Jan
15
David Crossland (Cantarell font family, Open Font Library) and I dive into font licensing – specifically open font licensing – and the cultural benefits of open licensing.
Links and topics we mention:
Listen to Open Font Licensing with David Crossland. [37 min]
Posted in David Crossland, Fonts, Interviews, Podcasts
Dec
18
Dan Grigsby from MobileOrchard, discusses how he’s building a comfortable life for himself with a combination of projects, what’s lacking in the Minnesota tech startup community, and why that isn’t a problem.
Listen to Cold Start #4 -How to Start Your Startup with Dan Grigsby [55 minutes]
Posted in Cold Start, Dan Grigsby, Interviews, Minneapolis, Podcasts, Technology, iPhone
Dec
08
Ben Moore from WorkSimple, discusses how, after almost 3 years into his funded startup, his company changed direction, branding, and almost everything else.
Listen to Cold Start #3 – Changing Your Startup with Ben Moore [41 minutes]
Posted in Cold Start, Interviews, Minneapolis, Podcasts, Technology, Work Simple
Nov
27
Ben Weiner’s been doing great work on giving greater visibility for open fonts – and has written a book proposal for web fonts. I called him up to discuss this work and my notion that web fonts are a brant new species of fonts.
Links and topics we mention:
Listen to Open Fonts with Ben Weiner. [45 min]
Posted in Ben Weiner, Interviews, Podcasts, Web Fonts
Nov
20
CitizenWausau is one of the coolest, homegrown citizen journalism projects I’ve seen since I’ve been looking for them. I called up Dino Corvino and Andy Laub, the editor and technologist respectively, to discuss the project, how it’s grown, and it’s relationship with more established media in a smaller city market.
Listen to Building CitizenWausau.com with Dino and Andy.
Posted in Citizen Journalism, Citizen Wausau, Interviews, Podcasts
Nov
20
John Hoffoss, a network security engineer at one of Minnesota’s larger institutions, and I dive into computer security, security versus usability, the insecurity of URL shorteners, and some of the reasons Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer are more often targets of security exploits than other platforms.
Stay til the end for a discussion of the security threats of places like Facebook and Twitter.
Listen to John Hoffoss on Computer and Network Security.
Posted in Interviews, John Hoffoss, podcast
Oct
21
Now that Surly’s Coffee Bender has become the pinnacle of Coffee Stouts I’m on a quest for interesting and unique coffee beers. I picked up bottle of Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch – an oatmeal stout with civet coffee.
After the civet coffee review with Sam Buchanan how could I not take this beer home.
10.9% alcohol in a 1 Pint 0.9 oz. bottle.
My tasting notes:
Short version: “It doesn’t want to be drunk.”
Long version: Listen to Drink Beer from a Cat’s Butt: A Tasting of Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch [11 min].
Posted in Beer, Coffee, Mikkeller
May
04
I’ve been a fan of Tim Quirk’s music for 20 years – easy. The playful melancholy in throughout his songwriting continually resonates with me. When he announced the new Wonderlick album was in the works and available for ‘name-your-price’ pre-order – I jumped on the opportunity.
When I started hearing about how successful the campaign was – I asked Tim if he’d talk about the album and the campaign for the podcast.
As he mentions in our conversation, the common theme through the 16 tracks is the exploration of an experience he first wrote about in 2002:
“I wondered what she said the next day when friends asked her how the concert was. I wondered whether the crowd had been applauding her breasts or her daring. I wondered if maybe she was a plant and had actually gotten paid for her performance. That last one was just a specific way of asking a more general question, I guess—mostly I was wondering exactly what she got out of it.” – Tim Quirk
In the 16 Topless at the Arco Arena tracks, Tim, with Jay Blumenfield, ask everyone involved what they got out of the experience.
My top 5 Wonderlick – Topless at the Arco Arena tracks:
- The Case Against Tattoos
- A Different Kind of Love
- We Run the World
- This Song is a Commerical
- Fear of Chicago
Wonderlick on Facebook
Listen to Wonderlick’s Tim Quirk on Truth Through Music [36 minutes]
Posted in Interviews, Music, Podcasts, Tim Quirk, Wonderlick
Mar
29
I have a hypothesis that mobile VOIP over WiFi will replace mobile carriers for the majority of phone conversations within 5 years. For a reality check, I called up Justin Grammens of Localtone Interactive and Mobile Twin Cities.
