Reel Pop

Latest vid comedy site BushLeague.tv debuts

The handiwork of various and sundry L.A. comedians/actors/writers, BushLeague.tv is a hodge podge of dude-analia, i.e., in their words, "jackass opinions on video games, tech, news, sports, boobs, 101's, and all the other essential tools every dude needs" -- a suh-weet grab bag that apparently doesn't have room for "original premise." The site's a combo of HBO/AOL's failed vidblog This Just In and vote-centric sites like Funny or Die: Every post is voted by readers as "sweet" or "bush," with the top posts ranked on a scoreboard, e.g., the top earner ("I Got My Hippie Shuffle On Last Night"), a how-to vid ("How to Change Your Oil"), and a post about an Eagle that was shot in the face titled "As AMERICAN as MOM, apple pie, and rhinoplasty."

All in all, the site's chock full of tepid puns and smarmy exclamations, and suffers from a lack of a cohesive voice and, apparently, juiced up stats -- on its first day, none of the posts have been voted "bush," but every post has a surfeit of "sweets." The site has promise, though, if the writers can focus their message and stop hoping against hope that the Internet needs yet another group blog produced by charming asshats.

Flickr's 1st vid hit? The Day There Was No News

[via] The handiwork of Jason Arber, director of production at U.K.-based video producers Wyld Stallyons, The Day There Was No News displays a series of outtakes in which BBC News anchors silently fidget in front of the cameras as they prepare to begin addressing their audience. The news ticker scrolls anti-headlines, e.g., "Breaking News: Nothing is still happening," "There are no terrorist attacks" and "There are no funny stories."

The vid's eerie effect comes from the fidgeting -- shuffling papers, practicing chin raises and knowing looks, pursing lips -- which is every bit as practiced as their artificial, accent-less speaking cadence. You wonder in what context these skills are useful besides television. I bet anchors are really good at silently standing in an elevator with only one other stranger. And doctor's appointments.

As one Flickr user observed, comedian Adam Buxton uploaded a similar clip to YouTube last year that has about 375k views. Buxton's vid, which eschews Arber's calming soundtrack for BBC sound effects, is striking because it zeroes in on the anchors' awkward, expectant moments -- when they're resetting themselves to speak (the chin raises, the half-lip grins) but are unsure when the speaking begins. Almost like a man and wife awkwardly waiting for their child's experimental dance program to finally, blessedly, cease.

Given Flickr's absence of video view counts (only the owner sees his/her uploads' popularity), "success" on Flickr is more ineffable. Better for the site, which prides itself on communities engaged in aesthetic judgments rather than views. Err..somehow I missed that view count over the last few years. I'm blessedly not a view whore on the site. Those counts are teensy tiny though.

Latest political vid hit: Hillary's Downfall

Wired's Jenna Wortham -- who recently did an excellent job unpacking ROFLCon memes -- IM'd me earlier today to chat about Hilary's Downfall, the latest iteration of the Downfall meme, with 300k+ views. [Update: Here's Jenny's article on the Downfall vids.] This time 'round, Hitler = Hilary who, confronted by pessimistic advisors, rails against the American voters who "stole the election" form her and gave it "to the dandy, Obama."

I explored the Downfall meme a bit in a January post, but it's worth reiterating a few reasons why the meme's so effective:

1. By juxtaposing a reviled person with a relatively fleeting subject (HD-DVD, Cowboys' playoff loss, etc), the vid's throw into relief both the trivial nature of the topic at hand and the ludicrous amount of reasoning that goes into dissecting it. (Somebody should really do a Chris Berman Downfall, stat.)
2. The argument carries the weight of historic inevitability.
3. The meme entertains with logic.
4. The meme is a mad libs for deductive and inductive reasoning. Simply substitute any argument, run through your supporting points, and voila.

Jenny McCarthy's 'In the Motherhood' in the dumps

At least on YouTube it is. I was browsing through YouTube's most viewed videos today when I noticed a promo for "In the Motherhood", the MSN original series starring Jenny McCarthy that debuted last year. Seven webisodes from the series' first and second seasons were uploaded in the last few months. Total traffic between them: 28,896. The highest performing video is the premiere episode, the title of which contains McCarthy's name.

The series' poor performance on YouTube probably isn't indicative of the show's quality -- YouTube's not typically a mom agora, and the MSN site for the series seems bustling enough. But it does demonstrate that simply dropping in otherwise well-produced, topical content into a social network(ish) setting doesn't guarantee success. Maybe if every soccer mom's browser automatically opened to YouTube...

Afghanistan gunbattle voicemail YouTube'd

A recording of a gunbattle between U.S. soldiers and Afghan forces -- recorded onto voicemail when an embattled soldier accidentally pocket dialed his parents in Oregon -- has been uploaded to YouTube by the soldier's brother. The full story is at the BBC, and the YouTube clip is below.

Save for a brief written intro, the three-minute clip contains no images but has been viewed almost 250,000 times in the past 12 hours (I first saw the clip last night, when it had fewer than a 1,000 views). The sound of semi-automatic gunfire, followed by calls for more ammo and exclamations of force positions, is the only sound. The absence of melodramatic added footage makes the clip all the more disturbing -- the viewer is confronted with confusing sounds in an unfamiliar landscape, an experience that, even if only just, is analogous to the American experience in the Middle East. It's an odd sort of wonderful that, of all the visual footage I've seen of our Middle Eastern conflict, a clip with no images conveys the most about our situation there.

Most ominously, the clip ends with a U.S. soldier saying something similar to, "Hey, they're coming" or "Hey, they got me." The soldier who accidentally phoned home survived.

SuperDeluxe folds into AdultSwim.com

Turner's original comedy vid platform SuperDeluxe is being folded into AdultSwim.com, the company's more successful, young male-oriented comedy channel. From the memo to employees:

Our management of the Turner Animation, Young Adults & Kids brands requires us to always look for efficient, strategic ways to grow them. In Super Deluxe.com and Adult Swim.com, we have businesses whose potential for individual growth is limited by their increasingly complementary content. Rather than position them as competitors for the same audience, the smarter move is to consolidate the two brands to create a richer, stronger platform that builds on Adult Swim’s number-one position with young adults.” Candolora described Super Deluxe as “a business with a loyal audience and critical following.

