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 I got a call from a close friend, producer Sergei Avakyan, regarding a new project he wanted me to direct, about two months ago. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it on time, so I asked for detail and it turned out it was a video inolving a friend I had met with Sergei earlier on, drumming genius Jacob Armen.

I knew Jacob in person, but had never heard him play. So once I received the files, I was excited to work on this new challenge. Soon enough we shot the video, and every obstacle that’s known to man came against us, but a beautiful piece came off of it. Why? Because it has a story. It had a story during his making, it had a story during my making, and now that it’s up for you to watch, it’s creating a new story going forward. That can only tell you one thing about this project: perfection.
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the piece directed by yours truly, titled Heartbeat. Enjoy the video, and pay attention to his music writing. Here’s Jacob Armen in Heartbeat.

Apo Avedissian

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From a studio to another, from a computer to a laptop, we have all downgraded our equipment for the sake of saving a dollar or two. What do we do with the dollar or two? Eat, or feed the needy.

This trend started a long time ago, for the needy knows what the other needy is going through, and if it’s worse, then I can definitely share my food and miss a lunch to feed one who hasn’t eaten for a day (sometimes longer, believe it or not). Does that come from within? I’m not sure. I’d say it comes from my parents, since I’ve seen what they’ve gone through and still took care of others, but that’s a different story to get into. I hate having to tell you this, since the last thing I need on my record is to go out and yell “I donate money,” but it’s not one of those. We’re not millionaires. Not yet! We don’t own places. We don’t drive fancy cars. We make art. We make music. We make photos. We make videos. We make feelings! We do what we enjoy while trying to save a dollar or two from the work we do to feed us for another day and continue our efforts to make a change in people. Unheard voices are now heard, and through my art I’m able to speak. I’m not a talker, and because of my ability to express my thoughts through writing and documenting, I do it. I simply make a thought into a piece of art and throw it at you. You’re welcome to open it and watch it, or simply scroll down your newsfeed or e-mails and read other things, but I do what I do because I love doing what I do. I mean what I do. I do what I mean. I don’t say things. I can’t say things. These are my mediums. The people around me have shown an understanding of this world that I happen to agree with. Do we understand this world? Not really. But we know what we know and we usually agree on that view, and as we make art, we share what we’ve gone through in these pieces.

The rapper and producer and I meet, talk about a theme. The producer goes home, makes a sample, sends it to the rapper. The rapper and the producer discuss it, finalize it, record to it, then once the track is done we start on a video. These three sentences are very simple for you to read, but when you watch and listen to the final product, you’ll go through an out-of-this world-experience. That is what we’re all about. We enjoy teaching. We enjoy making art.

The thumbnail is of one of the symbols of my Armenian culture. If you’re into that, Google it! I’ll definitely be teaching you a lot about that through my work later on.

Here’s a piece done recently by Alex Trebor, engineered by Nick Lalaian, and directed by myself, Apo Avedissian. It does show you what a crew goes through at home and then at work time and play time. It’s as real as it gets because a lot of the shots are real-life footage of unplanned real-time events, and all it’s missing is your views and thoughts.

Please, enjoy, study it, and while at it, smile when it’s done.

Ladies and gentlemen, Reflection:

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Hi there! Welcome back to Apotize, which had been blocked by Facebook for two weeks now, and is finally unblocked just as we speak. [MUSIC VIDEO INFO BELOW]

Here’s the thing, just like we’re taking over Earth with our industrial ‘things’ and technological advancements doesn’t mean that Earth will be sitting there for the rest of our life time, or a couple of generations down, and clap for our achievements. Just like we’re taking every jungle down one by one, Earth will have its earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, and everything in between until we’re all wiped out and everything is recycled and life goes back to zero. You can call that the judgement day, you can call that big bang theory two, or you can call that bullshit. That’s none of my business. My business is directly with society. This giant network, Facebook, got a little butt-hurt from recent blog posts I posted about how Google Plus is going to screw it. I said Google Plus will take over everything facebook ever stood for. Talk about privacy, and now Google will be doing the same to them, and they will do it the right way because, I still stand by my point, Google is simply better than Facebook. Just like Google will take over and Earth taking everything back again, I’m simply back!

