Make a mix-tape.

I want to make a mix-tape.

I don't mean a 'mix-tape' as in just burning a CD of other artists songs, I mean a mix-tape in the sense of rapping with my lyrics over other people's tracks.

Now while there are some people who are doubting it would be any good, it is something I have always wanted to do. For years now I have rewritten popular songs and parodied them lyrically, but it is only recently that I feel now is the time to actually record them and hand them out.

I wouldn't charge for them. Not just because I have knocked off someone else beat but because who'd pay for a no-name guy who makes videos on youtube's CD? My guess would be very few people. But this would be a mix-tape in the character of one of my youtube characters- so it could either be very popular or it could cause damage.

For that last reason this is why I am researching what is needed in order to make this the best I can. I mean, if  Lil Wayne can be a huge rapper, why can't an Italo-boy from Australian suburbs make some music too?

The main reason for this is because I am hoping that this would net a wider audience who wouldn't normally watch my youtube videos. It is easier to play an audio while driving, getting ready to go out or while you are working on projects than watch youtube videos.

I'm not 100% sure if I will do this, the only thing stopping me is time, as well as not knowing how to do it. I have had some people tell me to let them know if I need help- but how do we manage time with our own busy lives, I don't know how the time restraints would hinder it.

Another thing is: I'm not sure how many tracks to put on it. The dream would be to release a mix-tape series because I have no shortage of parody songs to record- I've been writing since 2003 and it's now 2011. Admittedly, in the last few years I haven't been writing as hard as I was before. One of the saddest things in life is when you become to busy, to tired and weighed down with life that you can't find time for your passion.

I was thinking at least 5 tracks. But who knows, this could just be one of those things that despite really wanting to do it but end up getting weighed down by more 'important' parts of life like working for our next pay day. 

What I hate about youtube

I enjoy youtube. It gives me a place to post my videos and view other talented and hard working people's videos.

But what I have noticed lately, well I've realized this all along but now it is more evident- Talentless people are getting views!

Some of you might be thinking "Jeremy, you are being a bit harsh" "You're just jealous that you don't have a large amount of views and subscribers!" I'm not jealous- I am mad!

I'd say that on youtube there is about 70% of bullshit posted. People uploading music, family functions and all shit that holds no importance to many of us. What pisses me off even more is that people who post videos that have serious attempts at humor/horror/drama and suck so freakin' bad, but yet have thousands, nearly millions of views and then on top of that, their videos get featured.

Get the fuck out of here!

They use copy-righted material such as footage and music, yet youtube turns a blind eye to them and attacks and flags the rest of us who are trying to get our videos out there! Now that I think about it, I'm not mad- I'm furious now!

It saddens me to think that there are people who are pouring their heart and souls into what they upload on to youtube only to have it overlooked and overshadowed by uploads that are crap.

I feel that the youtube community should be a little bit more like the hip-hop community- There needs to be beefs. People need to call out other people, get some controversy and inject it into youtube to keep everybody on their toes. I've noticed that there isn't a lot youtubers who have a large following and actually keep producing quality videos. The rest just rest on their previous achievements, I myself believe in every aspect of life that "You are only as good as your last performance".

If you were good last week, great yesterday but shit today- You're failure is what people associate you with. I think youtube needs some kind of over-hual. What that would consist of, I am not exactly sure but there needs to be a way to accurately show which videos are popular. 

A video may be incredibly popular today and be deemed worthless with in 24 hours. But a video that continues to get a steady amount of views will never be seen in the popular/most viewed part of youtube because it is all about the 'now'.

The more of the story is: Youtubers that have undeserved views and subscribers can go fuck themselves.

Video direction.

I recently bought a MacBook Pro for the GarageBand and iMovie features. It's still taking me some time to get use too everything, seeing as I am coming from a P.C, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it all.

Which brings me to the reason of this blog.

Now that I have this new computer, I feel like I can improve my videos quality. Visually. I have loads of ideas that I had written ages ago and was waiting for when I had higher quality editing tools. But I also thought that seeing as it is you who view my videos [Links at the bottom for those who've never seen my videos] what kind of things would you guys like to see?

I'm not going to take all of the ideas given, some of them I might already have in the pipeline, but I feel this is a way for me to say "Thank you" for the subscriptions, the views and the comments you have given. They are greatly appreciated. 

