My Last Pry: Just Plain Wrong

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Just Plain Wrong

This is SO stupid, not to mention just wrong. If this amateur hour is SO great, try charging for it and see what happens.

The San Francisco Chronicle

June 5, 2008 Thursday
FINAL Edition

YouTube brings stardom down to earth

BYLINE: Jeff Yang

SECTION: Datebook; ASIAN POP; Pg. E1

For a generation of young artists, the existence of a never-before-seen mass audience of Asian Americans on YouTube represents an opportunity of game-changing proportions.

Christine Gambito - known to her hundreds of thousands of online fans by her YouTube handle, Happy Slip - describes her inauspicious foray into stardom like this: "All my life, my family has asked me to do these imitations of them. Whenever we all get together, after we pig out, and everyone's fat and bored, they'd say, 'Christine, get up there, do your imitation of Auntie!' So I realized that I really wanted to tell these little stories about my family, whether there was an audience for them or not. And I started shooting and editing these videos and uploading them to YouTube. Not knowing if anyone was even watching felt kind of liberating, in fact. I realized I could just do whatever I wanted."

But what she did - gently hilarious one-woman skits in which she portrays as many as a half-dozen members of her extended Filipino American family - proved to be wildly popular. So much so that, a year and a half later, her Happy Slip channel is the fifth most subscribed on YouTube.

To date, her videos have been watched more than 36 million times, with Asian Americans making up the bulk of her fan base though she does note that people from every ethnic background write her, "saying 'That's exactly my family, and I'm not even Filipino! It's like 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' - you don't have to be Greek to get it. Or fat.".

Gambito's experience is echoed by 22-year-old fellow YouTube star David Choi, whose popular videos feature him performing a mix of his original songs and captivatingly unlikely acoustic guitar arrangements of pop hits like Britney Spears
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' "Gimme More."

What really sent Choi's visibility through the roof, however, was a goofy one-off ballad he wrote celebrating his love for and obsession with YouTube itself. As it rocketed up the viewership charts, "YouTube A Love Song" got picked by the service as a front-page Featured Video. The video has since been seen nearly 1.9 million times, helping make him YouTube's 16th-most subscribed musician of all time, just ahead of, ahem, Britney.
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The overwhelmingly positive clamor inspired Choi to start work on an album of his own. It helps to know that he has a pre-existing consumer base of more than 40,000 subscribed fans eager to buy the end result, sight unseen.

As for Gambito, her days of late have been filled with going to network meetings and serving the role bestowed upon her by the Philippine government as an ambassador of tourism; meanwhile, Choi was hired by Warner Chappell as a staff songwriter-producer and got the chance to create a track for rising Interscope Records band Flipsyde.

But perhaps the most intriguing top YouTube personality is also one of the youngest: 17-year-old Kevin "KevJumba" Wu, who, over the course of just months, went from obscurity to YouTube's No. 1 most subscribed comedian and third most subscribed YouTuber of all time. Except that he's not, strictly speaking, a "comedian." In fact, most of his videos consist of nothing more than Kevin talking about stuff that Kevin finds interesting, weird or irritating.

And yet, they've received nearly 30 million views because Kevin just talking is, well, pretty hilarious. His deadpan vocal delivery, animated facial expressions and tendency toward unexpected digressions make for surprisingly mesmerizing video. But it's still hard to put a finger on just what makes him so appealing.

Until you realize: It's the confidence, exuding from every pore. Not cockiness - many of his rants, like "I need help with the Females," are drenched in self-deprecating humor - but casual ease. Comfort in his own skin.

In fact, Kevin is a little surprised to even be asked the question. "I don't feel alienated. I talk about being Asian, because it's who I am. And the majority of my subscribers are Asian, because they relate to what I'm talking about, and they back me up."

In short, in the media that his generation cares about most, Asian Americans aren't behind the curve - they're ahead of the game. So much so that Kevin took it in stride when Golden State Warriors point guard Baron Davis reached out to him, suggesting they do some videos together - an encounter that led to Kevin and Davis exchanging a series of challenges, eventually leading up to an epic staring contest that was won not by Kevin or Davis, but by an unexpected third entrant: actress and online video junkie Jessica Alba.

Baron Davis? Jessica Alba? And ... Kevin Wu? Why not? On the Internet, celebrities get exposed as real people Lindsay Lohan picks her nose! and real people get the exposure needed to turn them into celebrities.

And whereas Hollywood was built around epic personalities, larger than life icons, the next generation of content is rooted in authenticity: people just being people.

"You see that young Asian Americans are gravitating to YouTube, and it's clear that they represent an underserved market that's thriving online outside the confines of Hollywood and Madison Avenue," says Richard Frias, co-president of Digital Content Partners, a management firm that recently signed on to represent Gambito and Kevin in whatever future content endeavors they might choose to pursue. "There are no more hurdles. For those who have ever said they were not given a chance or that doors were closed to them for whatever reason - those days are over."

What is EM08?

We have to get ready.
We have to fight.
-Carol, The Walking Dead (S07E13)

Intro, September, 2012

The Econ Meltdown of 2008

It's been over 3.5 years since I got very curious about the historic welfare bailout triggered by the massive implosions of Bear, Lehman and the soon to be shotgun wedding bride, Merrill, to groom B of A.

With OUR money. I did say "welfare."

I tell anyone who'll listen that when I began researching EM08 in Q1 09, within a few weeks I knew we were in the midst of the biggest story ever. Bigger than any wars, atrocities and cruelties. It makes atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki look bush league. And I'm Japanese.

