Hello Again.

Suspending this blog for other less fruitful pursuits was a serious error in judgment. Let's pretend it never happened, shall we?

Watch and Watch Often

Help Them, They Entertain You.

I just got this email from the good People at the Burg. They need help! Tell your friends! Share and share alike.

Hi.

You may have noticed that we here at the Burg haven't posted in a long time. You might be wondering why. Here's the short version.

When we started this project, there were no rules. Anyone could do anything on the internet, make content however long and ambitious as they wanted, and as long as it was good, it would garner attention. We were proof of that. Now, for many reasons, it is almost impossible for a producer to make a good show with decent production values, a length over three minutes, and pay their cast and crew a living wage, without having it paid for up front by a product integration sponsorship deal. It is almost impossible to get such a sponsorship deal unless you can guarantee millions of aggregate views. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that you need 60 pieces of content, and the shorter the better. Never mind that 90 second episodes provide barely enough time to meet a character and results in little more than a strictly plot-driven series of unsatisfying cliffhangers. Some sponsors think audiences don't really care about story or quality - they want quantity, and lots of it.

We here at the Burg call bullshit on that. We think the future of teevee on the internet is in its ability to help a show find its specific, targeted, vocal fan base. Forget the 2 million who watch thirty seconds, one time. The show is not for them. We're after the 200,000 who watch the entire episode, the entire catalog, love it, and wait for more.

We want to make our show for its fans. And we want a sponsor who understands our fans, knows what they actually want, and knows that they won't buy a Ford Focus because we have Courtney and Spring test drive one in a throwaway episode. And we want your help.

Over the next four weeks, we are releasing four shorts that we shot earlier in the year. They are a bridge to our intended second season of The Burg. If we can get each of these shorts watched 200,000 times, we think we will be able to convince a sponsor that The Burg 2 is a worthwhile investment. So help us out.

- Pass us along.

- Add our videos to your blogs, Facebook profiles, Myspace pages. Our hosting partner Blip makes a great player that is embeddable. Use it.

- Join our group on Facebook.

- Befriend us on Myspace .

- Blog or write about us.

Our little Internet neighborhood will thank you for it.

From The Burg Cast and Crew

Help Save the Burg! (The Show)

As far as I'm concerned, the Burg is one of the best things on the internet right now. The writing is sharp, the social commentary is on point and the cast is generally hilarious. The first season can be watched here for free. You can download their podcast as well.

This show is great and doesn't get the exposure it should. They need 200,000 views of their most recent episodes in order keep their sponsor. Keep interesting innovative media alive. This isn't the shit you will get on TV. If nothing else, run this episode on your browser just to bump their numbers. Every view means something.

A few notes about the Burg:
-What is the Burg? Find out here, you'll love it!
-About the Cast!
--Used Apes & Androids to soundtrack various episodes. That's actually how I learned about them.

Billy Ray Cyrus: Kid Toucher And Skat Freak?

I've said it once and I'll say it again, Billy Ray Cyrus is fucking groz. Middle-America's favorite kiddie pimp appeared on the Today show this morning, and Meredith Vieira being the hard hitting journalist that she is, asked him about his daughter's infamously old news. He responded to her questions saying, "it's life, "stuff happens." His nonchalant attitude only heralds the notion that he is totally fucking his kid.

In response to the immediate response to the Vanity Fair photos he said, "the more you stomp in poop, the more it stinks." In my mind he is saying that I'm poop. Don't take that away from me.

More in NY Mag.

Revenge of the New Nerds

Today I am reminded of my first "dirty" movie, that is to say the first rated R movie I saw with my parents' (read: father's) permission. It was the cult classic Revenge of the Nerds.

The movie had it all: boobs, my father's permission and a theme that I could believe in; what more could a twelve year old boy ask for? The trailer tells the story with far more brevity and a lot less boyish excitement than I ever could so I'll leave it there.

This rare grapple with nostalgia was brought on by reports of the lovely Anne Hathaway's crush on Steve Carell and it got me to thinking; I am a complete sucker for the nerd, dork, or general social outliers getting the girl or at the very least her attention. (Anne Hathaway on kissing Steve Carell seen here) It's just a beautiful thing; it feels like justice in an infinitely unjust world. Outside of Anne Hathaway's love for Steve Carell I think of Scarlett Johansson and how certain I am that she got it on with Dave Sitek.

Scarlett Johansson is arguably one of the most beautiful women alive - to hell with arguably, she is one of the most beautiful women alive. While only a semi-talented actress and a less than terrible singer (at best), her bombshell-dom can not be denied.

Her terrible singing leads me to my point. Scar-Jo's terrible voice was paired with some today's most critically acclaimed rock and roll hands in minds. All from the little black book of a Mr. Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio (who are in the studio!). She got Nick Zimmer, she got Bowie, fucking Bowie. None of this would be possible without Sitek. I'm sure Scar-Jo was thrilled and expressed such to Sitek in their somehow downplayed road trip. She briefly discussed it in a May Pitchfork interview seen here.

Pitchfork: I heard that you and Dave Sitek drove together from L.A. to Dockside. What was that road trip like?

SJ: It was really interesting because it gave us a chance to learn about each other. When you spend that much time in a car with somebody, you share all kinds of stories and love. We played each other a lot of music, and found the sound we were looking for on the way down. It was a really great trip. Even without really knowing each other that well in the beginning, we both knew that we definitely wanted to drive down together. We didn't even bring any equipment down. We both just wanted to journey that way.

Now I don't mean to be at all presumptuous, but that road trip can't just sound like a fuck fest to just me, can it? God bless Dave Sitek for doing what every nerd past and present had strived for.

If this interests you:
Read about Anne Hathaway leaving her playboy Italian boyfriend on the heels of making Get Smart here. Oh Steve, you home wrecking animal you.
If you don't know what Dave Sitek looks like, see him in his nerdy glory here.

There Aint Nothing Wrong With A Little Bump And [Freedom]

That's Right! That's Right! The Pied Piper of R&B is Free!

A-C-Q-U-I-T-T-A-L-!-!-!

Pretty Pretty Pretty,Pretty Bad.

If the "Larry David" is the haircut of the summer, I think I'll officially retire from life.
See what I mean here.

Praise to Him From Whom All Blessings Flow.

A proverbial dream team of liberal film makers have come together to create what they hope will be the next leftist shocker. The studio that brought us Micheal Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 has teamed with the director of Borat to bring us another set of "cultural learnings" through Religulous, set to be released this October.

I came across the trailer today.


Looks like great stuff. Religulous attempts to challenge the American status quo on religion, it's seemingly impenetrable influence on all of our lives. The trailer leads one to believe that the filmmakers think the absurdity of a "talking snake" can't be the litmus test for our leadership. I'm inclined to agree.

The official site for Religulous can be seen here.