Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category
By Joe Klein
It’s been a busy several days for the New Media Creative guys, particularly Brett and myself, since returning from the marathon trip to Southern California, the Bay Area and Las Vegas. We’re still in the process of preparing the post about the four conferences Brett and I attended in Las Vegas. My text has been written, but Brett has been swamped with his very busy new media and personal life and has yet to find the time to compose his own text that will be included in the post. Between the two of us, we shot a lot of photos and I have nearly finished selecting and editing the photos I shot. We only want to post the best and most interesting shots. Brett promises he’ll get to the task of compiling his pictures in the next couple of days.
In the meantime, it’s time for me to take a bold step here on the New Media Creative company blog and comment a bit on the events of the day, which are, in fact, far more important than company news or the trade shows and conferences we attended.
I have never attended for this site or blog to be a personal platform, but, what the heck, there really are no strict rules when it comes to blogging, or new media for that matter. Besides, to this date, I’ve never maintained a personal blog of my own (sniff) so, as Richard Gere sobbed in “An Officer And A Gentleman” so many years ago, “ I got no place else to go!”
I do hope you’ll bear with me as I step away from the company-oriented dialogue that normally appears on this site for just a day or two to comment on the excitement I personally feel about the inauguration of Barack Obama, which is less than ten hours away as I compose this.
Okay, our new president may be just “another politician” when all is said and done, but, just as a few young, vibrant presidents who have preceded him have done, this politician, with his incredibly well organized and executed campaign coupled with a superior intellect, savvy, speaking skills and charisma, has managed to captivate and energize our country in a way that hasn’t occurred in many years. The excitement and hope that Barack Obama has generated, particularly leading up to the climax that was the November election and the months since couldn’t have happened at a time when it was needed more.
As a bona-fide and accomplished mainstream and new media producer who has seen my own personal ups and downs, one thing has always remained constant in media, as it is in life. Timing is everything. And one thing anyone would have a hard time disputing is that Obama’s timing was right on the money.
Love him or hate him (and I certainly hope you don’t hate the guy, for heaven’s sake), IMHO, Barack Obama is just what our country needs right now. Whether you agree or disagree with his politics, policies, proposals or programs, you have to agree that at least he has us talking and thinking. Insight and introspection coupled with rational and productive dialogue is our best hope for moving the country forward in these very difficult and challenging times. Motivation to do so was something that I personally feel was lacking from the outgoing administration. In fact, it’s been my observation that, as the economy began to totally unravel over the last year and our collective spirits plunged, all the branches of our government seemed to withdraw, run for cover and finger point. This lack of leadership and failure to step up to the plate and take definitive action (other than buy-outs and bail-outs) was further aggravating the worsening scenario and doing little, if anything, to raise our deflated spirits.
So. my fellow new media mavens and Americans, I hope you will, at the least, join me in brief celebration of this coming of needed change and the hopes that our new, young president and his highly-educated and experienced team of “fellow politicians” will usher in a new era that history will recount fondly as a time when the United States of America was “saved from the brink” once again. If there’s ever been a better time in the last half century to raise our glasses and join in singing the classic song “High Hopes,” I can’t think of one. In fact, wouldn’t you agree that we have no choice at present but to hope against all hope that there are better days ahead?
My sincere apologies if my “political break” has offended in any way. I promise that we will return to our “regular programming” following the inauguration and its accompanying festivities! Meanwhile, I’m offering up a very special treat I was turned on to via Twitter! It’s a great “amateur” video shot on stage immediately following the memorable “We Are One” event at at the Lincoln Memorial this past weekend (which I had the pleasure of watching in glorious high-definition courtesy of HBO). It was shot by a cameraman accompanying music artist John Legend (who performed along with James Taylor in a great rendition of Taylor’s great old song “Shower The People”). The video was shot on stage as all the performers waited waited to shake hands with the President and Vice-President elect. This video is truly the purest example of the validity and power of new media, and, barely twenty four hours after appearing online, has already earned its place in new media history if you ask me. In it’s own modest way, this very cool raw video is an awesome, yet intimate view of a historic moment in time that is so appropriate to the day that I was compelled to share it here.
