Chris Crocker May Get Reality Show

YouTube sensation inks deal with 44 Blue

The "Leave Britney Alone" guy could be getting his own TV show.

Reality shingle 44 Blue Prods. has inked a development deal with Chris Crocker, the Internet superstar whose tear-filled defense of Britney Spears has generated nearly 8 million hits on YouTube in just one week.

Plan is to develop a docusoap built around Crocker, a 19-year-old who lives with his grandparents in Tennessee. Even before the Britney clip, Crocker had developed a large Net audience via numerous video performances posted on MySpace.com.

"Chris first got on our radar a year ago," said 44 Blue prexy/co-founder Rasha Drachkovitch, who said he wants to develop a show that plays to Crocker's strengths.

"It's going to pretty much be the 'Chris Crocker experience,'" he said. "We consider him a rebel character that people will find interesting. He's going to be a TV star."

Since posting "Leave Britney Alone," Crocker has become a darling of the mainstream media, appearing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and inspiring countless spoofs, including one from actor Seth Green ("Robot Chicken").

Variety.com - 'Britney' guy may get TV gig

Backpedaling Kos Style

Hmm... Somebody got some ''splaining to do. Kos diarist bobbyd100 apparently had second thoughts on the Andrew Meyer tasering incident at Flordia State University. He removed his original post defending the cops (in support of Kerry, he said). The Google Cache preserves the evidence.

There's lots of hand wringing going on over on Kos about this incident. 'Reasonable conservative' Jon Swift has a droll take on the issue.

Cops Taser Student For Being A Jerk

Sparks flew during a townhall meeting that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., held yesterday at the University of Florida. Journalism student Andrew Meyer interrupted the speech, prompting police to drag him away from the microphone and shoot him with a Taser gun.

"He apparently asked several questions — he went on for quite awhile — then he was asked to stop," university spokesman Steve Orlando tells the Associated Press. "He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off, then he became upset."

There's a video on YouTube, too. The best quality footage is from The Gainesville Sun.

AP says Meyer was charged with resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. He is being held at the local jail.

Update at 9:55 a.m. ET: Thanks to bopdieuropa85 for pointing out in the comments section that the event was in the afternoon, not the evening.

The Independent Florida Alligator identifies Meyer as a senior who is majoring in telecommunication and says he used to work as one of the student newspaper's columnists. (A selection of his writings for the paper. Some more material.)

Here's an excerpt from the paper's editorial about the incident: "UPD's actions are inexcusable and out of line. It owes an apology not just to Andrew Meyer, but also to all of UF. We must be able to trust those who are supposed to protect us. We should not have to fear them."

Meyer's fellow students have created a Facebook group devoted to this incident. It's called "John Kerry conference at UF! A fiasco!!! Needs to be known!" They plan to stage a protest later today.:

Update at 12:06 p.m. ET:

John Kerry's office just sent us this statement from the senator:

In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way. I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but again I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention. I asked the police to allow me to answer the question and was in the process of answering him when he was taken into custody. I was not aware that a taser was used until after I left the building. I hope that neither the student nor any of the police were injured. I regret enormously that a good healthy discussion was interrupted.

Cops Taser student who questioned John Kerry- USATODAY.com

-Nick Antosca, Huffington Post:

Kerry Should Be Ashamed, and the Cop Who Tased Andrew Meyer Should Be Jailed

One sickening thing about this whole disgraceful incident is how some liberal bloggers are applauding this disgusting bit of police brutality:

UF Student (justifiably) Tasered

Student Had It Coming to Him At Kerry Event

From Common Dreams:

Members of Accent, Student Government’s speakers bureau, cut off the microphone because Meyer used profanity, said Steven Blank, Accent chairman. Accent sponsored the forum, which was held at the University Auditorium.

So the ruckus started when the student government cut the mike! (I don't recall any 'profanity' on the many tapes of the incident.

Times Select Is Dead

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight Tuesday night, reflecting a growing view in the industry that subscription fees cannot outweigh the potential ad revenue from increased traffic on a free site.

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain.

