30proof on BBC International Radio

30proof was mentioned on this week's BBC International Radio by Wild Sanctuary's Bernie Krause.
Bernie Krause was asked to be on to talk about 30proof's newest project: sound on Google Earth. See more at: http://earth.wildsanctuary.com.

Click here to listen to the interview.

30proof starts a partnership with Kirby Foods

30proof has recently launched a partnership with Kirby Foods of Champaign, Il. Kirby owns 13 IGA grocery stores in Illinois and Indiana. We will be making an individual webpage for each store. Check back as we keep developing it.

Jennell ran 12 miles!

Jennell Haynes, a 30proof founding partner, has reached the 12 mile mark in her training for her first marathon. She is running for the Team in Training program. To read more about it go to her website.

New site launches!!! Coming in July.

We are proud to announce a new line of websites coming this July! We are beginning the process of individual websites for a large chain of IGA grocery stores throughout Illinois and Indiana, a new layer of Natural Sound for Google Earth (commissioned by Wild Sanctuary, the largest collection of nature sounds in private hands), a destination travel website for Odyssey Travel in Sonoma CA, an e-commerce website for Coturri Winery in Glen Ellen CA, and a portfolio site for the talented architect Robert Baumann based in Sonoma CA.

Keep checking back with us as we develop and launch these sites... Happy Fourth of July!

- Jesse Evans

You need to get away!

Today we signed on to do a new website for Stephanie Shackelford, owner of Odyssey Travel in Sonoma, CA. She has lots of experience in her field of helping people find their perfect vacation get-aways. She also organizes tour groups for wineries and radio stations. Her current site is at Team Odyssey. Our new remake of her site should be live by late July, but don't wait that long to look her up and book a trip!
- Jesse Evans

Keva announces its 2008 collections

Just before their website created for Keva jewelry is released, Keva announced today that their 2008 collection will contain pure platinum bangles. The work is already becoming a sought after collection in LA. On a personal level, Lead Designer, Keva Clements, shies away from attention and prefers to keep grounded and focused on creating classic work.

- Jesse Evans

Jennell Haynes tops the 10 mile mark!

She ran 10 miles today!
Our partner Jennell Haynes, as we have mentioned before, is training for the Team in Training program to run the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon this October. Team in Training is an organization that helps people and families suffering from Leukemia and Lymphoma. The deal is that the participants agree to raise a certain amount of money in exchange for the training to do their first marathon.

Just today, Jennell ran 10 miles along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. This is her farthest distance so far. Each week the mileage gets upped as she trains.

Read more about it on her blog, RunJennellRun.
Please donate to her effort!
She needs to reach a goal of raising $1400. You can help her by going to her Team in Training site by clicking here.

New Images from Trevor Meeks!

Intrepid photographer and wunderkind Trevor Meeks recently returned from shooting a destination wedding in western Mexico. These are two of the images he brought back. 30proof has been tasked with creating a new website for Meeks which will be released later this summer.
As Meeks says, "OMG".

- Jesse Evans

Two new sites are launched

Our long-time client Vance Sharp has commissioned us to recreate the websites for his two companies, Sharp Cellars Wines and Sonoma Sausage. Both sites went live today.
-Jesse Evans

Check out USA Today...

The Christian Science Monitor story written by Ray Sikorski has been reprinted in today's edition of USA Today. You can read it here.
-Jesse Evans

30proof on the O'Reilly Radar

According to Brady Forest of the O'Reilly Radar: "Relevant sound is something that we don't often experience when researching a location on the web. Whether it be by Flickr, Google Earth, Virtual Earth or 43Places it is a silent experience. Bernie Krause of Wild Sanctuary (turn down your speakers) has the largest private collection of soundscapes in the world. Each one is date-stamped and geotagged. At the Where 2.0 conference on Tuesday he released KML files that can be consumed via Google Maps and Google Earth. The KML hacking was done by 30Proof.

Bernie and his wife, Katherine Krause have traveled the world and have used their collections and skills for research projects. A project from 2003 is An Analysis of Snowmobile Noise in Yellowstone National Park. During his talk he demonstrated the damage that logging had done to a wilderness area. The difference wasn't apparent on the map, but was very evident when listening to the soundscape."

Thanks for the great mention, Brady!
-Jesse Evans

30proof in the Christian Science Monitor

Freelance writer Ray Sikorski just finished a great piece about Wild Sanctuary, the KML layer and 30proof's programming. It was published today in the Christian Science Monitor in the Technology Section.

