This year I thought I’d employ a bit of science to my Blogging of Fringe - I was worried the site had turned into all Fringe Crush, all the time, and completely about local acts instead of National and International. I was mostly right.
Here are some handy graphs to point out why we suck:
Here we see Text only posts at 10%
VoiceMail Reviews and audio at 13%
Any non-Fringe Crush videos at 37%
Fringe Crush takes it home with 41%
My second criticism is that we favored local, and the numbers don’t lie:
International 6%
National Acts 13%
On the Fringe 38%
Local Artists 43%
This scale is even graded on a curve, because I counted Bric-a-Brac as national because they’re from Austin, but they all used to live here, and they were produced by Beth. And the only things in the “On the Fringe” category were folks who were not in shows, but many of them have been in the past.
That means we had a distribution like this:
I guess 19% isn’t bad for Long Tail content. I’d like to do better. It’s a mission of mine to keep that number above 20% all the time, so I guess we did pretty well this time.
The Videos and Audio did have some categories we threw them in:
The new Fringe Moments were 11%
The VoiceMail Reviews at only 13%
The favorite Fringe Crush with 41%
Everything else this year with 35%
Also, I was very proud of us when I found out Beth would be presenting a Fringe Crush award for the show with the most crushes. Denna counted up the results, and by no surprise, VarieTease won! I think that’s a challenge to the cast of Oral to do some more campaigning for next year.
One last statistic, of the 32 shows I saw, 55% of them were not local.
Again, we’re counting Bric-A-Brac and Parlour Games as National, because they are… sortof.
While doing some web surfing, I noticed some video of the Silent Rave Dancers on the Green at Loch Haven Park.
Then I started clicking around…
There is some great stuff in there, like this one with Brian Feldman doing some audience participation. I don’t know if the gay lover story was the same every night, but I’m really sorry I missed that show.
Props go out to Tisse and her camera. But don’t forget, she’s “Not just a photographer” (her words). She also does a brand of life coaching she calls Artist Development, and she’s organizing some events around town, like Artissed Night.
Why did I start a blog about Mark and finish it about Tisse? Mark was how I first heard about her, and they have been working together a lot lately on the Orlando Arts Blog, which has always been awesome, but now is starting to be even more multimedia. Please go check them out.
I came across this Canadian improv troupe somewhere in my web surfing this year, and this week I saw their videos on the Montreal Fringe’s Facebook page.
Some of our friends from previous Orlando Fringes will be there, like Barry Smith (Jesus in Montana, American Squatter), TJ Dawe (Totem Figures, Slipknot), and Greg Landucci (Dishpig, Mr. FOX), and Influx Dance (Goals for 2002). Also, some new friends from this year’s festival - The Cody Rivers Show (Stick to Glue) and Andrew Connor (Boom), will be there too.
If this information is wrong, sorry. Iwas having some trouble finding info on the Fringe site. If I’m missing anyone, I’d love to include them too.
Funny thing about Montreal and Blogging Fringe - if you search for it, we come up on the first page, from my post-fringe show last year where I was Seeking Updates from Montreal Fringe. My offer from last month (and last year) still stands - anyone who wants to can do whatever with Blogging Fringe - we have set up some conventions - Fringe Crush, Voicemail Reviews, and Fringe Moments - do with them what you will. If you send me links I will post them here, or I will give you an account and plenty of attribution on the site.
We will even import your blog posts word-for-word, but a warning that MySpace blogs are not very good for that purpose, since the feeds only include a few words for each blog post.
If you’re in Montreal or any other Fringe City, get in touch. I’d love to just know you’re out there.
I finally saw Here Be Dragons on Patron’s Pick Day. This was one of the few issue-based shows at Fringe, but it was really fabulous.
Thank you to Cervo Systems for providing bandwidth and hosting for Blogging Fringe.
The file is just an MP3 - no iPod is required to listen to this show, although that is a popular way to enjoy podcasts. We have also made our feed available for easy linking to iTunes or other feed readers.
Our first ever Fringe Crush via voicemail! You can call 321-441-3964 to leave a Fringe Crush report, a short radio bit or a review of a show.
Thank you to Cervo Systems for providing bandwidth and hosting for Blogging Fringe.
The file is just an MP3 - no iPod is required to listen to this show, although that is a popular way to enjoy podcasts. We have also made our feed available for easy linking to iTunes or other feed readers.
I was leaving the festival on Saturday night and just felt inspired to call in and leave a message for everyone.
Thank you to Cervo Systems for providing bandwidth and hosting for Blogging Fringe.
The file is just an MP3 - no iPod is required to listen to this show, although that is a popular way to enjoy podcasts. We have also made our feed available for easy linking to iTunes or other feed readers.
Trevor Frasier reads a commissioned piece from the Poetry Vending Machine entitled “Just About the Annoying Beatles Cover Band”. At the 2008 festival, patrons could have an artist compose an original piece for $5 or a haiku for $1.
Patron’s Pick is the only accolade our Fringe Festival bestows on shows, whether local or out of town. I think all of the Picks this year will end up being local, which is a crying shame. I should check previous years and see if out of town shows have earned this honor in the past.
