Page 2 of 2

Strings Saga, Part Twenty: Back to Eleven

Welcome, once again, to my ongoing Strings Saga: Yes, I’ve Gone Back to Elevens (And, “No, We Have No Bananas)!  Yes, I know.  This is like the 20th time you’ve read a strings review from me or found out that, once again, I had changed my mind about my Favorite Strings Ever.  Welp,   today is another day, and here’s another dollar:  I’m back to .011-.049 strings — and this time — I’m staying!  I think.

Continue reading → Strings Saga, Part Twenty: Back to Eleven

Gregor Hilden Plays the YouTube Blues

Gregor Hilden is one of those Bluesman who — once you hear a single chord he plays — forever owns your sense of what’s good and your definition of what makes The Blues intrinsically real and beautifully human.  I’ve never met Greg proper, but I feel as if I’ve known him forever — merely because I drink in his daily GregsGuitars videos on YouTube.  Four days ago, I couldn’t bear my secret delight in his talent any longer, and I posted my very first comment on a video in my long history of using YouTube:

Continue reading → Gregor Hilden Plays the YouTube Blues

When Does Graphic Violence Become too Real?

I was wandering around YouTube the other day, when the service recommended this video — X-Men Origins: Wolverine — as something that should interest me based on my previous watch patterns.  I was surprised YouTube wanted me to view a trailer for a video game, because I really only watch Blues videos.  When the Wolverine clip began playing, I was immediately incensed by disgust and fury because of the blatant blood and gory exploitation:

Continue reading → When Does Graphic Violence Become too Real?

YouTube Ready. Oh, Really?

Google bleated its own horn last week concerning a new “YouTube Ready” captioning initiative.  Our sad question is:  “What took you so long?”

Continue reading → YouTube Ready. Oh, Really?

CaptionTube for YouTube Records the Human Condition

One of the greatest inventions of modern humankind is Closed Captioning.  When text is wed to image to create memeing for words being spoken, the Deaf are winners included in the learning and in the entertainment and so, too, are those learning a spoken language.  With the announcement of CaptionTube for YouTube videos last week, another massive step forward in the goodness of humanity leapt to the forefront of our technocrat hearts:

Continue reading → CaptionTube for YouTube Records the Human Condition

If I Were a Boy on YouTube

Beyonce has a new double CD — I Am… Sasha Fierce — and I think it’s a pretty good set of music even though some of her hardcore fans feel she sold out.  I understand she wants to widen her fan base.  She doesn’t want to be Beyonce.  She wants to be Barbara Streisand. 

The biggest hit from her CD so far is — If I Were a Boy — and when you listen to the song, you are taken on a fascinating journey of gender identification and sexual role playing.  Of course, the video ruins the song by hammering you over the head with the twist of the story by adding ridiculous and unnecessary dialogue.

Continue reading → If I Were a Boy on YouTube

When the Wretched Wreak Revenge

Tricia Walsh-Smith made a YouTube video accusing her husband, Phil, of a variety of awful things and watching her strange and discomforting “divorce” video renders down the likability of the entire human race a few notches.

Continue reading → When the Wretched Wreak Revenge

The Faked Fury of a Woman Scorned

Women all over the internet are up in arms and supporting “Emily” — the allegedly scored wife of “Steven” — by linking to “Emily’s” blog: http://thatgirlemily.blogspot.com/ and adding “Emily” to their Blogrolls in support of her public revenge.
The only problem is “Emily” — and her cheating husband “Steven” — are fake.

They are a Viral Advertising marketing campaign created to dupe people and exploit their emotions for profit:

The latest in viral marketing is brought to you by Court
TV, spokespeople for the network confirmed yesterday, in what industry
experts call a “shill marketing” move, whereby the people – that’s
right, dumb ol’ you and me – are duped into believing a gigantic
billboard in Midtown is for real.

First clue that this open letter from a woman scorned was 100 percent
pure baloney came when bloggers spotted the same billboard in other
parts of the city and in Los Angeles. That’s odd, seeing as how poor,
pilates-obsessed “Emily” wrote on her blog that she placed the ad
strategically outside the office of “Steven,” her supposed no-good
philandering spouse.

Continue reading → The Faked Fury of a Woman Scorned