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I’m Making Waffles in The United States of Sparta!
I’m entrenched in marking first-year Flash animation projects today, and so have been thinking about creativity in various ways, but without much time to blog. So, I thought I’d share two YouTube clips which have made me laugh this morning, instead.
The first clip is 1776… … which is what the US War of Independence would look like if produced by the creative team behind 300. Apparently this was created by the Robot Chicken folks. It’s very funny. “Tonight we dine in VIR-GIN-I-A!” [Via Cynical-C]
The second is a wonderful mashup of Shrek and The Queen which tells the tale of a most unlikely romance:
Thanks to Gregg Rossen for the link to this Queen and Donkey clip!
Blogging Burma
Like the Asian Tsunami (December 29, 2004),the The London Bombings (July 2005) and Hurricane Katrina’s Aftermath (September 2005), information about the current demonstrations and atrocities happening in Burma are flowing through user-generated channels as much (indeed, often more so than) through the traditional mainstream media. There is a great deal of activity both in blogs and throughout the broader sphere of citizen media, but some noteworthy places to look are:-
[X] The 2007 Burmese anti-government protests Wikipedia entry – Wikipedia is at its most useful during moments of crisis which have many sets of eyes watching. The collective intelligence of Wikipedia contributors continues to develop one of the best resources on the Burma protests.
[X] YouTube has a number of clips like this one which simply show the enormous scope of the protests [Via]. A very good source is the videostream from news6776 which collates a great deal of footage (both mainstream media-produced and from citizen journalists)
[X] The Support the Monks’ protest in Burma Facebook Group – To be honest, I’ve never really thought Facebook would provide a terribly useful platform for political activism as the ‘groups’ often seem a peripheral part of Facebook’s design. However, I happily stand corrected as the exponential growth of the Support the Monks’ protest in Burma Facebook Group has been amazing – over 170,000 members when I checked this morning – and the links, advice and descriptions of how members can actively support the Burmese demonstrations in that group seems quite robust to me, not just a tokenistic gesture. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say this Facebook group has probably done more to promote the ‘ Day of International Action for a Free Burma – Free Aung San Suu Kyi & Support the Monks in Burma’ on October 6th than any other single outlet online or offline.
[X] The SmartMobs blog notes that cameraphones and other mobile devices are one of the main tools allowing information and media to get out of Burma, but the government has moved from shutting down Internet Cafes to blocking the entire internet in order to try and stop knowledge about the situation in Burma being available internationally. Taking the massive step of blocking the entire internet speaks volumes to how widely the impact of citizen reportage is from inside Burma is disseminating to international viewers and readers.
[X] For a traditional media rundown of the impact of citizen media, see ‘Bloggers in Burma keep world informed during military crackdown’ in the San Francisco Chronicle and Dan Gillmor’s response at the Centre for Citizen Media where he points out, quite rightly, that there’s a lot more than just blogging going on!
[X] Finally, you should visit Free Burma (dot Org) which is a portal for international information on how to support the protestors and get involved in their struggle.
[Photo by Hugo*’s from protestors supporting the Burmese democratic protests, in front of the Myanmar embassy in Paris, with a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi.]
The Simpsons Star Wars Opening
I gather this has been around for a month at least, but I thought this mash of The Simpsons and Star Wars by Rich Cando (of Dude Films fame) was too good not to share:
[Via]
Facebook Off!
Facebook Off … when college social networking turns bad!
(Or: The Perils of Identity Theft for Beginners) [Via Sivacracy]
LonelyGirl15 is over … for the season!
So … Bree’s dead, then. Or, that should be “Bree’s dead” since her character supposedly had all of her blood transfused to someone else, but you’re not dead on television, or in videoblogs (which, in this case at least, looks like they want to be television) until your head comes clean off! If you’ve no idea what I’m on about, LonelyGirl15, the poster-child for videoblog commercial success in the YouTube era, has come to an end for this ‘season’. To be honest, I never thought the creators of LonelyGirl15 would be referring to their work in ‘seasons’, in the same terms as a TV production; for some reason it seem like a backward step to use this terminology when half the point of the project was to expand the bounds of where meaningful drama could be found, made and enjoyed! That said, since the creative property of LG15 seems to have been the heart of many a sales pitch recently, perhaps a first season (of 260 episodes, no less) is a useful way of packaging a product.
For those joining the game late, LonelyGirl15 shot to fame after the seemingly innocuous clips of 16-year old, home-schooled Bree raised the eyebrows of a few viewers who noted the slightly-too-professional look of a few episodes. There were a few tears when fans who thought Bree was real discovered she was just a character, but after the controversy died down, the series has continued to engage viewers and command a loyal following in its format of 3 to 5 minute episodes. The LG15 ‘gang’ expanded recently to include another 4 people (originally only Daniel was a regular character, and the ‘explanation’ for the show’s neat editing), and it seems that “season two” will continue the drama in the aftermath of Bree’s death (and, I wouldn’t be surprised, her shock, not-so-dead return somewhere toward the end of season two). Jessica Lee Rose who played Bree has gone on to bigger and better things (proving that videoblogs could be a jumping on point to ‘make the name’ of an actor), so her departure was inevitable.
On the commercial front, LG15 seems to have become a very successful commercial project. The rights to distribute (but not control production) of LG15 were finally won by MySpace for the 12-part season finale (and subsequent season), and as Liz Gannes this shows the robustness of the videoblog as a commercial model.
I can’t say I’ve watched the last 100 or so episodes of LonelyGirl15 that closely, or at all in many cases, and I certainly thought Bree’s demise was a little over-the-top (which you can now view on YouTube, too, here) but the overall endeavor points to a very viable alternative production model which could well see many creative teams get their feet wet before taking on the mainstream media world!
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