Music Video Information

I know I mentioned earlier about the music video being worked on, and I gotta say I’m pretty excited for this one. I haven’t put this much effort on any work since the last video, and that last video was a practice one. I’m looking forward to sharing this “mind-projection” with you and I do hope you get the point and message of the art work I’m about to show you. The new music video is for a song by Alex Trebor, produced by Sergei Avakyan, who are both musical geniuses in their own types of work. It has been amazing seeing what three creative minds can come up with, especially when each mind specializes in something the other has almost no idea or very little information about. It’s a complete circle now.

I always ask people to learn before they enjoy. My work is about teaching. I try to make it amusing so it catches attention out of the millions of other videos out there and not get you to be bored, and once you click on it you get to see and learn, but there’s a limit to that. I won’t put clowns to grab your attention and make you sit, smile, and clap as you watch like a little baby. I’ll only do a subtle thing there, but like I said, learn and enjoy. It’s both healthy and fun for you. Make Up by Jess, I don’t even have to say anything else besides this to explain the amazing art-pieces she pulled off; made everything to what I had in mind the same way I watched the video in my head before making it a reality =)

So here’s the deal!

How do I get to see the video?

You can now sign up using the Google Newsletter widget located on your right hand side column, right below the featured video at the top. You can sign up using that device, and what that will do is send you an email when ever an Apotize article is up with only the link inside. What does that mean? It means that there’s no cluttered bull-crap spam that takes over your email. This is a single e-mail per post system that comes with only the link to remind you that there’s a new article you can read on the website. What else does that do? Well, besides it being run by Google (making it absolutely safe), I’ll be sending the music video to whoever signs up in the next two days, no matter how many people, I’ll personally email all of you with the video link before it’s released to the public and you will get to see the music video and comment before anyone else even hears the song =) Good enough of a deal? I think so! Go ahead and sign up now and wait for the email. You’ll be getting it soon ;)

Good night,
Apo Avedissian

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The Artistic Comeback?

Yeah it’s been a while.. (who starts a blog with “yeah it’s been a while”?) but after two years of taking a break from art making, well, art ‘publicizing’, if you want to call it that, I recently got back into doing what I love to do: Photography and videography. About two years ago I took a long break from publicizing my work, not because I quit, but because everyone around me became photographers (some still become photographers and ‘directors’ today), but thankfully they realized that getting views for your content isn’t that easy, and getting real work is even harder, and like any other career, you can’t just jump in and get it right and have millions of fans paying you for your work, all the top dollar price ranges.

Advice for Photographers

Photography involves a lot of permits and contracts and legal papers. I’m talking about real photography here, about getting people in your studio and signing contracts with them, not the free “Lil Wayne will be in our storage/warehouse today, the fastest 10 photographers who reply or suggest their homeboys get to come in and take pictures of him” while the photographers run and take pictures just so they can brag about who or what they shot, not realizing that their pictures are gone and they don’t own the rights anymore because the other party has all the permits on their own and you just released your rights to the other party. Sad, isn’t it? Well, some still do it today and are still running around busting their asses working for others for free, and their work is published everywhere, but guess what’s missing on these big posters? THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S CREDITS, and of course the side that you’ll never know about, the photographers’ paychecks. After all, this is advice for photographers.

This Might Be About You. Or Not.

I have a lot of photographer friends, so if you’re reading this and going “I thought that mother f***er was my friend,” I still am. It might not be about you directly, but if you happen to do this, then you’re very welcome for the reality check. I don’t mean harm nor disrespect. In fact, I’m telling you your rights and why you’re not making money from these people. I’m talking about $20,000 contracts, I’m not talking about the $300 photoshoots for the others you get because of bragging about your other free photoshoots, not even photoshoots actually. Paparazzi gigs. Again, this isn’t directed at anyone. For those who know me personally, you know if I wanted to say something about someone, I’m saying it and I’m naming them too. So don’t stress over this. Stress for your self. This is advice. Pure, loving advice. =)

All of that being said, I watched all of them quit, come back, quit again, come back once more, quit, come back, so I decided to do what? Come on, you just read it thrice [ ;) ]….. COME BACK. Yes, that’s the phrase! Hi! =) I’m back!

