Viralcom

Alright I'm going to make this one quick.

I wanted to share a new Web Series with everyone that i've been following for a few weeks, it's called Viralcom. Here's the story in a nutshell. The world of viral videos isn't viral at all, Viral videos are created by a movie studio that works exclusively with viral videos, that studio is Viralcom. the show follows a few story lines, including:

• Two female viral actresses, famous for their "girls pudding wrestle" and "Two hot girls make out" videos.
• A Viralcom production assistant who is trying to break into the viral video world as an actress, (She channels Pam from the office quite well).
  
• The creation of a new viral web series called "Brit-girl 16", described as "lonelygirl with an accent".
  

...and hilarity insues. Check it out becuase it's actually really well done. It's created by online comedy troupe "Joey & David" and you can check out their site a www.joeyanddavid.com. New Episodes are released on the site every Wednesday.

pitchforkmedia.com

pitchforkmedia is the biggest online music review site on the web, and i'm guessing that most of you have probably all ready heard of it. It is a great place to go to read reliable reviews of new albums, because most of the journalists on the site are dead on. I think that the review of the new Jet album this year is particularly spot on.
The site is a great place to listen to new music for free, because they put up tons of streamable mp3s of bands that are more than likely going to become huge very quickly. There are also often a lot of great photos from concerts, interviews with musicians and filmmakers, and one of my favorite features is the annual 100 best albums of the year. Under the "best new music" category there is a comprehensive list of their highest rated albums, from most recent to least recent, and seeing as they put up about five reviews every weekday this is a good way to separate the Radioheads from the Jets.

We need to have a protest!

I really think that certain people and institutions in Milwaukee view the students of UW-Milwaukee as spoiled young adults who will get Mommy and Daddy to get them out of any financial mess that occurs. But that is just not the case- and they need to stop preying on us financially.

These are a few of the culprits: 

• Parking on Campus: It is impossible to park on campus for free without the worry of receiving a ticket. People often have to stay on campus longer than the 1 or 2 hour signs allow, and as a result many students rack up a hefty parking ticket debt. As a result, many students lose their car. Sadly, nothing will ever be done by the city because this is the income they rely on.
• Theft: Crime is already high in Milwaukee, but robbers and muggers target college students because they know we have computers, iPods, etc. They also know that the houses in the area are old and easy to break into, and rarely ever have security monitors.
• Increased evictions for too many tenants: Police are focusing more than ever on ridding tenants over the 3-person limit. Fines are also increased for landlords who allow this, and they are becoming more cautious about doing so. 
• Slumlords: Many students are not getting security deposits back when they should, and landlords are not taking care of their units properly.
• Raised fines for party and drinking violations: The fines are larger than ever before, and already broke students are not able to pay forcing them into debt.

When will enough be enough- and why is it that the bigger problem seems to be the city itself that is  draining our resources? They are targeting people who really aren't doing anything wrong and increasing poverty among Milwaukee residents. Sadly, this is one of the very reasons the robbers feel they have the right to do what they do. 

top sites

We talked in class about the top internet sites gauged by traffic. Naturally, websites like Google, Facebook, and Craigslist led the way. These are useful, arguably really cool places to go on the web, but we all probably knew of them already.

Considering how fast the internet changes, it's really worthwhile to keep up to date about new and interesting websites. Professor Newman showed us some ways to share and track things, like on NetVibes, findbyclick, Digg, and things like that. Looking for more cool web content recently, I came across Time.com's top web sites of 2007.

In one of my other courses this semester, my teacher referenced YouTube and wondered why he didn't think of the idea. A lot of the brilliant and successful websites seem really simple in retrospect.

Anyway, the number one site on Time's 2007 list is lemonade.com, another website that makes you wonder why you couldn't think of it first. Apparently, the idea is for users to create their own virtual lemonade stand, where they advertise for big-name products and companies through links. When someone clicks on the link and makes a purchase, the stand owner earns a commission. The stand can be added to blogs, social network profiles, and such. It's free to set up a stand too. This seems kind of cool, as I've always thought maybe people should be entitled to ad revenue that have a fb profile for instance, because the users enable it. In the end though, it's probably more annoying advertising that benefits big companies, hmm.