I'm a big, big fan of SuperDeluxe -- classic vids include Douche, by NY comedy troupe The Post Show, the guide to cheap living by Jonah Ray, and I am Baby Cakes -- but it's no surprise Turner's consolidating their brands. Doesn't make sense to compete against yourself for the same audience, especially when the web's not exactly hurting for comedy aggregators: Funny or Die, Comedy Central, CollegeHumor, ad infinitum.

Lohan, Sandler cameo in YouTube dance battle

I missed this, but over at Buzzfeed, my neighbor and former j-school colleague Scott Lamb notes that Lindsay Lohan and Adam Sandler recently made cameos in the episodic dance battle between "Step Up 2: The Streets" director John Chu and Billy Ray's tweenily-tawdry scion Miley Cyrus and her dance instructor-cum-gal pal Mandy (aka The Mandy and Miley Show, which NTV contributor Karina ably dissects here).

Lohan and Sandler cameo in the third video -- Chu's reposte to Mandy's response video -- and their presence is something of an oddity. Chu's dance crew is so accomplished, and their moves so undeniably, gobsmackingly slick, you've got to wonder who's big upping whom here. The videos have 5 million-plus views between them.

Philadelphia police beating video draws ire

I don't usually post on police beating videos -- they seem to crop up with disturbing frequency -- but this latest seems particularly egregious:

POLICE COMMISSIONER Charles H. Ramsey yesterday asked Philadelphians not "to rush to judgment" when watching a video showing baton-wielding cops repeatedly striking, kicking and stomping three young men whom they had stopped after a triple shooting in Hunting Park.

The officers stopped the men after witnessing them fleeing the scene of a shooting. Philadephia cops are reportedly on edge after a fellow officer, Stephen Liczbinksi, was gunned down last weekend. The video of the beating is below:

Other beatings that've made YouTube-y headlines in the last few years: The beating of William Cardena in LA, which developed into an FBI investigation; This New Orleans beating of a drunk man, in which the officers were later prosecuted; and the recent Victoria Lindsay beating, which led to the arrest and prosecution of several teenagers.

Webby winners: You Suck at Photoshop, The Onion, more

Well damn. I haven't completed my survey and recommendation of all the nominees yet. Regardless, the Webby Awards just announced this year's winners. A few highlights from the online video category:

• Best Writing -- The Onion News Network. I was rooting for my fave Getting Away with Murder.
• Best DIY and How-To: You Suck at Photoshop
• Drama Series: The West Side
• News and Politics Series: Hometown Baghdad
• Variety: Tom Green's House Tonight

Of all the winners, the viral recipient -- Here Comes Another Bubble -- irks me the most, mostly because it's entire comedic premise is based solely on the familiarity of a Billy Joel chestnut. Plus it's almost an entirely intra-industry joke. Ridiculous. Here's the whole list.

Oh my GodTube: Vid site raises $30M

In a deal of biblically unexpected proportions, vid share site GodTube -- derided, since its launch last year, as little more than an entertainingly earnest knockoff -- has raised $30 million from hedge fund GLG Partners. [via]

When GodTube launched I spoke with WNYC's Brian Lehrer about the site. Although GodTube has an obviously derivative public-facing presence --embeddable flash video, a YouTube-like similarity in design -- the site just as obviously has the potential to tap into America's burgeoning religious fervor, especially given, as Russ Douhat notes in The Atlantic, that Americans are more likely to embrace innovations in religious practice and celebration.

What's more, GodTube's public-facing vids are only a small part of its offerings. The site also provides access to Godcaster, a subscription-based live streaming service that, according to execs, is used by hundreds of churches. According to Rafat over at paidcontent, GodTube plans to offer white label social networking services to churchgoers soon. That, right there, is a pageview goldmine.

Mini-montages of 70s/80s/90s films

[via] Outside the Oscar montages (sadly tepid, in recent years), I've never seen film clips strung together so brilliantly as these: Films of the 70s, Films of the 80s, and Films of the 90s. The 80s montage is particularly stunning in its soundtrack synchronization -- listen for the symbols as Elias as shot in Platoon, and the drumbeat when Otto puffs away the panties on his face in A Fish Called Wanda. The YouTube user barringer82, who created these, has also created director compilations.

Is JohnnyBoyXO punking gay YouTubers?

A 17 year-old, plat blonde-tressed Philly boy affecting the crass mannerisms of an urban teen girl, JohnnyBoyXO blathers at one-minute intervals about agro-sexual teen topics, e.g., menstruation, sex, infidelity, etc. JB vidcasts from a bedroom decked in posters and magazine clippings and claims to be a musician, evidencing her talent by croon-squeaking over bubblegum pop (Paris Hilton, Hilary Duff). A pedestrian counterpoint to the mainstream cute-osity of Hannah Montana, JB's popularity reflects the appeal of her vulgar posturing: 4,000 subscribers and fourth most-viewed musician channel this week (#3 being IdolStudios, an American Idol channel). 

It's hard to mention a YouTuber like JohnnyBoyXO -- who, BTW, really seems to be a girl punking the gay and lesbian community -- without referencing Chris Crocker, the southern gay vlogger who rocketed to fame after posting his tearful, maudlin defense of Britney Spears. Though both achieved popularity in different ways (JB's rise has been much slower, and unmarked by national attention), they both represent the perennial popularity on YouTube of gay and lesbian content (including everyone from big names like Perez, down to What the Buck, down even further to Five Gay Guys).

I don't pretend to know the reasons for that popularity, though one can hazard guesses -- typical teen curiosity, the availability of online support, the relative anonymity (or appearance of anonymity) that YouTube screen names confer, the cross-sex appeal of homosexuality, etc. And in comparison to straight content, popular gay/lesbian fare's relatively uncommon, so perhaps I'm un-scientifically highlighting those specific vids. Nevertheless, the popularity of amateurs like JohnnyBoy is apparent. And readers of a certain age will recognize the character. Just like the angry, confused, creatively vulgar kid you knew in high school. But this one has an outlet.
Check out JohnnyBoyXO at YouTube | JohnnyBoyXO on MySpace

CollegeHumor's All Nighter

The fellas down the street at CollegeHumor are wrapping up their all night video-making marathon. I think the final count is 8 videos, but I'm a little groggy. Been playing GTA IV all night.

Alternatives to Rick Roll

In the annals of webby peekaboo -- surprise viewings of tubgirl/goatse/2G1C, scaring children who stare too closely at the screen -- no meme has achieved as much success as the Rick Roll, a video gotcha which, like a heavily-sampled P-Diddy track, succeeds almost solely because it's a nostalgic earworm.

