When we finally finished our video, “Waiting For The Aliens,” we were happy to begin uploading our newly-completed project to all the video sharing sites. Since the vid is over 10 minutes in length, which is youtube’s limit, we posted it in two halves. At the same time, we searched for sites that would allow us to post the whole thing.
We initially chose veoh.com, because they had no such length restrictions, and the audio and video quality were noticeably higher than youtube. We later learned, to our revulsion, that veoh litters videos with advertising leaders and popups. They also give you no option to shut them off. To hell with that and to hell with veoh!
After some research and some trial and error, we found a site that we like so far. It’s called blip.tv and the embeds below are from there. They have no length restriction and they give you the option to opt in or out of advertising (we’ve opted out).
Anyway, on to the vids! The first screen below is the full 13+ minute video, and those following are parts 1 and 2 respectively. Part 1 is an episode of our fictitious classic sci-fi heroes “The Alienz.” Part 2 is the music video part. Enjoy and embed freely!
The Toyes - Waiting For The Aliens (the full video)
The Toyes - Waiting For The Aliens (Part 1 - classic sci-fi episode)
The Toyes - Waiting For The Aliens (Part 2 - music video)
When we, the Takilma video club I like to think of as the Village Videots (thanks Joe Parks), first decided to make this video so many moons ago, we never imagined the twists and turns that would lead us to this point in time and space. So many talented people, so many quick minds and open hearts. So many ideas. So much willingness. Thank you and bravo to you all.
Here, at long last, are the humble results of those labors and flights of creative madness. The first screen below is the entire video. Those following are parts 1 and 2 respectively, in case you’d just like to watch our silly, fictitious classic sci-fi episode or the equally silly music video part. Enjoy and embed freely! NOTE - I’ve taken down these embeds and re-posted them in my next post, “Veoh Sucks!!!”
Some of you know that I’m an avid softball player. I played baseball as a young man, but injuries and a demanding touring schedule kept me off the diamond for many, many years. A few years ago, I discovered and fell in love with the game of softball. I play in several leagues each year and being out on the diamond with my teammates brings me a huge amount of joy.
There’s a town about 20 miles away from where I live that has a new softball complex where the fields are covered in astroturf. Because these fields are safe to play on in just about any kind of weather, we have, for the first time, a winter league. Yesterday was Opening Day.
Although we’ve been having some sunny weather lately, yesterday we had rain, wind, hail and snow.
I arrived at the fields at about 6:45 p.m., to stretch and “warm up” for our 7:15 game. The brilliantly lit fields shone bright brown and green as huge flakes of snow slanted down, their pure white stunningly amplified by the powerful stadium lights.
Now I’m no meteorologist, but I do know that the presence of snow means that there are clouds in the sky. Even so, I swear to you that as I stood at my position at first base on this cheerfully colored and brightly lit field being covered by a steady fall of snow, there, high in the sky, was a huge, clear and completely unobstructed full moon.
Unbelievable.
How indescribably beautiful. How inadequate my words seem to relate to you the near religious feeling of the moment. The joy I always feel on the ballfield was multiplied by 100. Not only were we, the intrepid Charlie Browns of the region, ready to play ball in the snow and thereby cut our off-season down by a couple of months, but were witness to, and participants in, a moment of sheer magic.
Spring is not yet here, but I am reborn.
Play ball!
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 12:38 pm. 912 comments
It snowed in Dubai this past weekend. No, not the fake snow that the obscenely rich oil emirate routinely manufactures for its decadent desert ski resorts, but real, honest-to-goodness snow.
For only the second time in recorded history, according to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, The United Arab Emirates has experienced a “natural” snowfall. I wish we could just sit back and enjoy the rich, ironic humor contained in this weather update, but, as luck would have it, we happen to share an atmosphere with these lovely oil producers.
Climate change is real and it is here. Not only is it real, but a newly released study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America says that climate change is basically irreversible.
As study author Susan Solomon of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and one of the world’s foremost climate scientists, explains, “People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide that the climate would go back to normal in 100 years or 200 years. What we’re showing here is that’s not right. It’s essentially an irreversible change that will last for more than a thousand years.” Continue Reading…
As our new president takes the reins, as so many dire problems face us, I have a question.
Where’s the peeance and freeance?
Yes, a Bushism for sure (if you’re not familiar with the reference, view the short video below), but a fair question nonetheless.
Now, it’s obvious that Mr. Obama is by far the intellectual superior of his predecessor and has no problem speaking in complete sentences. Yet those are not, in my mind, the key differences between these men. Continue Reading…
I’m a big fan of composer John Williams. We all know his work on almost all of Steven Spielberg’s films, the Superman films, the Star Wars films and many others. His contribution to American pop culture goes way back to the 50’s. The first John Williams piece that I fell in love with was the theme to the old Lost In Space tv show in the 60’s. Remember it?
But even though he is ultra-famous, I bet you’d be surprised to learn how very many pieces of John Williams’ music are part of our lives. Read his Wiki page. You’ll be amazed.
Corey Vidal is a young man from Canada who makes videos and posts them onto YouTube under the name of ApprenticeA. Have you seen his brilliant tribute to John Williams? If you haven’t, check this out!
My day started at 8 yesterday morning with the arrival of my partner, B Wishes, to work on our seemingly never-ending video project. We keyframed mattes, color corrected and moved clips around in Final Cut Pro until the scene, a dream sequence, was ready to export into Digital Performer for audio sweetening.
We recorded the parts we needed; whistling, synths, strings, wind chimes and a guitar. Since our main studio montors are down due to a heinous Christmas Eve mishap (see my first blog entry), we decided not to mix, and switched instead to evaluating and editing some tracks for The Toyes’ upcoming CD.
We were rocking. It was one of those rewarding days when we could feel the wind on our faces from the momentum of the great progress we were making. In our line of work, some days you feel like you’re standing still or sliding backwards, but this day was glorious for its sense of forward motion. Continue Reading…
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 8:44 am. 892 comments
The Beatles have always been my favorite band, but sometimes I hear one of their records and am still amazed at how truly great they were.
I had such an experience yesterday when Zach and I heard And Your Bird Can Sing on one of our Pandora stations. In addition to the great writing and vocal stacks on this one, I can’t think of a better lead guitar part on any of their records. I think it’s George’s best guitar work in the whole Beatles catalog. At least I do right now. Continue Reading…
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 7:00 pm. 533 comments
Mawg of the Toye people here, writing my first blog. Though my point of view on many topics is represented in my songs, I’ve been toying with the idea of putting some of my thoughts out there in this medium to be considered or ignored, as luck and, to a lesser extent, their merit will have it.
That said, the main reason this blog exists is because my wonderful son Zach took it upon himself to make it happen. It is a beautiful gift, and the thoughtful love and effort that Zach put into it are inspirations to jump in and try to write something interesting!
I plan to write about lots of things in these pages, but this first entry is all about gratitude. Continue Reading…
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 11:14 pm. 497 comments
