So it shall be.
A video for the people. A piece of pop culture
that no longer belongs to me. Last weekend I let my
baby go to the masses and it got copied and sent
around so many times that it is no longer my art, it's
everyone's.
There's
something to be said for that honestly.
Something "freeing" about it all.
It's what makes the internet so perfect
for artists. We get worldwide distribution
at the click of a button. We don't get
rich, it was never about that, but we get
seen. To know that people are emailing
this to friends, posting it on their
blogs, commenting about it all over the
world... that's what I want. There's
debate. There's emotion. There's a real
connection. I didn't have to sign a
contract with a distributor (I was
actually offered $500 by current.tv - but
I couldn't have it on any other site
including my own), I was able to just
drop it off the ledge of creativity into
this dark abyss... Great
feeling.
However
it certainly wasn't that easy. It took a
good day's worth of uploading,
registering, emailing. There was a moment
I was certain it was gonna be played
on CNN or MSNBC (could still be
actually), but I think I need more
internet buzz before that happens.
Basically, people other than myself have
to email it to them. I also think that the
"away go the colored people" line
will make any mainstream press turn off
before we ever get to the song. C'est La
Vie. I ain't changin' it - it's
fuckin' funny...and obviously a
joke...
...I mean we all
know Bush made white people go away too with his
"Hurricane 2000" machine he keeps in the white house.
Duh.
What I did
not expect, was once I uploaded it to a few
sites, that people would just take it - and put it on
their pages. It was really cool actually.
Within 24 hours,
I counted close to 15 sites and nearly 10,000
views. 24 hours folks. That is wondrous. That's the
power of the people. The internet is so revolutionary
it's unimaginable. It's destroying all the old context
of artist/distributor.
The
merit of your art now gets judged,
globally, by thousands if not millions of
people... for free. I paid no one to
distribute it. I had to sign no contracts.
If I really, really wanted to make
money I could've shared "clips" and
made the full video 99 cents or something.
It's just so liberating as an artist to
have that power BACK.
And
the only people wanting more
control? More money? The same
friggin' people already making money off
of it!! Jesus. Saturday Night Live making
You Tube take down their skits because
they want to sell them on their own site
is so moronic. They already made their
money off of the airing of that show. They
got their advertising revenue, and they
got a lot of it. They repackage it and
sell it on DVDs. Yet, some kid thinks
something is funny and wants to share it
with other people on the web! COPYRIGHT!
Damn you!!! Copyright infringement!
(sigh). No, UNDERGROUND CREDIBILITY you
dumbasses. But no they now want to sell
those clips online TOO. As well as
DVD and live TV.
$$$$$$$$$
This is actually a
pretty tough argument to debate because everyone
really is right. The problem is the foundation is
crumbling. And people like me aren't
helping.
I
worked for over a month on this 3 minute
piece of entertainment. Slaving over
it...easily 100 hours of work - and I gave
it away for free. To the television
industry, that's paramount to a suicide
bombing. It makes no sense to them... but
they want to cash in on it.
But it
sucks, for people like me? I'm not gonna
pay $2 for a skit I can watch on TV for
free. You know? If it's all packaged in a
DVD - maybe.
But for big
business to come in and try and charge for little web
videos...grrr. Man I battle with myself a lot don't I?
I mean, I don't hate big business. I believe 100%
in supply and demand, and if you've got something
someone wants, you can barter with them for something
YOU want. Welcome to America. It just so happens
that I wanted "Internet Infamy" more than
I wanted money. Doesn't make me noble or
anything...it's just where I'm at right
now.
By the way, every
picture is a link to the site. It's fun to check 'em
out. And here's all the places I currently know
of that it's playing, or being talked
about:
Now I know
there's a few more political blogs that link to
www.letsbombiran.com, but it's very difficult to
track. Obviously if any of you see anything contact
me. Always fun to find new places.
And
finally a big thank you to
Lynn
Samuels.
She's a longtime NYC talk show host now on
Sirius Satellite. I emailed her about
the cartoon and she played the song the
FOLLOWING MORNING. Sang along with
it, called it brilliant... it was awesome.
I actually got to work and Greg IM'd
me:
Greg:
DUDE!
Greg:
SHES PLAYING IT!
adam4tvs:
get the fuck out
Greg:
SHE OPENED THE SHOW W
IT!
adam4tvs:
!!!
Greg:
I'm listening right
now!!!
adam4tvs:
holy ass dude
I love how
grown men talk in the 21st Century. It's
completely normal to say things like "get the
fuck out" and "holy ass". Imagine your
dad talking like that 20 years ago. LOL. But,
I mean, holy ASS she opened her show
with it the next morning. How cool is that?
Greg recorded it on his cell phone and we
used the speakerphone feature to record it.
Old
school
baby,
but it gets the point across.
So I repeat,
it belongs to the world. I will have a really
nice high resolution version at out some point, but
I can't for the life of me figure out how to do
it as good as the divx compressions that I see 'round
the net. Gotta keep looking. For now, please pass it
on. And if you ever come across it on the net - vote
for it with a whopping 10 if possible. I swear
half the people on Spiked Humor gave it a "1" because
they thought I was telling Bush to bomb Iran.
Irony is lost on today's youth.
Oh and PLEASE drop
your 2 cents worth in the feedback
section
for the actual
video. Amazingly, several strangers have chimed in
including an Iranian American and a 17 year old who is
looking forward to joining the marines soon. It's
quite a thread to take part in. Of course if you want
to add anything to this entry, the feedback
section at the bottom is ready to go for
ya.
Alright, I'm gonna
go enjoy this beautiful easter day with...some
cleaning.