Either tweet your ideas to me or comment below with your ideas.

Even if you have seen my previous videos, re-watch them to refresh your mind before submitting. 

Channels:

YLD FRA and OnlyAPhase

Podcasting

Hey, Hey!

Podcasting, It has been on my mind a lot lately. Two of my cousins [Thomas and Collin] and I came up with an idea for a podcast show around this time in 2010- it was going to be hot. Soon as Collin suggested that we do a podcast show my mind was running wild with ideas and directions we could take this to the next level.

I was so into the idea that when I got home at 1am took it upon myself to create the opening theme music and closing theme music. This was done to get the ball rolling and to show just how serious about this idea I was.

But with any team work based project it requires equal amount of enthusiasm from everybody. In the start due to time restrictions and bad Internet connection, Tom wasn't on board as much as Collin and I were. This thing, I was all in.  So we decided to have team meetings at Collin's house.

These meetings were pretty productive in my opinion. Sometimes Collin and I would have meetings just us and work on ideas. Sketch ideas, creating music for the sketches and ways to expand this and that. We did a few test podcasts using Skype, which seemed to work great for us when we wouldn't be in the same place.

We had set up a soundcloud account, a blogspot account, twitter and facebook page- All ways I thought we could get out into people's minds and interact with those that were listening to us. The main problem that we seem to have was a place that we could get a RSS feed and hold our podcasts for free. I wanted it free because it wasn't looking like the other two were as committed to the project as I was. Pssh, as if I was going to put up money for something the other two weren't 100% in with.

However, after awhile it seemed that the tables had turned and it was now Collin who was slacking and Tom was the one riding shotgun with me. Literally. We would go for drives and hold conferences on how to structure the show. We got back to Tom's and with a pen and a pad wrote down the outline of the shows format. All that was left to do was to fill Collin in and get back to work.

Sadly after Collin taking a new job, his time [Or so he said] was limited. All that effort and time had been for nothing, withing nothing to show for it other than a few quality recordings that have since been removed from the net. I hope that sometime in the near future that both Collin and Tom decided to reunite the team and get back to it.

As far as I know Tom is interested and all we need now is Collin to warm to the idea. It is a team effort but we could all benefit individually. It would draw a bigger audience to my comedy, As well as Tom [who was, and think still is, interested in getting into comedy] and Collin with his music. But nothing worth while comes easy so I hope we could get it back together because there was a lot of laughs during recording, team meetings and hitting on women in supermarkets.

If anybody has any idea of how to get the podcasts to the masses without too much difficulty, please let me know as I am very keen to get back into podcasting.

Would you guys be interested in hearing either myself podcasting or if I can get the team back together, would you guys be interested in hearing it?

--
Jeremy

I've been 'busy'.

Hi everybody! (Hi Dr. Nick!)

Okay. So I felt it was time to blog again. I was blogging a lot for awhile there but felt I was blogging too often and decided to turn it down a notch. Which resulted in me not blogging at all.

I would like to say it was because I was busy but I think it was due more to laziness. Well, not so much because I was lazy but rather because I've been busy with work and not really having energy to go out and do anything that was worth blogging about.

Yesterday was Easter and I had planned to film some footage for a new YouTube video, seeing as I was 'lucky' enough to have five days off in a row. Now I say 'lucky' because this is the calm before the storm- I've seen this weeks roster and it isn't too bad but--I'm not exactly jumping for joy over it.

So I haven't filmed any Easter themed videos- I'll still film it, It will just be late to the party but meh. Deal with it.

It just goes to show how tired and unenergetic I am at the moment if I am not even filming videos [or blogging, which takes a lot less energy and time.] Seems lately that making videos is such an effort and a chore- which makes me annoyed at myself because I love coming up with ideas, scripting them then filming them. 

Seeing as I haven't been really 'doing much', I have been watching a lot of comedy videos on YouTube. Mainly a lot of Anjelah Johnson's video. If you haven't seen any of her comedy- should totally go check out her stuff out here at Anjelah's YouTube channel

She is hilarious, not to mention attractive. Double win! But really if you have a moment to check out her videos online, do so. I'd love to catch one of her sets, so if you ever get the chance to see her live- take it and tell me how good she was.