Old Media, New Media and the Generation Gap

The last two weeks we have been discussing old media and new media thanks to the increasing knowledge of technology. It hits close to home. I have a 100 year old grandma who laughed when we brought her a computer in the 90’s. We thought it was a wonderful idea for her to use the computer to write instead of her old-fashion typewriter, however we failed. She didn’t get the concept of using a mouse or even the key pad for a computer. In time she went back to using the old-fashion typewriter and only used the computer for solitaire. She’s used to typewriters, books, and records. It’s amazing to see the generation gap between her and my 17 year old brother. He loves the mini ipod that you watch videos on, his ultra thin laptop, and goggling on the internet. It’s interesting to see how much technology has changed our life and the way we view the world.

Create

I couldn’t help but to keep thinking about the discussion in class Tuesday involving “Fandom” movies and how their time could be better used. It does seem somewhat trite to defend Star Wars fans when there are so many other problems in the world but on the other hand entertainment and creativity is a great facet to humanity. I have been writing many blogs about living off the land and so on, but I try and maintain a balance of using technology like the internet and building something with my own two hands. For example my wife and I are building from nothing an apartment out of a barn all by ourselves. However, we would have a much more difficult time doing this with out the benefits of videos and websites that the internet and people create. So it seems to me that it’s the act of creating something that is so beneficial, whether it’s a house, a website, a garden or a video. I’m not really sure where I’m going with all this but it seems that people like to attack technology, but to me the internet is no different then a hammer, they’re both just tools that we use to create something. Here’s a couple random videos to watch.

Aaron Lewis - Staind

For the longest time I have been a huge fan of the rock band called Staind. I have seen them two times at Alpine. They put on an amazing show that is packed full of hits. Some of their songs would be Outside, It's Been a While, Right Here, So Far Away, etc... To most people, they are like the band that you kinda know and recognize, but just don't know the name. Well... their name is STAIND. They do have an album comming out later this year that should be pretty good (similar to their earlier songs).

The reason I am blogging is to make note of the fact that their lead singer and guitarist, Aaron Lewis, is amazing. The past couple years he has been doing a solo accoustic tour while the band is getting some rest time in. I was fortunate to go to a show last year and had a great time. I did find a really cool concert like video through a bunch of links and ended up at myspace. Here is a link to the site. It is the second video down, the "sync-live" video. I'm pretty sure you don't need to log in to see it.

The concerts are exactly like the one in the video. Aaron does not come to the event with a setlist at all. He covers songs and plays Staind songs. The coolest part is that he takes requests from the audience and that is basically what he plays. It's crazy because he knows a huge library of songs to play. Aaron just sits up on stage like the local bar musician, except he has sold millions and millions of albums... The intimate setting makes it really worthwhile. I do suggest checking out the video and giving it a listen. It is pretty good background music while checking emails or whatever. This whole thing just blows me away to see Aaron basically hanging out and having a good time playing whatever the hell he wants.

The Female Body

I was checking out the Jezebel and Gawker blogs that I think were linked in a previous post and I also checked out Photoshop Disasters, which was mentioned in one of my other classes. After being hit with a wave of different articles involving the female figure and Photoshop, I quickly remembered why I dislike watching celebrity news or reading certain magazines.

Everyone knows about the deal with women, body image, and the media's portrayal of the female body, but for me, it goes beyond the "skinny" debate. The way it appears to me, no type of figure is ever good enough for us. If people see a curvier model, it's going to immediately be followed by some kind of joke about the buffet table. On the other hand, a super skinny model is quickly attacked as being anorexic or having the body of a boy. When asked what people think the female body should look like, people tend to respond with something like "a medium build is perfect" or, my personal favorite, "a healthy build."

