COOL McCANN

COOL McCANN

Leslie and I had breakfast late yesterday morning at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. After breakfast, we ran into the great character actor and voice artist, CHUCK McCANN. Chuck was there with one of his dogs, Judy. We had actually stopped to admire his dog when I recognized Chuck. We talked for a few minutes and I mentioned that I still needed to pick up the newly-released COOL McCOOL DVD set from BCI Eclipse. As you know, Chuck did many voices for the 1960s cartoon series. Just then, Chuck asked us to keep an eye on his dog. He went to his car and returned with a brand-new COOL McCOOL DVD set for Leslie and I. What a great guy! Chuck graciously signed the DVD set for us. Chuck is featured in audio commentaries and interviews with Wally Wingert. Wally produced the DVD set and is also a talented voice artist (Family Guy). Chuck McCann has a really nice website and you can take a look at it here. He’s still adding things, but it looks great so far! If you haven’t already, be sure to pick up COOL McCOOL on DVD! Thanks, again, Chuck…Leslie and I hope to see you again at Sportsmen’s Lodge!

Voices.com and Voice123: The Verdict is In, Pro Voice Actors Unite
In a recent poll involving over 10,000 voice actors, an overwhelming majority of respondents said that they prefer Voices.com over voice123 as their voice marketplace. [PR.com - March 05, 2007]

Infovox iVox 1.1 improves speech and adds new languages

Amsterdam – 21 February 2007 – Acapela Group and AssistiveWare today announced the release of Infovox iVox 1.1.

Infovox iVox, a product from Acapela Group created in collaboration with AssistiveWare allows the naturally sounding, high quality voices of the Acapela Group to be used by any Speech Manager compliant application on Mac OS X, including applications such as TextEdit, Preview, Acrobat Reader, Proloquo, TextParrot and AppleWorks, as well as many educational titles. Infovox iVox, which is distributed worldwide by AssistiveWare, can also be used with Tiger’s built-in VoiceOver screen reader, and Dutch and French users now have the possibility to hear all the VoiceOver menus and messages in their own language by using Infovox iVox together with AssistiveWare’s VisioVoice.

Infovox iVox is a Universal Binary and can be used on PowerPC and Intel Macs. The products include all voices available for a language of choice. Version 1.1 adds American Spanish and Canadian French. The following languages were already available: US English, UK English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish. All non-American English languages include one American English female voice as a bonus.

Version 1.1 contains the following enhancements:

• New languages: American Spanish and Canadian French
• New high quality Dutch male voice: Max
• Added support for less commonly used Speech Manager functions
• Improved handling of complex sentences for French
• Improved handling of compound words for Swedish
• A number of other fixes and enhancements

Read the full press release.

Animation Studios Category Added to the Voice123 Directory
The Voice123 Voice Over and Media Industry Directory continues growing and created a category with listings of animation studios. [SANEPR 4 May, 2007]

New VoiceoverTalent for Television Ads at Voice123.com
The Voice123 voice talent database grows and showcases the talent of new voice actors for television ads and commercials. [SANEPR 2 April, 2007]

the greatest show on earth
So I just got done watching “Inside the Actors Studio: The Simpsons.”

The Simpsons have long been a favorite television show of mine, it has always been a staple in my home and as long as it’s around it will continue to be that way. It was nice to see the faces behind the voices.

I would venture to say that The Simpsons is without a doubt the greatest show on earth.

That is why on the evening of July 27th you will find me at the theater watching their big screen adventure:

After watching the actors studio I have this unquenchable desire to be a voice actor. I mean I’ve always thought about it, but it’s like lit a fire underneath my butt…I don’t know I guess I think it’ll be a lot of fun to go to work and be someone else everyday. Not have to be fake, or not neccesarily be fake, but go along with the crowd like I had to be at my last job, just so I can keep my job, but get to become an alter-ego that gets to had fun on a regular basis.

Anyway I think that would be cool.

In other news I started my new job on the 15th and it kicks butt. I’m in sales which I’ve always loved and the family atmosphere there is amazing. I honestly see myself there for quite some time.

Now I just have to move closer, cause commuting to Ybor City everyday is exhausting, I’m looking though and it looks like I might be able to find a lease by room type apartment near USF that is all-inclusive which is really what I need for my budget.

This new job has me so relaxed, like my blood pressure is at an all time low, I look forward to working, i’m not stressed, I have fun, and I’m slowly getting healthier. Now I Just have to work on my weight gain from the stress eating that took place in my last job.

Well thats all for now. I’m on the internet all day now, so perhaps more updates will come in the future. Of course I’ve promised that in the past and it’s always fell through but we’ll see what happens.