IOW, there's nothing new here, neither in practice, e.g., ye olde duck roll, or content, i.e., it's an old ass song. The meme-ability comes from the surprise context, followed by the song's offline earworm-ability -- you get rickrolled, you hum the tune, an office mate says wtf dude, you explain why you <3 Rick Astley, and your office mate victimizes a third party. Moreso than other memes -- Star Wars kid, All Your Base, whatever -- the Rick Roll is infectious offline as well as on the web.

Caveat: The Rick Roll succeeds b/c of it's ends-directed use, too. There's a reason to spread the meme.

Honestly, it took me awhile to appreciate Rick Rolling -- I've been humming the song since 1988, so, like, whatever -- hence this belated posting on it. I only wanted to share this link: Five alternatives to the Rick Roll, including a Jagger/Bowie cover of Dancing in the Streets, the Iron Mic freestyle vid, a Seals and Croft cover, a webcam chic's wigga challenge, and Smell Yo' Dick.

Of all those options, only the Jagger/Bowie clip passes the sniff test -- it's old enough to be ironically appreciated, plus highly earworm-y. Still. Each worth a listen.

Related: NewTeeVee's Rick Roll Timeline.

Upload your arguments to People's Court Raw

A recently-launched UGC version of the People's Court (and owned by the same Ralph Edwards Productions), People's Court Raw allows viewers to make their cases online: The site exhorts pairs of viewers to upload their arguments -- my GF should pay for her own birth control, my office mate shouldn't burp -- which are reviewed by the site and, if accepted, published to the site for viewers to judge. Judging is open for a limited time (10, 20, or 30 days, depending on the site's admins), at the conclusion of which a winner is decided by audience votes. The mano-a-mano aspect reminds me of MC Hammer's Dance Jam. Speaking of which, I totally wouldn't forget about this site in five minutes if all the litigants were forced to do the cabbage patch while making their arguments. Or the robot. You can't out-argue a robot. Can't be done.
People's Court Raw

Webby online vid picks in 10 words or less

The New York Times called the Webby's, the awards platform for superlative online content, "the Oscars of the Internet". It's a somewhat apt comparison, but it's distracts from the significant differences that exist between Hollywood and the online industry. I'm no Oscars cheerleader, but I've always found the Webbys to be, in comparison, a confused awards program. Here's why:

1. The Webbys celebrate genres, not people
   The Oscars recognizes the people behind the films. The Webbys recognizes content. Why? a) the enormous amount of content, and b) the tech industry's relatively egalitarian ethos. But it leads to a confusing array of award categories that are barely differentiated, and no clear explanation of why this is so. It also fails, in some cases, to highlight what exactly the winner did to receive the award.
2. The Webbys celebrates two mediums
   The Oscars celebrates one medium: film. The Webbys celebrates three types of content (websites, advertising, and video) across two mediums (Internet and Mobile). What possible standard for judgment could you apply to such a disparate pool of nominees, and how do you differentiate between, for example, an animated short branded by GE (Samurai, nominated in Animation and Sound Design) and online video used in an advertisement?

Simply, an awards show for the Internet attempts to cover too much. The effect is rather like a high school list of superlatives. Best Dressed. Most Likely to Succeed. Most Kissable. The awards can seem arbitrary. And, when it comes to online video, there's a tension between the Internet's mish mash of discrete, one-off vids and longer series work. How can you possibly give an award for best comedy short? Isn't the entire web a comedy short? Also: can somebody explain the "Viral" category to me? Is that like awarding an Oscar for biggest box office receipts by accident?

I understand the Webbys importance to the websites and companies that receive them (my day job's spent at a company that's very excited to be nominated twice). But the truth is the metal springy-mabobs would mean more if they were awarded in fewer categories, and if those categories were better defined.

That said, I'll play along for now. Despite my qualms about the award process, the nominated vids are all very entertaining. Below, my picks for the online video winners in the first five categories. I'll post subsequent categories throughout the next two weeks (hey, it takes a while to watch all this stuff). I'll update with who really won after the Webbys in June.

YouTube vid inspires Obamacrombie t-shirts

Yesterday, courtesy this YouTube video, the internet noticed three Abercrombie-clad Obama supporters stationed directly behind the Illinois senator while he was giving his Pennsylvania primary concession speech. Speculation was whether the supporters were product placement, Hillary supporters, or represented some other nefarious nexus of crass commercialism and pop politics. According to various sources, neither the Obama campaign nor A&F had anything to do with the dudes.

Just launched today: Obamacrombie, a blog selling t-shirts that mashup Obama's name with Abercrombie's logo. Given the amount of media savvy it took to launch this -- the actual placement behind Obama, the faux-frat comic writing on the site -- this is one hell of a coordinated product launch. Has anyone ever sold t-shirts via a concession speech before? Unless the guys selling these shirts aren't the same dudes from the vid. Either way. Totally insipid, brilliant, and destined to be forgotten in 5 minutes.

p.s. According to the WHOIS info for the domain, the company behind the shirts is based in Camden, NJ.

No such thing as a Web singularity

The trend consultants at PSFK recently uploaded several excellent short clips from their recent conference in NYC (at which I sat on a nonvideo-related panel called "Does New York Matter?", here's a clip). Speakers included CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen, marketing guru Steve Rubel, Blip.tv's Mike Hudack, David Cohn from VBS, etc. Some good clips on online video:

• Mike Modello (Campfire Media, "The Blair Witch Project") on why video content should complement screen size. "From the beta through the open, I haven't been able to sit through an episode of anything on Hulu. Because the truth is, I don't like Charlie's Angels on TVLand, I'm not going to like it on Hulu. The problem is that the idea of repurposing the form of TV into these new channels like Joost, that's really the problem. I watch GeekBrief on my iPhone in the subway but, even though I can get every episode on my Apple TV, it's just not very compelling on my TV. I'm looking for something different depending on the screen."
• Ricky Van Veen, CollegeHumor -- the Web will become an end destination for content when advertising dollars and talent both go there.

Ricky's point, while true, I think needs some qualifying, mostly because professional talent is already online. When we ask ourselves this question -- when will the Web be a prime destination for content -- I think what we're really asking is when can we stop differentiating between Web content and TV content, between celebrities and Web-rities.

