledged, won a prize! I was surprised. I wondered for a moment whether we should have drawn again, but since it had already gone out over the air I figured we probably shouldn't. I hope it didn't seem untoward.

OK, what else has been going on... Hmmmm.... Well, what I'm calling The Seedling Project(cux it was inspired by an article in Seed magazine) continues. That's the project where I try to make my environment richer and more engaging, to promote brain growth. As part of the project, I've installed a few Chinese lanterns in my room and put a few things on my walls. I've also made a commitment to listen to a vastly wider array of music. I've been intending to do this for forever, since I have access to such a colossal amount at the station, but I've always fallen into my rut of crap pop. For the moment I have risen above the rut, and right now I'm cycling the following CDs:
  • something by Brian Eno & David Byrne
  • some Iranian woman wailing over a stringy instrument (an oud?)
  • a CD of Brazilian songs, and
  • some stuff by Chip Chapman
I've made a note to myself that I must acquire a Momus CD and something by Tucker Booth or Jonathan Toth. And if you're an indie band no one's ever heard and you're reading this, send me some stuff c/o wfmu. The address is on the site. In the visual department, I'm pleased to report that I found something affordable in SoHo: I got a Glowing Orb of Truth for $10 at a store in SoHo (actually, that might be expensive, considering it's just a floating, color-chaning LED globe; but then I have such a fetish for lighting, and everyone who looks into it does have to tell the truth--that makes it worth 10 balloons, I suppose) (yeah, I just said balloons. insert comment about me becoming my father) and two cute Japanese-looking piggybanks for only $2 each!!! You have to see the piggybanks to realize what a deal that was. I think they were mispriced.

As an aside note on visual stuff, Qian Qian rocks the box. I want to do with audio what he does in pictures.

It's not really part of The Seedling Project (or is it?), but I was flipping through some book in the best bookstore in Manhattan, and it was talking about the magazines that people must read. For, er, something or other. The ones I remember were Dwell, Real Simple and that Oprah one--I forget what it's called--A?? U?? Whatever--it doesn't matter. Anyway, I picked up a copy of Dwell at Whole Foods and read an article in it on Malmo, Sweden. There should be an umlaut over the o there, but it never comes out right, so pretend there is. I want to live there, so if you're reading in Malmo, drop me a line and tell me that you've boughtten me a house there, and alls I have to do to live there is continue to make my art and radio and Seedlingness, and I'll be there in 48 hours.

Lastly, gboopners, email me. If you like the idea of The Seedling Project, or you're doing it yourself, let me know how it's going, or let's start up a Web community of sorts around the idea. Or if you want to start up some kind of underground art/performance/whatever scene in NYC, email me and we'll bake ideas and cupcakes. Or if you have a place in Malmo and want to host me for a year or twenty, drop me a line. Or if you have suggestions on how to spread Ed Shepp Awareness, lemme know. Or if you have an advertising site that you hate, share it and we'll kvetch. (My friend likes a particular advertisingish industryish site, but I think it's rubbish. But I'll talk about that anuvver time.)

And that there, folks, is your right-around-the-ides-of-March beep.

Beep!
Ed Shepp

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Pledge, Beepners!

Do you know what time of year it is, bgoopners? It's the WFMU fundraising marathon, and we're almost to the end of it, so this is my entry calling out for pledges. So if you haven't called (1-800-989-9368) yet, or pledged online, now is the time to do so. Or you could wait until Friday and pledge during my show, The Ed Shepp Radio Experiment, from 6-7pm. But if you're like me, you'll prolly forget, so you might as well go pledge now.

Why should I pledge? you say.

A gwillion people can prolly tell you why better than I can (look here, for example), but here's my li'l gwazzle: WFMU is totally listener-supported; no commercials, no corporate underwriting, nothin. So the station is one of the few organizations left in the world not sucking at the coporate teat and regurgitating the party line--keeping that alive should be reason enough to give. Not only does that mean that we're not going to bombard you with a zillion commercials every day (or 'announcements,' which is I guess what NPR is calling them these days), but also it means that you'll get to hear stuff that you probably won't hear anywhere else (like Ed Shepp, bgeepners). But if you need a reason to give, prolly the best thing to do is just to go look at the site: listen to what's airing now, listen to the archives, read the blog (seriously, go read it--where else would you find out that it's National Mental Retardation Awareness Month? Are you going to get rare, bizarre mp3s from gawker and digg? I don't think so!), etc. Keeping up the site and the archives, not to mention running the station on a daily basis, all takes cash, and it's cash that comes from listeners and supporters. And if you still need a reason to give: Hello!!!! Ed Shepp!!! Support my show, ganoozbles!!! Beep!

OK, so there's my plea for pledges. Now I'll recap the marathon in Ed Shepp history so far:

Last week was my first marathon show. Yowz. It was crazdy. I was so nervous before I went on (no doubt in part because I'd taken too much SAMe that morning--it really does work, goopners, but if you take too much you'll get irritable and anxious), but it was a blast. Did it go off without a hitch, with all the CDs cueing up perfectly? Hell-to-the-nawh! But that was cool nonetheless. Some blips:
  • Ed Word brought me some Nutella-flavored gelato. It was the bizzomb.
  • I sang Beautiful Sctranger, then sang I Don't Know How to Love Him, with some words replaced, for some high pledgers.
  • I got some high pledges, which was great. I feared that I wouldn't get any at all. Yay for people showing the love!
  • I showed my retardation when I didn't recognize the name of a music festival and a record label
  • I didn't have time to play everything I wanted--the hour went by so quickly!
  • I totally didn't think to look at my pledge cards after the show. I totally should have, since I thought a few might be from people I know, but I wasn't sure.
  • I brought in a cake, and even though it was store-bought, it still went fast. Yay for cake!
  • POSTSCRIPT: I forgot to mention Mark Allen, who was my co-host and kept me on point. I couldn't have done it without him. I kept forgetting to give out the number and all.

And that's my short recap, in which I prolly missed a whole bunch of stuff. Actually, the show is a bit of a blur--it went by so fast and it was harder to coordinate than other live shows I've done, so I don't actually recall a lot of it. But it was cool.

So that's the beep for now. Be sure to call in and pledge Friday!

Beep!
Ed Shepp