It is done! alionsonny.de is up to date again and more ...

This went reasonably fast, but it was no mammoth project ;). You may still encounter sporadic side effects of the renovation, but generally alionsonny.de should be fully functional again and, much more important, up to date. On this occasion, I also improved some things, which unnecessarily increased the loading time of the page in the past. I have not touched the visual improvements, I mentioned in the past posting, yet, but these are not so important, that I would delay the work on the album any longer.

Continuity ?
Yes, some of you complain about it already. But I really needed that little break, because my ears urgently needed a break. Creating the release versions has really tired them plentiful and at the end I was not sure if I am still able to hear correctly. The musicians amongst you will know what I mean ;). So what's up with the album? It is almost done! I have finished the release versions of the oldest , and therefore most in need of a review, 10 tracks. The three remaining tracks require, in my opinion and the opinion of many listeners, no major overhaul or improvement. Currently I am working, with the involvement of voluntary test listeners, on the playlist, which determines the order of the tracks. This process is also completed, except for the judgment of a particular person, whose opinion is personally very important to me. This will happen this evening. In this respect, although I can not promise anything 100% as always, the album should be, at least in my Routenote shop, this week. ITunes, Amazon and Co. always take a while.

AlionLive is getting bigger!
First of all: Yes, "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira" will be continued soon . But the album has priority. Nevertheless, there is good news for the fans of this project. My friends on Facebook, as always, already know about it... at least I hope so ;). The most important news, especially for readers of this blog, is, that no news regarding AlionLive will be posted on this blog anymore from now on. This blog is now exclusively reserved for the music project alionsonny. News about new videos etc. will from now on be posted on the new AlionLive Blog (CLICK!). There are also some other things that may be particularly of interest for those, who wish to follow my hikes. AlionLive now also has its own page on Facebook and I would be extremely happy if everyone of you would "LIKE" it. So no one should ask me questions why nothing about AlionLive is posted here anymore ;).

Yes, and that's it for this time. I am back at work!

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - From Camara de Lobos to the Lido

And here it is already: The second part of day 11! This went quite quick this time. Ok, but to achieve that, I had to pause working on the new album during the past days. Don't worry: I'm already back on it, but more on that later.

The story: As already announced, this video shows a little "hike" from Camara de Lobos to the Lido, filmed using my inimitable "shaky cam technique". This video is especially recommended for those who plan to visit Madeira, because it shows the way from Funchal, along the coast to Camara de Lobos... but just in the reverse direction. And almost all newcomers to Madeira make that one mistake, that they think, that down at the beach it does not go further. The secret is the tunnel shown in this video where my camera did it's best to compensate for the bad light conditions , but once again failed miserably ;).

Größere Kartenansicht

The video shows also wonderful impressions of a sunny day on the promenade, accompanied by a few songs from the, hopefully soon to be released, album "Continuity". The soundtrack contains this time, except for one song, almost finished album versions (release versions). The soundtrack in detail:

00:00 - Madeira (Release Version)
04:55 - Bulletproof (Release Version)
9:58 - Green Hills (Release Version)
14:38 - Drunken Joe in Love ( Release Version)
19:03 - Going Bonkers (Release Version)
23:57 - A Sunny Day (Release Version)
28:55 - Flight of the Butterfly (Pre-Release Version)

As you can see, the video is once again a little longer, but 33 minutes is not too long, right? While we are at it: What do you think actually about the video lengths? Every now and then, there are people who write to me, that certain videos are too long. What do you think: Should I split such long videos generally into smaller parts? If so, what would be a good length? The good old 15 minutes? But I also want to point at the fact, that there are people who like to see things as a whole and they would complain if I split the videos into parts. Well, again the good old quote from Wilhelm Busch nails it perfectly: "To all people fairly done , is an art that no one can" (I don't know if this translation is even remotely correct).

Finally, I want to tell you of course a bit about the status of the album "Continuity". Slowly but steadily, the whole thing comes to an end. The song "Talking Cat" was transformed into the most probably final version yesterday and currently I'm working on "Flight Of The Butterfly". Don't worry: I know that the song is almost perfect and will not change too much. I just think that some things get too much presence and others do not ;). When this song is done, there are 4 songs left to work on, but all of these were produced in the period between August 2013 and now and therefore are quite up to date. So I would say very carefully, that there is not much left to do.

Ok, but now have fun with the new video . I am already working on the next one.

Finally: A new AlionLine Video! Come with me to Camara de Lobos!

Some of you already thought , I would have given up on the AlionLive channel, but did you really believe that? No, the reason for the fact that nothing went no further lately on AlionLive is much less spectacular. Anyone remembering the album "Continuity"? Yes, it has still not been released. But I can assure you that is not a musical "Duke Nukem 4 Ever". So the album will come and it will come soon. Well, and the work on this album occupied my whole creative energy recently. A little progress report: 5 of 13 songs have been "transformed" into the final release versions. The rest is pretty up to date and therefore it is unlikely to be much work.

