That difficult Second Season...

UK CardCast has been quiet of late - this is because of circumstances out of my control (i.e. I was laid off work) and I had to investigate all the possibilities (i.e. find another job and make sure the mortgage was covered) before moving on wit hthe podcast.

Now, however, there is some good news (i.e. I have another job!) and so planning has started for what I am going to call the Second Series/Season of UK CardCast - beginning with what would have been the 'lost' Episode 31, featuring Harris Toser and Don Norton talking about the recent (at time of recording) Chicagoland show.

Plus, there is the NEW show to work on - namely "Behind The Canvas", the show that will concentrate on artists and their work.  I had a few interviewees lined up before the enforced hiatus and pretty much all of them have agreed to pick up where we left off!  I'll be recording the shows shortly and releasing them over the next few months, alternating with the regular UK CardCast episodes.

I've had a lot of messages of support, on eMail, on message boards such as NSU's Card Talk and Scoundrel, as well as on Twitter, and I am extremely grateful for all the offers of help and support!  It made me realise that I have more people out there who are vaguely interested in my stuff than I at first thought and I am touched!

So, let Season 2 commence (soon!)

uStream if you want to...

The UK CardCast exploration of uStream continues - last night, just before recording an interview for Episode 30 of the podcast, I started up my Mac, connected the iSight webcam and had a play with uStream - eventually sending out a test broadcast to 5 viewers!  It wasn't recorded (there is an option to do that but I didn't select it yesterday!) and it was not on any particular subject; I just wittered on and responded to messages submitted on the associated chat page by the viewers.

It was a worthwhile experiment, and one that I fully intend to follow up on a regular basis - I'm looking into seeing if I can have more than one person appear on screen, as that would enable me to do a video podcast!

A lot of artists have regular uStream shows, and the advantage thay have is that they can point their camera at a blank page and draw, whereas all I can do is talk and wave a card from my collection in front of the camera, and I don't think that would be all that interesting.  That said, if I can come up with a 'theme' for a broadcast, with relevant items to show, then perhaps viewers could come in on the chat and ask questions, or discuss relevant items from THEIR collections?

What do YOU think?  Worth doing or just an ego trip for yours truly?  If I go ahead, I will post here AND on Twitter (oh, and if you fancy following me on Twitter, you'll find me here: @ukcardcast

"A Knight in San Diego"

Episode 29 is working it's way online now - if you can see it in the RSS feed on the right, then you should be able to get it from iTunes and other Podcast directory services, or you could download it or stream it diretly from the CardCast.co.uk website!


Entitled "A Knight in San Diego", Episode 29 is the annual SDCC show report, this time presented by Bob Hulsart (aka 'Batman' on Non-Sport Update magazine's Card Talk message board!) Plus there is a very special announcement by Billy Shipley of Versicolor Productions about a new set...
I am already working on the next episode, #30, which will be the annual Artist Special - I have four artists lined up to appear and I'm just working out some recording dates before getting started!  And after that, I have another guest lined up for an exclusive interview in (probably) Episode 31, and I'm lining people up for episode #32 AND for the End of Year episode... (I'm getting a bit too organised - something is going to go badly wrong very soon!)

Procrastination...

I'm in the process of editing the new episode (#29, if you must know!) (it seems like I'm ALWAYS editing a new episode!) - I don't do this all in one go, but tend to edit 10 minutes at a time.  I was doing so last night and was progressing rather well, when the diverting diversion itch flared up (as it has done now - I'm editing on one PC and writing this blog post on the other)
Artist CK Russell (Twitter: @virtualcara) tweeted that she would be on Ustream to do some live card drawing, with cards at a very reasonable price to anyone interested.  Despite discussing the Ustream idea with Kris Kersey of Sketchcollectors.com, I have never been online at the right time to catch one of these streaming broadcasts, so I thought I'd give this one a go.
I'm glad I did!  Not only did Cara do a card for me (of Irina Spalko - another for the increasing collection!  I'll post a scan when I have it in my hot little hands!) but I had great fun chatting with her and some of her followers. I was made very welcome and I'd like to thank Cara and her followers for a great first Ustream experience!
Not familiar with the idea?  It's really quite simple: someone hooks up a video camera/webcam/similar video device to a computer, signs up to a Ustream account and, having announced a date and time, broadcasts whatever they feel like to the wide virtual world. (That is a drastically simplified version of the process!)  There is a text chat box, in which viewers can send messages to the broadcaster, or to other viewers, and the broadcaster (if they have a microphone hooked up as well) can answer questions or respond to comments via the audio.
It's great for artists because they can showcase their work AND show work in progress as it actually, erm, progresses!
Cara is not the only artist to do this sort of thing - in fact, if you pop along to Kris' website (link above!) you'll find a list of a number of artist Ustreams, and you'll find more if you look on the Scoundrel art board.

