Blurt | Solid State | Omnivore | Mistress Maeve | Freyne Land
Get a musty taste of the cabaret in this week's episode of 7DTV. The Spielpalast Cabaret takes over City Hall and brings "Berlington" back in time to the Weimar Republic, where scantily clad dancing girls and political satire are the norm. You have one more weekend to indulge darlink.
We are trying out a new video feature at Seven Days called 7Dtv. Different video correspondents will be traipsing around Vermont looking for hot breaking news. Or, in this case, hot pink heels like the ones Kat Clear was wearing at her art opening Friday night at the Flynndog. Check out the video:
Eva Sollberger's latest "Stuck in Vermont" video got featured on the YouTube homepage over the weekend. I turned on my computer this morning to find that it had more than 146,000 views. Yay, Eva!
Not surprisingly, this sudden popularity brought with it a flood of annoying, spiteful comments from the anonymous masses. I deleted a bunch of the really bad ones already. Please, feel free to use the thumbs up and thumbs down feature on the YouTube comments.
And if you like Eva's style, tune in to "Chatting with Eva" on Wednesday at 6 p.m. on Channel 17 in the Burlington area (317 if you're on Burlington Telecom). It's a 21-minute mini-doc of Eva on the job, filmed by famed local photographer Dan Higgins.
I like that Ashlee Simpson. I liked her more with her more with her old nose, but I suppose when one is competing with the generic airhead antics of older sister Jessica, one doesn't learn to embrace their own individuality; ie: schnoz. But guess what, Ashlee? Generic airhead antics get old. And then John Mayer dumps you. Take a note. I know how she feels. I have the "family nose," a fate which my sisters both avoided.
But that Ashlee: she's sassy. She's sort of strange, in a crazy-but-not-sad way. She's engaged to a Fall Out Boy. Sometimes I get confused: is it Avril Lavigne who married some dude from Sum 41, or was that Good Charlotte? Oh, wait, that's Nicole Richie, right? So what boring band emulating the Emo aesthetic without any of the guts is dating which spunky an ingenue? It's hard for a pop culture junkie like myself to keep straight. Rumors started flying that she's preggers lately, probably because people are confusing her with Jamie Lynn Spears. She's the younger sister of totally different airhead, but I can understand their confusion.
Unlike 99% of celebrities, these two crazy kids did something that is oddly awesome: they made a satirical YouTube video. Yes. Ashlee Simpson knows what satire is. I know, I was sort of surprised, myself. And here's the thing: it's actually funny. It made me laugh.
Right? Funny. And cute. They're cute and funny. I'm shocked, too. Maybe it's sleep deprivation, but I am officially rooting for team Simpson/Wentz.
And just because I went on a mini-rant about Emo kids back there...are you following my new favorite news story... possibly ever? The Mexican Emo Riots. A friend sent me a frenzied email two days ago to tell me to turn on NPR...NOW. They did a pretty awesome story about it, that had me inappropriately laughing to myself all day. Everyone keeps talking about how it's like the Mods vs the Rockers, which isn't a bad comparison. Mod chicks wore a bunch of eye-liner... Emo kids wear a bunch of eye-liner.
My busy boss Paula got this video from her friend Dwight, and promised to blog about it tomorrow. But after watching this it, I realized that I couldn't wait to blurt it.
Mainly that's because after I watched this video, two of my co-workers came over and asked me what was going on — they could hear me laughing on the other side of the office.
So here you go: The Dangers of Being a Television News Reporter, from Gawker.
Green Mountain Derby Dames from Howlermano on Vimeo.
Well hello there, Blurt readers.
Yesterday afternoon, I posted a new video featuring The Green Mountain Derby Dames over on my own little slice of cyberspace, Solid State, and I thought I'd share it with you folks, too.
A little bit of background:
The video was filmed by Jeff Holwett from Howlerman Productions. Mr. Howlett is better known among music fans as the front man for local hardcore outfit 5 Seconds Expired, who rock. Hard. The music for this particular vid was provided by Boston punk band The Faithfull, who rock pretty hard themselves.
The Derby Dames are . . . well, you'll see. But they rock too. Just as hard, if not harder, than the previously mentioned bands, in fact. If any of you folks happen to run into them, please let them know I said so, because I believe they have it out for me . . .
Without further adieu, The Green Mountain Derby Dames!
Do you watch Current TV? Well, even if you don't watch it on your cable station, you can see it on the web!
I think I have a new crush and his name is Brett Erlich. In this Current video he explains the sticky world of finance publications with video content. It will have you laughing for no reason, throwing your money into the flames and getting creative with your baldness.
Better still, check out Brett and these Viral Video Animal Fights. Meow.
Back in the 20th century, when media geeks like me goofed around in college, we started irreverent campus magazines. Nowadays, clever college kids make videos and put them on YouTube.
This is episode 1 of College is Hard, "a new comedy series about four guys dealing with college in ways they probably shouldn't." We see them complaining about cafeteria food, scheming ways to ask out girls and hanging out in a dorm room playing video games.
In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Thanks, Max Resnik, for sending this along. Max wrote CD reviews for Seven Days (just like his pop, Robert) before he left to go to Skidmore College, which is where this was filmed.
