Category: Video

Hit the Gym With These

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Running with Liz
Image by pescatello via Flickr

It’s COLD.

I used to be able to take it but i’m living below the Mason-Dixon line and have become a totally softy. Because of this i’ve been confined to the treadmill for the past few weeks. I hate running on the treadmill. To make treadmill running less boring and sucky, i’m on a constant lookout for workout music to keep me going on a stationary machine. So, i’ve found a few things that have made me happy…

Mashups

If i owned a gym like Bally’s or WSC/NYSC i would play mashups over the loud speakers all the time. They are familiar songs but with a extra funky kick. Everyone likes them. Some of my favorite songs to run to are mashups. Here are 3 good examples for you.  You can download them from this site.

  • Prince’s Kiss + Rob Base’s It Takes Two = It Takes 2 To Kiss
  • Jay-Z + Nena = 99 Luft Problems
  • The Cure + Ying Yang Twins = Badd To Me
  • Kanye West + Beethoven + Walter Murphy = Beethoven’s Fifth Gold Digger
  • Kelly Clarkson + Depeche Mode + Rex The Dog = Since U Been Gahan

LCD Album

I bought this song on iTunes and it’s a 45 minute song created specificly for running. It has ups and downs to represent the highs and lows you have when going for a 45 minute run. This is the first time i’ve seen something like this and it’s good to have sometime if you want something to just be good background music for a longer run. I’m working to convert this to an mp3, stay tuned.

iPod T-Shirt

I normally don’t listen to that much music when i run outside, but i have to have it on the treadmill or else i get pretty bored. Also, i hate carrying the damn iPod when i’m outside. When i’m inside, i can put it on the treadmill. I did find this sweet shirt which makes it easy to stash my nano in my shirt when i run. There’s a little side pocket that’s good for my keys and nano. Both stylish and functional!

Free mp3s to workout to

There’s a great site that’s appeared called I Like This Song which posts a new mp3 every day of a good tune. I recommend you go there and get the tunes

Maposaurus = Good Commercial

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I was reading through the reviews of the commerical from the Super Bowl today and was shocked to see that everyone hated Garmin’s Maposaurus. Are you serious? It was fantastic. Similar to the (much better) Muse’s music video Knights of Cydonia it was retro and really good

What did the commerical have? Let’s see:

  • pencil-thin mustache
  • nuclear power plant being destroyed
  • laser beams
  • transformative belt-buckles
  • carnage

How can you go wrong?

Check it out for yourself:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kxrj3OQcXJY]

TV Shows Online

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Like the genius i am, I recently unplugged my Tivo to use the plug for my cell phone charger. Well, to spare you the boring story, i ended up missing a few of my shows. I was pretty bummed. That was until i realized that now the major networks are putting many of their shows online. While The Office isn’t there, i just cruised through this week’s How I Met Your Mother and it was great.The shows and stations you can get are:

The shows and stations you can get are:

CBS (www.cbs.com/innertube): You can get 3 Lbs, How I Met Your Mother, Jericho, CSI and more (13 shows in all).

ABC (http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing): You can get 8 series in total inclusing Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Lost.

FOX (www.myspace.com/fox): 8 series are available including American Dad, Bones, Prison Break, Standoff, Talkshow with Spike Feresten.

NBC (www.nbc.com/Video/rewind): 6 series total are available including 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Identity, Las Vegas.

It’s nice that they’re online and it’s clearly done because of the presence of YouTube, iTunes, and Bit Torrent. I wish there were more shows and i wish they could be downloaded so the buffering was better. But nevertheless, it’s pretty cool that you can catch up on past episodes online.

Box in a Box

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I’m sure you’ve all seen Timberlake’s SNL video “*#& in a Box” but have you seen the female response?  I think it’s a great video response and just shows how YouTube is actually way more than just copyrighted tv content.  This is the good stuff.  If you haven’t seen the SNL skip, i wrote about it here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xElIik0Ys0]

Michel Gondry is More Man Than All of Us

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I loved the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I thought it was one of the more underrated films of the past 5 years. Michel Gondry, the director and co-writer (with Charlie Kaufman) has also done some fantastic music videos. Basically, i think he’s awesome. However, that did not prepare me for this video (below) where he solves a rubix cube. Oh, he doesn’t just solve it. Oh no, that would be too simple. He solves it with his feet! That’s right, check it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiQXgmVVGNA&eurl=]

If you haven’t seen any of Michel’s other stuff, even his shorter stuff, you should head over to YouTube and check it out. Even his commercials are pretty cool. Here’s a Smirnoff ad:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1UeNGELFSc]

Why does Snoop Carry An Umbrella?

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Fo drizzle, yo

This is my annual Snoop post. Even since Dre’s The Chronic, i’ve been in love with Snoop’s rapping. I even wrote a paper in college for an English class where i translated The Scarlet Letter to the lyrics of Nuthin’ But A G-Thing, it was renamed Nuthin’ But an ‘A’ Thing. Luckily, i’m not the only one who loves The Dogg. Danielle (who has no internet identity) sent me the following two gems…

The first is a site called Gizoogle. This is a site that will translate the text of any other site into Snoop-speak. If you look at what it does to the post i put up a couple weeks ago (below), it’s fantastic. I don’t who has the time to make site’s like this. But god bless them.