But back to the video: When I decided shortly before the turn of the year to finally continue with the work at "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira", I noticed that a fresh intro would be quite appropriate. And as you know me, of course I once again went over the top and wanted a real Blender 3D intro. The ideas were blooming like a flower meadow and in no time I found myself in a whole lot of work. This then delayed the start of the actual video editing for a few more days.

The plot: As mentioned in the credits of the last video, on the evening of 10 Day, a little high-proof festivity took place. On the morning of 11 Day I felt absolutely unable to start serious ventures, namely hikes. As the weather was surprisingly sunny, it made ​​sense to insert a day of rest. And to not make things unnecessarily complicated, I decided to spend the day in Camara de Lobos. And this, with just under 15 minutes of run time unusual short video, is about that very stay in Camara de Lobos. It features, aside of the new intro, beautiful views of the picturesque fishing village of Camara de Lobos, the coast, Cabo Girao and there is a little "Sunday Sermon" - because it was a Sunday - from me also.

The whole is accompanied by three songs from the above-mentioned album "Continuity". Two are still in the pre-release version state and one in the final release version:

• Nero d ' Avola (Release Version)
• Pirates of Madeira ( Pre-Release Version)
• Ganja In the Jar ( Pre-Release Version)

This nearly 15 minutes of video is by far not everything that was filmed on day 11. I have decided once more to split the video material into two parts, because it fits thematically. The rest of the video material is about the somewhat long walk from Camara de Lobos to back to Funchal / Lido. I have captured large parts of that walk using my incomparable shaky cam technique and want to share this pleasure just do those who really want to view it. So it made ​​sense to separate the more quiet and short part about Camara de Lobos from the shake-o-rama, which will be soon available as part 2.

Yeah, what else to say? Actually nothing ;) . I am off to work again on the album and because of that, it may take some time until part 2 is ready. But now have fun with part 1.

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 10 Part 2 is finished!

Well, this time he took his time, eh? What? You saw that the video is available for 2 days already? Well, that surprises me ;). The rather very small number of views of my latest videos force me rather to suspect that almost noone visits this video channel anymore ;). In fact, I consider to abandon AlionLive in favor of music production. The channel initially was intended primarily as fun and secondarily as another way to promote my music. But both, however, does not work, if noone is watching the videos. So I probably, after the completion of the ongoing video series, will abandon the whole thing. I'm very sorry for the few people who like Alionlive, but I have to set priorities and keep an eye on what works and what not. Alionlive seems not to work. For this reason I have this time delayed the usual promo for the video waited a little, to see how many of you watch the video, if I just mention it briefly on Facebook... and do nothing else. And, well, the small number under the video says it all ;).

Never mind: Here is the promised second part of day 10. You remember: After a bus lottery, the choice fell on a bus to Camacha. Then I did a reasonably steep climb (it's Madeira) until I reached the beginning of the Levada. And here I stopped the first part, because I know not many people would love to watch a more than a quarter hour long shaky camera walk with me talking most of the time. The now avaliable second part is now really hardcore. For a total of 47:05 minutes: Shakycam on the Levada with me as a commentator. On the, quite interesting, trail I meet interesting people, I will tell you about some interesting and less interesting stuff and the technical planning to avoid the Shakycam during my next visit to Madeira. It has something to do with a cat and tape. During the entire path I had secretly suspected to be somehow not quite on the right track. This turns out to be 100% correct at the end of the video. Yes, at the end of this video you will experience good old Sonny absolutely destroyed and really indecisive ;) I indeed was lost and had hiked into the completely wrong direction. But you know: Before I really give up, the end of the world is coming! So there is a short and crisp part 3 of day 10 left in which I solve the problem with some effort. But that's currently still top secret ;).

The soundtrack of this video is again entirely from the new, old album "The Alion Archives", which is available for free download on alionsonny.com. The soundtrack in detail:

1. Heart Attack
2. A Banquet at Elvenwood Castle
3. Alion Smoke Signal
4. Midnight Summerdream Dub
5. On the Rocks (feat. Scott Durfinger)
6. Babylon DC (feat. Ital Roots Players)
7. The Scrolls of Alion - Chapter One - Desert Storm

...and here's the video. Have fun, if possible ;)

AlionLive - Bike ride to the Lüneburg Heath - Here we go!

Now  barely 2 months have passed since this bike ride took place. But you know that there are still other things to do and I'm never really idle. But now finally the first part of the video series is ready for you.

What do you get to see? First of all: This first part is by far the most boring of the series. At least I think so. It's just only the ride to the destination. I had to get the, because of months of sitting behind a computer, rusted and dusted bodything going again and really wanted to get quickly to Lüneburg. In addition, unexpected problems, caused by the absolutely insane road design near  Geesthacht caused some real trouble. You can learn more about it in a, on the AlionLive channel up to now unpreceded and unusual, rant at the end of the video. Yes, I think the next parts of this video series will be by far more interesting. I hope that this introduction part is good entertainment for you still.