My Close Friends Are Talented Too!

I sat down and listened to a musical masterpiece produced by a close friend of mine, and vocals are of another close friend of mine after they showed me what they made and guess what? I said I need to make a video. The last video I made was a year ago, and it was made for my practice. Yeah, “Monster” was a practice video. We put our effort in it and everyone else who was there did as well, and it came out with a clean story and awesome feedback as well. Speaking of feedback, please write me what you think. I do answer back whether your suggestions are positive or negative, as long as you know how to critique. To me “shit’s nuts man! slkdgflksmfdlkbmsfdb” is the same as  ”sucks balls al;glmasdfmv” even if one was positive and the other was negative.. explain why “the shit” is “nuts”, or why it “sucks balls”.. you don’t have to explain the “kledlbgkmdlfb”. You’re welcome. So, as I was saying, I decided to make a video. A realer one. Back to what I usually make and of course what I learned from my rights and wrongs on Monster. What does that mean? It means it’s simply better. If you liked Monster, you’re gonna enjoy this. No there isn’t a magician in it. No there are no disappearing thugs who chase a lonely girl, nor is there a Monster, but I do believe you’ll like it.

“Stop complaining and make art; everyone has their own fears, pushed by people around them, that make them be in a hurry or the total opposite of it, being lazy, in getting work done.” An old rich man told me. “Are you pushing me and in such a hurry about my art because you think you’re gonna die soon?” I replied back.

My newest directed music video, or actually, my mind projection, as cheesy as that sounds, should be available for you to see very soon. If you remember how Monster worked, this will be released the same way. Again, I will be waiting for your feedback. Updates coming very soon.

Back to the “lab”, preparing to educate while entertain you,

Good night,

Apo Avedissian

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Google Plus Ready to Crush Facebook.

What a week this past week was, Google rolling out Plus and Facebook inviting everyone to that online event they had been highly promoting on our pages about the very important announcements Facebook was about to make and reveal new features. I still think that Google is gonna push Facebook out majorly. FB isn’t backing out easily, but still. We’re talking about google. G-Mail. Google Maps. Two products mentioned here and they’re already some of the biggest inventions that have happened during our time. The stock market opens up and so many hopefuls are waiting on Google to go even higher with its stocks because of the launch. I’m really waiting for all of this to come down to the official release of Google Plus and the new Facebook features. Will we want to stay by Facebook out of laziness since they will copy most of Google Plus’ ideas? (Already copied the video chat and is gonna do it with Skype, and already made an app to do what Circles do to Google Plus, which is almost the entire idea of Google Plus). Will we all move to a new technological advance presented by Google and just start a new generation thing? Who knows, things are pretty heated already even though these two giant companies are only in their cold war eras. With the last three weeks’ stocks going dramatically down, the stocks soon enough rose way higher and gave Google a ten percent profit range. Amazing stuff going on.

Netflix and Facebook Partnership?

Facebook had a meeting with Netflix recently, and no one knows what that meeting was about, but let’s act like adults for a second and just take a smart guess and say Netflix will soon be on Facebook so now not only can people sit on their computer all day and leave to the other room to watch tv and come back, they can do all of that from the same chair they’re sitting on!

Isn’t it kind of alarming when I don’t leave my chair to go talk to a house member? All I gotta do is move my arm, pick up that little device on my desk they call an iPhone, and SAY call my brother, and it’s done, my brother is on speaker and I don’t even have to hold the phone next to my ear! Is this insanity? Nope. This is pure genius.

Facebook has Netflix? Google has Youtube.

