A Walk in the (Muir) Woods

An afternoon hike on a slightly rainy Tuesday afternoon with fellow vloggers Gary (Anakin1814) and Mike (MusoSF) along with my wife and a couple of other non-vlogging friends. Muir Woods is a great place to visit when in the Bay Area, and it's always nice to go with good friends.

The Vloggerhood Calendar Project

My good friend Gary - aka Anakin1814 - has organized the 2010 "As Seen on YouTube" vloggerhood calendar with 15 photos by our vlogger friends (myself included). This has been a fun project to be a part of, and I'm thrilled with how the calendar has turned out. The best thing? All creator royalties will be donated to the Nature Conservancy.

... Purchase the calendar today! (only $18.99)...
... Get more info on the project (including thumbnails of the 15 images)...
... Get more info on the Nature Conservancy...

Chad Hurley Interview - Re-edit

The BBC has done an amazing thing. As part of the production of their Digital Revolution documentary series about the effects of the web on culture and modern life, they've posted the raw, un-cut footage on their web site for all to download and edit their own versions of the documentary. So here, under the terms of their share-alike, non-commercial, permissive license, is my edit of their interview with YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.

Beat Poetry for a Wired Age?

This clip was supposed to have been part of a collab, organized by OhCurt. Unfortunately, it never came together as ChristopherMast claimed it was lost when his hard drive crashed (likely story), but here's my portion of it, two beat-styled modern poems about the internet, WiFi, Facebook games, and a famine in YoVille...

How Many 'Tubers Makes a Gathering?

It turns out, two vloggers and one viewer makes a nice gathering. Yesterday, my wife, Leslie, and I went up to Oakland to the YouTube gathering organized by Zennie Abraham (aka Zennie62). Between late planning and bad weather, the three of us were the only ones there, but we still had a great time eating and drinking and talking for several hours at the Lake Chalet restaurant on Lake Merritt. And, of course, when two or more vloggers get together, they're obliged to make a video...

Desert Birds

This was some footage I shot on vacation last April in Desert Hot Springs, CA. All of these birds were found on the hotel property, just outside the door to our room. I'd gotten caught up in other projects and forgot that I had this sitting on my hard drive, waiting to edit. (Music by Kevin MacLeod).

The Day the Music Died

My memories of December 8, 1980; the day John Lennon was assassinated. One of those moments in time that will always be with me.

In memory of John Lennon, please, give peace a chance.

Gifts from Vloggers

Once in a while you get a nice surprise in the mail. I recently had such a pleasure when Steve (aka TheLoathlyDaddy) sent me a couple of CDs of his music. This is a video about that, and an attempt to stir up some controversy about Steve...

Ghost of Halloween Past?

This video is actually from 2007, which predates this blog. This was actually the second time I recreated Hitchcock's Psycho shower scene with a pumpkin. The first time was in High School when I shot The Pumpkin Who Knew Too Much (on Super-8, no less). You could say this is something of a sequel to that, and it's called Psycho Killer Pumpkin Pie...

(BTW, this year's Halloween video can be found here...)

VitaMix Contest Entry

Here's a short (30 second) video I made for a contest over at Poptent. The assignment was to make a commercial advertising a contest to become the new VitaMix pitchman (or woman). A contest to announce a contest... I kind of liked the surreal aspects of that, and - coincidentally - had just bought a VitaMix a week earlier, so here's my entry...

Werewolves, and Vampires, and Zombies, oh, my!

Well, it's Halloween time once again, and this year I decided to take a different approach to my Halloween video. In the tradition of Bobby "Boris" Pickett, I give you Werewolf Baby (Zombie Town), a political rant cleverly disguised as a silly Halloween song.

Interview with the Surgeon General

Here's a little collab video, written and produced by my friend PappyStu, and featuring the multi-talented OhCurt and myself in the roles of the Surgeon General and the earnest interviewer...

Under the Influence

A reply vlog to AndyMooseman talking about how we all inspire, influence, and encourage each other - even when we're not really trying. (Side note: this is my first vlog shot on, and uploaded from, the iPhone).

Dead Seal Vlog

Definitely not the vlog I set out to record when I stopped by the beach by Moss Landing after lunch today. What I found was a half-dozen dead harbor seals in various stages of decomposure. A very odd site, and strange turn to the day. (In the vlog I call the animals sea lions; it was hard to tell exactly what exact species they were, considering their condition, but judging by size, I'm pretty sure they were harbor seals, not sea lions).

Term Limits? (No, thank you!)

A political vlog in response to my YouTube buddy, Frank (aka Ockteby). Frank's vlog reviewed the problems of entrenched politicians, representatives that no longer represent. I agree completely on the problem, but not on the solution. Term limits (IMHO) are just a band-aid that does nothing to address a broken political system.

