Yeah OK, I get that a new Twitter background is NOT that exciting a topic for a blog, what with everybody using TweetDeck and the like; nobody ever sees one’s Twitter home page.

Well somebody might and if you click on my page you’ll see it now.

Why is it important? Well I had my last Twitter background page designed JUST before Twitter switched to a new page layout (bast—-!). So I went a year ignoring the ill fitting background page just to spite Twitter.

Twitter called me recently and asked if I would update my background page and apologized for changing the page layout right after I’d gotten the design done.

So being the forgiving type, I said sure and now alls right with the world.

Please Tweet to everyone about this exciting news. Why? Because you can!

Tags: branding, community, logo design, marketing, social media, twitter // Comments Off on audio’connell’s new twitter background

You know how you can be around artists who you just know are going to break out big. Somehow they are going to be uncovered by the right person and things are going to pop for their careers (in the best way).

That’s what I was thinking tonight at dinner with Diane Merritt and Lisa Biggs, two very talented female voice artists who have wisely hung their shingle from lovely Greenville, SC. I’m going to say I knew them when…and they’ll say “Peter who?”

I’d tell you what we talked about but there were soooo many tangents to the conversations that I’m not sure we completely finished any of them. What do you expect from voice talkers.

Tags: voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups // 1 Comment »

It is possible that you didn’t know it so I’ll tell you: I know everything!

I’ve known that I’ve known everything for many, many years….ever since people started calling me: Mister Knowitall. The opinions I’ve expressed have evidently cemented my expertise in the minds of many. We all have burdens in life and this, evidently is mine.

Except for the fact that as I have aged, gracefully as it has been (ha!), I know just how much I do not know. This has been ever so helpful when teaching audio’connell’s Voice Over Workshop.

When you teach these workshops, you’re supposed to be a kind of savant, a guru, all knowing and all seeing. I feel like I’m 95% when teaching the workshops as far as knowledge but that 5% keeps me honest.

Which is why I was heartened to hear from a Voice Over Workshop student about how she enjoyed how I teach (which, again, I’m not a teacher…those people are really smart and have pensions and stuff…I’m a voice over consigliere…I share everything I know about voice over based on what a person wants to learn).

Her specific point was that I helped her find her OWN way into the proper voice over performance. Through targeted questions, I made her focus on the script, the audience, the message…but she had to define the answers, she had to reach the conclusions herself…the revelations, the epiphanies have to be self-actualized, not handed to her.

That’s where the learning comes in…otherwise it’s just recitation of somebody else’s concepts. “Do it THIS way…it’s the best way!” Well, in some parts of life that’s true, but in performance art – specifically voice over here, I don’t think that’s always the most effective teaching, method (remember, I AM Mister Knowitall).

As a student, to feel as if you’ve come to a true understanding or arrived at a parcel of knowledge on your own terms is more gratifying and it’s more memorable …which I believe is the point of any lesson, ain’t it?

Yet everybody learns differently so I guess my question to you is: do you prefer the journey to knowledge or do you just want to be told….as it relates to voice over?

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If I told you once, I told you a thousand times.

Now there’s a waiting list and if you missed the sign up, your only shot at Faffcon 3 is being on it.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I tried but sometimes you just won’t listen.

You’re stubborn that way like your father .

Tags: commentary, faffcon // 4 Comments »

A lunch time email from Faffy – actually a “frantic Faffy-gram” because evidently dolphins are not only smarter than we assume, they are also more high-strung – advises that only 8 (eight – the number less than nine but more than seven) spots remain for Faffcon – the Voiceover Unconference on September 23-25 in Hershey, PA.

This third iteration of the event has been selling faster than ever before – no video promotion necessary.

Faffy also advised: “Wanna go but need some dough? If you, or a deserving VO pro you know, would benefit from coming to FaffCon, but would need financial assistance to make that happen, please check out the FaffCon Peer-to-Peer Scholarship. It was generously funded by FaffCon 2 participants after the Atlanta event.”

Hope to see you there.

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Like many of you on this Sunday evening, I took a lovely evening stroll (which was lovely except for the sweltering heat and building humidity).

My Sunday stroll took place in one of my favorite cities, Washington, D.C.

I’m here because tomorrow morning I’m scheduled to testify before Congress in a closed session on the ethics of watermarking voice over auditions. Even with the wars, unemployment and the looming fiscal crisis (well, there’s always one hanging out there, isn’t there) Congress has its priorities clearly in order – investigate the voice over watermark.

Rest assured, on behalf of the industry, I shall give it my all.

You can see some other D.C. stroll shots here.

Tags: commentary, travel // Comments Off on sunday night in washington, d.c.