Here is a new video that I prepared for my Practice project at the University. It is the first episode of a serial of online-micro-shows about Internet’s celebrities.

This is about Edgar, a Mexican boy who became famous on You Tube after his cousin uploaded a video of him falling on the river… Here is his story: The i True Internet Story of “Edgar falls”

The Muppets give their own, inimitable take on the Queen classic. Not a lot you can say about this, except perhaps that it’s everything you’d expect and more. So put it on fullscreen and turn up the volume …

Probably the year’s top viral video …

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Strange Random Language Fact:
You won’t find a “6″ in Cameroon phone numbers–the native language has no sound for “x.”

Music biographies mesmerized me when I was a kid. Whether it was Glenn Miller or Elvis Presley, it was always the same fascinating formula: talent and tenacity leading to the precipice of success, with the artist always searching for that one elusive element to define his signature sound, to breakthrough. With Miller it was the addition of trombones. The proceedings always put me on the edge of my seat and the breakthroughs set me reeling. I guess it was in my blood.

It persists. Last night I watched two great documentary-style bios on TV, one on Johnny Cash, another on Willie Nelson. Willie, as many of his fans may not realize, was actually a Nashville songwriter, penning such classics as “Crazy,” which Patsy Cline etched into the music lexicon. Despite his pre-eminent status as a writer, Willie couldn’t get arrested as an artist in Music City. His quirky phrasing was way too off beat for the 60’s sound, which was infused with sweet strings and pop arrangements.

At the age of 40, Willie returned home to Texas. Such a move would have meant a life sentence selling insurance had history not intervened. As fate would have it, Woodstock Nation had opened the doors to multiple music movements by the early 70s, and Willie realized that Austin clubs were ready for a new kind of country artist. He enlisted his buddy Waylon Jennings, among others, and set about launching a novel sound to a new audience. His ultimate success turned country music, and the music establishment at large, on its head. Ultimately, he was responsible for redefining music, establishing its “outlaw” class, creating the Austin revolution and worldwide social activism that persists to this day.

Despite his huge outsider success, Nashville rejected this giant yet again. By the 1980s, you couldn’t find a Willie song on mainstream country radio, and forget about a major label deal.

Okay, let’s get right down to the hard part. Cash was just another music god to be tumbled unceremoniously from Olympus. By the 80s, he, too, was cast out like so much trash. His popularity was dwindling, and he was struggling to find an audience and make a living.

So these outlaw outcasts banded together, literally, forming the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with Waylon and Kris Kristofferson. Talk about a Mount Rushmore of talent. They had taken fate into their own hands and, once again, set out to redefine the music scene, outside the establishment, all on their own.

A Bronx boy, I was still getting my country legs under me, when I hit Nashville in the late 80s. At the time, I couldn’t understand why the likes of Willie and Johnny weren’t getting mainstream air play, why I could eat lunch with Emmylou Harris but couldn’t hear her songs on country radio, why Nanci Griffith was considered a darling in all the clubs, to all the execs, but couldn’t get the chart toppers and eventually carped about it in interviews.

I was just getting introduced to the hard truth of the music industry: bitterness. Griffith was bitter, my friend Artie Traum (from back home in Woodstock) — one of the sweetest guys to ever grace the business — was expressing a degree of bitterness, too, in interviews of the day. I was just learning.

The songwriting trade in Nashville was rough. By year two, I was saying you had to learn to live on a diet of stones. Rejection was the blue-plate special everyday. It took me two years to get my first major song contract and more to get my first staff writing job and my first cut. Everyone who stuck with it had war stories: the song on hold that never happened, the artist cut that got dropped by the label or never got released as a single or didn’t make it above 20 on the charts. But, despite eventual successes and even industry support, I left after a decade to pursue to a career as an artist, packing scars and wisdom, love and hate.

But back to Johnny Cash. One of the greatest artists to “walk the line,” he faced the pure pain of artistry more deeply, more movingly than anyone before him. Late in his career, with the help of producer Rick Rubin, Johnny faced his inner darkness, his demons, his truth, his soul. With such albums as “American Recordings” and “Unchained,” he found a vast and vital new audience, just years before his death. His new material was so raw that family members had a tough time listening. They told him it sounded like he was saying goodbye. He told them he was.

Pure Johnny Cash

In the Cash bio, artists such as Sheryl Crow, John Mellencamp and Vince Gill expressed the true painful tumble that all artists must face. Mellencamp himself recently penned a telling if rambling article on the biz in HuffPost, a blog post that established a wellspring of conversation in the social media sector.

So, this little Bronx boy, who reeled from the Glenn Miller story and cut and broke his teeth on Music Row, finally came to understand bitterness and the role it plays in any music career. No one is exempt. It may be (excuse me) a bitter pill to swallow, but I recommend downing it to develop a good artist-immune system. Another words, one has to learn to deal with it, to embrace it, pain and all, and find a way to move on, carry it on your back, in your suitcase, in your heart, on your skin — the rose tattoo of the music artist.

