I have no doubt that all late-night talk show hosts and comedians in general are mourning the end of a golden age in political humor. In this clip, Letterman looks back on the wealth of material that has come out of W's mouth.
I came across a cover of Neil Young's Old Man by Lizz Wright and then discovered the rest of her work. What an amazing artist and voice. The middle child of a minister from rural Georgia, she first broke out on to the jazz scene in 2003 with breakout performances at the Billy Holiday tributes in Chicago and Los Angeles. Seems she's done well for herself since then, having put out 7 albums
I've become a fan of Arrested Development only after seeing a few episodes, though I can by no means be qualified as one of the show's many ardent and dedicated fans. I did find one however that I kidnapped, drugged and forced into explaining to me the show's greatness. Here's what he had to say:
The show pleases us (AD-lovers) immensely for its ability to stack comedic moments, every line of dialogue from one of the Bluths topping the other in its absurdity, every other line pulling into the forefront some reference from a past episode that you thought was inconsequential but turns out to drive the plot of the current episode. For those who get it, the experience of the show is like standing one inch away from a wall that's studded with live human fingers, poking your ribs and your neck and your forehead, teasing teary-eyed seizures of laughter out of you, those long fingers, and poking you some more...
Enjoy!
, by Randy Pausch, so I bought it in the airport on my way back from vacation recently. It was a quick read but incredibly inspiring and touching, and I finished it the same day before going to bed. The book is the literary version and biography of Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor Randy Pausch's last month as he prepares to give one of the institution's signature creations, "The Last Lecture", an invention designed to challenge professors to come up with a lecture that they would want to be remembered by.I also read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch over vacation and it was an inspiring and touching reality check. The book is the literary version and biography of Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor Randy Pausch's last month as he prepares to give one of the institution's signature creations, "The Last Lecture", an invention designed to challenge professors to come up with a lecture that they would want to be remembered by. The writers of Entourage should get a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a Nobel Prize solely for their creation in Ari Gold, by far the most colorful and entertaining character on the show. To describe him as obnoxious, sarcastic, crude, offensive or tactless would all be accurate but not do his character anywhere near the justic. When I grow up, I want to be Ari Gold.
See more of Ari offending and inspiring in Season 4, $25.99 at Amazon.
(the first match lasts a while but it all is worth is at 0:55; after that they go pretty quickly)
Kyokushin is full contact karate ad it's a damn tough sport. Basic rules are that anything is allowed with the exception of hand strikes to the face, and no sparring or protective gear is used during sparring sessions. Kyokushin is rooted in idea of self-improvement, discipline and grueling training which consists largely of technique, forms and sparring. A special tradition of Kyokushin is the 50 or 100 man kumite, a special test for advanced practitioners of the art. Think gang fight but a lot longer and much more difficult (though no knives, chains or tridents and no deaths). For such a test, the subject will attempt to fight 50 to 100 opponents (depending on the test) in rapid succession: standard is two-minute bouts separated by one-minute rest periods. The subject must "win" (i.e., not get knocked-out) in at least 50-percent of the bouts in order to be consisdered as passing the test. Sure puts a new perspective on the idea of endurance, doesn't it?
Found this great clip of Feist performing her single "1234"' on Letterman back on August of 07. Enjoy!
In a few hours, President-elect Obama will lose the "elect" from his current title and become the US' 44th President and first ever African American president. His election represents so much: a decisive rejection of the policies of the past four years, the progress the country has made in it's race relations, a return to an optimism and responsibility about what it means to be American not seen since the days of JFK.
Apart from the amazing pride that he has given to Americans (especially living abroad like me) as well as the new found faith he's given to the rest of the World that we as Americans haven't become complete imbeciles, the major change that Obama's campaign championed is not likely to come immediately as a result of his election. He will still have to operate within the bounds of Washington politics. The honeymoon period WILL wear off and he, like every other President, will see darker days, perhaps much sooner than most: remember Iraq, the economy, and Israel/Palestine?
(NOTE: If Bono ran for President, he probably would've won)
But I hope that he and his administration can turn this tremendous good will and positive energy into a sense of ownership and commitment from all Americans to be better than we have been in the past, and in fact to be the best we can be as individuals and ultimately as a nation. The problems facing America and the world are complex and challenging; they cannot be solved simply by soothing speeches and patting each other on the back. It will take compromise, tough decision making, sacrifice, and even faith. It will require all of us, from every class, background and ethnicity, to bolster each other up, to take greater responsibility as individuals, friends, parents and colleagues, to have belief in ourselves that we are capable of that which we have been incapable previously.
I do believe though, just like all those braving the freezing temperatures currently in DC to watch this historic inaugurationj, that Obama's resounding victory signals a ready willingness by the American people to take up this challenge to work hard and fix what needs fixing in our country and in the world. While it will be a long and painful road, after reading Audacity of Hope and seeing his campaign in action this past year, I believe he has tangible plans based on sound logic and strategy, and also know how to manage a team to get things done. It also seems that he has the mettle to make the unpopular decisions and deal with the ineveitable tough times that I believe (given the state we're in today) will be as intense as those that W faced. But I have faith that he is strong enough to deal with all those things and still lead us through next four years.
I believe that Obama is ready to lead; now ask yourself if you are ready to follow.
Rob O'Reilly is pretty hilarious for a 23 year old; check him out in this set at Caroline's in NYC and find out more about his US tour here.
