The Web May Revive a CW TV Show & Give it Legs

I have to admit, I had never even heard of "TBL" (The Beautiful Life) until I saw Ashton Kutcher's tweet about it on Twitter.  I'm part of that crowd who's eyeballs have mostly turned from TV to the web.  So now I've gone to Ashton's YouTube channel to start checking out the episodes.  So far (I've only begun to watch episode 1) it seems like something decent to watch.  And with no commercials, gotta love that.  I think it's cool that Ashton is experimenting with this whole "exclusive for the web" stuff.  It may just work.  Heck, it got me to start watching it.  :-)

"The Beautiful Life: TBL (also known as The Beautiful Life) is an American television drama series, which ran on The CW from September 16, 2009 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Corbin Bleu, Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson and Sara Paxton. It revolved around a group of male and female modelssharing a residence in New York City.^[1] Mike Kelley (Swingtown) served as the showrunner for the series, based on the script by former model-turned-writer Adam Giaudrone, and Ashton Kutcher was the executive producer.^[2] The CW ordered 13 episodes for the first season."

"On September 25, 2009, The Beautiful Life: TBL was cancelled after two episodes due to low ratings.^[3] Six full episodes were produced, while the cancellation came during the filming of the seventh episode.^[4] On November 17, 2009, The New York Daily News reported that the CW planned to air the remaining episodes during the summer months. However, a CW spokesperson stated that "the status of unaired episodes has yet to be determined.^[5]"

"The first two and remaining episodes are now airing on YouTube, Kutcher spoke on the development "What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first.... A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web."^[6] The five episodes being aired online are sponsored by HP.^[7]"

"On December 17, 2009, executive producer Ashton Kutcher reported on The Beautiful Life's official Youtube channel that because of the cancellation, the remaining episodes will be released online. If the episodes gain more hits online, more new episodes may be produced exclusively for the Web. The first three episodes were released online, with the last two premiering Monday, December 21, 2009.^[18] Thanks to a sponsorship deal with Hewlett Packard, the five first episodes are available. Kutcher is hoping that the high production quality of the show will increase its audience size on YouTube, which will in turn lure sponsors to finance more episodes.^[19] The official YouTube channel also includes a number of short videos featuring the main cast members talking about the "beautiful changes" they have planned for 2010, plus a number of other videos connected with the show."

Ref: Wikipedia.org

New Blog Design

For anyone who follows my blog I'm sure you've noticed that I updated my blog template.  Blogger.com added a wide variety of new designs so I'm experimenting a bit.  I haven't settled on anything permanent and I may just change up every season.  Change is good.  Let me know what you think of this new look.

CSPAN Video Library Goes Public

CSPAN has now made their video library available to the public.  This was great news for me and others who are newz junkies!  I was even able to share video of my Uncle Flipper's posthumous pardon by President Clinton that took place at the White House in February 1999.

Here is the press release from CSPAN with all the details about their extensive video library.

C-SPAN’s Online Video Library Now Open to the Public

Over 160,000 Hours of Searchable Digital Video
A Quarter Century of American Politics and Policy
*Extensive Embed and Social Media Opportunities*
“Washington Your Way”—A Cable Industry Public Service
(Washington, DC, March 17, 2010) – Today, C-SPAN officially launches the C-SPAN Video
Library, a free, searchable online collection of every C-SPAN program aired since 1987.

“Thirty-one years ago this week, America‟s cable companies created C-SPAN,” says C-SPAN
co-president Susan Swain. “With today‟s launch of the online C-SPAN Video Library, that
tradition of cable industry public service marks another major milestone in C-SPAN‟s history of
connecting the public to the national political debate through video.”


Through its West Lafayette, Indiana-based Video Library (www.c-span.org/videolibrary ), CSPAN
records, indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational,
research, and archival uses by individuals. Programs are accessible through database and
electronic archival systems developed and maintained by the C-SPAN Archives under the
direction of C-SPAN archivist Dr. Robert X Browning.


Key features of the C-SPAN Video Library, which was designed in consultation with the JESS3
creative agency (http://jess3.com/), include:
Over 160,000 hours of searchable and watchable digital C-SPAN video
All C-SPAN videos dating back to 1987, and certain older videos from C-SPAN‟s
earliest years
A comprehensive search engine, developed exclusively for the Video Library
Flash player with clipping and sharing features
Share buttons for e-mail and social media (Facebook and Twitter)
Transcripts, photo galleries, statistics and more
User-friendly


The C-SPAN Video Library‟s Congressional Chronicle feature is an index to the C-SPAN video
recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings - organized by speaker - with full-text and
full-video search and an extensive Congressional database going back to 1993.