Staring in a Swedish film, takes less than 5 minutes and makes you look like a global hero in a professionally made short film. Tackfilm – tack means thank you in Swedish – is thanking Swedish citizens for paying their broadcasting fees. Subtitled and smart (upload your own pic, turn off sound and run the faster version if on slow connection) it’s a toy that can potentially teach more than clever marketing.

It conveys a sense of how easy it is making someone look pretty good – in this case it’s me who’s the hero: Tackfilm features Britta – in no less than 8 (!) appearances…stunning, almost convinced myself of being Sweden’s hero

An 18 year old employee of mine asked me the most ridiculous question today, she rudely put forth, ” you don’t like Lady Gaga?” This young lass asked this question with such audacity and awe that I was forced to ponder the question, call it mental rendition. I answered with a pathetic “I guess she’s OK.” Complete fail, she’s OK? She’s agitating, she’s trendy, she’s terribly untalented, she’s somewhat sexy in the bestiality kind of way, but she’s not “OK.” After hitting up Natural High to peep Karma tonight I knew my preference for substance was not music nerdy or socially elite, it was a simple dismissal of terrible radio junk. Lady Gaga is the type of artist that ends up in a figurative garbage can, considering it’s Gaga, she may end up in a physical one to boot. I can’t think of a reasonable historic example to exemplify my point here, but 4 Non Blondes and Milli Vanilli come to mind for some reason. Either way, this YouTube character, Lord Gaga, is the kind of viral identity I would usually dismiss with a passive glance and a wave of the mouse. But this character hammers my proverbial nails in Lady Gaga’s coffin, I can’t help but stare awhile, and yes, free my mind from an unknown interrogation cell in Syria.

Check this video of Lady Gaga while she was still human and a student at NYU.

]]> http://gingertoes.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/uwo-youtube-case-back-in-january/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:05:04 +0000 mistercooke http://gingertoes.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/uwo-youtube-case-back-in-january/

UWO YouTube case back in January

By JANE SIMS, LONDON FREE PRESS

Last Updated: 25th November 2009, 2:29pm

A Western student charged after a melee with campus police was caught on video and posted on YouTube has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment.

Irnes Zeljkovic, 22, was charged with mischief, resisting arrest, escaping custody and assaulting a peace officer after the Oct. 14 arrest inside the the University of Western Ontario’s Social Sciences building.

His next appearance in the London courthouse adult therapeutic court is scheduled for Jan. 27.

The 90-second video recorded on a cellphone went viral on the Internet. It showed a man being struck 35 times by campus police and city cops with punches, kicks and hits with a baton.

At the time, police said they were responding to a report that a fourth-year student had barricaded himself in a seventh floor office. He charged at two officers, broke free of another and eventually ran to the main floor.

The video caught three officers scrambling with a man on the ground. Two other officers joined in. He was told repeatedly to “stop resisting.”

He eventually calmed down and was taken into custody.

Jane Sims is a Free Press justice reporter.

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

DJ Steve Porter is my latest favorite artist. I’m probably late on jumping on this band wagon but I’ve watched this video 20 times. A good DJ knows how to work with his/her material and Steve Porter is a flippin’ genius! Check out the “Slap Chop Remix”:

Referall: www.djsteveporter.com

This morning, The Muppets released a high definition viral parody of Queen’s classic song “Bohemian Rhapsody“. The video, which features over 40 Muppet characters, coincides with the release of Queen’s new album. It is not a complete cover but covers the basics and it’s very classy. It is pretty funny and you should probably watch it. The video is after the jump:

Okay it must be Bohemian Rhapsody Week here at InternetPopular because yesterday we had a Shaun Boothe post that had a link to the song he did in which he covered Queens Bohemian Rhapsody and now today The Muppets have released a new viral video of them doing a preformance of Bohemian Rhapsody as well. I guess Queen is back or some sort of time paradox has caused everyone to want to do a cover of the song. Who knows. The Muppet video is pretty good though, if you remember who The Muppets are.

Some years ago I saw Bob Dylan play with Paul Simon in Northern California. It was a joy to see these sages play a double-bill and perform duets together. But, Bob keeps on playing and touring, constantly writing new music and giving new voice to old songs. Love him or hate him, he has been one of the most prolific song writers of my parents generation, my generation, and probably my children’s generation, too. Yeah… WOW!

Last month, this musical American bard released “Christmas in the Heart” an album that will raise money for charities around the world.

Dylan has been much criticized for his music video of “Must be Santa” (see below). I have to disagree with the critics who think it’s just too bizarre. What is Santa but play and merriment? This polka-infused version of the song is nothing but fun as Dylan oscillates from Sage to bartender to leader of a party of merry-makers! Pat Boone can sing about Mommy kissing Santa Claus and Dylan can’t have a little fun with this Christmas myth?  Bob Dylan has a long history of doing Christmas right with plenty of respect, even on this album. I, for one, finished the video and felt like gettin’ up and dancing to celebrate Christmas. Not bad for a new rendition of an old Christmas Song.

Don’t take my word for it, decide for yourself:

You can see the exact same version on Bob Dylan’s page by clicking: here.

