Hello, I’m happy to have Quin Shakra as my guest today on Don’t Look At Me podcast. Quin runs Mano Farm and All Good Things Organic Seed company. We have an interesting visit that touches on local geography, dreamers vs. business people, growing food by hand, how to deal with peach leaf curl, WWOOFing, cover crops, tillers, communes, the seed business and Uncle Monsanto.

Most important things are to be aware of the seed swap on Feb. 23, 2013 at Chaparral Auditorium in Ojai, save 15% on your purchases at agtoseeds.com with the code “christwilson” at checkout and please rate and review the podcast in itunes.

That is all, enjoy.

Oh, one other thing. Donate a portable digital recorder like the Zoom H4N or the Tascam DR-40 to the Don’t Look At Me podcast. Do it anonymously. And stuff.

See you at the Seed Swap.

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Founder of the Ojai Post blog and digital nomad Tyler Suchman joins me in the barn for episode 006 of the podcast. We talk about his travels to Central America and Europe in 2012 and how he’s finding balance caring for his digital media web consulting clients while on the road.

This episode I’ve added Tyler’s Speak Sheets travel language cheat sheets to my growing list of affiliate links. Be sure and check that out.

And remember that All Good Things Organic Seeds is offering my podcast listeners a 15% discount on purchases at their website. 

Thanks so much for all your continued support. All donations are going directly to my past due child support. Be bold and give as I have given this archive of entertainment for you. Thank you Ojai. You make me smile.

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My former boss and the fellow who accepts responsibility for bringing me to Ojai joins me for a conversation in the barn. Bret Bradigan publishes the Ojai Quarterly magazine and monthly real estate magazine for Ojai. He’s been writing about the town’s eccentric people and social culture since 2000.

As publisher of the local newspaper for 9 years, Bret has had a big impact on Ojai, plus his dedication and participation in local organizations and service groups has been a key to this urbane small town journalist corralling some of the best local writers, photographers and creative media artists into his herd.

I have learned a lot from Bret over the years. And he continues to be a source of inspiration to me and the community. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

And I have a conversation with my son Elijah Wilson that deteriorates into a giggle fest pretty quickly.

Be sure to visit our first local sponsor’s website: All Good Things Organic seeds. While you’re there, fill up a cart with some seeds, some herbs, and gift certificates for your friends and at check out enter the coupon code “christwilson” for 15% off your purchase. This is a limited time offer, so buy your seeds today and GROJAI.

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What a gift to know Skip Schuckmann. This man’s ability to rap has challenged my ability to apprehend for nearly a dozen years now. He was one of my earliest friends and mentors in Ojai; providing me with a place to live, a car to drive and words of wisdom that dwell within me to this day.

We laugh at the outset of the conversation realizing that we’ve been visiting for the first 20 minutes or so without recording. Still we pick up and have a wonderful talk that I hope you enjoy and learn from. I’m enlightened further.

From the Kiva’s he’s built at the Ojai Foundation, Full Circle Farm and creek side hovels at Casa Barranca to the fire heated soaking tub and free form art he created on the back patio of the art gallery experiment he co-created in downtown Ojai in 2001, Skip has been a dynamic aspect of what is the fringe creative element that has been swirling in the Ojai Valley since long before it was given that name. That means a lot to me even if it is hard to put into words. I like how it feels to try and practically apply his wisdom to my own life and there-in find my own wisdom.

Check out the new sponsors links. Click the link and sign up for an Audible audio book trial membership. When you sign up for the trial, you can download a free audio book of your choice and they send me $15 for each new trial membership I refer. Audio books are a great way to pass the time on a long commute, a Shelf Road stroll or any job or hobby where you have the time and liberty to listen to a wonderful voice actor or author share their creative work. Cool service, check it out.

Thanks for all the amazon.com purchases you’ve been making through the affiliate banner. Please keep it up. I’m currently in negotiation for my first local sponsor that should be up and running by episode 5 next week.

I’m looking forward to my next few guests. I think you’ll like them too. Have fun out there. Thanks for listening, talking about it, sharing with your friends and supporting this hand made media with your donations and attention. Until next week. Enjoy!

