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October 31, 2005
Off, Off, Off, Vegas Tonight, Oct 31, 10PM
Tonight, special artistic guest, Dick Stone will guest host, along with rock and roll raconteur
John Sully. Also featuring the amazing animation of Eric Merola.
In Manhattan: Channel 56
Outside Manhattan: Go to MNN.ORG, click on the channel 56 Button.
Posted by Jonny at 08:27 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2005
150 Bronx Teens Will Learn to Vlog
Posted by Jonny at 12:45 AM | Comments (7)
October 25, 2005
Sampler
Posted by Jonny at 09:25 PM | Comments (6)
Bye Bye Rosa Parks
Died yesterday at 92. This one resonates for me. I'm cynical about the way the word "hero" gets bandied about. But she was the real thing. Learn more about Rosa Parks' life here.
Posted by Jonny at 09:32 AM | Comments (1)
Million Dollar Jonny Continued
So now there's a site, pixelsusa.com, that lists the "best" sites on the MIllion Dollar Homepage. I am currently at 77 out of of 1244. Go there and click on me if you feel like it. That counts as a vote for this site. Then my rank will go up. And if that happens....Um. It won't matter at all. But go ahead anyway. It's fun. You only get one vote per hour. Thanks for your support in this meaningless charade.
Posted by Jonny at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2005
Million Dollar Jonny
Jonny's empire has established an outpost on the Million Dollar Homepage
I heard about the project on The World Technology Podcast. Basically, this English university student with some web design skills was broke and decided to make the Million Dollar Homepage where he would sell advertising space for 1$ per pixel in blocks of 100 pixels. He links to a website of your choosing from your pixels. He's above $400, 000 in pixel sales so far. I have a fairly high tolerance to marketing schemes, but every now and then, my defenses will crumble (exhibit A: The Juiceman mixer in my closet). In short, I decided that My Vast Empire(TM) had to have a virtual toehold in this space. So I tried a few little 10X10 pixel designs and sent in my order. If you go to the hompage, I am 82 from the left and 9 down sandwiched between an Xbox 360 and Fat ads.
It's fun to click around the MDHP. There's lots of get rich quick, dating and gambling sites, but also some cool gaming sites, random small businesses, self promoting artists, musicians, media makers, and just plain folks who think it's cool to have their personal website linked to from the billboard.
For anyone who may be visiting from the MDHP and who has read this far, I'm a comedian, videoblogger, teacher, and artist living in New York City. Please enjoy yourself, and come back soon. I put up new stuff regularly. And I will have some Jonny T-Shirts and stuff for sale soon with original USDA Choice Jonny art.
Posted by Jonny at 12:07 PM | Comments (4)
I Hope They Brush Their Teeth
I'm going to the dentist tomorrow. I think I'm due for some expensive work. This drawing seems appropriate. It's from an old sketch book of mine. One of my favorites.
Posted by Jonny at 02:34 AM | Comments (2)
October 23, 2005
Clay Shirky Gives Developers The Hand
During his presentation at the Open Media Developers Summit at ITP, social software Guru Clay Shirky demonstrated The Hand, an ancient Jedi mind control technique.
Posted by Jonny at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2005
The Zombie Protest
Posted by Jonny at 11:20 PM | Comments (5)
October 20, 2005
Dude, I've Been Assigned As Homework!
It had to happen sometime, but now it's official: Jonny G. is required viewing for university students. Well, maybe I'm just recommended viewing. Jen Simmons is teaching a multimedia class at Temple University and my C Train clip is on her list of things for students to view. This is particularly sweet for me as all my immediate family are former or current university professors. Big ups to all my academic peoples!
Posted by Jonny at 10:54 PM | Comments (1)
Visualizing A New Advertising Model
I'm a frequent reader of media maestro Jeff Jarvis' blog. He just posted about an idea for reaching the right audiences with advertising on blogs. The secret ingredient? Trust. This is my attempt to diagram some of Jeff's concept. I may have this all wrong, and at best this is incomplete. I'd enjoy seeing your visualizations of his idea.
Posted by Jonny at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)
Noguchi Filing System, Episode 1
Posted by Jonny at 01:15 AM | Comments (7)
October 19, 2005
Noguchi Filing System
OK, I have had it with the horizontal filing happening on my floor, tables, bed, dresser, and counters. I'm going to try the Noguchi filing system. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
**Update. OK, I've taken care of the table. Now onto the floor where I spread out a bunch of documents two weeks ago. So far, this feels very good.