So here we go, movies are coming your way, and your credit cards are of course all accepted, and now you’re sitting there ordering shit you don’t even need just to stay happy, and once you’re broke enough not to have food in your house, you complain and go into depression. Google bought Youtube a while back, and since Youtube offers online movie rentals as well, this is going to be one fun life for this generation.

Oh, sweet-talk marketing.

Get Google Plus and let me know what you think! I got some invites I could help you out with in case you can’t get a hold of an invitation.

Apo Avedissian

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I left my dark room and headed out to the black road and rode the black car onto the black street, dressed up in a black v-neck and black skinny pants with the black Converse shoes. I drove on the black road until I parked in the very dark, almost pitch black parking lot and proceeded walking to the black store, I walked out of the store holding black bags, back to my black car through the black road. I got to my car while I’m on my black phone and noticed something bizarre with my black eyes. I saw a white piece of chalk on the floor.

WHY THE FUCK WAS THERE A WHITE PIECE OF CHALK ON THE FUCKING FLOOR!?

Apo Avedissian

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I get asked a lot about the source of my creativity. Where do you get blog ideas from? Where do you get photoshoot ideas from? How about these posts status updates on Facebook?
Well, I like to be me. Have you noticed how my ideas are all over the place? I blog technology today then blog about honesty after three hours. That’s just me! Not only do you have to practice to be good, you have to keep doing something to keep it good! If you’ve worked out before, you’d know that you could work out daily and have ripped abs, but once that practice stops and you don’t keep up, it’ll all be gone no matter how much work you put in before. No more ripped. That being said, I love doing the things I love to do. I do things that you might laugh at or call weird, but I have my own rituals that I do just because. I’ve realized that whenever I do these things my mind clears up and I can do any creative project I have in mind with no worries. I touch objects, I isolate my self in an empty room with absolutely no noise and a lot of emptiness, if none of these are available for me at that moment then I tend to photograph insects or do close-up photography (macro), and do what my mind has planned until it’s all over and I can walk slowly back to my old position and pull what I had to pull off. I recently learned about Conan O’Brien’s rituals that include isolating himself at any empty corner of a room and that’s how he gets his thoughts straight. Just a different thinker here =)
What does that have to do with you? Well, a lot. Life today for everyone is based on what the other does, not based on what you do. I’m the center of my world. Everything revolves around me in my world. Why? Because it’s my world. It’s not my best friends’ world, it’s not my parents’ world. It’s my world. You should be yourself. If anyone around you is what you want to be then you’ve already failed. Your goal will become BECOMING them. Then once you achieve being them, what are you gonna do? “They” already moved on to new things and are accomplishing “their” goals. I don’t like sounding harsh with reality that just kills hopes, but I am a realist, and that just says what this all is about.
When I do my ‘weird’ rituals, I see stories in my head and I start envisioning scenery which deals as the purpose of reminding me later-on about the story, and no other purpose at all.
If you’re out there looking for someone to teach you how to be creative, I’ll be the honest one and tell you that you will not make it that way. Work hard, gain your spot, then work more. Once it’s all added up, you’ll get to experience what yourself enjoys, not what others enjoy. People don’t become famous before they are creative. Some do, *cough* Kim Kardashian. But unless you’re down to be best friends with someone who puts out more sex tapes in a year than Converse produces shoes in a life time *cough* Paris Hilton, then making your own sex tape, you won’t get enough attention. That bar is set too high. Lol. Sad reality of today. Congressman Weiner. Anyways, be creative. Kim Kardashian is one of the smartest business women I’ve ever heard of, with what she did to get attention and then showed everyone what she could do when she’s famous is just good enough. Do I agree with her “marketing” way? No. Draw and play the instrument you want to master and do what you do best, if it sounds and seems like you won’t make it because your style is different than others and yours sucks, that’s the sign for you to keep doing it and being different! One of my work for galleries involved a door picture taken upside down, and everyone went crazy trying to figure out why was a window put so down low? Turned out it was a door picture taken upside down. I laughed at the idea at first, but after execution that became one hell of a feedback magnet.

