Article Dan speed blogs

Short sharp shocks to the world 
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August 6, 2009

Biggest waterslide jump ever? I miss feeling amazed.

Incredible video of an incredible stunt - the biggest waterslide jump ever. 

But the tweet that shared this with me was prefaced with Real or Fake? So look, look again. There's an obvious blind spot, perfect for the ol' switcheroo, and frankly the landing in the giant plastic ashtray dish full of water seems infeasible beyond anything else, but... y'know... weirder shit, and all that.

And this is the trouble. Nothing is believable any more. Everything is tainted by scepticism, spoiled by narrowing eyes and tilted heads - So much today is incredible that... well... nothing is credible. (As my good friend @shark_trager presents in one of his rather wonderful 50 Word short stories - The Armageddon). Which is a shame. As a sceptic I may feel clever, but I don't feel amazed.

I miss feeling amazed.

Cases in point: I'd LOVE to believe this stuff is really happening:

The back flip flip flip flip - basket! thing. Impossible, right???

Then there's this: 

Is it possible? And if so how many wasted hours did this take to perfect? Wasted being the operative word in every sense.

Then this takes the piss:

Oh, I'd love it to be true.

But then finally, you get this video from BBC's Bang goes the Theory, which is amazing, looks ridiculous and faked, but... Well, it's the BBC - it MUST be true!

Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   funny   unbelievable   Video   Virals  

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July 16, 2009

Crazy little thing the web (oh please make it stop!)

This web thing. Crazy, right? Just so much of it; so many networks, socials, twitbooks, facefeeds... Virals are good, viruses are bad... Criminey, how's a guy supposed to keep up?

Don't panic. Pete Codella's here. And he's gonna sing you a song that will fix your fuddled little head right up about this whole crazy web 2.0 communities thing

OK. Did you see it through to the end? And you're still able to read through your tear/vomit-filled eyes? Good.

So, first thing here is not to think about how that's 2.57 minutes of your life that you're NEVER going to get back (that's right, it's not even three minutes long, baby - how's that for proving time is relative?). You gotta think about how you'll never actually be Pete Codella. You're not him. He is. Pete Codella is Pete Codella so you don't have to be. That there's a cautionary tale in 2.57 agonising minutes. There's few horror movies as effective in 10 times the time. You might still go camping in the woods, swimming in the sea or fool around with your girl whilst reading from the Necromonicon, but you're NEVER going to think about turning your IT presentation into a quirky music video!

Pete's blog to accompany this... piece... states 'I’ve been reminded that creating a different kind of product for your industry helps set you apart.'

Yes, Pete. You have truly set yourself apart. To recap: Viral is good, virus is bad, and shit awful is shit awful no matter what kind of twisted spin you want to put on that sucker.

Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   FAIL   Humour   Marketing   Video   Virals   web  

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July 3, 2009

Microsoft's Puking Woman ad makes people sick

Microsoft's latest ad for Internet Explorer 8 treats us to watching a woman vomit. Repeatedly.

Then brings on Dean Cain to 'make sense of it all'. Talk about the continued 'curse of superman' - dude's career has truly died.

Unsurprisingly, the ad has been pulled. One thing to say: Fire the Creatives.

Keep th' food down,

Article Dan

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Filed under  //   FAIL   Microsoft   Video   Virals  

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July 2, 2009

Bruno Premiere becomes a Bruno Peri-mare

Bruno creator and star Sasha Baron Cohen looks on with bemused horror (0.54mins) as his big show-off moment at the premiere of his latest film Bruno is completely hijacked (in not unsuitable style) by Nando's Chicken stunt viral creators - with a Bruno look-a-like taking the stage with models drenching themselves in Peri Peri sauce.


Marketing gold for Nandos. For Boron Cohen - the question: which came first the Peri Peri chicken or the egg on the face?

This said, Bruno does look hilarious and well worth a look:


Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   Bruno   Nandos   Video   Virals  

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May 29, 2009

Sir Alan Sugar gets a remix

The Apprentice is one of those TV format shows that's just delivered and delivered. And mainly due to Sir Alan Sugar's ability to turn a withering phrase and and call a tut-shovelling waste-monkey a tut-shovelling waste-monkey.

Now, mash-up / cut up supremo Cassette Boy has taken his talents to The Apprentice and cut together a hilarious joy-fest celebration of Sir Alan and the ridiculousness of the show. Bear with it - it starts off with some relatively blunt satire, but at around 2.50 it really ups its game into the realms of glorious silliness.



Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   Humour   Mash ups   The Apprentice   Video   Virals  

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April 3, 2009

Do people react better to Sims than to Keira Knightley?

This YouTube film starring Kiera Knightley highlighting domestic violence as an issue is shocking and upsetting. But more depressing are the comments that accompany the video from the YouTube 'community'.




Comments include:

'oh tenderheart please!' no wonder he punched her... (Thank you for that Koorbeel )

Yes it was in the script biatch! =P (Enlightened stuff from jumpyg1258 )

Moving the debate on we encounter the thoughts of brockal

WAKE THE FUCK UP FOLKS! The is a WAR GOING ON IN YOUR STREETS! Your "public servants" are performing TREASON to subjegate you and your neighbors to A GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER! WAKE UP! STAND UP AND BE COUNTED! SPEAK AND BE HEARD! FIGHT! THIS IS WAR!!!!!

Thank god somebody cut through and got to the real issues. Thanks Brockal...

