When it’s Wood Spider vs. psychoactive drugs, the drugs win. When it’s attractive coed vs. praying mantis, even a Mantodea’s bird-killing forelegs are no match for a hungry college student’s mandibles.  When it’s insect vs. insect, any Aranea, Pedipali, Coleoptera, or Hymenoptera has got a shot.  But on Japanese Bug Fights, in the end there can be only one. 

Created by ex-expat Kyle Benzle (he grew up in Ohio, has lived in Yokohama, Japan for the past 23 years, and just two months ago moved to Seattle, Washington), JBF is similar to the Octagon, except it’s a clear glass cage with a surface area of mere inches, its entrants have exoskeletons, its announcers don’t speak English, and only one contender leaves alive. There are also fewer rules:

1. Two Bugs to a fight

2. Bug fights go on as long as they have to

3. No outside weapons in Bug Fights.

The tournament consists of 30 single-elimination rounds, with one nasty creature being crowned champion. Here’s a sampling of these fast and furious encounters.  In Round The 15th, a scared scorpion attempts to fend off an aggressive bee that looks like a caricature of the platonic ideal of a bee. The squeamish need not press play:

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Allan Leinwand, Venture Partner at Panorama and occasional contributor to GigaOm, recently queried as to whether the WGA strike represents an inflection point for online video.  Specifically, he wonders if the strike will “drive mainstream America off their couches and onto their computers for new video content…[that] Mom and Dad would want to sit on the couch and watch.”

No.

The principal value of television distributed over IP is its openness, so efforts to bring long-form, highly produced web-video content to the living room must embrace that fundamental value proposition with an interface that’s as easy to “surf” as my Time-Warner channel guide.

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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A new study on “Fair Use” by the American University Center for Social Media — Recut Reframe and Recycle — has made some waves in the blogosphere.  Fair use is not a new issue for media creators, but the advent of widespread internet video has lead to manifold new claimed copyright infractions and, therefore, a much needed reexamination of the doctrine.

In short, as long as the derivative work is “transformative,”  the meaning and intent is changed, then its redistribution is legal under Fair Use, but that leaves a lot of gray.  (This article does a good job of outlining ways to fairly reuse online video.)

This is a commendable study, but I was taken aback by this particular sentiment offered by one of the study’s authors ###: “There’s an enormous amount of creativity in online video that may be unsuspected because people think of it as kind of a great big junk heap.”

A junk heap?  How can we spread the word of the insane creativity on the internet?

Despite the newness of internet protocol as a distribution mechanism for professionally produced video, work derived from other works has become a very serious and respectable genre in the space.  The phrase “enormous amount of creativity” might just be an understatement. 

Lets take a look at some of this very imaginative, thoughtful and important work distributed under the protection of fair use…

Take, for instance, Big Screen Version, one of many pieces by Aaron Valdez of Valdezatron Industries (Tilzy.TV Page) which draws on mainstream (copyrighted) media, often as commentary on the source media itself.

Click To Play

Or how about the Silent Debate series from the Harry Shearer channel on MyDamnChannel.  Is this funny or revealing… or both?  I’m not sure. 

Here Comes Another Bubble by The Richter Scales featured a photo whose copyright holder wasn’t happy about it being used without permission.  This particular case may or may not be a case of fair use, but its a brilliant video. 

This Barely Political video, featuring Obama Girl herself, is almost shockingly bland, but includes dozens of borrowed clips.  Had you even considered that their use might be contested?  Media borrowing is commonplace. 

Features of this very website, which promotes internet-tv shows with thumbnail images and preview clips, are reliant upon the principle of fair use. 

Still curious about fair use? This video by YouTuber BelYuan is sure to drive the point home…

Repurposed media is an important part of this evolving conversation.  We’re happy to see that academics have taken the time to examine and reaffirm the importance of fair use. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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The members of Flapping Crane got together in October 2004 and started posting their short videos online. They co-exist in Minnesota, where they make their not-quite weekly internet comedy sketches. Active Craners include New Mexican Joe Lillibridge, Alex Kretchmer, who’s written for Kittenpants.com and used to contribute to Crappycelebrity.com, Eric Page, Bryann Schlough, who’s not a girl, Shawn Turek, and Pete Voss. There’s not a female in the group aside from Steph Turner, but she’s scheduled for a surgical procedure.

