• Melvis: Dancing Queen
  One of my favorite Swedish folksongs

Related Videos courtesy of Eroque:

• Keepin’ it Classy
  I like the beer bong enema, personally.

Videos I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Karaoke Queen
  Check my comment at YouTube. The female Frankie V.
• Kid sings Ramones
  ‘Rhino’ in training
• Kid live karaoke
  Maybe LowBrau should get a kid singer.
• Karaoke Recap NOT produced by me.
  Pork: the other white Karaoke recap

• The Making of: Italian Restaurant Trio
  The recording of our anniversary trio - hilarious!

Related Videos courtesy of Eroque:

• Beyond Ramen: Canned Spaghetti
  Here’s my cooking show!

Videos I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Yatta
  Do you need an explanation? It’s Yatta!!!
• Yatta on Kimmel
  More Yatta!!!
• Kaufman Mighty Mouse
  A classic!
• Bush Sunday Bloody Sunday
  Our president gets his Krunk on with U2

• Karaoke Recap: A Melvis and His Guitar
  Melvis jams with the other regulars.

Related Videos courtesy of Eroque:

• Where’s my cooking show!?!

Videos I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Fuzzy Zoeller Hole-in-One
  This is some crazy shit!
• Conan K-Fed reading
  Poetic reading of “Federline rap” and beer bong
• Kenny Rogers Jackass
  another skit from MadTV

Melvis has a new podcast coming out. And he’s no longer interested in plain audio, ladies and gentlemen. That’s right: he will be subjecting us to his grinning mug on the screen because “M.B.” will be a video podcast!

Mel is currently filming season 1, and he hopes to start releasing episodes early next month. I asked him why he wouldn’t move for an immediate release, and he replied that he wanted no interruptions once Season 1 began. Picky celebrities know what they want– and that’s what makes them the best. Fan Club intel says we can expect the season to begin right after the Independence Day holiday.

What can we expect? Rumor has it that Mel came up with the idea of a video show after watching a “Surreal Life” marathon. This suggests you can expect a regular cast of characters and personal reflections on the events you see on the screen. But I can’t imagine a Melvis product without at least a little bit of performing. Due to the success of the interview-song format of the Melvis audio show, sources suspect he will follow a similar formula when he switches to video.

What is the show called? Mel says everyone knows what he’s capable onstage, this show will be to show everyone the rare, personal side not many people get to know. I guess we’ll have to live with that cryptic answer until the master reveals all.

• A Sober Evening With Master Woody
  humorous home video of a dinner party, set to the Nutcracker.

Related Videos courtesy of Eroque:

• Drumming Radiohead
  Live performance with After 5

Videos I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Memorial Day
  Out of all the tributes I found, this one was pretty good
• Memorial Day
  The party side of the holiday
• Gangsta Barbershop Quartet
  a skit from MadTV
• More Barbershop
  Crappy Singing Asians…don’t get eliminated
• Foo Fighters “Breakout”
  From the “Me, Myself and Irene” soundtrack

The charge per upload certainly isn’t a final solution for YouTube, but it is one way to regulate uploads. And, sure, it might not cost much for upload and storage of clips, but it comes back to being able to find the good stuff. (As an aside, it relies on a personal definition of “good stuff”. I like being able to watch the opening credits of the A-Team, but it might not be the most viral of videos.)

Regarding TV money numbers, do they need an estimate of how popular a video will be before buying the ad time? How can they guess which clips will be wildly popular and which will be mildly popular? I know Rocket Boom guaranteed a certain number of views in order to get bids for the ad time. Would YouTube spread this guarantee over many clips until the number of views were met? I guess these are details that don’t relate to the theoretical solutions, but I would be interested in seeing how YouTube approaches these questions.

Anyway, thanks for reading the weblog, and I don’t necessarily disagree with advertising; I’m sure ads are a smart solution. I suppose the ads might not be placed with a clip until it reached a certain number of views or something. I’m just reluctant to the idea of sitting through a 30-second ad to watch a clip that ends up sucking. I guess I’m more willing to bear a burden uploading the material than being burdened with ads while skimming for the “good stuff”.

