YouTube, in other words, is sending Rush Limbaugh down the tubes.
Right-wingers dominated the air waves for decades and were the early users of the Internet, compared with lefties, as I noted nearly a decade ago in the Voice in "Left Behind".
Now the left has overtaken the right. Also endangered are the establishment's talking-head TV shows, like the one Tim Russert hosted.
Click here for the Bush Beat post and read on . . .
Posted by Michael Clancy at 12:51 PM, April 4, 2008
On the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his words on the Vietnam War are as true as ever.
"One of the difficulties in speaking out today grows out of the fact that there are those who are seeking to equate dissent with disloyalty. It is a dog-day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every method to silence dissent. Something is happening and people are not going to be silenced. The truth must be told. And I say that those who are seeking to make it appear that anyone who opposes the war in Vietnam is a fool, or a traitor or an enemy of our soldiers is a person who has taken a stand against the best in our tradition." M.L.K.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 4:00 PM, March 19, 2008
Last week, we came across a pro-Hillary YouTube video that we compulsively watched despite a fear that it might cause seizures. This week, we came across another. It might not be as wonderfully awful as last week's Hil vid, but "Hillary4U&Me "—with its Prince-style spelling and Jackson Five-inspired melody—is pretty special too.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 5:27 PM, March 14, 2008
Can someone explain why we keep watching this video even though it makes us feel ill? It's not about the candidate. Just the song. Don't hate us when it gets stuck in your head and haunts your dreams.
Posted by Duncan Meisel at 11:15 AM, March 12, 2008
This YouTube video shows Washington Heights City Councilperson Robert Jackson delivering a sharp "shut up" to an audience member after being asked about the 125th Street "River to River" rezoning plan. Jackson, who also caught flack from community members for supporting Columbia's Manhattanville expansion, was interrupted by someone telling him to "answer the question" about rezoning, prompting Jackson's response - and a lesson in public demeanor in the age of YouTube.
In fairness to Jackson, we'd like to see the entire tape for proper context.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 1:51 PM, March 11, 2008
Great art is often born out of great tragedy. That's not the case with this YouTube video, yet it still offers a great recap of the Spitzer Sex Scandal.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 12:23 PM, February 28, 2008
After we posted the "Viva Obama '08" video yesterday, a commenter who goes by the name "Akron Por Barack" suggested that we check out his "Viva Obama - The Ohio Remix."
We're not sure of the point. Or if there even is a point. Hasn't Akron Por Barack visited chocolate cities such as Cleveland and Cincinnati? Still the image of Rush Limbaugh alongside the "Si, Se Puede" slogan makes it worthwhile.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 12:56 PM, February 25, 2008
We like this latest Improv Everywhere video because they are running Windows 95 and because the synth line in the theme music reminds us of the song written by tri-Lams as part of the Greek week competition in Revenge of the Nerds.
Such a good song. The Improv Everywhere song is an obvious homage, no? Big up yourself, Tyler Walker, for writing such a catchy tune.
Posted by Michael Clancy at 1:20 PM, January 10, 2008
If you think bare-knuckle politics has reached its nadir in this age of swiftboating, opposition research, slander and smear, then consider the plight of Ron Paul supporters who conducted a rally for Doctor Paul in the World of Warcraft and were besieged by knuckle-dragging beasts of nearly every stripe.
Chris Thompson wrote about their quest in supremely entertaining article, Ron Paul's Bloody Victory, in this week's Voice:
At 8:30, the march began, and Paul's supporters lined up single-file and tramped into Ironforge. Hecklers dogged them along the way, twirling their battleaxes and typing text bubbles like "He can't win," "He's going to ruin the economy," and "A vote for Ron Paul is a vote for socialism." The marchers chanted slogans as they boarded the tram for the human city Stormwind, and then it was on to the hamlet of Goldshare. Because she had pumped up her character to level 19, Lettuce B-Free was too busy fighting off flesh-rippers and other random beasties to look back on the crowd. But in Goldshare, she turned and gawked at what she'd created. "There was just this sea of names," she says. "The entire town was filled. That's when I realized how huge this was."
Posted by Michael Clancy at 9:11 AM, December 17, 2007
The most common reaction to "The Christmas Tree," a one-minute, forty-second YouTube short is "Oh my God, that's my mother."
And the big-haired woman who says "Make it nice" and "Pick up all that shit" may be your mother, and your aunt, and your mother-in-law, and your friend's mom too. But technically it's the mother (wardrobe included) of John Roberts, a 36-year-old actor and comedian who's lived in New York since 1989. Filmed last year on his mother's block in Colonia, New Jersey, "The Christmas Tree" so nails the universal zeitgeist of Christmas in the New York metropolitan area, that it's often forwarded as Christmas in Long Island.
But it's not New Jersey or Long Island that gives the video its power. That accent and that attitude can only mean one thing: Bensonhurst. Robert's mother grew up there and Roberts grew up imitating his mother.
"I've been doing that impression of her since I was kid... just her accent and stuff...she loves it...she's a real ham" said Roberts who was nominated for a broadband Emmy for the "The Christmas Tree." I grew up in Jersey and I didn't have that accent. She is so cool about it. My sister's not so cool about it. So, I had to stop doing my sister for a while."
More than half a million people have watched the video since Roberts put it up last Thanksgiving. His latest video,"The Phone Call", which had a special debut at the HBO Comedy Festival last month, is another tribute to his mother. Roberts recalled sitting underneath the dining room table as a child and listening to his mom's half of hours and hours of phone chatter.
Since Robert's "The Christmas Tree," "The Phone Call" and "My Son is Gay?" were all stage monologues adapted into video shorts with their genius intact, Roberts hopes the next step will be a TV pilot.
"Now I'm trying to pitch a show and put of all the characters in to one place," Roberts said. "Or to just do a mom show or a mom movie... some sort of Carol Burnett meets YouTube."
Posted by Michael Clancy at 11:50 AM, August 22, 2007
Notice how the 'M' in Time makes nice little devil horns.
In honor of the controversy surrounding the Billy Graham cover on the August 20th edition of Time magazine, here's a fascinating historical curio unearthed from YouTube.
There's some comedic gold in these short clips. This exchange is my buddy Pete's favorite:
Billy Graham: God is perfect. Woody Allen: That's funny—when I look in the mirror
in the morning it's hard for me to believe that.
There's lots more laughs in Part II as Woody discusses marijuana, and Billy talks about his love for coffee. LSD also comes up.
Billy tells Woody he'd be an excellent minister—and this is decades before Soon-Yi!
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