Currently living in California, Jersey girl and online cook Dani Spies is recollecting her childhood from the Garden State, one dish at a time. The site bills itself as a database for “Quick, Simple, Delicious” recipes, pairing written instructions and ingredient lists with helpful video how-tos for the culinary challenged. Chef Spies herself uses the term “Quickbites” to describe her food – the philosophy being the shorter her videos, the better. Since its inception in May of 2006, the site has updated every few days with a new recipe and an accompanying video aid.

Spies tackles Appetizers, Desserts and Snacks as well as a host entrées, but speed is the name of the game here, and none of her tutorials are longer than five minutes. No time is wasted showing us the process of chopping up garlic or leeks for her Penne with Salmon and Greens, as Spies assumes her viewers are at least familiar with a knife and cutting board. The production value is also much higher than most Internet cooking shows – we’re talking soft lighting, mood music, a variety of camera angles and professional editing that combine to create a experience not unlike what one would find in Everyday Italian. And Spies makes quite an endearing host, with a bubbly personality similar to Food Network star Rachel Ray, minus the annoying factor. The site has your basic blog setup, with recipes being organized by month as well as type, and each one prefaced by a cute little back-story. It’s obvious that Spies loves to cook by the way she’s personalized her site. She talks about the zillion different versions of Irish Soda Bread she was exposed to while growing up in New Jersey, and though I’ve never even heardof Irish Soda Bread (and I’m as Irish as they come), it sounds so delicious I am almost jealous of Spies’ Jersey upbringing. Almost.

I love dessert. At any time of the day. I tested out the recipe for Maple Bananas with Ice Cream at 10am on a Friday and you know what? Quick, simple, and amazing. Just what one needs to start any day off right.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Meghann Murphy
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Produced by Feelslikefriday // the make it happen collective, a collection of media professionals who specialize in television, DVD, internet and mobile cross-media, Dancetrippin brings you videos of popular electronic clubs and DJs. Created in 1999, Dancetrippin is based out of Amsterdam, but travels all over the world, particularly to Ibiza, to document today’s electronic music scene. It’s director, Will Johnston, is also a resident DJ at Bora Bora Ibiza, an infamous beach bar club in the heart of the party scene in Ibiza, Spain.

Most Dancetrippin episodes are live recordings of DJ sets at clubs, which last about 30 minutes. They are primarily comprised of upward facing shots of tan girls in bikinis, kind of like those MTV spring break specials. There are a few attempts at editing, but, for the most part, videos are long, uncut DJ sessions – the nature of this particular genre of music. Check out Bushwacka on his way from Ibiza to Formentera and back, or Roger Sanchez at club Panama in the Netherlands. Dancetrippin also features interesting interviews with DJs like Carl Cox from Great Britain, Laidback Luke, who has created his own sound of live remixing, and Masters at Work, a remix team native to New York. Interviews generally don’t last longer than a few minutes and are cut with shots of dancing girls. Content in “Bonus videos,” which doesn’t fit into the category of DJ set or interview, ranges from scratch battles in Amsterdam, to an instructional on a mixer, to hot dancing girls, and are about two to five-minutes long. While watching good-looking people party and interviews from established DJs has its share of entertainment value, in a site devoted to showcasing music, the sound quality could definitely use some improvement.

I like the segment on Sister Bliss, a popular DJ and remixer who was one of the first British female house DJs when she started her career in 1987. She was also a member of Faithless, a well-known group of UK musicians who combines dance and hip-hop styles in its music. This episode is really just a short recording of one of her live sets with shots of her cut with shots of her dancing crowd.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Kate Dundon
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Officially launched in Jue 2007, the creators of Friction TV, Omar Sheikh, former head of Saatchi and Saatchi interactive, and PR consultant Andy West, want to “own” online debate. This UK-based site was brought to being with the intention of bringing the power of Speaker’s Corner – an area of Hyde Park, London dedicated public speakers and free speech – to the internet.   A place for serious debate, as opposed to “reasonably trivial” issues that the site’s creators find discussed on MySpace and YouTube,  Friction provides a space where debates are collected and ordered.

Users upload videos, ranging from thirty seconds to three minutes with their point of view on any issue. Others can respond to the topic with video or text rebuttals of their own, all collected in a single space to stimulate more converastion. The site intends to leap across the pond, bringing Americans to the same place where Britons now state their points of view on any and all debate-sparking issues.