There were so many ideas coming together as you could probably tell from the last post. One popular video we used a lot to find links and ideas was “The Top 100 minutes of YouTube in four minutes”, hint, the link below!

Since viewings of these videos go way beyond ten million views, we’re trying to incorporate the themes and representations these ideas and turn them into a verbal dialogue, spoken to a camera. Since our group has, i think, eight people in it, we’ve split into production teams, script writers and actors, although we all will be involved acting at one point of another.

From this, we’re taking quotes and choreography from different sections of these videos and turning into a conversation, mainly between three people and then they’re arguing over points using these quotes or talking about different topics, whilst other people act in the background or become ‘involved’ in the composition without becoming involved in the dialogue. For example, the famous’ “Charlie bit me” video where a young boy puts his finger in his little sister’s mouth and she bites him and he screams, childishly but calmly. From this, we’d have people talking then someone out of camera yell, “… stop biting me” and then the camera moves and that actor is being bitten by another actor, but then the dialogue continues, using other quotes and actions.

My main role will be producing, such as camera angles, positions and storyboards, which will be uploaded once finished! Since we want to create this kind of ‘boardroom’ atmosphere, with people talking and leaning over desks to communicate, I’ve been looking at images of business conversations and other communal photography to try to find interesting and humorous camera angles that don’t necessarily capture faces, but bring props into the composition.

Improvised Dance –>

Our first and most popular idea was to create an improvised dance and perform it either in a public and open setting or a closed environment, such as simply in a room at home. Below was my favourite example of an improvised dance movement by ‘Jump-style’. I think the dance movements fit really well with the beat of the music, which makes the whole composition work. I would’ve liked to have seen it last longer and hands become more involved in the routine but it fits really well together.

The next video of the prison inmates dancing a tribute to Michael Jackson, performing the ‘Thriller’ dance. Again, it works really well, being as well choreographed as it is, and the greater number of people involved contributes to its’ effectiveness and performance. If we decided on such a ‘theme’ for the Viral Video, I think we’d aim to have around 8 people in the routine. I know it’s their prison uniform but I think the matching outfits work really well within the composition, which consequently makes the next video example work really well….

I know we’ve seen it many times before, but the ‘Men In Black’ dance is a brilliant example of professional choreography. The synchronized dance moves and outfits bring the piece together, along with a celebrity simply does the trick!

Line of Dominoes –> Human Dominoes

We had an initial idea of setting up small dominoes in a public place, with a button at the end, stating, ‘DO NOT PRESS’ or just a massive red button! From this, we’d film people’s reaction and many things would happen to people who touched, pushed or pressed the button or dominoes, such as us jumping on them or running out of hiding places and screaming, then the heavens opened! We found the concept of human dominoes, that I guess could work in two ways; one, we create domino outfits, line a number of us up and fall backwards etc, performing in numerous places, again, capturing several people’s reactions! or two, do what they do below! same principle of lining up but have a bit more of a soft landing so to speak!

Public Stunt

Below, is the infamous ‘Star Wars Kid’ and his ‘light-saber’. I’d like to use this idea of a famous motion from a famous film, such as a light-saber dual and again, perform them in public in different places! It would seize before it got out of control, such as it wouldn’t skip into a shop or somewhere that would endanger people or get us arrested but hopefully, it would force a reaction, preferably something comic!

American Football

The link was removed from YouTube, but the basic idea was to play American Football in the ‘winter gardens’ in Bournemouth. Since we’ve got pretty good accuracy, we would throw around people and hopefully not get them but the idea of ‘proper’ tackles and contact would be quite cool, along with face-paint and angry expressions! An ambitious and possibly dangerous idea but i’m throwing it out there!

Public Manhunt

Again, a pretty extreme idea but a great and extreme game of manhunt in the ‘Winter Gardens’ would be quite effective, with handheld cameras and a camera crew chasing them and filming reactions.

Mertle ‘the awkward turtle’

One thing we’ve learnt from our course is how different cultures come together, and one of our friends introduced us to Mertle, the awkward turtle! basically, if there’s an awkward situation with little or no words, just simply whack out the turtle! Our idea was to start the video with a tutorial and explain what it is, then simply go up to people in town and just whack out the turtle and see what the reactions are!

Scooby Doo Chase

This idea was going to be combined with the American football idea! We were going to chase each other through a series of doors as the link demonstrates….

…. but once in a while, between the chase, people in sports gear, yelling “PASS, PASS” run through the doors with a football in hot pursuit!

Bouncy Balls

Again, a fun thing to do, but so easy to fail at, but the concept could be brought into several ideas!

Art / Paint Fight

Four walls, four people and a hell of a load of paint! Expensive but a great idea?!?

Guitar Hero performance –> air band –> busking — cardboard band

A combination of loads of ideas! First a cardboard band in Bournemouth town centre, again seeing how the public react, but then the idea developed into using guitar hero instruments as it’s a more recognizable and popular idea! The scene from the film, “Risky business” where Tom Cruise is in nothing but a white shirt and white underwear is a possibility, whether public or an enclosed performance mimicking that would no doubt be an interesting and comical video.