Be more, do more.

Good night,

Apo Avedissian

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Wow.. one of my longest article titles I’ve written. Well, that title was the coolest thing in this article. You will not find anything cooler. I doubt it. No, hmm, you might. (You won’t).

First things first, if you’re reading this, chances are you’re either here from Google or Facebook. Why? Because these two just took over the internet. What do you think about the evolution of the human beings’ communication system? Lol. Don’t we all love it? Nope, some people hate it, and you know what’s funny? They address their concerns ON the websites they hate.

Anyways, so Google comes up with Plus, Google+, a new project where Google’s own social network not only serves as a social network but as a means of categorizing your life into tabs you can easily select. Circles. These circles are groups of friends you privately share info with. Sparks are the tabs of interests you have, and you get to have live news about the interests you’re into. I have stocks and rap included in my tabs, and I already love how it’s both detailed and simple at the same time.

Google Plus is going to fuck Facebook the same way Facebook fucked MySpace. Yes, I said it. Why? Because MySpace fucked Hi5 and the daily e-mail usage. E-mails fucked the daily phone calls, and of course, the telephone fucked THE NORMAL FUCKING CONVERSATION.

Why am I ranting? Because I just do out of habit. No, I don’t. Indecisive? No. Maybe. Yes. But I do know that these things have a great effect on how human beings act and react to things around them. Am I scared from a change? Absolutely not. I embrace change and I’ve always been a fan of seeing how a new technology comes and everyone older than my generation would complain that this is too much for humans to take, but it does nothing other than helping humans. Well, depending on how we use these things of course.

MySpace was sold again, and apparently they’re working on a big come back that involves a lot of celebrities. I doubt this works out, but we can’t take sides since who knew a website open for one school could take over the biggest social network at its time? (Facebook and MySpace, respectively).

I heard about Google Plus a while back, so I decided to check it out and learn about it. Soon after, Google’s stocks just jumped 10% up. Insanity. Google’s BETA version of Plus was so popular (mostly thanks to Google’s very smart marketing way of limiting the usage at the beginning) that people were begging to buy invitations from people who already happened to have accounts. It got to a point where Google closed down the invites system, changed some settings, and now very few people get to invite their friends. Why? Because they can.

I finally got an invitation and got to check what this website was about. I already love it. At first, I thought “would people switch all over again?” then I remembered that people already switched over and over again looking for something that suits them best. What ever is the ‘cool’ thing that’s also a new invention becomes THE thing. The cool thing. So, did people just learn some HTML codes because they wanted to? No, but they did so they could color their MySpace pages and add their favorite pictures on it. Now, thanks to Google Plus, we have the new Hangout  feature where people can click on the tab and ‘hangout’ with the circles they want to hang out with. What is hanging out? LIVE VIDEO CHAT! Yes! Isn’t that impressive? It sure is. What’s more impressive? Facebook doing a deal with Skype to bring video chatting to facebook as well. Why? I smell fear, and I like the smell of it =)

Google Plus rolled out these “+1″ recommendation system icons that pretty much replace the Facebook ‘like’ tabs you see on almost every website now. What’s so different about the “+1″ you might ask, hmm, a lot is my answer.

First, Google runs the biggest search engine online. How does that matter? If you’re logged in to your google account and you happen to search anything, every single link you see on that page can be “+1″ed whether the website has the system installed or not, unlike Facebook’s ‘like’, where webmasters have to code and link to facebook with their accounts in order to get that little box so people “like” their work.

Second, whenever you +1 something, that goes in your record, so next time you look for information Google already knows what you’re into. Smart? No. GENIUS.

Let’s say you like hot wings for a nice lunch, and you happen to +1 a couple of hot wings restaurants, guess what, the next time you look for a restaurant the top picks for you will include hot wings. Why? Because Google cares ;)

I’m in so much love with this new +1 system that I already have it installed on Apotize.com It’s fast, simply, and easy. CLICK. Done, it’s all done. You log in, Google knows who you are. You sign out, Google won’t remember one thing about you. Privacy? That’s top of the line privacy.

