My nominee for “Fun Web Service of The Year” is Smirk. With a web cam and a few clicks of the mouse, users can create video icons that reflect up to nine different ‘moods’. Users can embed the video icons most anywhere on the web — their social network pages, websites and blogs. Whenever a user changes their ‘mood’, their icon is changed to reflect the new ‘mood’ on the various sites where the Smirk is embedded.
There’s a number of significant, but less obvious potential applications for Smirk. The boys at Particle Programmatica (Crush3r, p0pulist) are behind the new offering. I, for one, will be interested to see how the product ramps and develops.
Chicago . . . wow! The Chi might be putting out the freshest underground music, artists & producers in the nation right now. Kid Sister has been making noise for 2 years or so. Her previous highlight had been being anointed ‘the Next 100′ with a cover story for URB magazine in 2006 (along with her brother’sDJ group Flosstradamus). Her act and her star has been rising, but much of the online media on her was inhibiting her growth. It didn’t really capture the essence of what’s so electric about her performances and music. Well . . .
Her new Pro Nails video kills it. She won’t be underground for much longer. Stay around long enough to catch the vamp in the last :45 seconds of the video. For those unfamiliar with Chicago’s Juke Scene, it’s a hot little glimpse.
*** Note: After writing this blog, I discovered that MTV has chosen to only allow you to view its videos on their site. Apparently, the extra 1 / 100th of a penny they earn for each view is more important than the blogsphere being able to promote their content for free. How could a network so on the cutting edge get everything so wrong? I left the non-working videos in place.***
I’m old enough to remember a time when the word ‘bad‘ meant ‘not good‘ or ‘horrible‘. Pop culture thought it would be cute to blur the meaning. ‘Bad‘ came to mean ‘Good‘ and being a ‘goody, goody‘ or a ‘Good Girl‘ became an insult. Things have only gotten worse over the years, today ‘Hot‘, ‘Stoopid‘, ‘That’s What’s Up‘, ‘Bangin‘ and other words and phrases have taken bad’s place implying good.
Nothing personifies pop culture more than MTV which announced today the ratings for the 2007 VMA broadcast. As reported by PR newswire, MTV said the show’s ratings were “up 23% from last year” (2006 was one of the worst rated VMAs ever). Traffic to MTV.com was up as well, setting a record for the most visitors in a single day to the site. Continue reading »
The chorus of Dude N Nem’s Watch My Feet is a speedy 150 BPM track (that’s beats per minute) breaking down to a traditional hip-hop tempo of 75 BPM during the verse. The verdict is still out on whether it will be a huge hit, but the song symbolizes something significant. A ghetto feel, no bling, no violence, no girls in bikinis – Watch My Feet is a clarion example of where hip-hop is headed — Faster and more fun.
We talked about the Soulja Boy phenomena a few weeks ago in the weeked RAP up — I mentioned that Soulja Boy danced more than any #1 selling rapper has since MC Hammer. For everything that Soulja Boy is not, he made a #1 hit out of the underground jookin, buckin, clown and battle dance resurgence in hip hop.
Kyla Ebbert (above) was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight because the outfit you see was deemed “inappropriate” by an airline manager. After a debate, she was allowed to reboard the flight, but only on the condition that she fly with a blanket over her legs for the entire flight. Look at how short that skirt is. The shame!
Below, is a nationally televised commercial from the very same Southwest Airlines that provides interesting insight on what an ‘appropriate’ hemline looks like (catch the last 2 seconds).
It’s nearing the 1 year anniversary of JB’s passing. Most of my friends will remember this video from me emailing it around the morning after we heard he passed on Christmas Day.
No commentary really, just amazing to watch. The architect of modern music, modern dance.
what do you think