The boys of Flapping Crane seem to have little on their minds other than sex, drugs, and poop. The Skits vary from 3 to 10 minutes each while some, like Lagayna Beach, have multiple installments. While there are spoofs and “tributes” to Mac and Subway commercials, most of the videos are about whatever random happenings the sextet thinks are funny, like Darth Vader on a swing cut together with a man having his way with a dog played out under From a Distance. Outtakes and bloopers can be found on the Bonus page along with additional shorts and other miscellaneous items. Flapping Crane has an extensive photo gallery, while the News page keeps fans abreast of recent activities and the message boards give them an opportunity to react and comment on skits and shorts. Though there aren’t many, several comedic mp3s are available for download on the Music page. 

Maybe this is what the phone sex industry means when it advertises “real girls”.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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David Grohl and his fellow Foo Fighters are looking for some classic string, woodwind, and brass accompaniment to fill out their grandstand Grammy orchestra at this year’s awards show celebrating outstanding, mainstream achievements in the indeterminate record industry.

The National Academy of Arts and Sciences is teaming up with the band, CBS Interactive, and YouTube for this year’s “My Grammy Moment” contest. Until January 20, interested musicians can upload their own rendition of a 60-second solo from the Foo Fighters’ Grammy-nominated Stairway-cum-Husker-Du-cum-hoochie-coo single ‘The Pretender.’ The good people of the Grammys will select the finalists and YouTubers will vote for the 20 winners who will play at the ceremony on February 10.

Here it is from the rockers themselves:

Read On…

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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The 2008 Iowa presidential caucuses are tonight; the New Hampshire primaries are next week.  They’re groundbreaking for many reasons, but none as exciting as the robust online video coverage of this long awaited political tradition.  For the first time in the history of presidential elections, voters have access to a myriad of diverse video coverage from independent updates to live coverage to earnest discussion and debate and, of course, a whole lot of satire. 

Here’s some suggested coverage to keep you in the know…

Slate

The Washington Posts slighly hipper younger sibling, which features all sorts of thought provoking content, offers a tight and well-produced piece on the cultures  of the Republican and Democratic Iowa caucus and, specifically, how to involve oneself in this convoluted process.

Political Lunch

Launched in March 2007 by Hudson Street Media – the same production company behind Millis’ politically-minded interview show American Microphone (Tilzy.TV page) – the Lunch, as they call it, reports on both sides of the Left-Right fence and each presidential candidate, including purely speculative. 

For the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, we get on-the-scene, thoughtful-but-quick commentary.

Barely Political, which we’ve covered and criticized a few times, offers a new video featuring scantily clad Amber Lee Ettinger strutting some pseudo girl power. Why isn’t Hillary represented, and if she were, would it be by Clinton Girl or Hillary Boy or what? 

Live coverage from various sources courtesy of the brilliant tv-studio-in-a-browser, Mogulus, which we covered here. 

The Ointment

SoCal-based Steve Tatham, who is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, a stand-up comedian and Disney Imagineer. Nearly each weekday since February 2006,  he  has broadcast a news show from his house. While his wife and kids wonder how their house became a studio, Steve continues to create his 3-minute daily episodes that cover everything from Condoleezza Rice and Nancy Pelosi to Nicole Ritchie and Tom Cruise.

He offers informed, if rather tongue-in-cheek, coverage of the Iowa caucuses.

Click To Play

Purple States

"During the primary season, Purple States TV will film a team of citizen-journalists — a 23-year-old florist from Iowa, a laid-off manufacturing professional and libertarian from New England, a 33-year-old Baptist mother of three and former teacher from South Carolina, a Cuban-America health insurance agent from Florida, and a grandfather from southern California who lives with his daughter and his Mexican-American son-in-law and works for AT&T — as they report on the primaries and caucuses held in these five states."

Awesome.

Veracifier

TPM host Joshua Marshall discuss some background and his take on what to look for as tonight’s results come in.

Earnest discussion and debate from diverse and interesting perspectives.

For those who will prefer to be informed with in-depth interviews of the candidates moderated by the top political pundit in the country–who is, by the way, the top for a reason: he’s learned, tough, and balanced — MSNBC offers a great- – albeit slightly technologically behind —  online series Meet the Candidates.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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Black people love Chelsea Peretti. They’re so infatuated with the burgeoning queen of New York City’s downtown comedy scene that she and her brother Jonah created a forum just to show how much. In 2002, BlackPeopleLoveUs became a viral, race relations spoof site, displaying faux testimonials from a handful of black people describing Johnny and Sally Caucasian couple’s incredible appeal.

Other people love Chelsea Peretti, too. Apparently too many. To tackle this problem, her and brother Jonah set up the NYC Rejection Line. It’s a real phone number (try it – 212-479-7990 – option #3 is the best) handed out by unsolicited objects of affection to subpar suitors in lieu of actually telling whoever’s hitting on you to get the hell away.

With all that loving going on, there’s bound to be some loss.  And that’s what the comic’s Super Deluxe show, All My Exes is all about.