History has shown us the ebb and flow of empires past; Mongolia, Rome, England... but because of the limitations, the relative crudity of the technology of the times, empires past were limited to portions of the earth, their colonies.

Today is different. With a military base in every corner and a bazooka aimed at every citizen on earth, we exist in the era of the first true global empire. But here's something even more disturbing; our weapons of mass destruction come bathed in the glow of purity, but it's the purity of Walt White's blue meth.

Those wmds are what's destroying the EU right before our eyes. To those like Matt Taibbi, Goldman helping Greece rig its books in order to gain entrance into the EU is old hat and not even square one of EM08. But it illuminates the thesis; the EU crisis is an American one, with the fingerprints of American banks all over it. Pension funds, sovereign debt funds, hedge funds... you name it. All got taken in, or rather more accurately, just taken. The scope is staggering. All were suckered into the biggest con in history involving the entire world far beyond what any empire past or futurist could have possibly dreamed of.

Ultimately horrific and the most interesting story ever.

The other big theme I asked in 2009; Why has no one gone to jail? The Obama administration, AG Eric Holder and the various regulators have done absolutely NOTHING amidst the Godzilla of crime scenes. In fact, they have arguably enabled the psychopathic banksters and associated thugs with a string of settlements that are sickening embarrassments.

I'm anything but an economist. These are my "everyperson" observations based upon what citizen journalism I can muster. Need I say it, this time is history being writ LARGE. My bullet point advice for the coming tsunamis ahead (yes, that's plural):

1. Get educated; there's no time like now to start learning about the way the American system of economics works. Even a cursory glance on a consistent basis at some of the analysts and blogs I cite (see sidebar links "EM08 Analysts to Trust" and "EM08 Blogs I Like") will begin to shed light if you really reflect and chew on the cud. Ironically, in a time of extreme unemployment, this is work.

2. WAKE UP - THE ENEMY HAS DECLARED WAR. The eCON elites have already made it abundantly clear that they do not care about and even look down on "the little people." It therefore makes sense to connect with others of like mind. You do yourself no favors by acting in isolation.

You are not a super hero and no god will save you from the wrath of the eCON elites when your number comes up. Ask the millions of taxpayers who were raped by "having to give" the largest socialist welfare theft in history to shithead bankers for their evil pre-2008 machinations so that they can dole out bubble era bonuses for 2009! Also be aware that as of February, 2010, these shitheads are doing the same things that got us in trouble before. In fact, because of even more welfare era conglomeration that created the super banks -- ironically in the face of "too big to fail" which, like so much of political speech, turns out to be empty rhetoric -- it can be persuasively argued that the bankers' position is stronger than ever. The lesson is that the eCON elites conglomerate and so should we. As the Ethiopian proverb says, A million spider webs can take down an elephant.

Note: Throwing your hands up and shrugging, feeling helpless, remaining uninformed, not even trying... essentially doing nothing, is the worst "strategy" of all. It plays right into your enemy's hands and is not just easy, it's lazy and weak. It makes you, in the con artist's playbook, a mark. Which in the fall of '08, became painfully clear we all were.

The bottom line: Your enemy is highly organized and powerful, they are relentless and they are coming. They are Skynet and the Death Star on super roids, the ultra Terminator that will not stop. This is not being alarmist, this is not hyperbole and this is not a screenplay. February, 2010: The biggest socialist welfare "mothers" in history, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein and JPMC CEO Jamie Dimon take BONUSES of $9mil and $17mil respectively, thanks to the welfare money they and uncle scam stole from us and while the world is on its knees. The national debt is over $12 TRILLION with interest counting fast. Does that sound like we're playing poker with a strong hand?

3. Organize strategically. In an era of unprecedented complexity, too much information, obfuscation, deflection, mis-direction, filibustering avoidance, mass media manipulation, and outright censorship, the ONLY answer is pragmatism based upon strategic insight. Take lessons from the analysts cited below, connect with others, form small, agile communities of support, and PLAN. Not to do so is to go to war armed with a Nerf ball.

NEED: A local, national and even international network of these small, agile communities so that they can share resources and support. Tall order, but the time to start is now simply because the eCON elites have such a tremendous head start and as of Q1/2010 EM08 is still in the beginning stages.

WATCH FOR: EGOS (include your own!) & BUREAUCRACY. Communities that hedge their bets by acting strategically, egalitarian and fair have the best shots. There is nothing wrong with good leaders, provided they are fair and do not succumb to the god complex. Remember, in insane times, sobriety and pragmatism should be your first rule. In other words, if times are hard, what would you rather have, a gold ingot or clean water?

Good luck to us. We need it.

For much, much more: CLICK HERE for EM08 Posts

lordonlow at gmail dot com

RZA

Piri Thomas

My father Juan, also known as Johnny, once gave me some advice in the art of survival, saying, "Listen, hijo, sometimes you don't look where you're going and you stumble into trouble. You must learn how to spot danger by learning to smell the ca-ca at least twenty miles away, for remember, son; that mierda not only walks on two feet, but it comes in all colors." I moved to exercise my powers of being able to smell ca-ca twenty miles away and to recognize the difference between ca-ca and flowers, when my father stopped me. "Por favor, son, before you start out to smell other people's ca-ca, smell your own first, otherwise you'll get so used to smelling everyone else's, you might forget you have quite a bit of your own." Punto!