Imagine Friction as your virtual soapbox, where you can state your opinion on anything, from a well-reasoned argument to a heated rant recorded at four in the morning. In fact, you are prompted to think of a controversial title (i.e. “Feeding your children meat is child abuse“).  On the main page, hot debates and fresh debates are daily refreshed and serve as insight into what issues are enlivening the most exchanges. These vary wildly from discussion of a Straight Pride March to Illegal Immigration.

The site hopes you will submit videos to spark debate and video responses to continue them. These require membership sign-in and registration. After an initial video debate, it seems most users respond via text messages, anonymous or otherwise. Since there is a policy of limited censorship – this being a website devoted to free speech and open debate – things can turn a little salty. But offensive or particularly hateful content is usually quickly removed.

The Five News channel serves up the best of Friction TV. This channel is a collaboration with Five News TV, a website with user-created news stories. Here we find personal views on topical news stories ranging from kids being too old for Harry Potter, the legitimacy of Scientology and the  possible exploitation  of Teenage Models.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Greg Rock
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Starting on November 19, 2006, German-born graphic designer, illustrator, and writer Stefan G. Bucher, renowned and awarded as the creative force behind 344 Design, offered fans of his personal blog a daily dose of quickly improvised drawings, all of them strange but friendly monsters, recorded on video. He called it, Daily Monster.

The series of 100 monsters ended on February 25, 2007, but Bucher couldn’t quite quit the habit  and started Weekly Monster just two months later. He’s also publishing a book based on the site’s creature collection, with a foreword by another one of the internet’s most famous social media creators, Ze Frank.

The typical posting on Daily Monster is fairly breezy, and includes a monster drawn in two to three minutes (the process is sped up in camera), comments and complimentary stories about the monsters from fans (the site has offered fans the opportunity to create their own monsters), and additional statements, poems, and responses from Bucher.

As Daily Monster progresses Bucher provides greater insights into the inspirations behind his craze-eyed critters and the direction of his art. Whimsical versions of Ralph Steadman’s hallucinatory, gonzo-style cartoons, each of Bucher’s monsters is a variation on a theme, a sort of Surrealist game filmed over his drawing table. The illustrator smears ink on a piece of paper by blowing through a straw and then illustrates around the wild blot. Bucher’s attendant description of his method might make an appropriate credo for the site. “Monsters are made of Id Ink. They manifest however they feel like manifesting. I’m just there to film the event.”

It might be said that if you’ve seen one daily monster you’ve seen them all, but because Bucher gives viewers an outlet for their creativity, the site becomes a forum rather than a mere showcase.

Singling out just one daily monster is probably a matter of personal taste, but the 38^th daily monster struck a nerve because of its relative stark form and disturbing indeterminate identity.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Michael Joshua Rowin
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Part of 2005’s Contagious Media Showdown, The Daily Dancer, who wishes to remain anonymous, posted short videos to his blog from May 19, 2005 to September 3, 2006. Though he had neither skill nor rhythm, he enjoyed dancing and thought the world might enjoy watching him enjoy it (an idea which was not unfounded). Within two weeks of his original post, he had 25,000 viewers and began to be featured in newspapers and blog directories all over the world. Although he ranked only #7 in the Contagious Media Showdown, he appeared on Canadian Idol at the height of his success. Dancing to requested songs, he first posted videos on a daily basis, then three times a week, and finally once a week. Located somewhere on the west coast of Canada, this geeky software developer started a five-month trend that ended in a heartfelt letter to fans, citing exhaustion and financial depletion as the reasons for his grand exit (to “Billie Jean,” in case you’re wondering).

Most of the videos were filmed in Daily Dancer’s living room, while he worked it out in pajama pants, boxers and a t-shirt, or nothing but a belted pair of khaki shorts. It’s like Napoleon Dynamite and William Hung mated and begot a hairy dancing baby. Towards the end of the series, the Daily Dancer actually began to travel and perform his iconic moves in public. Viewers can access the archives chronologically or alphabetically by song, since each video was a unique request for the dancer to wiggle to a specific tune. He’s bad, it’s funny, and he knows it. If you aren’t sure where to start, he has included a list of his favorite dances just for indecisive people like you.