Indie Fest Recap & Wrap-up

Final vlog about my Indie Fest USA experience, exhibiting Gravehunting With Steve: A Journey Beneath Los Angeles, and watching about 65 other films. The film fest took place at "Downtown Disney" but, no, I did not go to Disneyland, just to the movies...

Third Vlogaversary

September 1 will mark the third anniversary of my first vlog on YouTube. This video is just some of my reflections on how the last three years have brought me to this week, where I am part of Indie Fest USA, showing my short film Gravehunting With Steve. Film school dropout makes good? Maybe!

In Praise of Collaborations

My friend, and uber-popular vlogger, Paul, aka Renetto, did a vlog about how much more rewarding collaborations can be over solo vlogging. In the video, suggestively titled Masturbation Vs Intercourse, he asked for replies on the subject, to be used by him in a potential collab. Here's my response.

Update vlog with Cool Announcement

I've already written about this on this blog, but here's an update vlog talking about the upcoming screening of my short film, Gravehunting With Steve, at IndieFest USA in Anaheim, on August 26, 2009.

General info about the film: gravehuntingwithsteve.com

Info & tickets for the show: tinyurl.com/kenrgatdisney

Info on the film festival: indiefestusa.com

The Lizard Lambada

Another video from the material I shot last April while on vacation near Palm Springs. This one is of a couple of lizards we found having it out in the desert. But is it a fight or a love dance? You decide. (Music by Jason Shaw aka Audionautix).

Titillation + Tragedy = Sales!

Using sex to sell newspapers is nothing new, I know, but here's a little vlog about an example I came across this morning.

The story: James Mitchell, son of "porn king" Jim Mitchell, murdered his ex and abducted their one-year-old daughter. Does the media tell us details about this this murder-abduction that happened yesterday? Or do they focus on his father's escapades from decades ago? I'll give you one guess.

Indian Canyons, Palm Springs

Last April I went for a vacation out to Desert Hot Springs, outside of Palm Springs, CA. I shot close to an hour's worth of video, then never got around to editing it, or even looking at it, till last week.

This is the first of what will probably be three or four videos from that footage, a walk through Palm Canyon and Murray Canyon in the Indian Canyons park.

Random Waldo

We happened to be taking some family members to MOMA in San Francisco yesterday, when from the 5th floor window we spotted what we thought was Waldo, from the "Where's Waldo" books and cartoons. Turned out to just be a cardboard cutout. But then... we found the real Waldo on the street below...

Woodies on the Wharf

More footage from Saturday's "Woodies on the Wharf" event on the Santa Cruz Pier. No big commentary on the golden age of American autos, or lamenting the passing of GM or Chrysler, just hundreds of beautiful classic cars and music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).

Meet Surfer Girl!

The Surfer Girl is a rare and beautifully restored Mercury Woodie that was part of yesterday's annual Woodies on the Wharf event on the Santa Cruz Pier (more Woodies on the Wharf footage coming up later).

"If I had money
Tell you what I'd do
I'd go downtown
and buy a Mercury or two"
- Mercury Blues

"Official Selection" - kenrg @ Disney

As I've mentioned before, I've sent out Gravehunting With Steve: A Journey Beneath Los Angeles to several film festivals, and have been eagerly awaiting news from any of them. This is from a message that appeared in my email late last night:

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that your film has passed our three round screening process and is now an "Official Selection" of the 2009 INDIE FEST USA at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the festival dates, August 22nd – 28th, 2009. There are many exciting changes this year, more events, seminars and let’s not forget the opening night reception and the closing night awards show and Gala! Plus our concert series, Special Guests and Celebrities.

So, I guess this will be the official public premiere of the finished film! I'll keep you all posted when they announce the final schedule and I know the exact date and time of the showing.

Here's the one minute preview (full film is 24 minutes):

• The Indie Fest USA web site
  
• Buy the DVD on Amazon.com
  
• The IMDb listing for the film
  
• The "official" web site for the film

Still Alive

A vlog full of excuses for my absence from vlogging for the past month. But, seriously though, I'm feeling much better now.


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

Hitchcock in Santa Cruz

Legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock kept a weekend home in Scotts Valley, not too far from where I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This area played a large role in Hitch's life and work, with the inspiration for the Psycho house coming from a house near Santa Cruz Boardwalk, and a story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel adding to the screenplay for The Birds.

A couple of years ago I made vlog about this, and showed the "real Psycho house", etc., but was unable to definitely locate the Scotts Valley house. Turned out, I had the right driveway, but there were three locked gates between me and my goal.

The estate has now re-opened as a fantastic winery, Heart O' the Mountain, and I've been there twice recently, and had the please of meeting Hitchcock's granddaughter and great-granddaughter at a tasting.

The first video below is a slide show tour of the winery and estate, and the second video is my original "Hitchcock's Santa Cruz" video from June 2007.