'"You can immediately hear a difference between the places," says 30proof Media creative director Jesse Evans, explaining that police sirens and even just the traffic set the cities apart. "Once you start paying attention to it, you hear it immediately," says Mr. Evans, who with his brother/partner, Sam Evans, created the sound-embedding program.

Any programmer can add a layer of data, known as a KML layer, to the Google Earth program; in the case of The Wild Soundscape Tour, Google was impressed enough to give 30proof access to one of its developers to assist the project.

"When we see such truly spectacular KML layers, we do reach out with advice and support," says Megan Quinn, a Google spokesperson.'

Thanks for your great work Ray!
- Jesse Evans

Delta and Dawn going home.

Finally! The whales are going home.

Our Ignite Talk at Where 2.0

Jesse Evans and Samuel Evans on stage during Ignite Where 2.0 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California.

Photograph copyright James Duncan Davidson. Photograph is licensed for use under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. When using on the web in compliance with the CC BY-NC-ND license, please link the photograph back to its Flickr page, give credit as "James Duncan Davidson", and don't remove the watermark. For all other uses, or to order prints of this photograph, please contact james@duncandavidson.com.

Sam and Jesse Speaking at Where 2.0

Sorry for the lack of 'focus' in our image. Better video coming soon.
Jesse

Where 2.0

It's official- We will be releasing our Wild Sanctuary KML layer at the Where 2.0 Conference this coming week. The KML layer will be available for download on May, 29 at www.wildsanctuary.com

"Whale Whisperer" Did It Once - Can He Do It Again?

This is a big day for us at 30proof and Wild Sanctuary. Our clients, Katherine and Bernie Krause, are on a coast guard cutter, Pike, in the Port of Sacramento hoping to lure the whales back to sea. This morning while they were meeting with Lt. Gov. Garamendi, they were informed that they have been dubbed the "Whale Whisperers" by the media...

This From News 10 Sacramento:

Marine scientists say time is absolutely critical if two humpback whales floundering in the Sacramento deep water channel are to survive. A rescue team assembled Wednesday evening to launch a full scale rescue attempt at dawn.

To get the job done organizers of the rescue are bringing in the same man who came up with the successful plan that saved Humphrey the humpback whale when he go stuck in the Sacramento delta 22 years ago.

Dr. Bernie Krause says there is a positive difference this time in that it won't take three weeks to figure out what to do. "We’re going to try one thing rather than 50 or 60 different things," said Krause.

The primary strategy is to lure the whales out of the deep water channel instead of driving them down river. There will be no banging of pipes from a boat at one end while whale songs are played from a boat at the other. The new technique will be to suspend an underwater speaker which will play whale feeding sounds recorded by Krause in Alaskan waters.

But, Dr. Krause says this is not Alaska and the situation is far more challenging than it was with Humphrey. "It's a much narrower channel for a much longer distance and we don't know how the sounds are going to play so, one never knows," said Dr. Krause.

Still, he believes the job can be done in 10 hours. Dr. Krause says Humphrey swam easily at seven miles an hour. If he can get the mother and her calf to swim at the same speed, Krause says the whales could be in the San Francisco Bay by the evening and on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge by Friday.

"Watch what happens tomorrow," said Krause. "It's either going to be a big surprise, and everything's going to be great, or I'm going to be crying."


Copyright 2007
News10/KXTV

Bernie Krause's 2nd Time Saving the Whales

Oh, by the way...

We are in the process of launching our new website, but it will not be until after all of our work is finished for Where 2.o.
Clients first, always, clients first....

Dept. Of Buzz focuses on Wild Sanctuary

Our dearly beloved clients at Wild Sanctuary have received an incredible amount of press over the last week following an article in New Scientist written by author Celeste Biever. When the story was published on the morning of May 9th, it was quickly picked up by the BBC. The attention from the BBC has lead to the story being picked up in many newspapers, websites and blogs from around the world. Cleveland, Mumbai, Borneo, Bangladesh, Edinburgh, London, San Francisco and Bangalore are just some of the places that are pubishing stories. Other U.S.-based tech websites such as SlashDot and Digg have had discussions. We also want to send out a thank you to Sara Ford of the Visual Studio wing of Microsoft for recognizing us on her blog.

Many of the stories published have been slightly bent from the original truth. The first story published in New Scientist is the accurate one. First, we are releasing a KML layer that highlights 26 spots around the globe were users can hear the nature recordings created by the Wild Sanctuary team lead by Dr. Bernie Krause and Katherine Krause. We will be also releasing various sundry of APIs, etc. The release date will be May 29, the opening day of Where 2.0 in San Jose, CA. Next, all of the sound with this KML layer and all future ones released by Wild Sanctuary all relate to sounds that have complete scientific metadata. The metadata contains geographic locations, weather, date, time, terrestrial habitat and much more. They are meant, above all, to be useful to scientific study. We will not be adding sound to all parts of Google Earth as some stories suggest, that is for another day.

