For over a decade, CNET has been the trusted source for information about computers and technology. In the late 90’s, they had their own television network, with shows like The New Edge, hosted by a pre-Idol Ryan Seacrest. They have also had a significant web presence for years, with a site dedicated to product reviews and prices, and general consumer information about technology. As internet video podcasting became popular, CNET was ahead of the game, with a video section already available on their website. Videos date back to early Spring 2005, but the site has been updated much more regularly in 2006; it now boasts thousands of videos on eight different channels.  

A handful of different channels are featured on CNET TV – New on CNET, Gadgets and Gear, Tips and Tricks, Gaming, Car Tech, Shows, Movies and Music, and Tech News – covering topics and devices that are useful to the average reader. Repeat viewers can take advantage of the playlist feature to create their own channel dedicated to the topics they care about most. Perhaps one of the reasons that CNET has been so respected for the dozen or so years it has been doling out product information is that it is so honest; a review of the Motorola Razr V3m doesn’t just try to sell the product – it gives both positive and negative details about the phone, and helps viewers decide whether or not they need the upgrade.

While the site is mostly dedicated to product reviews by CNET’s trusty team of nerdy geniuses, it also covers major developments in science and even entertainment, including music videos from up-and-coming bands like The Dwarves. Today on CNET – hosted by Executive Editor Tom Merritt, among other CNET personalites – gives an overview of the most recently updated videos, in just a mere 45 seconds. Besides the obviously well produced and highly informational videos, you would expect a website about technology to lead by example, and CNET TV is no exception. The streaming Flash player never skips, and the ultra cool remote control panel aids viewers in getting great quality viewing, without being annoying.

The Tips & Tricks channel is a particular favorite of mine; they teach basic HTML for linking to images for that all-important act of commenting on friends MySpace pages. As the editors of CNET TV know, it’s all about the details: a very thorough look at the 2006 Nissan Pathfinder, reviewed by Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley, even concentrates on the individual buttons on the dashboard.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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As the advertisements for Bravo and the discrete copyright at the bottom of each page might suggest, DotComedy is another member of NBC Universal’s video content websites (like BrilliantButCancelled). Similar to Comedy Central’s Motherload, the site takes segments from the company’s diverse comedy holdings in television and film and sticks them online for viewer-friendly access. The site has been online since November 2006 with the debut of original serial comedies made exclusively for online audiences. Jeff Gaspin, President of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, explained the company’s interest in digital media by saying, “Comedy is one of the most successful genres on the web and this broadband channel will appeal to the advertisers’ targeted demos.” The site garnered major press attention in December 2006 when NBC’s Saturday Night Live decided to greenlight a sketch with Justin Timberlake for online viewing after censors turned it down for being too vulgar for television audiences, pulling in millions of viewers within days of its release.

There are clips from NBC Universal shows like “Saturday Night Live,” “The Office,” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”; stand-up segments from Comedy Central with people like Jamie Kennedy and Chris Rock; and even bloopers, kid comics, and film clips. None of the stock clips (videos in categories like TV & Movies, Stand-Up Straight, and Sitcom Flashback) are longer than five minutes and each one is professionally shot. These sections can be hard to maneuver if you’re looking for a specific show, since clips are arranged by tags but the site’s search feature does not allow you to actually search by tag. (You have to find a clip in the featured areas and click on the clip’s tags to find more videos from that artist or series, meaning that much of the site’s content is nearly-inaccessible.) Exclusive online content can be found in the Digital Shows section. Some of the network’s first original shows that became breakaway hits include “Kyle in a Coma” (about friends of a man named in Kyle, who is in a coma), “Playback” (musical satire one-offs by comedians Andrew Stuckey and Jon Murray), and “Untitled News Comedy Show” (an interactive news show hosted by Brian Unger featuring jokes sent in from fans), all of which last around five minutes per episode.

It all depends on what you like. Almost everything from NBC Universal’s vast vault of comedy is here, represented with at least one clip. I can’t resist Maya Rudolph’s Whitney Houston imitations, so I’ve already played the SNL “Geico Insurance” video multiple times. But the content changes on a rotating basis, so find your favorite and play it often before it’s gone

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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Remember when MTV still played music videos? For those of you who miss discovering new bands on television, or simply just want a regular outlet for previewing unconventional musical artists, you’re in luck.  Not Mainstream Television Videos is a comprehensive network dedicated to bringing viewers the best of the independent music scene. Started in January 2006 and sponsored by Microsoft, the show is created, filmed, and edited by Tom Rowles, an experienced, Los Angeles-based content producer whose credits include Geraldo. In addition to releasing episodes (hosted on web TV network Revision 3), NotMTV also offers a great vault collection of indie music videos across several genres. Yup, it’s definitely not MTV.