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Well, here you go, I’m just going to do it. Better done than perfect is not a bad motto in life.

This is the first episode of Don’t Look At Me podcast which originates from a barn studio in the rural Ojai Valley. Here-in I interview Micah Van Hove filmmaker who is working on his debut full-length feature, titled Menthol

I hope you enjoy it and my brief aside with my podcasting and performance inspiration Elijah Wilson.

Learn more about Micah on his website umuima.com and on the film site: Menthol Movie. His twitter is @umuima follow him he’s going places.

Follow me on twitter: @christwilson or email me with your constructive criticism and suggestions. Also click on the Amazon banner on the right side there and bookmark that link as your main Amazon link. That way I’ll get a small percentage from them whenever you make a purchase. That would be amazing. Or just hit that donate button and push a few electronic dollars my way. Further, you can get me to your Ojai Valley fine residence and have me full-bless wash the windows. See my Window Washing site to learn more about that.

Thank you so much for listening, have a great weekend.

Yours truly Chris T. Wilson

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For the past year or so I’ve been a pretty faithful podcast listener. It all started with wanting to have fresh content to listen to while I wash windows or screen print Ojai Face and Squeegee Power t-shirts. My son Elijah made a few listening suggestions too that have really changed my life.

He got me started on WTF with Marc Maron, pretty much the grand-daddy of all podcasts currently. I’ve been known to listen to Joe Rogan, Alec Baldwin, This American Life, Harry Shearer’s Le Show and a few others. What I came to realize is that this medium allows nearly anyone to create content and share it. How could I resist? I fricken love being creative.

Knowing that the hardest part of any new venture is being willing to dive in, get to work and figure things out, I did just that. The process began with lots of online reading, comparing systems and options for recording audio and publishing it on the Internet for people to hear and enjoy. This led to days in online shopping audio equipment rabbit holes. Lots of time lost in the bowels of Amazon.com’s user reviews and home recording forums.

Finally after ruminating for days on end, I gave myself over to the buy button and let the electronic dollars flow. Over the past few weeks I made a few purchases: 2 used Shure SM57 mics on ebay, mic stands and headphones on Amazon (use my sponsor link and support me and my podcast habit) and a simple Behringer USB audio mixer from American Musical Supply.

The initial intention is to practice my mic and recording technique. I have to find a new voice, develop my style and find the theme that emerges as the dominant force in my burgeoning yet very narrow broadcast. I intend to use the podcast as a means for increasing my window washing and screen printing products business for sure. I will also openly be aiming my intentions at finding advertisers and sponsors to fund and fuel my further bus rides down the narrow paths of meaningless thought in the face of meaning making. And in the process I intend to interview the wonderful, wild, winsome and wacky people who I know and want to know more here in Ojai and beyond this Valley.

I’ve got a bit to learn about RSS feeds, Itunes subscriptions and podcast production and promotion and development, not to mention learning to speak in a clear and concise manner. All totally doable.

I will be publishing my first episode officially this coming Friday, January 4, 2013. Listen for it. It’s gonna be a w00t. Or, more likely a sleepy, boring, bedtime story. Together, we shall hear.

Last night at Farmer & The Cook, I picked up a box of 100% Organic Cacao Powder from Ojio foods. I was really drawn to the logo for its face-like design similar to the Ojai Face.

So, this morning, while making my Bulletproof-style coffee, (thinking of making a video of this) I decided to add a few tablespoons of this Ojio Cacao Powder to my blend and wow, that was good. It makes for a thicker richer coffee made in a Bodum Stovetop Espresso Maker, and then blended with Organic Valley Grass Fed Pasture Butter and Earth Circle Organics Coconut Oil AND Cacao Powder. Boom

So then I’m loving on the Ojio logo because it makes me smile so I spent some time on their website of specialty inspired superfoods, and I’m happy to see that the parent company Ultimate Superfoods is located nearby in Moorpark, California. I took a nice picture of the box, played with it in photoshop, saved a couple pics of chocolate colored organic Anvil blank t-shirts and mocked up a promotional t-shirt design.

So, there you go Ojio, what do you say?