The video starts on the morning of August 25th, even though I already started the night before and rode the first kilometers to a quiet place near Glinde. There I built up my tent and that is where the video begins. After a more or less long opening speech ;) I get on the way, tell you a bit about the kind of food I eat during bike rides, am forced to a considerable detour because of the lack of braincells in the skulls of some road planners in Geesthacht. Nevertheless, I manage it in the end to get to the front gates of Lüneburg... just as planned. However, the video ends already before this in Bardowick where I am celebrating the above-mentioned little rant.

The soundtrack is completely from the upcoming album "Continuity" by alionsonny :

1. Talking Cat
2. A Sunny Day
3. Nero d ' Avola
4. Pirates of Madeira
5. Flight of the Butterfly

Have much fun!

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 10 - It goes on!

Now it's been almost 1 1/2 months since I have uploaded the last ALR2M video. For those who follow my activities, I must not say why it was. For the rest I say just: 2 other AlionLive Videos (bike ride Hamburg-Mölln-Ratzeburg) and loads of new music. Also the video footage of day 10 gave me some quite unexpected problems. The uncut footage had a run time of about 1 1/2 hours, and I 've learned that videos with an unusual length like that one scare away some viewers. Not everyone always has tons of time available to watch a full-length video completely. So you mark the video for viewing  later on... but I also often simply forget about it later on. A much bigger problem with the video material of day 10, however, was as follows: Inspired by quite a few requests of some viewers regarding to long hiking sequences in which I point the camera to the front, I filmed a sequence of approximately 45 minutes in length, in which I did just that. In addition, of course I talk most of the time. This calls for complaints. So I have both problems solved as follows: The video is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 shows you everything before the "boring" hike, Part 2 is for the diehards and should not be enjoyed without being intoxicated if possible, and Part 3 will show everything after I got lost on the Levada and therefore left it. So everyone is free, to skip part 2... although that of course will ruin the complete AlionLive Experience.

So now for the first time since a long time, I upload a video with less than a quarter hour run time. The story: It already begins with a beautiful chaos. Actually, I wanted to take the bus to the Parque Ecologico do Funchal that day and walk from there to the Pico Ariero. Unfortunately I forgot some important stuff at the hotel and thus missed my bus. After the well-known buslottery I decided to simply go on good luck to Camacha, where I actually arrived in bright sunshine. Here I discovered a couple of signs that told me that I was close to some Levadas . So I followed the signs and found myself soon, and after a hard one hour climb, at the Levada. I followed the Levada through a surprisingly urban area (THERE ARE BUS STOPS!!!), until it really started... and here is where part 1 ends. Yeah, but look for yourself. Short, crisp and hopefully entertaining ;)

It is done! " AlionLive - Bikeride Hamburg Mölln Ratzeburg " is complete!

Yeah, the fifth and final part of the video series is now available for viewing. What awaits you? Of course, we catch up where we left off last time, just before Ratzeburg on the western side of the lake. Then we ride to the center of Ratzeburg, where, to my disappointment, I saw historic buildings than I expected. Maybe it was simply due to the roaring heat of the day, that I overlooked something. This heat "inspired" me then to pay the cathedral a visit. You know : In this old stone buildings, it is always nicely cold. Here is a little message to my atheist and agnostic friends : NO, the reason that I'm filming churches , is not that I am a religious guy, but that I like old and interesting buildings. And churches are (unfortunately) usually the only well-preserved historic buildings. After I left the cathedral, and the burning sun hit my skull directly, I had even less desire than before to wander the city streets sweating with a camera and a well-filled backpack filming. So I went slowly on the way home. Just before I left Ratzeburg, I enjoyed a quite price intensive, but delicious, ice cream. After refilling the beverage stocks (no AlionLive without beer), I appear on screen for the first time after about 14 minutes. I think that's a record! It never took that long in an AlionLive video, until I appeared live on the screen. The spoken message then falls quite short, because the location, where it was recorded, was a very unpleasant one: A lawn between a McDonalds and a gas station. Next on the way home was an annoying "How to get across the canal"-game, which forced me to a rather long detour. So it is no wonder that at the end even arson fantasies took shape inside my wrinkled skull. Nevertheless, I managed as planned, to reach the home base around 21:00 o clock and tooke the long awaited bath. Of the latter event. there are no video recordings because of minors and aesthetic reasons.

After excessive cutting work, the video is crisp 30 minutes short. It is suitable for the extended coffee break ;). Yeah, I was actually made aware of the fact- that so many view my videos in the work break. We live in funny times ;). This time I played around with a new video coding

1. to reduce the upload time (processing by Youtube also)
2. to optimize the image quality , especially at very fast camera moves
3. To minimize conflicts with the Youtube encoder (you know the enemy ;))

So, if you should notice a change in video quality negative or positive, please inform me about it. More than two eyes are always good. Personally, I think the improvements are achieved. At least I have reduced the size of the video file by about 50%.

