Male Voice Talents Scott Nilsen and Peter K. O'Connell outside the original Starbucks in Seattle, WA

Seattle is simply lovely…flying over it or driving around the lakes…it is stunning. Make fun of its rain all you want but it is a special place.

Made all the more special when my fellow voice talent and friend Scott Nilsen met up with me for a visit this evening down by the waterfront. While Scott lives and works in the OC, he is a Seattle native and was up visiting his family while I was here.

He was kind enough to show me the location of the original Starbucks -which we didn’t go into because it was packed with tourists who think THAT store’s coffee will taste different from any other Starbucks store.

Besides, everybody in the NW knows that Starbucks is no Tully’s.

Tags: commentary, community, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Depending on your point of view, technology is either a help or a hindrance. For me it is mostly a help.

It’s also a help now for my voice over friend Mahmoud Taji who called me all the way from Cairo on a new low cost internet phone service he found.

Smartly, he’s expanding his contacts in the US so they know him as a person and not just a web presence.

It was a nice surprise and I appreciated his kindness.

Tags: international voice talents, voice actors, voice over workshop, voice talent by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Just caught this – Faffcon – the voiceover unconference taking place on September 11 & 12, 2010 in Portland, Oregon, now has a full line of official Faffcon tee-shirts, mugs, mouse pads – everything a professional voice talent needs to prove his or her worth!

Some of the designs are destined to be classics. Check them out here.

Tags: commentary, faffcon, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Voice Talents George Washington, III and Peter K. O'Connell in Charlotte, NC

Voiceover meet-ups really reaffirm my faith in this industry.

The opportunity to discuss topics like performance, marketing, instruction, agents, fellow voice talents you know or want to know…and tons of other stuff is something that even the best voice over bulletin boards cannot replicate.

We VO’s don’t have a communal office or lunch room…so we’ve got a lot of pent up conversations we gotta have!

So Charlotte, North Carolina-based male voice over talent George Washington, III and I met for dinner at 6:30 p.m. tonight and closed Panera Bread at 9:00 p.m., carrying our conversation into the parking lot.

And no, I did NOT do most of the talking…I think. Hey, we’re SO entertaining that a guy came up to us from a nearby table and wanted to tip us for making him laugh with the voices we were performing. True story!

We may have been a bit too loud, but its a Monday night in Charlotte, what else is there to do?

Anyway, George is a wonderfully talented fellow and an engaging artist who also sings – many great voice projects are in George’s future and I am so glad we got to visit.

I also spoke on the phone with Donovan Corneetz and Jon Carter too while I was here and Brian Haymond, we will grab a bite together one of these days!

Tags: community, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Two frame styles for Peter's new glasses - which one do you prefer?

I lost my glasses.

They’re gone and it’s sad but life goes on.

But I need a new pair.

These are two popular choices (no I don’t have the pictures of me wearing them even though they took pictures…dunno where they out them, probably deleted it.

Any way, you vote:

A) The BLACK pair

B) The SILVER pair

C) What ARE you thinking, you’d look awful in both

Voting is now open, comment below please.

UPDATE: Due to popular demand: here are the pictures of me wearing the glasses (the pictures are a bit odd and someday I’ll tell the story of why but for now – here we go.

Tags: commentary, peter o'connell, silliness by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Sometimes a branding guy just can’t get enough of the different tools he can use to market his business. Some of it is critical and some of it is window dressing.

This is clearly and example of window dressing.

Even though most people seem to use tools like Tweet Deck to read their Twitter messages, some folks actually do look at a persons Twitter page. Some folks throw up nothing on that page for design, some use the way ugly generic art Twitter provides and some folks like me create custom stuff.

There are actually companies who design the custom pages for Twitter…its part of their business although I am guessing not a HUGE part of their business.

Well, I decided today it was time to update mine. I had made the page all O’Connell Communications like with the companies etc., but I decided that was a bit silly since everybody knew me on Twitter as audio’connell.

Twitter page design this morning

So I took the new business card design (one side of it anyway) and put it up on Twitter.

Twitter page design this afternoon

Obviously I like it but I’d be interested in your feedback.

What do you think? Do subtle, too garish? Just right?

Tags: advertising, o'connell communications, social media, twitter by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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