jugglers in jerusalem's ben yehuda mall. my friend darren & late friend angus are both jugglers so I took this to show them. my timing was out a bit as I watched the guys juggle for a while then remembered to start filming.

08/02/2008

it snowed in Jerusalem for a couple of days. the first day many of the roads were closed. the stores close - the city shuts down. my workplace was closed for both days (so a long weekend for some!). the second day by mid morning the sun was out and sky was blue.

snow in the middle east! lots of fun!

the music is "Snow" by Severed Heads off the Gigapus album
http://www.sevcom.com/

30-31/01/2008, jerusalem, israel

http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-jerusalemSnow649.flv
http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-jerusalemSnow649.mp4
http://blip.tv/file/651524

Watch the video

mimi on the beach

the music is an excerpt of the song 'mimi on the beach' by jane siberry (now known as issa) http://www.issalight.com

the footage is taken at bethells beach west of auckland, new zealand in early 2007

made in isadora and inspired by Will from Taylor Street Studio's work - I'm running some tests to see if I can work out how to do some of the effects he does as I love his work - it's so beautiful! http://www.taylorstreetstudio.com

28/01/2008

the isadora patch is attached. it's 3 videos - 1 is the kite flying near the lifesaver hut, the second is the girl skipping on the beach, the third is another video of the bethells beach but has a dither patch applied to create the 1x1 squares using the extracted colours from the 3rd video. the speed is slowed down and the girl video is cropped and reduced in size and overlayed on the beach & kite video. both of these have the outlines extracted using difference patches

I started off trying to learn how Will made the squares effect and I'd done other tests on having multiple video windows playing, but when I was combining the videos I liked the outline effect so went off on a tangent to what I'd originally planned. (as usual)

Watch the video

some questions from the streets of jerusalem

25/01/2008

music is "base for alec" by Yello from the "Yello 19080-1985 The New Mix In One Go" album

blip post @ http://blip.tv/file/623494
mpeg4 video @ http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-gotLove452.mp4

made using isadora

this video is made from 2 separate videos. one is grafitti on the wall of an abandoned building - most of it is in English so I think it's messages for the tourists. the other is a message on a wall nearby. the second video is combined with the first and tiled into small blocks over the pattern of the first wall's video content ie the writing on the building. the message on the wall is overlayed on top of the tiled / glitch video and moves around the screen according to the position of the underlying video. so it has some interactivity to it. it's recorded in real-time. each time I run it, it creates a different output.

got love? patch attached to blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14273

Watch the video

I saw "South Coast" a documentary about Brighton (UK)'s hip hop community by Will Jewell last saturday night at the Jerusalem Cinematheque as part of the British Film Festival. I thought the film was a great balance of original roots of hip hop, respecting the US origins, whilst highlighting the original crews from the local Brighton community and featuring some of the up & coming artists also. a great snap shot into Brighton hip hop. it feels similar to Australian hip hop in some ways.

I wrote some names during the film so I could find out about them later. (hard to read my writing so hopefully I have these right!)

- poets vs MC night / battle
- young joe
- koaste - great beats and words about local issues / life
- cassiah (?) and danny - the park scene in the film
- deliverance
- brighton graf jam
- monkey sons
- remark
- slip jam - regular venue for around 5.5 years
- mc jam
- buzz
- brighton hip hop festival
- req 1

from what I can gather, their community is really healthy. they seem to have a few crews / people who are organising regular gigs & festivals. having a regular venue helps build a community I think, so they're lucky in that regard. and it seemed like a friendlier atmosphere as compared to london - people in the film commented on this as well. more laid back / beach town and being a smaller city I suppose.

after the film I asked Will if he could say something to the Australians as I'd upload it to show some of them so there's a message from him (the director) at the end.

there's a couple of minutes of the film shot whilst viewing it - sorry about the quality & fact this is pirated. there's hebrew subtitles overlayed.

mp4 video file : http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-SouthCoastBrightonUKHipHopDocumentaryByWil...

flash video file : http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-SouthCoastBrightonUKHipHopDocumentaryByWil...

or the blip post to play in a webpage : http://blip.tv/file/622825

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http://southcoastthemovie.co.uk is the film's website - they have videos/articles etc there.

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I recorded the directors talk after the film also - sorry about the audio quality - this is recorded on my phone camera. I recorded video but the zoom/quality is pretty bad so I just extracted the audio.

http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-WillJewellDirectorsTalkAfterSouthCoastShow...
or to play in a webpage : http://blip.tv/file/622851

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19/08/2008

Jerusalem Cinematheque - British Film Festival screening of Will Jewell's documentary on Brighton (UK) hip hop community - South Coast

Watch the video

multiprojector test01 - testing different methods of combining video in a single screen. this is using multiple projectors in isadora. some effects, some interactivity as the videos control each other's position

the music is by Nitin Sawhney - "acquired dreams" from the Prophesy album
http://www.nitinsawhney.com/

made in isadora - multiprojector patch attached

blip post @ http://blip.tv/file/603528

quicktime video version @ http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-remuxed963.mov

flash video version @ http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-remuxed963.flv

blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14266

trying 3d video in isadora. I was describing a dream to a friend where I used to see planes of different worlds. testing how I could make a video to remember / simulate the dream. it hasn't quite worked out properly yet though!

just a mixture of past and recent videos and trying out some 3d video in Isadora. the videos are snippets from 4 countries. the spinning video is interacting with the other videos - changing speed in proportion to them playing out. Isadora seems suited more for live video - I still haven't worked out a high quality save option. it creates these in real time - I'm changing the video source on the fly. my computer doesn't let me save audio out either (in isadora) so I have to record it and then add back to the saved video. I need to get this working better also - there must be a step I'm missing.

