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Hilarious Prop 8 musical hits the right note

This is a pretty awesome mini micro-musical that many Hollywood actors recently released to protest California’s recent vote on Proposition 8 which banned gay marriage. Aside from the fact that it’s spot on, it’s also hilarious and worthy of a watch. And like most good web videos, it includes Neil Patrick Harris.

So if you care about equality or just want to save the economy, get involved at Join the Impact.

Teenage drivers suck because they’re new at it

Checkout this video from the Washington Post article on a MD state-sponsored study to install in-car camera systems that record the erratic driving behavior of teens:

The webcam in the car saves 20 seconds of video whenever the car makes a movement outside normal parameters, such as a sharp turn or a rapid change in momentum. The system then electronically sends those mini-videos to a company who then adds tips for the young drivers and sends it to the family.

No results have been published from the study yet, but indications are that a lot of accidents involving teenage drivers occur purely because of inexperience and poor education on how to drive.

Having grown up in Maryland, I can attest to the fact that the current system for teaching teenagers drivers really sucks. Politicians keep focusing on alcohol, loud music, too many passengers, late night driving, etc. But it seems like an important, additional course of action would be to reinstate Drivers Ed in school and increase the amount of classtime and driving time before teenagers can get provisional licenses.

Who doesn’t want to watch Neil Patrick Harris sing?

Ok so maybe this is a little old, but I just discovered the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (see video below). First of all, it’s not only hilarious but extremely well done. It’s a three-part, comedic, superhero musical starring everyone’s favorite Neil Patrick Harris and assorted other less-well known TV stars (including Nathan Fillion from Firefly).

The amazing thing is that this wasn’t done for television. It was made specifically for the web by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy and Firefly). So unlike SNL’s “Digital Shorts” which are made as much for the Saturday night’s show as for the web, this was made to be aired on Hulu.com for free. Joss seems to totally have bought into the new internet business plan: build up a loyal following by giving away your content for free, then make money by providing fans with added value (merchandising, higher-quality downloads, DVD sales, exclusives, etc). As TechDirt would say, the content is advertising for the things that really provide revenue.

I don’t know if this represents the beginning of a new effort by actors and writers to expand aggressively into online video, or if this was just a one-time project dreamed up and implemented during the writers’ strike. I hope it’s the former. What better way for an actor to build their “brand” while also having much more creative license with their work. Plus, if you’re trying to go viral, online video, not TV, is where it all starts.

Either way, I love it:

To get more control over the size of the video or to get the embed code yourself, head over to the Dr. Horrible page on Hulu.

I do love the Iron Man trailer

I guess I’m not the only one eagerly looking forward to the new Iron Man movie. The Onion has made a little joke out of the popularity of the Iron Man trailer - take a look:

Wildly Popular ‘Iron Man’ Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film

Frisbee and the Flip

I finally got to test out my new Flip video camera this weekend. The quality isn’t that great, especially since I was taking video at a distance. But for a video camera that runs less than $150 and is the size of a pack of cigarettes, it’s not bad.

Here are some video highlights from our latest frisbee game:

For more on the Flip, check out David Pogue’s video review on the NY Times. The textual article is interesting too, but the video review is more entertaining.