From the picture he paints, I think we’ll see this well within 5 years. Maybe 2.
I also share with you my strategy for developing in this new mobile, web-based application world.
Listen to Justin Grammens on Mobile, VOIP, and Ruby [51 min].
Posted in Asterisk, Interviews, Justin Grammens, Podcasts, VOIP
Feb
02
Shef Otis grabs the mic from Garrick and asks him about podcasting, Cullect, coffee roasting, and parenting.
Listen to Shef Turning the Tables on Garrick [43 min].
Posted in Coffee, Interviews, Podcasts, Roasting, Shef Otis
Jan
31
A couple years back Scott Davis and Paul Werni founded 45th Parallel Spirits, a distillery in New Richmond, WI – just a quick 45 minute drive from northeast Minneapolis. While there are number of craft brewers in the region, 45th Parallel is the only still I know of. Paul, Scott, and I talk about the distilling process and the benefits of sourcing locally.
Listen to Paul Werni and Scott Davis from 45th Parallel Spirits [33 min].
Posted in 45th Parallel, Interviews, Podcasts, Vodka
Jan
25
It’s a new year, with a new president. An ideal time to clear the ground for a new America.
To start the chopping, Garrick reviews Legends of Paul Bunyan by Harold W. Felton touching on a boyhood trip to Paul Bunyan Land and the story of Sport the Reversible Dog.
Listen to Garrick talk about the Legends of Paul Bunyan [9 min].
Posted in Books, Paul Bunyan, Podcasts, Reviews
Jan
25
Chad Gillard lives a few houses down from me – and little did I know that his side project is making and selling tasty, tasty Danish apple treats under the Aunt Else’s Organic Aebleskiver brand (Aunt Elsies on Twitter)
It started with a goal so many Minnesotans have: sell food at the Minnesota State Fair.
While he’s still on his way to reaching that goal, we cover the conflicting aebleskiver recipes and the local food producers he’s met while selling at farmers markets and town festivals.
Listen to Chad Gillard on Aunt Elsies Aebleskivers [35 min].
Posted in Aebleskiver, Chad Gillard, Interviews, Minneapolis, Podcasts
Jan
20
Twenty years ago, while BMX freestyle was a favorite hobby of mind, Kurt Schmidt rode for Haro Bikes. Then he co-founded the infamous Standard Bike Manufacturing.
He retells the story of:
- breaking his ribs on his first big pro contest
- stalking photographers to get in magazines
- Rad – starring Bill Allen
- starting a high-end BMX bike company, not in California, but a house in Iowa.
- starting Props video magazine
- Riding backwards.
Here’s a great timeline of Kurt’s BMX career.
Listen to Kurt Schmidt on Old School BMX Freestyle [49 min].
Posted in Bicycle, Interviews, Kurt Schmidt, Podcasts
Jan
15
Posted in Interviews, Podcasts
Dec
20
I was interested in how Hollywood actors promote themselves, find work, and generally build a career. So, I called up Tim Coyne of The Hollywood Podcast for the break down.
We cover auditions, agents, reels, and the side jobs that keep the bills paid.
Listen to Tim Coyne on How Hollywood Works [40 min].
Posted in Hollywood, Interviews, Podcasts, Tim Coyne
Dec
14
Shef Otis talks about moving from actor in LA to dad of 7 kids under 8 (SevenSidekicks.com) in suburban Minneapolis, and his Dadiator Workout program to keep dads as fit as their kids.
Listen to Shef Otis, The Dadiator [51 min].
Posted in Interviews, Parenting, Podcasts, Shef Otis
Oct
11
From the unpublished First Crack archives, I bring you a conversation I recorded in July 2007 with Minneapolis novelist, Patricia Crumbie on her then – yet to be published – young adult novel, Where People Like Us Live.
As you can tell from the links above, her book is now available. :)
In our conversation, we cover the book itself – a pretty tough topic that makes me uncomfortable, and how a course at the Loft Literary Center helped her change and polish the book to help it find a publisher.
Listen to Patricia Cumbie’s ‘Where People Like Us Live’ [9 min].
Posted in Books, Interviews, Minneapolis, Patricia Cumbie, Podcasts