Frosted Cherry Pop Tarts. Oh, how I love these. But don’t take my word for it. Watch as Dawg and Poppy not only thank me for my suggestion, but also enjoy eating them.

Now go check it out…. NOW!

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.

My wife and I wanted to head out to Wendover for her birthday [which was on Monday, Aug 3rd]. The idea was to stay two days at the Wendover Nugget gambling, hang out at the pool, eat and gambling some more. We get there to check in and saw this sign:

So we look at the girl checking us in and the following conversation ensues :

Me: So the pool is closed today and tommorrow?
Girl: Yes it is.
Me: Can we use the pool across the street over at Montego Bay?
Girl: No. That pool is only available to guests of Montego Bay
Me: But you own Montego Bay. That seems a bit odd, doesn’t it?
Girl: I’m not sure. But it’s not available
Me: Ok.
Girl: Would you like a room overlooking the pool?
Me: Um, if it’s going to be closed, no.

At this point, we check in, head up to our room, run down to the discount liquor store and enjoy the next 18 hours of gambling, drinking and eating.

After that swimless fun, we decide to head back to Salt Lake. I still have the day off for Tuesday and I still want to lay out and try to tan my out-of-shape torso and enjoy a bit of water refreshment. I don’t know anyone that has a pool and I don’t really want to leave the house. Only one thing comes to mind:

Slip ‘n Slide

And of course, I’d like to share this fun with someone who would enjoy it as much as I would. My wife’s granddaughter Ayla was the first person that came to mind. Of course she was excited.

First a bit of setup. It doesn’t take long to get it in place…. just need to find a place in the yard that needed some watering.

Once Ayla got there, she was ready to start sliding.

Ayla looking over the slide

Ready… set… GO!

And if you needed proof we actually used the Slip n Slide, here’s a short video [unedited] that shows Ayla and I making multiple runs.

And as a bonus, here’s footage from my view of going down the slide.

I’m a bit sore today, but it was all in the name of fun.

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE

Vimeo version – click here

To see the original video of “Wrong” by Depeche Mode, click here.

QuickTime Plug In

In my ongoing issues with YouTube, I’ve decided that I needed to find another solution for posting videos. Sure, Vimeo is still a great choice, but I want to have another option ready to go in case they start caving to the thoughtless record company known as WMG.

I have decided to go with QuickTime. You will need to have QuickTime enabled on your browser(s) in order to view this. Every Mac user has this built-in, but Windows and Linux users may not. I will continue to upload to Vimeo, but should the hired goons find their way to that site, then the QuickTime option will be the only option I will provide.

• QuickTime for Linux – Mplayer
• QuickTime for Windows – Download

QuickTime has several advantages: the quality is nice, it works on not-so-newer systems [I've tested it on my daughter's Powermac G4 and it works better than YouTube or Vimeo] and it’s hosted locally on my site. It can be slow to buffer, but once it’s fully buffered, it works.

So give it a try and see if you like it. Hit me up in the comments and let me know what you think.

Scooter Sunday Season 2 Ep. 01 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

Vimeo FTW

I’m pretty much done with YouTube. They, meaning Warner Music Group [and not YouTube] are the cocksuckers that keep fucking with the audio and even after doing research to find out what band belongs to what label, I still seem to find a song or a piece of audio that belongs to WMG. So it’s Vimeo only for now.

I know there are a few of you that have issues watching these videos and I am working on another solution. Stay tuned.

Name The Scooter contest

There’s a new contest up and on its own page. Click on the cool little banner below for all of the juicy details.

Snowy Sunday Ep. 016 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

To YouTube or not…

I’ve just about given up on YouTube for my weekly videos. Not that I don’t want to provide another option in addition to the wonderful Vimeo quality videos. I know those that watch via their iPhones appreciate the YouTube version. But I’m pretty tired of wondering if the audio in my video is going to get cut or not. Granted, this week’s video uses a track from Alice In Chains, which is a Sony artist. And I think it’s been safe before. But it really is a crap shoot for the types of videos I create.

UPDATE: And we have success. A YouTube uploaded version of Snowy Sunday [which I didn't have to alter]

Here’s the link: YouTube version of Snowy Sunday Ep. 016

The End of Snowy Sunday

Next week is the last episode of Snowy Sunday for the season. It’s going to be a compilation episode, looking back on all of the snow [and lack of snow] I filmed during the long winter.

Snowy Sunday Ep. 015 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

YouTube Users – No video upload this week. Because I used a WMG artist [Collective Soul], they stripped the audio out. They are getting good at this, as it was only minutes after it was uploaded that I got the “Content Matched” message. I promptly deleted the video. I apologize for this inconvenience.

No Snowy Sunday for Two Weeks

Well, at least not from me. I leave on Friday for Hawaii. But I’m not leaving you post-less while I’m gone. I have lined up some great guest bloggers who will be providing you with some good, clean, wholesome entertainment sinfully and carnally-pleasing blog posts. Here’s the line up:

• March 8th – Karl from Secondhand Tryptophan
• March 9th [week of] – Catherine from Seventh Notebook
• March 15th – Hilly from Snackie’s World

Plus, while I’m in Hawaii, I plan on doing a couple of short posts with some photos and a quick blurb telling you all what a great time I’m having. Yes, I’m nice like that.

See you later on this week.

Snowy Sunday Ep. 014 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

For the YouTube version, click on this link: Snowy Sunday Episode 014

Snowy Tuesday – 001 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

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YouTube Version

Vainal Leakage

I may, from time to time, through out another video that’s not related to a Snowy Sunday or a Scooter Sunday. And to keep consistent with the rest of my “Leakage” brand, I’ll be branding these types of videos Vainal Leakage.

UPDATE: re-categorized this under “Videos”

Just to keep me and the rest of you entertained. It’s what I do.

Snowy Sunday Ep. 012 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

For the YouTube version, click on this link: Snowy Sunday Episode 012

Yes, you read that right. This week’s episode was successfully uploaded to YouTube. It helps that I didn’t use a song from a WMG artist.

Please Let It Snow

As you will see from this week’s episode, there’s not much snow left around here. I really, really, really want it to snow. And not just because I need to film. The inversion here in the Salt Lake valley really sucks. I wake up each morning with breathing issues [nothing serious, just annoying and bothersome] and we need a couple of really good storms to clear out this ugly air. If the weather predictions are right, we should get some this week, which will help me in many ways, including trying to finish filming for a couple of future Snowy Sunday episodes. Join Mr. Penguin above and send in the good vibes.