Category: Newsbleep

Posted on

Winter Wonderlanden

Well, it sure has been a while, hasn’t it. I wonder how many blog posts start out that way. I’m willing to bet it’s a very large number. Like, ninety a hundred. What’s going on, Miles Man? Hit me with the Newsizzle.

Newsbleep

IMG_5747.JPG

With Bryce home, and my new camera in tow, it was time for another Newsbleep. This one went on the theme of a “Pimp My Ride” show, and I tried to play up some of the cheesy motifs of such shows: the “victim”, cool teenage language, using family members as collateral, mocking the vehicle in dire need of “pimping”, nicknames of the crew so they seem more like a hip-hop posse than car mechanics, and (of course) the “reveal”.

This one was tricky. All of Holli’s stuff had to get shot on Saturday, but Tony and Tyler were going to be gone on Saturday and wouldn’t get back until Sunday. Lindsey didn’t want to shoot Saturday, but said “maybe” for Sunday. Then, on Sunday, she went fishing, so we had to shoot her on Monday (and cut a bit of her part). That and I had about two or three more characters than the original script had featured. But, it went well, and you can’t really tell that anything seems shot out of place. So far, the response has been positive. And, so far, I’d say that it’s my favorite. But, of course, the latest one is always my favorite.

Also, it was nice to get videos from family and friends to put together a “Happy Holidays” montage at the end. I really liked that, and I think I’ll work in “Call for Videos” again. I don’t know if I’ll use Mediafire again, however.

Visit my Newsbleep 007: Christmas and Must-Nots set.

Merry Christmas

IMG_5709.JPG

Of course, the list:

  • From Holli:
  • From Mom and Dad:
  • From Larry and Carol:
    • “The Office” t-shirt
    • 1/2 of a tripod
    • 1/2 of Apples to Apples
    • 1/2 of a Texas Roadhouse gift certificate
    • 1 ticket for Century Theatre
  • From Bryce and Lindsey:
  • From Adam and Cari:
    • 1/2 of Deal or No Deal
  • From G’ma and G’pa
    • $$$$
  • From Aunt Sue:
  • From Aunt Karin:
    • Gift certificate (which she unfortunately misplaced, but I’m sure it’ll turn up)
  • From Molly:
  • From David:
    • Something awesome that I can’t talk about until everyone has theirs
  • From Tony:
  • From Holly and Bob:
    • Something, but I’m not sure what yet as they still have it
  • From Santa:

Christmas was good. It seemed a little anti-climatic seeing as I got the video camera, my big gift, so early, but it was still good. And the bag is something I was planning on buying myself, anyway. All-in-all, it was a predictable Christmas. I think I requested or expected a higher percentage of my presents this year that usual. I’m not sure I’ll be so exacting next year. A big “Thank You” to everyone for your gifts. I love them!

View my Christmas 2006 set.

Our Anniversary Date

IMG_5735.JPG

Holli’s and my anniversary was on December 21st, and we had big plans, buddy, but it didn’t work out. Instead, we ended up staying at my apartment because of the roads. We did, however, have a nice present exchange and meal at Skipper’s.

Then, on the 27th, Holli came up to Sioux Falls, and we had the date we had planned for the 21st. We at at Johnny Carino’s. It was good. I had a hard time choosing my meal, and the waitress wasn’t great. At one point, another waitress came over with two plates and said, “We have the fetuccini alfredo.” Holli and I looked at each other. Neither of us ordered that. She eventually gave the food to another table. Then, later, she came back with a to-go package in her hands. “We packed up your food to go.” And I thought, “Why? Are you kicking us out?” We gave her blank stares, and protested that it must not be this table. As it turned out, the same table near ours must have gotten the wrong dish, and so they got either the original order or the food they started eating to-go, on the house. It was confusing, but the food was still good, and we ended up getting to-go boxes ourselves.

Then we went to Falls Park. It was beautiful and more lit up than a high school drop out. It was perfect for romantic picture taking.

New Year’s

IMG_5761.JPG

Whereas Christmas had been spent with my family in Big Stone City and Sioux Falls (with Holli able to share parts of that), New Year’s was spent with Holli’s family in Hawarden and Council Bluffs. I was very happy to have the latest Newsbleep up on the internet by the time I left for Holli’s house no Friday, so I had no editing I had to do over the weekend.

When I got there we played poker, of which I was first out, but after that we played Guitar Hero. I’d never played before. Holli said it gave her headaches, so I played with Marissa. We sucked worse a NASA airlock. Unfortunately, there are pictures, but we had fun destroying some classic guitar songs.

