#48, Green Summer Piano Solo

Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


I May Be A Robot, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

So I am finally done with a piano solo, which I decided to call Green Summer. Actually it was written before a Good Morning piece, but only finished in the last two days. I think it sounds quite good, and I hope to get some positive comments from you. Why is it called like that? Well, when I look through my windows, I see everything mostly green; trees, grass, plants, and kids wearing green clothes. And it is much warmer because the summer arrived. Now you know how I ended up with this title, although I must say that till this morning it actually was called something else! I do have a "bigger" version with the orchestra also finished, but decided to release the solo piece first. The other version may end up on my next video, I suppose. Enjoy it!


Green Summer, Santa Clara, California, May-June ‘08, Piano Solo, Composed by Vatsek.

Lunch: Almost vegetarian, with small pieces of chicken, iced tea, at Fresh Choice, http://www.freshchoice.com.

Reading a Book: Lonzell Watson, Final Cut Pro 6, For Digital Video Editors Only, http://www.wiley.com, with DVD, ISBN 978-0-470-22450-2, purchased at Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com.

Financial Magazine: Barron’s, http://www.barrons.com, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Do we know when things are finally going to turn up?

#47, YouTube Subscription Update

Mickey Mouse, Honolulu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


It’s Surfing Time Again, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

I just looked at my YouTube video subscription update as of Friday, June 27, 2008 that came in gmail and made a list of people sending me most videos. Below you see a number of videos, usernames, and my short comments:

#	USERNAME	COMMENT
20	expertvillage	Many videos on the same subject.
20	katalina2007	Do they have to be so short?
20	lockergnome	High volume production, but different subjects. Henry Ford of videos!
20	machinima	How many animations can you watch per week? One, two?
20	travelandtransitions	Many identical titles? Why?
17	prettytuesday	All video titles identical!
15	tHEnOOSEsWINGS	Classical music is fine, but at this volume?
14	universalmusicgroup	Music business requirement, I suppose.
13	artmovies1	How fast can you draw? Can you draw even faster?
10	craedaup	All videos different, I think (?), not familiar with.

Where do we draw a line? Is this already a video spamming business in full bloom? Looks like it may be. I need to decide what to do about it since I am getting lots of pain in my hand just from clicking and deleting them.
I think, I may also know why Spricket24 is getting all those explosive diarrheas! Even Imodium A-D is no longer working!

#46, Good Morning Piano Solo

Green Leaves And Buds, North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


Evening Flame, Honolulu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

I have been talking about it for a while, and now it is time to show where I am. Decided to keep it as a piano only piece, and not add any more instruments. The basic theme behind it was, and still is: If you woke up in the morning and this piece approached your ears, would you listen to it – first, and would you like it? – second. If I get two yes votes, I would be delighted. No votes means I need to work a bit harder – I actually consider it to be quite fair, not only because I did not spend enough time on this piece. Is it the final version – probably not, every time I look at it, something is about to change. The more I play it, the more I like it, a good sign of things going in the positive direction. Now, let us play it.


Good Morning, Santa Clara, California, May-June ‘08, Piano Solo, Composed by Vatsek.

Good Morning Music © 2008 by Vatsek Music.

#45, BlogTV Is Coming?

The Morning Is Coming, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

Let us try to guess if blogtv.com is going to become big in the next year, two, or maybe even sooner. At this time things are rather small and buggy. The stars of today are mainly several YouTube names: HappySlip, LisaNova, thewinekone, CharlesTrippy, DaveDays, SupaDupaFlyGirl, VenetianPrincess, KevJumba, WhatTheBuck, and many other names not yet familiar to my and most likely anybody else’s ears. The live views are about 150-250 for the YouTube crowd and 1-100 for the rest of broadcasters. Yes, they are called the broadcasters on blogtv. Issues are numerous; audio lag, missing audio, co-hosting problems, etc. Things are changing by the minute, and tomorrow some of the issues I am writing about may be solved. The skill level of many broadcasters varies a lot, from pretty good, through a reasonable, to pretty bad. Eventually those things are going to sort out, I hope. How long can you watch someone on blogtv? If the name is totally unknown – maybe five minutes, maybe less. With names more familiar from YouTube, that time may be close to an hour. It is the very first thing that surprised me; I did not believe that I could watch HappySlip for example for almost the full hour. She is perhaps the best of them all at this moment. You go girl!
Why do some YouTubers go to another medium? Some of them already peaked on YouTube and now the only way is down. You may disagree with me but look at the numbers. There are also somewhat smaller names that are most likely trying to expand their audience. This may help, or it may even change their direction altogether. We need to watch to see what happens next.
There is one additional aspect of the blogtv that is worth mentioning. Some people look much better on live TV then in their YouTube videos. This is somewhat surprising, and the video editing part may be responsible for that. Whatever somebody thinks of herself of himself, and edits videos according to that image, is not necessarily what the audience enjoys watching most. Amazing!
OK, so now the big question: Is this going to be big, or is this going to fold? It has potentials, but the live TV is more expensive than the YouTube video production, and ultimately the small guys are not going to last very long, but the big companies, although in smaller numbers, may become the number one user. Will revisit this subject in a year, I promise.

