Paula, formerly known as Paul before the sex change operation returns to the firehouse and has to try harder than ever to fit in with the Guys. Smitty and Ben get reprimanded by Sammy for their recent behavior on a fire call and Smitty continues to plead his case on why they should all be getting paid.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
"Hosed" - Episode Two
"Hey Wow, you look great with your a... you know - side hair."
Juston McKinney - Writer, Marc Dole - Director, Jonathon Millman - Director of Photography. Gary Valentine, Danica Carlson and Jessica Webb in this episode.
Juston McKinney - Writer, Marc Dole - Director, Jonathon Millman - Director of Photography. Gary Valentine, Danica Carlson and Jessica Webb in this episode.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
"Hosed" - Episode One
This is episode #1 of "Hosed"(the web-series version). Juston McKinney - Writer, Marc Dole - Director, Jonathon Millman - Director of Photography. See Juston McKinney, Gary Valentine and Lenny Clarke in this episode. Great professional and talented cast and crew. Much fun.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Online Video - 60% of business people prefer Video to text
How Online Video Can Reach the Business Audience
JANUARY 4, 2011Even busy executives want to do more than just read on the web
Executives with no time for fun and games do have time for the sound and motion of video, according to findings from Forbes Insights. In some cases, they may actually prefer it to text for learning about products and services.
A majority of businesspeople surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 said they watched more online video than a year earlier. Nearly 60% of all respondents said they would watch video before reading text on the same webpage, and 22% said they generally liked watching video more than reading text for reviewing business information. Three-quarters of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than half did the same on YouTube.
Video can be highly effective for merchants. The executives surveyed reported taking a wide variety of actions after watching online videos, with about two-thirds visiting vendor websites subsequent to viewing and more than half searching for more information. Especially among younger executives, likelihood of making a purchase was high.
Generational differences ran throughout the Forbes research, with a split in behavior at age 50. While the youngest executives were most interested in video across the board, baby boomers in their 40s had comparable participation levels. It was older executives who had not yet gotten on board with video, and business-to-business marketers must continue to reach them through other means.
But video has only become more important for the younger set, and marketers can depend on them to watch, pass along, recommend—and often, enter the purchase funnel.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows
Two posts in one day. That's twenty bucks worth. Written and performed by Leonard Cohen. The lyrics - ya.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Bob Lefsetz - Good read indeed
If the music biz is something you're interested in, check out this fellow - Bob Lefsetz and his blog. It's excellent. Here's a recent post. Worth the read I'm say'n.
Eagles On The BBC
There’s no cheating in music!
I’ve been reading Matt Taibbi’s book, "Griftopia". Love the attitude, but most of what’s in there I already know, except for the explanation of the gas price increase back in 2008, remember that? I do. Suddenly I was debating driving an extra mile or two to save a dollar or so, just wasn’t worth it, gas cost too much. Some said it was overconsumption, too many greedy Americans driving SUVs, others decried regulation, the inability to drill for more oil, but the real story is it all had to do with bets on a new commodities index. How did this happen? Goldman Sachs asked for private rulings from the CFTC, then created a game predicated on commodity prices always going up, which they don’t, but for a time there, you could barely afford to go anywhere.
Don’t think that Wall Street is playing by the rules. To the degree there are any left, they lobby and cajole to eliminate them or create exceptions. But you can’t do this in music.
I’m not talking about the labels. As soon as a streaming service takes hold you can bet your bippy Lyor Cohen and Jimmy Iovine will pay people to scam the count, that’s the way this business works. But what they’re selling…that can’t be rigged, that can’t be faked.
Let’s be clear, you can imitate, you can rip off what’s been done before. You know that Kia that looks like a Benz? But it doesn’t drive like a Benz, and Kia certainly ain’t gonna create the next breakthrough, they’ve got no one on board to do that, no one investing in testing the limits, it costs too much for too few dividends.
Why did we want to play music?
The Beatles.
Sure, everybody in the U.K. picked up an axe to escape the factory, but in middle class America we bought Fenders because we wanted to be just like the Fab Four, we wanted the music to come out of us, we wanted the girls to fawn all over us.
And soon there was a schism. Started in 1967, although one can argue the Beatles began it even earlier, with "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver". Suddenly, it was no longer about the one hit wonder. It was about the statement. Created by people who’d paid their dues. The original British Invasion was over, replaced by a plethora of players who could truly do just that, expatriate Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, all the FM staples. They had one thing in common, they could play.
