“He got me invested in some kind of fruit company. Then I got a call and he said that I didn’t have to worry about money no more and I said, That’s good. One less thing.”

It seems Forrest was ahead of the curve on that one. Far ahead of me, that’s for sure.

Yes, I’m going to blog about Apple. For all of you Microsoft PC folks I suggest heading over to our Video page – there’s nothing for you here.

I want to declare my love for this fine fruit as it’s the cornerstone of my brand new home editing suite. Back in March I wrote a blog about my video production business, Robert Antonelli Productions. In that post I discussed the possibility of getting a “super computer.” Well, after much research and strict financial planning, I’m excited to say that the “Super Computer” is now in my home!

Now before you get all kinds of ideas about what I have in my living room, I’m calling it “Super” because compared to the systems I’ve had in the past, this one is far…superior.

It’s a Mac Pro Tower. 1 Terabyte Hard drive for applications, music, documents, downloads – the usual stuff. Another 2 Terabyte hard drive for video & audio files. My Macbook Pro (the computer I edited all of our “In The Studio” series) has 4GB of RAM. My new Apple has 52GB of RAM.

What’s funny is, my excitement for this amount of space and memory will most likely be obsolete in a few years time. I can just hear the conversation…

“Oh, you only have 52 gigs of RAM? Yeah, most computers start at 300 gigs.”

Of course, that is another great feature of this Mac Pro Tower. In a few years, I can swap out the RAM I have now and replace it with higher, faster memory. I can add a couple of more hard drives too if I’d like.

Needless to say, I’m quite excited. My new Apple has not only kept the doctor away, but it’s made me a bit toy crazy! Now that I have a computer that can truly handle some serious editing, I wanted to get some video accessories that can capture some serious videos. Now dwelling in my living room, next to the Apple, is my new Glidecam 4000 HD. It’s a counter-weight tripod system that allows for very smooth shots while you move.

I also got new lenses, monopod, blu-ray burners, external hard drives, and monitors…It’s been an exciting couple of weeks.

Special thanks to my buddy Dennis Carrol of Dennis Carrol AV. He is wise in the ways of editing and Apple computers and has been gracious enough to lead me through the somewhat daunting process.

We’ll see what other toys and accessories I collect. In the meantime, I’m shouting from the rooftops, “Thank you Apple!”

This trip has been in the works since late last year, and I’m experiencing equal amounts excitement and anxiety as our departure approaches. The excitement is primarily derived from my near-hourly google image searches of Rome, Venice, Florence, and Assisi. The anxiety if primarily derived from – no shocker here – flying.

Ugh. Flying. I hate flying.

Love the airport. But hate flying.

I think what I love most about the airport is that, with the exception of employees, everyone there has relinquished their autonomy and basically accepted that there is no point in rushing or being rude because they have no control over the path to their destination. Juxtapose that with highway travel, for example.

The relaxation I experience at the airport is matched only by the sheer terror I experience during takeoff. My palms sweat profusely. My pulse skyrockets. I give my wife’s hand the grip-of-death as we start pushing through the clouds. And once we are up – I have a zero tolerance threshold for turbulence. Every minor bump and I am bracing myself for falling out of the sky.

But aside from the flying woes I must say I have never been this excited for a vacation in my entire life. The pictures I’ve been looking at…they can’t be real. I need to see the city of Venice with my own eyes in order for me to believe it actually exists.

And once I get back, the Faneuil Hall season will pretty much be in full swing – so keep an eye out for June dates as they start rolling in.

Ciao!

Napster
Friendster
MySpace
Flickr
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram

I wish I was smart enough to tell you what the next big one will be – or better yet, smart enough to invent the next big one. Maybe an app that’s lets you control all of them at once? I’ll call it MyFacetwitgramsterTube (copyright Robert Antonelli 2013).

What I do want to tell you about is a new social media app that Cahill has just joined: Vine

The best way to describe it is “Instagram for video.” The app, which was created and released by the Twitter people, allows you to create a 6 second video that plays in a loop. It operates as most Social sites do – follow people, tag friends, hashtag topics – and as most Social sites go, some of it is very creative and clever and some of it is just plain stupid.

The coolest part of the app is that you can start and stop the camera from taking videos thus creating some pretty cool stop-motion and special effects. As I said, some people are extremely creative with this.

I started getting into Vine back in February and Scott and I both decided that this could be real fun for Cahill. We’ll take it on shows, in Faneuil Hall, in the studio, during rehearsals. Basically anywhere we think a 6-second peak into our musical lives would be fun for you to watch.

iPhone users can download it through iTunes. For the Droid users, I think you still have to wait for it to became available but from what I’ve seen, you won’t be waiting long.

So if you’re on Vine, follow us @Cahill.

If you’re not on Vine, consider this an invitation to another app that is guaranteed to entertain, possibly inspire, and definitely waste your time. But what social app doesn’t waste your time?