DriveTime Extra: Jim's Big Ego

An extra slice of DriveTime for the holiday: the full unedited performance of "Love Everybody" by two-thirds of the band, Jim's Big Ego.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(QuickTime, 03:13, 664 Mb)

Episode Three.Four

Just in time for hours of madcap holiday travel -- it's a DriveTime Thanksgiving Music Special! Ravi and Sonia reactivate the Front and BackSeat DriveTime Musical Studio for two-thirds of the band Jim's Big Ego, Jim and Dan. And a special Thanksgiving song triggers an anti-early-Christmas-music-rant from Ravi.

Jim's Big Ego Live in Studio V Set List:

• Mix Tape
• Turkey Turkey
• Love Everybody (outro excerpt)

(QuickTime, 09:56, 48 Mb)

Episode Three.Three

Ravi and Sonia welcome Holden Lewis from Bankrate.com's Mortgage Matters blog to talk about Baby Jessica, the housing market and a potential "Perfect Storm" a'brewin.

(QuickTime, 09:16, 44 Mb)

Episode Three.Two

Ravi and Sonia enjoy a bit of "Indian Summer" and pop open the International DriveTime GloveBox which yields an interesting proposal. The Official DriveTime Clock is then turned back to spookier times, when Ravi, Sonia and a bike-mounted, "JamieCam" equipped Jamie O'Brien were lost in their local cemetery.

(QuickTime, 08:46, 42MB)

Episode Three.One

Season Three of DriveTime officially kicks off with a plaintive letter from the DriveTime GloveBox which prompts Ravi to recover a Lost episode of DriveTime from the digital cutting room floor. In this never-before-seen session from June, a helmet-camera clad Jamie O'Brien joined Ravi and Sonia on the eve of his cross country bicycle journey which he chronicles on tnt2007.com.

(QuickTime, 08:27, 40 MB)

Summer Break Has Ended

DriveTime ends its summer break in a matter of moments. Thanks to all who have stopped by and shared their comments -- I'll try to be more timely with my feedback! Apologies if you've contacted me about a guest appearance and I haven't replied... a "kick-in-the-ass" reminder email works wonders!

Namaste India!

The "BeyondTomorrow/DriveTime/KimWatkinspalooza" global tour continues! Greetings to new visitors from India!

Hola South America!

Due to a flurry of recent comments from Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil and other South American countries, I take it that the infamous Kim Watkins visit to Studio-A was recently broadcast on stations in South America.

So "hola!" to all the new DriveTime friends and viewers.

Episode Two.Twenty

Ravi turns over the guest introductions to Sonia who taps into her heritage to introduce Savvas Spyridopoulos, the producer and organizer of the upcoming Soundscape 2007 -- "a synergistic interaction of sight, sound, and crowd motion." In addition to providing a visual guide to the experience, Spyridopoulus issues a near legal disclaimer. And it's a crowded house as he insists on bringing his own guest for morale support.

Plus, a dip into the DriveTime GloveBox for the first ever follow-up letter.

And Ravi deftly slips in some Pig Latin.

(QuickTime, 09:30, 46 MB)

Episode Two.Nineteen

The heat is on as Ravi and Sonia close out May with a Memorial Day themed dip into the DriveTime GloveBox which leads Sonia to ponder "Times" after DriveTime. And Ravi laces up his running shoes for a JogTime experience with Joseph Quintanilla and Lisa Miracle to talk about the upcoming Vision 5K road race and its Blindfold Challenge.

Special thanks to Fish McGill for his biking expertise.

(QuickTime, 07:10, 35 MB)

Production Update

We are off to a short sunny vacation (and not commuting on that vacation!) Call it a late spring break or an early summer getaway.... actually let's say late spring break.

We'll resume with new episodes when we return to "the grind."

Episode Two.Eighteen

Ravi and Sonia ponder possible "game-changing" events on DriveTime for May Sweeps before welcoming photographer Abe Morell, who is the subject of the film Shadow of the House, directed by Allie Humenuk. Abe describes how the film came to be and gives Ravi a quick Camera Obscura 101.

And if that weren't enough -- a DriveTime Remote Segment to preview the World Premiere of the film.

(QuickTime, 09:43, 46 MB)

Episode Two.Seventeen

It's multi-studio madness as Ravi and Sonia kick-off the Boston Cyberarts Festival with founder and director George Fifield. George previews this year's festival, armed with a clip from the Visual Music Marathon. After successfully shuttling their guest from Studio-V to Studio-A, Ravi and Sonia discuss a potential adolescent page-turner caper, "The Case of the Missing Fitness Water."

