StarLord

Time for a massive update! Read on!

2008-01-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

And we have.. movement!

The new Starlord.net blog has really taken off, be sure to stop in and read my latest rants (if you like that sort of thing). Here on blogger, we just added FeedBurner to Miniology Podcast, as well updated StarLord Mini Podcast (archived now.. but still fun to watch!) ... we are hoping that if SMP gets migrated succesfully from dot mac, we will have a smooth transition for Miniology as well, yay! Stay tuned...

My website.. official music and art site for the blogger, podcaster, mac geek, car fanatic known as yours truly.. starlord.net

Miniology Podcast website.. The science and study of all things Mini. Live now at Miniology.com

and for you smart car owners, be sure to check out the new SOCSF, the Smart Owners Club of San Francisco. All the latest smart news from around the world is posted on the main page, and we have a growing forum where fellow owner/enthusiasts can interact and share tips, DIY info, dealer and parts reviews, plan runs and drives, etc! All happening now at socsf.com

East Coast Correspondant

2006-11-19T10:54:00.000-08:00

I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to the newest member of our staff, Rich. He’s a service man out in Sicily, Italy (can you say, Italian Job?) who will be joining our ranks from abroad, as well cover East Coast events from his next home base in Washington DC area (it doesn’t get much more official than that...) Cheers! We will see more of Rich and his beautiful 1973 Innocenti Mini soon.

StarLord finally arrives on Blogger

2006-11-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I have been doing it myself up until now. Posting on the website, .mac, myspace, and who knows where, but now (thanks to Rich) have finally made the plunge and posting my blogs on the Google-owned "blogger.com" site.

Well, I figure they have done such a great job with so many other tools we use, the search engine of course is top-notch, Google Video (beta) is great, and as they aquired YouTube, that says something-- it says I won't have to post in so many places when the integration or whatever is complete ;)

What other Google tools do we use? We love Google maps, as well the language tools are very helpful when trying to read international news about the Mini from Japan or Germany, for example. Whew, that was a big run-on sentence.

Well you can tell I haven't had my coffee yet this morning. Need to scarf down some breakfast, drink some coffee (or perhaps a Redbull.. but this early?) get dressed, and ready to go to the car show (see last post).

Moving forward, we will begin importing the blogs from other sites into this one. I hear it only lets you see the last 300 or so entries, and the import process is a manual one, so this may take some time before you see all the old posts here, but, they will get here eventually, and, if blogger supports it, we will be able to back-date the posts so that the timestamps follow the correct linear date progression of this idea we call "time"...

Cheers,
Christopher 'StarLord'

International Auto Show in San Francisco

2006-11-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

Today we are reporting on the International Auto Show in San Francisco. This will be our 3rd year attending (perhaps we've been more times, but can't remember) and really looking forward to checking out the new concept cars, zero-emission (and low-emission) vehicles, and of course the new models by BMW/MINI, Smart, and Tesla motors. We'll be taking photos and video this year to publish in a future episode of StarLord Mini Podcast.

On assignment

2006-11-08T10:59:00.000-08:00

Working on TV shows we often needed press passes to gain media access to events or at least show our credibility for exercising our ‘freedom of the press’ rights. Well, StarLord has finally bit the bullet and joined the International Press Association, thanks to meeting one of the IPA members at Laguna Seca during Monterey Historic. Finally, independent producers and professional contractors in the broadcast industry won’t be left out in the cold without their station ID or placard on their person. As a member of the working press (albeit not my full-time job), we gain the benefits of access, not only to press areas at the track or press-only events/access at shows, but also some of the delightful footage as you will see beginning in episode 11. Would we have gotten this footage otherwise? Well, probably eventually yes, but it does make things easier when you have verification from an established press organization backing your credentials. Thanks, IPA. We are also working on a proposal to startup StarLord’s cable access show again, ala Mini enthusiast oriented, so look for these vodcasts hitting the airwaves (and in a more polished state) again soon!

This just in - Google Video and YouTube!

2006-09-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

We’ve posted our podcasts elsewhere, so that everyone (even non-iTunes, non-Mac people) can enjoy them. Look for StarLord Mini Podcast over at Google Video and some episodes appearing on YouTube as well! You can still get episodes from iTunes and directly from my website, though we are setting up a feedburner URL to try and track subscribers and viewers better (since some regulars never write us comments, send us free stuff or even email us their pictures or anything ;) you know who you are!)

There goes iMovie again

2006-09-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

iMovie is a great little program. I use Final Cut Pro 4 to do most of my edits now, but still like the ease of use iMovie gives me for inserting transitions and especially titles! Yes, LiveType is awesome, but its modular nature and slow render time (at least, on my PowerBook) make it impractical for doing a quick vodcast. Maybe the learning curve of using the thing has me stumped. On that note, I have yet to use “Soundtrack” the sound editing thingy in Final Cut, so it’s still GarageBand for me. To be fair, I haven’t even tried it yet. So, even though it crashes on me and sometimes horks itself, I still like iMovie for those quick edits and titles. Of course, it is great for publishing to iTunes since Final Cut isn’t integrated at all with any of the iLife programs. If you watch Episode 7, this one was done primarily in Final Cut. If you watch Episode 8 (all 3 parts) the rough cut was done in Final Cut, but all the major editing, transitions, and audio mix-down were done in iMovie.

The back-story of MINI Man

2006-06-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

This silly entry to White Roof Radio's song contest was based on the theme song from the Spider-Man animated television series that ran from September 9, 1967 to June 14, 1970. The original music was composed by Bob Harris, Stu Phillips, and D. Kapross, and lyrics were written by Paul Francis Webster:

Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size, Catches thieves just like flies
Look Out! Here comes the Spiderman.

