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July 27, 2006
Litle Teeny Tiny Wings
I was just standing on the subway platform and I saw a woman in a black tank top. Protruding from the back of her shirt, about six inches below her collar, were a pair of dragon fly sized wings.
Posted by Jonny at 12:07 PM | Comments (2)
July 21, 2006
Did you know that Eric is a big dork?
Eric Horst Phillips is one of the mentors I worked with in the Bronx this last year. He taught kids how to shoot and edit video in his own loose, goofy, yet intense way. He's also part of the Meerkat Media Collective which makes little videos about all kinds of stuff, including this award winning mini-documentary about Wal-Mart invading Haslett, Michigan.
He's got a great personal videoblog where he asks the question: "Did you know that Eric is a great big dork?" And then he answers it: "You probably did. Yes!"
I guess dorks have gotten way cooler then when I was a dork, I mean when I was young. I'm still a dork. I've been dipping into his videoblog lately, and he's got some gems there, like where he turns a camera on himself as he finds out his friend is getting married. He doesn't post that often but it serves his purposes. He's not really doing it for you. But you might wanna take a look anyway.
Posted by Jonny at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2006
Robo Filling
I went to the dentist two days ago to get a humongous porcelain filling replaced. My dentist did some kind of 3d scan of my tooth, then had a 3d model of the tooth pop up on a computer monitor, where he digitally sculpted my filling. Then he sent that information over to a robot which sculpted the filling out of a block of porcelain with two water-cooled diamond tipped drills! I got to watch, and it was pretty awesome. Then he popped the filling into my tooth, proclaimed it fit great and sent me out the door. So far, so good.
---Note, added July 18. A few folks have asked me who my high tech dentist is after reading this post, so here's a link.
In a few years, I bet we'll all have little robotic fabricators at home so we can "print" 3d objects as we need them, instead of buying them. I'm not the only person who thinks so.
Posted by Jonny at 10:32 PM | Comments (3)
Corey Boutilier, Erzsi Pongo, and Jonny Goldstein take Manhattan
Corey B. was a great guest on the Erzsi and Jonny Show, showing footage of his interviews with independent film people Rosie Perez and Paul Giamatti.
Posted by Jonny at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)
July 13, 2006
New verb: youtube
A friend of mine suggested I youtube the Barbara Walters dissing Star Jones video. I guess she meant watch it on youtube.com. Or maybe she just meant watch it on the web, and used youtube as a generic verb meaning just that. Will "youtube it" become commonplace, like "google it?" Ick.
Posted by Jonny at 01:20 AM | Comments (4)
July 10, 2006
Corey Boutilier of independentfilm.com on the Erzsi and Jonny Show tonight
The Erzsi and Jonny Show is proud to present an interview with film maker and journalist Corey Boutilier of independentfilm.com on channel 56 in Manhattan tonight at 10-10:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. Or you can catch it on the web at MNN.org if you click on the channel 56 button. Corey wroted and directed a short movie I starred in called "The Long, Long, Long, Long Pants," and he'll be talking about that as well as A/K/A Tommy Chong, a documentary about the absurd arrest of counter the culture icon and comedian who was entrapped into selling waterpipes to undercover law enforcement people in Pennsylvania, one of the only two states in which sales of such paraphernalia is illegal. Should be a great show. I'm really looking forward to it!
Posted by Jonny at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)
Rocketboom vents more gases: another bad Rocketboom pun
Sorry, couldn't resist that headline. For those who care, here's Andrew Baron speaking length about the recent past, present, and possible future of Rocketboom. For those of you who missed it, here's Amanda' Condon's take on things. Although this whole thing fascinates me, viewing it, and discussing it, does,in the words of vlogger Missbhavens make me feel "a little dirty." Oh well, time for a shower!
Posted by Jonny at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
July 07, 2006
Typedrawing=devilish good time
I just did this typedrawing with the help of this website. It's diabolically fun.
Posted by Jonny at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2006
Midwestern Jell-O Pretzel Salad
Posted by Jonny at 10:40 PM | Comments (4)
July 05, 2006
Thoughts about Rocketboom implosion
I've been out of touch the last few days on a farm in Ohio, so when I got back in the city, I decided to check the Yahoo Videoblogging Group to reconnect to the videoblog zeitgeist. I was greeted with a long thread of posts about a split between Amanda Congdon and Andrew Baron, the two powers behind Rocketboom.
For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Rocketboom is a very popular daily videoblog. Exactly what precipitated this departure is a matter of hot debate on blogs and online discussion groups. Amanda created a video on her personal videoblog saying that Andrew, who has a majority stake in the show, did not want to work with her anymore. Andrew posted on the Yahoo Videoblogging Group that he learned that Amanda was leaving upon seeing her video. Chuck Olsen posted that things had been strained between them recently and he had been mediating between them for the last couple of days.
It's not surprising the partnership buckled. It's got to be unbelievably difficult to produce a 5-day a week video program on a shoestring. Add to that the business and publicity pressures and you get an enterprise ripe for implosion. Even with the best of intentions, those kind of pressures can mess up a working relationship.
I have a couple of personal memories of the pre-breakup Rocketboom. The first was a disasterous appearance as my alter ego Yanni Goldthtein, holithtic healer, on the Rocketboom set. Yanni gave his holistic take on the war in Iraq, augmented by a flipbook animation. He concluded the interview by offering to massage Amanda's chakras, which he did very unsubtly, to her great annoyance. The next day, Andrew told me that the interview footage was a bust, but he liked the way the flip book looked. So I ended up making a couple more flipbooks and having them featured on the show, which was a thrill for me. Every now and then I'd intersect with Andrew or Amanda at some vlogger event. Last time I saw them was at Vloggercon, where fans were swarming them like ants on sugar.
I think the pre-breakup incarnation of the show had a lot of merit. This had a lot to do with both Andrew and Amanda. Andrew is one of those rare people who comes up with a vision and is actually dogged enough to see it through. Amanda for her part is expressive, has great timing, and can really connect with audiences. Their content was eclectic, ranging from internet fluff to police brutality. On the writing side, I'm sure both contributed plenty. Both of them worked like dogs cranking the show out. In recent months, they pulled in a web of correspondents and editors to help them, but although I'm sure that helped, it takes work to manage people too.
This split is especially public. Since they are both players in an interactive medium, many of their fans (and detractors too) are chiming in. Either way I wish both Andrew and Amanda good luck in their future efforts. I have a lot of respect for their work, and I'm sure they both learned tons working with each other, even if this chapter hurts.
Posted by Jonny at 06:09 PM | Comments (3)