Don't Judge Too Quickly

Don't Judge Too Quickly is a brilliant ad campaign by Ameriquest Mortgage. I was looking for an embedable link and found this montage of 6 Ameriquest + 2 non-Ameriquest commercials tossed in.  A+.  Actually, someone translated "Don't Judge Too Quickly" into Portuguese, making this video an A++. 
(From Evan F.)

Megavideo

Megavideo is another of those watch-tv-on-the-web sites. The quality is pretty good, and I have yet to find a dead link.  Besides the streaming option, there appears to be a download option (that I haven't tried).

The pesky thing about the site is, besides having to click through two ads to get to the content, it only lets you watch 72 minutes of continuous videos at a time.  After that, it interrupts the video and tells you to sign up for their fee-service or come back 54 minutes later.  No free lunches, I guess. Let me know what you think. 

(From TV Duck)

SideReel

SideReel is the latest and best designed of the watch-TV-on-the-web variety of website.  

According to the site, "here, you can be the guide, the critic, the expert, and of course a fan." They look all organized and such, with their company group picture and listed positions and such. And for once, the design doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out. Good work. 

Heck, we'll up it to great work. Enjoy!

(From T.J. and Archana)

The:DISH (Topanga comes back!)

The:DISH is a TV show hosted by Danielle Fishel (better known as Topanga Lawrence from Boy Meets World). It's super trashy and super-low budget. She's done so well!

Buzzfeed describes it as a "lady-friendly version of The Soup for The Style Network."

My first thoughts were first of all... Topanga's real last name is Fishel? That sounds like a made-up garden instrument. You know. Rake, shovel, fishel. I digress.

Second of all... This is what her plans are: "When she's not doing The Dish, Danielle can be found studying for her degree in psychology (with a focus in marriage and family therapy) or hanging with her dog, Anna, a Maltese who does all kinds of cool tricks." Good luck, Topanga!

Click through for the videoes.

(From Buzzfeed)

Important Things With Demetri Martin

Important Things with Demetri MartinWed 10:30pm / 9:30c

Series Preview

Important Things with Demetri Martin is a show on Comedy Central that debuted today (okay techincally yesterday). Anyway, finally, the kid gets his own show!

Previously mentioned, Demetri.


(From The Comic's Comic, Buzzfeed)

The United States of Tara Pilot

The United States of Tara Pilot is the first episode of a Showtime series about a, "Suburban wife and mother Tara Gregson (Toni Collette), juggles her family and career while suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder."

Sounds cheesy? It is. Also, it's delicious. Like a guilty grilled cheese sandwhich. I would embed it here, but Showtime has its grip on the video and says NO. So you'll just have to click through and watch it on IMDB. Enjoy!

(From my friend TJ)

Ninja Video

Ninja Video is a website that features streaming TV shows, movies, and more. It's a busy site, and one might have to download some DivX app/Ninja video helper for it to work... But after that it seems to work well.

(From my other friend Ed)

List of problems solved by MacGyver

List of problems solved by MacGyver is a Wikipedia entry brimming with genius. If you didn't already know. 'Bout time someone put this copious list to the books. Among his many accomplishments, MacGyver:

• Defuses a highly advanced nuclear warhead using a paper clip to short circuit the timing device.
• When near a deadly laser grid, MacGyver lights a pack of cigarettes to make the lasers visible. He then smashes a pair of binoculars, removing a prism to deflect a laser beam back to the emitter, destroying it.
• MacGyver plugs a sulfuric acid leak with chocolate. He states that chocolate contains lactose and sucrose (chemically C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁), which are disaccharides. The acid reacts with the sugars to form elemental carbon and a thick gummy residue. (This has been tested and confirmed by Mythbusters).

Not only is this on Wikipedia, but now it was confirmed by Mythbusters. Q.E.D.: that makes it double true.

(From kottke and gongblog), and Google image search.

A&E: Intervention

Intervention is an aptly named show on A&E about addicts of all stripes and their interventions.  Perhaps the only more apt name would be Family Attempts To Stop a Trainwreck, While You Watch. You Sick Bastard.  

As Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe told Salon.com: "It makes prime-time sport of vulnerable, desperate people and their spiral to the bottom." Oh yeah and, it's also great television.  A typical episode goes as follows: meet Allison, who dashed her med school dreams when she discovered inhalants junior year of college.  She does ten cans of computer dust remover a day.

Part 2: Gives you background on Allison and shows how great she was doing before. You know, playing the flute in fancy black dresses pearls.  Also: enter sugar daddy!

Part 3: Allison's sister absconds with her cans, mom brings pizza.

Part 4: The intervention with the Queen Baby goes poorly. 

