Friday, July 3: Episode 1

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Sunday, July 5: Episode 2

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Lt. Pete Fisher)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Pjazzypar (Humming Caterer)
Foam (Diane)
SJ (Young Criminologist/Futon Cop)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Tuesday, July 7: Episode 3

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Pjazzypar (Caterer)
Ravi Khanna (Indra)
K9 (Felicity & Homeless Woman)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
X, Dell (Homeless Man 1)
Mr. Foam (Homeless Man 2)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Thursday, July 9: Episode 4

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Foam (Diane)
SJ (Young Criminologist/Futon Cop)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Lt. Pete Fisher)
Rayke (Franklin)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Saturday, July 11: Episode 5

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Yinyang (Lynn’s Old Friend)
Pjazzypar (Felicity’s Old Professor)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Pamela Ringgold (Robot Dialer)
Boneman (Smythe’s Answering Machine)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Monday, July 13: Episode 6

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Ravi Khanna (Indra)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Wednesday, July 15: Episode 7

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
K9 (Felicity)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
Boneman (Mounted Cop)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Friday, July 17: Episode 8

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
SJ (Young Criminologist/Futon Cop)
Foam (Diane)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Pinetop Swamp (Annnouncer)

Sunday, July 19: Episode 9

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Lauren (Dee von Zelle)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Tuesday, July 21: Episode 10

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Lauren (Dee von Zelle)
Pjazzypar (Hostess)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Thursday, July 23: Episode 11

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Rayke (Sgt. MacBrian)
Foam (Diane)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
Lauren (Dee von Zelle)
Pjazzypar (The Captain)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Lt. Pete Fisher)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Saturday, July 25: Episode 12

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Rayke (Sgt. MacBrian)
Foam (Diane)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Paul Weaver (Mountie Smythe)
Foam Jr. (Music Student)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Monday, July 27: Episode 13

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Lauren (Dee)
Rayke (Franklin)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn)
K9 (Felicity)
Crushed by Ingsoc (Irate Driver)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Wednesday, July 29: Episode 14

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Lauren (Dee)
JeannieGrrrl (Lynn/Wendy)
K9 (Felicity/Eileen)
Pamela Ringgold (Rude Cop)
SJ (Criminologist/Futon Cop)
Malcolm (Deputy Sheriff)
Pjazzypar (FBI Special Agent)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Friday, July 31: Episode 15

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Amy Insley (Col. Michelle Smith/Sacred Mother)
JohnB (Detective Bob Toricello)
Foam (Diane)
Boneman (Judge Ewing)
Yinyang (FBI Agent/Demolitions Expert/”All Clear”)
X. Dell (Mr. Johnson)
Holy Cannoli (Jenny)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)

Sunday, August 2: Episode 16

Cast:
Ricardo (The Detective)
Pinetop Swamp (Announcer)
(Cameos by the rest of the cast)

Well, last night, Ricardo e-mailed me the last installment of a brilliant performance as our fictional, unnamed Detective. My kudos to him, for largely on the strength of his performance, I know that The Golden Ganesh will be something very special indeed.

We’ve also gotten top-notch performances by Pjazzypar, Pamela Ringgold, Malcolm, Rayke and Jeanniegrrrl. In fact, we don’t have a single bad performance (with the possible exception of yours truly as Mountie Smythe—BTW, lemme apologize to all of Canada right now, just to save time.)

So, what’s standing in the way of our posting this on YouTube, or iTunes, or anyplace like that?

Well, two things: one minor, the other major. The minor thing is that in the initial cuts I made of the Ganesh, I assumed that it would be just for us. So I didn’t think anything about using unlicensed background music. But as I worked on it, I began to realize how well you guys did, the strange sort of chemistry that was beginning to happen. I then thought that there might be a chance that this would spread beyond our little sphere, and if so, we would all be in serious trouble.

So, to take us out of any trouble, I found music that I could afford to license through Creative Commons Agreement. In some ways, this kinda adds value to the project as an Internet feature, for CC music was designed with WWW multimedia projects in mind. Besides, some of the music was a better fit than what I had originally had. So, when finally released, we’ll have two versions: one with the CC music for general display, and one just for us.

The major thing is that we now have three performances that have yet to be received. At one time or another, these roles were cast, but for some reason or another, the person taking them on had to forego their participation to meet more important responsibilities. That’s perfectly understandable, and no apologies are needed. Still, however, we really need performers for the roles of Indra, Col. Smith and (alas) Dee.

I need your help. I’ve been advertising on Craigslist for the last few months looking for Dee. For some reason, I get an initial response from someone who quickly falls into the void. I must be committing some kind of faux pas. So if you have access to someone who might be interested in any of these three roles, please let me know.

The Ganesh is coming into the homestretch. I’ve produced rough cuts of four episodes so far. Most of you have heard at least one of these. As I produce them, I’m going to send you another featuring your own voice, so you can hear and pat yourself on the back.

In the vast majority of episodes, I only need one more recording to complete it. In the others, only two, one of them being Dee. There are several prospective actresses who might play her at the moment, but no one has yet committed.

I don’t think anyone (especially those who have completed their recordings) wants to delay the project any longer than necessary. So I ask (beg, plead) with those of you who have not sent me recordings to GET THEM IN. I’d like to begin airing this shortly after the upcoming US election. That way, if your candidate loses, it will take your mind off of it. Otherwise, you’ll have something else to celebrate with.

