JM: Good morning Tim and Jeremy. Thanks for coming in to WTIP

TY: Good morning.

JC: Good morning.

JM: How are you guys this morning? Are you awake? Are you ready to do this?

TY: We haven’t had coffee yet.

JM: I’m so sorry Tim, that’s horrible. I’m on decaf and I’m flying, man. I can’t imagine what it’s like not to have a cup of coffee in you. Tim and Jeremy are here because Tim is the kind of lead creator in a very interesting… um, I’ll just call it a creation at this point.

TY: We call it a science fiction story.

JM: OK, a science fiction story that you have utilized some certain mediums to express these goings ons inside your brain. One, of course, is on compact disc, and we’re going to hear some of that. Explain the other because you have a fairly intricate website.

TY: Right. Well it all started a few years ago when I was working as an art mentor at the high school. The first time I ever did anything in Photoshop, which is a graphics manipulation program on the computer, I did a self-portrait of me shooting through space with rocket shoes on and that was kind of how that character started. I called that character Rocket Boy, and my wife’s cousin told me, after seeing a few little space things around, that I should do something more with this space thing. So we just started snapping pictures and writing the story and it ended up growing really fast. We have twenty episodes online right now.

JM: OK, twenty episodes online, they’re also on disc as well?

TY: There are fifteen episodes on the first disc, so probably when we get the next fifteen episodes, we’ll have sixteen through thirty on Volume Two, but that’s going to be down the road a little ways.

JM: Alright. I saw some of the photographs on your website. They’re pretty cool, you’re utilizing, I noticed, the local lighthouse which became a rocketship.

TY: Right.

JM: So there’s some pretty cool things going on. I saw the one about Jupiter, now are you transporting images into your program?

TY: Well, that was a picture of Jeremy. He’s actually leaping on one of Jupiter’s moons.

JM: Right.

TY: In reality, he’s actually jumping in front of my caboose. So I just cut the background out and put Jupiter in there.

JM: There we go. That’s a good example of the capacity of the Adobe Photoshop.

TY: Right. And the more I do with it, the more cool things I’m learning that I can do with it.

JM: Well I imagine you become more efficient as well, so it’s not as time consuming.

TY: Right. Exactly.

JM: Jeremy, how are you involved with the project, aside from being one of the characters. I saw some of your photos, and I know you’re involved musically as well. Talk about that.

JC: Well, for the most part, Tim and I have done some recording in the past and he decided it would be a good idea to put a CD together, so I kind of helped him. I’d come over and watch him and give him some tips…

TY: Jeremy wrote the whole soundtrack. The score.

JC: For the most part, he just took some of the old recordings and put them on the CD, and I loved it, so it stuck.

JM: Talk about the storyline, because we’re going to hear a track from this. So set that up, Tim.

TY: Well, in this track, it’s actually episode seven, called Space Dreams, there are three separate storylines going on, one takes place, let’s see, are they on Mars yet? Well, one takes place way out in the outer reaches of the solar system with Flash Meridian who is trying to get back to Earth.

JM: So Flash Meridian is trying to get back to Earth, and you have these two astronauts who are the American Heroes…

TY: Right, they had been sent out to rescue Flash Meridian who was a pioneer in the field of warp travel. In the first episode we find out that with greater speeds and greater distances, there’s also a greater margin of error, so Flash got into a little trouble. And there’s this other space girl. She lives near Jupiter and…

JM: Gotta have a space girl.

TY: Oh yeah. So you have the two astronauts, you have the space girl and the whole space school. You just have to suspend your disbelief here and there, and then you’ve got Flash. So there are three separate story lines, but right now up in Episode twenty they are pretty much getting really close to each other.

JM: They’re starting to come together. OK, now set up this episode. This is episode seven. Are they on Mars yet? Well, why don’t I just play it and we’ll find out.

TY: OK

[plays episode seven from the Flash Meridian Volume One CD]

JM: Alright, that’s episode seven of Flash Meridian, you can see it, what’s your website address, Tim?

TY: It’s www.timouth.com, and you can click on Flash Meridian from there.

JM: OK. Well, that sounded pretty interesting, are most of the episodes similar, with the narration over music?

TY: Yeah.

JM: Now, you’re adding sound effects, do you want to give away any of your secrets as to how you do that?

TY: Well, all but a couple of the sound effects are done with my voice and just cutting little pieces of the sound out and putting them back together.

JM: So you’re doing digital editing with sound as well.

TY: Right. The whole CD was done on a computer. We put all of the music onto the hard drive, and then dropped it into Premiere, which is the program that we use in the video class here at the school.

JM: OK. For the sound editing as well.

TY: Right.

JM: Is the CD available anywhere?

TY: Yeah, you can get it either through the website, through the mail, or you can go down to Cuppa Diem and pick it up. We have cassettes and CDs there. Or you can get it from me.

JM: So how long is this going to go on? What’s the progression here?

TY: I have no idea. We’ll just go until the well runs dry.

JM: Until Flash is rescued?

TY: Oh no, it’ll go beyond that. There are some pretty surprising things that will be happening with Flash in the next couple of episodes, especially with National Space Exploration Day coming up on July 20th. That’s a big holiday for us.

JM. Aah. Hey, did you want to mention something about the Gong Show?

TY: Oh, yes. Tomorrow night there’s a fund raiser for the Grand Marais Playhouse at the Arrowhead Center For The Arts. It’s a Gong Show. We had a really great time last year there, everybody had a good time, and Flash Meridian will be performing live on stage. I don’t really know many of the other details. I don’t know what time it is or anything.

JM: Hang on, I’ll get you that. The Gong Show is tomorrow night. It’s at 7:30, and it’s hand in hand with a silent auction that also takes place right here at the Arrowhead Center For The Arts in Grand Marais. Actually the auction is first at 7:30 and the Gong Show is at 8:00. Last year, it was a huge success, so if you want to participate I’m sure you can. Get ahold of the Playhouse, or just make sure you’re there plenty early, because I know last year there were people all over that auditorium.

TY: It was great.

JM: Alright, thanks, Tim.

TY: Can I just say one more thing?

JM: Sure

TY: One of the items up for auction is becoming a character in Flash Meridian, so if anyone goes to the website and wants to be a part of all this craziness, then go ahead and bid.

JM: That’s a great idea. Thanks, Jeremy. Thanks, Tim.