Oh LA Times. What was news five weeks ago on the internet is now news in your Calendar section. Or is it news because it was news on the internet? Is it really revolutionary to know the blogosphere still gets the word out faster than you can upload a comment on MySpace? I do know the writers of the Calendar section would not be referencing YouTube videos as major pop culture groundbreaking material without the blogs out there turning the pop culture dial. Patrick Goldstein's article today gives a big applause to the people out there producing pop-culture commentary without an album or new perfume line to promote. He singles out one outspoken lady, Alanis Morissette and her straight-to-web video cover/parody of The Black eyed Peas "My Humps". It's been been tearing up the YouTube charts, Goldstein notes, beating out Otters Holding Hands with number of views. I am guilty of posting both the Otters video and the Morissette video on friends' myspace pages. I also take blame for passing on another video not mentioned in Goldstein's article: shock & awe princess Peaches' homage to Morisette's "My Humps" but re-written as "My Dumps". Goldstein praises Morisette for producing her video for $2,000 but Peaches looks even more low-budget. And Peaches' video has, well, more dumps - read: poo-poo. I love that Goldstein gives props to the new culture makers out to critique the superficial even sexist bumpin' and grindin' trends. But stating "the era of video activism is here to stay" is about twenty years too late. You didn't need a blog to tell you that.




What really got me thinking in the article was that Goldstein praises Morissette for making this video on her own accord. She's not promoting a new album or tour or even subvertly advertising a new website service. But he still admits it won't hurt her career. In fact, according to Goldstein's sources the average dude thinks Morissette's gained her credibility back from the days she would go down on you in a theater. I'm still under the impression that if you go public with even the smallest of pet projects you're still promoting something - mainly, yourself. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Labels: editorial, newsworthy, videos, www.internet.com