For those who are already fans of hers or you want to see who I am talking about, you can check out her website here Anjelah Johnson

That is about it for this ever so exciting blog of mine. Hopefully new stuff will be up soon, in regards to videos and blogs. Maybe. Who knows.

So in the meantime why not check out either my previous videos at Only A Phase and YLD FRA

- Jeremy.

"Uh, don't you see me in the middle of a conversation? Don't interrupt. Rude!"

Bon Qui Qui (Anjelah Johnson)

New DVD

For those who have followed my blogs and follow me on twitter will be aware that when I can't sleep I always seem turn to the DVD "Fight Club".

I've watched it so many times that I am nearly at the stage where I can tell you what colour shirt the actors and extras are wearing in each scene. But the other day I was just aimlessly looking around in Sanity (for those who don't know, Sanity is a DVD and music store, some of their prices are a bit on the heavy side.) While I was in there I came across "Oliver Stone's Wall Street DVD pack", it has both the original 1987 "Wall Street" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" the 2010 sequel.

I rented "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" recently . It was good but being a Shia LaBeouf fan I expected more from it. It had been awhile since I had seen the original and decided to buy it. Seeing as it had been some time since seeing the original I wasn't to sure if I would still enjoy it.
I like it better than the sequel. I've always been a Charlie Sheen fan and watching reminds you of why he is a great actor, seems like we need some reminding of late seeing as he has been acting a bit crazy. But I think it is safe to say this movie has, if not nearly, replaced "Fight Club" as my go-to-movie when I can't sleep.

For those who have never seen either of these movies, I suggest you do. Especially the original, which showcases the age story of being a nobody to wanting to get, as well as being hungry for, the best out of life. I think watching this movie so many times in a short period of time may or may not be responsible for my latest  infactuation with money. Don't get me wrong here, I have always loved money- after all it is why we go to work- to get paid. I'll tell you know I'm not working for the fun of it.

"There's no nobility in poverty."
Bud Fox- Wall Street.

Greed is good

When people mention the word 'greed' or say that someone is 'greedy' they are usually associating it with money.

Which usually is the case, but money isn't the only thing that people are greedy with. People say money isn't everything- and it isn't. But either is everything else in this world. If anything comes in any quantity chances are people want more than what is needed.

Love. There are people out there that are greedy and want more than what they need. Let me break it down: Those who say money isn't everything usually want lots of love, now this seems all nice and cute on the surface but being greedy with love is just as dangerous. People's marriages break down and fall apart because one or both involved are having an affair, longing for someone else. Even if they are in a happy marriage they go out and look for more. They are greedy with affection, that feeling of being wanted and that feeling of being needed. Then when it all comes unraveled they go to sex addiction class or marriage counseling sessions.

Not to mention other materialistic items that we all want, buy and collect. Sure, money is what was used to attain it but it's the love of those things that make you want them. Look at the shopaholics who go out and buy clothes that they'll most likely only wear once, buy the latest electrical appliances because it is now available in a new colour and have five rare cars parked in the drive way.

Look at collectors. They collect a specific type of something. Art collectors, Music collectors, Movie collections dedicated to movie memorabilia. Nothing wrong with shopping, but when it becomes a problem they wind up in a shopping addiction class that helps them identify why they impulse buy.

There seems to be an "out" for every greed/addiction. Shopping, sex, drug  addiction offer rehab classes, clinics and classes to help fix the problem. What about greed of money? Nothing is offered there like the other greed facilities provided, addiction is tied in with greed.

I'm writing this blog because I recently made a video asking what would people choose, love or money [their dream career]. So far most have picked love. Some have a even taken time out of their day to send me private messaged calling me selfish, money hungry and claiming that I am greedy.

I've got a news flash for you, kid: We are all greedy, Every single one of us.

We are greedy for attention. Greedy for power. Greedy for popularity. Greedy for food, for drinks, holidays, cars, houses with the latest flat screen T.Vs.  Greedy for love, affection, a sense of belonging, a sense of being wanted and needed.

Point is that greedy isn't strictly speaking about money. It's about everything in this world. Shopaholics, Alcoholics, collectors and lovers all go out to get more of what they already have.

Link to my Love or Money video.

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies"- Gordon Gekko.