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IMPEACH BUSH / DOWNING STREET MEMO
Everywhere I go the last couple of days, people are dropping it in casual conversation: "Bush is going to be impeached." It's quite refreshing! Read my full post on New Patriot, where I unleash my inner lefty with way-too-reasonable abandon.
June 30, 2005 at 06:33 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
MY SUMMER OF LOVE
Look mom! I'm in the City Pages summer film issue. It's all about summer blockbusters. I could've written about some real heavy-hitters: Star Wars, E.T., Rambo, etc. But, no. Too obvious. I chose National Lampoon's European Vacation: The film that gave me a PG-13 boner. Read it here.
I have to say there really are some surprises in here. Matt Ehling was incredibly eloquent writing about The X-Files. Makes perfect sense for him. And Dan Bergin's Star Wars memory was equally surprising and revealing. Perhaps the funniest line is from Lisa Ganser writing about Terminator 2: "I secretly wet myself over Linda Hamilton's pipes." Amen to that.
June 29, 2005 at 10:01 PM in Film, Local | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
VLOGS IN ITUNES!
Via my man Duncan - iTunes 4.9 not only supports podcasts (extremely cool) but videoblogs:
Hey, that's not an MP3... it's an Amanda Congdon from Rocketboom!
You have to search the podcast directory to find them - I'm waiting for mine to show up. And, it's not nearly as cool or functional as FireANT. But it could change everything and introduce videoblogs to the masses. How long before our audience grows exponentially? People will be turning their TVs off in droves. Films will have a new distribution outlet. We'll go through more growing pains. It's an exciting time for personal media.
iTunes certainly trumps Google Video as the exciting media development of the day. Even so, it may be inferior to Odeo when that gets released. Power users will likely use FireANT and Odeo, while iTunes introduces a whole new audience to podcasting and videoblogging.
Freevlog.org: Start a vlog and host it for free. You have a voice - why not use it? Besides... it's super fun.
June 28, 2005 at 11:04 PM in Podcasting, Videoblogging | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack
VLOGGERCUE MIDWEST
Hey bloggers, videobloggers, podcasters, and media-curious! Join us July 9 for Vloggercue Midwest.
We'll play some selected videoblogs, show you how easy it is to set up your own, and announce a new Minnesota-themed daily videoblog. Oh yeah... we'll eat and drink and babble ot each other, too.
Geeky? Of course. Fun? Hell yeah. Educational? I'm afraid so - but mostly fun.
July 9, 2-6 PM | Downtown Minneapolis
Bring a camera, bring some beer - all the details are over here.
June 28, 2005 at 06:17 AM in Local, Videoblogging | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GROKSTER: SAD DAY FOR INNOVATION
Grokster loses: Technology for trading files on the Internet unanimously condemned by U.S. Supreme Court, despite differing opinions.
Huge, sad, idiotic news. And ironic, considering corporations abide copyright when it's convenient.
And... what does this mean for videoblogging? Dunno.
Here's a link to a BitTorrent distribution of the decisions in Grokster, today's Supreme Court decision that established a new copyright thoughtcrime: "inducing" your users to infringe by failing to employ restrictions that you believe will reduce copyright infringement. BitTorrent is a P2P software application that was not designed to reduce infringement. Many BitTorrent users use it to pass around infringing copies of movies and music. Many also use it to distribute Supreme Court decisions.
This decision won’t kill P2P sharing. [...] But what today’s decision will kill is American innovation.
Also? Scientists have created zombie dogs and giant robot lobsters.
I'm not leaving the house anymore. I'm staying inside and reading the Holy Bible.
June 28, 2005 at 12:56 AM in Media, Podcasting, Thought Candy, Videoblogging | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HEY MAN (NOW YOU'RE REALLY VLOGGIN')
I love this song. I love this video.
Quicktime 25 MB |
Check out this sweet new vlog-style video from The Eels. [thanks, Miguel!]
UPDATE: Okay, the most fucking hilarious thing I've seen all week is this video by Bullemhead. Seriously. It has a donkey (burro in Spanish) and swearin' and satan and stuff.
June 27, 2005 at 04:04 PM in Music, Videoblogging | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARYN!
Nice new hair.
Sharyn makes the world a better place! (From Lorika and me.)
June 25, 2005 at 03:06 PM in Dandy Foppery | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
MAD HOT COPYRIGHT INSANITY
Stay Free Daily has an excellent post and interview:
How did Mad Hot Ballroom survive the copyright cartel?
It's insane what indie documentarians have to sacrifice to even represent reality, let alone liven up their production with some music. The Mad Hot Ballroom filmmakers had their work cut out, since the kids in the film dance to commercial music in competitions. But paying $$thousands for a Rocky ringtone?! And avoiding Frito-Lay trucks and billboards in their shots? Fuck that!
You mean to tell me that advertisers and record companies are literally studying our brain chemistry to figure out how to saturate every slice of our existence with messages to BUY BUY BUY their shit -- then they're going to turn around and fucking charge us if it ends up in a documentary film?
No, seriously: FUCK THAT.
Stay Free Daily continues the conversation with a post about Fair Use. Here's my comment:
I have brief news footage of Dan Rather denying, and then apologizing for, the "Rathergate" memos. It's crucial footage to my documentary on blogs, and in the context of media criticism - exactly the sort of thing Fair Use exists to protect.
And yet, if i wanted to get a distribution deal, i'd likely have to pay thousands of dollars to officially license that footage, even though it's Fair Use. Other doc filmmakers have confimed this, having been in those shoes.
I'm sorry, but that's completely fucked up.
"We are no longer an industrialized society; we aren't even a post-industrial or technological society. We are now a corporate society, a corporate world, a corporate universe. This world is a vast cosmology of small corporations orbiting around larger corporations who, in turn, revolve around giant corporations, and this whole endless, eternal, ultimate cosmology is expressly designed for the production and consumption of useless things . . . "
June 24, 2005 at 03:23 AM in Film | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
MADBLOG2020 PODCAST INTERVIEW
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jeff Dixon (aka Jethro) from MadBlog2020. We talked a lot about blogs and politics, and veered into citizen journalism and videoblogs. You can listen here. Jeff says Best times to listen: 9:30 am, 12:30 pm, 3:30 pm, 6:30 pm .....etc. (you can probably see the pattern by now).
Also: Check out this really cool animated work-in-progress by Nina Paley: The Sitayana (aka Sita Sings the Blues)
June 24, 2005 at 12:47 AM in Blogumentary, Podcasting | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
VLOG-O-THE-DAY
Barrett Chase: The Pain of Fleeting Joy
Runner-up: Runaway truck!
June 23, 2005 at 01:12 AM in Videoblogging | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