The next day we travelled to Council Bluffs to hand with their grandpa, Lauren. We went over to their uncle, Allen’s, place. He and his wife have a very nice place. Connie is a party designer, and she’s very good. As such, their house is very much a designer house. We watched a couple football games, ate some pizza, and then headed to our hotel. There we watched a Newsbleep, planned out church (for me), and went to bed.

The next day all hell broke loose. We left as early as we dared, because the weather was fast getting awful. The ride back was terrible. It was white-out conditions mixed with stupid drivers and ice. It was stressful, but Larry weathered the storm (pun intended) beautifully. I sat back and read (and eventually prayed a rosary for good measure) and listened to music while we made our way gradually home. Once back, it seemed way too late for mass in the area. My options, as I figured, were to travel to Sioux Falls for a 7:00pm service, and then it would make the most sense to go back home. New Year’s would have to be spent alone in Madison.

But, before that, Holli and I went and talked to the priest in Hawarden. I thought, at the least, maybe he could consecrate a eucharist for me, and I could read the readings or whatever. As it turned out, they were having Mary feast day mass at 5pm, and that could count towards my Sunday obligation. Score!

New Year’s Eve night was spent playing games with Marissa’s friend, Travis, and everyone else except for Adam and Cari. It was fun, but I could have done with less Fergie.

Visit my New Year’s 2007 set.

How did you spend your holidays?

Posted on

I.O.U. One Post

Dan's Good Time Juice

Those who know my brother and I also know that as much divides us as unites us. In one particular area, “hanging out”, Bryce and I have very different behaviors. I’ve never really been a “hanger-outer”, as they say. I don’t know if it was my generally introverted demeanor as a child or the fact that my parents beat me when I asked if friends could come over, but something caused me to never really think of having people over. Sure, we had movie nights and stuff, but I never went to people’s houses uninvited. Bryce, on the other hand, has always been one to call everyone in his phone and invite them over, even if it’s just to watch home videos.

Having said that, this past weekend and week have been quite a “hang-y-out-y” time for me. Dan Rausch came up for the weekend, so Holli, David, and I all hung out all weekend. We found time to make a Musebleep, which has already been posted, and I’m working on putting together the Newsbleep we shot. I think, from now on, Newsbleeps will be a Friday posting, with Musebleeps continuing to be a Wednesday posting. It’ll give me more time during the week because I almost always film on the weekends.

Some of the non-bleepy things we did was make enough spaghetti to feed the last supper (as part of an altogether fairly complicated meal), watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (a very good, funny movie), get ice cream and Jones soda at 10 (or so) at night, church, China Moon, 2nd Street Diner, and much much more. Well, actually, not much more. It was a good weekend. Also, Dan and I “talked shop” about the family website.

I uploaded some videos that didn’t make it into the Newsbleep: How to Save a Life, Hallways, and My Room. I also uploaded some photos to that effect. Check out Newsbleep 005: Daily Horrors photoset.

Then, on Monday, Holly and Bob came over originally to carve pumpkins, but there are no pumpkins anymore, so we sat and watched Shaun of the Dead instead. Awesome movie, and both the girls had to keep covering their eyes (even though it’s a relatively tame Zombie Movie). Holly and Bob have invited Holli and I to a lot of things, but we haven’t reciprocated nearly enough, hence the Monday night hang-out.

Tuesday was Halloween. I dressed as “Miles, circa Yesterday”. Mainly because I still had some Host filming to do, and wanted to use the same costume, but also because I’m not that creative. Holli dressed as Pam Beasley, and she did a very good job, even though it sounded like I wasn’t impressed at the time.

Wednesday, last night, was Recycled Percussion, a “junk rock” Stomp-ish percussion trio supported by DJ Dirty Soul. They were good. Normally, I wouldn’t go to something like this, because I’m not a student anymore, but Holli convinced me. I paid the $5 and got tons of bootleg video and photos, and afterwards I bought a DVD from them and they all autographed it. I made one uber video called Recycled Percussion that has all the short videos I took put together. Photos are in the Recycled Percussion – 1 Nov 06 photoset.

Wednesday was also the start of my new novel. If you listened to the Musebleep, then you heard me mention it. I’m going to try the National Novel Writing Month challenge again. I’m off to a good start. To be on target, I have to write 1,667 words a day, and I exceeded that yesterday. Today might be a little less writing because I’m writing this post, ain’t I? Anyway, it’s called “Terry, The Funniest, Smartest Turtle, Or: The Majesty and Mockery of Music’s Greatest Band”. It’s a Humor & Satire novel, and I’m going to (with some help, most likely) narrate parts of the book during the month of November on Musebleep. It’s based on and cowritten with Danny Foster, the creator and front man for the British experimental rock band YasBM. And, if you’re lucky, I’ll play some of their music after the show, too. The band is old, and I don’t like announcing my fandom (they’re not very popular), but I thought theirs was the perfect story to tell. And, Danny also thought it should be a children’s book.