And there's not going to be a singularity event when that happens. Truthfully, it's already happening, e.g., Ask a Ninja and Ze Frank, both of whom seem happy to stay online (Like Bruce Sterling said, the future's here it's just unevenly distributed), and have achieved national renown despite that choice. Instead what will happen, imho, is that the cultural cache of online actors will continue to grow alongside that of traditional media and the two worlds will become less and less distinct. I can certainly see a time where talent that comes of age online will be considered more legitimate than strictly old media actors. Fact, that point's almost moot, considering that any would-be auteur coming of age today begins creating online.

Warner Bros. crowdsources Watchmen commercials

Of all the crowd-sourced video contests -- Modest Mouse videos, Doritos commercials -- this contest to help director Zack Snyder create TV commercials to be used in the film "Watchmen" is perhaps the most ingenious use of UGC content to date. Commercials designed by an in-house team would doubtless be more consistent and, perhaps, visually stunning. But considering the volume of different types of commercials in the film, visual inconsistency is a bonus. Plus there's a pleasing symmetry between the less-sophisticated filmmaking styles of the '80s (Watchmen is set in 1985) and the relative production values of amateur content.

Next Web-to-TV stars are, uh, already stars

The premise for this Wired article seems fatuous. Bemoaning the dearth of good online video, Wired asked Human Giant, the UCB alums whose Web vids scored them an MTV slot, to predict the next five Web stars who'll make it to TV. Sorry, amateur comedians -- all HG's picks, save perhaps one, are professional comedians:

• Derek and Simon -- scripted by Bob Odenkirk, runs on SuperDeluxe (which is owned by TBS!)
• Fatal Farm -- two L.A.-based vid creators who do professional commercial work
• Wainy Days -- starring David Wain from "The State"
• Tiny Hands -- runs on Comedy Central's Motherload
• JakeandAmir.com -- the CollegeHumor dudes, who already have an MTV contract

What lesson do we glean when a troupe of Web darlings -- whose sudden rise to fame was somewhat accidental, and a new phenomenon at the time -- picks a who's who of established comedians (what is this list, their T-Mobile myFaves?). The list elucidates nothing about the online talent pool, save the fact that online video's completely awash in professional talent, which everybody already knew. What does it even mean any more to say a talent goes from Web-to-TV, when that talent's already an established name?

The time lapsed re-birth of Vimeo

I don't often get to post about artistic video ephemera, but this time lapse vid -- ~6 entertaining minutes worth, created during 40 hours of work -- follows the design process for the artwork that now graces vidshare site Vimeo. Truly amazing. Related: this whimsical chart exposing Vimeo as the center of all virality.

Science Machine from Chad Pugh on Vimeo.

Video downloads for PS3 coming

Sony will launch a movies and TV show video download service to the Playstation 3 as early as this summer, according to the L.A. Times. That time peg is pretty much the only news in the article -- the WSJ originally broke news of the strategy last September.

Sony's competitive position in the video download market is mixed: the corporation owns movie studios and thus benefits from close associations in Hollywood, but also has a failed history with similar services (video rentals site Movielink was sold to Blockbuster, iTunes-esque Sony Connect folded in March). Sony also faces competition from Microsoft, which has sold about 18 million Xbox 360 units (and established a video DL audience and track record) since 2005. Sony has sold just 10 million PS3s.

Google Video redesigns, adds popularity timeline

Google Video launched its redesign Friday, offering users several new methods of sorting search results  -- a list view, a grid view, and a TV view which allows searching while watching -- plus a search results timeline, which lets you research video popularity within the last day, week, month, or year. 

The surface changes allow Google Video to be a more effective window into what's happening online (perhaps competing with Vidmeter and pals?), but the surface changes haven't done much to stem the availability of copyrighted works on the site. The No. 1 mover and shaker right now: a clip from the Wesley Snipes movie "Hard Luck."

YouTube divorce: Tricia Walsh-Smith vents

A former Broadway playwright and actress has uploaded to YouTube a tearful screed against her husband, the president of the largest Broadway theater ownership organization, which has received almost 200,000 views and shocked the acting community and divorce attorneys alike.

Tricia Walsh-Smith, who penned the plays "Bonkers" and "The Thong" (Ed: cry for help?), lashed out against her husband, Philip Smith, president of the Shubert Organization, the largest theater owner on Broadway, in a video titled "Another crazy day in the life of a Phoenix rising from the ashes." According to the AP:

She goes through their wedding album on camera, describing family members as "bad" or "evil" or "nasty," and talks about how her husband is allegedly trying to evict her from their luxury apartment. She also makes embarrassing claims regarding their intimate life, and then calls his office on camera to repeat those claims to a stunned assistant.

Because I'm committed to providing trenchant analysis of YouTube phenomena and insight into plat-blonde whob nobbers everywhere, a few excerpts from the vid:

• 0:01: "My husband's 25 years older than me, and his daughters are about my age. So. I signed a pre-nup."
• 0:35: "When he dies I get a pension of half a million a year for the rest of my life."
• 0:40: long explanation of bank accounts and how rich her husband is.
• 1:33: "I am an idiot."
• 1:45: "But I did my cards this morning," -- shuffles Tarot deck -- "and Victory!" -- holds up Tarot card of a...Pegasus? Winged therapist? Xanax?

Actually, I can't watch anymore. I have to go weep for the children.

Milkshake Dub's a Faux Supercut

Following up on yesterday's Supercuts post: This montage of There Will be Blood scenes, with the word "milkshake" dubbed over the original dialogue. A supercut, if faux-ly so.

List of YouTube celebrities

Ha: "This entry is an incomplete list that may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness": List of YouTube celebrities. Also humorously/inevitably incomplete: the list of videos in List of Internet Phenomena.

'My Wall Street Journal' parody, video irks News Corp.

A dead tree, published parody version of the Wall Street Journal and its attendant YouTube video have drawn the ire of News Corp., which is allegedly trying to buy up newstand copies.

Behind the satire is Tony Hendra, a former editor for National Lampoon magazine and inveterate prankster, and several contributing writers, including Andy Borowitz, Richard Belzer and Tony Jones.

The YouTube video promoting the satirical paper shows a faux Murdoch irate as he thumbs through the paper at a meeting. "What do they mean by MY Wall Street Journal? It is MY Wall Street Journal."

The interesting point here is that the news story about the parody was provoked by News Corp's unfortunate reaction -- that is, attempting to buy up printed copies. It's a strategy doomed to failure, especially considering the content's widely available (or available to order) online. Just as shutting down torrent sites increases their traffic, trying to suppress parody only stokes interest. And, moreover, the party targeted by parody reveals themselves as genuinely concerned. To borrow Hamlet, methinks thou doth cover-up too much.

