Category: Random Thoughts, Observations and Weird Stuff
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Rebecca Black’s Friday – in Mandarin!
Just when you thought that inane “Friday” song by Rebecca Black had finally made the rounds, here it is again – in Chinese! And I have to admit, when you hear it like this, it’s not half bad. Watch thru to the end for the bloopers. I’m told this version has a thick Taiwanese accent,…
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Rob Morsberger – show review
The Boston Herald describes his latest release as the “album is the kind of hyperliterate pop-inflected singer-songwriter outing that went out of style when Warren Zevon died. He can write a hook that could make angels weep.” The Boston Globe: “Think ‘storyteller’ with a literary, cinematic, intellectual bent.” I had never heard of Rob Morsberger…
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Mmm mmm mmm…Jammin with the Crash Test Dummies
I had the opportunity to catch the Crash Test Dummies the other night at Jammin’ Java – a cool little coffee house/restaurant/bar. Best known for Brad Roberts’ distinctive bass baritone voice, they had a few pretty big hits including “Mmm mmm mmm mmm” and hauled in 14 Grammy nominations in the 90’s. Then a number…
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Charlie Hunter rocks Jammin’ Java
Never heard of Charlie Hunter? Well, I hadn’t either – but he has recorded 17 albums, so the joke is on me, I guess. Last Sunday I was talked into checking out “an evening with Charlie Hunter” at Jammin’ Java, a coffee house in Vienna, Virginia – and was quite impressed. I especially like these…
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Washington Celebrates the End of OBL: My Take
I had the opportunity to witness the Washington, DC celebrations of Osama bin Laden’s demise at the hands of US military forces. Watching the news on television, I felt it important to experience first-hand what was going on outside the White House. Here is a video I put together from the scenes there: Strangely, despite…
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Video: One Day at a Time…
I like checking out Vimeo because it’s chock full of creative ideas and videos in a way that other sites are not. But then again it’s “so many ideas, so little time”. But this video, called “Today” is well worth watching and thinking about. The description reads: “On August 27th, 2009 Jonathan Harris turned 30…
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Afghan Choppers and Polish Gamers
I experienced an interesting example of how the internet can bring together folks with similar needs in strange ways. A year or so ago, in Afghanistan, I had the opportunity to observe one of the first live-fires by an Afghan pilot in a US-refurbished (Soviet-made) Mi-35 attack helicopter. For fun, I brought along my camcorder…
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Autotuning Everything
A recent phenomenon (and an unfortunate one, in my opinion) to hit the music industry is the use of Auto-Tuning software to correct pitch. For just a few hundred bucks, you can get a plug-in for your audio editing software that will insure every slightly off-pitch note is automatically brought into perfect tune (corrected to…
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Fisheye Lens
My cat is forever trying to figure out how to break into the fishtank. I always wondered if it somehow terrorizes the fish. One day, remembering we have a waterproof case for the Flip Camera, I thought it might be fun to drop it in the tank and film the situation from the perspective of…
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Planning to replace your iPod screen yourself? Think Again!
OK I admit, I probably should have known better. But just in case there are folks out there getting ready to make the same mistake, you may want to read on. Call it an effort of video vigilantism if you want – I just want to get this out there to help keep down the…
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Unmanned Cameras
Seems like the big thing these days is home videography is to put cameras on inanimate – or animate objects where they don’t usually go. I’ve come across a number of interesting examples recently. The first I’ll share uses one of those new “Go Pro HD” cameras you see advertised everywhere these days (I want…
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Sometimes a simple video can be a challenge to make
Just outside the town of Oberammergau, in Bavaria, Germany, there is a small cave or niche carved into the cliffside overlooking the road. In this niche stands a statue of Jesus, oh, I’d say about 12 to 15 feet tall. On the other side of the road is a small alpine creek with a walking…
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Lovin’ the Lunch Love
Via Kickstarter.com, which could be a blog post in and of itself, I had the opportunity to take part in a film project. An old friend of mind from college who decided to pursue a (successful) career in film (unlike me, who neither recognized my calling nor realized any success) was looking for support to…
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Vimeo Awards Winners
Check out loads of cool videos from over 6,500 submissions in Vimeo’s short film festival. The winners are posted here and the community choice awards are here. Plenty of great viewing from filmmakers you never heard of.
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World Run Day MasterCard Spoof
November 7 was this year’s “World Run Day”. For those who haven’t heard of World Run Day, the organization’s web site states, “It is a day for runners worldwide to join each other, wherever their location, in a celebration of running and charitable giving.” You can sign up, get a T-shirt and a bib number,…
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DIY Space Video
Want to make a video of the earth from miles above it (17 to be exact)? This family figured out how to do it, using items you probably have lying around the house. And in the end it didn’t end up costing a dime, because they recovered (nearly) everything they used. This is amazing –…
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The Blackbirds Came Back – Wildlife Videography
I was pretty excited about the opportunity to do a little more “wildlife photography” in my back yard. The blackbird pair that I featured in the video “Learning to Fly” came back for another brood. I saw one of them fly into the ivy that climbs one side of our house and grabbed a closer…
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Too much time on your hands? Try this at home!
So my kids tell me this is SO last week, but I thought this video was HILARIOUS – somehow genius and somehow disturbing that this is what some people do in their spare time: Technology has brought the internet to 2 billion people, and a standard of living resulting in about 2-4 hours of spare…
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Underwater Videography
Last Christmas, I ordered my daughter a last-minute Christmas gift, paying for “guaranteed” delivery by Christmas. It was a waterproof cover for her Flip HD camera – and the timing was important because we were headed to Hurghada, Egypt, for a week of sun and snorkeling – on Christmas day. Thirty bucks for the cover,…
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Words Matter Too
Finally giving credit to the “lyricist” part of songwriting, an interesting article in today’s New York Times talks about growing interest in charging royalties for song lyrics. The article points out: For decades, printed song lyrics lived in relative obscurity, relegated to album sleeves and sheet music. And until now, they provided no significant source…
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From the War Zone
In Afghanistan, there’s no beer, and Burger King has gone by the wayside. So bored Soldiers need an outlet – it helps them (us) stay out of trouble. After all, that’s how I got started in this video editing gig! So a group of guys from the 82nd Airborne got together and parodied “Telephone” by…
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Things to do on a Plane
So I spent a couple of days flying around in a plane for no reason (don’t ask). The not-to-be named airline which ferries Dutch troops back and forth to Kandahar go out of their way to spend pretty much all their time handing out food (2 meals in a 6-hour flight, and 2 each…