The soundtrack this time is by alionsonny and Cimelium. All songs are destined for the upcoming albums of both projects. In case of Cimelium it is the Album "Madeira". I start the video with rather calm tracks of this album, because I wanted to place the very "churchy" sound of "Nossa Senhora do Monte" during the visit to the Cathedral of Ratzeburg. After that, I had a hard time to create a somewhat reasonable transition to the "alionsonny part" by using "Cais do Sardinha". However, this is only approximately achieved. A transition from the Cimelium sound to the brand new alionsonny track "Pirates of Madeira" is very difficult because of the characteristics of the track. Still, I wanted to showcase "Pirates of Madeira" urgently in this video. And after all the "organ tooting", I also thought it would be quite appropriate to put the pedal to the metal just a little bit ;).

Here is the complete soundtrack :

1. Cimelium - Ribeiro Frio
2. Cimelium - Nossa Senhora do Monte
3. Cimelium - Parque do Lido 6:30 am
4. Cimelium - Cais do Sardinha
5. alionsonny - Pirates of Madeira
6. alionsonny - Flight of the Butterfly
7. alionsonny - The Storm

So, after all the words, here's the video !

AlionLive - Bikeride Hamburg-Mölln-Ratzeburg - Part 4 - All around the Ratzeburger See

Here is the fourth part of this video series! We start exactly up where we left off in part three: On a very cold morning on the Himmelswiese at the Ratzeburg Lake. After the morning sun had warmed the weary bones somewhat, we make our quite long way around the lake of Ratzeburg and stop just before Ratzeburg. On the way we experience a lot of finest nature, beautiful views of the lake and island view Ratzeburg, but also a supernatural encounter and my first teleportation experiments.

The soundtrack is entirely by Willma Poppen. All tracks, except "Strandspaziergang" and "Holy Arpeggiatorus" are destined for the soon (Fall/Winter 2013) released album "Willma im Wunderland". "Strandspaziergang" and "Holy Arpeggiatorus", are from the previously released album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture".

The Soundtrack:

1. Strandspaziergang
2. Holy Arpeggiatorus
3. RaumZeit
4. RaumReise
5. Karussell
6. Apocalypso

 And here's the video:

AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira - Day 9 - Santana

...and on we go! I have now spent exactly one month, enjoying the rare beautiful summer weather, but still was not completely idle. The delay of the release of this video was mainly caused by some problems with the 3D intro. Therefore, a new, simpler intro sequence was used in this video.

The Plot: On the ninth day of my trip to Madeira, I decided after the weather looked promising to make the long bus ride to Santana on the north coast of the island. Do not worry: I have not filmed the entire bus ride, but only 6 minutes ;). When I arrived in Santana, I explored the area a bit, got to know the local weather phenomena and decided to hike a little further west along the coast. Here, I got lost a bit and was allmost convinced to follow a rather desperate "backup plan". However, this was not carried out because I reached a saving bus stop just in time.

The soundtrack is completely from the soon to be released album "Continuity". Yes, exactly: The new alionsonny album has a name and will be published soon. But that's another topic ;).

1. Flight of the Butterfly
2. Nero d' Avola
3. Talking Cat
4. Green Hills
5. The Storm
6. Bulletproof
7. A Sunny Day
8. Madeira

And here's the video:

AlionLive - Bikeride Hamburg -> Mölln -> Ratzeburg part 3 is online!

Because of the extensive musical activities of the past few weeks I hardly got to work on the videos. Yes, day 9 of "AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira" is already in the works too. And now that we really have plenty enough new music, it's video time. But this new music is not used in the third part of the report on the bike ride from Hamburg to Mölln, Ratzeburg back. I found simply that a visit to the historic city center of Mölln is suitable for a rather more serious form of music than a Pop-Techno and funny Reggae-ish stuff. And that's why I this time used once more music mainly from the album "Alion - The Original Soundtrack". This, plus a fitting track from the album "Reggae?" and one quite old chestnut and the soundtrack was perfect. The new music will be used somewhere else then.

Thematically, we start where we left off at the end of Part 2: On reaching the city sign of Mölln. We visit the picturesque historic city center of Mölln first for a time, and to then go on a little alcohol influenced Odyssey northeast. Here we have some quite humorous moments. At the end, and just minutes before nightfall, we end up at a peaceful place at the Ratzeburger See called "heavens meadow" to successfully end the first day of the tour.

The video is not completely free of shaky shots directly from the bike but this time these are extremely rare. But this time I was very communicative and am therefore quite often to see and hear. And now, end of the preface -> Here's the video!

AlionLive - Return 2 Madeira - day 8B is here!

An attentive blog reader alerted me to the fact that I actually forgot, to announce the new part of "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira" in this blog. Well, I am currently very busy creating music, so something like this can happen. Yes, also for the project alionsonny new sound material is being produced again. Due to some unexpected and also unpleasant events you had to wait quite long this time for the continuation of the video series "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira". In addition, I wanted to get the new 3D intro done, which also needed some time to calculate (render). Now it is finally done: The second part of day 8 is ready for viewing on Youtube. And what a part: We walk from the picturesque mountain village of Santo da Serra along the Levadas to Ribeiro Frio. There it "traditionally" begins to rain. During the walk there is plenty to see and to hear, because I did also sing a unique original song creation ;).