Times to End Charges on Web Site - New York Times

You Tube Wars

Kent Hovind is an evil creationist liar who is currently cooling his backside in prison [in Edgefield, S.C.] convicted for evading $840,000 in taxes. That’s the good news. It’s downhill from there.

His group, Creation Science Evangelism, has been on a pogrom — a jihad, if you will — taking down YouTube videos that reveal Hovind for what he is: an evil creationist liar. This group has been sending YouTube notices of copyright infringement, claiming that the anti-Hovind videos are using copyrighted material from Hovind himself.

There’s only one small problem: Hovind has said in the past that his videos are not copyrighted! * So why would he then turn around and say they are copyrighted? Why, to illegally silence his critics, of course!

Did I mention he’s an evil creationist liar?

CSE has sent YouTube many of these notices, and YouTube has been responding by suspending the accounts of the users. I don’t blame YouTube for this; they have to take down the videos until they can determine what’s what. It’s Hovind’s group that’s the real decaying rot of society here. JanieBelle has details of the first shot across the bow by Hovind’s noisome cult, when RabidApe was suspended from YouTube. And now she has the goods on their suspension of the Rational Response Squad (NSFW language on both links; in fact, in most of the links in this post). The RRS says this is a felony, since

Hovind’s group is making multiple false copyright claims. A creationist like Hovind breaking the law? Heaven forbid! Oh wait. He’s already in prison for a felony. Silly me.

It’s not so much the felonious actions that tick me off (though the upside is that they are actionable) as it is the wanton and horrifying misuse of the law to silence critics. They must know what they are doing is wrong and illegal. As I’ve said before, I guess, for creationists, the Ninth Commandment is optional.

Bad Astronomy Blog » Kent Hovind: creationist liar and evil, evil, evil

Stupid Dino Tricks: A Visit to Kent Hovind’s Dinosaur Adventure Land

Pink Shirts Legend Grows

The story of two Nova Scotia boys who got more than 400 schoolmates to wear pink to support a bullied younger student has swept across North America and made its way to Europe.

Travis Price and David Shepherd, Grade 12 boys who organized a drive to back a new Grade 9 student who was harassed for wearing a pink shirt on the first day of school last week, have been deluged with e-mails and interview requests from near and far.

Their story was first published Thursday, and now the tale has reached well beyond the confines of their school, Central Kings Rural High.

CBS in New York came calling Friday, and the largest daily newspaper in Spain is picking up the story."I’ve talked more in the past couple of days than I have in my whole life," Travis said.

Nova Scotia-ChronicleHerald.Ca

The Keith Olbermann Archive

Video archive of every Countdown show (even on the nights Keith has off which seems a bit obsessive) broken down into segments for your viewing pleasure. There is no excuse to miss Keith now!

Olbermann.org: An Unofficial Keith Olbermann Archive and Fan Site

Escape from Real Bitch Island

Nineteen and gay, too effeminate to hide, and persecuted by haters in his small town, Chris Crocker turned to the web to vent. Now he's a huge YouTube celebrity. Is the internet Chris Crocker's ticket out?

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper

The Stranger article was published last May. Chris's "Leave Britney Alone" video posted above, which played all over cable TV this week, may be his breakthrough. He was on the Jimmy Kimmel Show last night and more notoriety is likely to follow.

Message From James Brown

MP3: Message From James Brown

This is a rarity: an unreleased promotional single that was probably distributed to radio stations only. There is no discographical info whatsoever (there isn't even a label on the record), but it must date from around 1967, which would be the time of national race riots that it is obviously intended to try and quell. JB had done a famous concert at Boston Garden during a severe time of unrest in '67 to 'keep people off the streets', and this little record will give you some idea of what was going through the Godfather's mind at that time, expressed in his own totally unique way! Not much more you can say about it; it speaks volumes for itself.

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: 365 Days #256 - Message From James Brown (mp3s)

Pam's House Blend

Many thanks to Mike Signorile and producer David Guggenheim for access to the audio of my segment yesterday on Mike's satellite radio show on SIRIUS OutQ 109. We tried in 20 minutes to untangle the latest GOP gay scandal involving Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC10) and a cast of characters involved in a bizarre Florida murder-suicide. It's a murky, pretty depraved mess that is crying for mainstream media to pick up. Have fun listening.