Update: Looking again at the NYTimes story, it only has two sources, both of whom were present at a single event. Don't want to cast aspersions on the NYTimes reporter, but it's possible -- moreso b/c My Wall Street Journal's developed by media savvy pranksters -- that the story was ginned up by the sources to garner publicity for the parody paper.

MySpace to launch 'I Love Chieftown' by KateModern creators

Little bit of news that came out end of day Friday: The team behind KateModern is set to produce a new show for MySpace called "I Love Chieftown". The show will debut in September, offer 60 4-5 minute episodes, and will be a candidate for international TV distribution under the recent ShineReveille international distro agreement.

Plot-wise, Chieftown will be a dramatic series set in east London that follows an aspiring female filmmaker as she follows a band trying to break big. Hmm. Sounds like the All-for-Nots. But music's def a great hook to get MySpacers into the show.

ESPN.com golf traffic up, March Madness stats

Sports weekend news: On ESPN.com, Masters-related golf vid views were up 117% over the same Masters week in 2007. (I took a look at Google Trends over the weekend, and about 7 of 10 top items were Masters-related). The ESPN Masters Video Podcast was the 20th most downloaded podcast on iTunes (out of more than 150,000).

Meanwhile, CBS released final stats for March Madness online: 4,759,306 total unique users of its video player, up 164% over last year’s 1.8 million. CBSSports.com streamed 4,925,566 total hours of live video and audio, mostly (4,294,400) at the end of the Sweet Sixteen.

Television stats were down about 8% throughout most of the tourney, but recovered during the final games. CBS argues -- and I think rightly -- that online viewership doesn't cannibalize TV numbers, simply because most online viewing's done at work during the day.

Supercuts meme: Obsessive montages

Rex picks up what Waxy puts down: Supercuts, videos that cull discrete but recurring actions/words from TV episodes or film -- e.g., Shia LaBeouf saying "no no no" in Transformers, the Lost characters saying "what" -- and string them into a sequence, thus bringing their frequent use into relief.

No matter the topic (people being shot, somebody saying "f*ck", etc), the result's always funny. It's an old comic staple that repeating a thing three of four times isn't funny, but repeating that thing seven or eight times is (this might also be connected to our aesthetic appreciation of a simple thing repeated visually multiple times, and thus creating a complex whole). The repetition creates a constant that is then varied in context or tone by the speaker. Hence the Bud Light dude commercials, and in a more complicated sense, The Aristocrats. Quoting old Northrop Frye, "Repetition of action leads to tragedy. Repetition overdone or not going anywhere belongs to comedy."

Pitchfork trades accessibility for gimmickry

A few brief words on Pitchfork.tv, the video site from indie taste arbiters Pitchfork.com that launched earlier this week. It's a beautiful site that doesn't work well. Briefly:

In an attempt to entertain the viewer with smooth page transitions -- clicking a main nav link causes new info to scroll into view, but doesn't change the URL -- pitchfork.tv does away with static URLs for many of its pages. It's a good gimmick with good intentions, but it can make repeat browsing (not to mention linking to individual pages) a pain. It's an awkward balance between Flash's smoothness and HTML's accessibility. The one time the feature works is when you're watching a video and want to click through to another main nav point. The video doesn't stop playing, and new information scrolls into view. Elegant.

The site also provides permalinks for its videos, but therein lies another problem, i.e., the permalinks are divorced of their original context. For example, I watched "A Place to Bury Strangers'" live show. There doesn't seem to be a way to permalink the whole show, only individual set tracks. But when visiting the individual tracks' permalinked pages, there's no easy way to get back to the entire set list.

That's all.

Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture' a viral hit

Here's an uplifting counterpoint to cheerleader brawls. The charming "last lecture" from a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer has garnered over 1M views on YouTube.

Doctors gave 47-year-old Randy Pausch, the father of three children, three to six months to live late last year. In response, Pausch -- a pioneering researcher of virtual worlds -- delivered a lecture about his childhood dreams, a 76-minute video in which Pausch charms viewers with his pragmatic optimism. The lecture was posted on YouTube. Tonight, Pausch speaks to Diane Sawyer on ABC. More info on Pausch at abc.com. The lecture's below:

Behind the scenes of a meme

Last year, the kids at College Humor uploaded their lip dub of Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta. The video, made on a lark, went on to get 1.5M views and inspired the Office Lip Dub meme -- videos of also young, also pretty kids lip syncing catchy pop-tunes as a handcam follows them through urban landscapes of professional hip (offices, apartment complexes, etc). Watching the original vid, you probably coveted their cool: one half awe at their office steez (ping pong tables, longnecks) and the other at their effortless irony. Flagpole Sitta? Really? And it's so gooooood.

Recently, College Humor uploaded a "making of" video, which shows how the director -- Jakob, one of the founders -- organized the shoot, which was completed in one take (does that qualify as a tracking shot?). It doesn't detract from the vid's hip quotient. It's kinda like a DVD bonus feature. All it reveals, really, is more of the awkward "are we doing this right?" glances between co-workers, more self-conscious smiling. It's pretty rad, worth a look.

Stones throw off YouTube demo by 50 years

By Gretta Parkinson
Let me start this post of with a disclaimer: The Rolling Stones are rock icons and they deserve a certain level of respect for that.

But The Rolling Stones are old. So old. I'm talking false teeth, inflamed prostates, can't remember what year it is old.

And yet, some spring chicken in their camp, in a stroke of marketing genius, has devised yet another way to keep the aged rockers current. In conjunction with the release of their big-screen feature "Shine a Light," the band has teamed up with YouTube to launch their very own new entertainment channel where fans can upload questions about the Scorsese-directed rockumentary. Questions like: "Has touring taken more of a toll on you since the doctors proclaimed you legally dead?" and "What happened to the bottom half of your shirt?"

The Stones will post footage of Mick and Keith answering their favorite questions, employing the use of a complicated system of levers and pulleys to keep the keep the rock legends upright. Viewers can also download the optional "old man MOD slang to regular person English" translator.

Women's vid site SheZoom launches

Billing itself as "the first video Web site for women", SheZoom's a women's lifestyle site featuring experts on a variety of topics, e.g., relationships, money, family, beauty, etc. Experts provide commentary via videos, which are rateable, embeddable, commentable, etc. Like most vid sites, users can also upload their own videos.

