Week 3: Flickr, Podcasting, and Vodcasting

Determined to introduce our equally famous selves to winged San Jose City media stars, the three peregrine youngsters, Zhar and I are still roosting on campus. Zhar, preening his glowing plumage, considers "Would I be as photogenic as those falcon triplets?" I've been digesting peaches and attending to a few still sticky feathers, so my answer is succinct. "It depends on the camera, the vision of the photographer, and clever editing." Tonight I intend to secretly fly into David Free's wiki and David Lee King's website to hunt for pod/vodcasting tools that will fit into Zhar's sturdy satchel. "Excuse me, sir, madam." We both look up startled. A large crow has quietly (for a crow) joined us. "You appear to be of a theatrical character, yes?" "Yes, and no," says Zhar. "It so happens that I am the publicity agent for a newly formed San Jose theatre troupe and thought you might be members of a foreign touring company." We stare at him so he goes on, hopping back and forth on black stick feet. "We are as yet a small number of actors and actresses, with a property manager, Fluffovits, a director Mr. Osmandius, a producer Mr. Goodnight, and myself. It's an all animal/bird troupe. No humans to allowed to join." "What sort of repertoire do you perform?" asks the experienced Zhar. "Aesop's Fables for starters, but we are working up some original material to fit our special talents. What we are most in need of is a venue, a place to perform, a stage to strut on." The peaches must now be thoroughly digested, because a clever idea pops into my head. "What about making a video of your act?" I've caught Mr. Publicity by surprise. Crows do think they know all the tricks. "How would we do that?" he croaks. "See this lovely bird hotel we're perched on? It's a library. A library means an audience of kids and a gaggle of librarians hoping to find programs to entertain and instruct them. As a novice troupe you might not want to perform publicly but a video of your act added to this library's website could be a perfect solution for their problems and yours." "I see I have a lot to learn from such well-travelled, technologically aware avians," says Mr. Crow (quite humbly for a corvid). "I'll get right on this proposal. Thanks, and hope to see you around later." Zhar and I watch him take off a bit awkwardly with my idea in his craw. What do they teach these Silicon Valley avians!