My Regis Philbin Story VIDEO – This is a follow up video blog to my book signing coverage video from the other day… Find out what we shouted to Regis during the book signing, Angela Aiello is also mentioned in this one and more…Regis’ version of this story would have been probably 1/10 as long and 10X better, but I’m trying, alright!

Another neat thing about my story is that watching Regis reminded me a lot of my (late) grandfather, and watching Kelly reminded me a lot of my sister. So to see them together was kinda like watching my own family. Aside from his talent and such, I’m sure that’s another reason why I liked Regis so much.

Some of it was absolutely fresh and captivating, so I went online to watch the whole thing. The black and white cinematography, Feist’s crazy, mysterious curly long hair, (she looks amazing in it too – when you finally get to see her – more on that in a minute) the dramatic natural forest setting, a beautiful cloud sky shot, but something was not quite right with it either. It’s too bad, because a few tweaks would have made this a classic!

I’ve been working on a couple videos of late for work (which I’ve really been enjoying) and I feel it’s sharpened my critical eye. So below I’ve put in some critical feedback on the video…

Please watch the music video and check out some of my suggestions (right below it). Find out if you agree with my thoughts.

As promised, here are a couple suggestions I have for the video if they were to re-do it.

First, a few things I really like about it:

• black and white
• forest scene (day and night)
• smoke
• some wind
• cool hair (didn’t have to be that long though i don’t think)
• sky shot (could have been another, even)
• feist looks amazing (up close)
• emily carr in the forest vibe

What I think could be improved:

• Need to see Feist’s face more in general, and a bit more in particular at the start. At .23 seconds, you should see a glimpse of her face here! Were they trying to be intriguing hiding her like that? I don’t feel it worked, it’s  awkward and you should show a little profile so people know who’s song it is…she’s a star! In fact, you barely see her face in the first whole minute of the song. That’s crazy I think, and you should have her signing at least one of the lines in the first minute as well….they wait too long and show her, and then almost too much (mostly getting blown around) at the end of the video.

• .55-58 should again see at least a bit of her, and ideally singing a verse here…instead she ends up looking too witch-like, not like an artistic, reflective, lonely creature

• 1.38 again is too witch-like – switch up the forest setting (new location)!

• 2.12-2.17 is phenomenal and could be repeated like 3 times and it’s still be fun to watch…so why not at least once more! could have been a daytime version of that move as well perhaps?

• 2.25-2.37 could be totally removed. this spot looks really run down after a full day shooting – pick a new untrampled on spop + the wind also starts to get way to extreme here, looks really cold and awkward for here. some cool forest night setting stuff would have been great. a rock, a waterfall, even a quick shot of a frog or an owl or hawk or some creature…

What do you think about the video, or about her new song/cd? Please comment here >>

Listen to the new Feist Album on iTunes >>

I gave a talk this past weekend called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Blogosphere” at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

The presentation was a multi-media journey through the exciting universe of blogs. I introduced attendees to 20 of the most extraordinary and interesting blogs around today. I was able to take people behind the scenes to learn the stories of the people who run the blogs.

Instead of telling you the whole stories behind each blog, I’ve posted a video to go with each featured blog. You can easily google these people or find out more about them on their websites/blogs. Hopefully you’ll discover a few blogs that you’ll want to follow, and who knows, you might even want to start your own blog!

Please leave a comment below and let me know your favourites!

Also, come back to my blog soon, as my next blog post will be on how to find the best blogs. Hint: One way is to check out winners from blog awards.

1. Angela Aiello – iYellow Wine Club
www.iyellowwineclub.com/blog

2. Gary Vaynerchuck – Wine Library TV
tv.winelibrary.com

Gary wrapped up his 1,000th Wine Library TV episode just this past spring, and then moved over to his “Daily Grape” iPhone Application where he also posted videos and wine reviews. He then announced his official retirement from daily wine video blogs at the end of August, but you’ve still got a ton of videos to explore!

3. 65 Red Roses
65redroses.livejournal.com

Sadly, Eva Markvoort’s blog “65 Red Roses” is no longer run by Eva as she passed away March 27, 2010. It is now run by her family, but well worth exploring.

4. Julie Powell – Julie & Julia
juliepowell.blogspot.com

You can no longer access Julie’s original Jule & Julia Blog, but she still keeps this blog.