Anyway, to end with a question, as to get conversational comments, what did you guys dress up for and do for Halloween?

Posted on

Newsbleep 004: Bloopers!

Reboot

I have wallpapers! Go and be crazy. Reboot, Reboot (red), Reboot (green), Reboot (blue). Be sure to use the “All Sizes” button to download the full 1600×1200 or a smaller 1024×768.

Yes!! You’re so so SO THAT LUCKY! You get a special birthday Newsbleep, too!

This one is a compilation of all the bloopers and deleted scenes… from the previous three episodes. Alright, so I pretty much had to use everything I had for extra footage, but hopefully it came into being something good.

So, go watch Newsbleep 004: Bloopers!.

Posted on

Newsbleep 003: All’s Not Well-a In Pella

Dutch
Dutch, originally uploaded by m!les.

There’s a new Newsbleep up! This one was recorded on a Gregg family gathering in Pella, IA, nearly under everyone’s nose (except Holli’s). That’s right. It was kinda spur of the moment, and I didn’t have a script going into it, so I just filmed stuff and contrived a story later on, but little ideas of what I was going to do along the way.

There is an entire other website devoted to Newsbleep: http://newsbleep.milesrausch.com. And it’s a vidcast-enabled site, so that means you can subscribe using iTunes or you can use any other Vidcast program by subscribing to the feed. And, as if that’s not enough, you can watch to the vidcasts on the website itself using a nifty quicktime player. To watch the video, go to Newsbleep 003: All’s Not Well-a In Pella.

The weekend was neat. We first went to Hawarden, and watched their Homecoming game, which they won. Marissa’s boyfriend was king, and I got a video of it, called J-Rad Is King.

Then we rose really early to drive to Council Bluffs to pick up Holli’s grandpa, Lauren Leaders. He remembered my name, which was neat. Eventually we made it to Pella, IA, where we watched Central College play The Knights (Wartburg, I think) and I got this video of a touchdown, which was completely by accident.

This Newsbleep was interesting because I experimented with changing contexts; taking a video or picture that is in one context and then using it for another. It made writing this a little challenging in that I wanted to weave a cohesive story that made sense within it’s own context by taking elements out of their context. But, I enjoy the end product, and I really like this guerilla method of Newsbleeping, where people have no idea what I’m filming them for or how I’ll abuse their likeness.

If you have a chance, watch the show Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip. It’s awesome. Pictures from the weekend are in my Newsbleep 003: All’s Not Well-a In Pella.

Posted on

Newsbleep 002: All Night Long

Newsbleep 002: All Night Long

Also, view CiCi and Sliding Drawer also taken this weekend.

This time almost all of this was scripted or planned. Not so much a video blog as an internet TV show, but it’s one where I’m in control of everything. This weekend, on Friday, Holli babysat CiCi, so I brought supper over (despite feeling really under the weather) and we ate and took a walk, and I took some video and pictures (see above and below, respectively). Also, on Friday, Dave joined Holli and I for a go of it down south. I decided to jump the Steve Irwin fan club bandwagon and make a “tribute” video to him. To be fair, Steve did entertain me, and I have nothing but good will towards his conservation and relocation efforts, but I got a little sick of how many tributes to Steve there were on the internet (and almost every art-upload site was full of them), so I shot right back. That day, however, we spent the entire day with Jenny and Molly Brass, eating out, going to Target (I bought the special edition of Narnia and shampoo), and finally we went to their house for supper and some home videos. A good weekend. Then I spent the rest of it editing this thing while Holli felt conflictingly more and more proud and more and more annoyed that I was ignoring her for my MacBook once again. I’m sorry, baby! I love you!

Shownotes:

MilesRausch.com Newsbleep 002: All Night Long

at least one person liked the Newsbleep, so I’m doing it again

Firstly. Night Stalker

Thanks, M-train. And good evening to all you wannabe Newsbleepers. I’m here, in the field, on location, right here in my apartment. The same apartment that you see in the opening animation. I am sitting mere feet from the very table at which I broadcasted the original Newsbleep, #001, in 2006. I know!

But I’m not here to rehash old (bleep)s. I’m here to investigatorially journalize the amazing night life of Madison, SD. One of the amazing features of my MacBook is the iSight camera, built right into the lid. It’s this same camera that I’m using right now, and that comes with time lapse capabilities.