(QuickTime, 08:56, 36.5 MB)

Episode Two.Sixteen

It's a Patriots Day Holiday Special as Ravi and Sonia unveil the DriveTime Running Cam, employed to accommodate the first-ever out-of-car guest: marathon runner, David Allman. As he tunes up for the Boston Marathon, David shares how people can follow his progress on the official Boston Athletic Association web site. Plus, the DriveTime GloveBox is cracked open to reveal a letter from... Ravi Jain?!

(QuickTime, 08:50, 36 MB)

DriveTime is a Webby Nominee

DriveTime has been nominated in the 11th annual Webby Awards, in the Online Film/Video: Music/Variety category (now that's a mouthful.) A tip o' the DriveTime Hat to Steve and Derek at the Webbys who helped facilitate a scholarship for the entry fee (thus accommodating the "empty set" DriveTime Budget!)

You can check out all the nominees and vote for your favorites in each category.

Update:
I've posted a higher quality version of the three-minute highlight reel that voters can watch on raviblog (the version on the Webbys site seemed a little choppy to me).

Episode Two.Fifteen

It's T.G.I.G.F. for Ravi and Sonia as they prepare for Greek Easter... and Lamb Lip Soup? Ravi also officially unveils his new weekly sartorial enterprise before welcoming DriveTime Cultural Critic Peter Bebergal back to Studio-V for some politically themed DriveTime Cultural Minutes:

• The Death of Captain America
• Rome
• Person Pitch by Panda Bear
• The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

(QuickTime, 09:23, 39 MB)

Episode Two.Fourteen

Ravi and Sonia return after a Heroes-like hiatus for an Opening Day Edition of DriveTime. Boston Phoenix writer Mike Miliard climbs into Studio-V to talk about his Red Sox blog and the star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. As "Dice-K" always has a translator near at hand, Ravi provides Mike with his own Japanese translator: Momo Shinzawa. Together the foursome stumble upon THE catchphrase of the year, which Ravi quickly trademarks in the best interests of DriveTime.

And if that wasn't enough, Ravi dips into the trunk to fetch a bonus guest in an impromptu edition of "What's in the Trunk?"

(QuickTime, 09:28, 38 MB)

Production Update

The early onset of Daylight Savings Time throws everything in the DriveTime Production Lot into a tizzy and the end result is a DriveTime Production Update (and no new episode).

Episode Two.Thirteen

Ravi and Sonia slow things down for a special DriveTime Sunday Edition and muse about their own Sunday traditions before welcoming food journalist and author Nina Simonds to talk about her new multimedia food project, Spices of Life. And with her help, true implementation of The GridLock Griddle -- first alluded to in the pilot episode of DriveTime -- seems a distinct possibility....

(QuickTime, 08:03, 33 MB)

Episode Two.Twelve

It's a full house as Ravi and Sonia welcome the rock trio Apple Betty into the DriveTime Musical Backseat Studio for an acoustic performance.

And Sonia holds down the Studio-V fort as Ravi searches high and low for the new Presidential Dollar.

If that weren't enough, stick around for the promo to the first ever DriveTime Extra -- a bonus hidden Apple Betty track.

(QuickTime, 09:44, 40 MB)

Episode Two.Eleven

Ravi and Sonia "DriveTime" like it's 2005 with the return of an ailing Studio-A which deftly segues into a new segment: What's Wrong with Studio-A? The mishaps only escalate when FoD Chris Monks dials in for a remote appearance, thwarted by bad magnetic juju. Through the crackling and buzzing, he somehow promotes his third Utter Wonder reading series, reads an original list, Signs your unicorn is cheating on you, and does a play-by-play call of his five year old son playing Nintendo Wii Boxing.

(QuickTime, 07:33, 31 MB)

Episode Two.Ten

Ravi and Sonia burst into 2007 by welcoming Boston's Fox 25 News weekend anchor Bianca de la Garza into Studio-V. She brings along a camera-man/heckler who mutters his way under Ravi's skin.

Amid the engaging conversation, Ravi's "breaking news" quip falls tragically flat.

(QuickTime, 09:39, 40 MB)

Boston Area Alert

Boston area alert: tonight is the opening reception for the show iArt: A selection of new works created for PDAs at the newly relocated Axiom Gallery. While Studio-A won't be inside the gallery as planned (details on the kerfuffle here), I will be debuting a new single channel video piece, I've always wanted to put my Audi in a gallery.

New DriveTime episodes for 2007 are in the proverbial digital can and will be posted once edited (hopefully soon!)