Periscope

I was watching the news one night and a story came on about a young woman who was driving while intoxicated and "Scoping" the whole thing. Some people who tuned into her broadcast called the police to report her driving. The Police downloaded the Periscope app and found her broadcast. They identified where she was by the landmarks that surrounded her as she drove. They found her and arrested her. After a brief moment of being glad that some concerned citizens reported her and stopped her from harming herself or someone else I wondered what Periscope was. I looked up the app on my iphone 6 plus and downloaded it. I did a little exploration on the app and found some very interesting things. I saw a sunrise in Arkansas, watched Big Ben chime in London, watched a New Zealand tour guide introduce a a bunch of to one of the many hiking destinations near Wellington, watched Neil Young perform at the Forum in Las Angeles, a young woman driving the narrow streets of London and someone on the scene after the devastation that took place in Paris placing flowers on one of the spots where innocent people were killed. It's a fascinating way to look at life through the eyes of someone else and see what they're seeing.

I decided to give scoping a try. I set up my cell phone in my music den with the intention of playing a few songs and seeing if I would get any feed back. Getting ready to broadcast is pretty simple but I haven't mastered getting my shot right and can't figure out how to do it without already broadcasting. It took me about two minutes to get the camera to to face me so I could set up the shot. Once I got things set up the real fun began.I played a song or two and had a few people tune in but keeping them interested isn't as easy as just sitting down and playing. The Periscope audience wants to interact with the broadcaster. If they can't they move on. I've never been much of a talker. I find it a bit embarrassing to talk about myself when there's a lot of people much more interesting. The other night one of the comments was "I wish he'd talk more". I've played in bars many times and that audience doesn't care very much about your banter, they want to hear some music. I'm not saying no one wants to hear it because there's always a few but to most of them you're just background music. Now I have to figure out a way to interact with an audience. Everything I do is on the fly. Nothing is planned and sometimes it's really obvious. I'm going to try scripting a broadcast just to see what happens. It won't be a traditional script, maybe more of an outline with times to play and times to chat with the viewers. I might try it this weekend! If you'd like to listen you can find me on Periscope by searching for monkeybob 6969 and follow me. You'll get notifications when ever I'm doing a live scope. If not, well I'll tell you about it next time. Make music... not war...