Not only does this witty animation do a good job of summarizing the current social network zeitgeist, but the live action shots at the end were filmed in Silver Lake, right down the street from my house!

The folks at The Onion are pure geniuses:

Historic Blockbuster Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past

The video ends with mentions of other relics of the analog past that will seem archaic in the digital future and merit their own historical museums including the Virgin Records Music Store and Border’s Bookstore.

Not sure how you make a museum experience of it, but I’d add another lost relic to the list: Privacy.

I noticed today that Mashable’s SummerMash LA event is sponsored by a company called The Schwaggin’ Wagon. Their website says they launched the business after a conversation “about how much swag goes to waste after tech conferences. [It was] noted that, in addition to children, there were plenty of adults who could use some extra t-shirts and hats for free!”

I’ve bolded the above for emphasis, but no doubt you already noticed the discrepancy in the spelling of the company’s name, Schwaggin’, and the spelling of the noun in their description, swag.

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My recent post “Economic Constipation and Digital Malnutrition” was an attempt to critically analyze Mark Cuban’s provocative May 4th post entitled “The Ala Carting of Video on the Net - Will it lead to disaster?”.

Incidentally, it was my most trafficked day and much to my surprise, I received a comment from one of my favorite bloggers, Hank Williams, who writes the influential whydoeseverythingsuck.com?”

Mark’s post has sparked a debate that has spilled over from the circle of web video bloggers into a broader conversation. Next week I’m in New York for the Advertising 2.0 event and plan to bring Mark’s position, and my rebuttal, to the panel on which I’m speaking. (more…)

Saw this featured on NewTeeVee and had to piggyback. Too funny. Happy Mother’s Day!

Make no mistake, Fridays are very productive here at SDG. Especially when the big boss is on a movie set in a remote location with limited (not really) blackberry reception, we crack our own digital whip to move the needle on web innovation.

Yawn. Friday is also a good day to research online video patterns. Especially when it comes to debating the best videos out there. (more…)

Let’s make a bet.

I’ll bet that by the time you’re halfway through watching the below video your commercial instinct will suggest that what you’re watching is a piece of marketing material. I’ll also bet that you’re going to keeping watching until the video is over. It’s that good. (more…)

The internet doesn’t have to sleep. But we, of the people species do.

Or at least we should if we’re planning on competing on a nationally televised game show. Case in point is the young Chase Sampson who took the red eye into LA to shoot Who Wants to be a Millionaire and biffed the first question. Poor guy should have taken a beat. I can’t help but feel bad for the guy, he’s immortalized on Youtube as part of the “one-and-out” crowd.” I guess you take the smooth with the rough when you choose to go public and put your name on the line. Oh well. His loss is our laugh. Enjoy!

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Many, many years ago, I auditioned to be on a Japanese game show. Not as a contestant. Not as the host. My role was to be a prop for a stunt.

The offer seemed pretty appealing to a kid fresh out of school: a first-class round trip ticket to Tokyo for a one-day shoot plus $1000 cash. All they wanted was a gaijin to be tickled on-stage for 45 seconds. And to top it off, no one outside of Japan would ever see the tape! Sounds likes a great deal, right? (more…)

99% of this post is 100% true.

I learned a lot about the entertainment business during my tenure at Fox.

At a company off-site, I played golf with Rupert Murdoch. He had just tee’d off and I said that his swing was good, but not great, and that Mark Zuckerberg’s swing was better. Rupert told me that he had some executive advice for me: don’t name drop. (more…)