Breakfast: Wakimi salad from Canada, canned makrel fish from Japan, pickled garlic from Poland, multi-grain bread from California with The Laughing Cow cheese spread from Wisconsin. Grapes with seeds, and an organic orange. Lipton tea to drink, from India. No, I would never eat regular garlic in the morning, you are right. But this one is pickled, and smells quite good, unlike the regular one. Let me kiss you now!

Book: Carl Humphries, Piano Workbook, A Complete Course in Technique and Performance, http://www.jawbonepress.com, with CD, ISBN 978-1-906002-03-9. Playing CD with Audacity, http://audacity.sourceforge.net.

#44, 100k Views on YouTube

Beautiful Plumeria, Oahu, Hawaii, June ‘08, artistic view.

Well, a small anniversary of sort. My YouTube videos accumulated over 100,000 views! How important is that? Of course it would be better if that number was 10X or 100X bigger, but 100k is also nice. There is one thing that is a bit surprising to me, however. Most of those views come from just a single video, Hearing Test, other videos are far behind. That is not so good, since I spent only an evening working on that video, and more than several months working on the remaining 40+ videos. Amazing how those things turn out. While most videos last only 2-3 days, with some lasting perhaps weeks, the winning Hearing Test goes on and on and on. No sign of loosing popularity. I know what you think now? Why don’t you make a similar video to that one? Well, almost everything is already there. That is the difficult part. Maybe somehow I will make something in that category, but so far all ideas are not that good. What about shooting videos that nobody watches? How does that feel? Actually, to tell you the truth, it is secondary. I like to do what I do, I can travel a bit almost every weekend, I like to shoot videos outside in nice places, I like to edit, and all of my videos go through plenty of editing. Like to write all music to my videos, and will do so even more and at a higher level in the near future. Can reply to people’s comments, and watch other’s videos. Not everything looks fine, though. The submission part and the initial shock of watching your videos on YouTube that now look and sound much worse than anything you have ever seen up to this moment, this really gets you after a while. So much work vanishes in just a few minutes. And so far there has been no solution to this problem.

On a positive side, I opened an account on Twitter; you can follow me if you wish to do so:
http://twitter.com/Vatsek.

Watching HappySlip on blog.tv tonight, many YouTube faces are popping up over there, on the other network – you might say. Is this a brand new trend? I was surprised to notice that those people look way better on blog.tv than in YouTube videos! Will write a separate blog on just that subject.

Dinner: Chicken soup with big chunks of white meat, brown rice, canned tomatoes, plenty of green vegetables, and Enoki mushrooms. A glass of Carlo Rossi Sangria red wine, and a hot Lipton tea. An orange, and a large peach. Isn't life good? http://www.carlorossi.com, http://www.lipton.com.

Book: Carl Humphries, Piano Workbook, A Complete Course in Technique and Performance, http://www.jawbonepress.com, with CD, ISBN 978-1-906002-03-9.

#43, Lanikai Beach

Jogging At Lanikai Beach, Kailua, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.


Jogging Continues At Lanikai Beach, Kailua, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

