by Marc Hustvedt on July 6th, 2011
I’m always skeptical of campaigns blatantly built for geeks, gamers and nerds. For one, the lines between those are too often blurred beyond recognition. Gamer ≠ Nerd and Geek ≠ Gamer and so forth. And with Comic-Con 2011 almost upon us, expect more, not less of this kind of blunder.
That all being said, we checked and Nathan Fillion is in fact a nerd and a gamer. So his latest video (below), a PSA targeted at gamers gets a pass. It’s part of a series of celebrity PSA’s produced for Break.com by Break’s in-house creative team. This one is a plea to end gamer affliction Swamp Ass (yup, it has a hashtag already: #endswampass).
That Nerd Machine shirt he’s wearing? That’s for Zachary Levi (aka NBC’s Chuck) new site The Nerd Machine which is throwing a big Nerd HQ event at Comic-Con this year.
by Drew Baldwin on July 6th, 2011
MTV Tr3s is adding more spice to its original online programming, with an unconventional Latino grill master and a giant Mexican hamster headlining its summer digital slate.
Tr3s: MTV Musica y Mas, MTV’s bilingual and bicultural network for Latinos, announced two original web series debuting this summer.
Grillin’ With Rico, which premiered Independence Day weekend, features unorthodox foodie and Mexican-American grill master Rico Chips—who hosts the show from a wheelchair after having survived 5 gunshot wounds. Described as a “chef who whips up ‘sabroso’ family recipes by adding a pinch of passion, and an ounce of street knowledge to create his own style of grillin’,” Chips shares delicacies including the Los Angeles-style bacon wrapped hot dogs with grilled peppers and onions, and rectangular hamburgers that fit into hot dog buns.
El Spooky Show, set to premiere in August, features Spooky, the giant Mexican hamster MTV International introduced during the 2010 World Cup. The show will document the life of the prankster hamter and his roommate-owner
by Joshua Cohen on July 6th, 2011
Are you a fan of Incubus and/or live streaming events? Want to check out Brandon Boyd’s vocal range live and in person from the comforts of your office space? How about hear a rendition of Drive from an art installation in West Hollywood? Did you answer yes to any of the above questions? If so, the alternative rock band from Calabasas and participatory media specialist Marc Scarpa have just the online destination for you.
Inqubus HQ Live is what Scarpa calls a “participatory conversation by and with the fans of Incubus.” That participatory conversation takes the form of a week-long, live streamed concert/art installation/internet-connected club house featuring impromptu live sets from the band, instructional clinics, and shout-outs from fans captured by on-the-wall, handheld, and Incubus-band-member-operated cameras.
Boyd said the goal of the project is to “provide an unprecedented level of access to Incubus.” The creators of Incubus HQ Live have certainly accomplished that. The cameras from event started broadcasting to the web on June 30. For the last seven days they’ve streamed the action from the intimate and undisclosed LA location (which lucky fans snagged an invite to via Schedulicity) from 10AM to 6PM PST.
by Joshua Cohen on July 5th, 2011
It’s clear now that Charlie Sheen isn’t secretly taking night courses at the Crispin Glover School of Public Relations or being followed around with a camera by Casey Affleck. Dude is just egomaniacal. Still, the former television star and current Twitterer has at least one redeeming quality. A part of him doesn’t take himself so seriously. At little bit of Sheen knows his tirades, neologisms, awesome and terrible metaphors, and general mania make him look a little silly. And he’s okay with it.
That’s what great about the last episode of Annoying Orange. I’m not speaking of any egomaniacal behavior (there’s none of that), but the self-analyss.
Like Sheen or the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore, creator Dan Boedigheimer and his special guest YouTubers Shay Carl, Charles Trippy, and thewillofdc are aware. They know the heights of popularity one can reach by making an original web series about a talking orange with a penchant for puns is more than little nutty. They realize earning online notoriety and/or a living by uploading autobiographical videos, short comedy films, or video commentaries of those autobiographical videos and short comedy films onto a medium where cat ladies are arbiters of cool and old people doing age inappropriate things are revered is a touch absurd.
by Marc Hustvedt on July 5th, 2011
BlackBoxTV is back and so is fan-favorite Taryn Southern who seems to be finding time outside of her new first-look deal with Break.com.
