Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

If you have a great music video or animation demo reel, then you want it to look great when you upload it online for the world to see. DVD quality. Now you can do just that at the Zudeo.com High Definition Movie and Video community web site. Powered by the Azureus peer to peer platform the client app implements the BitTorrent protocol using Java language.

Video clips and animation that get compressed into oblivion by YouTube, appear clean as the original artists and producers intended them to be. The Zudeo system is set up to accomodate large files. You can upload a full length DVD quality movie if you like.

Azureus and Zudeo will be names to watch in the near term future as the excitement over online video, high quality downloadable content, and new player devices heats up.

Recent press release and Wired article about Azureus, HD Vids Trump YouTube.

If you are interested in submitting content to Zudeo’s web site, click here.

The MGM Grand Las Vegas
Originally uploaded by Wolfgang Staudt.

In a few days I will be joining the famous video blogger Nick of schmult.com, the TechieDiva and rising TV presence Christianna M to cover the Billboard Music Awards for our newly launched Tubular TV vlog site. Nick seems to be equipped to video blog everything, so it might be a bit uncomfortable sharing a room with this dude. How far will he go to get more hits?

Britney Spears, help!

Lafayette is a quiet enclave nestled in rolling hills east of Berkeley near Walnut Creek. It is relatively upscale with well educated residents with expensive homes and refined tastes.

About a month ago, my wife who uses the Lafayette BART station mentioned seeing many white crosses (over 400) and the death toll sign planted on a hillside across from the station. She veers from political discussions, and has had to brush off an upset commuter trying to share her displeasure with the memorial.

Next thing, a student in the Ohlone TV News class brought in a story about the controversy arising over the crosses and sign display, and mentioned it had been discussed on nationally syndicated conservative talk radio programs.

This morning I noticed a San Francisco Chronicle article about an upcoming City Council meeting where locals will express their feelings about this free speech issue.

So, I drove to Lafayette, about 5 miles from my home, and shot some video and photos of the hillside and around the train station. There was a local CBS radio reporter scouting for people to interview. Then a woman with a shovel came, climbed up the hill and began digging holes. The reporter told me that there would be more crosses arriving later in the day to go into the fresh holes. Some other people there confirmed that they had seen the story covered on CNN television news.

I’ll probably go there and shoot some more video, then edit it and upload them to a few of the online video web sites.

On my return trip in the afternoon, I met Bob Hanson, Co-chair of the Mount Diablo Peace Center of Walnut Creek. He explained their mission of peace and justice through this hillside installation, which is also described on their web site.

See the video. 

Follow the arc of a major painter’s life in a fascinating video interview with Charlie Rose. He currently has a major show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Marden speaks lucidly of many things in this one hour interview such as looking at paintings, rules of design and structure, breaking the rules, and how an artist can never settle into a state of satisfaction with the work. This is some cool dude who paints the finest squiggly lines I’ve seen.

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Here is SNAFUPERMAN! From the YouTube posting by videolicious… “This is one of 26 Private SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fouled Up) cartoons made by the US Army Signal Corps to educate and boost the morale the troops. Originally created by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Phil Eastman, most of the cartoons were produced by Warner Brothers Animation Studios – employing their animators, voice actors (primarily Mel Blanc) and Carl Stalling’s music.”

Also, this is a test of the mytube WordPress plug-in.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and proprietor of City Light Books in San Francisco, has written about the “Howl that was heard around the world” in today’s SF Chronicle. The poem and the book Howl and other Poems launched a mileston free speech trial in 1956. More about Allen Ginsberg.

Donald Rumsfeld blew many a smokescreen in his days of diffusing clarity on the purposes and strategies of the invasion of Iraq. He projected an air of superior intelligence in his obfuscations. He will be remembered for this rambling poetic cosmic theory:

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns,” he said.

See the video.

So, I’m listening to the President’s post 2006 election press conference today on the radio, a bit more intently than usual, because I was assigned to write a news story about it for the Ohlone Network News. Much of the press Q & A seemed to be directed around what message the President had received from the sweeping Democratic Party victories.

As W is known to do, he lapsed into Texas talkin’ and mentioned this isn’t my first rodeo and it was a thumpin’. Amusing, colorful talk. Here is the NPR.org transcript:

“I mean, look, this is a close election. Race by race, it was close. The cumulative effect, however, was not too close, it was a thumpin’. But nevertheless, the people expect us to work together. That’s what they expect. And as I said in my opening comments, there comes responsibility with victory, and that’s what Nancy Pelosi told me this morning. She said in the phone call she wants to work together, and so do I. And so that’s how you deal with it.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo. In other words, this is not the first time I’ve been in a campaign where people have expressed themselves and in different kinds of ways. But I have learned that if you focus on the big picture, which in this case is our nation and issues we need to work together on, you can get stuff done.”

Here is the version from whitehouse.gov:

Look, this was a close election. If you look at race by race, it was close. The cumulative effect, however, was not too close. It was a thumping. But nevertheless, the people expect us to work together. That’s what they expect. And as I said in my opening comments, there comes responsibility with victory. And that’s what Nancy Pelosi told me this morning. She said in the phone call she wants to work together. And so do I. And so that’s how you deal with it.

This isn’t — this isn’t my first rodeo. In other words, I haven’t — this is not the first time I’ve been in a campaign where people have expressed themselves, and in different kinds of ways. But I have learned that if you focus on the big picture, which, in this case, is our nation and issues we need to work together on, you can get stuff done.

Not a great difference, but let’s face it, -ing is not used in Texas ranch slang speech. So, which information source do you really trust?

Funny, because later that night, a student in the news writing class called my use of the quote “totally innacurate.” It’s clear that Bush and many Republican faithful are still in a stubborn state of shock, awe and denial. Tough when the shoe is on the other foot, ain’t it pardner? Yee haaw!

BTW, gotta love the Huffington Post headline: “IT WAS THE WAR, STUPID…”

Plus Bye, bye Santorum.