Swain says, “The C-SPAN Video Library will be helpful to anyone seeking a view of the political and policy process whether they wish to research people or events from past decades or from earlier in the day. Its extensive holdings will allow the public to see how elected officials, politicians, journalists, experts, authors, and other opinion leaders present themselves on the issues of the day and over time. We hope it will quickly become a resource for the serious researcher as well as the casual observer – and those wishing to share political moments and events in their social online communities. We hope audiences as diverse as the media, members of Congress and their staffs, educators, and, perhaps most importantly, C-SPAN viewers far outside the Beltway will use the C-SPAN Video Library to connect to Washington in a new way. The C-SPAN Video Library truly offers „Washington your way’.”


“The C-SPAN Video Library is the entry to the vast history of public affairs events that C-SPAN has covered for over 20 years,” C-SPAN Archivist Browning says. He urges users, “Do not overlook many programs that may seem less momentous, but are equally important. In covering the routine meetings, news conferences, and briefings that occur in Washington every day, C-SPAN has built a multi-decade record of the ebbs and flows of the national debate over issues.”


About C-SPAN: C-SPAN was created by America's cable companies in 1979 as a public service and programs three public affairs television networks (C-SPAN, C-SPAN2 and C-SPAN3); C-SPAN Radio, a Washington, D.C. public affairs radio station distributed by XM Satellite Radio; and a video-rich website which hosts the C-SPAN Video Library. Visit www.c-span.org.

Images, Video, & Press Release courtesy CSPAN.org

Health Care Bill Signing Ceremony

History was made yesterday.  It isn't a perfect bill but it's a start and is now law.  It is still quite remarkable that this President has done something that has eluded Presidents for decades.



Here is the full video from CSPAN.

Upgrading my Mobile Phone

The time has come to retire my current Blackberry.  For a few months I have been testing out some other phones including the iPhone.  Just about everyone I know has converted to the iPhone so I was thinking that I might too since they all seem to love them.  Well, after testing a couple of them out, I could NOT get used to the touch screen and I am a big time texter and emailer.  I love my qwerty keyboard!  I can't even tell you the speed at which I can whip out full emails on my Blackberry but I am FAST!  I was told, "don't worry, you'll get used to the iPhone's text touchscreen after a month or so".  Are you kidding me?  I don't want that long of a learning curve.  Yes, the screen is very nice and you can view web pages in "Portrait" or "Landscape" and there are cool apps but is that really all?  Blackberry has lots of cool apps too, not to mention, the BB-IM (in network instant messaging) feature that I can't live without.
So, I decided to stick with my trusted Blackberry and opt for an upgrade of my Curve 8310 which I've loved and been very satisfied with.  The upgrade is the Curve "Javelin" 8900.  I immediately went to the web to read the reviews on it and didn't find any bad ones.  Some of the good reviews were even from former iPhone users.  Imagine that!  :-)  The other thing that made the choice easy was I qualified through my current cell plan to get the phone at no additional cost.  Perfect!
Click here to check out a video demo of the Blackberry Curve 8900.

My past Blackberry Models:

Blackberry "Electron" 8700

Blackberry "88XX" 8800

 






                                                                           Blackberry "Curve" 8310










Photos courtesy www.Blackberry.com

Quads

I was in a Texas Hold'em tourney this morning (for play money chips) and hit 2 quad wins in a row and went on to win the 800,000 chip pot!  I'm a pretty good player but the odds of getting quads twice in row on a real poker table in a casino are virtually impossible.  Gotta love PokerStars.  :-)

We Are The World

Okay, I couldn't decide whether to post this here or to my Changing Direction blog because it's both inspirational and entertaining so I've posted it to both.

If you want to smile, feel goosebumps rise on your skin, or possibly even shed a tear, watch this remake of "We Are The World". This is NOT the recently remade celebrity version for Haiti relief. This is a collaboration by Lisa Lavie of 57 artists from all over the world. I love the fact that everyone is SO different. This video shows great talent and the beautiful diverse collage of our world. After you watch it, be sure to play it again and click directly on the video screen over the artist that you want to know more about. It will then take you to their web page where you can hear more of their music. Many of them have remade other songs and those are really good as well.  Check it out and be inspired!