WebProNews

Tag: YouTube

  • Allah Pendant Scrubbed from Katy Perry’s Dark Horse Video

    Earlier this week, we told you that the new Katy Perry video had really infuriated some in the Muslim community. So much so, that an online petition on change.org to force YouTube to remove the video garnered over 60,000 signatures.

    Why, you ask? Well, it’s pretty simple. In the video, Katy Perry reduces a man wearing an Allah pendant to a pile of red dust.

    From the petition:

    At 01:15 into the video Dark Horse; a man is shown being burned, whilst wearing a pendant (also burned) forming the word ‘Allah’, which is the arabic word for God.

    Such goes to show, that blasphemy is clearly conveyed in the video, since Katy Perry (who appears to be representing an opposition of God) engulfs the believer and the word God in flames.

    Fair enough. Well, the video is still up (and approaching 40 million views)–so why are the originators of the petition rejoicing?

    Well, the Allah symbol is gone. It’s been scrubbed out. Here’s the before:

    (image)

    And here’s what the same frame looks like today:

    (image)

    I guess that’s good enough for the U.K.’s Shazad Iqbal, the petition’s sponsor.

    “Guys I’m thrilled to let you all know the name of Allah has been removed from the ‘Dark Horse’ video we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support so I thank each and every one of you deeply, our voices have been heard! God bless you all ???? ???? ????,” he says.

    In other YouTube/Muslims news, an appeals court recently issued an order instructing Google to remove Innocence of Muslims, the controversial film that incensed muslims throughout the world last year. Google is fighting the order.

    Images via Change.org, YouTube

  • Anti-Muslim Film: YouTube Ordered to Remove Offensive Film

    The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order today demanding YouTube to remove an anti-Muslim film from its site. The film, called Innocence of Muslims, has been the source of much controversy around the world, including a riot in Libya that killed for Americans in 2012.

    Cindy Lee Garcia, an actress who took part in the Innocence of Muslims film, says that she and the other actors were told they were starring in a short film called Desert Warriors, but that the producer dubbed over most of the speaking parts to create the anti-Islamic work Innocence of Muslims. Not only did the film openly mock Muslims, some scenes depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a pedophile and homosexual, which caused Garcia and her family to receive many threats of violence.

    Garcia asked YouTube to remove the anti-Muslim film in 2012, but the request was denied, so she brought forth a lawsuit. While Garcia was initially told that the video wouldn’t be removed because it was a First Amendment issue, Garcia’s lawsuit was based on the video being a copyright infringement issue. The lawsuit eventually made it to federal court where a three-judge panel decided in favor of Garcia in a 2-1 ruling.

    Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote the majority opinion for the decision. Read an excerpt from the opinion below:

    Garcia’s performance was used in a way that she found abhorrent and her appearance in the film subjected her to threats of physical harm and even death. Despite these harms, and despite Garcia’s viable copyright claim, Google refused to remove the film from YouTube. It’s hard to see how Google can defend its refusal on equitable grounds and, indeed, it doesn’t really try. Instead, it argues that an injunction would be inequitable because of the overwhelming public interest in the continued hosting of Innocence of Muslims on YouTube.

    Read the rest of the decision here.

    Image via LiveLeak

  • YouTube Launches Design Tweaks, Emphasizes Playlists

    YouTube announced a few design tweaks, which it says are designed to make it easer to find what you want to watch, and to collect playlists.

    The guide now contains all the playlists you’ve created as well as those you’ve liked from other channels. When you make a new one, there’s a new page for editing it. There’s also a new Playlists tab that lets you find playlists from channels you’re looking at.

    The new design has a more centered look, which is helps it fit “neatly” on any screen size, and keep a similar feel to the mobile apps. The company says, by the way, that people are spending roughly half of their YouTube time on the mobile apps.

    “You can quickly flip between what’s recommended and popular in ‘What to Watch’ like Postmodern Jukebox’s Timber, and the latest from your subscribed channels like iamOTHER in ‘My Subscriptions,’ with both options now front and center,” says YouTube’s Yining Zhao. “Click the guide icon to the right of the YouTube logo at any time to see your playlists, subscriptions and more. ”

    Early reaction to the changes is mixed, which is a lot better than certain other feature roll-outs of late.

    Images via YouTube

  • YouTube Names Ad Blitz Winners, ‘Puppy Love’ Takes Top Spot

    While most of the world has long since moved on, YouTube has finally announced the winners of its 2014 Ad Blitz, ranking users’ favorite Super Bowl commercials.

    It’ no surprise, but Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” took the top spot. It’s currently up to over 47 million views.

    Coca Cola’s “America the Beautiful” commercial took second place. That one has over 10 million views.

    Chrysler’s “America’s Import” took third place (over 11 million views).

    Durcell’s “Trust Your Power” took fourth (22 million views):

    Jaguar’s “British Villains’ Rendezvous” rounded out the top five (11 million views):

    “Not only did these spots receive the most votes on YouTube, but they also attracted more than 101 million views combined,” says Kariyushi Casper, Ad Blitz Interactive Project Manager.

    The list is a bit different than USA Today’s, but everyone seems to love “Puppy Love”.

    Image via YouTube

  • Google Embeds Big YouTube Videos On Results Pages For Music Tracks

    In another move related to keeping users on Google properties, the search engine is now showing big embedded YouTube videos on the top of search results for a lot of song queries.

    For example, if you search for “flaming lips turning violent,” you get something that looks like this:

    Turning Violent

    Google is often criticized for doing things to prevent users from clicking over to third-party sites, and a settlement in Europe has the company adding prominent links to competitors at the top of search results on some styles of queries. Still, Google is making moves like this, and removing competitor links from stock searches.

