me – Page 62 – nathan's open ideals

Four Years of Videoblogging

You may have heard, I recently got married, and as part of that spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with photo and video archives. I’m not much of a “filmmaker”, but Micaela and I have had fun sharing some of our personal adventures with our family, friends and the world.

What I appreciate the most was the fact that we hadn’t set out to document so much of our lives, we just did it, in true blogging style. What we ended up with was a wonderful retrospective of some of the amazing days that led us to our wedding day.

And now for your enjoyment…

Learn from This: Nine Inch Nails digital release

Out of nowhere, Trent Rezner and Nine Inch Nails just put out a new release called Ghosts. Like Radiohead, NiN is one of the leaders in the emerging trend of superstar artists deciding to go it alone, go digital, and release in a variety of formats. The options for getting the album range from FREE to $300…. detailed below. What I love about this, is that a casual NiN fan like myself can either go free or pay $5 and get an amazing deal, complete with PDF album art/wallpaper/icons and other goodies…while the hardcore fans will jump all over the limited edition high-end $300 version. They are offering the best of both worlds and giving plenty of reason for people to pay money.

Now, unfortunately, we haven’t made a deal with Trent to distribute on Cruxy.com… but that isn’t what we care about. We care about all the rest of the artists out there who don’t have the money or time to create their own distribution system. That is what Cruxy was made for – the rest of you. Radiohead and NiN’s efforts aren’t just a fad or marketing stunt – it is the future, and its here now.

More detail on the Ghosts release
FREE DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I – The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as
high-quality DRM-free MP3s (320kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged) including complete 40 page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack – various
wallpapers, icons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

$5 DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I-IV – All 36 tracks in a variety of DRM-free digital formats (320
kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged; FLAC Lossless; Apple Lossless) including a 40
page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack – various wallpapers, icons,
and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

This version is also available from the Amazon MP3 store.

$10 2XCD SET
Ghosts I-IV – 2 audio CDs in a gatefold digipak package with a 16-page
booklet. To be shipped TBD. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the
entire collection in same choice of formats as $5 Download option. Download
will include the 40 page PDF and the digital extras pack – various wallpapers,
cons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.
This configuration will be released to retail in North America (April , Australia (April 5), the UK (April , Japan (April 5) and most European territories (April .

$75 LIMITED EDITION DELUXE PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV – Hardcover book holding 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD of all 36
tracks in multi-track format (in .wav files readable by Mac and Windows), and
Blu-ray disc featuring stereo recordings in high-definition 24 bit 96Khz with
exclusive slide show. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the entire
collection in all formats and with all extras mentioned above. Also includes
48-page hardcover of photographs by Phillip Graybill and Rob Sheridan.
Discs and art book both housed in fabric slipcover.

$300 ULTRA-DELUXE LIMITED EDITION PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV – Contains all elements from deluxe package, along with
exclusive 4XLP 180-gram vinyl set, and two limited edition Giclee prints
available exclusively in this package. Disc book, art book, and prints are
all housed in a fabric slipcover. 4XLP vinyl set comes in its own fabric
slipcover. INCLUDES immediate DRM-free download of the entire collection in
all formats and with all extras mentioned above. LIMITED TO 2500 PIECES,
NUMBERED AND PERSONALLY SIGNED BY TRENT REZNOR.

Current TV learns to “Listen”

Cruxy friend’s Rikshaw Films participated in Current TV’s coverage of the U.S. New Hampshire Presidential Primaries as “CJ’s”, short for Collective Journalists. You might remember our promotion on this blog of Rikshaw’s film and website The Listening Project a few months ago.

Listener Han-shan in Afghanistan

You can view the Current “Pod” here. Overall its a refreshing take on the usual mainstream coverage. The bit with Rikshaw is about halfway through: http://current.com/items/88805813_current_nh_day_one

You can visit the film’s website with more links to Current’s coverage here: http://thelisteningprojectfilm.com/home

If you’d like to see the film at a festival, check the list below to see if its coming to a theater near you!

Upcoming screenings for The Listening Project

Beloit International Film Festival, Beloit, WI: Sat., Jan. 19th 2pm, Wilson Theater
Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS: Friday Feb. 8th @ 5pm, at Malco’s Oxford Studio Cinema
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Missoula, MT: Feb. 14-20, at The Wilma Theater (Date & Time TBA)
Cowley Community College, Wichita, KS, Feb. 21st (Venue & Time TBA)
Omaha Film Festival, Omaha, NE: Wednesday Feb. 20th @ 6pm & Saturday Feb. 23rd @ 2pm, both at Westwood Cinemas
Bentley College, Waltham, MA Feb. 25th (Venue & Time TBA)
Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA, Feb. 26th (Venue & Time TBA)
Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, Feb. 27th (Venue & Time TBA)
Durango Independent Film Festival, Durango, CO: Friday Feb. 29th @ 12pm & Saturday Mar. 1st @ 9pm, both at Gaslight Cinemas
Sedona International Film Festival, Sedona, AZ, Feb. 27th–Mar. 2nd (Venue & Time TBA)
Endicott College, Beverly, MA, 1st week of March (Venue & Exact Date/Time TBA)

TiVo helps Cruxy get into your living room

Great news. TiVo, the set-top DVR time-shifted media innovator, announced at CES yesterday that any video podcast will be able to be viewed on their boxes. This means that the DRM-free video you purchase from Cruxy or convert with Mux will be able to be fed directly to and watched on your TiVo box in your living room.

Here’s a bit more on this announcement:

Yesterday, at CES, they announced that all their subscribers will soon be able to select Internet video podcasts for playback on their set-top boxes….The new offering will be available under the “Season Pass” feature, and will apply the function to video content available through any RSS feed.

This is great news for independent creators and distributors, and is well timed with the ongoing WGA strike. The less steps it takes to get a video from Cruxy playing on the nice big screen in your living room, the better!

Read the full post on Mashable.

Artist Spotlight: Isisip – Piano Music Verite!

New Cruxy artist Isisip came to our attention when we noticed a few of her music videos appearing on the site. Now to be honest, they are hardly videos in the sense of what you’d see on MTV (well, when they actually show videos I mean). They are more documentary or “verite” perhaps – what you see is what you get. An woman, playing a keyboard in her room, performing songs for you without fuss or muss. There was something charming and authentic about it to us, so we had to share it with you.

We asked Isisip to tell us a bit more herself:

Music has been a big part of my life, I played a few instruments before, the piano was my first instrument. I have released my first CD in August 2007 and have been distributing my music through CDbaby.com.

The following is some info about me and the CD:

Ip Chui Han Amy (isisip) was born in Hong Kong. She started to play the piano around the age of 7. She listens to and was influenced by artists from Otis Spann, Charlie Parker to Kitaro and Sakamoto.
Amy holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music of Boston, USA.

Watch Isisip’s Music Videos here on Cruxy.