Posted by Jonny at 11:50 AM | Comments (2)
October 18, 2005
Excellent Day
I got enough sleep last night, which was already a good start. Had lunch with Mikey Sklar. He always has a bunch of great projects going. One of his current things is to implant himself with an RF tag. He is interested in embedded technologies and is a big fan of learning by doing. After lunch I made some illustrated posters for a chess tournement, with the help of the kids I teach. Left work with a paycheck in my pocket and went out and bought 20$ worth of Combat roach baits, my first step in changing the pest equilibrium in my apartment. So satisfying to watch roaches crawling into them. They don't realize their doomed. Doomed. Bwhahahahaha. Then headed up to Manhattan Neigborhood Network where I hosted my fortnightly rock and roll, comedy, cable talk show, "Off, Off, Off, Vegas," with John Sully and special guest Clark Ov Saturn. Felt like it was a fairly solid show, probably our smoothest yet on the technical front. Got a couple of live phone calls, one from Josh Leo in Michigan, and one from a sweet Spanish Speaking fan. Subsequently went out for a beer w/Clark. Learned about his crazy experiences as a distance-learning teacher. Came home and watched some good videoblog clips of Jan's Road Node 101 adventures. There you have it, one USDA Choice excellent day.
Posted by Jonny at 02:32 AM | Comments (2)
October 17, 2005
Off, Off, Off, Vegas Tonight: Special Guest Clark Saturn
Another episode of New York's funniest rock and roll talk show, with special guest Clark Ov Saturn, videoblogger extraordinaire. Jonny's cousin Yanni Goldthtein, holithtic healer, will be guest hosting this show with his customary lithp.
When: 10-10:28 PM EST Monday, Oct 17
How to Watch: In Manhattan cable channel 56, on the web go to mnn.org and click on the channel 56 button.
It a call in show, so give us a buzz and add your spice to the sidesplitting stew!
Posted by Jonny at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
Yanni Thpeaks #8
Yanni Goldthtein, holithtic healer, is back, and this time, you're stuck in an elevator with him. This was at the Green Goddess Mud Ball Keep it holithtic, and remember, enyoy yourthelf!
Posted by Jonny at 01:55 AM | Comments (2)
October 14, 2005
C Train
Posted by Jonny at 01:25 AM | Comments (10)
October 13, 2005
G.E.D. Class Vlog
Jan McLaughlin has been vlogging her way up the East Coast on her Road Node 101 tour, from community media centers, to classrooms. One of her stops took her to a GED class in Upstate New York Worcester Massachussetts where she captured a rap battle between students. For those unaccustomed, rap battles are like verbal boxiing matches, each participant trying to jab, bodyblow, and land the occasional haymaker, with words. But as gory as the monologs get, it's in fun. You can see one of the participants smiling as he gets taken apart by his adversary. At the end of the segment, Jan gives me a credit on the piece, I guess because I have been talking about videoblogs in Education lately. I'm happy to be associated with this piece, though I hope never to see anyones "Brains on the curb looking like linguini."
Carl Weaver, the teacher of the GED class, says at the end that he thinks teachers need to think less about their pupils' learning styles and more about their teaching styles. I guess he is saying that us teachers need to rethink what we are doing to reach these students who, who have a hard time getting traction on the road to the American dream.
Posted by Jonny at 02:35 PM | Comments (4)
Video iPod
Soon you'll be able to watch my contorted face on your very own video iPod....assuming you have 299 bucks lying around. Steve Jobs announced that they are coming out with a video enabled iPod next week, just in time for you to bug your gift giving relations to stuff one of these in your Christmas stockings, or Chanukah tallis bags.
Which reminds me, I was giving a little presentation about vlogging at the SOHO Apple Store with some other NYC vloggers when a store employee inquired whether the stuff we were going to screen was "PG rated or less." Nothing too intensely political, sexual, and so on. I guess some material was a little too spicy at the previous months vlog event, which I had missed. She said she personally liked everything that they screened, but they offended an audience member and who called to complain, the complaint worked its way to the top and the store employees got the dreaded call from Steve Jobs. "He knows everything," she whispered. Whoa. Anyway, Steve, since you are so all knowing, you must know that I would really like a video iPod, but don't really want to buy one, so can you hook a brothah up and ship one to me care of the Apple Store SOHO? I'll pick it up next time I give a talk there.