What’s left to say, other than God bless New Media, and GOD BLESS AMERICA! Enjoy…….
By Joe Klein
As Christmas 2008 draws to a close and all the presents have been unwrapped, I received one last, very cool holiday gift.
It came in the form of an email telling me that Christmas In Malibu was once again featured on the front page of the MEVIO NETWORK.
(THE FOLLOWING TEXT WAS UPDATED ON 12/27/08)
Listen to Christmas in Malibu on itunes
On Chirstmas day, the music video of the song immediately followed Adam Curry’s holiday greeting on the video player embedded on Mevio’s HOME PAGE. You can watch Adam’s holiday message, which played on Christmas, on the player below. (Note that, following the Christmas day greeting, current daily Mevio video content follows in place of The Rad Dudes video, which did immediately follow Adam’s holiday message on Christmas day.)
What a pleasant surprise, and very cool way for the holiday to end for me. The wind outside was howling, the rain was falling, and the sky was dark gray with storm clouds on a (rarely experienced) cold and wet Christmas day in the Mohave desert. How great it was to sit cuddled up next to the “electronic fireplaces” in my cool little Arizona hideaway. The flat screen satellite TV and widescreen computer monitor were ablaze as surround sound speakers trumpeted out the notes of the holiday tune that refused to die! This made it quite the joyous holiday for yours truly!
On what was a frigid, white Christmas 2008, I offered my sincerest appreciation to all the bloggers, podcasters, video networks, newsletters, mainstream radio, television, magazines and newspapers who featured Christmas In Malibu during the 2008 holiday season. My heartfelt thanks for spreading the warm vibrations of a magical Southern California Christmas twenty years after it was first celebrated!
(Scroll down to the previous post to hear the voice chat between the song’s lead singer, KARMA AUGER and me. You can listen to it on the audio player in the post below.)
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
AND TO ALL, A GOOD NIGHT!
ARTIST’S RENDERING OF MALIBU BEACH ON CHRISTAMS DAY
By Joe Klein
I always knew that Christmas In Malibu was not your average holiday toonage and did feel that the song could become some sort of cult favorite one day, once it got out there. Well, as fate would have it, the song did get out there twenty years ago. But, at that time, Christmas In Malibu seemed to be embraced by the masses as a mainstream kind of holiday hit on radio and the major video channels that existed back then. I remember it almost always brought a smile to the face of whoever was listening to the song or watching the video.
When the song faded from view back in the mid-nineties, I didn’t have any expectations one way or another about it’s future. I was just happy that the first song I ever wrote got made into a pretty cool record which got played on the radio and MTV.
After all, isn’t that the dream of most songwriters, artists and record producers? It was a sweet “dream come true” for me, because I had never been lucky enough to have recorded a “hit” record before.
When I got back into media back in 2005 with the launch of The Podcast Voice Guys, I just thought it would be cool to post Christmas In Malibu on the new PODSAFE MUSIC NETWORK launched by Adam Curry’s Podshow Network and then see what, if anything happened. This was just before YouTube hit the scene. Much to my surprise the song got played on a whole bunch of podcasts that year, including Curry’s own very popular show, THE DAILY SOURCE CODE. Maybe it wasn’t back on the radio, but Christmas In Malibu was back, just the same.
The following year, 2006, is when I made the deal with IODA to distribute the song commercially online and then posted it on YouTube and a few other new viral video sites. The song, and now the video, got a whole lot more play in that year than in 2005, thanks in a big part to the viral video revolution. Last year saw even more of the same, and the video started showing up in all sorts of bizarre places. Embedding videos into blogs became all the rage in 2007, and Christmas In Malibu started popping up on all sorts of surfing, snowboarding and other action sports blogs in addition to music and holiday oriented sites.
This year, the fascination with the little offbeat holiday trinket continues and the song has been appearing in all sorts of crazy places. Recently the very popular skate and surf blog BOARDISTAN featured the music video. Then a blog called ACTION SPORTS BLIPS picked up the post from Boardistan, and late last week the FUEL TV EDITOR’S BLOG embedded the video as well.
So I guess it comes as no surprise that my friend and former agent, ARTIE WAYNE, who recently added the video to his widely-circulated 99 CHRISTMAS MUSIC VIDEOS list, labeled Christmas In Malibu a “Certified Cult Classic” in an ARTICLE POSTED ON HIS BLOG earlier this week.
