Sat 1 Apr 2006
Secret Agents = Intrigue and Immediacy
Posted by Dave under Blogs , General , Informational , Published Article
Newest Agency Takes Shape
Through an unmarked door, up a narrow staircase, past about two thousand DVDs (give or take), sits the operation center of one of the most powerful agencies in the world. From this non-descript headquarters, a 3-5 minute video on demand message is regularly sent out to the global masses. Are you being informed about the latest in high tech from International Director Cali Lewis of the G.I.A?
More after the jump
No, TechLife is not writing the next sequel in the James Bond series. We are just joining in the fun created by Neal and Luria and their fictional Geek Intelligence Agency aka GeekBrief a video podcast or Internet TV show. TechLife recently met the husband and wife team who back in December 2005 decided that the world needed a fun, energetic way to get their technology news. They transformed their living room into the studio, bought some equipment and have been producing shows regularly since.
Tyranny and Trapped Luria, age 24, aka Cali Lewis is a former model from Texas and the star of the GeekBrief show. While Neal, who holds a master’s degree in counseling, likes to creatively say his age, like his face-time with the camera is un-important. A creative couple, not afraid of failure (previously they had a dot-com startup during the bubble era) they have found a great outlet for their passion in video podcasting, to them broadcast television is “antique media”. They love the fact anybody can join the podcasting party with a small investment. “It’s a great platform to be heard. We enjoy the instant feedback and the fact it is not one-way communication,” Neal said. Luria added, “The connection is amazing. We don’t got out, don’t have friends, the audience are our friends.”
While they love their day job, they both have cute catch phrases for the tyranny and trapped feelings in comparison with the made-up agency in their living room. They recognize the secret agent life of dual identities has its pitfalls. Namely the 7-12 hours it takes to produce each show. Early shows took over 4 hours to just record, doing the whole show in one take. Now they use the power of editing and are able to shoot at a more comfortable pace. They dream of the day this agency becomes a full time reality.

The Podfather
Cue the music of “the family”, because recently GeekBrief was asked to join an exclusive group. While not as dramatic as Johnny Fontane’s famous scene, the analogy is not lost on Neal and Luria. The reality of signing with the PodShow Podcast Network one of the leaders in the Podcast community has given them a start on making Cali a more visible celebrity. Luria actually refers to Adam Curry, as “The Podfather” due to his founder status of PodShow, and his early start as a podcaster.
PodShow’s interest in Geek Brief stems from gaining more than 2000 viewers in just 3 weeks and being shut down by their hosting provider for “to much traffic”. Neal and Luria immediately sprang into action, signed with PodShow and were back up and running very soon thereafter. It also helped that the PodShow owned website PodCastAlley had seen Geek Brief rise to the #1 ranked video podcast and iTunes had them ranked the #77 podcast in the technology world. 
Well Known Secret Agents?
Just as TechLife is covering podcasting, other “new media” has covered Geek Brief. Cali Lewis recently did an audio podcast interview with Podcast 411 (a show modeled on Inside the Actor’s Studio). Even more interesting, Cali Lewis made a list of “Top 10 Geek Goddesses”, coming in at a respectable number 6, just behind Lara Croft / Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman. So that begs the question, if a “secret” agent is getting this much publicity are they really secret anymore? For Cali Lewis, let’s just say this is the beginning of something bigger.
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April 2nd, 2006 at 11:57 am
Great article, Dave, thanks!
I just saw that it says Geek Brief was ranked 77 in Technology at iTunes. Just thought I’d let you know (for bragging rights, of course!), that it was 77 in the Top 100 podcasts. Thanks again!
May 27th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I love the show and Cali is great. I must admit to a little disappointment in finding out she was a model, somewhat blows the “fun” that Cali came out of nowhere to be this hot cute geek. lol.
regardless geekbrief is a great fun show and Cali is wonderful.
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I stumbled across the show by accident when trying out Democracy Player, which has an entry for geekbrief.tv!
It is really cool, they have lots of interesting new gadgets on the show.
Not to forget the host, Cali aka Luria. She has the sweetest smile I’ve seen in a long time.
Keep it up, gbtv!
April 4th, 2007 at 9:57 am
[...] Techlife is a big fan of Geekbrief.TV. We have been watching since nearly the beginning and have really enjoyed seeing on-screen personality Cali Lewis blossom. Well today we were contacted by Atsushi Kikuchi, a Japanese reader of Techlife and a fan of GeekBrief.TV. Atsushi writes a blog about Democracy Player in Japanese. (Democracy is a platform for watching Internet TV.) He kindly asked for permission to translate our first article on GeekBrief.TV to Japanese for his site. Go for it Atsushi! Comment here when you’re done. Our first article is still heavily visited. We sat down with both producer/director Neal Campbell and on-screen bundle-of-laughs Cali Lewis to talk about their show on technology. Gee, any wonder Techlife liked it from the start? Check out that show. Already watch GeekBrief.TV? What’s your favorite episode? [...]
April 4th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
[...] 今回の紹介は以上ですが、もうひとつ企画していて、Tech LifeのDavidさんの記事を手元で日本語に訳しています。これが面白いです。Davidさんにメールを書いたところ、翻訳とこのweblogへの掲載を快く承諾してくださったので、近々、載せたいと思います。 [...]
April 5th, 2007 at 5:29 am
[...] TechLifeの記事”Newest Agency Takes Shape“の日本語試訳ができたので公開します。 [...]
September 1st, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Dude cali is such an attention whore, her show sucks. Its so annoying how much this chick blows apple, puke.