Posted by Jonny at 01:48 AM | Comments (6)
October 11, 2005
Interview With Charles Hope of blip.tv
Watch the video, Duration: 2:42, Size: 12.7 megs, Format: Quicktime
Charles Hope is one of the people behind blip.tv. I bumped into Charles after a screening of videoblog works at Anthology Film Archives in lower Manhattan. At dinner after the screening, he told me a little bit about blip.tv. I was so impressed I created an account.
Posted by Jonny at 11:55 PM | Comments (2)
Swap-O-Rama With Yanni Goldthtein
Watch video, Length: 6:42, Size: 29.9 Megs, Format:Quicktime
Yanni Goldthtein, holistic healer explores the wonders of the Swap-O-Rama in the Lower East Side of New York City. Amidst all the swapping, check out workshops on RFID tags, creating handbags from bras, and a keynote speech from Yanni himthelf. Randy wicker just did a nice little video feature about it too. Worth checking out for a different, but still very holistic, perspective.
Posted by Jonny at 02:45 AM | Comments (1)
October 10, 2005
So Wrong
There is no coffee at this freelance gig where I'm working. I'm having hot chocolate with a teabag in it.
Posted by Jonny at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
Yanni on the Thegway
Watch, Format: Quicktime, Length: 24 seconds, Size: 1.7 Megs
Yanni Goldthtein, holithic healer, took a break from dispensing fashion tips at the Swap-O-Rama to take a spin on a Segway. Itsi, the Segway owner, told Yanni that people should check out segwaynyc.com to learn more about this extremely holistic mode of transportation. For the moment, Segways are not street or sidewalk legal in NYC, but people are working on changing that.
Posted by Jonny at 12:56 AM | Comments (5)
October 07, 2005
Videoblogging for K-12 Teachers
I've been thinking about ways to incorporate vlogging into working with kids. I just poured out a few of my thoughts onto a Mind Map. You can look at big version here. This is just a conversation starter, not the be all and end all on this big topic. What other branches would you add? What are some of the connections you would make between branches?
**Since posting this I got enquiries about how I made the Mind Map. Here's how I did it:
1. Drew the Mind Map freehand just to get my ideas out there quickly
2. Drew the central illustration in Flash using a Wacom graphics tablet. Saved the illo as a JPEG.
3. Redid the Mind Map, importing the central illustration into ConceptDraw MindMap
4. Exported it as an .eps file.
5. Opened the .eps in Illustator and added the caption in the pink box.
6. Saved as a GIF file and uploaded it to flickr. Linked to it from my blog.
Posted by Jonny at 12:55 AM | Comments (6)
October 06, 2005
Swap-O-Rama
If you are anything like me, you have closets bulging with clothes you never wear, yet you still need a few more pieces to round out your collection. If this is your situation, bring your unwanted clothes come on down to the Swap-O-Rama, and pick up some new threads. It's happening at the CSV Cultural Center at Suffolk and Rivington, this Sunday, October 9, 2-7PM. My cousin Yanni Goldthtein, Holistic Healer, will be there giving a presentation on holistic fashion. Maybe, if you are good, he'll let you touch his onion.
Posted by Jonny at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2005
The Melech of Rock and Roll: Jelvis
I was honored to have the Jewish Elvis, Jelvis, on my TV show, Off, Off, Off, Vegas last night. That guy has got it all, the look, the licks, the voice, and schtick as thick as chunky peanut butter and kosher bacon. Hope to be seeing more of this cat soon.
Posted by Jonny at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
Art Demo 1: Jonny Style
Watch Me Length 3:26. Size: 17.22 megs. Format: Quicktime.
One of my gigs is teaching art to kids. So as long as I'm planning lessons, I figured I might as well make litte video demos on the techniques I'm teaching. This first demo is scratch drawing. In doing this, I realized it would be really fun to buy a Bob Ross afro wig and do really twisted art lessons for the vlogosphere. Well, that's for the future, maybe. Meanwhile, are you ready to be edumicated?
Posted by Jonny at 03:33 AM | Comments (45)