I can’t stress enough how well those of you who have submitted did. Those of you yet to submit I’m sure will match them line-for-line. Remember: there are no small parts, just small actors. Hammy is fine. Understated is fine. We’ve got a good mix of speech cadences and acting styles as it is, and it’s working.

I think too we might want to discuss a bit more how we want to present this. I planned on making this available via my webhost, and providing embed codes for each episode. Jean has mentioned developing a player, and Rayke has a good idea about podcasting. I will probably need your help on doing this, since I’ve never done either before.

We will need adequate time to let our readers know when the start date is, but I’m hesitant in giving one until all the parts are in. If you have more thoughts on publicizing it, I’m all ears.

After all, you guys deserve an audience.

We're still looking for Dee. We have a couple of bit parts unassigned, but that shouldn't be a big deal. As you can see from the number of items in solid black, a number of you have completed your recordings, and I thank you. I know that some of you are working on your recordings now, and anticipate them. A couple of you are near completion.

I'd like to get all recordings in by Labor Day. If it's one or two days past, that's not a huge problem. But without a deadline, sometimes things languish. And it would be unfair to those who put forth such a great effort to turn in fine performances to delay this longer than we have to.

The results of the assembling process are encouraging. My original thought was that you could post the series in its entirety on your own blog, or you could simply link to my blog--your call. Now, however, I'm thinking of promoting it on a larger stage. So far, the only thing I can think of is BlogTalk Radio or YouTube. If anyone else has ideas, lemme know.


Star
The Detective—Hard-boiled private eye, low tolerance for anything, least of all BS (Ricardo)

Co-stars
Announcer (Mr. Foam)
Bob—Articulate, mild-mannered police detective (JohnB)
Lynn—Canadian comedienne, fading ingénue (Jgrrrl)
Felicity—Tall Amazonian bleach-blonde genius (K9/She)
Dee—Australian artist and exit-counselor with absolutely no tolerance for BS
Diane—Hip young criminologist (Foam)
Jenny—Gorgeous; a genius on three subjects; clueless about everything else (Holy Cannoli)
Franklin—Tall, strapping comic (Rayke)
Futon Cops--Faceless, yet effective criminologist (SJ)


Featured Roles
Smythe—A hard-bitten veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (X. Dell)
MacBrian—A brown-nosing cop always looking for career advancement (Rayke)
Col. Michelle Smith—Wacky, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist and cult leader (Enemy of the Republic)
Captain—A wise commanding police officer (Pjazzypar)
Judge Ewing—Elderly Hippie type (Boneman)
Indra—Almost mechanical little man. (AHB)
Pete—Supercilious police Lt. (Crushed by Ingsoc)

Bit Parts
2nd FBI Agent (Yinyang)
Caterer (Pjazzypar)
Deputy (Malcolm)
Driver (Crushed by Ingsoc)
1st FBI Agent (Pjazzypar)
Homeless Man (Mr. Foam)
Homeless Woman (K9/She)
Hostess (Pjazzypar)
Machine Dialer (Pamela Ringgold)
Mounted Cop (Boneman)
Mr. Johnson
Old friend (Yinyang)
Old professor (Pjazzypar)
Rude Cop (Pamela Ringgold)
Student (Foam Jr.)
Voice Machine (Boneman)

We have all the major roles cast, except for Dee. If you have an Australian blogger friend somewhere out in the ethos, let me know.

We’re getting good performances from everyone, and I’m at the point now where I can edit together small snippets of dialogue. Despite the differing qualities of the hardware and conditions, it’s coming together better than I expected. Thanks to Boneman and K9 we’ve got some really cool sound effects, and I only need a few more.

For those of you who have sent in partial recordings, I eagerly await the rest of what you have. For those of you with larger roles, it’s perhaps best to do a little at a time (say, one or two episodes) and turn them in.

In the meantime, if you make a mistake, don’t bother erasing it. Keep going and go back and repeat just the bad sentence, and perhaps the one after/before it (depending on if you feel the sentences run together). As I’m doing this, I’ve noticed that some of your best takes, for the most part, are those you screw up or throw away. If I have another take, I can take the good part from the screwup, and complete it with the alternate take. In large part, that’s what I’ve been doing.

When I get a few more recordings, I’m going to post some examples of how this process is working out. Hope you like them.

Fellow bloggers, it has come down to this.

For whatever reason, Blogger has locked The X-Spot as spam. Why they couldn't have come to me with any problems before locking the blog, I don't know. But as it stands now, I won't be able to post anything for awhile.

This problem is apparently so common that other bloggers have really jammed the user forums trying to get answers. Unfortunately, they find none. After four hours of searching, neither do I.

On a more positive note, the recordings of The Golden Ganesh that I have received are wonderful, and I urge the rest of you to send them on in. I've received a few more in the past couple of days, but unfortunately cannot update the list because of the robots. I hope that everyone thoroughly enjoys the results.

Coming soon to The X-Spot: a new look thanks to our friend, the Aussie wunderkind known to one and all as The Notorious Fatty. We'll be tweaking the fine points for awhile, but all-in-all, I think I'm going to keep this design a long time.

Stay tuned.