However, I came across two different blog posts that make the whole fight for the "healthy" image seem more like one giant mess of hypocrisy. Both posts feature photos of very thin models with one difference - one has (naturally) bigger breasts. (I had to edit a bit because I wasn't sure if I could post the photo as it was)



No surprise, the first picture was responded to with post after post about how "slammin'" the woman's body is. And hey, I'm not going to lie, her figure is ideal. The second photo, however, received post after post about how she needed a cheeseburger and the like. Now, maybe I'm crazy or something, but seriously, their body sizes are exactly the same sans the chest area. What's the second model to do? She could eat more and get bigger, but then people would say she needed to lose weight again. If she were to get breast implants, she would immediately be frowned upon.

Of course the opposite occurs as well. When a magazine does feature a curvier woman, the model is both applauded and criticized. If that woman decides she wants to lose weight, the same people who praised her turn around and start acting concerned for her health. "She's too skinny!" "When she had curves, she was much better looking."

And god forbid anyone does any Photoshopping. Let the flaws show and the model gets criticized, disguise the flaws and the model...still gets criticized.

It's too easy to blame the media. I think women (especially women!) and men alike demand far too much of women's (and men's) bodies in so many different ways. Whatever happened to, uh, genetic differences? And when are we ever going to stop with the "healthy," "normal" body standard. It's like going into a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop, complaining about every flavor of ice cream, and then demanding that they start serving "normal" ice cream. It seems like everyone is compelled to comment on a woman's figure, but it's rare to see anything regarding her achievements or her character. That is, unless, it's to say something about her morality, which is opening a whole 'nuther can of worms.

Fantasy Sports

So I just got into fantasy sports about two years ago and I now realize that I spend the majority of my online procrastination time checking lineups and stats for the various leagues that I am involved in. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with fantasy sports, it's basically an online program that allows a person to take the virtual role of team general manager in which you are in charge of trades, lineup changes, free agency, etc. The most popular fantasy sports, at least in the U.S., are to no surprise football, baseball, and basketball. Fantasy has exploded in popularity over the past few years and I think it has only helped the fan base of certain teams and players grow. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, more than 18 million people play fantasy sports online. It does cause some controversy, however, as many people consider it another form of illegal sports gambling. Usually people join a free league online with their friends or co-workers and put together a money pool themselves that the winner of the league takes at the end of the season. I find fantasy sports to be a lot of fun not only because I am a big sports fan, but because there seems to be pride involved when you can say you put together a winning roster. I happened to win my fantasy football league in the fall and I must admit I was pretty proud hoisting that trophy when it was all said and done. ESPN put together some pretty funny promo's before the fantasy baseball season started this year when they made a set of parody ads in soap opera format. You can find them all on YouTube. Here's a look at one of the good ones.

Get Over It?

Get over it? Thats the best rationale a supreme court justice can give to american people as to the historically Bush v. Gore Supreme court case. For the first time in american history, the supreme court in fact "appointed" Bush to the presidency and the legal rhetoric is "Get over it?" In an interveiw on 60 minutes, that was Justice Scalia's response when asked about criticism over wether the 5-4 ruling was politcally based. For those who dont know..all the conservative republican justices voted for Bush, and the liberal democrate justices voted for Gore. In addition of the 5 justices that voted in favor of Bush jr (the coke sniffing, drunk driving, C student) 4 were either appointed by Bush Senior or Reagan. Supreme court proceedings are conducted in secret and rarely if ever will Justices comment about cases. Is there any coincidence Scalia's book is comming soon?

China's population of Internet users at a high of 221 million

China ties the U.S. for most web users at 221 million. By the year 2012 China will have reached 490 million Internet users, a larger population than the U.S. China's web use has grown despite government efforts to block access to material considered subversive or pornographic.

In other markets like South Korea, E-Commerce, video sharing, and other businesses are growing quickly and companies have raised millions of dollars from investors. China does not have the same number of Internet Industries as the U.S. According to JSonline.com, 75% of adults are online while the number is higher for Teens.