Technology still has the power to amaze me - Ustream is a case in point.  Once upon a time, if you wanted to commission an artist to do a piece for you, either you'd have to go through the email/post process and wait ages to see if what the artist was doing was what you actually wanted, or you'd have to hope that you'd see an artist you'd like at a show or convention.
Now, you can watch the artist at work onscreen and, if you like what you see, a quick PayPal and onscreen text message gets you almost instant 'as it happens' access, with direct input into what is being drawn.

I'm inspired!  In fact, if I can work something out, I may well do a Ustream of my own some time - possibly if I can get the iSight hooked up to the Mac at some point, and I can lay my hands on a sealed box of cards, I might do something for the NSU Open That Box Day next year!  (unless I can come up with a better idea beforehand!)

Super Babes!

Just received two new PSC's from Fer Gallicia:
This one is the latest addition to my "Irina Spalko" collection:

And this one is Season 7 Buffy:

I'm happy...

In other news, Episode 27 of the podcast is being converted for uploading shortly - hopefully, it will be available AM Thursday!

Delays and complications

Stuff happens!  I Was hoping to get the new episode of UK CardCast online a couple of weeks ago but for various reasons (some technical) I had to delay until now.  Bah!  It IS online now though (and should be appearing in the feed shortly, if it isn't already) and features me talking to Billy Shipley of Happy Jack Collectibles and Marco Jansen of Catawiki.
There's a really cool Free Promo offer too - exclusive to listeners of the podcast and extremely limited (so limited, in fact, that I haven't got one myself yet!  You lot better not get one before me or I will thcreem and thcreem and thcreem until I'm thick.  And I'll record it...

Change of Plans

Well  unfortunately the guest I was going to interview is still unwell, so I have decided to postpone that chat until the next episode.  So, all being well with the world, the new episode should be online sometime in the next couple of days, will be shorter than usual and will feature the return of Harris Toser, International Trading Card Celebrity (as seen on TV)!

In the meantime, more updates to the Philly Card Show promo page on my website - I found a batch in an album that had somehow escaped being scanned, so I scanned them!

Bleaghhh...

Unfortunately, Episode 25 (part of which has already been recorded) will be delayed - I want to record one other regular cntributor, but they are going through a bout of lurghi and I am now as well...
Fear not - it will be available sometime soon!

Another new sketch - plus another new episode!

I ended the break from podcast producing last month and you can find the results of this in UK CardCast Episode 24 - I had great fun chatting to The Sucklord and Tom Lichtman about the Suckadelic Action Art Card Series 1 cards they released at the end of 2009.  There is an illustrated review on the UK CardCast Review Page (a new addition to the website, to which I hope to add more reviews (hint hint!))

Today (well, given the time I'm writing this, yesterday) I attended to some housekeeping on my homepage (http://www.paulbines.co.uk/ in case you were wondering) and posted some scans of cards recently added to the collection, including one new addition to The Spalko Gallery:

The card is a PSC drawn by Kate RED Bradley (who has appeared on the podcast on numerous occasions!) and which was specially commissioned by a friend as a Christmas present - which was given to me on Saturday, this being the first time I've had the opportunity to meet up since last year!

You might notice, by the way, that I have added an Amazon doohickey over there on the right - if you use it and buy something, I get a small top-up on my Amazon Associates account, which helps to keep me in books, CD's and DVD's!  It points to Amazon.com - if I find a UK version, I'll set that up too! (I'm nothing if not mercenary in fuelling my habits...)

Belated...

Happy New Year All!
For some reason, I didn't post about the most recent episode of the podcast, Episode 23, which IS now online (along with a 'Christmas Gift' of an unedited recording of the NSU Card Talk Gathering at the Memorabilia show last November.

I've taken a break from trading card activities (including the podcast) for the last month or so and this break will continue probably until next month, when I might have someone to interview for a new episode!

In the meantime, I received some really nice cards from friends for Christmas:
This one, by artist Sanna U, from CSI Dave:

And these, by artist Chris Henderson, from a very generous 'Secret Santa' on the Scoundrel artist board:

And two others, which you can find on my website!