music videos now online via mtv.

in case you are living under a very tiny rock and haven't yet heard about this, i give to you mtvmusic.com. that's right. mtv has become so NOT about the music that now their digital is about the music. so really it should be monline? mcom? mnet? digim? im? oh wait, that's taken. anyway. point being all those music videos you love and miss and only see shitty quality of on youtube, they're all at mtvmusic.com now. party on. as a halloween gift, here's the extended version of Thriller, using mtvmusic.

Michael Jackson |MTV Music

friday felines: Simon's Cat

some of you have known the wonder of Simon's Cat when the "cat wake up call" -- titled Cat Man Do -- swept the internets with something akin to viral wonder. (there's that word again.) in case you missed that vid, click here.

but here's another installment, equally funny, i'd argue, and anyone who's had a cat and tried to watch TV at the same time is sure to sympathize. me, it happens with House and Heroes. PS who is SO EXCITED to finally meet Peter/Nathan/Gabriel's DADDY?! mwuahahahaha. i am so stoked. anyway. here's the cat vid.



in other news, it's a friday and i have a lot of work to do. LAME. so this will be my only post for the day. i promise further snark on tuesday. since i'll be off and at a Rise Against (!!!) concert on monday.

you, too, can be a talentless rockstar.

news in the gaming world. or at least in the pseudo-gaming world, because it seems the only game i know almost every plays is Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band. so that is to what i am specifically referring.

in case you couldn't master Guitar Hero, what with all the pressing of buttons, you can instead slide things. @irockiroll pointed this gem out to me: Guitar Hero for DJs, officially sanctioned. it'll bring me back to my high school and college days for sure.

in the realm of Rock Band, they're taking it to The Next Level. they're turning the amps to 11. you heard right. they sold their souls to MTV and now there's going to be a reality tv show. the guy who did the Apprentice and Survivor is going to make you eat the undersides of barstools until you make enough to play in a dive.

just kidding. i hope.

update!!! update worthy of three, count 'em three, exclamation points. ! [ok four]. MTV has no more music. that's it. it's over. my teenage life is over. for ever. what happened. where are my music videos. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!

bloodsucking a dead horse

no lies here. the True Blood campaign has been freaking awesome. props to Campfire.

but after all the ramp-up excitement, i'm sad to say that marketing can't do everything (though it can help to make it seem really cool). i watched the premiere last night. and hated every minute. anyone want to argue? i'd love to find some merit. especially because i really, really WANTED to like it. i did.

between the wicked campaign and the fact that i've been digesting vamp novels since i was a tween [LJ Smith, Laurell K Hamilton, Anne Rice, etc], i thought that this show might have a different spin or something new to offer the age old vampire conversation. should have known better.

if it's not a girl torn between a werewolf and a vampire,
it's a girl in love with a vampire, who becomes one.

YAWN.
and here i thought i was going to get some modern interpretation, something about the sociological repercussions of vampirism, the involvement of the TruBlood drink, i don't know, something BIGGER or MORE INTERESTING than the first episode implies. plus, the writing was actually quite bad. oh, and if i have to stare at the gap between Paquin's teeth any longer, i may put out my own eyes. because i know that no one has dental in the south. clearly.

didn't watch it? here's an abbreviation:
vampire porn. two people talking. vampire porn. some violence. four people talking. vampire porn. a bit more violence. and no, it didn't close with vampire porn, but that's just a small favour. but thanks for the shock value, HBO, i know i appreciate it.

mad men, ogilvy: at least it's not 'shipping?

for those of you living under very tiny rocks this past week, i will give you a brief summary of the Mad Men AMC fiasco before proceeding. skip between the lines if you've followed.

