Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Test Turns Ten

The tenth episode of The Test is rather special to me for several reasons:

1) I read Cunningham's mind;

2) I predict Stacey's demise;

3) Cunningham administers a fairly logical test;

4) I edited the entire thing on my ancient MacBook Pro while I was on vacation.

Number four is the thing that makes me the happiest. I took all the little bits and pieces of audio-- the intro and the outro, the heavenly music and the intermission riffs-- and I made them into WAV files and imported them into the cruddy version of Garage Band on my Mac. Then I created the Voice of God with some Garage Band effects. Then I recorded the Voice of God in our beach house, directly into my laptop (and, in the process, surely convinced the three other families in our beach househ that I was a lunatic). My own family already knows this.

But I got the job done and it sounds fine. As William Gibson said, we are living in the future, it's just not evenly distributed yet.

Hope you give it a listen and play along. Also, we are always looking for guests and/or new tests. I am going to try to figure out how to Skype people into an episode and capture a decent audio recording, which should open up some new possibilities and also feel very future-tech. I have never Skyped with anyone . . . you could be the first.



24 comments:

zman said...

Dave's first Skype. I assume it will be quick but memorable.

I'm hungover enough to need a second round of Alka seltzer.

TR said...

Zman - be thankful you didn't have the alarm set at 5:50 AM for a 6:40 tee time.

Zman and Juan Carlos made a cameo appearance after dinner at a BBQ I had for a couple high school friends and their families. Everybody was talking this morning about the story Zman told. It was a detailed, intellectual recap of the new female Viagra. And he ended the story by saying to a mixed crowd "it gets the pussy popping". Tremendous conclusion.

Do you remember telling everybody you would come back this morning with Bloody Marys? I do.

zman said...

Yes! I thought we were supposed to come around 1?

rob said...

i didn't get all 7 questions right. so no tinder date with cunningham for me. her lucky day.

zman said...

Tinder, I hardly know her!

rob said...

hope stacey survived her surgery

mayhugh said...

First episode I listened to - entertaining. A nit - there was no discussion of 50 Cent/Ja Rule. Also no Ice Cube vs Rest of NWA on rap beefs. Maybe the latter wasn't brought up because it is too obvious with the movie out, but No Vaseline is the 2nd best diss song ever (and I feel like that exact statement has been made here before). I would also personally give credit for naming anyone mentioned by 3rd Bass at the end of Gas Face.

TR said...

MC Hammer gets the gas face.

Catpell said...

stacey's foot is fine, but we recorded a second date with cunningham podcast today and it was brutal. none shall pass. stacey is much easier to date . . .

zman said...

I have not listened to this episode but I feel compelled to say that Ether needs to be on your list of dis tracks, likely #1.

mayhugh said...

I like Takeover better. Killer Doors sample. I don't think Hit Em Up can be beat. Tupac just stops rapping with about a minute and a half left and just starts yelling and it still sounds amazing.

I started binge watching Mad Men and... what am I missing? I'm 11 episodes deep. The characters are good and it is steadfastly committed to showcasing the period but I was expecting more based on the general hype. It's solid but so far it is a full tier lower than the other shows in the platinum period.

zman said...

The Bridge is Over always gets ignored. "Magic's mouth is used for suckin, Roxane Shante is only good for steady fuckin."

Jay-Z called Hot97 crying the first time they played Ether, which was a response to Takeover.

http://youtu.be/ffDDbEJAEIg

zman said...

And Mos Def's The Rape Over shreds the while industry using the Takeover sample.

http://youtu.be/QfqRipvk6WE

TR said...

Don't give up on Dirty Don, Mayhugh. He keeps delivering.

Dave said...

madmen is really strange-- there are episodes where nearly nothing happens and no one raises their voice. i have to watch it on blu-ray on my big tv, and i'm mainly looking at colors and outfits and props and hairdos, which is normally not my thing, but that gets me through until something interesting occurs. it's certainly not "the shield," which packs seven plots into each episode.

Clarence said...

I agree with Dave, which sounds weird. Have patience, though many before have bailed out.

And are we supposed to just gloss over Dave's first sentence in this post? Is that like some pseudo-Yoda shit?

Dave said...

holy shit, i didn't notice that. i'm leaving it, because it's making me laugh so hard.

Dave said...

ok, it's not funny any more, i'm switching it . . .

Clarence said...

For those that missed, it said:

"The tenth episode of The Test is rather to me special for several reasons:"

mayhugh said...

The last 3 episodes of season 1 started to swing the pendulum. Seemed to actually be some forward momentum, plus the abundance of side boob from Pete's secretary Hildy (which probably set some sort of basic cable television record) got me re-engaged.

Clarence said...

The carousel pitch at the end of Season 1 was good stuff.

rob said...

close followers of this blog will understand the rich, delicious irony inherent in my newest twitter follower:

Swifter, Higher
@swifterhigher
Tirelessly aggregating the Olympics on the internet since 2008. On now: the XXII Winter Games in Sochi! No IOC affiliation/endorsement. @whelliston made it.

Dave said...

the carousel! i claimed that was the greatest moment in TV history . . . but i'm prone to hyperbole.

mayhugh said...

It was definitely good, great setup, but the greatest moment in TV history is the last scene of Season 3 of Lost. Kate, we have to go back.