Southern stars opposite Katrina Zbegner as sisters, grown apart over time and now facing unusual circumstances that forcing them closer than they have ever been. “Trust Me” is a 13-minute sci-fi edition of the series, this one penned by Creator-Director Tony Valenzuela, Southern and Streamy-winning writer Bernie Su. While most of the BBTV episodes thus far flirted with elements of science fiction as they played with horror storylines, this is first one to squarely embrace the genre and its requisite visual effects. And to do so, that meant upping the production budget.
That’s where Coca-Cola comes in, and more specifically its Paris-based Coca-Cola Content Factory headed up by Stafford Green who expressed interest after Valenzuela spoke on the interactive videos panel I led at SXSW this spring.
by Joshua Cohen on July 4th, 2011
Macy’s Fourth of 4th of July Fireworks pyrotechnics extravaganza will commence at approximately 9:20PM EST on Monday, July 4. More than 40,000 colorful explosive devices synchronized to a 25-minute score will blast off from the Hudson River on the West Side of Manhattan between 20th and 55th Streets to reach heights of 1,000 feet in the air.
If you’re in or about the Tri-State area, there are a handful of suggested viewing locations from which you can catch the action, or you can grab a seat in front of your television and tune into your local NBC affiliate to watch the show. If you want to view our modern day ode to the bombs bursting in air that won America its freedom on your computer, however, your options are limited.
It seems Macy’s and the usual suspects for providing live streams of such tent-pole programming figured everyone interested in celebrating or spectating the holiday will be outside watching their hometown fireworks in the skies above their heads instead of tuning into NYC’s show on internet connected devices. That means your best option for checking out fiery horsetails, chrysanthemums, willows, and more live on the web comes from an indie webcam set up on a location on the waterfront in New Jersey with an incredible view of New York City’s skyline.
by Joshua Cohen on July 1st, 2011
In order to show it commiserates with its target demo and the nauseous feeling college coeds get when they’re amped up on too much caffeine, too many study drugs, too little sleep, and study habits that are better defined as cases of chronic procrastination, the crew at CollegeHumor stays up all night one day a year during your typical college finals season and creates videos.
The Fourth Annual CollegeHumor All-Nighter ended at 9:30AM EST Friday morning. It began at 9:30PM EST Thursday night with a live broadcast of the CollegeHumor show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Over the course of the next 11 or so hours, the crew at CollegeHumor uploaded no less than 10 videos featuring the online destination’s regular cast plus special guest appearances from Elaine Carroll, Chris Gethard, Ben Rodgers, Jon Gabrus, Elephant Larry, BriTANick, and CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen.
Fans of previous All-Nighters will be happy to know the bizarroo CollegeHumor staff is back and the videos do maintain a steady declension into the realm of delirious as the hours go by.
by Marc Hustvedt on July 1st, 2011
The chatter of the past two weeks was around Hulu’s recent plans to scrap the IPO route and search for an the M&A exit instead with potential suitors ranging from Yahoo to Microsoft and even Netflix. But today the LA Times is reporting that preliminary talks have begun in earnest between Hulu and the Googleplex over a deal that could see the search giant paying upwards of $2 billion for the three year-old online video hub.
While Google and Hulu spokespeople aren’t commenting on the leaked sources from the the confidential meetings, the media is all over this one. Google isn’t the only horse in this race of course, though the integration of Hulu’s recently renewed premium TV and film content deals would add some real meat to the company’s second attempt at Google TV service. The false start and lousy reviews of Google TV’s first pass came this past winter as many balked at the lack of premium content.
Reuters reports there are over a dozen potential buyers getting pitch decks from Hulu’s bankers (Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners) to peruse this Holiday weekend. Yahoo has been thrown around a few times as another strong suitor, but the deeper pockets and more immediate need for premium TV content would put Google in the top spot in terms of interest.
