The Podcast is on Pause...

Technically it's not dead in the water, but it is on hiatus. I never used to know what that meant when bands like Blink-182 or No Doubt went on hiatus. It felt pretty black or white. Are you together or aren't you? Are you making music or seeing other musicians. And in my case, are you gonna find an audio engineer who can finish the project? Are you going to keep putting your hopes and dreams into people who seem to always have life in their way?

Please allow me a moment to explain my woes. The first audio engineer, let's call him Carl, was a good friend. Carl had a lot of great ideas, passion, and, most importantly, being unemployed. He had a ton of free time to devote to the project...except most of his time went towards finding a job that would actually pay him. Unbeknownst to me, Carl hadn't done any audio editing in a few years, so he was a bit rusty, disorganized, and slow. A rough draft of the pilot episode was only produced due to incessant checking in on my part. Not entirely his fault, but a considerable delay in the project. What Carl did correctly, though, produced a critical element that I think will exist throughout the show. Also, he finally threw in the towel. A little late, but not too late because that introduced me to audio engineer #2.

Audio Engineer #2, also known as Jordan, came to me out of the blue. I posted a search on Twitter, asking for engineers, knowing that I'd be bombarded by an onslaught of eager beavers happy to take my (nonexistent) money. But thankfully, I was saved. Being a REEEEEAAALLY old close friend, Jordan saw my post and was actually disappointed that I hadn't reached out to him initially. On top of this, being an audio engineer for off-broadway productions was his full-time job. I was lucky enough to catch him between gigs, and he was excited to help. 

Starting from scratch, Jordan delivered a completed first draft on the second day of discussing the project. So this is it; I am finally going to get this podcast off the ground. I'm ready to start casting characters for the next several episodes and finish things by the end of the summer....but as it seems to do, Jordan's life got in the way. Innocently, accidentally, and inconveniently, life has managed to delay our initial progress. 'Uncommon Grounds' is not dead in the water, but it's treading dangerously slow. 

As I write this, I'm devising a plan to get the project finished by the end of this month, which means the second episode will be recorded in August. I would be REEEEAAALLY happy with this.

I think the moral of this story is that if you want to finish a project on time, you need to pay people. I really want to pay people, but I also like to work with my friends, even if those friends slow things down. While it seems like the podcast has been moving along slowly, I have been busy with other projects. Let me tell you about the Veteran's Writing Project next.