Campbell Vertesi

Brace yourself - this next couple of days will be a festival of vertesi.com/blog goodness. I have a bookmark list full of interesting things to discuss here, and I intend it use it to make up for my recent scant posting habits.  Also, I'm out of town this weekend, so this could be posting to tide you over till Monday.

 Highlights: CCM's Werther production review, electronic music comes to classical, the success of the Met videocasts, and more... stay tuned!

I think I may be the only blogger who hasn't posted about this yet - is it safe to say we've all heard of Lonelygirl15?  The Youtube sensation has recently been revealed as actress Jessica Rose, and her videocast as being related to an Internet Service of some description.  It's not an amateur affair, and it's not clear yet where the revenue comes in.  

It's been suggested that Youtube itself is the company behind the broadcast.  We've all wondered how Youtube planned to make money - and maybe a hosted show is the answer.  All I know is that they've definitely started crossing borders with this thing.
In her famous swimming entry, Lonelygirl15 made some reference to "Cassie" - "whatever happened to her?"  Prompting speculation across the web.  Who was Cassie?  What did happen to her?  Well, Cassie has appeared with her own videoblog on YouTube.  Her posts are pretty creepy (think Japanese horror movie).  The first one showed her throwing things into the same stream where Lonelygirl15 had been swimming.  

And here's where it gets interesting - a YouTube member went to the stream, and found the Tarot card for "Judgement".  Whaaaaa?

So now we have a truly modern 'TV show' - it only takes place on the Web, it has no commercials (yet?), involves multiple perspectives on (maybe) the same events, and it crosses over into the real world.  This would be like someone leaving a ninja star at the scene of a Ninja Turtles episode (except somewhat less dangerous).  Crazy stuff.
Which segues into my next topic - next-gen media and the arts.  Wait for it.  It's coming.  No, really - i mean it this time. I'm taking some time to stay at home and be sick, and I'll be writing. 

Well, I guess my grace period is over. Check out those recent, racy comments (in the sidebar... on my website for you Facebook readers)! Notice how pink and glistening they are? Those my friends, are COMMENT SPAM. I'm afraid I have to disable comments until I can fix that.

Until further notice, when you post a comment, I'll have to approve it before it gets published. Sorry.

UPDATE: I've applied a basic CAPTCHA scheme to weed out the spammies.  Now, if you want to leave a comment, you must answer a skill testing math question!  I realize that this is discrimination against people without a rudimentary education, but then.. I never liked the Americans anyways. :)

(just kidding! I love Americans!  Don't send me to Gitmo!)