Audio: MP3

Pam's House Blend:: Audio from the Signorile show on Patrick McHenry and the latest sordid GOP gay scandal

How not to miss the Spector verdict...

Opening arguments for the Phil Spector murder trial began in Los Angeles on April 25. KTLA, a local television station, is streaming live video of the trial on its Web site. You can also access KTLA's streaming video on the Los Angeles Times' dedicated Web page for the trial, which includes its own real-time trial blog. Court TV also provides live Web coverage, now free of charge (earlier in the trial there was a $5.95 fee), as is its Spector blog. Also now free of charge is Court TV's invaluable video archive of key trial testimony. Click here for trial clips through June 28, and here for trial clips from July 9 to the present. For key documents in the case, click here. For a list of prospective witnesses, click here. For a video archive of KTLA news reports about the case, click here. For a Chatterbox primer on the case, click here.

How not to miss the Spector verdict. - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine

Beijing People’s Television?

This link below is a TV stream from China that I can find no information about on the web. The station plays mostly English language movies with Chinese subtitles with no commercial breaks. There's Chinese stuff between the movies. No program guide that I can find so you have to take pot luck. I've seen Independence Day (1996) and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) playing recently.

bjiptv

The O’Reilly Fracture

Keith Olbermann’s Countdown has reached a milestone that many thought was out of reach. After getting a boost from an airing during the pre-season football broadcast on NBC a couple of weeks ago, Countdown has burst into a real competition with its nemesis, The O’Reilly Factor.

The highpoint of the week for Olbermann was Friday when he bested O’Reilly in the 25-54 demo by 39,000 viewers. But the trend has been heading this way for a while. On Thursday, O’Reilly took the hour, but Olbermann had won the first half (Countdown: 408K - Factor: 373K). An average of all airings for the shows for the week gave O’Reilly a lead of just 11.7K demo viewers. A year ago O’Reilly was clobbering Olbermann by 279K. Are the walls closing in around you Billy?

The first full week after Olbermann’s NBC appearance, Countdown spiked 17% over its 2nd quarter 2007 average. This week that bump is 37%, so there is no evidence that this train is losing speed. The Factor, on the other hand, is still under-performing its 2nd quarter average by 16%. O’Reilly is quickly becoming the Little Train That Couldn’t.

A key point in this victory is that, while last week’s success was achieved with O’Reilly on vacation, this week Bill was on duty and he still got his loofah handed to him. Also, for the record, Olbermann appeared during halftime on the Saints-Colts game Thursday which might have given him an extra push on Friday. And the week was shortened by the Labor Day holiday (Countdown did not air on Monday but O’Reilly did. The Factor pulled in just 329K which was its 2nd worst number for the week).

News Corpse Blog » The O’Reilly Fracture: Countdown To Victory Edition

Pianists, Lies, And Audio Tape...

The Joyce Hatto story is about more than pianists, lies, and audio tape. At its heart is failed ambition and deeply sweet revenge...

"There was a transparent poignancy to the con: Hatto had possessed genuine talent but there had been no brilliant career. The con had a genius and the revenge a sweetness, the false persona providing a balm for her failed ambition. It was also a love story, one that would have been right at home on Sunset Boulevard."

Fantasia for Piano: The New Yorker audio

Daddy Dearest

This is off an album my dad made in the 1960's called, "Chips of Wisdom" (my dad was a pretty famous ventriloquist back in the day). Ostensibly, this was an album for kids, but it was so disturbing we couldn't listen to it when we were little.

I don't know if it was the horrible subject matter, my dad's acting or the album cover, but this thing gave us the willies. We had nightmares about it.

The premise is that my dad takes his little puppet out into the woods to have some father/son chats with him. So already, the creep factor is at a 10. He proceeds to teach him all about character and wisdom, which is admirable I suppose, but he does it by telling some of the most terrible stories you've ever heard.

File this away under terrible things we used to do to our children, before we knew better. And then take just a brief moment to reflect on what my childhood must have been like.

April Winchell

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: 365 Days #252 - Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney - Chips Of Wisdom (mp3s)

(If you suspect that Winchell might have some issues with her father, you are correct.)