In cities like Beijing the Internet is permitted for business and education use, but operates extensive online censorship. Web surfers have been jailed for posting or e-mailing material that criticizes communist rule or is deemed a violation of security laws. Web surfers are blocked from seeing foreign sites like YouTube.com with videos about protests in Tibet. Although users have been censored from some sites, their has been great success with game sites such as Tencent.com and a search engine Baidu.com.

The Chinese market has been involved in video sharing with over 100 million visitors a day. Despite China's censorship rules of the Internet, they manage to keep up with the technological market, and continues to create new opportunities in online communication and telephone market.

McDonald's international commercials

Fast food is bad, but it is fast. We all know eating McDonald's can cause a serious obesity. There is just too much calories with little nutrients. But I was watching few different McDonald’s commercials on you tube, and different strategies that each countries use was so unique to me. It is definitely different from American McDonald’s commercials. The McDonald’s commercial that I watch here is usually promoting "free samples" or I don't know... Other countries seem to get more involved with consumers. These advertisements make us to want go to McDonald’s because it catches viewer's attention. If look at the commercials, you might find it interesting the way they created it. Even though it is in a different language, if you watch carefully, you will find their a hidden story or a meaning in the commericials.
This also tells how McDonald’s is internationalized around the world. Every country used their strategies to target consumers. For example, there is a "Rice burger" in Korea. They make burgers with rice instead of bread buns. McDonald’s has become very big, and there is almost no one who doesn’t know about McDonald’s.

However, not only McDonald’s but also every fast food is bad for us. It's hard to say don't eat fast food because it already plays a big part of people's meal choices (it's fast, cheap, taste good). But everyone should start eating less because there is a big chance to be in an unhealthy condition.

Leave Britney Alone!

Since we've recently gotten onto the topic of what defines a media fan, I found it only appropriate to write my next blogging adventure on who other than YouTube's infamous, Chris Crocker. If this name does not sound familiar to you, Chris Crocker's video on YouTube has been viewed by almost 5 million people. Why so popular you ask? Well, Chris Crocker's video happens to be an emotional confession/defensive rant to try and get people to "Leave Britney alone!!!" In class today we discussed that being a fan of some sort of media is a part of expressing who we are; that it's a part of our identity. Chris Crocker is a great example of this way in which media fans are sometimes viewed. He lives, breathes, and even cries over the traumatic downfall of his biggest idol. We also questioned whether or not their are varying degrees of fandom. Can being a fan of media range from simply enjoying that media all the way to the point of obsessing ove it? Watching Chris Crocker's video made me realize that yes, there are different degress of fandom. Some people are not fans of Britney Spears, others might be a fan of a few of her songs, while some fans can say they've attended one of her concerts, but Chris Crocker is on a different spectrum. I wonder what Jenkins would write about a fan like Chris Crocker?

Over Worked American Idol?

I was listing to 103.7 this morning because my radio kept messing up when I tried to listen to V100.7 but anyway they were talking about a few celebrities. One of the celebrities they talked about was Kanye West and his girlfriend breaking up after six years of being in a relationship and 1 and a half years of engagement. I'm still trying to figure out who cares that he and his girlfriend aren't together anymore. Maybe a "gold digger" LOL. That's really is not what caught my attention they said that Jordin Sparks might be losing her recording contract. They said this just to keep the listeners tuned in because when they came back from the advertisements they told the "real" story. They said she had to cancel the tour that she would be on with Alicia Keys due to the fact that her vocal cords are damaged. I think her vocal cords are damaged because they were overworked and I know I'm not a doctor but if I were her vocal cords I would be tired too. As soon as she won the next day after she was performing on every channel I turned to. Maybe if they had given her a break between performances she would be alright. This should teach the record label not to overwork their people because now not only is Jordin going to miss out on a lot of cash they are too.

Is the Age of the Blog Done? (Already?)

On the heels of our discussion about blogs, and their place in the new world of "web 2.0" (I still have a problem with that term) I thought this video related quite well. This is from a show called "Attack of the Show" on G4. It's hard to define the show, but it's a daily hour long live TV show for "geeks", hosted by Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn. If you think you fit that montra check it out at 6pm Monday-Friday.