Their stories were all the same. They bought records and practiced in their basements and bedrooms until they were good enough to get a gig. And then they gigged long enough until someone noticed them. And then they got a chance. And some of them broke through.
That’s a long hard road. That’s not like Snooki getting on "The Jersey Shore", or Kim Kardashian getting enough plastic surgery to look like a Barbie Doll. There’s no short cut. And you’re starting from scratch. How many of those bankers would be rich if they couldn’t start out at the aforementioned Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley? Never forget, Steve Jobs started out in his basement. Without rich parents or a college degree. Just passion and hustle and…
Jobs was just like the musicians, only he was peddling tech, not tunes. Still, the sky was the limit.
A reader e-mailed me a video. Of the Eagles on the BBC. The concert I wrote about and downloaded over the weekend.
My jaw dropped.
It was like being transported back to ‘73 instantly. Better than "Almost Famous", better than reading about it in "Rolling Stone", this was exactly it.
The clip begins with "Train Leaves Here This Morning". But what’s stunning is the band is sitting on stools singing all the music. ALL the music. There’s no one in the background, nothing on tape. And the harmonies are ALMOST perfect. And when something is almost perfect it’s just like life itself. Perfection is not human.
And Bernie Leadon is wearing a UCLA t-shirt. I don’t think he thought much about it. It was probably at the top of his suitcase, or the only clean thing he had. You see it wasn’t about the look, but the music.
When Glenn Frey sings about sleeping in the desert tonight you know why all the girls ran to grab their sleeping bags. We’ve been hearing how Glenn was so cool for years, how he was a ladykiller. You get it here, it’s not the "Miami Vice" guy hyping gyms, it’s that guy on the couch who you can’t wait to zip apart, who you can’t wait to get inside of you.
This is a band. Remember bands? They rehearsed until they got it right. And when you get it right, you’re undeniable. People clamor to sign you. Not because you’re making the music on the radio, but because you’re making music so GOOD!
And there are some snide comments. How do bands stay together?
Actually, they don’t. Because one person can no longer take it. You might say to not quit, but musicians aren’t looking for security, they’re following their muse.
And when Randy Meisner sings "A Certain Kind Of Fool"!!!!
You see him smiling, and then what comes out of his mouth…WHERE DID HE GET THAT VOICE? How does it sound so right? He’s like a choirboy having sex for the very first time. You get why we needed to get close. You don’t want to have dinner with Lloyd Blankfein, but you can’t wait to just be in the VICINITY of your favorite musician.
And Bernie’s guitar has got that distortion that’s just a bit different from the studio, which is why you go to the show, because it’s just a little bit different, it’s a one time only performance.
And Glenn is playing lead. There’s no hired hand. And he can DO IT!
And when Bernie picks his banjo at the beginning of "Earlybird"… How’d he get that good? PRACTICE! You remember practice, don’t you? All the Olympic athletes do it. And standing in front of the mirror perfecting your ‘do is not practice!
And when you hear Henley sing "Witchy Woman"…it takes you right back to the first time you heard it, when you had no idea who this guy was, only that the sound reminded you of times when anything could happen, both good and bad.
Still, it’s got nothing to do with any specific notes, although it does have a lot to do with the songs. They wrote ‘em. And they weren’t their first.
But what is striking is the fact that you’re watching a band. A living, breathing thing. Something that developed. Something that exists in the minds of the players, not the label.
This is the way it used to be. Inspired journeymen woodshedded to the point where they established a vision. And then they rode that vision to unknown places. Watching this ‘73 show you can’t see "Hotel California" in the future, but it happened.
They’re impossibly skinny. They’re not dancing. A stylist would be yearning to clean them up. As would an engineer. But you can’t clean up live. It’s messy. But it’s so SATISFYING!
I don’t care if you hate the Eagles, you’ve got to watch this show. Because this is how it used to be. Create a 24 hour cable channel with all this heretofore unexposed greatness and watch catalog sales explode.
This is not "Glee", this is not covers. This is not a tribute. This is like stumbling upon the Dead Sea Scrolls. And you’re yearning to know the backstory. How did they come up with this shit? Did they practice the harmonies? Did they get along? How do you write a song?
They watched the Beatles and formed the Eagles.