Don’t think the daily dancer just danced for fun. Two of his dances were commissioned to promote an Atlanta fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina. And although Daily Dancer usually danced alone, he sometimes welcomed back-up dancers, as in the series of dances guest starring his mother-in-law.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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Ford Models, a worldwide leader in modeling talent, has been in operation for more than 60 years, and it is now making its way into the media industry. Following a January 2007 launch of Ford’s own YouTube channel, the agency released Ford Model TV, a collection of shorts featuring styling tips, fitness pointers and fashion news from models both at work and at play.

The stars of the clips are Ford’s very own models and stylists who demonstrate ways in which non-models can use the secrets of the pros. The channel allows the agency to maintain control over its images while giving its models a new platform for visibility and its viewers something enticing to watch.  As Jon Fine from BusinessWeek states, “People like looking at models. Who knew?”

Fashion junkies will likely appreciate the demonstrations and recent news provided on Ford Model TV. Once confined to silence in the print images and to runways, the models use their own voices in the clips, and appear to enjoy their newfound mode of expression.

Need to know how to tame that frizzy hair? Interested in what models think about the latest fashions on the racks of their favorite stores? Or want to know how the models prepare for a day of photo shoots? Ford takes you to the stylists’ chair, inside the dressing room, and on-location. The models – some better presenters than others – and professionals – including hairstylist Johnny Levoy and makeup artist Jessica Liebeskind – present their tips in four categories: beauty, fashion, fitness and trends. A fifth category, Ford Models 360, is a sneak peak into the lifestyles of the models.

Inclusion of certain content is questionable, like model Desiree’s diary entry about saying goodnight after a day at the beach. But it all adds up to a sneak peak into the lives and outlooks of some of the most beautiful people in the world.

Think you got the body and bone structure to deliver your own Fashion Flash? Submit your photos here for possible discovery.

Everyone can appreciate a few good fitness tips, and model Kim Strother demonstrates just that in her videos. Of particular interest is a clip about the benefits of jumping rope. She shares her own routine, smiling and laughing throughout.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Sushil Cheema
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During the summer of 2006, Pastor Andrae Bailey and Quest Media worked together (with a little help from Rocketboom) to launch Cyber Pastor. The goal is to deliver daily doses of faith and spirituality free of charge on the internet, which the Pastor Bailey refers to as “America’s new front porch.” As you may have assumed from his belief in the power of alternative media, Pastor Bailey is young with an eye for addressing pertinent issues and keeping his online devotionals current to the demands of contemporary society.

Cyber Pastor’s goal is to create daily video devotionals available for viewing, but so far the website has only uploaded videos once every few days.   Videos are typically under 10 minutes in length, while some are heavily edited and some are simply conversations shot in one take. The pastor’s tone is colloquial in each one, whether he’s discussing young romantic relationships or September 11th. You could almost stereotype him as the awkwardly cool pastor who makes it his mission to try to hook kids on Jesus, but that doesn’t seem like his intention. Although I can’t speak to the quality of his Bible interpretations, his collected presence in front of the camera and generally laid-back attitude are evidence that he’s simply a cool pastor by nature who wants to broadcast the good Word to a younger generation. Even the devotional soundtrack choices are inarguably cool.

On the whole, the devotionals are different from what you would probably expect from the phrase “online devotional.” Check out this interview with fellow practicing Christian and Hollywood actor Earl Chaney, where he and Pastor Bailey talk about the advantages of being a devout Christian in Los Angeles. It’s easy to see the Pastor’s appeal.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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Cute With Chris stars Canadian actor/playwright Chris Leavins of Traders, The Eleventh Hour, and Slings and Arrows fame. Since 2006, Leavins has hosted weekly web videos (posted Mondays and Thursdays) that humorously extol the cuteness of animals, many of them brought to attention by fans and viewers submitting photos of their pets.

It’s for a good cause, too, as Los Angeles-based Leavins often uses his videos to promote adoption of the Glendale Humane Society’s homeless animals.

An overdose of adorable might sound lamely saccharine, but Leavins makes Cute With Chris worth watching because of his comic timing and deadpan irony. Shot with Leavins behind a desk in a mock newscast style, there are now more than 100 episodes of the web video series, and rare is the one not worth watching.  Whether riffing on the stoned look in a cat’s eyes or limning the difference between American kittens and Canadian kittens, Leavins gives the cutefest an edge with just the right amount of sardonic wit.