Is he strong? Listen bud, He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread? Take a look overhead
Hey, there - There goes the Spiderman.

In the chill of night, At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light, He arrives just in time.

Spiderman, Spiderman, Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Wealth and fame, He's ignored, Action is his reward.

To him, life is a great big bang up
Whenever there's a hang up, You'll find the Spider man.

StarLord's satirical version of the tune tweaks the lyrics into phrases relevant to the MINI community:

(Mini man, to the tune of Spiderman)
Mini man, Mini man, drives wherever a Mini can
Spins around, any time, tires squeal all the time
look out! there goes the mini man

Is it safe? Listen bud, he’s got Issigones blood
what’s his big podcast? db, todd, and gabe woofcast
oh yeah, there goes a mini man

In the chill of night, at the scene of a drive
like a streak of light they zoom by in a line

Mini man, mini man, gp cooper works mini man
everywhere, they’re adored
actions speak louder than words
oh yeah, there goes a mini man

life is a great big rally
riding all through the valley
you’ll find the mini man
(woo, that was horrible)

The 'music' (if you can call it that..) was parodied with synchronized beat-box 'instruments' resembling a horn, hi-hat, and upright bass, to which the lyrics were mouthed over. I was going to say 'sung', but if you heard the tune, you may agree this could be impossible ;-) The whole tune was done live in garageband using the internal laptop microphone and a set of headphones. I only allowed myself 1 'take' for each track with no post-production editing, hence it's raw and unfiltered result.

Initially, I sent this in to db (one of the hosts of White Roof Radio) as a joke, intending to win a prize for the worst possible entry to the content. Little did I know it would make it to the top 5 ranking!

I do hope you either liked or hated the tune, either way very cool with me ;-) I'm a bit relieved this is all over -- though, in retrospect, getting some free schwag would have been schweeeeeet! ;)

A Wiki on Spiderman TV series and theme-song can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_(1967_TV_series)

Request for Sponsors, Comments, Etc!

2006-06-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

I’ve got 7 episodes in now, and what’s really missing is.. YOU! My fellow motorists and Mini clubs - if you have a story to share, would like to show your ride to the world, have a Mini / MINI shop of some sort, or otherwise wouldn’t mind interviews, photographs, video and what-not, please let me know. I am also looking for sponsors to donate parts, mods, bandwidth, beer, whatever.. I will feature this on the show, hand-off extras to club raffles which benefit local charities, stuff like that. Thanks for your support!

The photo (left to right) shows Dr. Dave, Craig, Gsxrkitten, and some other MINIs during the REME Point Reyes run.

Off we go!

2006-06-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

Been awhile since I sat down to edit the blog page or finish the podcast sitting on my HD for about a month now! Yikes! Episode 4 is in the can, ready for downloading.. Speaking of downloading, my bandwidth nearly got cut off last month when I posted Episode 3, that’s over 5 Gb of downloaders.. to give you an idea what 5 Gb is, that’s 22 people downloading all 6 episodes at once.. so I’d say I max out at 44 subscribers a month downloading every episode. That’s probably not likely to happen, and iTunes/.Mac doesn’t track it very well, but all signs point to “people are watching”. Given that, thanks! I guess I’ll keep doing these! :-) The photo is me at Anchor Steam brewery in SF.. cheers! ;)

Quick Updates...

2006-04-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

Today I added counters to the website pages, and updated the photo page to include some of my own pictures. Oh, I know, you are wondering about the strange photo above. This was taken at Ano Nuevo in January 2005, I am not sure if there was a fire here, but it looked surreal so I snapped a photo. No, there wasn’t any photoshopping done to the picture. Odd, innit? It was raining, and there wasn’t a lot of activity with the Elephant Seals, but we did get a good deal of walking in.. Back to today, it’s raining as well.. :/ You can either complain about getting wet, or make it a better rain..

Climbing the walls? To new heights..

2006-04-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Today I gave notice at iPass, sent out 24 letters of rejection to job offers, pulled my resume off dice.com, and accepted one great new job! Hurray! (new job starts 4/17)

Yesterday I upgraded my .mac account to full membership, and also purchased an iSight firewire cam for my podcast. I did some test runs with it this morning, along the way to work.. it’s not perfect, but should do the job. The one thing it doesn’t have is MANUAL CONTROL! Argh!.. but the guy at the Apple store in Burlingame said a 3rd party app might..? The cell phone photo is me (right) and Alberto (left) climbing a rock wall at Six Flags Marine World theme park, in Vallejo, California.

Repost: Laguna Seca Minis

2005-12-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

There was once a movie here.. it was a bunch of photos and movies from the Heritage Garage/Seven Enterprises Classic Mini Challenge at Laguna Seca 2005, which is now included in (episode 1) my podcast.

SUV’s look so ridiculous next to a Mini, we started calling them “the new clown car.” Who would want to use their 12-passenger behemoth for daily commute, let alone gas prices and trying to park in the city? Well, perhaps only a ‘Bozo’ ;-)

Aye, Fog!

2005-10-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

A throng of MINIs braved the cold and rain to follow the path of Prince Charles’ recent visit to the famous shoreline, one of the foggiest places in North America apparently, and here I am bundled up in my cozy jacket. If this were a clear day you would be able to see the coastline to the right of me, however, it wasn’t that clear so.. anyway, I enjoyed the trip, and felt a sense of accomplishment navigating the 400+ steps down then up from the lighthouse sitting on its perilous cliff, sounding the beacon horn and lighting the way for the weary whale watchers or whatever ships may be passing close by.. This sounds like the start of a bad novel.. so I will stop!