This is one of the best beaches on Oahu, if you like to think that way. But you can easily find many as good beaches not far away from this one, if you want to. Whether you want to think of it as the best, or one of the best, is up to you. There are many good features about it; it is somewhat secluded, you always have people from private properties watching you – sometimes you may get a feeling that you are in someone else’s backyard pond (good/bad), white sand, about a mile long, slightly sticky clay bottom, a moderate number of people, plenty of swimming space, and lots of things happening around – outrigger canoe practicing, for example, so you can sit, watch and enjoy. On the downside, however, you may cruise around for a while in your car before you find a spot to park, remember it is all private property with very small and narrow streets, with up and downhills, so on holidays you better be either very early in the morning, or rather late in the afternoon. And finding a way to the Ocean can take a while, only small and narrow passages to the beach, after you found your parking space. Beyond that, everything else is just fine, put plenty of sunscreen and enjoy the sunny weather, and hope the clouds are not coming back today anymore. Two Mokulua Islands are always there, staring at you, and looking good in pictures! Also, the http://www.beachwalks.tv show originates at this beach almost every day.
It is getting late in the evening, it is time to find a car, get a sip of bottled water, boy it is hot, wash the sap and bird droppings from your windshield, wash your hands then, and head back to Ala Moana Shopping Center in Waikiki for a good sushi or sashimi dinner. Then off to your hotel for a cold beer.
Another beach in Kailua, not too far from Lanikai, is far more open and accessible since it is adjacent on one side to a small park. You actually may find this one quite pleasing as well, I know I do.
I need to stop now, because if I do not, I will most likely be booking another trip to Lanikai!

Dinner back in California: A Barilla Penne pasta with Chunky Ragu sauce. A glass of Gallo hearty burgundy, and a hot Lipton tea.
http://www.barillaus.com, http://www.ragu.com, http://www.gallofamily.com, http://www.lipton.com.

#42, Ala Moana

Looking Good Tonight, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

There are many people in Waikiki every night between 8pm and 11pm. You can walk around just watching tourists from many places around the world, especially Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and of course the US. All shops and restaurants are open well into the night and early morning hours, and people are indeed everywhere. End of May temperatures are already quite high and the humidity is also high. But everything is still quite tolerable, and after spending several days there, and drinking lots of bottled water, quite tolerable. It is only about 100 feet from the Pacific Ocean in some places if you want to go one more time to the beach, most likely after you already spent several hours on the beach throughout the day! You can find there lots of magicians, tarot card readers, gun school promoters, restaurant advertisers, portrait painters, street musicians, God converters, police and occasional hookers. I spend most time around the musicians, doing some window shopping, and taking lots of pictures. I love the last activity a lot. The reason I am not taking my video camera with me is that the light is very often quite poor, and the video looks very grainy. Also the video gear is a bit bigger and easily noticeable by the people I try to film. This is sometimes a very big hindrance, and some form of hostility from the people I try to film results. On the other hand, the still camera is quite small, and not very visible at night. You can take lots of good photographs if you practice for a while under low light conditions. Whereas with the video, the street musicians suddenly start to throw some notes that never belonged to their gigs, or simply out of the blue get tired and quit playing, with the still camera, those problems are usually gone. ABC Stores are everywhere, stores that offer all basic essentials to live on through the night. Question: Why is the Steinlager beer from New Zealand so cheap? In the morning, the streets look very different, and sometimes you wonder if what you remember from the last night even happened at all!

Breakfast back in California: Pumpernickel from Germany, Mild Ajvar vegetable spread from Bulgaria, Passport green Manzanilla olives stuffed with pimentos from Spain, and Lipton tea from India. Amazing, although bought at Longs Drugs, everything from outside of the US!
http://www.mestemacher.de, http://www.intldelicacies.com, http://www.monini.com, http://www.lipton.com, http://www.longs.com.

#41, Hawaii Videos Released

Let Us Catch Something Big, North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

Within less than a week, I released four new videos, all of them from Hawaii: Fast Paddles, Sandy Beach, Evening Canoe, and Kite Surfers. The good weather permitted me to film in several places, now quite familiar with, over the period of two weeks. I have chosen for everything to happen on beaches, for a simple reason, no matter where you go - there is another beach there. And some of them are good, famous, and pleasant to spend time at. After some swimming in the Ocean for a while, I would start to film whatever was happening at that time. Hardly ever any script or much planning went into those videos. When I film in California, I usually sit down for a moment and decide where to go and what to shoot, things are a bit more organized. Over there I would grab my equipment bags and go. I wonder if this shows in my videos!
Now I am sitting and composing a new music that is going to end up in one of the next videos. A piano piece is almost done and sounds quite good, must say that is somewhat different from my previous pieces. Not sure what the next video is going to be about yet. I also brought some good quality audio recordings from Oahu, from beaches of course, might use those in some future videos as well.
For a while I was reading about shooting at short shutter speeds, from moving vehicles. That’s why I mention below The Filmmaker’s Handbook. An idea for a new video along those lines is brewing in my head now.

Breakfast: McCann’s Irish Oatmeal with some cinnamon, green tea, http://www.mccanns.ie.

Book: Steven Ascher & Edward Pincus, The Filmmaker’s Handbook, A Plume Book, ISBN 978-0-452-28678-8, http://www.penguin.com.