No end in sight for these niche YouTubes. DanceJam, VideoJug, Jokeroo, etc. A good thing for advertisers, no doubt. Also a good thing for merry pranksters. If only the Billboard Liberation Front included video sites. They could, like, upload sports videos to SheZoom. And SheZoom videos to DanceJam. It'd be like Marvel Acts of Vengeance, but without the long underwear. And me reading comic books.

The biggest Jooster

Lotta buzz about Joost this past week, starting with this piece "major retrenchment" piece in the Times of London and followed by the tech blogs. Paidcontent followed up with a call to Joost PR (which denies problems, natch), and Om interviews CEO Volpi, who says Joost is focusing on more mature ad markets, mostly abroad.

Here's my brief take on Joost: It's a completely unnecessary application that's been leapfrogged by media conglomerates, who're offering their content online in ever greater numbers and varieties.

A longer take: When I reviewed Joost last October, I called it a good complement to TV that wasn't up to snuff as a standalone platform. Here, in a few simple reasons, is why Joost isn't the game changed everyone hyped it to be:

1. It's an amalgamation of tools already available online
   e.g., online video, chat, and social networking. I can watch video on any number of sites and chat with my friends using AIM, Yahoo Chat, Gchat, whatever. I don't need a platform like Joost to do that. In fact, Joost circumscribes your online wandering.
2. Taking advantage of those tools requires synchronous use
   You can use Joost's internal chat no matter what show you're watching, but there's the rub: you have to be on Joost to use it. The dominant trend in watching media is asynchronous consumption. Why not just AIM outside Joost while using Joost. And if you're doing that, why not look all around the web for content. And if you're doing that, why do you even need Joost?
3. Joost is a download, but there's an excellent variety of non-DL content available
   Joost plans to offer a browser version and live content. Bully for them. But for now, a downloadable app for online video makes almost zero sense -- unless you can give consumers something they can't get anywhere else, which Joost can't. Unless you're all about high demand channels like Earth Talk Today.

I look forward to checking out Joost's future versions. But they better be snappy. Everybody else done caught up already.

Microsoft announces new Web shows

That paragon of original entertainment, Microsoft, unveiled a slate of new programming for msn.com and msnbc.com this week. The offerings, which were apparently decided by advertisers peering over a pie chart of male/female demographics, include:

• In Need of Repair, a home improvement series featuring a pair of sophomoric, mostly inept hosts who will likely be as not funny as Tim Allen. AdWeek quotes execs saying "In Need of Repair" could be tweaked to be less humorous and more service oriented, if needed. Or if not funny.
• The Men's Room, an "instructional fashion series" for 20-something men who dislike magazines such as GQ and Details. Naming a series after a lavatory equals why?
• Seven Secrets About…, a light look at the secrets of pop culture icons such as Justin Timberlake and the fey ninnies who care.
• 50 Greatest, a spoof of the multiple pop culture list shows common to VH1 and other cable networks. Oh, MSN and their wacky meta critiques.
• What on Earth Is Going On?, a channel/series aimed at raising social consciousness. It's not social consciousness that needs to be raised, it's action.
• Turning Points -- on msnbc.com with Tom Brokaw. "An eight-episode show planned for this fall, which will revisit NBC News' coverage of past presidential elections."
• ZeitGeist – a show that will amass clips of the less important news items (hosted by Willie Geist a regular on MSNBC's Morning Joe).
• The Scoop, "a twice a week celeb-centric series hosted by Courtney Hazlett, who currently pens a similar column for MSNBC.com."

Porn for the blind

Porn, the critique goes, is all utility and no symbolism. There's not much metaphorical meaning, few references, little mystery, just straight-up boot knockin'. Like a magic trick consisting only of denouement, pornography is all reveal, all the time.

Because of this purely visual nature*, every viewer has a personal relationship with pornography that's not arbitrated by a common set of symbols or framework for discussion. We can define around pornography but we can't define it. Thus it's hard (though less hard in recent years, thanks to the net's glut o' smut and the mainstreaming of XXX culture**) to have conversations about porn without giving offense. "One half of the world," Jane Austen wrote, "cannot understand the pleasures of the other."

Then there's Porn for the Blind, a site that's garnered some popularity recently for its recordings of everyday people dryly describing the content of porn clips. No video. Each recording is read by in a dry monotone with unvarying cadence. For example:

This is a minute and 2 sec long preview clip it entitled Gina's Big Tittie Tune Up and it can be found at http colon slash slash w w w dot bigs tits round asses dot com slash t1 slash r e b s equals no inert slash free underscore movies underscore big tits round asses slash b t r a 3912 dot htm. The top of the web page has the big tits round asses logo along with still pictures of girls with large exposed breasts. The background is a light green with what looks like a gothic fence border design. The clip begins with a woman sitting in her car as she consults with what appears to be a male auto mechanic. The camera is situated in the passenger side facing the driver's seat, our angle thus keeping her fully in the frame. She informs him of an unknown problem with the car. The scene breaks and we see the woman looking down at the handbrake. Sounds like it could be a problem with the injector the mechanic says.

By overexplaining the technical aspects of the clip, PFTB reveals the overproduced absurdity of the scene and strips it of titillating value. Porn relies on salacious spectacle. Porn for the Blind is more like an Ikea instruction manual. The effect's hilarious in a way not unlike hearing a white man recite rap lyrics.

Beyond the comic value, PFTB also puts interpretive distance between the viewer and the ostensible object. We can now discuss porn, stripped of its prurience, at leisure.

Coincidentally, this phenomena was also one reason why the Two Girls One Cup reaction videos were so popular. Besides the obvious comic value of watching surprised revulsion, the response videos allowed us to discuss scat pornography without watching the originating video itself. With both 2G1C and PFTB, we're defining around something in that thing's absence. But 2G1C is oblique, not the thing but the effect of the thing. With PFTB, we're simply removing the effect altogether.

* Semiotic theoreticians, orthodox feminists, Lacanian acolytes, etc should feel free to disagree in the comments
** btw, how anachronistic is the xxx rating these days, right?

2 Girls, 1 Clooney

By Gretta Parkinson

George Clooney -- Oscar winner, philanthropist, "sexiest man alive" -- qualifies as one of the last real living movie stars. He’s classy. He’s talented. He’s buddies with Brad Pitt. So why would an Esquire writer show him "2 Girls 1 Cup" (scroll down to 'Part VI') and dash all my perceptions of his grandeur to oblivion?