Here are some of the links being published:
Gizmodo UK
The Daily Mirror
Tech Spot
SlashDot
The Cleveland Leader
CrunchGear
and the BBC
(The complete list can be found here.)

More information can be had by contacting the VP of Wild Sanctuary, Inc., Katherine Krause.

Okay, here is a better view of the SafeHouse

Diego Emir Garcia

We recently completed a photo shoot with a longtime client, conductor, singer and actor Diego Emir Garcia.

Gallery Wrapping...

Trevor Meeks of MeeksDigital Photography is now offering full gallery wrap canvas photography prints. This is a 3x4 foot print from a recent wedding photo shoot. These large prints must be seen to be believed. Click on the photo to the right to see a larger version. The canvas was created by Roxanne Benton, of Pixel2Canvas.com. The rubber duck, like the one on Trevor's shoulder is shipped with every shipment. Why? Don't question genius.

Big News from Wild Sanctuary!

Big News from Wild Sanctuary! Wild Sanctuary VP, Katherine Krause has just informed us that they've scheduled the second week in June to be on-site in Alaska for The Katmai Soundscape Project, a continuation of The World Soundscape Project begun last June in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This phase, obtaining baseline recordings of 3 sites within Alaska's Katmai National Park, is an exciting continuation of our global project work and will add significant material to the archive from that amazing location. Known as the 'land of 10,000 smokes', the Katmai is a spectacular 40 square mile, 100-700 ft. deep ash flow deposit from Novarupta Volcano. Also known for it's brown bears, robust waterways, rich salmon habitat, remote wilderness, and rugged coastlines, this area is still recovering from 1989's Valdez oil spill, although it was over 250 miles away! If you'd like to help them accomplish the baseline soundscape study of this region please make your contribution today -- just click on the MAKE A DONATION button on the Wild Sanctuary Blog under The Murie Center information. And thank you. We're grateful for your support!

Sonoma Biofuels Steps It Up

Joe Barratta of Sonoma BioFuels recently joined Sonoma Valley High School Earth Club students in a rally warming up for the Step It Up action taking place on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m.
Step It Up is a grassroots, nationwide effort involving hundreds of communities across America to get the attention of the U.S. Congress to “step it up” with effective legislation to cut carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. “Come join Sonoma Valley High School students and your community on the sidewalk in front of the historic Sonoma Plaza. Bring signs, wear costumes, ride your bikes, walk, but be there and let’s do Sonoma proud on behalf of our planet and the future of our children,” said a statement issued by the organizers of Sonoma’s event.
To get more information, see the Step It Up Web site at stepitup2007.org, then go to “Find Action” for Sonoma’s action information. -- SonomaSun.com

Bernie Krause's Works

Before devoting his life to preservation of the natural world, our client Bernie Krause, had a long creative musical career. He was an early adopter of the synthesizer and an ardent composer of cutting edge music. At right is his album Gandharva, composed and recorded with his late musical partner, Paul Beaver.

According to Wikipedia: Bernie Krause (born December 8, 1938 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American musician, was a member of The Weavers, and was one of the first players of the Moog Synthesizer in the 1960s. He formed Beaver & Krause with fellow synthesist Paul Beaver (who had played the instrument on a Monkees recording, "Star Collector"), to make electronic music featuring the Moog and other instruments.
Late in 1968, Krause demonstrated the Moog for Beatle George Harrison, who was visiting California; a recording of the session became the basis of "No Time Or Space", a track featured on Harrison's Electronic Sound album the next year. Krause also provided soundtrack music for Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, Dr. Doolittle, and Apocalypse Now.
Krause holds a Ph.D. in bioacoustics from Union Institute in Cincinnati, and is also remembered as the "Pied Piper" who lured a stray humpback whale from the Sacramento River Delta back to the Pacific Ocean, through the use of sounds.
Krause's 1970 album In a Wild Sanctuary was the first to employ the sounds of nature on a large scale, as a source of musical tones and rhythms, and to make a statement about the environment. Krause continues to compose and produce electronic and environmentally-themed music, including a popular series of albums for The Nature Company.

A quick look inside the SafeHouse

We are only going to show you a low-res image QTVR for security purposes. This is of the main office at the new facility. Anything more is on a need-to-know basis. If you need to know more you can access it here.