Here's a disturbing viral video from UVM TV — last year, reporter Matt Lewis asked female students what they think about the dramatic increase in women's suffrage since 1920. Can you guess what they said?
And yes, we're talking about the right to vote... but of course Lewis didn't explain that to them.
I find this video somewhat meanspirited and sexist — but also funny. A few of the women knew it was a trick question, but the ones who didn't sound soooooo clueless. One actually looked at the camera and said, "I believe women's suffrage is unfortunate and should stop."
Groan.
Thanks, Dan G., for sending us the link.
"Are you an artist or a tradesperson, why not jazz up your website?"
Sharon and Fred are Canadian, quirky and fresh-out-of-the-oven internet celebrities. If you like, they will make a movie for you! Or at least entertain you with their earnest videos.
Their video ad, "Who Needs a Movie?" has been watched over 700,000 times on YouTube and they are well on their way to being YouTube Celebs of the Chris Crocker variety.
Sweet Sharon is proof that zombies can talk. Fred has a spunkier delivery and makes creepy animations ("I Could Sure Use a Hug Right Now" — shivers!)
It is hard to say what makes a video go viral but these earnest kids got what it takes. Sharon and Fred are an SNL skit in the making.
Oh boy! I need a hug Fred!
A group of ninth-graders at Twinfield Union School in Plainfield wants to fight global warming by building a small hydro-electric plant on school grounds. Kids these days.
The "Twinfield Hydro Team" explains their project in an op-ed in today's Times Argus:
We're proposing to divert a small amount of water through an 18-inch pipe before it's returned to the river. Depending on how much water we're able to use, we could generate enough power to cut Twinfield's $60,000 energy bill half or eliminate it entirely. We could reduce our school's carbon footprint, help our school budget and still maintain proper flows in the river to protect fish throughout the year.
Pretty cool, right? But they wrote the op-ed because they're having a hard time getting through the Agency of Natural Resource's permitting process. Bummer.
I stumbled upon this story while I was looking for Vermont videos on YouTube. I found this one, from James O'Hanlon at Moonlight Video. Last summer, middle school student (now high school student) Emyln Crocker spoke with 89-year-old former state legislator Alvin Warner about a small hydro-electric plant on his land in Lowell. Warner built it in the 1970s, as an alternative to the nuclear power generated by Vermont Yankee.
The best part about this video, other than all of the lush green foliage, is Warner's accent. This dude is no hippy.
Best of luck, you wild, rebellious teenagers!
If you are not happy after watching this video then you are made of steel.
Leslie Hall, you may have met your match...
Gem sweater queen Leslie Hall is my favorite ce*web*rity. Gold pants forever, baby!
Here's a video of Leslie I found on Boing Boing today — BB contributor Xeni Jardin interviews the Keeper of the Gems for BBtv.
When I was teaching, I gave a lecture every semester on the joys and hazards of the Internet as a reporting tool. It's not as if I knew any more about it than my colleagues, but at the time — about three years ago — I was the only one of us who knew how to play a YouTube video over the classroom's A/V system.
The first time I used this now-classic mix of a rant by Alaska Sen. Ted Steven (put together by Paul Holcomb from The Bold Headed Broadcast), I figured it would warm up an audience of semi-detached college students and kill some of the hour I had to fill. After the fourth or fifth time, though, I realized Ted was right:
The Internet isn't a truck.
Matt Petty makes fresh arts and culture videos for the SF Gate (the popular website for the San Francisco Chronicle) which has an actual video staff and an editing suite (I know, I saw it with my own two eyes)!
This video is about a skater boy who makes art and sticks it up all over the Mission. You never see his face or hear him speak but by the end of this video, you feel like you know Mildred. This is newspaper video at its finest, imho:
It's always entertaining watching YouTube stars blossom, especially when they're from Russia.
The kids from My Duck's Vision (YouTube) have made fake ads for emos, Nescafe, Axe and Head & Shoulders, and a bevy of viral vids such as sketches involving an awkward Russian actor begging to come to America. These guys are fresh, funny, and making an innovative living in Russia!
Here's what they say about themselves (dontcha just love broken English?):
My Duck's Vision began its existence on December 2, 2006. A month since the founding of themselves for not waiting, we have withdrawn something attributable. After another month after that, we have to withdraw on an ongoing basis, combining superbly liability, madness and the lack of scenarios before each shooting. One year since the founding, we have worked with several advertising agencies, in the TV film on the topic ourselves, to have marquees on the radio and record the fact that we watched on the Internet more than a million people.
And here's a Russian news segment about them:
People: If you haven't seen Barack Obama's speech on race relations in the U.S. in full, I encourage you to watch it. It's long, but worth it
This woman was interviewed on NPR the other day — last night I checked it out on YouTube and found this cool satire.
Next week, Iraq Veterans Against the War is staging a Winter Soldier gathering in Washington, DC, where anti-war vets will testify against the war.
Four IVAW members addressed a crowd at the University of Vermont last week. Seven Days videographer Eva Sollberger recorded some of their stories.
Warning: this video contains graphic images.
In this week's episode of Loutube News, Seven Days correspondent Louis Armistead attends a Chelsea Clinton rally at the University of Vermont — and attempts to ask her a question.
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