25th September 2006 - Another Week In Web Paradise

The weather is crap, Winter is here, surely its time to forget the nonsense that is reality and immerse yourself instead in the world wide webosphere instead.

This week, I’ve gone the way that all good nerds do and decided to seek fame beyond the limits of my email list. As a result, I’ve turned my sporadic communications into a blog. So far, no comments and just a few views (mostly people I’ve bribed no doubt) but its early days so wish me luck in getting discovered.

http://channel4finds.blogspot.com/


So, back to the matter at hand. Things to look at online. This week there are so many things to show you, anyone would think this internet thing is really taking off.


YouTube was a notable absence last email but its back with a great big vengeance this week.

First – is this the best thing on there? If not send me something better. Go on, I dare you…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx-NLPH8JeM

Next, the kind of people who upload videos to YouTube, are, no surprise, the kind of people who enjoy re-enacting computer games in the real world. Now I’ve seen some scary examples which I won’t share (people rushing around with fake guns pretending they’re in Grand Theft Auto, or recreating human pacman in lecture theatres - just plain weird frankly) BUT, there are two stop-motion examples below that are basically brilliant. One recreates space invaders, the other Pong (or bat and ball tennis as my brother and I used to call it). Trust me, this is brilliantly done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyzStoxnTKs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yH0LHO7tcA

But if you would still rather see nutters doing this kind of thing in a very dumb, low-fi way, check out this lunatic as human tetris in Ohio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZhvWTUr_8g

As you know, I include old stuff in every mail, just to fill in all your new media “gaps” from the past. This gem has been loved many times over. Do your stuff Human Beatbox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9698TqtY4A


But its not all “user-generated” chaos. TV content is still a great draw even on user-generated sites. Currently the 7th most watched thing of all time on YouTube (9 million views and counting) is this utterly bizarre scene from NBC’s America’s Got Talent show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-wUgnyGv0


YouTube is an amazing thing. If you’d told me a couple of years ago that you were setting up a site where people could upload any video they like, I’d tell you that you were crazy. That the whole thing would turn into a repository for porn, slander and spam. Now I’m not saying that lots of that isn’t there, and that the vast majority of videos aren’t dumb, pointless or nuts, however, clicking on today’s Most Watched clips the number one video is Bill Clinton taking 11 minutes to lay into Fox News’ agenda during an interview – think about it. Maybe we’re not dumbing down after all.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1j79y7i10FY


Ok, serious bit over for now. Back to having fun. The insanely fabulous Scissor Sisters have an amazingly well executed piece of kit on their site that brought a new media meeting to a standstill this morning with people crying with laughter. It involves a small amount of effort but is most definitely worth it. Upload a picture of yourself and have a good old dance. It’s all in the execution and not the concept. Do it now, you won’t regret it.

http://www.dancesisterdance.co.uk/

I love Flickr. I REALLY love Flickr. I love it in ways I hadn’t anticipated and I use it really often. Like all big web outfits, there are now dozens of businesses which feed off it in a symbiotic way. Two of this week’s best are as follows:

Take all your lovely Flickr pictures and make hundreds of business cards each with a different image.

http://www.moo.com/

Alternatively, here is the inspiration for our Film 4 create your own online ad campaign. Add speech bubbles to your pictures, smoothly, bubbly, loverly

http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/


Last time I sent you a link to Human Clock, this is a simpler and more artistic execution of a similar thing. There’s something quite mind-numbingly hypnotic about it

http://www.yugop.com/ver3/stuff/03/fla.html


Talking of artists, this did the rounds a few months ago, and provided lots of creative inspiration. Seen from a different angle these look like nothing, its all about the perspective of the exact angle they were taken at.

http://www.thepuzzlefactory.com/2006_chalk.cfm


All my good intentions to send you forward-looking, thoughtful sites have basically gone out the window this week. There are lots of things to share for next time but if you’re anything like me then a load of crap YouTube videos will be more than enough to keep you occupied on this rainy, grey end of September week


(Oh, and for those sad individuals who love airlinemeals.net more than any other website I’ve ever recommended (yes, these people do exist) here is a nice little “ps” to end with http://www.bagophily.com/ (airline sick bags from around the world)