The soundtrack is, as for the recent hike videos, once more completely by Cimelium. It introduces two brand new songs by the Cimelium project, namely "Iacta Alea Est" from the previously announced album "Ad Hominem" and "Parque do Lido 6:30 am" from the album: Madeira. The other titles of the soundtrack are from the albums "Mesopotamia" (available on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Spotify and Routenote) and "Madeira" (published in 2013). The soundtrack in detail:

1. Inanna (Album: Mesopotamia)
2. Rabacal (Album: Madeira)
3. Lilith (Album: Mesopotamia)
4. Pico Ruivo (Album: Madeira)
5. Alea Est Iacta (Album: Ad Hominem)
6. Parque do Lido 6:30 am (album: Madeira)
7. Dumuzi (Album: Mesopotamia)
8. Ribeiro Frio (Album: Madeira)

So, here's the video. I wish you much fun!

AlionLive - Bike ride from Hamburg to Ratzeburg and Mölln - Part 2 is here!

Yes, of course: "Madeira AlionLive Return 2" will be continued. However, due to organizing "stuff", it was somewhat more favourable to first get the second part of the tour finished. We start exactly  where we left off in the first part and go from Luetjensee all the way to Mölln. This time there is even more shaky filming from the bike, but since this mainly took place on a more or less developed routes this time, the camera should not be still shaky, but somewhat less than if you go offroad. The soundtrack consists this time of a colorful mixture of songs from alionsonny, Willma Poppen and Cimelium. Even Willma Poppen's latest release "RaumReise" is featured.

The soundtrack in detail:

1. Cimelium - Cais do Sardinha (Album: Madeira)
2. alionsonny - Flowers (Album: Electronic Spacerock)
3. Cimelium - Pico Ruivo (Album: Madeira)
4. Cimelium - Cimelium - Parque do Lido 6:30 am (Album: Madeira)
5. alionsonny - Versionist Dub (Album: Dub Antiquities)
6. Willma Poppen - RaumReise (Album: Willma im Wunderland)

If somebody likes to buy the music:
The albums "Electronic Spacerock" and "Dub Antiquities" by
alionsonny are avaiable on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Spotify and
Routenote. The album "Madeira" by Cimelium and "Willma im Wunderland"
by Willma Poppen are to be released in 2013.

And here is the video:

This time Germany instead of Madeira! A new small AlionLive series is here!

After I recognized, that some viewers, Facebook friends etc. are allready quite annoyed when I only mention the word Madeira, there is now a little break, regarding those travel reports. Additionally, some  people from the most beautiful island in the world asked me to show them a bit of Germany. Why not, especially as the great weather, which outright encourages to do some biking tours?

So I jumped on my rickety bike early last weekend and ate a few kilometers, 150 km in two days to say it exactly. The route was from Hamburg to Mölln, then once completely around the Ratzeburger See to Ratzeburg and then back to Hamburg. The weather was great, but it was also somewhat hot. I again got a nice sunburn, and returned home exhausted but happy. The bike tour was wonderful and I've seen a lot of beautiful things and captured some of them for you on video.

If you want to know more about the route, here is it on Google Earth:

and here's the elevation profile:

I decided to divide the video footage (uncut 3 1/4 hours) into several parts, for the following reasons:

1. Few viewers want to watch a 3-hour video in one go. One can watch small chunks easily during a coffee break, and if you like a full-length, you can watch the playlist ;)
2. Youtube, or some display devices seem to have some problems with long videos. They stop in the middle of playback etc.
3. I can divide the footage by topics

So, now the first of the (estimated) seven parts has been cut and edited. It is a bit longer than 22 minutes and covers the first part of the tour from the north-east of Hamburg to Luetjensee, a picturesque small town in Stormarn / Schleswig Holstein. IMPORTANT: Please excuse the shaking of the camera, especially during the parts that were filmed directly while riding the bike. Filming from a bike creates shaking at all, but as a plus, the de-shaking feature of my camera somehow doesn't work anymore.

The little soundtrack consists entirely of songs by the alionsonny project, namely:

1. alionsonny - A Sunny Day
2. alionsonny - Fear No Evil
3. alionsonny - Summertime
4. alionsonny - Forest
5. alionsonny - Life Goes ON!

The songs 2,4 and 5 are from the album "alionsonny - Electronic Space Rock", which you can purchase at iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Spotify and Routenote, if you want to help me buy a new and better camera or a long-needed replacement for my old bike.

And now have fun with the video!

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 8A is done!

...and so am I. Phew, that was quite some work. This didn't get better by me catching a quite heavy flu. How was that video causing more work than all the others? Well, I do not really love to write subtitles. And this time a lot of them needed to be done. Why? You will know this, after you read about the special kind of video this one is a few lines below. ;) Also because of the kind of video, I had to manually place loads of fades between the moderation (me speaking) and the soundtrack. And before some "specialist" shows up, and says, that this could all have been done automatically by using sidechaining: No, this would have not worked, because the background noise would have "ducked" the soundtrack all the time. And no, a noisegate would have also not helped. Additionally I tried some funny new tricks this time. And now the attentive audience at Facebook knows, why it all took that long. But, thanks to me: It is done! Ok, what is the video about?