To be fair, there's a more informed debate that continues later (earlier?) in the 44 video comments present at the time of writing, concerning the nature of Woman's Aid as a campaigning organisation - its methods / messages; and comments regards the absence of depictions of woman on man domestic violence and the real problems existing there.

But essentially, it's YouTube - what did I expect? It's all about the PWNing and the Lulz ,right? I should get over it.

This video has reminded me of a machinima piece on Domestic Violence I saw at a conference on interactive media a while ago: 



Now, despite this using a gaming platform Sims , where some prejudices might expect the LOLTwats to gather around to leave dumb-ass messages at the scene, the comments that appear here are altogether more considered and informed: mainly decrying the one-sided nature of the depiction of gender violence.

One video's had nearly the same number of views as the other - circa 35K as of today. So why all the stupid hate on the Woman's Aid film and not the Sims? Maybe people just don't respect Keira Knightley as much as they do Sims?

I'm not sure that leaves me any more comforted about the YouTube community...

Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   Domestic Violence   Keira Knightley   Machinima   Sims   Video   Virals   Women's Aid  

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April 1, 2009

April fools 2009 almanac

Online April Fools gags are mainly just marketing initiatives, but, just like virals, when they deliver the funny - why get your knickers in a cynical twist about it? The main winners were the browsers. Google Chrome and Opera both delivering clever and funny little moments of cocking about.


Witness Opera's browsing with facial gestures:



And Google Chrome offered us a 3D browsing experience - it provides a template to print your own 3D glasses. I only have a black and white printer unfortunately, so it only partially works. Call it 2.5D if you will...

The Guardian was my favourite text attempt - declaring the paper's intention to abandon print AND web versions in favour of a Zeitgeist-tastic Twitter version of the Guardian news content .

Other greatness includes the Hotelicopter. Yes, elevate your stay with the world's first flying hotel! Essentially a knob-off massive chinook helicopter - you find it hard to imagine Richard Branson isn't looking at this and thinking hard about the opportunities...!

The site's very well done, but seemed to go up and down like a busy lift, so if it is busted just watch this:



Other faves include:

You'll never get lost again wearing Sat-Nav shoes 

And more besides. Any I've shamefully overlooked and need spanking for? Comment away!

Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   April Fools   Humour   internet   Video   Virals  

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March 11, 2009

Radio 4's Today Programme gets a viral

Anyone who listens to the Today Programme on Radio 4 will appreciate the wit and in-jokes that proliferate this viral video by Rubber Republic. It's a little like thesuper Simpsons intro, but applied to serious topical radio.

What may give Radio 4 pause for thought is the fact that this has more class and timing in three minutes than most of the R4 comedy has in a week! Though the thought of Jim Naughtie in a thong - or less - both amuses and chills in equal measure!
 
Keep th' faith,
Article Dan
 
(Bonus of this being I know it's a bloody spoof and not a twat trying to report this as news that Evan Davies wears a penguin costume in Today Studios Shock!)

 

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Filed under  //   Humour   Today Programme   Video   Virals  

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February 13, 2009

Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman - stoned? Or is it just a virus?

Joaquin Phoenix puts in a TRULY bizarre performance on The Late Show with David Letterman.
 
 
It's the point when he starts describing (I say, describing, it's not really fair to call it that) his plans for a hip hop career, that it really starts to get surreal. Then the gum...
 
But, here's the thing... The web - the web and the viral video thing... It's getting hard to tell when these actorly wig-outs, be they outbursts like Christian Bale's recent F-fest or Joaquin Phoenix's here-seen... what? Inburst...? It's getting hard to tell what's real and what's maybe put on to garner this kind of blog coverage, the news-clips, the CBS video viral, the Tweets, the tweets, the tweets... Is it all just marketing for the movie? In Joaquin's case Two Lovers a movie people otherwise had little reason to get excited about?
 
Am I grown too old and cynical for this web lark?
 
Anyway, there you have it - I've walked eyes-wide-open into their fiendish trap. I'm blogging about the monosyllabic mumblings of Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman. Well played, Phoenix. Well played.
 
Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   Actors   Hoaxes   Humour   Joaquin Phoenix   Letterman   Video   Virals  

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January 26, 2009

Channel 4 and random acts of nastiness

 Channel 4 may be mainly newsworthy for trying to cadge as much cash from the BBC as possible at the moment, but off-site they're running a campaign called Battlefront, which hosts 20 young people using Social Media as a campaigning tool to gain support and momentum for their causes.
 
These causes run the gammet from Alexander Rose's STOP (Stop This Ongoing Problem) campaign to tackle gun and knife crime, to Zuhal Sultan's Music for Change - trying to fundraise and create a National Youth Orchestra in Iraq.
 
Anyway - the team are churning out some top promo videos (we call 'em virals in the biz, y'know), one of the best being in support of Tom Robbins' Random Acts of Kindness:  
 
 
 
Of course, it's likely only a matter of time before Channel 4 themselves start making their own virals and campaigns on Battlefront. I picture Sir Michael Lyons dressed as a giant wallet stuffed with money and bacon being chased through Westminister by Channel 4 Execs dressed as emaciated wolves and the characters of Wacky Races.
 
But before we see this inevitable viral, other joy may be found from a video for the 'use your own mug in Starbucks campaign. The video starts silly, then gets siller and concludes with inspired lunacy. Enjoy:
 
 
Keep th' faith

Article Dan

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Filed under  //   Battlefront   Channel 4   Humour   Video   Virals  

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