Better late then never for Episode 5.

Let me tell you. It’s hot… really hot. Episode 5 of this season of Scooter Sunday is all new. Head over to ScooterSunday.com and catch the heat wave.

Vimeo version – UPDATING.

We’ve gone small for Episode 4 of this season of Scooter Sunday. Head over to ScooterSunday.com and see why tiny is the new big.

Vimeo version – Click here.

For those of you that do not imbibe, try this link here.

Now for the rest of you, watch and learn.

YouTube version

Vimeo version

Mtn Dew Pitch Black with Vodka from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

It’s fast, it’s speedy… it’s an all new episode (number 3) of Scooter Sunday. Head over to ScooterSunday.com and see what the action is all about.

Vimeo version – click here.

Episode 2 of Season 4 is live. Head over to ScooterSunday.com for an all new episode.

Vimeo version – click here.

Comments are disabled for a reason – go leave one over on the video at on scootersunday.com

Season 4 has started. Head over to ScooterSunday.com for an all new episode.

Vimeo version – click here.

Season 4

Unlike Season 3 [which only had 4 episodes], I am getting a start on Season 4 early in the season. I plan to produce at least 12 episodes this year, maybe more if the weather permits [warmer non-rainy weather is preferred for any scooter ride].

Last year’s lack of scooter videos was not intentional, just shorter than planned [there were 12 episodes in the queue for last season] thanks to a few personal issues I had to work through in my life that distracted prevented me from doing something that I love to do – filming and riding my scooter. This also explains why there were no Snowy Sunday episodes during this past winter [a more detailed explanation later in another post]

Most of those planned episodes will be part of Season 4, so nothing clever and fun will be lost.

So bookmark scootersunday.com and visit often. It’s going to be a great year of scootering and some of the best of Scooter Sunday you’ve ever seen.

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE or double click on the screen above

Vimeo version – Click Here

Still More

I still have a couple more episodes of Snowy Sunday in the works. Multiple conditions [the lack of snow being one of them] have worked their evil to curb the amount of filming I had planned.

Thanks for being patient with me. Before you know it, Scooter Sunday will return with all new episodes. It’s going to be a fun season… or at least I’ll do my best to make it fun.

I went with my daughter last night to see Vampire Weekend here in Salt Lake City. It was the first time I had seen them, whereas my daughter had seen them live once before in March 2008.

I admit to not being the fan that my daughter is, but I’ve listened to both albums before going to the show so I could be more familiar with their tunes – I hate being the out-of-place guy in a crowd of fans trying my best to mouth the right words.

So how did I like the show? In a word – stellar. These 4 guys are so tightly knit with their sound. Songs like “A-Punk”, “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” and “Holiday” were very enjoyable live, replicating their album sound. But that’s just the sound. The energy Ezra and band mates Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson, Chris Baio had throughout the show really proved to me that they are not just current fad.

Now granted, I did have a recurring thought as I watched them. Here’s these college guys, who have made two albums, wondering where they will be in ten years. I thought of them having desk jobs, IT guys, marketing VPs.. all sorts of occupations other than musicians. If their style of music works, they will most likely still be making albums. But what if their popularity dies down? Will they take their Columbia schooling and apply it to another entrepreneur avenue? Who knows. But let’s forget that random thought. Here’s some pics of the band I took and a self-shot video of the song “Cousins”

Ezra’s best Pac-Man imitation

Chris Baio smiled all night. He was obviously having a great time

Rostam on the keyboards

The only shot where you can kind of see Chris Tomson, the drummer

Half “Cousins”

As with most other footage I take at concerts, I limit my song recording for multiple reasons, courtesy to other’s with cameras being the first. Enjoy.

Vampire Weekend – “Cousins” live (partial) from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE or double click on the screen above

Vimeo version – Click Here

Big Thank You To…

I would like to thank both BlondeBlogger and Mr Shiny for allowing me to use their footage of the snow they captured on video during the big snow storms that hit their area. Without it, who knows how much longer it would have been before I posted a new episode of Snowy Sunday. [several more episodes are in production at this time]

A special shout out to Mr Shiny’s son for his brave trek through the snow-packed terrain.

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE or double click on the screen above

Vimeo version – Click Here

Still Catching Up

Honest, I do have many more episodes to film, edit and post before winter ends, including a Christmas episode [damn, I am behind, aren't I?], Clay the snowman, a Pulp Fiction remake [a different scene than the one I did last year, with a bit of my own creativity thrown in], an all new sledding episode and much more. Now that’s a lot to get done in eight weeks. Let’s see what I can make happen.

YouTube has censored another one of my videos. Nope, not another Scooter or Snowy Sunday video. This time is was concert footage from a show I went to this year.

Back in September, I went to see The Psychedelic Furs live here in Salt Lake at a small club. Even got to meet them afterwards, which was nice. And as I normally do, I had my digital camera with me and took some photos and a short video clip.

I’ve posted clips of concert footage before from other shows and have never had any warnings or notices until now. Here’s the first notice I got in my email:

Emailed notice of copyright infringement

Clicking through to my YouTube account, I was greeted with the following notice:

I had to click the Acknowledge button to get into my account

Here’s the offending footage that YouTube removed (which I uploaded to Vimeo, hoping they won’t yank it):

Psychedelic Furs – 9/12/09 – Salt Lake City, UT from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

Puzzled and Confused

Obviously, I’m a bit concerned as I don’t want to be have my YouTube account disabled or removed. So I decided to do a bit of research to see if there were other videos by Psychedelic Furs that were removed. Imagine my surprise to find another video of concert footage uploaded from the October NYC show, which still remains online.

What The Fuck? Why is mine taken down while this video gets to stay? Is it that the quality is better? Surely it can’t be that the video is too short, as this footage is most of the song. Mine was just a couple of minutes of the song.

And I found another one from the Philadelphia show two days before the NYC show:

Quality wise, this guys video is so-so, but yet it’s not the video that YouTube is taking issue with. It’s the music. And I really think this is coming from RIAA or the bands record label, not directly from the band, as the notice states.

I was under the impression that the copyright issue didn’t apply to concert footage that you personally shoot on your own camera. But according to YouTube’s video upload page, they now include “music concerts” as content to avoid uploading. Yet, my concert footage clips from Pearl Jam, Green Day and Depeche Mode remain on my page, with no issues or warnings.

Which is why I am further confused about what gets to stay and what gets removed on YouTube.

And which is why I will make even more efforts to further reduce what I upload to YouTube.

Snowy Sunday returns – NOW!

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE or double click on the screen above

Vimeo version – Snowy Sunday Ep. 018

The Return of Snowy Sunday

Yes, it’s true. Regardless of my lack of love for all things cold and snow, I do love making videos. And I can’t just hibernate inside all winter without making a video each and every week.

And yes, you read that right. Each and every week, I will be posting a new episode of Snowy Sunday. Not all episodes can be stellar works of brilliance, but I can promise they will be at least entertaining in some form.

Season 2?

As you may have noticed above, this episode is number 18, with no mention of a season number. While this is considered the second season of Snowy Sunday, I’ve decided to just continue the numbering of each episode in sequential order. So for as long as I will make Snowy Sunday episodes, their numbers will simply increase.

So enjoy, my Snowy Sunday fans and viewers.