We watched the Eagles and…
And when you’re that good, you write your own rule book. You become so successful that you tell the label the way it’s gonna be. The agents and promoters work for you. Money and sex and drugs rain down. Because you’re delivering life. People want to be closer to you, you just can’t get enough.
Goldman Sachs is not building America, one can argue strongly it’s destroying it. And at the center, all there is is money, nothing real. But you can be broke and still sing "Take It Easy". And when you lower the car window and put your elbow on the sill while the radio blasts your favorite song you feel more alive than when you’re at the bank, you’re right where you want to be.
I don’t know if these days will ever return. It was so hard to get noticed. But there were fewer people vying for attention. And radio was about music, not commercials. And it wasn’t bad if you looked good, but we hardly ever saw you. At best, from a distance, at the show.
But we went to the show. We had to. Just like we drank and ate. There was no choice. And although there were programs and t-shirts, they were only on sale because fans needed totems, tangible representations of the experience. Because the music was enough.
The Eagles video is HERE
Eagles On The BBC
There’s no cheating in music!
I’ve been reading Matt Taibbi’s book, "Griftopia". Love the attitude, but most of what’s in there I already know, except for the explanation of the gas price increase back in 2008, remember that? I do. Suddenly I was debating driving an extra mile or two to save a dollar or so, just wasn’t worth it, gas cost too much. Some said it was overconsumption, too many greedy Americans driving SUVs, others decried regulation, the inability to drill for more oil, but the real story is it all had to do with bets on a new commodities index. How did this happen? Goldman Sachs asked for private rulings from the CFTC, then created a game predicated on commodity prices always going up, which they don’t, but for a time there, you could barely afford to go anywhere.
Don’t think that Wall Street is playing by the rules. To the degree there are any left, they lobby and cajole to eliminate them or create exceptions. But you can’t do this in music.
I’m not talking about the labels. As soon as a streaming service takes hold you can bet your bippy Lyor Cohen and Jimmy Iovine will pay people to scam the count, that’s the way this business works. But what they’re selling…that can’t be rigged, that can’t be faked.
Let’s be clear, you can imitate, you can rip off what’s been done before. You know that Kia that looks like a Benz? But it doesn’t drive like a Benz, and Kia certainly ain’t gonna create the next breakthrough, they’ve got no one on board to do that, no one investing in testing the limits, it costs too much for too few dividends.
Why did we want to play music?
The Beatles.
Sure, everybody in the U.K. picked up an axe to escape the factory, but in middle class America we bought Fenders because we wanted to be just like the Fab Four, we wanted the music to come out of us, we wanted the girls to fawn all over us.
And soon there was a schism. Started in 1967, although one can argue the Beatles began it even earlier, with "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver". Suddenly, it was no longer about the one hit wonder. It was about the statement. Created by people who’d paid their dues. The original British Invasion was over, replaced by a plethora of players who could truly do just that, expatriate Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, all the FM staples. They had one thing in common, they could play.
Their stories were all the same. They bought records and practiced in their basements and bedrooms until they were good enough to get a gig. And then they gigged long enough until someone noticed them. And then they got a chance. And some of them broke through.
That’s a long hard road. That’s not like Snooki getting on "The Jersey Shore", or Kim Kardashian getting enough plastic surgery to look like a Barbie Doll. There’s no short cut. And you’re starting from scratch. How many of those bankers would be rich if they couldn’t start out at the aforementioned Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley? Never forget, Steve Jobs started out in his basement. Without rich parents or a college degree. Just passion and hustle and…
Jobs was just like the musicians, only he was peddling tech, not tunes. Still, the sky was the limit.
A reader e-mailed me a video. Of the Eagles on the BBC. The concert I wrote about and downloaded over the weekend.
My jaw dropped.
It was like being transported back to ‘73 instantly. Better than "Almost Famous", better than reading about it in "Rolling Stone", this was exactly it.
The clip begins with "Train Leaves Here This Morning". But what’s stunning is the band is sitting on stools singing all the music. ALL the music. There’s no one in the background, nothing on tape. And the harmonies are ALMOST perfect. And when something is almost perfect it’s just like life itself. Perfection is not human.
And Bernie Leadon is wearing a UCLA t-shirt. I don’t think he thought much about it. It was probably at the top of his suitcase, or the only clean thing he had. You see it wasn’t about the look, but the music.