My first experiment with this feature materialized in the form of a music video for a Radiohead song. See the show notes for a link. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it captured the imagination of the nation. My second experiment was of myself a few nights ago. I wanted to see what it looks like when I sleep. I’ve never been able to watch myself sleep despite my numerous sleep/mirror inventions and experimentation with LSD. Also, I’ve been a sleep dancer ever since I was an infant, when my mother played Elton John to get me to sleep. I’m sorry to everyone who’s had to endure that, but I wanted to see just what moves I really have. But the footage was too dark, so I deleted it.

(crickets)

What makes this experiment worth it is that I live above the only traffic light in Madison, ergo the busiest intersection in town, which nearly guarantees good footage. Now, it’s very nearly 11pm. I’m going to set this up, and, always the devoted reporter, I’m going stay up all night long, watching along with you.

(timelapse and shots of me sleeping)

So there you have it. Madison is a town of freaks who come out at night to feed on the dreams of the living, turning the streets dark-red with nightmarish blood-lust. Anyway, back to you, M-train.

Secondly, Ghost Stalker

Thanks, M-ego (amigo). Over two years ago, the Newsbleep offices received an unmarked package in the mail. We naturally thought it was sars, and we beat the package until it was unrecognizable. After calming down and smoking a joint or two, we inspected it to find this spectacular home video. Take a look.

The video shows what appears to be a misty-like ghostly apparition dissipating into the window. Naturally, we thought nothing of it, until the studio moved into the very apartment where the video was taken.

So they did call the landlord, but the story he had was neither convincing, nor worth filming. So nothing happened until we located the author of the original video, and the story he gave us was much more better.

A fascinating story with humorous commentary. Thank you, Miles. And we we turn to our final story of the evening. Some of you may have heard that Steve Irwin, a man who’s enthusiasm for the ugliest, dangerousest creatures on earth has horrified and entertained the world for years, passed away while playing with fish or something. Newsbleep, always one to jump on the bandwagon, presents this “In Memorium”.

Lastly, Steve Irwin Stalkers

Reporter: Thanks Vitamin ‘M’. I’m driving down South Dakota Highway 19, heading towards what APPEARS to be the city of Sioux Falls. In the vehicle with me are David Rausch and Holli Gregg, two self-proclaimed Major Steve-Nerd Irwinites.

This In Memorium celebrates the life of famed South American Actor/Comedian Steve Irwin who coined the famous phrase “Crickey, dat croc done ’bout took me arm off!”

Montage of driving.

Turns music off, “Hey guys, story time. Name 10 to 15 of your favorite Steve Irwin moments. Dave, go.”

More driving. Make it up. Eat at Chile’s to celebrate his South American heritage. Tie-in to bringing Jenny Brass her shirt back.

As always:

check for more Newsbleeps or other info
read other MR.com blogs
All photos from this weekend can be found in CiCi – 8 Sept 06 and The Brass House – 9 Sept 06

Posted on

Newsbleep 001: Courtship, Cards, and Competition

Newsbleep 001: Courtship, Cards, and Competition

I’m certainly into video lately. I was experimenting with my iSight camera at home this weekend, and I decided that I’ll try a vblog entry. I don’t know how often I’ll do it. If I use my iSight camera, then I can do it whenever I want, but if I use a better camera (like one of them from campus), then it might be less frequent.

Shownotes:

MilesRausch.com Newsbleep 001: “Courtship, Cards, and Competition”

hopefully more entertaining and saves me typing
great sound effects like this
awesome visual effects like this, and this, and this, and this, and this

3. Courtship

Alicia and Doug
tiny, lonely church
guy I called for an address used the phonebook
timed it to sit in the front
Went: “Weddingingly”; Was: “Weddingy”
no photos (crickets); moment of silence

Related News: bryce called to say that he and I have a bond that no one else can have

2. Cards

a lot of poker
a lot of peanuts
a lot of arrested development
surprise poker shark: Micaela Rausch; had Dan’s friend Jon and Uncle Frank scared of her, something I’ve been for years
Dave gave us a tour of his house (Jenny, Holli, and I); ended in philosophical discussion in Micaela’s room

Related News: I got Arrested Development 3

1. Competition

annual Labor Day softball tourney
won first game, lost second and third
Members of the team were: Dick, Barry, Keith, Unknown Guy, David, Chris Smith, Chris Fellows, John, Guy I Should Know, Dan, Uncle Tony, My Dad, Mike G., and Uncle Mike.
Nicknames: D-saster, Scooter, F-stop, and D-rail

Related News: Seeds are addicting, and we should keep them away from Holli
Related News: Tony likes to touch people’s faces
Related News: Chris Smith will answer to any nickname you give him, with a smile.

As always:

Check Newsbleep for more Newsbleeps or other info
Read other MR.com blogs
All photos from this weekend can be found at the 2006 Labor Day Softball Tournament set.