All My Life - America [Karaoke]

My YouTube friend Riza (aka: bykrgrl17) after FAVing my cover of M2M's "Pretty Boy" (my version was "Pretty Girl"), she requested that I do America's "All My Life."

I found out that "All My Life" became a #1 hit in the Philippines...in 1979. So, when you hear it and think: Boy, that sure sounds out of date! Like Bread's song "If," you'll know why.

Anyway, without any further adieu:



All I need now are some wide collars and flared jeans and I'm set!

Gigil(ing) Grandmas

GIGIL: A most perplexing Tagalog word. Watch this video and find out what it means.

Talking with Miss Lulu (YouTube - BruneiDoLL)

Lulu is a breath of fresh air. She's got a keen sense of observation and international humor which can be seen in her many YouTube posts. She speaks four(?) languages fluently! Through our mutual friend, Nina, I learned about Lulu and found out she's a fellow karateka (Oss!). When not spending time in the dojo at home in Brunei, she's attending university in Australia. The following is an observation she made...

Story of Teenage Rebel:



Since all my closests friends, here in California, have moved out of state to find new lives and new careers in this tough economy, and even though I keep in touch with them by phone, for weekly and daily contact with people I've come to rely on the friendships I've built on YouTube and Blogger to keep me sane. Lulu and Nina are the kid sisters I never had, so it's cool joking around with them. And Aviva from Bowmansinoki (Blogger), has been a real lifesaver and another sister to me. Back on subject: Lulu asked at the end of her video if her viewers were going through a "rebellious phase" with their parents...

My Video Response:



By the way, Lulu is an absolute choco-holic! Mention chocolate, and she perks up. She also takes pretty good pictures as a hobby. See her self portraits and those of her friends and associates (and love of chocolate) here at passion4cocoa!

When You Say Nothing at All

I am in love with this song (at least the Alison Krauss and Union Station version). For many years, I've been playing this song all for myself from time to time. In the mornings on weekends; late at night when no one else is home; or when I'm so sick of being lonely that the only way to get rid of the "blues" was to just explore it until I arose feeling rejuvenated.

There was a woman in my life that I always pictured when singing this song in the past. I don't think of her much these days. She has the life she wanted and deserves. But, there'll always be that place and time we had when some of the best moments during conversations were the pondering silences in between words.

Now, I feel it's time for me to share a song that's kept me company and given me comfort. Strange when you lose a friend. Another one can appear like magic!

Two Videos in One Day = No Sleep

I'm cranking out as many vids as I can before the Holidays really puts a cramp in my side. And, I've got another gasshuku to go to in mid-October.

So, here's two videos I made yesterday:

VIDEO #1: "My New iPod"



The cassette player in my pick up truck finally croaked. Lately, I've been getting tired of "rewind" "fast forward" and "search" just to groove to my road tunes. I won't toss all my mix tapes. Those are going into my archives. All these non-linear functions on all of digital gear has created an impatient society. Now I'm one of them. Good bye analog cassettes...hello iTunes!

VIDEO #2: "Kevin's Birthday Salute"



Kevin is my bestest buddy. In ways, he is more a brother to me than my real life brothers. We've known each other since the age of 14. I've helped him, in small and subtle ways, to grow in the entertainment industry. And for the last 12 years, I've spent almost every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve with him and his family.

Kevin and his wife Melinda now live in Cape Cod. They've found the kind of setting where they feel safe to raise their children as well as launch new careers.

Ernie's Interview with Professor Stephen Hawking

No! Of course it's not a real interview. I wanted to challenge (with the hopes of improving) my editing skills.

This project required about six hours of sitting in front of my computer just to research, locate, and download stills and flash video. Then, I had to convert the flash into mpeg and avi files in order to edit them in Premiere.

At times, I had to separate the audio from the video. Such was the case when I created the Hawking dialog. Speach synthesis was generated using the speak function in the software Movie Magic Screenwriter.



In all there are about seven layers of complexity in this project and another six hours of meshing all the elements together. After watching the final cut, I know there's lots of room for improvement. Primarily, I need to step up from Premiere to Final Cut Pro which means I need a new and more powerful computer to run FCP. Great... Certainly, I haven't truly maximized the potential of the platform I currently have. A few more projects with what I've got will convince me one way or the other. Still, it's tough being a one man show!

But for now, I'm pleased with my progress. For my next project, I'd like to try audio punch-ins, over-dubbing, and green screen video. Just to keep things interesting.

Hamabe Gasshuku and a Walk in the Woods

Every year, for the past eleven years, I've helped raise college scholarship funding for "at-risk" youth. A bunch of us karateka here in Northern California meet at a beach and donate money and buy T-shirts. The non-profit organization also raises funds from other sources. Over the years, we have supported several people up to Bachelor Degrees and technical degrees.

Pretty Girl - Cover (Pretty Boy/M2M)

Whenever I hear a song I want to learn how to play and make a part of my repetoire, inevitably the song is usually sung by a woman or women. From Bjork to Alison Kraus to Joni Mitchell, women have a musical voice that grips my heart at the intro.

Pretty Boy was a hit song in the 90's. M2M was a Norwegian pop music duo composed of two girls - Marion Elise Raven and Marit Elisabeth Larsen (Wikipedia).

To make this song my own, I had to change "boy" to "girl." I made my own guitar arrangement because other covers of this song I found on YouTube I found sadly lacking in rhythm and melody. Mine isn't perfect and as always, with my guitar playng, is a work in progress.

I play this song so much better off camera. It's not so much nerves, but impatience with the production process.



All the different ladies that have given me laughter, inspiration, an ear, and nourishment...this is dedicated to you!

Ernie's Randomania 1

Just some random goofiness:

Budo Rant #2

I don't get pissed off easily. I give most people a lot of wiggle room and forgiveness before I cast them off.

One problem with open forums on the internet is the vulnerablity to hate speech or unjustified negative comments. I've created a new rule for my YouTube account. I will delete negative comments made by people posting from "fake" channels. Fake channels on YouTube are created by people to be used to shield their identities from the public. These people are often referred to as "haters." I'm perfectly willing to accept negative/constructive criticism on my YouTube channel so long as I can respond back in the public forum to "real" accounts. I define a real account on YouTube as a channel that depicts the true identity of the member with a facial record, their real first name (at least), and original video content.

Here's an incident I recorded that I hope I'll never have to repeat: