Video
Monday, December 8th, 2008
by Jeff
I happened to be looking on You Tube with my son for videos of trains in Maine and stumbled across this video that was posted on You Tube today. It’s by a young woman named Erin Hamilton. I don’t know if this was a school project or what the deal was but you have to admire her effort here.
In the video, Erin (I’m assuming) gives a video tour of the various memorials within my hometown of South Paris and Norway. Every town has these monuments, but so few of us actually take the time to recognize exactly why they are there and the history behind them.
Technically Erin has to fight the volume of the traffic driving by since she has to rely on the mic built into the camera, but that aside I think she did a great job with this video, and should get some recognition for her efforts. Not that I get enough traffic here to give her the recognition deserved, but at least I did my part. If it’s a class project, I hope she got an A.
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
by Jeff
These days music videos are hard to come by on television. MTV is 99% reality shows, and 1% music. Have they removed the words “Music Television” from their logo yet?
Luckily though someone invented You Tube where you can not only see videos of some kid hitting his dad in the crotch with a wiffle ball, but you can also see just about every music video known to mankind. Even the really bad ones are here. After spending some time watching a ton of videos it occurred to me that some of the worst music videos were actually charted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Hard to believe in some cases.
So I present to you, my top 5 bad music videos of songs that hit #1 on the chart.
#5 Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby
Back in 1990 no one thought a white guy could rap. After Vanilla Ice arrived, things didn’t change.
What’s bad? This video consists of Vanilla Ice jumping around in front of a green screen. Cutting edge stuff.
#4 Nelson – Love and Affection
Yes that’s right Nelson. I get that rock bands in the 80’s and early 90’s looked like girls, but wow!
What’s bad? “Dude” #1 is reading “Vague” since Vogue knows better than allowing their magazine to be featured in this piece of work. “Dude” #2 tries to get him to play the song instead of reading the magazine and “dude #1″ shows “dude” #2 the cover asking him to “check her out.” “Dude” #2 replies “Ok, then this one’s for her.” I’ve seen better acting and storylines at elementary school plays.
You’ll have to watch this video here. Someone doesn’t want this embedded. Probably a good decision on their part.
#3 REO Speedwagon – Can’t Fight This Feeling
Full disclosure here. I like REO Speedwagon, owned the 45 of this song, and have their greatest hits on my iPhone.
What’s bad? Taking the lyrics to a song and portraying them on screen literally is just cheesy. If you’re a band shooting a video and the director proposes showing a guy wearing a hat with someone running around in circles in it to represent your lyrics “running round in circles in my head,” you probably should trade up.
#2 Olivia Newton John – Physical
This is the video that shows like the Today Show will use to promote their upcoming segment on weight loss.
What’s bad? The portrayal of overweight men in the video is very politically incorrect these days, but even in 1981 it was kinda wrong. I know they’re actors who specifically take roles written for overweight guys, but you just know that if this video was released today someone would protest. By the way, did people really work out barefoot in 1981? Stock up on the Tinactin!
Nelson’s people got their hands on this video too and won’t allow embedding. Watch it here.
#1 Starship – We Built This City
Yep. This was a number one song. In 1984 I thought it was awesome. Twenty-five years later I listen to it and laugh at what Jefferson Airplane had become. It’s crap like this that made Grace Slick leave the group.
What’s bad? The short answer? It makes no !*#$%^& sense! It’s like the band was still tripping from the 60’s. They’re at the Lincoln Memorial and suddenly the statue of Lincoln stands up and sings? They’re in Vegas and dice fall off a sign and roll down the street as everyone runs for their lives? At least the song doesn’t make much sense either.
Friday, October 17th, 2008
by Jeff
David Letterman sure has matured since his days of throwing things off a five story tower. He’s still brilliant, but I’ve always liked "Late Night" better than "The Late Show." However, when he puts the screws to John McCain like he did this week, I can’t decide which is more entertaining. Dropping a six pack of regular beer and light beer off a five story tower to see which lands first, or pointing out to John McCain the hypocrisy of calling Barack Obama on his "association" with William Ayers. Here’s both clips, and you can decide for yourself.
Friday, October 10th, 2008
by Jeff
This is great! If you don’t know what Rick rolling is you must not spend much time on the internet. When I originally saw the giant blue background behind McCain, I knew that it was ripe for someone to key something in its place. How hard did the person who put this together have to look to find enough clips of Obama to make this happen?
Friday, August 15th, 2008
by Jeff
The Susan Collins video is still spreading to my astonishment. It made the front page above the fold of the Porltand Press Herald which quoted me in a telephone interview and from this blog. I caught it last night on WCSH 6’s NewsCenter at 5:30, and it made the 6PM newscast on WGME 13.
The Associated Press picked up on the story and it’s made its way to The Boston Globe.
Now the question on my mind is how far will this go? What started out on political blogs is now spreading through mainstream New England press. Will it hit network news? CNN? Fox? NESN? The Food Network? It still unfolds.
There’s one thing that should be pointed out in WCSH’s story and a few others I’ve seen posted, and thanks to bloggers for noticing too. Senator Collins was NOT asked if she thought the child belonged to John Edwards. She volunteered her opinion on that.
I’ve heard from Collins staff and she is still a friend of the station and is still willing to appear on our show in the future. When she does it should be an interesting conversation to say the least.
Here are a few more links to sites that are covering this story. A few of these links are the same story as it was pulled from the AP. WCSH 6’s video is above, and kudos to them for including embed codes for their videos.
WGME News on FOX 23
FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog
Boston Globe
As Maine Goes Forum
Bangor Daily News
The Sun Journal
Foster’s Daily Democrat
Seacoast Online
PolitickerME – A new quick blurb in their Winners and Losers column
PolitickerME - A more recent post that quotes an earlier post of mine.
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
by Jeff
I never expected this to happen, but when I posted video of our interview with Senator Susan Collins on The Q Morning Show, the Collins haters seemed to muckle right onto my little video to bash her as much as they can. They’re all in an uproar because when talking about the John Edwards adultery scandal the senator said:
Would he go sneaking into a hotel in the middle of the night to see a child who’s not his? I don’t think so.
This is awesome! Well, kinda awesome. I got all excited when we received a call at the station saying the video was making the rounds on the blogosphere. I quickly checked my web stats and found no unusually high traffic, no trackbacks, no Google searches landing them on the Collins post. After a Google blog search, I found that they were linking back to our ustream site for the video. I guess I can hold off on loading thejeffparsonsproject.com up with Google Ad Sense.
As for what Senator Collins said in the video, I can’t believe Collins haters are worked up over that. Is a senator who actually speaks what everyone else is thinking really that bad? Kind of refreshing if you ask me.
Collins haters can bash her all they want, but the truth is she WILL be re-elected, so suck it up and deal. For the record, in case you care, I’m not Republican nor Democrat. .
And to the DB at Daily Kos, who says:
I’m not sure what’s worse: her speculative comments about John Edwards or the masturbatory nature of the on-air talent at the radio station
I’ll have to keep this short because my masturbatory nature doesn’t allow me to type well: STFU.
As I write this, the list of blogs covering this is growing and not ONE only Collins Watch links back to thejeffparsonsproject.com. Bastards. Thanks! At least abc.com mentioned The Q Morning Show. I’m waiting by the phone for them to call. I’ll be here all day.
Here’s a list of a few of the blogs I’ve found:
ABC News
Collins Watch - Others say they had it first, but sorry, I did.
mainepolitics.net – These clowns even went so far as to edit the video and post it to You Tube.
Election Central
politickerme.com
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
by Jeff
One of the really cool things about Senator Susan Collins is that politics aside, she really is a very down to earth and genuinely nice woman. She’s not afraid to speak her mind on the cheating John Edwards or give a hug to a man who is clearly starved for attention.
See what I mean in this video from her appearance this morning.
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
by Jeff
This is another one of those You Tube sensations that prove people have way too much time on their hands. Lucky for me those people keep me laughing hysterically. I dare you to call Bert and Ernie gay now.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
by Jeff
After watching this I may cancel my Facebook account
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
by Jeff
It’s always the videos made by people with too much time on their hands that make me laugh the most. Goes to show you, that the characters of Lost seem to know just as little as we do about that damn island.
Lost What Video – Mahalo
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