7/8/10

Coming into this evening, I had two questions - Have 30% of this blog's readers really been arrested and would anything useful be accomplished today?  Obviously I have no way of knowing if you degenerates are voting accurately about your criminal histories, but yes, something useful was accomplished today.

As I went to bed last night, my 'director's cut' of the holiday fireworks show was being uploaded to YouTube.  I had taken out all of the dead spots and found that I had twelve minutes of video.  Since YouTube videos are restricted to ten minutes, I then had to cut some actual fireworks footage in order to get in under the limit.  I did my best though, and the result was pretty solid.

The other issue to address was the soundtrack.  As much as I may have laughed at my sister's running commentary, it didn't make for very good video viewing.  People don't watch fireworks in hopes that my little nephew might pull down his pants and pee on the grass.  That's not how it works.  So I spent some time producing a better audio track to accompany the video.  I started with the Dropkick Murphys playing Scotland the Brave on the pipes and other accompanying instruments.  Then I transitioned into the Murphys performing Heroes from Our Past.  That song sums up Independence Day as well as any other that I've heard.  Next in the lineup was Van Halen's Right Now.  I used the instrumental portion because I liked the sound of it, seemingly building and building but never really requiring a payoff.  The final audio track was Lee Greenwood performing God Bless the USA.  Call it hokie if you must.  I tend to agree with you.  There's not an American holiday that can be experienced without that song playing somewhere in the background.  Be that as it may, I like the song.  So it went in the final position of my fireworks soundtrack.

When I woke this morning, I looked at my computer and saw that my video had finished uploading.  I also saw that I had violated someone's copyright.  Even relatively obscure music, used without any profit potential, mangled and mixed to suit a specific purpose (like a family fireworks show), is apparently restricted.  Fucking stupid.  The song that triggered the copyright violation?  God Bless the USA.  Yeah, no shit.  You can't wipe your ass on the 4th of July without hearing that song, but my video was somehow a problem.  Go figure.

Given the amount of time that I had spent editing the video and getting it posted, I was quite disturbed at the thought of starting over again.  Instead, since most music that I own has probably been subject to one copyright or another, I decided to take the easy way out and use one of YouTube's licensed audio tracks.  By "easy way out," of course, I mean "pain in the ass."  Once I narrowed the song choices down to those that would fit my ten minute video, I found that each of them sucked ass.  I listened to song after song after song.  Some sucked fat sweaty hairy ass while others were less so, but each of them did indeed suck ass.  I picked the most appropriate song that I could find in the authorized library.  Here you go, RIAA... dickheads...



There was a more substantial accomplishment today as well, but you're going to have to wait for the scoop on that one. Some people have decided to try and play hardball with me. Hardball is my game, as luck would have it, so the game shall be played. I'll have more for you when the time is right.

My buddy and I packed a cooler with beer this evening and headed to the drive-in. Some spy movie starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz was paired up the The A-Team. I didn't expect much out of either flick, so I wasn't disappointed in either flick.  Funny how that works.  I am pretty pissed about B.A. being a pacifist, but that's a discussion for another time, I think.  Good night.