There is something for just about everyone on NotMTV. Witness the eclectic mix of musicians profiled by the show: Panjea, a fusion-funk band specializing in African rhythms; Wylde Bunch, the alternative hip-hop group that created the theme song for ABC/ESPN’S 2007 NBA season; Muse, a cabaret-style singing/dancing/stripteasing variety show; the Street Drum Corps, a percussionist troupe that uses everything from pots to motorcycle parts to create beats; and, of course, no shortage of rock bands like Bleed the Dreams. In each 20-minute episode, Tom Rowles and other NotMTV hosts interview the artists and showcase at least one full live performance (such as this in-studio exclusive by punk group Something for Rockets, starting at 14:30).

The interviews give us a revealing look into the people behind the music. During one Q&A with fusion-rock band Slightly Stoopid, band members sum up the spirit of the indie music scene (along with some truths about digital age music) with refreshing candor: “We’re not trying to make music for [record labels]. We make the stuff for us and for the fans. As long as you’re not pulling on our bank accounts, you can pull any records you want [from file sharing]. Those musicians who talk s*** about people file sharing are already the ones who have sold millions of records. What gives them the right to be bitter? It helps independent artists.” Take that, Metallica.

Hardcore/scremo band Bless the Fall sets Christianity-laced lyrics to head-banging, heavy metal shouting. As they say…don’t judge a book by its cover.  So don’t judge a song by its…riffs? Guitar solo?  Genre?  Oh, you get the point. 

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Pearl Chen
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It’s a popular media combination: show a movie, or gather some friends for a chat, and add some how-to cooking footage. Dinner with the Band is a hip twist on the formula.  Reputable chef Sam Mason, who made pastries at New York’s WD-50, and worked at such venues as Palladin, Union Pacific, and Atlas, now runs a restaurant called Tailor, but in his off hours invites a diverse helping of independent and alternative bands to a kitchen-concert studio space to sing for their supper.

The brainchild of Darin Bresnitz, who is a veteran of the Food Channel, the show went live on On Networks – an Austin-based video podcast network – in March, 2007. Each episode is usually divided up into five parts, with one or two cooking sessions and two or three performances by the band.

The site also comes with numerous ways to access the various episode parts, plus recipes and transcripts of the cooking sequences.

F–Ked Up is a fun throwback whose nostalgic mien belies the tightness of the band. Kim’s joy in drumming and in her partner Matt is infectious, and Holy Hail is agreeably earnest. Matt and Kim’s parents might be disappointed to learn how little they know about food and nutrition, but the viewer will be amused.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Douglas Holm
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The 26-year olds behind Clishamville have a very simple premise: make very short, scary mini-movies, and win yourself an audience. The main page welcomes its viewers to the fictional town of Clishamville, “Home of the Odd and Unusual.” The first season of Boo!, their scary movie/science fiction series, contains a dozen 5-minute films, all produced in 2005, with a second season that began in September 2006. Another season is also in the works, which will contain only videos submitted by viewers.   

The premise behind the one to four-minute Boo! films is that you put an innocent and unsuspecting person (a night guard, the new guy in the office, a sleeping woman) in a spooky situation, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats as the person slowly becomes aware that something is up, then make everyone jump as a creature of some sort makes its way into the scene. They keep the films simple at one attack each, sometimes silly, and always ending with a cliffhanger. while Cell Phone may have you giggling because of its premise (a co-worker’s cell phone bites off the newbie’s ear), it is certainly well-produced, and The Fridge may keep you from ever searching for a midnight snack again. Besides Boo! episodes, also catch a longer film called the MNN (Monster News Network) Special Report, in which anchors and field correspondents report on suspicious happenings in the town of Ithaca, presumably where the films are shot. Also check out the library for some similarly themed scary stories in text. 

For a good laugh, check out some of the Season One episodes that end with a cheesy 80’s song, like Warrant’s Heaven.   But for something sufficiently bone-tingling, watch the guard in Night Patrol (AKA NP1) seek out suspicious sounds in a parking garage.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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After the YouTube phenomenon hit, South African-born interior designer, Irwin Weiner and his Chief Operating Officer Jay Johnson envisioned Design2Share as a space dedicated to online video content for the design of home and garden.  As head of Irwin Weiner Interiors since 1986, Weiner has been providing interior design for well-heeled clients for a long time.