15/01/2008

Watch the video

blip video @ http://aliak.blip.tv/file/596636

mpeg4 video version @ http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-clappityClapAtHeathrowExpress290.mp4

flash video version @ http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-clappityClapAtHeathrowExpress290.flv

blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14264

I liked the sound my suitcase was making whilst walking to the heathrow express train platform after arriving back in the UK on new years day. the audio's not as clear as it was in person. perhaps it was my hearing after sitting in the plane hearing flight noise masking most sounds that I noticed it.

Click To Play

blip post @ http://blip.tv/file/599206

quicktime video version : http://blip.tv/file/get/AliaK-cycloneBuilding684.mov

blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14265

over Christmas a cyclone was building off the shore of Qld. it made for the coolest temperature wise Christmas in many years (at least whilst I've been there). the trees are in Mum's backyard

Last November I took part in NaVloPoMo - videoblog posting month. it was a lot of fun and was a good way to remember to do something creative in between working. I know a lot of people can't help but be creative all the time, but I find sometimes I get so tired from work that I become passive and tend to watch more than do. so this was a good reminder to get into the habit.

in 2008, Semanal is happening - similar to NaVloPoMo but posting one video a week instead of one each day. this is much more manageable for me at least as I can usually make one on the weekend. the hardest part then becomes finding time to watch everyone else's videos!

a mobile video post. I took the video the other day whilst at Southbank in Brisbane. emailed it to my blip.tv email account (aliak. pwd @ mobile.blip.tv). it automatically posts on blip.tv and is posted to by blog. which then sends it to my rss / xml feed & facebook etc. currently I need to approve / edit the post on the blog site, but I might setup a workflow to make that automatic also. though with the N95, I can do this from the phone now also too!

very cool!
not new.. but since I've only just got the N95, it's new to me. I'd tried it ages ago with my palm pilot but it was too slow and the apps didn't integrate as well + there was no video in that attempt. so this is working much better..

Click To Play

20071207 Bethlehem 01 - driving into Bethlehem - the guide is talking about peace, jerusalem stone exports / work and tourism

original movie @ http://blip.tv/file/545338
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14253

Click To Play

a walk around Yesilyurt this afternoon. perhaps it's because it's winter, but it looks a little run down - the colours on the buildings seem duller than they once have been, and the waterfront in this area is a little dreary. the local shops are ok though - there's a few nice looking cafes. many cake & sweets stores!

10/12/2007

original video @ http://blip.tv/file/530841
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14251

Click To Play

this is snippets of the taxi ride from my visit to hagia sofia and sultan ahmed / blue mosque on 25/11/2007. (other camera)

original movie @ http://blip.tv/file/527442
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14246

Click To Play

sections of the Jewish quarter of the Old City, Jerusalem

music is "Some Place (intro)" by Coolooloosh - a great local Jerusalem based / Israeli band

04/12/2007

original video @ http://blip.tv/file/518655
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14245

Click To Play

they're everywhere!!
video @ http://blip.tv/file/514174/

I must like these as I've just found I'd already uploaded a silent version - almost like a lumiere but a few scenes cut together.
video @ http://blip.tv/file/442303

nov? 2006, Delhi, India

NaVloPoMo 30 - day # 30 Turkish Delight & thanks to all the Navlopomo videobloggers!

original movie @ http://blip.tv/file/514153
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14243

Click To Play

thanks from me also - I've had fun making little videos and watching other people's - plenty to catch up on! my last one mirrors my first of the month - in my pjs again, this time after a late night flight instead of an early morning one. I took videos at the Istanbul airport last night but hadn't put my memory stick in and so none of them saved. flight was delayed so I didn't get back to Jerusalem until around 3am and slept since then. very tired! so a quick goodbye & look at some of the Turkish Delight I bought at the Istanbul airport gift shop.

see you all around on the net somewhere!

kath

NaVloPoMo 29 - day # 29 Turkish Hotel TV - 60 channels & nothing on...

original video @ http://blip.tv/file/511287
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14241

Click To Play

most of the tv in the hotel is in turkish. I can't understand most of it. the american shows are overdubbed in turkish. bbc prime is in english and a couple of news channels and that's about it! nat geo had a couple of english programs the first night I was here. it's often like this when I'm onsite - I don't get to watch any regular shows - most networks tend to show old programs and movies so I'm always about 5-10 years behind on tv watching, even though we see lots of it at work each day.. lucky there's internet access!

29/11/2007

NaVloPoMo 28 - day # 28 Jerusalem cats

original video @ http://blip.tv/file/511236
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14240

Click To Play

Jerusalem is full of cats roaming the streets. they all seem to be this size. my sister called the other night and said she had to put her cat down as she was really sick. sad :(

taken on Shamai St, Jerusalem 17/11/2007

NaVloPoMo 27 - day # 27 Cassata icecream at the Polat Renaissance

original movie @ http://blip.tv/file/506897
blog post @ http://www.aliak.com/node/14239

tonight's dinner! I'm staying at the Polat Renaissance in Istanbul. the food has been nice so far though I'm missing the hummous from Jerusalem a bit ;) I splashed out and ordered dessert - Cassata icecream with nut and rasberry, covered with chocolate and served with sour cherry sauce. I thought it was going to be icecream with chocolate sauce, but it turned out to be a fancy dessert! very yummy - though filling. I couldn't finish it all.

battery is running low and I still can't see what I'm filming. but this gives you an idea of life as a business nomad ;) I've been in 3 countries this month and it sounds like I might visit those 3 again in December, plus a trip back to Australia for Christmas.

27/11/2007