Here’s what i originally wrote:

This is a good graph that was sent to me that can accurately diagram who the person next to you in bed is, or how they fit into your dating perspective. While some of my friends have set up camp in the Zone of Pain with their “go ugly early” strategy, others jump between the dreaded cycle of Friend – Awkwardness – F-Buddy – Awkwardness, while the rest meander around in the dating zone with occasional layovers in the Zone of Pain.

becomes this

This is a good grizzay tizzle was sent ta me thiznat can accurately diagram who tha person nizzy ta you in bed is, or how they fit into yo pimpin` perspective wit da big Bo$$ Dogg. While some of mah niggaz have set up camp in tha Zone of Pizzle wit they “go fugly early” strategy, otha jizzle between tha dreaded cycle of Friend – Awkwardness – F-Buddy – Awkwardness, while tha rizzay meanda around in tha pimpin` zone wit occasional pusha in tha Zone of Pizzy.

awesome.

The second is a free-style rap from a guy in LA. He’s able to perfectly imitate Snoop, Jay-Z and The Game. It’s an amazing video. I like how the DJ is at a complete loss for words at the end. All he can keep saying is “jesus christ!”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbivRkS9viE&mode=related]

Finally, my friend Adam sent in this clip of Snoop going into Rick Dees studio and hitting on Patricia, Adam’s girlfriend.  It’s not every day that my buddy’s woman is flirting it up with Snoop.  Pretty funny.

What I Would do to Fix AOL

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I saw the annoucement last week (and news stories) of the new AOL CEO, Randy Falco, and got to wondering, if I’m in charge of running AOL which is now in the business of monetizing traffic to AOL.com and other pages, how would i do it? A few thoughts came to mind….

First, i would buy the best, more user-friendly and one of hte most popular social networks around – Facebook. With facebook, you not only get a great social network, but you also get one of the best photo-sharing applications on the internet. Then i would merge it with AIM, change all AIM-pages to be facebook pages, and place the mini-feed on every users home AOL.com page. That would drive traffic. Granted, it would take a long time to get everything on the same platform (calendar, aim, mail, etc.) but facebook’s interface and features are much, much better than AOL’s. Everyone’s speculating about Yahoo buying facebook, why not AOL? AOL has just as much cash and just enough desire to monetize their traffic. It’s almost as if everyone assumes AOL is dying and isn’t going to invest in their future.

Buy Meebo
AIM is one of the most precious assets AOL has and it is being threatened by Meebo. I would buy it immediately and make all meebo-me widgets become AIM widgets and place them all over the web and inside the recently purchased AOL-facebook pages.

Streaming Music Locker
Subscription streaming. AOL should abandon the WMA format and go for only streaming. In an iPod world, the only way to play is to make your server compatible with iTunes and that means abandoning DRM and/or simply abandoning any local download. A service like last.fm + mp3tunes would go a long way.

Video
Go all-flash as DRM instead of Windows Media so mac users can play. Have it all hosted so you can access anywhere and watch anywhere.

Mail
Build, Buy or do whatever it takes to do a SERIOUS upgrade to your mail application. Mail is the largest driver of ad inventory and if you’re service is completely ad-based, this should be your #1 priority. It’s been over 2 years since Gmail launched, you would think someone at AOL would have noticed how to please mail users. Where is unlimited storage, where are ajax-features to reduce latency, where? AOL mail is by far the worst webmail application on the internet. It needs to be fixed.

Voice
AOL bought 3 voice companies between 2000 and 2003: eVoice, Quack, and another one from Canada (i’m forgetting the name). AOL made serious investment in voicemail, voice recognition and other voice services. From what i can tell, all that has been completely abandoned. I would restart this effort and do more click-to-talk services, similar to Google’s. However, all of AOL’s services are tied into mail and AIM making them more attractive. For instance, it would be easy to do click-to-talk and then save to mp3 which would be put into your music streaming locker.

These are just a few of the things i’d do. What do you all think? I think Randy’s in for a tough job and i’m not bullish on AOL’s chances. I think the most successful internet companies are run by those who understand the technology and can see the trends coming. Google embraces technology and let’s it unlock new opportunities and i don’t see somewhat who’s entire background is in TV and TV ad-sales pushing AOL into new models and opportunities. That’s just my initial reaction. Then again, Terry Semel’s done a good job at Yahoo, so who knows.

Boom Goes the Dynamite

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There’s a good article of the potential of YouTube in Wired this month.  From that article, they mention this video (below).  it’s a great segment of a novice sportscaster giving us the news, sort of.  He’s nervous, awkward and totally hilarious.  The best part is in the middle of his debacle he pulls out a “boom goes the dynamite!” phrase completely out of nowhere.

I also love about 45 seconds in, when he’s completely bombing you can see him mouth “i’m so sorry” to the people off camera.   Call me an ass, but it’s frickin’ great.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W45DRy7M1no]