###Through candid interviews on makeshift sets in sterile apartments, Peretti sits down with ex-flame after ex-flame to find out what exactly went wrong as she tries “to get a little closure on camera.” While others here at Tilzy.TV believe Peretti should show more of her true self on the mock-talk-show, I think her character is what makes it work.

Wearing a stiff business woman’s suit, Peretti asks questions as if Barbara Walters adopted a Sarah Silverman vocabulary and a Captain Kirk affect. She’s pointed, forward, and caustic with a limited range of emotions and a way of speaking that pays no attention to the normal melodies and meter of human speech. This facilitates the uncomfortable silences and subtext that make the show worthwhile.

It’s also a reminder that this isn’t a conversation. It’s an interview. And it makes me want to set up soft lights in my apartment and adopt a character through which I can interrogate my exes and figure out wtf happened to enlightening comedic effect.

Peretti’s run through five or so lost loves so far. Next up is Ze. Yes, that Ze.  Maybe they split because she wasn’t into duckies or is horrible at making frieds.  Whatever the case may be, it’ll be intersting to see what went wrong in a relationship with the internet’s golden boy.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Recently, a friend/coworker tipped me off to VBS (Tilzy.TV page), the Web TV branch of hipster empire, Vice. I trust his taste, so made my way over. The first clip I happened upon was an episode of this VBS travel series that culminated with carnal footage of a donkey-loving farmer in Cartagena, Columbia. Hot. The next clip brought me to a somewhat more pressing issue – the 440 mile long wall separating Israel from the Palestinian Territories.

Continue watching the series here.

Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi takes the cameras, one at the hands of an Israeli, and the other on the shoulder of a Palestinian (not for impartiality… but for logistics) to the front lines and, from the outset, makes no secret of his angle (anti-separation barrier), as the 6-part series documents the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of the physical separation, which began in 2002.

### The images here focus mostly on the contrast between the landlocked, resource-starved, land-robbed Palestinians of a West Bank ghetto and the bikini-soaked  beaches of bright ‘n’ shiny Tel Aviv. The images of maimed and bloodied innocent Tel Aviv cafe-goers and bus-riders of the late ’90s and early ’00s didn’t make the cut.

Initially, I was turned off by the apparent bias of the piece. But once I embraced the reporter’s position as just that – one man’s position – I got more comfortable, and as usual, gave the everyday viewer the benefit of the doubt as one who likely recognizes, “Well, there must be more to the story.” And of course there is.

This other side comes in an interview of Itamar Marcus, in which he mentions that this wall was the only solution to the aforementioned violence. The statements, of course, have little impact in a piece where the producer, Rob Semmer, and the Palestinian cameraman, Emad Bornat, take rubber bullets to the stomach and leg respectively.

In the end, Alvi plainly states his sobering and indisputable perspective: “You realize just how irreconcilable the situation is… How fucked it is.” Emad, the Palestinian cameraman sincerely believes in peace for all people, and regularly demonstrates peacefully with his townspeople in Bil’in (whose lives have been all but destroyed by the wall), yet there are hordes who would turn themselves into bombs in hope of taking out as many Israelis in the detonation. A wall with an intrinsically ugly face has been built and, yet, has arguably led to relative quiet on the bright side of the road.

Check out the clips and decide for yourself. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Dave Mann
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How does open distribution change the television production paradigm?  It’s something to which we’ve devoted significant conjecture and, as is often the case, the scrambling music industry may paint a picture of possible business models for the future of television.  According to The Boy Genius, Artist Jay-Z is launching a record label with Apple.  So what does that mean?  Is a full fledged video production studio next?

It’s at least somewhat counterintuitive. ### The David that’s almost single-handedly disfigured the goliath recording industry by virtually eliminating the need for traditional methods of distribution is starting its own label. Isn’t releasing your own, independent content the wave of the future? And in a world where the means of production AND distribution are at the fingertips of artists, who needs labels or studios?  What value do they bring? 

I have long suggested that studios, networks and labels could bring value to democratized market by refocusing efforts on scouting, vetting, developing and, most important, marketing multiple brands related to specific flavor or style of content.  This is congruent with the model followed by the very successful internet-TV studio Next New Networks, with whom we’ve been continually impressed.

Perhaps Apple has recognized the value in this approach and will, itself, devote resources to scouting, vetting, developing and marketing digital content, starting with a label headlined by young HOV himself.  But the flexibility of an open medium means that their relationships with artists will be fundamentally different. 

