(post
 :title "“Tianshi” on Alto Stick"
 :date (string->date* "2010-08-17 00:00")
 :flattr "472329/Tianshi-on-Alto-Stick"
 :tags '("music" "video" "chinese" "alto stick" "chapman stick")

 (p [When my colleague was in the middle of preparations for getting
     married, he asked me to play a nice song at his wedding.  “Nice”
     songs are a neglected minority in Chinese pop music; most of the
     popular songs deal with love affairs gone wrong, broken hearts,
     the loss of the original feeling, or they describe the emptiness
     after the loved one has passed away.  Nothing that would really
     fit to the (admittedly cheesy) celebration of Eternal Love™.
     Hence, my vast catalogue of popular songs was all but useless. I
     had to learn how to play a new song: Mayday’s “Angel”.])
 
 (p [This is my practise session in its blunt ugliness.  I spliced in a
     solo section recorded at a different angle to divert you from the
     boredom.  As you will probably notice, the introduction was lifted
     from my improvisation ,(ref
     "/posts/2010-08-05-flow-on-the-alto-stick-video.html" "“Flow”
     which I recorded earlier").])
 
 (p [(Yes, this is the same shirt as in my last video...)])
 
 (p [My next recording will likely be an original song, unless I will
     be asked by my friends at youku.com for more sino pop before it is
     ready.])
 
 '(video (@ (width "100%")
            (autobuffer "true")
            (controls "true")
            (poster "tianshi.jpg"))
   (source (@ (src "/downies/videos/tianshi_low.mp4")))
   (source (@ (src "/downies/videos/tianshi_low.ogv"))))
 
 (p [I offer this video for download in several formats.  Choose one
     from the list below.  When you do not want to care about codecs,
     ,(ref "http://videolan.org" "download the free VLC player").  If
     you are on GNU/Linux ,(code [mplayer]) will work fine, too.])
 
 
 (h2 [Medium Quality (HD 720)])
 
 `(div (@ (class "download"))
   (table
     (tr (th "codecs")    (td "h.264 + mp3"))
     (tr (th "bitrate A") (td "192 kbps"))
     (tr (th "bitrate V") (td "3 Mbps"))
     (tr (th "container") (td "mp4"))
     (tr (th "size")      (td "109 MB")))
   ,(ref "/downies/videos/tianshi_medium.mp4" "download"))

 `(div (@ (class "download"))
   (table
     (tr (th "codecs")    (td "ogg theora"))
     (tr (th "bitrate A") (td "192 kbps"))
     (tr (th "bitrate V") (td "3 Mbps"))
     (tr (th "container") (td "ogv"))
     (tr (th "size")      (td "135 MB")))
   ,(ref "/downies/videos/tianshi_medium.ogv" "download")) 
 
 
 (h2 [Low Quality (HD 480)])
 `(div (@ (class "download"))
   (table
     (tr (th "codecs")    (td "h.264 + mp3"))
     (tr (th "bitrate A") (td "128 kbps"))
     (tr (th "bitrate V") (td "1.5 Mbps"))
     (tr (th "container") (td "mp4"))
     (tr (th "size")      (td "56 MB")))
   ,(ref "/downies/videos/tianshi_low.mp4" "download"))

 `(div (@ (class "download"))
   (table
     (tr (th "codecs")    (td "ogg theora"))
     (tr (th "bitrate A") (td "128 kbps"))
     (tr (th "bitrate V") (td "1.5 Mbps"))
     (tr (th "container") (td "ogv"))
     (tr (th "size")      (td "55 MB")))
   ,(ref "/downies/videos/tianshi_low.ogv" "download")) 
 
 (h2 [Streaming])
 
 (p [The video is available on ,(ref
     "http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTk5MDQ4MDE2.html" "Youku").]))