Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’

Another year, another Chachi Plays!  I’m hoping that’s what I get to say for a few years now.

Last weekend, my bud Chachi sat for another 24 hours playing video games for a good cause at the Toonseum.

 

Once again, the power of social media was compelling.  I had said in front of City Counsel when Chachi received a proclamation for the first year’s Chachi Plays that this was a testament to what can be done with it.  This year, we collectively raised $10,000 in the course of Chachi Plays for programs for kids since it’s inception.

Throughout the year, Chachi is continually among the most active person I see on Twitter.  People know who he is, for better and worse. Whether he realizes it or not, he’s building a brand for himself and the equity that goes along with it.  The best part is, that’s him.  It’s not a calculated or planned.  Chachi plays in public  And come January and February, he harnesses that good will for this.  And it’s amazing.

The other thing that I enjoy was seeing everyone just enjoy being around games.  An obscene amount of games.  The expansion of tournaments, organized by Chris, were a huge success, and largely competitive.  It brought people in and out throughout the 24 hours, helping to keep things lively, especially in that home stretch through Saturday afternoon.

 

Recently, we ended the Chachi Says Vidcast at Sorgatron Media.

The “video blog” was started on my insistance that Chachi needed to get on camera.  He’s a character I’d known personally for a long time, and thought it would open up some doors if he did something.

The original concept: Have Chachi rip off a recent show I had started watching called Penn Point.  So he would sit there with a blackberry and Android phone camera, send me the clips, and I would sync and edit to make it as interesting as possible.

It took a while for him to buy into the concept.  Finally, he took his Android phone, work Blackberry, and in some cases a small MiniDV camera, and sent me along several angles to edit together.  It made things interesting, maybe more so than him just staring at the cam talking.  The best use of this concept was at Podcamp Pittsburgh 5 when we invited the audience during our live AwesomeCast recording to all film Chachi doing his show talking about the event, and send us the footage to splice together.

We continued with the concept, eventually losing the extra cams since the quality was just off base with the lackluster cellphone cams.  Chachi eventually had the chance to update to a Kodak Zi6, learn to front light, and have some more fun.  We took him to New York Comic Con for some on the floor impressions along with our other coverage of the event, broke some news on what was happening at Occupy Pittsburgh before the local news did, hand turkeys, Santa Claus, SOPA, Batman, and the epic struggle of robots and zombies…

It was a great run, with more than 69 episodes (we had some fun with the numbering).  It gave Chachi a place to develop in front of the camera.  Since, he’s returned to being a staple in my projects, including helping me in studio for Wrestling Mayhem Show and AwesomeCast, bringing even more to those shows.  It can also be determined that Chachi Says led to his spot as on screen host of the PittsburghonVideo.org project, Unsung, which has recently been honored with an award.

Altogether, I found the project to be a great exercise in doing a different kind of show than we normally did up to that point for Sorgatron Media.  It wasn’t a breakaway hit, but it hit where it needed to.  Chachi’s become a great on screen presenter and I can’t wait to see what he brings with his new InsertCointoBegin.com project…

 

More or less, I’ve lived in and around Pittsburgh for a good 10 years, getting our first apartment in Mt. Lebanon in late 2003. I came to this town because I always loved what I saw visiting my Grandparents in Moon, and what they showed me of the city. It stuck.

But with everything going on with attempting at having a career, maybe I spent one too many nights coming home and watching cartoons instead of getting out doors.

Only recently during my recent stint with shooting Unsung, and other various projects, have I been thrust into my town. We’ve had to get creative on where we shoot around town, and where we need to go to cover what’s going on. There’s so much I haven’t seen around here in my own backyard.  On the release of Unsung episode 10 this week, I thought it was time to look back.

So what have I learned?

1. Bike! I’ve heard so much from my compatriot on the AwesomeCast Rob that biking is the **** and this is a good place to do it. I’ve seen so many show up to the Cafe and to events on bikes, or walk in with their bike seat. I’ve always been weary since I always thought I’d have to coinhabit roads with cars, and people that don’t seem to follow the bike rules. But there are so many trails that maybe that’s not an issue. The old bikes are acquired and I’m ready to get them restored to get out there!

2. Use the Rivers. They’re not just cool to look at, or a reason for bridges, or for jumping into once a year when the year turns. I don’t need to buy a boat (but who wouldn’t want to buy a boat. Or a monkey. But I digress). Kayak Pittsburgh seems to be the thing to do. Missy’s already been on an outing with her work, and I’m thinking about doing the same.

3. Stay away, Duckie’s. I don’t like them. They offensively quack at you and ruin shoots downtown for me. I bet they’re ruining scenes from Dark Knight Rises right now! But if I wasn’t so personally offended by them, the concept of a land and aquatic tour of the city sounds fantastic. I’ve been on a “duck” a long time ago in a region I can’t recall, but remember it being a lot of fun. And not ruining any videographer’s day….