When Glenn Frey sings about sleeping in the desert tonight you know why all the girls ran to grab their sleeping bags. We’ve been hearing how Glenn was so cool for years, how he was a ladykiller. You get it here, it’s not the "Miami Vice" guy hyping gyms, it’s that guy on the couch who you can’t wait to zip apart, who you can’t wait to get inside of you.
This is a band. Remember bands? They rehearsed until they got it right. And when you get it right, you’re undeniable. People clamor to sign you. Not because you’re making the music on the radio, but because you’re making music so GOOD!
And there are some snide comments. How do bands stay together?
Actually, they don’t. Because one person can no longer take it. You might say to not quit, but musicians aren’t looking for security, they’re following their muse.
And when Randy Meisner sings "A Certain Kind Of Fool"!!!!
You see him smiling, and then what comes out of his mouth…WHERE DID HE GET THAT VOICE? How does it sound so right? He’s like a choirboy having sex for the very first time. You get why we needed to get close. You don’t want to have dinner with Lloyd Blankfein, but you can’t wait to just be in the VICINITY of your favorite musician.
And Bernie’s guitar has got that distortion that’s just a bit different from the studio, which is why you go to the show, because it’s just a little bit different, it’s a one time only performance.
And Glenn is playing lead. There’s no hired hand. And he can DO IT!
And when Bernie picks his banjo at the beginning of "Earlybird"… How’d he get that good? PRACTICE! You remember practice, don’t you? All the Olympic athletes do it. And standing in front of the mirror perfecting your ‘do is not practice!
And when you hear Henley sing "Witchy Woman"…it takes you right back to the first time you heard it, when you had no idea who this guy was, only that the sound reminded you of times when anything could happen, both good and bad.
Still, it’s got nothing to do with any specific notes, although it does have a lot to do with the songs. They wrote ‘em. And they weren’t their first.
But what is striking is the fact that you’re watching a band. A living, breathing thing. Something that developed. Something that exists in the minds of the players, not the label.
This is the way it used to be. Inspired journeymen woodshedded to the point where they established a vision. And then they rode that vision to unknown places. Watching this ‘73 show you can’t see "Hotel California" in the future, but it happened.
They’re impossibly skinny. They’re not dancing. A stylist would be yearning to clean them up. As would an engineer. But you can’t clean up live. It’s messy. But it’s so SATISFYING!
I don’t care if you hate the Eagles, you’ve got to watch this show. Because this is how it used to be. Create a 24 hour cable channel with all this heretofore unexposed greatness and watch catalog sales explode.
This is not "Glee", this is not covers. This is not a tribute. This is like stumbling upon the Dead Sea Scrolls. And you’re yearning to know the backstory. How did they come up with this shit? Did they practice the harmonies? Did they get along? How do you write a song?
They watched the Beatles and formed the Eagles.
We watched the Eagles and…
And when you’re that good, you write your own rule book. You become so successful that you tell the label the way it’s gonna be. The agents and promoters work for you. Money and sex and drugs rain down. Because you’re delivering life. People want to be closer to you, you just can’t get enough.
Goldman Sachs is not building America, one can argue strongly it’s destroying it. And at the center, all there is is money, nothing real. But you can be broke and still sing "Take It Easy". And when you lower the car window and put your elbow on the sill while the radio blasts your favorite song you feel more alive than when you’re at the bank, you’re right where you want to be.
I don’t know if these days will ever return. It was so hard to get noticed. But there were fewer people vying for attention. And radio was about music, not commercials. And it wasn’t bad if you looked good, but we hardly ever saw you. At best, from a distance, at the show.
But we went to the show. We had to. Just like we drank and ate. There was no choice. And although there were programs and t-shirts, they were only on sale because fans needed totems, tangible representations of the experience. Because the music was enough.
The Eagles video is HERE
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Tal Wilkenfeld - Sweet bass solo in this Jeff Beck piece
We bow to Beck of course (indeed we must) - but the bass work by Tal Wilkenfeld stands up tall in this piece; "Cause we've ended as lovers".
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
"You Got Served" meets "Fiddler on the Roof" - Good one!
Note how the edit lets the line of dialogue run in front or behind the visual cut - letting the line become associated with the character to avoid the lipping misses. Nice idea and nice execution - fun.