Over the course of the series, Leavins has developed a reliable stable of repeated gags: opening with a fake newscast (“Can somebody tell me what I just said? Let’s look at a cat sleeping in some hangers!”), reading letters from teenage fans, animating lasers that shoot out of animals’ eyes, and chiming “All your dreams are dead” for feline and canine losers on the weekly “Cutedown” contest.

Even if you couldn’t care less about cute animals, Leavins is a talent impossible to resist, especially when he’s having so much fun performing. For those who can’t get their fill of him and/or hopelessly adorable creatures, Cute With Chris is highly interactive, containing links to Leavins’ blog and MySpace page, direct email to Colty, Leavins’ plastic horse sidekick, weekly polls, and a special offer to sign up for “cool stuff, secret links and special episodes.”

It’s the least animal-related episode of Cute With Chris, but the one of Leavins creating an aural and visual beatbox out of rhythmically spliced video fragments is an obvious standout. How can this guy not win you over?

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Michael Joshua Rowin
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Launched in August 2005 as a digital cable and satellite channel, Current TV is the media child of former Vice President Al Gore and jack-of-all-trades entrepreneur Joel Hyatt. Dissatisfied with the state of cable news channels, the pair bought out NewsWorld International and cited a desire to democratize the American news media. The result was the youth-oriented channel INdTV, now Current TV, the first 24/7 independent media network rooted in viewer-created content and interactive online technology, which is press release vocabulary for “user videos submitted to the website are aired on cable television.”

Amazingly, Current’s progressive programming is culled solely from VC2 (Viewer Created Content), short video clips that last only a few minutes long. These clips are categorized as Entertainment and Information pods, Current Journalism pods, mobile footage, viewer-created ads, Current TV promos, or entries for one of the network’s many contests and promotions. Eventually, pods, mobile footage, promos, and viewer-created ads are voted upon online. The winners receive anywhere from $100 to $700 in cash and see their videos featured in full on the television channel, whose content is stocked by the site’s users. Like the users, most of the videos are urban and urbane, politically and culturally aware, and uniformly liberal. While everything on Current is low budget and looks it, almost everything is worth watching. The blog may be one reason for this. It’s an advice column operated by Current’s crew of contributors who each lend a hand in assisting viewers to create their own content, and are full of constructive filmmaking criticism as well as tips on getting submitted work approved and aired.

The content available to watch online and rate rotates all the time, so it’s hard to pinpoint any one section in particular. But the pods, particularly the how-to and documentary pods, are almost always fantastic. The fact that this company has succeeded in pulling a continued standard of excellence from user-created content is kind of amazing.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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Former Creem editor-in-chief and one-time William Morris talent agent Dusty Wright first launched CultureCatch back in July of 2005. The New Yorker for the online set, CultureCatch is not a forum for the famous (and working) to hock their latest project, but rather a salon where artists are given the opportunity to discuss their art for it’s own sake, really.

An artist himself, Wright is a solo performer as well as the front man for the folk-rock quartet GIANTfingers and is not interested in promoting what he calls “bullshit culture.” In his mission statement, he uses the term “smart culture” to describe the sort of subjects he’s interested in speaking with – the type of people he hopes will truly resonate with his audience.  Though CultureCatch dealt primarily with podcasts during the website’s early days, Wright and his partner Richard Burns are now videotaping all interviews for your viewing pleasure.

Wright has used the connections he made during his stint at William Morris to score sit-downs with some pretty intriguing subjects. While Wright’s heart is clearly in music, CultureCatch covers all manner of film, literature, theatre, politics and art. Archived interviews range from mogul Sir Richard Branson to rocker Bif Naked to groundbreaking director David Lynch.

All are conducted by Wright himself, though the location and production value change each time. Some take place in the studio, some in a hotel room, some backstage (Henry Rollins is interviewed in a rather murky looking stairwell).  The one constant are the provocative questions asked of these people. Wright is quite demanding and, like any good journalist, keeps at it until he’s satisfied with the answer. (This makes most of the interviews relatively long. David Lynch lasts a full 25 minutes.)