This is the first part of two for day 8 of my travelogue about my stay in Madeira 2012. I split day 8 into 2 parts because it starts with THIS long walk through Funchal and continued with a also long hike from Santo da Serra to Ribeiro Frio. It would have been a rather bad idea to "force" the audience to watch a allmost 1 hour long city walk, to be able to watch the Levada walk. Also a allmost 2 hours long video would scare some viewers away.

This video is about a walk from the hotel "Residencia Vila Lusitania" in Funchal Ajuda through the heart of Funchal to the central bus station near the cable car station to Monte. It features me describing quite a lot of things on the way in my own unique style. Please excuse my lousy English once again, which didn't get better by walking through a city, holding a camera, keeping track of the traffic, pedestrians AND speaking in a language, which is not my mother tongue.

I learned quite a lot, while producing this video: The facts described above taught me, that it is not really a good idea, to moderate that kind of videos in English. This is why I will never do this again in the future. This means, that future sightseeing ;) videos will be moderated in German and subtitled in English. Despite of the fact, that the multitasking lead to some funny moments (musician for electricity), the result was rather embarrassing... or what do you think? I also learned some new tricks of editing video which make this video more fun and also kept the time I worked at it at a reasonable level.

The soundtrack is completely taken from the first album "Heroes of the Popp Culture" by my music project Willma Poppen. It is allmost the whole album... and the "rippers" will be angry about the voice moderation ;) But why not buy the album? Where? There:

Amazon
iTunes
eMusic

And this is the playlist of the soundtrack:

1. Willma Poppen
2. Popp-U-Lism
3. Popp-Corn
4. Heroes of the Popp-Culture
5. Poppin' on Heavens Door
6. Popp-Eye
7. Mrs. Von Poppen's Funny Mushroom Omelette
8. Poppin' All Over The World
9. Strandspaziergang
10. Joyriding in Popp-Town
11. Childhood Memories

And now this is REALLY enough words. Here's the video:

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 7 - Santa Maria de Colombo is here!

Day 7 of my 2012 trip to Madeira could have been also titled a chaos day as day 6 was. Well at least the first hours of that day went somewhat chaotic. I seldomly have a clear plan for a hiking day, but I had a somewhat elaborated  plan for that day. I wanted to hike around Ribeiro Frio, and here especially to a place called Balcoes. There are balcones above the clouds at that place, giving you a breathtaking panorama on a day with good weather. And here we got into a problem: The weather was more than just rainy when I arrived at Ribeiro Frio allready, but it went more and more worse. When I arrived at the Balcoes, I had just some seconds to take out the camera, film a short scene in which one can barely see anything... and the hell broke lose. It is nor exageration if I say that again I was breathing water.

So first reluctantly and more and more willing, I decided to go back to FUNchal, spent some time to get all my stuff dried again and then thought about what to do with the big rest of the day. I could have done one more random hike around FUNchal, but I wanted to do a trip aboard the Santa Maria de Colombo also in 2012 at all. So, because it was sunny at the coast, I took the opportunity and went aboard.

This video will show you a lot more of the phantastic crew and other aspects of the ship aswell. Of cause, those of you who watched the 2011 video, will feel quite "home". The video has a runtime of 1 hour and 7 minutes, so you better reserve an evening with a good bottle of nice wine for this. For long passages I just pointed the cameras away from the ship to give you a bit more of the impression to be aboard yourself. But if you ever go to Madeira, you should of cause do a trip on the Santa Maria de Colombo yourself. It is an experience, you will never forget.

HERE IS THE WEBSITE OF THE SANTA MARIA DE COLOMBO, where you can get more information. You can book the tickets, either at the pavillon down at the marina, at their office at the Harbor, or book them at my friends of Book-it-here-Madeira.

The Soundtrack of the video is a colorful mix of (very) old and new songs by the alionsonny project, Willma Poppen, Cimelium and my baby project TUBENWURST. Here's the tracklist:

01 - alionsonny - Springtime 2009
02 - alionsonny - Going Bonkers
03 - alionsonny - A Sunny Day
04 - alionsonny - Talking Cat
05 - alionsonny - The Battle Of Aughrim
06 - alionsonny - Paddy Cronins Reel
07 - alionsonny - Drowsy Maggie
08 - Cimelium - Ribeiro Frio
09 - Cimelium - Pico Ruivo
10 - alionsonny - Never Born To Follow
11 - TUBENWURST - Fireworks
12 - Willma Poppen - Willma im Wunderland
13 - Willma Poppen - Strandspaziergang
14 - alionsonny - Gettin' old

And now have FUN aboard the Santa Maria de Colombo!

 

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 6 - A Chaos Day is ready!

