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No Fact Zone Part II

Well once again I'm stuck with dead YouTube links. It seems C-SPAN objected to The White House Correspondents' Association Dinner being uploaded without their permission and demanded it be removed. Of course if you want your own copy you can buy the DVD of the event from C-SPAN for $24.95. (via Boing Boing) Just a hunch but I bet Stephen Colbert's speech and the resulting free publicity will drive sales of the DVD higher than in years past. Yet content right holders continue to see the free publicity generated by viral video and the like as piracy. Oh well.

For the time being it can still be accessed from Google Video. This is a copy of the entire evening so some fast forwarding is needed to get to Colbert. The advantage to this however is the comedic routine between the President and look-alike Stephen Bridges is also included. It starts at approximately the 39 minute mark and they are surprisingly good. Unfortunately it is not available with an embeddable player so to view just click here.

"I Must Be In The Front Row!"

Although this game is a week ago I wanted to mention it quickly and post a few of the pictures. Our seats were phenomenal; probably the best I've ever sat in. We were along the third base line in the first row along the wall. Wrigley, being the second oldest stadium in the league is set up in the old style: the bullpens are on the field along the foul lines. As a result the Cubs' pitchers warmed up in front of us. When you see a Major Leaguer pitching just feet from you, it really becomes apparent how hard they throw and how difficult making contact had to be. It was a beautiful night, the Cubs came back from a 3-0 deficit in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Marlins, and we had some of the best seats in the house. The only drawback was I had a cold and it was kicking my butt. Luckily K. was kind enough to snap the photos for me.



The Cubs bullpen.



Ryan Dempster would come in later and get the save.







Warming up Roberto Novoa.



Carlos Zambrano on the mound (and before his batting woes caused him to break his bat over his knee. The kid is wound kinda tight.)


Side note: The bleachers are obviously up and opened to generally good reviews. I didn't get a chance to really look at them or take any pictures (again I had a rockin' cold and just wanted to go home after the game) but I will try to shoot some pics of the completed construction.

Speaking Of...

This piece is for the sole benefit of K. It is perhaps her favorite TV clip of last year and definitely in my Top Ten. First a montage from E!'s"The Soup":



And then just short and sweet:

Stop The Madness

Where do I start with this little gem? "Stop The Madness" was released in the mid 80's as part of the War on Drugs and is the only music video sponsored by the White House. Rarely seen at the time it is filled with cameos from 80's celebs: Whitney Houston, New Addition, the Governator, Lyle Alzado, Kim Fields, Kareem, David Hasselhoff, Casey Kasem, "Simon and Simon's" Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker (was the show that popular?) and many, many, more. Written by Tim "Venus Flytrap" Reid this a time capsule of 80's culture. For the complete story by Ethan Persoff, the man who is reponsible for unearthing this cultural nugget, click here.

No Fact Zone

I know this video is flying around the Internet but I have to post it. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report spoke at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. His commentary is satirical, biting, edgy, and hilarious. And it doesn't look like W. is enjoying it that much.

Part 1:



Part 2:



The appearance wraps up with a video of Colbert being chased by Helen Thomas. I didn't think this was a particularly strong piece but it can be accessed here.

"Can You...?" "No. May One..."

April 2006 has come and gone and not a new post to be had at Peepsqueak. I admit I feel a little guilty for not updating sooner but hopefully I can redeem myself now. April is over and May Day is upon us. Once a holiday for the workers in the Soviet Union and an important date in the US for those who enjoy an eight hour work day, it is being commemorated here in Chicago with a massive march and demonstration for immigrant rights. An apropos way to spend May 1st in the city that gave rise to the Haymarket Riot.

Poetry Slam

I've spent the last few days scrubbing the green food dye off of my fingers and recouping from the kind of week-long St. Paddy's celebration that can only be had in Chicago. A lot of work followed by a little bit o'playin'. "No one cares, Peeps," I can hear you say. "I'm here to be entertained . Dance, clown, dance!" Very well. Hopefully the following two poems will amuse and entertain. Both can be found on WFMU's Beware of the Blog. First, a love poem by Erik Ott:



Next, a hilarious rant titled Cake by Todd Colby.