“it was when eBay started charging for its auctions that the site became useful. Until that point in eBay’s existence, “good” auctions were often hard to find amidst the sea of “bad” auctions.”

I don’t understand why he would make this point and then not suggest (as I had) that YouTube charge per upload. He goes on to suggest advertising as the final word in making the site money. And while the prospect of producers making money from content they upload to YouTube is attractive, how does this mingle with copyrighted content users upload?

Why is YouTube allowed to traffic copyrighted material, and would significant revenue intake draw negative attention to that fact? Would YouTube be in trouble for profiting from copyrighted material it doesn’t own?

Giving producers a cash reward would only encourage more people to upload videos, good, bad, or copyrighted. Why not upload as many videos as possible and increase your chances of making a few cents? This would only encourage more uploads, not make them “stop growing and start making money”. There are also many examples of multiple uploads of the same copyrighted video. These people could easily leech off an initial upload’s popularity and prevent original uploaders from making the money they deserve.

Besides, eBay charges the seller. This example only reinforces my idea of charging per upload. Speicher helps make my point, then misses the point.

“a system whereby quality content owners are eager to submit their work and websites have an incentive to find the best quality clips to feature on their sites.”

It’s clear that people are eager to sumit their work, hence YouTube’s popularity. And I’m sorry, but are there sites devoted to featuring the dumbest, most adolescent of clips? The good will always rise, regardless of monetary possibilities, and this weblog stands for that cause! And you’re never going to attain a “best quality” with the degree of compression YouTube uses.

But therein lies another flawed but possible monetary scheme for YouTube. Low quality streaming and pristine dowload-for-money. iTunes sells music videos for $1.99, and a similar model could carry over to YouTube. Users can watch low-quality versions for free, but can purchase cleaner copies to keep. The question is, will people pay for independently made videos if they’re entertaining enough? I would, and I think others would as well. It’s also dependent on iPod video’s popularity. The small screen and memory capabilities of personal video players make brief viral clips the perfect bubble gum to fill up players.

It’s probably inevitable that ads will eventually permeate YouTube. Producers do deserve to make money off their original content, but they should pay a very nomial fee for that chance. The flash player and imbedding culture of the site will make it interesting to see how successful it is against other sites like iFilm who depend on ad insertion and premium subscription offers.

“Stumpy”, as his friends knew him (mostly because of his residence close to a tree stump), led a full, happy life. Little is known about his birth and early years, other than he had big dreams and lofty aspirations.

As an adult, Stumpy set up permanet residence by the road, an exciting yet dangerous neighborhood. He worked hard to chew as many dandelions as he could in one day, and likely set a world record in the process.

The Groundhog was found by the road late last week, the apparent victim of a hit-and-run driver. It is unclear to what extent the authorities will pursue his assasin.

Stumpy will be remembered most for his thick brown fur and his humorous waddle. His next of kin have yet to be notified.

Stumpy, we hardly knw ye.

• None! Boo Hoo

Related Videos courtesy of Eroque:

• None! Boo Hoo

Videos I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Animal Planet Skunk story
  In honor of the skunks…
• Beat box video editing
  Mad video editing skills!
• Miami Vice Theme
  This “song” is made even more lame by this video
• Lord of the Rings JB
  Jack Black’s piercing with Sarah Michelle Gellar
• Gay Mount Everest
  news screw up

The next day I saw the same patch in roughly the same spot. What the heck was it?

The third time I drove much slower to see what it was. Would it still be there? Did it live there? Was it an old purse someone threw out their car window? Sure enough, it was a groundhog (Marmota monax) eating the dandelions.

I told my wife about my new friend, and I don’t think she really believed me until I drove her past the spot and she saw him for herself! Too many pronouns! She was very excited and thought it funny he would hang out in the same place all the time.

I started calling him Phil, but he doesn’t look like a Phil, so I need to come up with another name for him. He is cute and cuddly, and would be a welcome house guest compared to the skunks. Maybe I can hire him as a yardkeeper, a kind of guard-hog.

And why groundhog? Do normal hogs not inhabit the ground? “…when pigs fly.” I would call it a pokey-bear or something. What do the Aussies call them? They always have good names.