How might this model apply to the long-tail of television production?  Should the iconic consumer electronics company really get its hands in content production?  Can the market sustain a handful of internet-TV studios? For one thing, I assume we won’t see anymore of these Jay-Z HP ads.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Jamison Tilsner
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In November, during a high speed interview on a California interstate, Rocketboom (Tilzy.TV page) founder Andrew Baron revealed to prolific blogger Rober Scoble his plans to expand beyond the daily, quirky newscast that’s become a benchmark in the world of videoblogs. Baron spoke of his intent to create a weekly live show hosted by Joanne Colan that would solicit the audience’s help in solving a guest’s professional problem.

While that show is set to broadcast on blogTV “soon,” Rocketboom producer Elspeth Rountree filled me in on another Rocketboom program in the works, starring hers truly.

Click To Play

If the comments on her vids are any indication, Ellie’s new show should be a success. She’s been blessed with a physical appearance fit to contend for the title of “Sexiest Geek” and a silky voice that could be heard over commercials hawking laundry detergent or promos for VH1 reality TV shows. Couple that with Rocketboom’s production expertise and knowledge of the industry, and it’s difficult to see how this upcoming program would fail to attract an audience.

Like RB‘s the live show, Ellie’s is scheduled to be released “soon”.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Joshua Cohen
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Before he closed the Good Times Book Shop in Port Jefferson, New York to move into semi-retirement, Michael Mart was the president of the Antiquarian Book Dealers Association of Long Island. While in the store one afternoon, he and Suffolk County Poet Laureate and published author George Wallace created Poetry Vlog.

Mart credits Apple’s Steve Jobs and Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron for inspiring him to create his own video blog. But it was only upon meeting Wallace, the editor and publisher of the online magazine PoetryBay, that he knew what he wanted to vlog about poetry.

Using Wallace’s connections to poets worldwide and Mart’s expertise with iMovie, the duo shot their first videos in Mart’s bookstore in April 2006, culminating in a host of videos, created and user-submitted, that have been flooding the vlog on a weekly basis ever since.

The site is quite simple, which serves the poetry well. Having a poet simply sit in front of the camera with a nice background and usually just read his or her piece (rather than emote or “slam” it) makes the site a breath of fresh air.  The introduction to each piece restates the site’s mission and gives some background on the poet and his or her work, with a helpful list of links below the site directing viewers to the poet’s publications and/or website.

Frequent contributor Edward Stever’s six poems range from the serious (“Sonogram at Four Months”) to the absurd (“Freudian Daydream”). The latter evokes some strange images of neon condoms being hurled at an inflatable doll. And another, “At the Bottom of It All,” breaks down all poetry barriers by describing the contents of a bathroom trash bin. I also got my kicks watching Edgar Carlson read his poems. He has quite an obsession with black and white and doesn’t quite look like your typical poet. Mankh is much more the stereotype here; his cadence has the iconic poetry slam vibe in his sexual poem, “The Night I Rose in Love.”

Viewers can leave anonymous analytical comments on each reading as well.

It’s easy to see why Mart tapped Wallace to be the site’s poetry editor. Not only did he provide the inspiration for the site, but he’s also a talented poet. His readings from his book, “When I Was Dead”, provide some of the vlog’s strongest moments. The style and content is contemporary and he relies heavily on imagery, which can be incredibly alluring, particularly towards the end of the excerpt he selected to share here.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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Host and founder Lucian, who has become Bill Nye the Science Guy for adults, was working as a strategic technology analyst for a think tank in Orlando, FL, when he realized that most of the information that he could access was unavailable to the general public. In July 2005, he began making six to eight-minute episodes, introducing his viewers to developments in science and technology. By the time his show reached its high of 1.87 million downloads in May 2006, the site had developed such a following that the segments were expanded to 20-25 minutes.

Each week, Lucian presents around a dozen news items in each episode. Topics include electronics (like debunking polygraph tests), weather, chemistry (the creation of the first synthetic molecule), biology (a eulogy for Earth’s oldest living creature), medicine (how to help fight anemia in developing nations), robotics (toyota’s robotic musician), and just about anything quirky, geeky, and deemed worthy of a few minutes of screen time (how to have sex in zero gravity). Needless to say, there’s never a dearth of interesting topics. Each story is annotated with photographs, renderings, and video clips to provide evidentiary support. In addition, the links to related articles supplied in the episode description allow viewers to explore Lucian’s weird science on their own.

This episode features a fantastic four-minute video in which an animated character “auditions” for a film. The episode illustrates the idea of the uncanny valley. Another great story highlighted the iBar, a German liquor bar that features an “intelligent surface system” that lights up when objects are placed on it or moved around. If you can ignore the cheesy music and green-screen background, you’ll enjoy Lucian’s witty narration, amusing segments, an eye for all things fascinating and unusual.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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