In this clip, Suranga Chandratillake (try saying that fast 5 times), CEO of Blinkx, discusses his thoughts on video monetization potential and why it, like performance advertising, may be less negatively impacted than other traditional advertising forms during the current economic downturn. I've read quite a bit as of late about the buzz around video monetization especially for this year. Just having a cursory awareness of this model however, it does make sense that as budgets continue to tighten, marketers will be interested ad formats that allow them to recycle what is already in production (or has been produced) for traditional TV advertising. He also makes some interesting points that there is more demand for professional content vs. UGC, primarily because of the quality and control factors. This is good news for the professional advertising/production elements that may start to see dips in their traditional ad sales/production business. What this also means for marketers is that those campaigns most likely to be successful will have found the sweet spot between the TV's mass-reach and commonality with viewers, and the edgy/quirkiness of online so that it can fit in both worlds.
What is Blinkx.com? According to their corporate site,
Blinkx, founded in 2004 with a current market cap of $350m, is the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine. Having built a reputation as the Remote Control for the Video Web, blnkx currently has indexed over 32 million hours of searchable video and more than 420 media partnerships, including national broadcasters, commercial media giants, and private video libraries, it has cemented its position as the premier destination for online TV. blinkx pioneered video search on the Internet, developing an engine based on technology that was conceived at Cambridge University, enhanced by $150M in R&D over 12 years, and is now protected by 111 patents. blinkx continues to pioneer innovative new approaches to digital video distribution in order to ensure it offers the most advanced capabilities and delivers the highest value to its audiences and partners.
I imagine that this happens at most companies at least twice a day.
Over vacation, I read Outliers
Below is also a great clip of him speaking with Katie Couric discussing specifically how cultural differences play a role.
Wrong, but funny, which is exactly what the show is like. Fred Savage's cameo appearance makes this clip 100% better in my opinion. WARNING: this clip has graphic language so make sure you've got headphones.
Mickey Rourke won a Golden Globe for his work in this drama centered on a retired pro wrestler (Randy "The Ram" Robinson) who considers a return to glory and tries to put together his personal life. I doubt it'll come out in my neck of the woods but I'm definitely gonna try and pick up the street version. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood.
More genious from The Office. So good, able to be experienced over and over again, and full of great stuff. That's what she said. And as a bonus, check out some of BJ Novak's stand-up at Caroline's in NYC in June of this year - phenomenal.
My wife and I were in Taiwan this past week visiting some family and as a tribute, thought I'd post this great clip of Joanna Wang covering People are Strange by The Doors. Wang is a Taiwanese singer/songwriter and the daughter of famous Taiwanese music producer Bing Wang. I love her hypnotizingly deep and melodic voice, especially in this raw and unscripted cover. For more info on her or her debut album, check out her YouTube site.
According to a Jan 2 report by Heather Hopkins, Sr. Analyst of Hitwise, Christmas eve 2008 marked a new peak for Facebook. On that day, traffic to the site accounted for 2.18% of all US Internet visits, compared to the average of 1.42% for November. She hypothesizes that this increase in US traffic is the result of 3 factors: 
Read the full article here.
John Legend is the man; check out this great performance in December. His new album Evolver is also worth picking up (click here).
This is an interesting clip that tries to look at the impacts, negative or positive, of social media on the PR firm. I agree with the sentiments of the 2nd interviewee, Jeremiah of Forrester Research, who believes social media is enhancing the role that PR can play, as now users and consumers are able to communicate more quickly and with greater reach than ever before. He goes on to argue that companies (and PR firms) need to remember one of the basic maxim's of business and selling: LISTEN. Social media has given PR firms and the companies they represent a never-before seen look at the impressions that users and consumers hold. Leverage and engage with social media, don't be afraid of it.
This is a cool mash-up of Go by Common and Shut Up and Let Me Go by the Ting Tings. Probably could use some additional producing to cut out some of the overlap singing but otherwise, it got me boppin my head. Both originals are great unto their own right so I'm sure there will be those that feel this is an unforgivable transgression but oh well. Enjoy!
Kara Swisher interviews Sr. Product Yahoo Executives Tapan Bhat then Ash Patel regarding Yahoo's Open / Social Launch. The interview is fairly insightful as to the direction that Y! will be moving toward over the next several quarters which boils down to: 1.) dramatically improving the way Y! brings together the most relevant content for each specific user (i.e. increase relevance), 2.) improve the quality and speed of content sharing and social invention (I believe to really re-court lost programmers/bloggers that believe Y! to be a technical dinosaur).
Dwight from The Office transofrmed himself into some of TV's most iconic characters for a summer edition of Entertainment Weekly. The above is him as Xena Warrior Princess, but he also gave his take on MacGyver, Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek) and Paulie Walnuts (The Sopranos).
Alec Baldwin's character combined with Tina Fey's writing, are probably the two primary reasons that 30 Rock is so insanely good. Enjoy this clip of his best insults to Liz!
Recently at the Globes, Baldwin and Fey won Best Actor and Actress respectively in a TV Series Comedy. In classic Tina Fey style, her first words after taking the stage for her acceptance speech were, “Good gravy. As a kid I had all of the Foreign Press action figures.” She also spoke about staying grounded even when you've had an incredible year as she has. “If you ever feel too good about yourself, they have this thing thing called the internet. You can find a lot of people there who don’t like you and I’d like to address some of them now; BabsonLaCrosse, you can suck it."
What inspires me most about this is that about 9 months ago, my friend made the decision to look into how to do this, started talking to people that would have good input, then decided to do it. Sound simple enough in theory, but I can assure you there were obstacles he had to overcome along the way, the most important one being simple apathy; but none of it deterred him and now Every Future is not longer an idea but a reality. Attributes like self-motivation and inititave are mankind's most under-utilized resource, and I'm happy that I have friends, like the founder of Every Future, that are chock-full of it.
Posts
All Comments