Part 5: Allison chooses plush rehab, presumably on A&E's dime. 

It's like A&E ran out of the normal drugs, and started doing all the crazy ones like computer keyboard duster.  Aside from the natural drug-addict-on-a-downward-spiral-to-the-grave appeal, this episode is entrancing because people don't talk about inhalants very much.  The inhalants things is always a footnote during those D.A.R.E. lectures in 6th grade that is more confusing than enlightening.

Addiction Intervention Resources, Inc. prefers this kind of publicity about their business, interventions, as opposed to the fictionalized kind:

"I vividly remember the negative affect [sic.] the widely watched HBO-TV show The Soprano’s had on our business several years ago. During the episode entitled “The Strong, Silent Type,” a drug intervention is held for the heroin-addicted character Christopher. The intervention goes badly and ends with the intervention participants beating each other. Many families who watched that show believed this was the way a typical intervention ended. As a result of that, phone calls into our call centers virtually stopped for weeks." --Robert M. Poznanovich, CEO.

For realz-realz?! People thought this?! Nice.  So perhaps real-life interventions don't typically go down that poorly, but they do end poorly, and that honest portrayal (suspense!) is what I like.  It gets me line, hook and sinker. Does that make me a bad person? 

Bonus:  Cristy the Meth Addict.  And a spoof. 

(From Public School Intelligentsia, NYTimes, Salon.com, Blogcritics, Wikipedia, Buzzfeed, etc.)

Mark Gaberman, On Why He Writes for Jeopardy

Mark Gaberman, On Why He Writes for Jeopardy. The writer's strike is long over, but it's a slow internet news day, so I'm posting this gem. It's cute and light and witty. Inspiring. Refreshing that Mark enjoys his job so much.

Then again, who wouldn't love being Alex's secret pupetter? Mark says:

I’ve had Alex Trebek rap Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice”—he had his mind on his money and his money on his mind that day. Did a category called “Death and Texas” just because I liked the title (and finding stuff about people dying and/or getting killed in Texas turned out to be remarkably easy).

Yay dream jobs.
via kottke

Hulu.com the original

It's official. After much lollygagging during the wee hours of the morning, NBC Universal and News Corp.'s foray into the interwebs, Hulu.com, has launched. For realz realz, not for play-play. No more beta.

I can even embed free content here. Check it:


Needless to say, I didn't do anything useful all day. According to the website, Hulu is "free and ad-supported — available anytime in the U.S.," though today it has been slower than a sleeping turtle. I guess it's akin to trying to buy a Cabbage Patch Doll in October of '83.

They have full length Simpsons and The Office episodes the morning after they air, assorted clips and a handful of full length movies.

So this now makes Open Hulu the talking paperclip of the Internet. The vermiform appendix of the interblags. The Kato Kaelin of the Intertubes.

We don't call it "TODAY" On The Interwebs for nothing folks.

Open Hulu

Hulu.com is an exclusive, invitation-only, beta-version NBC-and-News-Corporation website where you can watch TV on the interwebs.

OpenHulu.com is a free-for-all that copied all of the Hulu content and put it up for the world to see.

It's like The Hulk smashed Hulu's secret lock to smithereens. And then posted all its content on the interwebs for free.

TV on the Internet is nothing new. Sites like these have sprung up like sores on a whore for a few years now: there was allfg.org, alluc.org, peekvid.com... Where are they now, you ask?

Actually, they're still there. I speak of them in the past tense because visually, they are dead to me. It's a sad fact of the interwebs: anything older than 6 months starts to bloat, each day looking more and more like MySpace (case in point: BookFace).

Clogged and clunky, Open Hulu is no exception: the layout is awk-sauce, the ads are annoying, but overall the site works. It's not that bad yet. For those of you who tuned out during the writer's strike, it's perfect for catching up on your shows before new episodes begin in earnest. You can watch anything from Family Guy to Buffy to Hitchcock.

(To Battlestar Gallactica. But why would you?! Please keep that one to yourself, nerd-o-nauts.)

Annuale. Once a year. Period.

Today on the internet: this video is more TV than internet, but everyone knows the two media systems are slowly converging into one self-cognizant, attention-gripping being. That's good enough rationale to post here.

Winter 2008 was the first time SNL was sort of funny again, thanks to Tina Fey's contributions. Tina Fey is a woman of many talents: in addition to writing and starring in 30 Rock, Mean Girls, and "Mom Jeans: the commercial," she can also single-handedly deliver electoral votes in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

So please: go to a store, buy a hat, and get ready to hold the $*@# onto it. Then watch this video.

(From nbc.com & my friend Xtina)