Heard some. It's hard to care about freaka-the-week stories sometimes ("A woman attacked her husband... In the GENITALS!!! What does it all mean??!?!?!")

The product observed by us as news consumers is no less diverse than that which we presently enjoy as music enthusiasts.

Soon there will be a Google+ way to do the Amy Alkon News Cavalcade, a five minute hopscotch-of-the-headlines hosted by the beachside redhead in which fucktards from across the continental US gather for a few moments ever mid-morning (eastern time) to bitch and claw at each other through the camera lenses of their netbooks.

It'll be great. I can't imagine how you'll monetize it, though.

Working on the podcast thing!

"I can't imagine how you'll monetize it, though."

Hey Crid thanks for the previous Firesign link. Surrealism is more real than our reality sometimes.

And in that spirit I offer up the how-to-monetize solution: Amy's participants log on to a video conference (free); to argue, one must plug a brass handle into the USB port; to view and vote, one must pay to join the teleconference; the argument commences, the viewers vote, and the loser gets a jolt of electricity for our webcam entertainment.

Will have to work out the power to the USB port issue, though. Five volts won't give us the bang-for-the-buck the viewers would pay to see.

But you don't know who composed the music, right? I can't find anyone who does.


It's too early to know how it will work... It would be like knowing the lyrics to "Hound Dog" in 1946. It wasn't written until '53, or really famous until Elvis sang it in '56.

But there is going to an Elvis of the new connectivity, someone who knows how to host videochat hangouts (or whatever) with unforeseen aplomb. This person will achieve Oprah-type wealth and adoration, even if through a small audience, because the personality will be much more interpersonal than pop or television fame: It will be mutually communicative to taste. So theoretically there could be dozens or thousands of these people.

We just don't know the details yet. Maybe Google will find a way to offer sponsorship money in an Adsense-style scheme, or maybe these hosting talents will have to identify and court their own sponsors.

Amy's as likely to be one of these people as anyone (including you or I), but the meter is running. You get extra candy for being the first champion in any new medium... Just as Drudge.

Here's a question for you...do people want to be seen on these video chats? Would they care? People like to have anonymity on the Internet. Also, with a video chat, how do you control that everyone is not talking at the same time? The host screens? What if there are hundreds or thousands of people?

I've offered to take a guy who hosts both Internet and live radio out to dinner (Gregg has a gift certificate to Bouchon, and this is fine with him), and we're going to talk about how to do a radio show or podcast. This guy has a show on blogtalkradio and does it over Skype (the guests go on Skype and then it plays on the Internet).

> People like to have anonymity on the Internet.

Only because they don't think it can get them laid, at least amongst crowds like yours, a market for daily bitchings and ill-phrased ideologies.

Once there are moving faces (and perhaps jaw- and bust-lines) affixed to these personalities, people will think they have a little more on the line, and will be eager to be recognized for their own (real) identity.

> how do you control that everyone is not
> talking at the same time?

The Elvis of Google Hangouts is not going to ask this question... He or she is going to answer it.

(Presumably: By being so fucking fascinating or authoritative that when he/she takes the floor, all others fall silent, either out of genuine respect or operational deference.)

Who knows?

I didn't foresee blogs or Amazon or Ebay or Blubster or Drudge or Google or Facebook or _______

Eh? You want a joke? Okay.

"Orchestral music licensed through Music Industries (ASCAP)".

Although everything I know is wrong, I have a link.

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/album.php?album=eykiw&txt=1

I'm a little disappointed Amy won't be going the Jerry Springer route. Tried, true, and profitable. No Amazon tax problems!

As to the everyone-talks-at-once problem, you should be able to mute selected participants (or all of them, leaving only the presenter(s) with audio.

I routinely join video conferences at work and leave my video off. Tiny vidcams have terrible resolution anyway, plus the notebook versions always seem to be looking up my proboscis.

Well, as a sheer technical matter, they've already handled that. The system compares incoming audio and video streams.... Whoever's video is moving the most (with consistent audio) is presumed to be the one speaking, and their audio moves to the foreground.

I suspect that within a year or so, some of us in this comment area will be doing this anyway... If not through Google+, than in Facebook or someplace like that.

Pic

Joke, joke.

Joke, joke.

Yep! Note the datestamp on this tweet: She was pretty fuckin' close.

I'm safely in the top ten and lovin' it, bay-bee.

Giggle, you little fuckers!

joke,
joke.

Do you know if they'll be posting your segment on their website? Didn't catch the broadcast, but would love to hear it.
As far as podcasting goes, the technology for recording a podcast has become dramatically simplified to the point where it can be done with a computer, a decent microphone (doesn't have to be expensive) and a basic editing/mixing program. The radio industry has gotten a lot smaller over the years, so podcasting is a lot of people's best bet for getting their own show and still have control over content. I think you'd be great on podcasting. Heck, I'd be willing to donate some audio pieces or liners to an inaugural show if you ever do it.

Joke, joke.

Cackle, you peckerheads!

Joke, joke.

I'm cackling now, Crid. (I had to stop weeping into my keyboard -- a form of writing. It's always so emotionally gutting when you first start putting stuff down and you realize what an inarticulate idiot you are.)

Oh, and it comes easier when you go back to edit it the next day, but reminding yourself of that never seems to help much when you're putting those first words down on the page.

For fuck's sake, you spud-squatting mirth-mungers! Time for snickering!

Joke, joke.

Screwed the first one up... Feelin' bad about it...

Okay, okay, I liked the "peephole salesman."

Did you just discover Twitter?

On the Harvard sweatshirt tweet: many years ago, when I, half-jokingly, mentioned I was thinking of applying to Harvard, someone bought me a Harvard sweatshirt...and looked at me as if to say, "I just saved you $100,000."

Surrealism is more real than our reality sometimes.

That's why I've created the American Solipsist Society. I'm currently recruiting members.

Why?

No reason.

You're just posting a lot of tweets here, where you didn't do that before.

In fact, you almost seemed to disdain the newer social media before.

Keep 'em comin'. They're funny (much better than the current random feed on my Twitter application).

Love the Beyoncé one!

Tough room... Crickets roar like thunder.

A society of solipsists?