The show is co-hosted by the bespectacled Weiner and his British-born head designer Nicola Chernicoff, who hails from exclusive Woodstock Designs firms of London, England. For Your Imagination, a digital media development company, produces and markets the show, which began airing episodes in April 2007.

Co-hosts Weiner and Chernicoff provide a conversational, albeit sophisticated approach to design issues for beginners. Their suggestions are more than simply pointing out a fashionable ottoman or end table, but also instructions in viewing your space with fresh eyes. As the first episode: Getting a Great Look, illustrates: one can view hotels, movie sets or anything else for personal inspiration. For Weinder and Chernicoff, the passion for interior design is self-evident and a cause to “be more aware of your surroundings.”

Season One consists of seventeen episodes, which progress from simpler fare like Setting a Great Table to more trepidacious interior design situations like Decorating a Half-Bath, and The Value Of a Fireplace. Weinder and Chernicoff seem to have a friendly and relaxed relationship with their online audience, with no problem giving advice from a comfy couch or in the midst of their examples like a model house with roaring fireplace. Theses are intercut with photographs of real homes and products and the overall effect is much like their well-designed, warm homes, drawing one into the hearth. Their philosophies and “pet hates” are discussed, as well as up-to-the-minute design items such as how to work around flatscreen TV’s.

Episode Two is a treatise on Professional Help, how and when one should contact a professional designer or contractor for your home. This is straight advice from two people extremely familiar with the process. Self-motivated designers with a desire to go it alone are encouraged to “knock themselves out,” but might need help.  Design2Share certainly provides that.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Greg Rock
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The Nontourage audio podcast was started in August 2005 by Julie Daman and  Sandra DeNise as a chance to share their stories about life in LA. The two became friends while sharing a room at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and decided to start the audio program together to vent their frustrations and celebrate their daily insanities when they moved to the West Coast.  Riding the wave of video on the web, they decided to add a visual element to their site. In May 2006, Almost There was launched.

The show is co-written by Daman and Sarah Atwood, stars Atwood, DeNise and Clay Adams, and features a catchy theme song by Racquel Roberts. Although initially well received, the show was put on hiatus less than two months after its start while DeNise performed in the national tour of Jersey Boys.

The episodes of Almost There are really entertaining. It plays a little bit like the cult hit Undressed from MTV, except with much sharper dialogue. 

The story follows Lynn, a writer, whose dull life is suddenly interrupted by a surprise visit from her friend Sally, who has moved to LA to film a pilot. When Sally, who has changed her name to Soleil, loses her only line and her main love interest on the show comes out of the closet, both girls find themselves unemployed in the sprawling city. Most of the action takes place in Lynn’s small apartment, where friends like Ben come and go without knocking. Sarah Atwood is like Sarah Silverman in her portrayal of Lynn, with her defeatist attitude and frustrations as the ditzy and happy-go-lucky Sally.

The episodic antics are 10 to 15 minutes long with a 25-second teaser for each. You can find the 25-minute audio podcast episodes on the site as well, complete with comprehensive blog entries. 

To keep up to date with the Nontourage crew while Almost There is on ice, be sure to take a look at their monthly vlog.  It goes without saying that Nontourage is a play on the popular HBO show “Entourage,” on which Julie Daman has worked. 

Check out the first episode and go from there. It’s a good introduction to the dramatic comedy series, explaining the situation and who’s who, and giving a good sense of the low-budget show’s style and sense of humor.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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Hold on tight, ‘cause this one’s confusing. Nobody’s Watching is a website airing webisodes featuring Derrick (Taran Killam) and Will (Paul Campbell), two TV-addicted friends from Union, Ohio. These characters are the protagonists of a pilot-only show also titled Nobody’s Watching. The pilot was developed for the WB by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs), and Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan (The Family Guy) in 2005, but was never picked up by the network.

The show was to be about Derrick and Will getting courted by WB executives, interested in the duo because of a video they made complaining about the weak quality of current network sitcoms. The WB flies them out to LA to produce a sitcom of their own while having them followed by a crew recording their every move for a reality show that’s also being made into a show. In the end, Nobody’s Watching is a sitcom in the format of a reality show about the making of a sitcom. Very meta.

But what does this make the website? Turns out that Nobody’s Watching is formatted in the guise of a site created by the fictional characters. They’re still trying to get their “show” (and, of course, the real show) on the air, this time in the hopes of being picked up by NBC, who, in real life—really!—produced the webisodes from late 2006 up until early 2007 after strong response to the leaked pilot even though refusing to give the show a network TV slot. Most of the episodes feature the duo parodying and spoofing other television shows.

