Being that I bruised my toe pretty well Sunday (enough to get it x-rayed to make sure I didn’t break it) I had a little extra time in my Da chair with my laptop, foot iced and elevated. I was perfectly content.

One of the things I did was look at my Twitter page…not a Hoot Suite feed but the actual page.

My question for YOU involves reviewing my Twitter quote. If you can’t read it on the graphic, it reads:

Peter K. O’Connell
@audioconnell
Your friendly, neighborhood voice over talent since 1982. For a free quote, check an encyclopedia. For a quote involving you paying me cash, call 716-572-1800.

Not surprisingly, I find that quote incredibly funny, witty, sexy and tall…much like its author.

However, I know sometimes others don’t get my humor. Those are people who are usually not incredibly funny, witty or sexy. So sad.

Yet these people also have checkbooks that I want to access (i.e. them writing me checks) – therefore maybe I need to appease them. Or maybe I don’t…hence the advice from you.

So here’s the vote:

Should I:

a. Keep the quote as is because it is SO funny, witty, sexy and tall

b. Change the quote to appease those who are not so funny, witty, sexy and tall

BUT if you vote “B”, you need to make a suggestion as to what the new quote should be.

Tags: commentary, marketing, social media, twitter by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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There are so many people who are better at seeing the potential of social media than I am. And as I have often said here, I am a late adopter…always have been.

With Pintrest, I really have been sure what to do with it, but after reading about how some other people and companies have used the newest social media tool, I came up with an idea – why not do a “board” on all the voice-over meet-ups I have been a part of over the years?

All of the pictures have been in this blog but what this Pintrest board has offered me was a joyous look back at the meetings with all my friends in voice-over in an easy and attractive format.

I am grateful that each person was kind enough to take any time to visit with me. If you’re in this montage, thank you. If you are not yet in this montage, I hope you will be soon.

Tags: commentary, pintrest, social media, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

Sometimes I get a little behind in my blog ideas.

Often, I sift through my web browsing and my google reader and I note so many wonderful ideas for a blog post that I just don’t have time (at that very moment) to write about. So I click “save” or “unread” so I’ll have them in my file.

And then I keep them there and I never get around to them. Then comes a day like today where I am hell-bent on getting these ideas out but there are too many to write up individual blogs posts about and yet I am NOT going let them stay in my blog reader one minute more.

So this post will feature a link to all of them with maybe some notes from me on why I thought this was cool and you can decide for yourself.

Pintrest? WTH?: If you were to look for a pintrest board from me you wouldn’t find squat cause I don’t see a use for it yet, but remember, I am a famously late adopter in Social Media. You know how Courvo gets to everything first? I’m nearer to the opposite end of that spectrum. BUT for those in advertising and marketing (which almost every voice-over talent is, whether they like it or not) I saw that my friends at the logo critique web site, Brand New, have a new Pintrest board. It’s loaded with pins to their favorite logos and logo related stories. I enjoyed it.

Comic-Con: I’ve never been but I hope someday to actually go.

Peter O’Toole is one of my favorite actors, mostly because he was the star of one of my favorite movies, My Favorite Year. This week he announced his retirement from acting. I understand it but I’m still a little sad about it. All his amazing talent, multiple Oscar nominations but he never won an Oscar. That confirms for me what I’ve recently surmised: the Oscars are really nothing more than a 4 hour string of commercials occasionally interrupted by some trophy toting circus performers. Sorry Mercedes.

Evidently, a long talked about movie about voice-over is closer to production. Here’s a link to the trailer and no I’m not in the movie.

Someone who IS in the movie is the great voice actress June Foray. The big news here is June recently won her FIRST Emmy Award at age 94 for her work as Mrs. Cauldron on “The Garfield Show” on Cartoon Network. It’s about damn time!

Also under the about damn time category, George Whittam decries that its about damn time somebody found a decent audio interface for the iPad and iPhone. The winner at this point is the Studio Six Digital IAudioInterface2 as blogged by George via a report from voice-over talent Beau Weaver. The Beau/George report (not be confused with the Huntley/Brinkley report) can be found here.

Benztown Voiceover grabbed a very nice interview Voice Talent and WPLJ Creative Services Director Dan Kelly that I think is worth the read.

Finally, it might have been back in 1957 that Unnouncer Doug Turkel gave me the heads up that Twitter changed it branding, the Floridian knowing well how much I like logo news. And I do/did except I didn’t get on this in a very timely manner. But in case you’re one of the 12 that did NOT hear about the change, here’s a quick summary.

There’s probably more but my laptop battery is dying and I don’t feel like plugging in.

Best always,
-Me

Tags: commentary, social media, technology, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I got a Facebook message from my friend Andy Boyns today, giving me a heads up on some very sad news from the voice-over community that occurred last week.

Two young girls lost their mother. A husband lost his wife. Seven months after voice-over talent Andrew Swingler’s wife Sandra (surrounded in the above picture by her daughters) was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, she died last week.

Conceptually, that’s an awful thought; cognitively, it’s paralyzing…at least for me.

For Andrew and his girls, it’s got to be cataclysmic. And I don’t even know the Swinglers.

But for a neighborhood community or an online community, all we have to do is “know of” because in one way, shape or form, we’ve all been there.

We can’t undo their grim reality but maybe we can shape a part of the family’s better days to come…especially when it must be so hard for these three broken hearts to imagine ANY future.

So we help, because as people we refuse to be helpless when we have options. Andy and our mutual social media and in-person friends Natalie Cooper, Anne Ganguzza and Derek Chappell have shared their offerings, insights and ideas on how we CAN help the Swinglers in their time of need.

If you’d like to know more…I hope you’ll CLICK THIS LINK and do whatever you can, no matter how small. Even if it’s just offering a prayer, thank you for all of it.

Tags: commentary, community, social media, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
4 Comments »

My friend and bilingual voiceover talent Liz deNesnera recently achieved one of her written goals from Faffcon 3 which was to redesign her web site and rebrand her company.

Take a look for yourself but I think she did a very nice job.

Tags: advertising, branding, marketing, social media, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »

January 1st is not my birthday.

But for those social media outlets that demand a birth date in a profile I decided to make January 1st my Social Media birthday.

I’m not big on putting a lot of vital personal information out on the web, a birthday being just one example of a person’s personal identity puzzle that those with ill intent could use in a nefarious way.

So thanks for your thoughts and wishes. I accept them in the spirit of kindness and friendship that they are offered.

I hope your new year is blessed, happy and safe.

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