Not to be overlooked, the CultureCatch Reviews section is both extensive and discriminating, so if you’re debating on whether or not to cave in and buy the new Ashlee Simpson, best pick another site. Dusty’s Curiosity’s is a personal blog, where the site’s creator riffs on everything from the perfect rainy day album to the Village Voice. If all this still isn’t enough to satisfy your smart-culture cravings, peruse the Events page to see where you can party with Wright and catch the culture for yourself.

Thank you, CultureCatch. Yes, I have a bit of an affinity for 80’s pop. Yes, I’ve been to more than one Huey Lewis and the News concert and yes, my cell phone ring is Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’. And yes, I adore Devo. But now, thanks to CultureCatch, I can prove that whipping it is not just a guilty pleasure.

Wright’s interview with lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh is short and sweet but to the point. Mothersbaugh laments the misinterpretation of their biggest hit with a funny little anecdote. I lament the absence of that little red hat.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Meghann Murphy
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Cult of UHF has been showcasing classic and crappy B-movies of yesteryear since November 2005. Logically, the show inherited its name from early technology’s ultra-high frequency waves, which carried television’s “less polished, less professional, and less popular fare.”

Hosted by the Reverend Right Chumley (played by Chad Fraley), the show introduces movies worthy of cult status to a generation that was probably too young to have enjoyed Mystery Science Theater 3000 and provides relief to the fans who wish it was still around.

All movies shown on the Cult of UHF are in the public domain, meaning they can be reproduced by anyone, up to and including a man who introduces each film dressed like an evangelical cult leader, begging viewers to testify (the Reverend refers to voicemail and emails from fans as testimonials). This allows Fraley to present awesome favorites like “Reefer Madness” alongside lesser-known monster, alien, kung fu, and all-around funny (intentionally or unintentionally) flicks that fans of the cancelled “MST3K” will undoubtedly appreciate. But you don’t need to love “Monster Vision” to enjoy watching Santa Claus conquer Martians. You just need a sense of humor.

It’s a shame that Reverend Chumley doesn’t turn up more often to comment on specific scenes like in TBS’s “Dinner and a Movie” or make “MST3K” interjections throughout, but it’s hard to blame the busy grad student who has been known take a few episodes off to get through finals. Keep in mind that each episode is a full-length movie, so be patient when downloading.

It’s great when Reverend Chumley’s intro is tied into the movie being shown, like in the Little Shop of Horrors episode where the church background was draped in vines and a plant kept entering the screen begging the Reverend to “Feed me,” or during Chad’s break to study for finals when his intro was replaced with an homage to Star Wars called “The Finals Menace,” complete with scrolling text and all.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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Launched in the summer of 2006 by Shorn Entertainment, a short-form film company that creates “content to help the underemployed escape the cube a few minutes each day,” Cube Fabulous pulled in enough hits for its first handful of episodes that major trade weeklies like Mediaweek began to talk about the site.

That’s quite an accomplishment, which sponsors like Honda, AOL, and Monster.com were quick to notice.

Mocking the format of hit makeover shows like TLC’s What Not To Wear down to the tiniest of details, professional host Jeff Gurtman and actress Megan Gunning are cube fabricators who surprise office dwellers with the chance to completely renovate their beige cubicles into their dream work environments (or at least somewhat less beige cubicles). This is not about making a tasteful office. Instead, it’s about turning offices into adult playpens with themes like ski slopes and horror films.

The eight-minute episodes are edited with music, graphics, and a sense of humor. That may be because these are not your run-of-the-mill webisodes, seeing as the show has a budget that allows for at least productions assistants. Be advised: it’s actually funny. The show is a fantastic parody of the endless parade of contemporary makeover shows, touching on everything from bad decorating tips to the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy trope of hosts discussing their makeover victim’s foibles while driving in an SUV with a camera lodged on the dashboard. (It’s all about the details.)

Want your cubicle made over?  Submit a cubicle overhaul application and see if the cube fabricators can offer you some solace from everyday office life.

It doesn’t get any better than the episode where Jeff and Megan build a cubicle into a shrine dedicated to 90210. As the voiceover helpfully points out, “Caroline wants her cubicle and life scripted and when she reveals her favorite zip code is 90210, it’s Brenda and Dylan all over again, leaving Kelly bitter and confused.”

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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