A.J. Jacobs, intrepid journalist and author of two very funny books ("The Know It All" and "The Year of Living Biblically"), took advantage of his time with the actor/director/producer to discuss his career, love life, politics and one infamous viral video.

Good news, though: despite his astronomical wealth and fame, Clooney proves he’s just a regular guy ... meaning, "2 Girls 1 Cup" made him gag. But a classy gag, of course.

Video: Pat Sajak is bald

Your April Fool's joke sucks. Here's why: the internet transforms what was once a sporadically-applied culture of goof into widely-applied, poorly-executed bunkum. Expectation undermines the reveal. The internet memes April Fool's Day, and that kills the jokes. It also kills my feed reader, which is clogged with Rent Rodman to play horse.

I would be overjoyed were someone to create a Museum of Sh*tty April Fools Jokes, post haste.

I found one April Fool's joke clever, but not for the humor: On Wheel of Fortune this evening, Pat Sajak asked Vanna White to remove the hairpiece he's been wearing for twenty years. She did. The audience gasped. But it was a clever ploy engineered by the show's makeup artists who needed a new challenge after decades spent applying permaface to Vanna's rapidly drooping brow.

The clever part: The video has already made its way across every vid site out there, from youtube and AOL video to Yahoo and Metacafe. Truly great viral marketing. Though I guess it helps to have a broadcast audience of every old person ever.

Andy Roddick to marry Brooklyn Decker, online vid star

Tennis ubermensch Andy Roddick's engaged to marry Sports Illustrated swimsuit hottie Brooklyn Decker, who -- besides being absurdly hot -- also happens to be the co-star of 'She Says, Z Says', an SI vid series in which gray-tufted football writer Paul Zimmerman makes his weekly NFL picks. All the series vids are on YouTube -- each with only a few hundred views -- and embedding's been disabled. Here's episode one.

 

Justine Bateman, paragon of virtues past

From abstinence nut to desperate slut? Justine Bateman, nee Mallory on Family Ties (and former PSA anti-sex troubadour) will be starring in a multi-episode arc in the upcoming season of "Desperate Housewives". Goodie. YouTube has a bevy of Batemen vids from years past -- including interviews with brother Justin and Rock the Vote commercials -- that charm in that oh-remember-when-celebs-were-moral-guardians kind of way. Huzzah.

In Defense of YouTubers

Among the many maxims of received wisdom online -- caps lock is rude, Robert Scoble can pass the Turing test -- perhaps none is so oft-repeated as this: YouTube commenters are teh stoopid.

For the most recent apparent evidence, look no further than the site That's a Spicy Meatball, where the proprietor has created a side-by-side comparison of comments left below posts on popular old school community site Metafilter and below videos on YouTube. Check it yourself, but it almost goes without saying that Metafilter comments evidence a good amount of critical analysis skills/ironic appreciation, whereas YouTube comments evidence nothing more than basic emotion: rage, praise, and spam (spam: another word for greed).

Sign of the apocalypse? Proof that online discourse is devolving? Hardly. Rather, the simple fact is that YouTube and Metafilter have completely different content and, with that content, different audiences. While comparing the sites' comments evidences the difference in quality of engagement among social-media platforms, it does nothing to demonstrate that the quality of discourse online has devolved as a whole. Here's why:

Metafilter and YouTube have different types of content.
As I write, the front page of Metafilter contains the following: Analysis of Japan's nuclear industry, a link to a NYTimes profile of MAD cartoonist Al Jaffe, a video of a monkey on a bike, and a link to a collection of digital sprite artwork. YouTube's most viewed vids today page: Black Rabbit Vibrator, Obama!!! (exactly 0 seconds long), something called I'm Out of Toilet Paper!, and a LisaNova vid with a thumbnail of boobs. You'd hardly expect the latter to galvanize hyper-literate discussions.

Metafilter and YouTube have different types of users
Metafilter attracts digerati. Its demographic is like a small set of venn diagrams overlapping relatively rarefied aspects of the arts, current events, and politics. YouTube attracts everyone, from all different walks of life.

I have no idea what the politics behind the comparison site are: whether the creator wanted to prove that YouTubers were dumb, or that MetaFilter was a superior online agora. But by making such an imbalanced comparison, he/she has only demonstrated what everyone already knew, i.e, the sites simply speak to different constituencies.

Wanna learn something: A better project would have been a comparison between comments on Metafilter and a site like Big Think.

'Sports Illustrated' opens vault, videos

"Sports Illustrated" recently opened its vault of archival material, which includes cover images, articles, photo galleries and a good deal of video, e.g., this timeless paragon of true fandom, the dancing fat dude.

While notable for its freely available media, SI Vault offers a rough user experience. Videos, when selected, open in new tabs (or windows, depending on your settings), and summarily resize your browser. Each clip, many of which are no more than a few seconds long, is preceded by both a pop-out ad and a preroll ad. Viewing more than one video in a row requires a great deal of patience. And finally, the clips don't all use the same playback technology, which means from time to time you'll run across something like this and be asked to download a plugin.

Great idea to open the vault, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

CNN to sacrifice last bit of cred for comedy show

In an Ishtar-esque display of WTF, CNN announced this week the debut of a new Saturday morning comedy news program in which anchors will remind viewers via tepid puns why they should change the channel.

The 30-minute "Not Just Another Cable News Show" will air Saturdays at 7 p.m. ET and repeated twice later in the evening. It will be followed each time by News to Me, a series on popular Web videos.

One can only hope that, as with Fox's ill-fated "1/2 Hour News Hour," clips from the show will be leaked online, thus providing the Web with another cathartic moment of collective bershon.

Judging from the smattering of similarly oriented media lately -- Fox, followed by the HuffPo's 236.com, followed byCNN -- there's apparently a consensus among news orgs that their competitive position in the news marketplace is enhanced via homegrown comedy. I'm sure that judgment is based on sound data, data which probably says a large portion of their audience watches (and learns more from) shows like "The Daily Show." Thus, the ideation "we need to do comedy news too".

But that's misunderstanding both the problem and the solution. The problem is that news orgs like CNN -- despite their vaunted budgets and global scope -- are vested less in news and more in infotainment. To suggest that adding more entertainment to that mix will win back viewers who are looking for news is bunk. The solution, obviously, isn't to compete with comedy news but to do better journalism -- an idea which is unfortunately akin to saying "let's make less money". Thus it always has been, and always will be.