Yes, it is done! The video of day 6 of my 2012 trip to Madeira is ready for you. Why do I call it a chaos day? Simple: Because nearly nothing worked as supposed. But I would not be me, if I wouldn't make to best out of it. First, we do a busride in timelapse mode (just 4 minutes) to Camacha and try to hike from there to Monte. The weather, some weather related obstacles and a near-death-experience forced me to abandon the hike and go back to Funchal. After a good meal and a full bottle of wine I started to hike towards Garajau to find Jesus. On the way to there streams of beer were flowing. In the end I didn't find Jesus and filled my spiritually emptines with good Poncha at a nice restaurant where I even made a new friend.

The Soundtrack:

1. TUBENWURST - Beatrice
2. alionsonny - Nibiru
3. Willma Poppen - Willma im Wunderland
4. Willma_Poppen_-_Madeira
5. TUBENWURST - 3 Kannen Kaffee
6. alionsonny - Tachyon
7. alionsonny - The_Scrolls of Alion Chapter 4 - Eternal
8. alionsonny - Alion Castle Theme

And here's the video. Enjoy!

I give up... or not?

I thought for quite a long time, if I should write this posting and if, in which form. I allready see the feedback: There will be the ones who are honestly sorry about it all happening, but also folks who with intention get me wrong. I hope, that the experience I gained so far in the communication process with you out there over the years, helps me to avoid the worst misunderstandings. Well, on the other hand, I could handle it like a friend suggested it yesterday "Never mind! You are giving up! What do you care what people think about you now?". Well, I am not that way.

I also am unsure about, if I should describe it all to you in detail, or just keep it crisp and short. I pretty much know, that each and every bit or negative information about me, my life etc. I give to you makes you flee in masses. The media consumer of today wants no bad news. You want the happy, funny Sonny and not his reallife problems. Most probably each of you out there has their own and doesn't want to be bothered with those of others. That's why I will try something in the middle and hope it works.

What happened? Inspired by an exceptionally positive mail regarding my AlionLive Madeira Series (hello Isa!), I realized, that I possibly waste my time. What I somehow ignored so far and didn't really realize is, that the ammount of work and effort I put into my works is absolutely disproportionate to the reception I get for my works. And NO, I want to set this crystal clear: This is no possible stupid form of some kind like a "revenge", like "You do not subscribe to my channel, and buy not enough albums, so I quit!". I pretty much know, that the rather bad minded folks out of you will presume it all in that way. And this while it is quite easy to understand my real motives.

Each human has a limited ammount of time and uses it preferably for a usefull purpose. Sure: One can do many things in form of a so called hobby, just for fun and to make others happy, and that's great... as long as the ammount of time put into a particular activity is not too overwhelming. Because then it turns into a job and a job should be preferably paied. Here we have to use different aspects of "does it pay". And that is not neccessarly connected to money. I still remember the first gig of my first Punk band very well. The audience was 3 people who had free tickets. If it went on like this, I think the band would not have existed as long as it did. Nobody wants to play gigs at empty houses.

Regarding to my activities, currently every thing is quite questionable, when it comes to the topic of "Does this make any sense? Does it pay AT ALL?". I sell a laughable ammount of albums, my Youtube channel is most probably the least viewed and subscribed channel in the known universe and the ad-revenue is because of that rather not mentionable. This would be completely ok... if there wasn't that gigantic ammount of time I put into my works. People like Isa, who told me in precious words about how she experienced and liked AlionLive Madeira know how much work is put into making the music and the videos. Well and that's by far not all. But many people still think that my work is something one could click together in just a few minutes.

What is happening now? I plan to for at least a month put a halt on all projects. This regards AlionLive, alionsonny, Willma Poppen and Cimelium. I am very sorry for those who allready wait for the next AlionLive videos and also the albums announced allready. I again emphasize: This is not some kind of "This is what you get from all that". Such kind of thinking is no part of my agenda at all and you, as loyal fans, should know that allready ;). In that month, I will put it all to the test and view all aspects of my work rather regarding to sustainability, reasonability, possible ways to go further and of cause also the financial part of it all. I will look if there is anything I can possibly do to increase the proportionality between the work, time,money i invest and what I get back. And at latest at the end of the month I will decide if the projects are continued or completely abandonned.

I want to be honest as allways: If I do not discover any blatant error in my promotion strategies, it looks rather dark for a continuation of my projects. But I would not do that "month of truth", if I had no hope. In all events, something has to change drastically. I MUST become more professional. The last time I said this, it resulted in the loss of a majority of my audience. It was back then in 2010, when I decided to no longer give away my music for free. Let's hope we can handle this more in an adult-ish way this time ;)

As allways I am interested in your opinion and welcome each form of constructive discussion (preferably via mail). The Blog comments stay moderated, because I expect some folks to run wild here ;)

...and there it allready is: AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day 5B!