4. Climb. Not physically. But I’m sure that’s fun too. Get up there and look at the city at a different level. Get some perspective. I’ve been fortunate enough to “climb” several of the buildings downtown for interview meetings and clients, and find myself peaking over the shoulder of who I’m speaking with to scope out the view. I’m sure I’ve been caught, but I can’t help it! I often go to Mt. Washington, often have, when I think I need a minute in my life to take it all in.

5. Have someone to experience it with.  I’ve been so fortunate to be able to discover all of this with my best friend.  We get to get out of our dark geek caves at home and the bright (oh so very bright to our computer screen experienced eyes) outdoors of this town.

6. People are not phased by cameras.  Not like they should.  Like when they’re shouting at someone from right beside out camera in PPG Plaza.  Nope.  No problem.  Maybe it’s a city thing.  The funny one was on a dock on the Allegheny when I heard the classic iPhone camera noise taking a picture of our shoot.

 

You’ve been downtown and heard it.  That big horn followed by a boat full of vacationers yelling “quack quak” at you.  Ruining my shoots.  Messing with the mood of a rally at the City-County building…

 

 

Man, I wish I had a chance to go on one of those tours…

Some Pre-Podcamp Pittsburgh supply gathering…

A quick video right before the Podcamp day starts…

Post Podcasting edition where I answer the question of stress from the chat room.

That crazy weather we got in Mt Lebanon a few weeks back (who’d power outage put my Music Funtime Show editing back a week…)

Another “interactive” post podcast video with Mad Mike on in my earphones….

Just the other night, while I was hanging out at the Double Wide for @Kdudder’s birthday, I saw on the television a story about that being the last night Showcase West would be open.  To some, that place may represent the style and shape of a long-forgotten type of cinema now with all of the stadium seating, proper cup holders, and 3D glasses.  But in my childhood when we had a small three screen theater, it was a megaplex.

See, in those days, when I was in my single digits, those were massive screens, and cavernous theaters.  I would come down to visit my grandparents in Moon Township, and the trip to the movies was rather obligatory.  I remember seeing Jetsons, A League of Their Own, E.T,  and who knows how many Disney movies over the years.  It was my grandmother that taught me the fine art of sneaking food into the theater as well.  There was always a spare bag of Reese’s Pieces in her purse, so she didn’t have to buy me the overpriced candy.  Whenever I have a bag of them, I still think back to those days.

Also, for those that frequent Robinson Township’s ever-growing shopping district, I recall back to the day when all that was there was the theater, and a few plazas on Stuebenville Pike. This is also the place where I was introduced to some of the greatest arcade experiences.  Before I had the awesome bowling league arcade on a weekly basis,this was where I was introduced to some sweet arcade games.  The Simpsons arcade game comes to mind.

Here’s to you, Showcase West.  You were a part of my entertainment upbringing, and a point of great times with my grandparents growing up.

For a while, I’ve heard great things about the TNA Live shows, and finally, we were graced with a tour date here in the Pittsburgh area.  As we’ve discussed on the show, the original venue of Rostraver Ice Gardens collapsed after the major snow storms, and we were redirected to the growing Ches-Arena.  The show was great, had a great mix of guys from TNA, and had me screaming with Paul (of What Music) and his crew for AJ Styles in the pro-Kurt Angle hometown crowd just for fun.  Wrestlers were all around signing autographs, and it was a great vibe all night.

It’s been a crazy weekend. I had no power for over 24 hours. Dug out the car Saturday morning. Got to know the neighbors. Gave it the good old college try getting off our road, to no avail. So now I sit, contemplating if I can go to work tomorrow, with even the rail service not expected to be working, here’s some video of the craziness….

From Wrestling Mayhem Show…

It’s episode 203 with  Sorg, wrestlefan, and Mad Mike.  We are joined this week by Ryan Mitchell as we discuss his training days with Rocky Johnson, experience with the Funkin’ Conservatory, his time in WWE developmental, Florida Championship Wrestling, working with All Japan and in Canada, Florida indies vs Western PA area indies, and what’s going on with this past week’s CWE/PWO and upcoming Far North Wrestling and NWA East shows!

Also on the show, the crew discusses the Awesome Kong controversy, Royal Rumble, Wrestlicious, and Hulk Hogan’s toilet pleasures.

This is Episode 202 for Tuesday, January 26, 2010. You can get the episode here on Talkshoe, subscribe, and as always, stay tuned towww.wrestlingmayhemshow.com for the latest! The Wrestling Mayhem Show is recorded live and can be heard/viewed from 8 PM to 10 PM Eastern on Talkshoe.comand Ustream.com. Let us know what you think of the show, and your thoughts on the wrestling world by emailing us at goodtimes@wrestlingmayhemshow.com! Don’t forget you can find links related to the show’s news stories and more at our Delicious Links Page for Episode 203!

Our very first music video is “Crank It Up” by our good friend Basick Sickness!

Statik Selektah
“Night People (feat. Freeway, Red Cafe & Masspike Miles)” (mp3)
from “100 Proof (The Hangover)”
(Brick Records)

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