Patron’s Pick day is great - you have the day off of work, you have already sort of seen everything you want to, and you’re also not rushing from one venue to the next and worried about scheduling things, because there is only one show playing at any given time - this makes parking a bit easier, too, from what I can remember.
Genevieve says in today’s newsletter:
Here are the Patron’s Pick winners and their performance times on Monday. We are still waiting on Blue and Brown, as it is a very tight race! As soon as we know, it will be posted on www.orlandofringe.org!
Yellow Venue: Skip Peril and the Players of the Lost Trunk, 10:15 am
Fringe Fundraiser: T.J. Dawe’s The Slip-Knot, a benefit for the Fringe, 11:30 am in the Orange Venue
Two years ago, John Valines and the Rickshaw Boy crew won the Fringe of the Fringe Award - last year they gave it to Blogging Fringe. Radio Rickshaw is a long-running podcast here in Orlando with a small network of shows, and a barbershop quartet.
Also hosting this episode is Greg Barris from the Heart of Darkness Rock and Roll Circus. I actually don’t know much about Greg, except he used to live in Orlando, and he was involved with SAK Comedy Lab. His show was part monologue and part stand-up comedy, and it was pretty good.
Sometime during the week, I bumped into John and Greg with the Marantz recorder interviewing folks, and they talked to me a bit. I talk about Twitter, USB Humping Dogs and Fringe Shows, and I might be on mushrooms.
Only 3 more days! (plus Patron’s Pick Day) Looks like When Pigs Fly and Alice in Wonderland have already been announced as Patron’s Picks for their venues, which sort of makes sense. If you’re interested in supporting the Fringe AND seeing TJ Dawe, check out Monday morning at 11:30, when TJ will be performing the Slip Knot.
As we rolled into the weekend last night with some light rain and lots of folks crowding the Shakespeare Center, I noticed three college-looking kids soliciting people for photographs. I walked up to tell them about Blogging Fringe, and it turned out they were the Orlando Metromix “SHOCK SQUAD”! Is Metromix the Sentinel one, that’s going to be changing their name? It’s not CityBeat, is it? It’s one of those. I went to see what coverage they had of the festival, and it was exactly one article - recommendations based on watching the preview. Also, no comments allowed. They asked me to link to them, and in hopes that they link back, here we go.
Last night, I lost my festival program. Normally no big deal, but this was different - I had written all sorts of notes in my program, marked down page numbers of shows, kept my tickets inside, and started to feel like my program was a treasured item - sort of like a stuffed animal or something, now lost. I checked the Brown Venue, the Blue Venue, the Ticket Booth, and the Garbage Can too, but my program was gone. I went to the box office to get some tickets re-printed ( handy reason for using credit card or the internet to buy your tickets), and proceeded to go through the tickets I did have with the volunteer to make sure I wasn’t missing any others.
Apparently, I’ve seen a lot of shows:
A Brief History of Petty Crime
American Squatter
Boom
*Flamenco con Fusion 08
Galapagos: The Directors Cut
*Mark Baratelli
Move!
MR. FOX
*Mr. Marmalade
On Second Thought
*once upon a time: The End
Oral
Parlour Games
perfectly broken
Power To Pleasing: The Sex Lives of Teenage Girls
*Red, White, and Ignorant: An American Love Story
Shadows In Bloom
Skip Peril and the Players of the Lost Trunk
*Swell
The Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook
*The Bric-a-Brac Vagabond Vintage Variety Show
The Cody Rivers Show presents: Stick to Glue
The Greg Barris Heart of Darkness Rock and Roll Circus
*The Screw You Revue: Déjà vu
*The Slipknot: A Benefit for the Orlando Fringe
Totem Figures
TV iMature
*Wet
When Pigs Fly
* Indicates shows I have not seen, but I have a ticket for.
All of these shows (that I have seen) are awesome. Go see them all. If I could only tell you three, I would include The Cody Rivers Show, On Second Thought and Boom (not in that order). I would say Power to Pleasing, but it’s sold out. I continue to tell folks that if they haven’t seen any dance, they MUST go - we always have great dance at this festival, and I’m seeing all of the 5 dance shows this year. Lastly, (not leastly) if you’ve never seen TJ Dawe, Barry Smith, Jimmy Hogg, Greg Landucci, Gemma Wilcox or any of the other out-of-town monologists (like Paul Hutcheson from On Second Thought, mentioned earlier), they are all worth your time and money. This is also not counting Patron’s Pick day, where I plan to see some shows that have floated to the top, but I managed to miss. It should be a fun experience.
What was also a fun experience was getting a random contact from some folks from Rake Theatre down in Boynton Beach - they’re putting on Fluency this week at the Fringe. Apparently, they are wanting to start an all-Florida arts blog - a very ambitious project. I have about 3 such very ambitious projects in my head, in the works with locals, or I at least own the domain name for them.
The South Florida folks’ project is called, of all things, Florida Arts Blog, which is a Wordpress.com site right now, but for some reason the posts about Fringe have disappeared… ::shrug:: Something and someone to watch in the coming weeks and months. I am trying to sell them on Florida Creatives myself, blogging can come later. They’ve also got a link to Mark’s Orlando Arts Blog up there… I wonder if they’ve been emailing him too…?