If you found that inspiring, here is a little project. WFMU has played "Cake" on one of their shows for the last ten years and they are looking for as many recorded covers sent in as possible. The covers will be played next week. Full details are on the site as well as the text of the MP3. The piece is already written--the creativity will come in the reading. Link.

LOL @ QVC ASAP

St. Paddy's is keeping those of us in the bar industry busy this week so here are a few videos to amuse while I'm slinging the green beer. Two are legit and one is a bit from Jimmy Kimmel.

Dude You're Getting A Dell!



"And that has never happened."



"Yew Aw Rot?"

Autistic B-Baller Lights It Up

What started out as a quick link to some great video turned into an in-depth rant about content rights, the Big Three networks, hints of conspiracy, and somehow the Zapruder film. Do yourself a favor, click here,enjoy the video, and disregard the rest.

Continuing on? Don't say you weren't warned...

I originally posted this story a couple of days ago. It is a heart warming story
that I thought would be a nice counterpoint to my usual cynicism and moodiness. I know I smiled when I saw it and thought it would be cool to share.

I went to YouTube, embedded the player in this site, and felt as if I had done my good deed for the day. Checking back later to make sure it posted correctly, I saw a still from the story in the player but the clip would not play when started. Shades of "Lazy Sunday." Sure enough, when I checked on the YouTube site the video had been taken down. A CBS news clip had been taken down because God forbid anyone view their "content" without their permission. (Does anyone watch national news anymore? Particularly on CBS?) The next day I saw the clip two or three times on ESPN. CBS, being one of the few TV outlets ABC/Disney does not control, could sell the rights to ESPN. Then I read this in the comment section of a Boing Boing story about P2P sharing of TV shows and it cleared up a lot of the mystery.

Reader comment: James Roe of videosift.com says,

In that piece you linked from the LATimes about TV piracy there was a brief blurb about the autistic basket ball player. That has been one of our most popular clips over at videosift.com (social video site.) Link Prior to that article I had not realized that YouTube had been issued a take down notice.

On realizing that I checked, and sure enough the video was defunct. So a quick search later and I found an almost identical clip from CNN using what must have been home footage that was also included in the CBS clip. This brings three questions to mind.

1. Why would CBS choose to give up free advertising and instead pass the buck to CNN?

2. If they filed a take down notice for a clip that includes home video do they actually own the rights to the home video now? If CNN is using the clip then my guess would be no, which makes their whole request for a take down more suspicious. I suppose they were just issuing a take down for their announcer's speech, which as a whole was much less interesting than the students phenomenal 6 3 pointers in the last 4 minutes of the game.

3. The CBS clip is still available over at Google video, however they have disabled the ability to post it to another site. This locks end users into the crufty Google video interface.

I guess this is not so much of a question as it is pointing out that this seems more like a shameless attack on YouTube than an actual concern from CBS. CBS does sell video clips through Google, although i doubt the market for a 2 minute news blurb is high anywhere other than sports conventions, but this one is available gratis.


I guess my answers would be:

1. I don't know how effective the "free" advertising would be although they say any publicity is good publicity. But it does show there is a market for licensing the piece as ESPN and now CNN have proved.

2. Media outlets buy home video all the time. Zapruder may not have made much money but I guarantee the person who captured the Rodney King beating did.

3. It is not much of a question but it is an interesting observation. Although I didn't go looking because I was sick of the whole thing by then, there were rumors the "Lazy Sunday" clip was still available on Google Videos after NBC made Youtube remove it. Why is Google Video immune?

Anyway if you have made it this far the least I can do is put another Link at the bottom of the page to view the video. Crazy how this feel-good video can be surrounded by cynical big business, huh?