A Rebel Winemaker: Tony Coturri

"When famed wine critic Robert Parker, Jr. issues a declaration like this, wine lovers in search of the unusual rejoice. Located in Sonoma Mountain’s Volcanic Valley of the Moon region - where the vines send deep roots into rocky red clay-based soil - Coturri Winery is renowned for it's organic, unfiltered, unrefined & unsulphured wines; in particular, their distinctive Zinfandels which have been characterized as 'dark and forbidding' and 'hedonistic.'

Typically Coturri incites either passionate loyalty or intense outrage. 'For every reader who writes to thank me for turning them on to these organically made, unfined, unfiltered, unsulfured wines,' notes Parker, Jr., 'there are others who have accused me of consuming excessive amounts of illegal substances before tasting Coturri's wines, or, even worse, just incompetence.” Counter Restaurant - April Newsletter

Congratulations Tony!

-30proof

We were visited by a Multi-Purpose Person

We can't think of a better way to put it, but Cheryl Itamura calls herself a multi-purpose person. She defines it as such :

Cheryl Itamura, n. 1. Stage Manager. 2. Production Manager. 3. Talking Head. 4. Director. 5. Graphic Artist. 6. Coordinator of Reality. 7. Creator of Dreams. 8. Soothsayer. 9. Writer. 10. Actor. 11. Poet. 12. Muse. 13. Umberto Eco Fan. 14. Woody Allen Fan. 15. Ray Sikorski Fan. 16. J.M. Berry Fan. 17. Daedalus Howell Fan. 18. Baker of Tasty Chocolate and Cranberry Bread Pudding. 19. Cyro Baptista Fan. 20. Stomp Fan. 21. Paleo Music Fan. 22. San Francisco Taiko Dojo Fan. 23. Flesh and Blood. 24. Orange Calcite. 25. Chez Panisse Fan. 26. Cafe Beaujolais Fan. 27. Kokkari Fan. 28. Artist. 29. Patron. 30. Lover. 31. Gertrude Stein Fan. 32. Charles Bukowski Fan. 33. Basho Fan. 34. Rumi Fan. 35. Queen of a Small European Nation, the Universe and a piece of dust. 36. Wearer of One-Thousand One-Hundred and One Hats. 37. Balance. 38. Dance. 39. Joy. 40. Zen. 41. Gei. 42. The Puppetmaker's Daughter. 43. Multi-purpose Person. You can read more about her at her website. Or see one of her short film partnerships along with Daedalus Howell.



We hope to add a #44. A valuable partner to 30proof Media.

Matthew Coddington, A new voice talent

We are in the process of creating a new identity for voice over actor, Matthew Coddington. He has been training quite some time with well-known vocal coach Madeline Wild of Radio Magic.
Our job has been to create an identity and make all the necessary pieces for a portfolio. We really welcome the opportunity to work with Matthew. By the way, it is his birthday today. Happy Birthday! To hear some of his work click here.

Go! Go! Go!

30proof Media has had lots of inquiries from people who are setting up websites for the first time or are thinking about finally depending on them as a necessary part of their business. For those people, we have created a free white paper to explain the ins and outs that someone should know when they are starting the process of making a website. You can see the information by clicking here.

If you have any further questions, call one of us directly at 415.738.8766 or email us at hello@30proof.com.

Flying with MeeksDigital Photography

Sam and I spent the day with Trevor Meeks of MeeksDigital Photography in his 1950 Cessna 170 to fly down to Concord, CA. On the way back, we flew over the new office of 30proof Media in Sonoma, CA. To us it is called the SafeHouse. It is called the SafeHouse because we aren't going to tell you where it is (unless you have to come by and drop off a check...) We are going to show you an aerial photo of the facility, we are working from a rehabbed warehouse. Here is Sam's photo of the facility:

Sioni has opened!

Come read about one of our newest clients in a feature story completed by a local newspaper, the Sonoma Sun. Owner Kristi Kelly has a fascinating history having been trained as an environmental scientist and oceanographer.

Now, she is opening her third business on the Sonoma Plaza, Sioni. It has modern collections including iconic brands like Citizens of Humanity jeans, Nation T-shirts, Ashley Morgan, Park Vogel, Sunner collection and the Fleur Wood collection.

A brand new website is coming very soon at www.sionilife.com

A Message to John Stossel

I once saw a small piece of graffiti on a wall in an alley of the French Quarter in New Orleans that read, "It ain't funny and I not laughing".

Well, it ain't funny and I not laughing, John.