Irony comes easy to a show with such fondness for self-reference, and one of the ironies of Nobody’s Watching is that the webisodes are better than the pilot that started it all. The reason for that may be that the pilot is big on clever premise (and an almost Charlie Kaufmanesque schizophrenia regarding multiple layers of fiction) but short on real laughs. The site’s webisodes are mostly just very funny, and can be appreciated without all the post-modern gimmicks (I didn’t even realize the “truth” behind Nobody’s Watching until well into exploring the site). The best are short, minut-and-a-half summations/takedowns of other shows, including According to Jim and Friends, while others goofily mock Derrick and Will’s childlike TV obsession, with the two imitating 24, Lost, and generic sitcom opening credits. There are also less funny, more fan-oriented links to clips of Derrick and Will as extras in NBC shows like How I Met Your Mother and Days of Our Lives (really!) and message boards for fans to sound off about Nobody’s Watching or the sad state of television in general.

Because it’s so unbelievably strange, Derrick and Will’s taping themselves in real time (half an hour) while suffering through watching an entire episode of ‘Til Death must be singled out. Like a Warhol film, it challenges you to blink first, even as it makes its point loud and clear—‘Til Death is a terrible, terrible show. But will anybody be watching?

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Michael Joshua Rowin
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Rob Parrish is an Arlington, VA-based homegrown video artist and amateur filmmaker who has been vlogging since July 2005 on Hopper Video. His recent work on Next to Heaven started in August 2006 and has focused on reworking commercials and movies from Archive.org, an online movie archive that promotes open source sharing outside the boundaries of copyright law. He replaces the audio with his unusual and often ridiculous voiceovers. Weird and cancer-friendly, this is a good place to go for your weekly dose of online video art. Says Aaron Valdez of the similarly themed Valdezatron Industries, “Rob’s work lodges itself in the backside of my brain like a piece of alien gum.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

There is not a single video here that is not absurd and funny, if not absurdly funny. Updated with a new installment each week, the clips are short and make their points quickly. Parrish writes new scripts for old public domain films and commercials (he seems to have a penchant for early tanning promotions and footage of elderly women) and turns them into 30 seconds of cultural satire. Most episodes have dubbing that’s written from the perspective of a visible character, but Episode 16’s peculiar narrator is a purveyor of vintage porn who began to realize that the fetching secretary who gets into a lesbian underwear catfight in the video was his own deceased grandmother. Friends and voice alteration programs are employed for the voiceover monologues, like in Episode 6, where a wife explains that she left her husband, the man who ingeniously adapted the quartz light from the quartz mercury light, because of his “smoky, milky breath” from smoking too many cigarettes and drinking too much warm milk while toiling in his subterranean laboratory. It’s hilarious.

The clips are kept the same as the source material with only alterations in music and dialogue, but Episode 7 is one of the few shorts with visual editing. Featuring iconic clips of the atomic bomb, an informative film about sinus infections, and a man getting snapped up and swept away by an oversized suitcase, it’s one of the Parrish’s best.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Zach Jones
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Forget horror movies. Sometimes there’s nothing scarier than watching the daily news. With the onslaught of crime, war, scandal, and disaster reports, one has to wonder: Whatever happened to uplifting stories about the world? Enter: Darynkagan.com. Launched in November 2006, the site lives by its motto, “Show the world what’s possible” by delivering real-life stories that aim to inspire and encourage.

As a 20-year television veteran, former anchor at CNN news, and former and host of CNN Live Today, Daryn Kagan has reported a gamut of heart-wrenching stories, from AIDS and famine in Africa to the September 11 attacks (during which she happened to be live on the air).  In 2006, after 12 years of working for the network, CNN did not renew Kagan’s contract, but she turned the rejection into an opportunity to explore a new medium.  Now, by hosting this Web site and writing an accompanying blog, Kagan is able to lighten the mood and feature “hopeful news” for a change.

Individuals making a difference. People overcoming obstacles. Businesses, elders, kids, even animals achieving extraordinary things. These are some of the themes you’ll see over and over again through the great diversity of videos Kagan has compiled on her site. Fortunately, she’s also grouped them into easily browse-able categories.