Friday, December 31, 2010
In the News - Computer Being Stupid
CAMBRIDGE, MA—After multiple attempts to get the thing to do the thing, 38-year-old freelance writer Joe Garvin gave up Saturday, citing the fact that his stupid computer was too dumb to print something as simple as a travel itinerary. The computer, a PowerBook something with some kind of core that does this every single time, reportedly refused to just tell the printer to print even after Garvin spent a full 10 minutes yelling at it. "Why won't you just help me out here?" Garvin asked his computer after it started beeping at him just to rub it in. "I checked your nums lock already, and that's not it. What is the matter with you? I hate you." Although the computer will likely go on being naughty forever, Garvin refused to call tech support to resolve the problem, claiming they're all "Wha, wha, wha," and saying a bunch of stuff he doesn't even know what.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Neil Young / Jimmy Fallon - "Pants on the ground"
It's a Hulu feed so we have to endure the commercial but hey - it is what it is.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Everyone Likes this / No one likes this
Everyone and no one
Two things are always not true:
Everyone likes this.
No one likes this.
Sorry.
If you try to please everyone, the few you don't delight will either ruin your day or ruin your sense of what sort of product you should make.
And if you believe the critic who insists that no one is going to like what you made, you will walk away from a useful niche.
One other thing: Sometimes it's easy to confuse, "the small cadre of people I want to impress because my ego demands that this 'in' group is important," with "everyone." They're not the same.
Expanding the point Seth writes...
Lady Gaga and me
Do you think it bothers her that I don't listen to her music and wouldn't recognize her if she stopped by and said hi?
It shouldn't.
Even if you're a pop star, you don't need everyone to be a fan or a customer. And especially if you're not a pop star, worrying about whether everyone laughs at your jokes, buys your product or even likes you is counterproductive.
Unless you're running for something that requires a unanimous vote, it's a mistake to focus on the frowning guy in the back of the room or the dolt who doesn't get your subtle references or the miser who isn't going to buy from you regardless...
You're on the hunt for sneezers, for fans, for people willing to cross the street to work with you. Everyone else can pound sand, that's okay. Being remarkable also means being ignored or actively disliked.
BTW, I'm virtually certain that Lady (do her friends call her that?) doesn't read my stuff, so we're even.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Steve Martin's Holiday Wish - Again, because it's good stuff.
I push this one up to the site every year about this time. it's surely worth ten bucks, so I toss it up again.
Steve Martin's Holiday Wish...
If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.
If I had two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. And the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account.
You know, if I had three wishes I could make this holiday season, the first, of course, would be for all the children of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million dollars every month to me, and the third would be for encompassing power over every living being in the entire universe.
And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina-somebody, I can't think of her name.
Of course my lovely wife can come too and she's behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it. Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y'know?
No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice. But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They're not going to be able to get all those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more trouble than it's worth! So -- we reorganize!
Here we go. First, the sex thing. We go with that. Second, the money. No, we go with the power second, then the money. And then the kids. Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my enemies! Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.
Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas.
Steve Martin's Holiday Wish...
If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.If I had two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. And the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account.
You know, if I had three wishes I could make this holiday season, the first, of course, would be for all the children of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million dollars every month to me, and the third would be for encompassing power over every living being in the entire universe.
And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina-somebody, I can't think of her name.
Of course my lovely wife can come too and she's behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it. Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y'know?
No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice. But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They're not going to be able to get all those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more trouble than it's worth! So -- we reorganize!
Here we go. First, the sex thing. We go with that. Second, the money. No, we go with the power second, then the money. And then the kids. Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my enemies! Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.
Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas.
Literal Music Video - Bonnie Tyler - Ha!
I must be late to the party. You may have seen this. Well actually there's less than a 1 in 30 chance that you have but I'm just say'n - check it out if you haven't. Maybe it's because I spend a lot of time in the video and music business that this seems so funny. If you watch it through - there are nice little payouts (good lines) all the way through. Hit the link here.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Nicely done web promo tool
Well done campaign for designer garments. This video introduces the "notes/women" as "sizes".
Click on the Cup Size Choir logo below the video to play them in the flash player. Nice concept adapted for the web - well done. The fact that it is made of pretty girls is certainly part of the charm but aside from that, the overall execution is quite good - don't you think?
Click on the Cup Size Choir logo below the video to play them in the flash player. Nice concept adapted for the web - well done. The fact that it is made of pretty girls is certainly part of the charm but aside from that, the overall execution is quite good - don't you think?
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