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

Does Twitter Suck?

Twitter, as if you didn't know, is the micro-blogging platform where you can post messages of up to 140 characters each. People either love it or they hate it. Or, you could say they either get it, or they have no idea. Here's my take on it...

(and here's the article I talk about in the vlog)


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

Gravehunting With Steve

This is a post I've been anticipating for some time. Back in October of 2007 I shot a ton of video with my brother, Steve, the celebrity grave hunter (whose book, LA's Graveside Companion: Where the V.I.P.s R.I.P. has just been released).

He gave me (and my camera) a tour of Hollywood Forever, Hillside Memorial Park, and Holly Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles, telling tales of the famous, the infamous, and the just plain dead, and how he got into the hobby of grave hunting and turned it into a side business of giving tours, maintaining a web site, and writing books.

Shortly after, I posted a three minute rough "preview" from that footage on YouTube (the video included below). Through a variety of incidents, editing the full project kept getting put off and put off, but in the last couple of months has finally been completed.

The full video is just under 24 minutes long, and came out pretty darn good, if I say so myself. We're shopping it around to a few different film festivals and have made it available on DVD. This morning, the listing on Amazon.com went live, which is something of a landmark, as well as a listing on IMDb, which I still don't quite believe.

Here are the links for Gravehunting With Steve: A Journey Beneath Los Angeles:

• Buy the DVD from Amazon.com
  
• Buy the DVD from CreateSpace.com
  
• See the "official" web site
  
• The IMDb listing

Vlogging about vlogging again

It's officially "Video Blogging Week 2009" so it's about time I do another basic vlog about the state of vlogging. In here I give my opinion about the upcoming changes to the YouTube site design, and whether the future of vlogging exists on mass market sites, like YouTube, or on smaller, niche sites, like Vloggerheads. I also drink a lot of coffee in this one.


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

Back to Wine Country

Okay, last week you saw the two videos that I made during the day in Sonoma wine country with Anakin1814 and MusoSF (and our significant, but camera-shy, others). Now that Gary (Anakin1814) has safely returned to Wisconsin, he' editing the photos and videos he shot while here. This is his video of that day:

A complete waste of 20 seconds

The sign is from a photo booth in the arcade at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The video is just something stupid to use the photo.


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

Wine Country Weekend (part two)

The follow-up to the wine tasting video I posted on Monday... this was shot later that afternoon. Gary (aka Anakin1814) and I recapping the the day's tastings. The video shot in the style of 21stCenturyCat.

Wine Country Weekend (part one)

One of the great joys of vlogging is meeting up with the friends we've made online from other parts of the country, and other parts of the globe. Gary (aka Anakin1814) is in the Bay Area this week from the mid-west. On Sunday I caught up with him and Mike (aka MusoSF) and a few other friends in Sonoma County for a day of laughter and wine tasting. Here's the first of that footage:

Why Vlog? Why Blog?

Although this blog is fairly new, I've been using blogger.com for nearly eight years and I've been making vlogs, or video blogs, for about 2-1/2 years. So, over 1,200 blog posts and 300 videos later, why do I still do it? This explains it a bit...


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

The Godfather's Bookkeeper

Another collaboration video with PappyStu, this one also featuring performances by TheLoathlyDaddy and KidBlood. It's a dramatization of an old joke, "The Godfather's Bookkeeper."

Animation fun

Yet another fun, new video site is xtranormal.com, which advertises "If you can type, you can make movies." You basically choose from pre-designed characters and backgrounds, type up a script, select camera angles and special effects (optional) and your animated short video is produced for you.

Here are two that I made there recently. The first is my "interview" with Bill Clinton, and the second is my re-staging of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet...


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads



Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

The Bigfoot Vlogs

This is a pair of videos I made a few weeks back at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, CA.

The first is the more polished, edited video featuring my interview with Mike Rugg, Bigfoot hunter and curator of the museum in which Mike shows us shocking new footage of Bigfoot in the Santa Cruz mountains!

The second is the raw, unedited footage of Charlie, a visitor to the museum, talking about the Skookum Cast, the Hoopa Project, and Indian casinos.


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads



Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

Vlog Without Words

To kick off this new location for the kenrg presents... blog I'll re-post a few recent videos. This one needs no description beyond the title. (music by Jason Shaw)


Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

The Vlog Blog Continues...

I'm moving the kenrg presents... blog to blogspot, 'cause I just like to roll that way. For the first 90 or so posts (from November 2007 to March 2009), please see kenrg presents... the archives.

If I can figure out an easy way to export the posts from there and move them here, I will. Otherwise, consider this a new start to an existing project.

For those who need a refresher on what this blog is about, it's simply a personal place to post the videos that I make on various other sites, including YouTube, Vloggerheads, TripFilms, etc.

For my written blogs, see kenrg.blogspot.com.