Well, there’s more to that privacy thing there. YOU CAN SHARE WHAT EVER YOU WANT WITH ONE SINGLE CIRCLE, and no other circle will see what you shared with them. And you know what’s cool? No one knows which circle they or their friends are in. The only people who know their circles are the ones making them. If you post your lunch picture with your family in your family circle, only these members will get to see it, your friends in your Friends Circle won’t see a thing, and won’t even know that they’re in a different circle and that you posted anything else that they didn’t see. Private messaging gone on steroids. I love it. If you need invites let me know. I might be able to help you out =)

Apo Avedissian

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First of all, if you’ve driven in LA, you’d know chivalry is dead. Well, welcome back to Apotize.com (See what a gentlemen I am? Uhm.)

I just wanted to talk about driving generally, and in Los Angeles specifically. People, fellow human beings, why is it so hard for you to let somebody in front of you, who has been signaling for at least 5 seconds ahead of their turn, go in peacefully?

Why do people have to cut you off on purpose? Well here’s how I deal with things. When I need to change my lane, I turn my signal on, and after about 5 seconds, I turn. (No people, turning the signal on WHILE changing a lane will not prevent an accident. Neither will it prevent a law suit coming at you.) Now, if the 5 seconds have no cars coming at me speeding, of course, that’s when I make my turn. However, if I have an asshole next to me, excuse the language there but they deserve way worse, like ‘little-dicks’, I’d actually cut them off, and drive 30 on the freeway right in front of them. Until they get an empty spot and change their lane, that’s when I successfully make my exit, and feel so good about my self. (I can be a five year old every now and then).

I realize what an asshole I am as well. Maybe just a kid. But you know what? I never do it to people unless they really piss me off. You know those drivers who drive right next to you all the time? Like they’re your bodyguards? I’d go faster, they automatically speed. I’d slow down, they’d just start braking out of no where! Only then, I might need a lane change, and if they’re still doing the same thing, they won’t have a happy ride, and I will make sure they notice it.

A while back, around 11:00 PM, as I was driving back home from a long photoshoot day, I noticed a car on my right side, driving at my speed; I slowed down so the car can stay up and we both have empty sides, but the car wouldn’t stop being next to me. I finally took a look out of my car (notice I have a full bass system with high volume on, distracts you from those crazy friends yelling at you from the car next to you) and I see a car full of young girls, about 15-16 years old, in revealing clothes, aka bras or off-shoulder-shit-crap, waiving at me. I turned and looked forward again and kept driving, trying to ignore the fact that we now not only have 15 year old annoying hookers in the neighborhood, but ones who control something that can go up to 120 mph. A fucking car.  I looked again after their car kept getting closer and closer to mine, and noticed one of them waiving a tiny dildo, laughing, and I believe, pissing her self from laughter. I figured she was drunk. Or was she? I remembered she looks like she’s barely 15. Well, as Dave Chappelle said it “How old is fifteen really?”. Let’s not get there now. Moms, check your daughters. That’s all I gotta say.

I looked forward and now thought “15-16 year olds, in a car that can kill somebody, playing with a dildo in the backseat, then hysterically laughing while half of her body and hands out of the window waiving at me with a dildo” I didn’t want to call the cops since the driver did nothing wrong, and wasn’t showing signs of danger, at least not yet. Right then the car swerved around a couple of times (nothing dramatic), and I’m not sure whether the reason was alcohol or just, teenage hormones causing these massive shifts, COUGH, but all I know is that’s when I made my turn, I parked at my house and made a phone call reporting the car.

If you were one of those girls, I’m sorry but I’ve lost not only one but many friends in accidents happening because of others being drunk or stupid on the road. You can waive your dildo around, but that shouldn’t come close to endangering a life. All of that sounds cheesy to teens until someone dies. Also, you’re probably still alive because of me. So, cheer up. Oh, and, mm, find a bigger dildo. Come on now.

Drive safe ;)

Good night,

Apo Avedissian