---
1 - bored unknown assailants 'brand jack' characters from the tv show and portray them on twitter, interacting with one another and fans.
...see also: @Don_Draper, @Roger_Sterling, @Paul_Kinsey, et al.
2 - they develop following, and apparently popularity is bad for AMC, so they legally request the accounts to be suspended, of which the main characters' are. something something copyright.
3 - the awesome folks at Deep Focus convince AMC to stop being asshats. a 'gentle nudge' goes a long way--especially when done with a metal ruler.
4 - but not before the damage was done. the accounts are reinstated but the backlash from AMC's handling thrives.
---

moving right along.

there are a number of things that could have made this situation handled better, and other folks have said that better than i could, so i won't dally there. though i doubt they'll be paying the folks any time soon; that would mean condoning their behavior, and if they go against character grain, AMC will likely want to keep a distance. wtfever.

the greatest backlash, apart from the usual blogging wonders, actually comes from the fans who made the twitter accounts. for some interesting stuff, check out We Are Sterling Cooper [dot com]. they humbly request: "But please, don't treat us like criminals."

which led me to the question: where is the line?

there are fan fiction groups everywhere for everything (almost). i don't follow it, but i know there are ones for Harry Potter, Twilight, Star Trek, and any number of oddities that attract immersion in an 'other world.' (i think the 'other world' is most attractive--that a slip in time or place is more suggestive of immersion.)

these people rarely get sued, if at all, or asked to remove their written work, and often these fanfics greatly vary from the actual characters' intents. for example, 'shipping (a term i learned from @tokyohanna Amber @ Naked earlier this week). imagine Betty Draper and Joan Holloway as lovers. yeah, i didn't think so either--but people write it.

that's not to say you have to like it. this Mad Men twitter thing isn't for everyone. i'm not saying to run out and subscribe to it, proliferate or promote it, but i don't see how it's different from fanfic other than the medium. do you think the fact that it happened on twitter is really the reason for the uproar? twitter, where transparency is expected, even when writing twit-novellas?

~

what i find REALLY interesting, though, is this as of this morning: @David_Ogilvy. it's unverified as to whether or not this is actually him; he styles his name like the other mad men, and followed the mad men characters first. he is pitching @Don_Draper for a 'lunch meeting' concerning hiring.

Don insists he is happy at Sterling, as his character would. but the $5 million question: is Dave impressed by the tenacity of the twittering mad men and looking to hire the Man behind the Draper, OR, is even Dave a "character" and now the link between 1960s advertising fiction and post-millennial advertising fiction becoming a reality? bizarre to think about. which do you think?

drama, chipmunks, kittens, & south park.

today for Friday Felines, i give to you the best "dramatic" i've yet seen: the dramatic cat.



and if that's not enough drama for you, i give you also the Original Dramatic Chipmunk (prairie dog? gopher? click here for full context) as well as the competitive Dramatic Lemur.

for more ways to waste your friday, take a trip down memory lane to all the "viral" insanity compiled by Internet Memes; go on, you know you want to reminisce with the Hamster Dance, Numa Numa, All Your Base Are, Peanut Butter Jelly Time, Llama Song, and all the rest. and if you need even more funny than that (are you INSANE, MAN?!) revisit the South Park clip/episode where the boys meet the internet stars at the Department of Internet Money on Canada on Strike.

felines later. don draper now.

i'm busy at work on deadline (friday deadlines ftw!), but this made my morning, so i'm sharing. i'll get around to feline friday later today. xxo!

What Would Don Draper Do?

"I don't care. I'm a white male. Election results don't affect me."

relevant ads are relevant?

"If you have an ad that is relevant, you are more likely to pay attention," said Juenger.

really? you think so? you mean ads can be funny... or inspiring... or have a good soundtrack... or generally try and notify us of things we may actually need? ...you mean people haven't entirely lost all interest in trying to spend money? you mean that possibly, just maybe, good advertising is... good? well-targeted? dare i say relevant? nofuckingshit.

but in case you needed a case study to tell you something you could have probably deduced (that the :30 isn't going anywhere, that people watch good advertising, and that like everything else as we move forward, it's about relevancy) then you can read this TiVo study. have fun.

[note: no offense to the blog. studies like this just never cease to amaze me. because what's worse than the deductions is that someone is sitting on a conference room asking for these supportive stats. hello. you watch tv. you are a consumer. what do you do? it slays me when people stop acting like people and become marketers 24/7.]