Okay it may be a bit of a stretch, and Artie admittedly has been known to get a bit over-zealous about projects he supports, but, hey, when a music video like this gets featured on extreme sports sites alongside head-banging heavy-metal skate videos, cult status seems to be appropriate, or, at the least, worth considering.
Like I said, I always thought that Christmas In Malibu could be a cult favorite, so getting anointed as a cult classic by a long time colleague and supporter is something I can live with. Besides, it’s all in the spirit of the season and good fun that has surrounded the project for the last two decades.
Surf’s up, dudes! HO! HO! HO!
The music video of JOE KLEIN’S holiday classic CHRISTMAS IN MALIBU made it to the front page of MEVIO.COM last week and, this week, the video appeared on the network’s front page promo video, hosted by network co-founder and former MTV veejay ADAM CURRY. In his introduction, Adam remarks how he remembers the video as being a “huge holiday hit on MTV” twenty years ago……
Following its front page feature on the network, CHRISTMAS IN MALIBU continues to occupy the front page of the HOLIDAY MUSIC CHANNEL of MEVIO MUSIC. MEVIO is the online media network launched back in 2005 by Curry and his long-time partner Ron Bloom. Formerly named PODSHOW and one of the most visible and venerable players in the new media space, the network changed its name to Mevio last spring to give it a more contemporary moniker and wider appeal to its target demographic.
Thanks to our long-time good friend, MICHAEL BUTLER, lead host of the MEVIO MUSIC CHANNEL, for his part in getting this great feature for the music video.
Here’s Butler’s memorable intro to the CHRISTMAS IN MALIBU video on the Mevio network……
One of the true “pioneers” of podcasting, Michael is the creator, producer and host of the long running ROCK AND ROLL GEEK SHOW podcast. Joe’s voice has been featured on the opening of the hugely popular online show for the last three years. Check out one of the podcast’s intros in the player below.
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Michael has become a shining new media star in his own right over the last couple of years. In addition to the Geek Show and his hosting duties on the music channel at Mevio, Michael hosts two other audio podcasts, the ROCK AND ROLL GEEK INDIECAST and GOOD CLEAN FUN. But wait……there’s more! Michael also hosts the new HAIRBANGERS BALL channel on Mevio and no less than three other video series on the Mevio network–a VIDEO COMPANION OF THE ROCK AND ROLL GEEK SHOW, a rock video show called BANGIN’ WITH BUTLER, and a very cool cooking show titled COOKIN’ WITH BUTLER, where the charming rock and roll chef replaces his rock tee shirt with a clean white chef’s uniform, ties his hair back and creates culinary masterpieces to delight the palate in each episode. Who knew this rocker could cook (food, that is)?
The Butler’s online presence stretches beyond just Michael, as his beautiful teenage daughter MARTINA BUTLER is similarly enjoying great success with her own weekly audio podcast EMO GIRL TALK, which also features COMPANION VIDEO SHOWS. The podcast is now in its fourth year and has amassed its own huge and growing audience of fervent young fans.
So it’s not in any way a stretch to say that this one-man-media-machine has become a venerable force in new media, having brought all his properties together under his own new media umbrella THE ROCK AND ROLL GEEK NETWORK.
If all of the above isn’t enough to digest, consider that Michael also gigs regularly with his two separate touring rock bands, THE BUTLERS, a great rock cover band and JETBOY, a great rock band that has endured several personnel changes since its formation in the eighties but still rocks on with three of its original members. Michael plays bass and provides vocals in both groups. This guy is our hands down pick for “The Hardest Working Man In New Media,” a title he rightfully deserves!
We’re gratified that Michael Butler has been a fan of CHRISTMAS IN MALIBU for the last three years and an early supporter of THE PODCAST VOICE GUYS. We really appreciate his continued support of NEW MEDIA CREATIVE since the company’s recent rebranding. Similarly we’re proud to be long time supporters and genuine fans of all his endeavors and wish MB continued success, Happy Holey Daze and all the best in the New Year to come! Rock on, dude! HO! HO! HO!