5. Reb Stevenson
rebstevenson.com

6. Facehunter – Yvan Rodic
facehunter.blogspot.com

7. Style Rookie – Tavi Gevinson
www.thestylerookie.com

8. Art Matters Blog – Art Gallery of Ontario
www.artmatters.ca

9. Montréal Tourism’s Blog “The Montréal Buzz”
www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog

10. 1000 Awesome Things – Neil Pasricha
www.1000awesomethings.com

11. Post Secret – Frank Warren
www.postsecret.com

12. Zen Habits – Leo Babauta
zenhabits.net

13. Four Hour Work Week Blog – Tim Ferriss
www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog

14. Seth Godin Blog
www.sethgodin.typepad.com

15. Richard Branson
www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog

16. Perez Hilton – Mario Lavandeira
www.perezhilton.com

17. Sh*t My Dad Says (warning: explicit)
http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

18. Mashable – Pete Cashmore
www.mashable.com

19. Huffington Post – Arianna Huffington
www.huffingtonpost.com

20. Boston Globe’s “The Big Picture”
www.boston.com/bigpicture

LIKE THIS LIST? WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE BLOGS? PLEASE COMMENT & SHARE HERE!

I haven’t seen many celebrities, if any, do this type of thing yet, so perhaps this is a new trend, but I think he really makes the iPad, and the NYer’s new app look fun and cool. Even more so though, this video is another nudge (maybe even a kick) towards making me want to have an iPad.

What about you? Do you have an iPad? Do you have this app? feel free to comment here

Today as I was working on the talk, I came across award-winning blogger Neil Pasricha’s “awesome” TED talk. In typical ted-talk fashion, it’s short and sweet, and for those curious about his blogging success story, it’s certainly worth the watch. It was cool because while I knew some of his story, I didn’t know he had given a TED talk.

In a nutshell, Pasricha went from blogger, to award-winning blogger, to author, to best-selling author, to author again (sequel), and this past January he became a TED Speaker (video below)…it’s really an amazing blogging success story! It’s also cool to learn what drove him to start his blog www.1000awesomethings.com ~ you’ll have to watch the video to find out. His blog is one of my 20 “most extraordinary and interesting blogs around today” that I will be featuring in my talk.

Tennis Grunts are Awesome?

I read Neil’s blog every once and again and I am usually impressed with the awesome and comforting insights he has about life. The other day though, I had a moment of doubt about his ‘awesome’ leadership. It made me think he had run out of material or something…

He had a post saying ‘Tennis Grunts’ were awesome. Now, I enjoy tennis, and watching tennis. In fact I’ve been catching US Open video highlights the past couple weeks on usopen.org, but I just can’t understand how Tennis grunts are awesome?

Check the comments on this post and you’ll find I’m not the only one who thinks so. The day he posted that blog I thought I’d try to comment and see if he’d publish it. I suggested in my comment that while I didn’t agree about tennis grunts, I did think tennis fits pumps were awesome.

Don’t you love seeing those guys and gals celebrate after a great shot or point. Ever since last year’s US Open (mostly thanks to Nadal) I have made a regular effort to do the ‘fist pump’ when I have a great accomplishment.

Anyways, he didn’t end up publishing it!?! I thought it was right on the money. Not exactly sure why he didn’t? Maybe because I didn’t put my real name in the comment, but lots of commenters don’t – it might also be because I put something like “Fist Pump Fan” as my commenter name, maybe he didn’t like that? Or what if he realized that I one-up-ed him and didn’t like that? who knows, but regardless this guy has millions of people following his blog and tons buying his books.

Here’s the video. Enjoy!

Pretty Awesome Story, eh!
What did you think? What about the tennis grunts? Am I out to lunch? Do you agree with me about tennis fist pumps? You better! Would love to hear your thoughts….feel free to comment here>>

To see the next 4 click more

It turned out to be Beauty Day a documentary about a local Niagara guy who had his own cable show called ‘Cap’n Video’ who was essentially the first “Jackass.” While I’m not drawn to the Jackass-style humour, the doc was outstanding and I’d certainly recommend it. The story, character and style is entertaining for sure, and it was definitely neat to see some local characters and locations in the movie. I wonder if I might see these people around somewhere now? I tend to be pretty good at recognizing people/celebrities.

Anyways, below is the trailer for the doc. Below the trailer is also a video from the premier of Beauty Day at Hot Docs 2011 in Toronto, which is pretty cool and fun.

I’m currently staying tuned for the 20th anniversary show that they made as part of this documentary. Cap’n Video said he’d post it online (as it was not allowed to be aired on TV), but there’s no sign of it yet. It should be fun to watch.

official website: www.beautydaydocumentary.com