November 10th, 2008 by 
Scott Merrick
Hey, ya’ll,
Welcome to episode number 75 of Snacks4theBrain! The featured snack this episode is audio from a talk I gave to Vanderbilt University faculty and staff by invitation from the “Digital VU” series from the Vanderbilt News and Media department. The title of the offering was “Engaging Podcast Content” and it featured a sideshow I put up at slideshare, so if you’re of a mind you can visit blogs.vanderbilt.edu/s4theb and follow along whilst you listen. Oh heck, let’s embed it below 
The music this episode is a treat, at least for me; and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It’s two songs delivered recently from a dear friend who recorded them in December of 1975 at a venue called the “Bread Factory.” Geoff Feiler, my good good friend, sat out front with a boombox and what you hear is what he heard, two guys with aggressive acoustic guitar styles and darned decent, well-practiced harmonies. You’ll also hear folks chatting over dinner in the small vegetarian restaurant that was the Bread Factory. It was a very hot spot in Anchorage, and I had been playing every Wednesday night for 75 dollars and tips. When Scott Miller came up to be with his betrothed, who was the owner of the restaurant, we hooked up and started rehearsing for fun. We liked what we made together, and we had a good run for a while performing for the folk music-loving denizens of 1975 Anchorage. Years later, when I was in Juneau (where Scott and Debbie had moved to open the “Fiddlehead Fern” restaurant there, Scott and I had a blast opening a church-venue show for Elizabeth Cotton, the 93 year-old creator of the folk classic “Freight Train,” which she played for us that night, finger-picking her classic holding her guitar upside-down and backwards, the way she’d taught herself decades earlier. Scott H. Miller, by the way, has a fabulous CD for sale at CDBaby!
The podcast’s songs are from Aztec Two Step and John Prine. I don’t know the first folks, but I do know John and I sincerely hope he’ll forgive my cover of his Rocky Mountain Time. I like the way I sing “saxophone.” Here it is.
I follow up the podcasting session with “Scott and Scott’s” cover of “Highway Song,” by Aztec Two-Step, Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman. This great duo took their name from an Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem and we definitely found much inspiration from their tight harmonies and beautiful thought-provoking lyrics. If you like the song, please visit aztectwostep.com and buy some of their music. Unlike “Scott and Scott,” they’re still going strong with their music. I’ll not say goodbye after, just get you on your way from this, episode number 75, of Snacks4theBrain!
Download episode 75 here!
Links:
Notice about the session on the Vanderbilt website
My blogpost that contains the slideshare slideshow
The slideshare slideshow
Scott H. Miller’s fantastic CD, “Letters to Myself”
Posted in Outreach, independent music, Science, Web2.0, Professional Development, Education | 
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August 6th, 2008 by Scott Merrick
Greetings, Snackers!
For the week of July 21 through July 24 (that would be the first four days of that week), I helped six incredibly wonderful public school teachers (a broad range of grade levels in Metro Nashville Public Schools) dip their learning toes into the rapid-running river of dialog and information that is Web 2.0.
In a reprise/refinement of the week-long workshop I crafted and delivered for teachers at my own school last year, we spent our time looking at blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks, micro-blogging, and VOIP/videoconferencing. The last half of the last day we spent in Second Life, the online virtual 3D metaverse that is becoming the “go-to” place for 24/7 online personal/professional networking. Our heads were spinning around by the end of each day, and one great upshot of it all may be a full four weeks of this kind of intense learning and exploration for teachers next summer.
While that remains to be seen, there’s matter herein that remains to be heard! Pop on over to your favorite podcast aggregator, or click here to download episode 73. Wait! You have another option! Click “Links” in the topbar and open up our very own Podcast Pickle Player and you can listen right here whilst you surf the Web for those cool shoes you’ve been shopping for.
Stay on through the very end of the episode: Blues-rocker Chris Juergensen’s band “Big Bad Sun” has a great song for you, “Sweet Melissa,” and no, it’s not a cover of the Allman Brothers’ classic!
As a bit of a bonus, I’d like to embed a brief chat we held during the workshop with the founder of the premier professional learning network (”social” network?) focused on Web 2.0 for education, “Classroom 2.0.” Here is our talk with Steve Hargadon (thanks, Steve!):
Find more videos like this on Classroom 2.0
Links:
VUCSOWeb20forUS! wiki
Jeff Agamenoni’s “From Mr. A to Mr. Z” blog
Skype
Twitter
Magnatune.com
Classroom 2.0
Posted in Science, independent music, Second Life, Web2.0, Learning, Professional Development, Teaching, Education | No Comments »
January 2nd, 2008 by Scott Merrick
Happy New Year Snacks4theBrain! listeners, and here’s our all-music-show gift for you, toward wishing you the best year ever. May we on this glorious third planet from the sun get it together more and more this year, and may you find, or hold onto what you’ve already found, whatever it is that helps you contribute to our collective well-being and peace.
Episode 66 of S4theB! is pure indie music from the Podsafe Music Network at music.podshow.com, all discovered by searching that site for “New Year” and all purchasable at that website for a mere 99cents a pop. Picking up new tunes at the Podsafe Music Network will help support the creativity and dedication that its independent musicians bring to the world, not a small contribution to our aforementioned peace and well-being.
The five song set starts out with New Year’s Resolution by Palmetto, Florida indie singer/songwriter Bill deRome. Next up, a wonderful folk song by Chris Ayer that shares only its title with deRome’s song, “New Years Resolution.” We move over into the realm of power electronica with UK’s Emissary, a Web-only project that is so well-produced I have to listen to “New Year” over and over. A Wisconsin duo, No Kiss for New Years, offers “Ghosts of People We Were,” and Colie Brice, “left-handed blues player” takes us into the new year with “Happy New Year.”
Snacks4the Brain leans heavily on the Podsafe Music Network and our other fave, Magnatune, for music with which to lace our message(s). Support creativity by supporting the folks who are exercising it, ya’ll. Really…
Cheers, and we’ll see you in the new year with episode number 67, which will be an interview you (if you’re a teacher or a student or a human interested in learning) simply will not be able to do without!
Thanks, from all of us to all of you. Pick up S4theB! 66 here or click “Links” and use the Podcast Pickle Player to listen!
Other Links:
Band Websites:
Bill deRome
Chris Ayer
Emissary
Colie Brice
Posted in independent music, music, Outreach, Snack | No Comments »
Welcome! For S4theB! 71 we’re featuring a portion of a fascinating talk by Fisk University Physics Professor Kent Wallace, and educator completely fired up (sorry) over model rocketry. Dr. Wallace is a prime mover (a faculty sponsor, to be exact) behind the Fisk Altitude Adjustment Missle Team (