So, say you’re an art lover. You’ll have no trouble finding videos relating to unusual art endeavors, like the man who sees the letters of the alphabet in the trees of Central Park. If you’re a sucker for romantic comedies, you’ll enjoy the Love Bucket section, with a series in which ordinary people stage elaborate surprise marriage proposals – the kind you’ll usually only see in a movie – for their unsuspecting significant other. And if you simply want to see real people doing their part in the world, head on over to any of the heroism, charity, world events, or sports sections, where you’ll meet people like Ron Zaleski, a man walking the Appalachian Trail barefoot to raise awareness for mental health training for soldiers.

All the episodes are produced with an intimate, news-documentary feel (think: 20/20 or Dateline NBC but more casual), and many will, if not inspire, at least put a smile on your face.

Sometimes, the most moving videos are simply of people who live and adapt their lives to the fullest. Witness 95-year-old Nola Ochs, the oldest person to ever graduate college; and Gille Legacy, an artist with cerebral palsy who paints with his nose and shares an amazing love with his wife Sandy. And let’s not forget the animals: Faith is a two-legged dog that has–literally!–learned to walk upright.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Pearl Chen
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According to its creators, Amir Aghelnejad and Traviss Corry, “the new wrinkle” refers to the wrinkles in culture that innovation causes as it moves forward, and that pretty much sums up what this site is all about: innovations in global culture and how they are changing the world. Both 2004 graduates of Langara College in Vancouver, Amir and Traviss design, produce, and manage the show together. They began work on The New Wrinkle in March of 2006, posting their first episode a few months later in May. The videography is by Cory MacGragor of Terraform Multimedia, and the show often features the music of DJ Godo.

The New Wrinkle is a daily podcast, so the episodes are fairly unscripted and the chemistry between Amir and Traviss produces results that are either hilariously awkward or just plain silly. Wide-ranging topics include anything from science to history to graphic design, but all segments are geared toward innovation. You can also find episodes by date or title in the archive, like Crazy Sexy Cool #$%@ed Up Lobster, Stupid Installation Art?, or Vegan Curry Cooking. The installments usually last between two and five minutes. In terms of quality, the editing is not so hot, and many of the segments are filmed with a hand-held camera, so it can get a bit dizzying. But for the most part, the affectionate and funny interaction between the two hosts makes up for the lack of good technical production.

Episode 82, International Symbols, particularly exemplifies the tone of The New Wrinkle. Here our hosts, at night and possibly influenced, are trying to explain the idea of international symbols, when they start wondering what that blinking red warning light emitting the loud annoying sound signifies. Amir dares Traviss to touch it, and hilarity ensues.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Kate Dundon
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Founded by Kevin Steele of Gameroom Magazine, RetroBlast! is a website that acts as a resource for home arcade enthusiasts – men and women who yearn for the pre-computer days of arcades and joystick-based game controls. With product reviews and gaming articles, the site hopes to give collectors information about how and where to obtain equipment to feed their habit. COIN-OP TV came out of this same need, and is hosted by the RetroBlast! site. It is produced, written, and occasionally hosted by Robert Welkner, AKA “Pennyman,” a gamer who only recently realized the potential of retrogaming as a hobby. Other hosts include Taryn Southern and a bevy of female guest hostesses. The first ten episodes, filmed at California Extreme in September 2004, set the site in motion.

Episodes are sorted into a variety of categories, including event coverage spots, product reviews, industry interviews, collector spotlights, and even original content – such as a short film written as a tribute to retrogaming, using the evolution of arcade games as its plot. Episodes take place all around the country, including California – where the company is based, but even stretching out to New Jersey. Industry interviews are often amateur, but do a good job at showcasing this niche culture. For example, Gorf champion Todd Rogers gives out tips to completing each level of the game and demonstrates the best way to win at the racing classic, Monaco GP. The hosts, particularly the female ones who aren’t really gamers themselves, rely on industry professionals to do the product reviews, determining if new controllers, like the enormous and ubiquitous Arcade in a Box, are sufficient to allow for the retro games to be played effectively. The site is definitely intended for those really invested in retrogaming, though Generation Xers will still surely get some pangs of wicked nostalgia as they see their favorite old-school titles – like Ms. Pac-Man and Dig Dug – come back in style.

There are times when it seems that this site is intended for boys. One such time includes a challenge by Coin-Op host Danielle to Miss Winnipesaukee ’04, Justine, to a round of air hockey. A crowd of all-male on-lookers, who no doubt appreciate the girls’ low-cut tops as they lean over the table, cheers them on. For a girl gamer’s take on gaming, check out the interview with Anna Cram at the end of this episode.

Filed under: Tilzy.TV by Rebecca Halpin
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