This segment is a one-on-one interview (called "The Loop") with Noah Robischon, Managing Editor of Gawker Media. Gawker, and its affiliate blogs, are some of the highest trafficked blogs on the net and have been for a while. They span everything from Media and Pop Culture (Gawker.com), to sports (Deadspin.com), to technology and gadgets (Gizmodo.com), and more.

Last monday, Gawker Media sold 3 of it's blogs: Idolator (music blog), Gridskipper (travel blog), and Wonkette (political gossip). The reason given was that Gawker Media felt that, "someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did." This has sparked a debate in the blogging community as to weather the age of ad driven blogs and professional bloggers is on the way out (it's been estimated that Gawker Media has been pulling in over $1 Million a year).

Check out what Robischon has to say and decide for yourself.




P.S. if you want to check out all of the Gawker Blogs...

Gawker (Media and Pop Culture)
Deadspin (Sports)
Defamer (Celebrity Gossip)
Fleshbot (Adult Content blog...yes that means porn)
Lifehacker (everyday tips and tricks)
Gizmodod (Tech and Gadgets)
Consumerist (A Consumer Reports blog)
Kotaku (Gaming)

(Update 4/21/08 18:59)

Forgot two of the Gawker Media Blogs:

io9 (Sci-Fi)
Jalopnik (Cars and Automobiles)

(Update 4/21/08 22:38)

It has been brought to my attention that their are two more Gawker Media Blogs I wasn't even aware of:

Jezebel (A "Women's Movement" style blog. Not sure if feminist is the right word, but maybe.)
Valleywag (Silicon Valley gossip)

Milwaukee's daily newspaper and other media

I read 2 sections of the Sunday Journal, Crossroads and the comics. This Sunday's content , once again, leaves a lot to be desired. Let me start with the comics. My favorite strip is "Get Fuzzy" (now there's a cat I can appreciate) so I'll leave that one alone. Most of the strips I'll read unless they're too copy intensive. One, in this Sundays selection, I must take issue with. It seems to be perpetuating the "consumption is good" myth. "Between Friends" seems to be saying shopping with your child is quality time. Now, I understand they're comics but come on, can't we work a more positive message in to the punch line? Then we go to "High and Lois." This strip is insinuating organic food has to taste bad. Who's writing this stuff Cargill? Monsanto?
O.K. moving on to "Crossroads", "Dear Earth" is the headline "How Can We Help You?" the sub-head. Well, here's an idea stop printing more ads than news content in this newspaper, anyway the article continues with "As Earth Day approaches eight leaders concerned about environmental policy...blah, blah, blah" Lets take a look at some of these leaders. One is president of Wisconsin Public Power. I wonder where his concern lies. Another is Community Relations manager for Veolia Water, once again, their concern? I was listening to Alternative Radio 2 Sundays ago the title was "The Corporate Takeover of Water." The speakers outlined ways in which this was taking place and Veolia was one of the corporations mentioned along with Bechtel. I suspect Veolia's motives and to see this employee of theirs as one of the contributors to this article cast the article in a new light for me. PR in the form of news. Hey, didn't we cover that?
A last item from this section relates to the blog posted last week about crime coverage in the media. A letter was written to the editor of the Journal entitled "Double standard in media coverage of homocides" and seems to agree with the position staked out by the blog's author.
Finally, a last media note, "Alternative Radio." If you're not tuning in you should be. Last night's show featured Dahr Jamail in a presentation entitled "Iraq: Beyond the Green Zone" and gave views of the war unfiltered by government or main stream media constraints. The speaker called NPR "National Pentagon Radio."
Good info is being put out from this weekly show.

Craigslist

Craigslist has quickly become one of the most popular web sites for apartment rentals, trade services, pets, buying anything, etc...almost everyone I know is familiar with Craigslist. While most people think that this site is mostly harmless, it has recently been reprimanded for people using this site for prostitution and sex trafficing. The site also has links to pages like "Missed Connections" and "Rants and Raves," where the content has a tendency to become rather explicit.