- Sam

The Honest Value of Customer Service

I believe the true gauge of company is how well it separates itself from the competition.

That being said, I found a perfect parallel to that thought. I am going to compare two web hosting companies of which I have done a great deal of business with (Hostway and GoDaddy).

I picked these two companies years ago when price determined my buying decision. That is not the case anymore. "The Honest Value of Customer Service" clearly comes into play.

I recorded two calls; one with Hostway and one with GoDaddy. I want you to take a few moments to listen to the recording. Price aside, and from the quality of the customer service alone, decide who you would want to supply you with service.

I will think about this recording and act accordingly with every experience I encounter with a client, because the true gauge of a company is how well it separates itself from the competition.

- Sam

Click to play.
(Since the hold time was an hour, it has been edited down for time constraints.)

Run Jennell Run

Our very own Jennell Haynes is training to run in the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7, 2007. Chicago, Illinois is going to be the future home of 30proof Media and I think its a great way to start out the transition.

It's great to see a healthy face in a sea of caffeinated, self-medicated, workaholic 30proofers. Quite inspiring.

Visit Jennell's blog over at runjennellrun.blogspot.com.

- Sam

Making noise for Google Earth

This just in from the blog Ogle Earth.

"Excellent: Bernie Krause's biophony recordings, soundscapes of nature, look like they'll be turned into a KML layer soon, reports O'reilly Radar. Until then, try Freesound, a site with georeferenced ambient sounds that comes with its own KML layer. Still one of my favorites. (More about the possibilities for navigating using sound for the sight impaired here.)"

We are working on some great things with our partnership with Wild Sanctuary. Don't forget to check us out at Where 2.0 this May.

Ogle Earth brings you news about virtual globes, with a special focus on Google Earth. By Stefan Geens in Stockholm.

Albums and Artwork Now Available!

We now have album artwork available at the Wild Sanctuary WildStore! Full-length nature albums are available as MP3 downloads. Also don't forget the podcasts available through iTunes by clicking here.

30proof at the Where 2.0 conference

30proof Media will have a booth at the WHERE 2.0 Conference.
If you've ever wondered where in the world 'that sound' is coming from inside your computer, here is your chance to find out! The intrepid Bernie Krause will be speaking at the 3rd annual O-Reily WHERE 2.0 CONFERENCE, May 29-30, 2007, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA. Come hear him address 'The Value of Soundscape in Location Mapping Technology' and put some 'green' into your scene!

We're on the Radar Now!

Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, Inc of Sebastapol, CA. Posted a nice piece about the work of Bernie Krause and a response to the NYTimes article from this last Sunday. You Can read more about it at his O'Reilly Radar Blog
Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc, thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O'Reilly also publishes online through the O'Reilly Network and hosts conferences on technology topics. Tim is an activist for open source and open standards, and an opponent of software patents and other incursions of new intellectual property laws into the public domain. Tim's long term vision for his company is to help change the world by capturing and transmitting the knowledge of innovators. For everything Tim, see tim.oreilly.com

Don't forget our new website

Launched Feb. 16, 2007-- On our Anniversary!

Our Clients in the News: Wild Sanctuary

Ari Marcus of Rivet Magazine gave Wild Sanctuary a nice response to our recent article in this week's New York Times Magazine in their blog. Stop by and read the post and his reminder that we all need to get out and experience the natural world.

Also check out the great work being done by Rivet Magazine.


Thanks for the great mention by Non-Human Communications. Their Mission is to enhance communications and deepen understanding among humans and sentient non-human species, with the goal of positively motivating all beings to cherish and defend the planet, Mother Earth, closest thing to Heaven we've got.

Also thanks to Mark Carwardine' for his mention in his blog, Another Chance to See.
In the late 1980s, Douglas Adams, creator of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", and broadcaster and zoologist Mark Carwardine travelled around the world, visiting endangered animals, hoping it would not be their "Last Chance To See". A BBC radio series and very funny book followed, and this website brings the stories of these animals into the 21st century... Thanks Mark! (Douglas sadly passed away in 2001)

30proof (LLC) turns 1!

We became incorporated one year ago today in the great state of California after moving all operations from Chicago and Central Illinois.

It feels amazing to know that we have been this successful. We are definitely looking forward to many, many more years in the industry. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I wish I had the stamina in me to celebrate in the right manner, but our team has been up for 20 hours; working straight. It's dedication like that that gets us where we need to go (and the reason at least one of us already has a 30proof tattoo).

So here's the self-congratulatory pat on our backs for our first anniversary.

- Samuel