NCAA: First round streams surpass all of 2007

Just so you know why nobody's returning your emails: The total number of streams during the first round of the NCAA tourney surpassed the total number of views for the entire 2007 tournament, CBS announced at the end of last week. CBS credits dropping registration requirements (duh) and implementing social tools, e.g., Facebook groups. More data on hollywoodreporter.com.

MTV Releases Full South Park Episodes Online

Following through with their November announcement, MTV has released all twelve seasons worth of full South Park episodes online. When the plan was announced last year, MTV Networks Chairman and Chief Executive Judy McGrath explained the decision by saying that placing versions of TV shows online doesn't hurt television ratings, and may actually help. "One does not diminish the other by any stretch of the imagination. That is kind of our hat trick." In other news, duh.

Episodes play in a pop-up window, and are preceded by a 15-second commercial (currently for Toyota). Each show has two additional 15-sec commercials (also by Toyota) interspersed throughout the clip. Vids are of moderate quality, but load times are negligible, and the player can be pushed full screen. As with ABC's online experience, the vid player offers a theater mode in which the non video screen real estate is dimmed.

Delta Channels Angelina Jolie with Deltalina Vid

Delta Airlines is racking up view counts for its new flight safety instruction video, which stars a redheaded actress named Katherine Lee -- and dubbed Deltalina by Flyertalk forum geeks -- who bears some small resemblance to Angelina Jolie.

Forcing an unflappable smile and prone to exaggerated body language -- e.g., a flirtatious finger wag slightly evocative of Robert Patrick's T-1000 -- Deltalina chats up flight safety while her more aesthetically challenged coworkers (hi fat dude) demonstrate seatbelts and floating devices.

Related: Virgina America's equally-entertaining, though sadly babe-less, in-flight safety video.

YouTube announces 2007 vid winners

YouTube announced the winners of its second annual video awards today, with many of last year's most well-know vids -- e.g., "Chocolate Rain," "Human Tetri"s -- taking home awards. Winning in the Series category was "The Guild," which has been recognized several times lately, including at SXSW and for the Yahoo Video Awards. Also racking up a win in the Commentary category: Michael Buck, for "The What the Buck Show."

Here's the full list, and the winners from last year's awards, too.

And if you haven't had enough already of "Chocolate Rain" and the YouTube Video Awards, check our T.L. Stanley's take on the event in sister blog Gold Rush.

Veoh Sees Poor TV Vid Performance

Early online vid pioneer and perpetual litigant Veoh isn't seeing good performance on its TV show offerings.

According to CEO Steve Mitgang, network content only accounts for 15% of the site's traffic. More popular: User-generated content and made-for-web episodic content. Veoh has a smattering of content partnerships, the largest being with CBS. Veoh also pulls content from Hulu, though the company's have no official business relationship.

I suspect that Veoh's low TV episode traffic has something to do with the site's confusing value proposition. Veoh seems to have tried every approach to the market, beginning with hosting porn, trying to encourage UGC uploads and networking (they have a partnership with UTA), and most recently hosting network content. But Veoh isn't a leader in any of these verticals, and have been overshadowed by more successful brands, e.g., YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe and Dailymotion.

3D VideoStar puts your face in the movies

Really vain? Bored at work? Really vain? Check out the preview of 3D VideoStar, a new face-mapping technology from avatar creation co. Oddcast, which lets you superimpose your face onto a movie star's mug.

The technology hasn't been released yet, but there are demos on site that show subjects' faces being mapped into Sweeney Todd, Indiana Jones, and a Konami videogame. The effect varies in efficacy, and works best --like all special effects -- when the camera doesn't linger. Very Vanilla Sky.

PrimeTimeRewind aggregates TV vids, blows

The latest venture from serial entrepreneur and online vid evangelist Jeff Pulver, PrimeTimeRewind aggregates online video feeds from the major television networks and presents them as choices on a rotating 3D cube -- like the Rubik's toy, and just as impossible to solve.

Using their mouse or keyboard controls, viewers rotate the cube horizontally to choose one of the six networks (Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, USA, and TNT) and vertically to choose among four genres (action, comedy, reality, and drama). And there's the first problem. A "cube" with 10 facets is not a cube. It's an Escher-like impossibility.

Once you've selected a show to watch, the cube gives you the choice of watching the vid, in which case you're taken to a second page where the latest video from that series plays. On the side of the screen, PrimeTimeRewind lets users post comments and rate each show.

PrimeTimeRewind's in alpha right now, so hopefully Pulver and crew will abandon the cube metaphor. But even looking past the bad UI, one has to wonder what the business model here is. Advertising? Around embeds of network content? Seems shaky at best, and completely at the mercy of the networks' decisions on how to publish their content.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall's limp viral campaign

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall," the latest movie from the guys behind "Knocked Up," is the subject of a poorly conceived viral blog and video campaign. The latest video, released yesterday and showing leading man Jason Segel talking to a handicam about vampires, has about 822 views.

I'm not sure I understand the objective of this campaign. Why amateurize the blog by placing it on Blogspot, but then put Segel's highly recognizable mug all over the place? And why pimp the blog like it's the work of a disgruntled auteur, but then write copy on it that says "click here to see why "Sarah Marshall" really sucks -- but only if you're over 18!" My ability to suspend belief does not extend to MPAA ratings disclaimers.

The problem here is that the blog's purpose is to embellish on the plot, but all it really does is reveal the movie's marketing artifice.

Hate to see this happen to Segel, who should've received every high five ever for the Slapsgiving episode of "How I Met Your Mother."

Bebo launches interactive soap 'Sofia's Diary'

The latest vid series from AOL's newly acquired third-place social net Bebo, Sofia's Diary  -- originally a Portuguese mobile show from 2004 -- is a new, interactive teen soap-o-drama co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Campbell Ryan.

The deets: 17-year-old Sofia, having caught her boyfriend smooching another gal, "blows up" the chemistry lab and is shipped by mom to London to live with dad, his wife, and their toddler son. Sofia consequently has a new school/new friends/new job, and she huffs herself between them powered by the limitless internal combustion flames of teen aggravation, her only expression a woe-is-me bershon.

"Diary" -- like Bebo series "Kate Modern," and the YouTube phenom lonelygirl15 which inspired them both -- works via fan interaction. When an episode's posted, a viewer poll asks multiple choice questions to determine what direction the show'll go next. I've only seen rough cuts of episodes one and four, which may suggest that the producers established set waypoints to guide the main action, and