"Donny, you're out of your element!" Sometimes I can't help but feel like "Donny" Kerabatsos from the Big Lebowski.
May be because I am missing a second X chromosome, may be I am a fusty old fossil, but I could not fathom the allure of this latest internet phenomenon dubbed "Haul Video." That last part, I may have written too hastily because I can actually see how America's mass-consumer society could easily become enthralled by pretty porcelain girls showing off their latest shopping mall hauls.
I will define the fad simply: Young girls go shopping and then post their "hauls" on YouTube.
Admittedly, my immediate reaction was a guttural reflux that threatened to hurl up my lunch's club sandwich and wilted dill pickle. But before I impetuously careened off the rails into an ill informed rant, I steeled myself and watched a few more videos to get a better feel of where this trend might be heading; after all, these gals must be doing something right. Some video posters earn six digit salaries! Yep, six digits to shop.
After my first few viewings, I couldn't help but imagine the nightmare of these videos eternally looping as I helplessly bobbed in a lapping lake of fire, but after the thrid or forth video, something magical occured. The thoughts of eternal damnation faded, the sulphuric dream clouds cleared, and I actually began to get a kick out of these YouTube clips. I could not help but chuckle at the hostess’s bubbly exuberance and gleaned a certain glee from their boundless esprit.
It does takes a certain personality, a unique charisma, and an innate savvy to be good at this type of brazen hucksterism. It’s not my language, it’s not my generation's scene, but even I began to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the poseur.
I can’t see this being confiscated by main stream media. This is unique to this forum of home-made media and informal directness.
It’s not the end of mankind. Honest.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Mad Ad Men
For around a thousand dollars you can buy tv ad space and reach over a million viewers. That is just what the folks at Slate.com did. The video below shows how, with help from Google's Ads, a macbook pro, some stock footage, and a little video know-how you too can see your ad run on late night television.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Flash Mobs are at the Gates
Years ago, I remember watching on YouTube with piqued interest as large groups of young folks participated in impromptu performances in and around New York City. My three favorites were: "Best Gig Ever," "Frozen Grand Central," and "The Moebius." But like most things on the internet, there is always a group of malcontents determined to f’ it up for everyone else.
That was years ago, and today’s version of the text message troupe is a mass of delinquent minute men bent on dominating and intimidating. Hundreds of kids, via text messaging, are organizing and diving down like biblical locust on city blocks and halting all business and threatening innocent pedestrians unlucky enough to be caught in their path. In my day we may have had the “drag” - young folks slowly driving up and down a prescribed route - but it was relatively benign and localized. Each school had their own preferred path (my drag's waypoints, circa ’85, was the Armory and the Sonic). This phenomenon, on the other hand, is performed at a scary scale with hundreds of bored kids forming en masse at a moment's notice.
Now of course businesses won’t kowtow to these kinds of shenanigans. City leaders are quick to doll out counteractive measures like harsher curfews, parental penalties, and the FBI (yep, the FBI). These are all easy attempts to appease the business sect, but will these near-sighted actions deter the hordes? Never mind that this may be a nuanced racial and class issue that can not be properly addressed with these impetuously implement ham-fisted policies.
But no matter, I would like to thank the flash mobs. Not only have you taken away a unique performance art, now you have given the federal government license to monitor my Tweets.
If there ever was a web site divinely created by the big IT guy in the sky that successfully sowed the seeds of world peace and managed to deliver fresh tulips to every home on odd Tuesdays, inevitably, someone would come along to f’ it up.
Click here to read the NY Times article.
That was years ago, and today’s version of the text message troupe is a mass of delinquent minute men bent on dominating and intimidating. Hundreds of kids, via text messaging, are organizing and diving down like biblical locust on city blocks and halting all business and threatening innocent pedestrians unlucky enough to be caught in their path. In my day we may have had the “drag” - young folks slowly driving up and down a prescribed route - but it was relatively benign and localized. Each school had their own preferred path (my drag's waypoints, circa ’85, was the Armory and the Sonic). This phenomenon, on the other hand, is performed at a scary scale with hundreds of bored kids forming en masse at a moment's notice.
Now of course businesses won’t kowtow to these kinds of shenanigans. City leaders are quick to doll out counteractive measures like harsher curfews, parental penalties, and the FBI (yep, the FBI). These are all easy attempts to appease the business sect, but will these near-sighted actions deter the hordes? Never mind that this may be a nuanced racial and class issue that can not be properly addressed with these impetuously implement ham-fisted policies.
But no matter, I would like to thank the flash mobs. Not only have you taken away a unique performance art, now you have given the federal government license to monitor my Tweets.
If there ever was a web site divinely created by the big IT guy in the sky that successfully sowed the seeds of world peace and managed to deliver fresh tulips to every home on odd Tuesdays, inevitably, someone would come along to f’ it up.
Click here to read the NY Times article.
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