Nerd Lunch: The Musical

Carlin as a sophomore in high school in the musical Little Shop of Horrors.

In March of this year, I had an idea for the Nerd Lunch Podcast to discuss pop culture based musicals and within the context of the discussion we would create ideas for other potential musicals based on movies and TV shows. I felt like a topic like this begged for a special themed intro. So I created the “Nerd Lunch: The Musical” opener. I sang for a chunk of it, I enlisted the other podcasters from the show (including guest Klingon Pop Warrior Jen Usellis Mackay) to sing parts and my wife sang all the back up parts and I produced it all into one magnificent opening.

Take a listen to the first couple minutes below for the results and check out the entire show for the full discussion. Lots of creative ideas were shared.

Summer 2015 Family Videos

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We crossed the state line and all grew a foot. #TramTexTrek2015

A post shared by Carlin Trammel (@stormspeed) on Jul 17, 2015 at 6:26am PDT

I threw together a couple fun videos over the summer featuring some family outings. During the July 4th holiday, I took home the office GoPro and we went out to Lake Hall at Maclay Gardens. Got some fun footage so I put it together. I shot everything at 60 fps and then slowed it down to half speed for effect.

Later in July, the family headed to Texas. I sporadically shot video clips with my iPhone of various things the kids enjoyed doing. When we got back, I had enough to make a nice little video for that trip.

All during the Texas trip, I was posting on social media and used the #TramTexTrek2015 hashtag. Click the hashtag and view the entire trip as it progressed and some of the aftermath (including a very special episode of Nerd Lunch).

 

Interview with the Author of ‘Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career’

Cover for Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens.

I’ve mentioned my Nerd Lunch projects here some in the past, but haven’t brought it up too much unless it was specifically to showcase what I was working on. However, a new episode of the podcast has been released that I think people who frequent this blog might enjoy. I was contacted by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens, the author of Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career, and I was asked to review her book and offer a blurb for use on the Amazon page. I did and found the book to be worthy of this blurb:

“When someone asks me who would I have dinner with if I could choose any person, dead or alive, my answer is always Jim Henson. Unfortunately, that’s never going to happen. This book feels like it is the next best thing. Liz Stevens has done a remarkable job at deconstructing the life and work of Henson in a way that thoroughly explains what made him a successful artist. Just like a meal spent with Henson would be life-changing, this book opens up the reader to ways of acting and thinking, as modeled by Henson, that will surely aid in the growth of one’s artistic goals. Stevens impressively points out threads that appear all the way through Henson’s entire body of work illustrating the struggle that exists between art and business…and more importantly, how the two can live in harmony.” —CT, Nerd Lunch

Elizabeth had written an article about two years ago about the Muppets in a post-Henson world and I thought the piece was brilliant and was so glad to see she had done more in regards to the Muppets. After reading the book, I thought she would be a great guest for the podcast and she proved me right. We had about a 45 minute conversation about the book, our creative struggles and the Muppets.

You can listen to it here:

Nerd Lunch Podcast

Even though Nerd Lunch: The Web Series wrapped, I didn’t want to give up on the expansion of the Nerd Lunch blog. The form this took on was an audio podcast featuring one of the other blogging members of Nerd Lunch, the addition of fellow blogger Paxton Holley of the Cavalcade of Awesome, and a “rotating fourth chair” which features guest bloggers and podcasters. The pop culture podcast features the four members of the show doing round table discussions on anything from movies to comics to junk food. The podcast is hosted on Skype, recorded using Skype Recorder for the Mac, and I edit the show every week.

The Nerd Lunch Podcast is essentially a spin-off of The Atomic Geeks Podcast and falls under The Atomic Geeks Podcasting Network. The “TAG Network” logo was designed by me and incorporates the nuclear blast of the Atomic Geeks existing logo.

Nerd Lunch commentary tracks

Nerd Lunch: The Web Series has officially wrapped for good. It was a good project, but since it was just a side project, there was not enough time for all involved to keep up with it at the quality we wanted.

As a final gift to all who supported us along the way, Savannah and I recorded commentary tracks for all three episodes. Here they all are.

Episode One

Nerd Lunch, episode 3

Episode 3 of “Nerd Lunch: The Web Series” is now on Vimeo.

Nerd Lunch: The Web Series – Episode 3 from Carlin Trammel on Vimeo.

Nerd Lunch, episode 2

Savannah and I return for another episode of Nerd Lunch: The Web Series. Of the three that we produced, this is probably my favorite.

Nerd Lunch: The Web Series – Episode 02 from Carlin Trammel on Vimeo.

Nerd Lunch: The Web Series

In between everything else that’s been going on in my life, here’s my newest project… producing and starring in a web series!

Nerd Lunch: The Web Series – Episode 1 from Carlin Trammel on Vimeo.

For more on the project check out Nerd Lunch.

Nerd Lunch Comic Con

My wife and I each recently purchased an iPhone 4. I really wanted to check out the video these things shoot. Being impressed with a couple projects produced with the iPhone 4 that I’ve seen recently, I felt the need to put together my own project. So, in a 24 hour period, my family and a couple friends put together this seven and a half minute short for my Nerd Lunch blog.

If you’re not a comic book nerd or have never been to a comic book convention, some of the jokes may fall flat for you, but I still thought I’d share it here. It didn’t get a huge response, but it was effective in being something fun the family and some friends could enjoy.

There are things I like about the iPhone 4 footage, but now having used it, I can’t see doing any major projects with it. More fun stuff like this though.

Nerd Lunch Comic Con from Carlin Trammel on Vimeo.

Special thanks to Scott Holstein and John Kimber for swinging by to be actors in the video. And also check out Michael Calienes’ site for more music like the clip I used at the beginning of the video.