How many of you thought, that there would be a rather big time gap between 5A and 5B, eh? I have put pretty much effort into letting the 5B video follow as soon as possible. It was not particularly hard to get this done, because the video is only 18 minutes long. I have done that, so to say, as a byproduct ;). I made a little mistake during that. The intro of the video still says "Day 5A". Some very attentive viewers informed me about that. Sorry, I overlooked this and I don't want to re-uploaad the video.

This part of AlionLive Return 2 Madeira takes us to the most eastern part of the island. We hike from the most eastern point, accessible with a car, to the Cais do Sardinha. The video is that short because of the following reasons:

1. The hiking path was far more challenging than I thought and at many parts it would have been practically suicide to play around with a camera instead of taking care.
2. My footwear, sandals, was a additional source of hazard. Often I slipped out of them sideways while hiking on steep parts of the path.
3. 3. The weather was changing all the time very quickly and so I again had to protect the camera.
4. Especially up on the cliffs, the was a strong unpredictable wind blowing, which would push one off the cliff, if one doesn't pay a bit of additional attention. Also the wind was shaking the arm holding the camera quite heavily. This brought some additional shaking of the camera.
5. I simply had to get the hike done and get back to the bus station in time. Because I started the hike quite late, I had to hurry up. Video filming costs time.
6. At some parts, the heavy wind pushed the spray water from the oceans waves up the cliffs. This was another danger to protect the camera from.

Personally I think, that this part of AlionLive Return 2 Madeira, despite it's short runtime, is the best one so far, and that because of the quite great quality of the nature vistas. The soundtrack consists of cause of the brandnew alionsonny track "A Sunny Day" and three more tracks, not featured on any album so far.

Here is the tracklist:

1. alionsonny - Dinnertime For The Cats
2. alionsonny - A Sunny Day..
3. alionsonny - Springtime 2008
4. alionsonny - Summertime 2007

AlionLive Return 2 Madeira - Day five - Busride from Funchal to Canical is here!

I decided to divide the video material of my fifth day in Madeira 2012 into two part, part 5A and part 5B. You allready know that from the 2011 "AlionLive Madeira" series. On that day I took the bus from Funchal to Canical and it was rainy weather. The destination was the most eastern point of the island one can get to by bus or car. The nearer I got to my destinatio, the better the weather was and at the end I got a real good dose of blue sky and sunshine. The part I present here is part 5A and is all about the busride. I did not completely film the busride, because I think you know the center of Funchal from a bus view quite good by now. And this is why I started filming later. Still a whole hour of video is the result. The complete busride took about 1 1/2 hours. In the next part, 5B, I will show you the hike.

The soundtrack is partly from the 2009 alionsonny album "Reggae?" and partly tracks destined for the new alionsonny album. Of cause also the brandnew alionsonny track "A Sunny Day" is featured.

Here's the tracklist:
01 - alionsonny - Madeira
02 - alionsonny - A Sunny Day
03 - alionsonny - Drunken Joe In Love
04 - alionsonny - Dr. Funkenstein (Album "Reggae?")
05 - alionsonny - Bulletprrof
06 - alionsonny - Springtime 2009 (Album "Reggae?")
07 - alionsonny - Going Bonkers
08 - alionsonny - Behold The Crest(Album "Reggae?")
09 - alionsonny - Nero d' Avola
10 - alionsonny - Talking Cat
11 - alionsonny - Life goes ON!(Album "Reggae?")

The first AlionLive in Full HD -> Day 4 of AlionLive return 2 Madeira is here!

Because my computer is quite fast now, I thought I will do the next logical step and release my videos in Full HD instead of 720p from now on. This eats up more harddisk space, rendertime and uploadtime, but there's nothing too much for my beloved audience. Was that too over-egged now? Anyway: Because of this, AlionLive is now even more pretty, colorfull, louder and unbeatable against foot odor. And to the critics, who analize the video and say that this is NEVER a bitrate for Full HD: Ir's not my fault, that my camcorder just does 15.000 maximum bitrate. If you want to sponsor me a better camcorder, you are welcome... exclusive adverts included. ;)

What you will see in the video? Good news for all those who get stomach cramps and diarrhea with vomiting when they see my pretty face: I'm not visible right from the start... but later. The video starts with very nice and very colofull flowers. Then we make our way to the Parque Ecologico do Funchal and experience a looong and exhausting hike across the plateau north of Funchal. During this we see beautiful, shocking and breathtaking vistas over Funchal and the wild mountainous landscape of Madeira. At the end the weatherconditions went apocalyptic, and that's no exaggeration, and prevented me from filming further. The video closes with a busride of about 15 minutes from Mote down to Funchal in the evening and some impressions from a nice meal at the incomparable O Dragoeiro.

The music is, with the exception of two tracks, from Cimelium and mostly from the album "Mesopotamia". But also the two new candidates for the upcomming "Madeira" album are present. "Pico Ruivo" even twice. The two exceptions are the two latest tracks by Willma Poppen "Apocalypso 2012" and "Madeira". By the way: I do not (yet) sell singles. Please tell me if you would like me to do it and I will... think about it ;)

And now, much fun in Madeira!