Why all this?

The start of this videoblog happened in October of 2006, when I went to Seattle, Washington to meet up with my then-boyfriend at the Blog Business Summit. At the tail end of the conference, a group of bloggers which included myself took this private jet trip called “Grapes on a Plane,” and flew out to some wineries in Yakima Valley. I had also just bought a new digital camera a couple of weeks prior.

It occurred to me on this trip that I wouldn’t have been able to update my blog with a huge block of writing describing the plane trip and all of its’ various nuances and details, so I opted to test out the new video functions on my camera instead. Obviously, I thought the experience itself wouldn’t have been as great if I had taken a bunch of stills and wrote about it — you just can’t relay the exhilaration of a plane rumbling down a runway and eventually sailing into the sky beyond the clouds… without motion.

Recently, I’ve paid more attention to all of these small instances, and am very surprised at the way that I express myself when using this medium. I personally know absolutely nothing about video, and I know nothing about film, either. I do all of the video and audio editing, producing, and direction here, mostly because I want to learn and improve my ability to tell stories in a different way. This is not a medium that I’m used to working with, but I enjoy learning and tinkering around.

When a toddler runs around snapping shots with a disposable box camera, there are a lot of neat surprises and pieces of wonder when developed that I don’t think I’ve really noticed or explored before. That being said, I suppose you could liken that type of experience to what I’m doing here.

Thanks for watching.

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I’d like to acknowledge some people who encouraged me to participate in the videoblogging community, and who each had offered their advice and support to me, long before I ever decided to do this at all:

• Eric Rice, for encouraging me to make more meaningful media and stories.
• Eddie Codel, for believing in more creative endeavors from me while talking at the first Barcamp.
• Josh Wolf, for our talk about the medium while having a cig outside of Webzine 2005.
• Irina Slutsky, for making my SF non-tech debut a winning performance dancing for a drag queen.

Lastly, I’d like to thank my friend Francisco Aliwalas, who has been doing really amazing things for years, for helping me out and being my mentor and idol in this particular creative medium.

Thank you all for the inspiration and insight.