The suspects in the prostitution case were, to my knowledge, caught rather easily. This leaves me wondering why people are so open with personal information on Craigslist and similar sites. I have noticed that some posts on Craigslist include everything from a full name, to phone numbers, to email addresses and actual street addresses...it seems like an open invitation for trouble.

This also ties into the "feed the machine" theory. While I do not think that censoring ourselves on the internet is a good idea, I do believe that, as the only advocate for yourself, you have to protect your privacy. There will inevitably be people who take advantage of other people, but I do think that with a little thought the amount of identity theft, crime, etc. could be reduced.

By the way, you should all read the "Missed Connections" for Milwaukee. They can be really funny!

I can make my own podcast!

With all the talk about personal broadcasting on the internet, I decided to look up and see really what podcasts are all about. The first time I heard about a podcast, it was when I got my first iPod years ago. To me it was just some advanced feature that I wasn't going to take the time to figure out. And why would I? When I bought my first iPod, I was probably in 9th grade, almost 9 years ago. At that time, they're weren't really any "Lonely Girl" videos out, or at least they weren't as widely broadcasted as they are now. I never really knew about podcasts until I had heard from a person that they create their own, and that interested me so I did a little search on msn.com to see how that works and how popular it's become without my knowing. After reading specifically this article titled Create Your Own Podcast I realized that there are more options than just recording from a microphone on your computer. Some mp3 players now allow recording, so you could create a podcast then upload and edit it later on your computer before broadcasting it. This website seems helpful for beginners-it describes the types of microphones to use, the easiest software to use to record and edit, and how to create the correct audio file format so that it can be broadcasted and listened by anyone. It then gives websites to download other podcasts to give you inspiration for your own creations, and lastly explains how to finally publish it. I was impressed to find such a detailed yet simple article to help people produce media of their own. I don't think I could ever create a podcast, but I suppose it's nice to know that if I suddenly got the itch to broadcast my criticisms or speak my mind about any and everything, it wouldn't be too difficult.

The growth of iTunes

Is it just me or does it seem like iTunes has a new version come out every week? Every time I shut down my computer and re-boot iTunes it seems like I need to update. With that said, it might not actually be such a bad thing. iTunes has grown incredibly over the past few years. The iTunes store connects to the Internet to allow users to purchase and download digital music, music videos, television shows, iPod games, audiobooks, podcasts, movies, and just recently added movie rentals and ringtones. What more could they possibly add? I decided to test out the movie rental feature and to my surprise it worked quite well. I purchased "No Country For Old Men" for $3.99 and it took about 15 minutes to download. iTunes then gives you a 24 hour window in which you can view the movie on your computer. The movie was pretty good but had an unusual ending, which I won't spoil for anyone who has not seen it. I wanted to know what all the fuss was about after the film virtually swept the Academy Awards this year. Overall, a good purchase. Anyway, I found the iTunes movie rental feature to be pretty cool and easy to use. Although they don't have a huge selection of movies yet, I assume they are working on building the library up as large as they possibly can. What else is nice about the rental feature is you can watch trailers and read reviews all on the same page before you decide to rent the movie. I thought this was helpful because out of the five or so reviews I read for "No Country..." they were all raving about the movie. It seems that the iTunes interface keeps on improving and I am certainly excited to see what other features will be released in the near future.

Over logging

I read Jeff’s blog and decided that I would also write about South Park. First off, I think the show is great. It pushes the boundaries and delivers perfectly with its pop culture parodies and scatological humor. It always challenges current events and usually exhibits how ridiculous things are. Tying along in with web 2.0 and how much the internet is a driving force in our lives, South Park has created the episode “Over Logging.” The plot goes that one day the citizens of South Park wake up and find the internet is gone. When Randy (Stan’s Dad) hears there may still be some internet out in California, he packs up his family and heads west. The story seems to be a parody on “The Grapes of Wrath” and Silicon Valley, which adds a lot of humor to the situation. Overall the episode depicts internet users pretty accurate in the sense that it’s hard for people to live without it these days. Here's the episode to watch.

http://southparkseason12.blogspot.com/