    Google isn’t showing only YouTube videos for these music queries, however. A search for the NSFW video for The Flaming Lips’ “You Lust” returns a similar style result with a Vimeo video, though it doesn’t actually have the video embedded.

    You Lust

    It’s worth noting that this video likely doesn’t appear on YouTube due to its graphic nature, and that Google recognizes that enough to put the Vimeo link in the box, while still including a link to an audio-only YouTube video for the song in the organic results (which includes links to buy the track on Google Play, Amazon or iTunes).

    It’s interesting that Google assumes that you are looking for a video for the song you’re searching for, even if you don’t use “video” in your query. It’s so confident that’s what you’re looking for these video results completely dwarf other relevant results on the page (like lyrics, articles about the song, etc.).

    Images via Google

    H/T: SearchEngineWatch

  • Susan Wojcicki To Head YouTube [Report]

    Google SVP of advertising Susan Wojcicki is reportedly taking over leadership at YouTube.

    The Information reported that the company is likely to make this move, based on comments from two people briefed on the discussions. Re/code has since weighed in with its own sources, saying that she will indeed lead YouTube.

    Wojcicki is one of the company’s earliest employees. In fact, she was the sixteenth one. The company was actually run out of her garage in Menlo Park in its early days.

    She’ll reportedly replace Salar Kamangar (an even earlier Google employee) at the YouTube helm as he moves to a different role at the company. He’s been running things since co-founder Chad Hurley left back in 2010.

    The change in leadership comes as Google announced it is making new efforts in cracking down on fake YouTube views. More on that here.

    Wojcicki, as you may know is the sister of Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23&Me, and wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

    Update: Google has apparently confirmed the news that Susan Wojcicki is the new SVP of YouTube. Re/code shares a statement from CEO Larry Page:

    “Salar and the whole YouTube team have built something amazing. YouTube is a billion person global community curating videos for every possibility. Anyone uploading their creative content can reach the whole world and even make money. Like Salar, Susan has a healthy disregard for the impossible and is excited about improving YouTube in ways that people will love.”

    Image via Google+

  • YouTube Is Coming After Your Fake Views

    YouTube announced that it is cracking down on videos with inflated, fraudulent view counts more aggressively than ever. While they’ve had some tactics in place already, they’re getting more vigilant at going after videos with views that weren’t earned.

    “YouTube isn’t just a place for videos, it’s a place for meaningful human interaction,” says Google software engineer Philipp Pfeffenberger. “Whether it’s views, likes, or comments, these interactions both represent and inform how creators connect with their audience. That’s why we take the accuracy of these interactions very seriously. When some bad actors try to game the system by artificially inflating view counts, they’re not just misleading fans about the popularity of a video, they’re undermining one of YouTube’s most important and unique qualities.”

    “As part of our long-standing effort to keep YouTube authentic and full of meaningful interactions, we’ve begun periodically auditing the views a video has received,” he adds. “While in the past we would scan views for spam immediately after they occurred, starting today we will periodically validate the video’s view count, removing fraudulent views as new evidence comes to light. We don’t expect this approach to affect more than a minuscule fraction of videos on YouTube, but we believe it’s crucial to improving the accuracy of view counts and maintaining the trust of our fans and creators.”

    That’s a lot more generous that Google is with this kind of thing happening in it search engine. If you get busted for paid links, for example, you’re site will pretty much lose all visibility whatsoever.

    The company is telling YouTube video creators to be “extra careful” when working with third-party marketing firms, because some of them will sell fake reviews.

    This also mirrors the search space, as it is often third parties that get sites busted with questionable linking strategies. It even happened to Google itself, leading to Google having to penalize its own Chrome site as to not be hypocritical.

    Image via YouTube

  • Infographic Gives You Tips For Getting More YouTube Views

    Whether you’re new to YouTube video creation or have been doing it for years, you’d probably like to see your videos get more views, especially if you’re trying to monetize them.

    There’s no shortage of tips out there for increasing your views, but sometimes it’s nice to see a visual list backed up with stats reminding you of just how much opportunity there really is.

    RealViews4U put together this infographic doing just that.

    Courtesy of: Realviews4u.Com
  • State of the Union Address, GOP Responses All Streaming Live on YouTube

    State of the Union Address, GOP Responses All Streaming Live on YouTube

    At 9pm EST, President Obama will address the nation for the fifth time and tell us that the state of our union is strong (that’s what they all say, right?). And whether you’ll be nodding your head in agreement or shaking it in frustration, you can watch it live on YouTube.

    In fact, YouTube has a full slate of SOTU content tonight. This includes a handful of GOP responses as well as specific coverage from a variety of news outlets.

    “Tonight at 9 p.m. ET, President Obama’s fifth State of the Union address will stream live on the White House’s YouTube channel, followed by the Republican response by Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Speaker Boehner’s channel. Senator Mike Lee will deliver the Tea Party response and Senator Rand Paul will offer remarks as well. Several of our news partners will also share their coverage of the event on YouTube, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Young Turks, and NowThis News,” says YouTube’s Brandon Feldman.

    The first pups are ready for the big speech.

    Political insiders say that you can expect the President to tackle a variety of issues tonight – many of which shouldn’t be all that surprising. The 2014 SOTU address should mention immigration, income inequality, and the situation in Afghanistan.

    Image via White House, Twitter

  • Bad Lip Reading Releases New Video For The NFL

    NFL players and coaches have been spotlighted again for another round of bad lip reading. The hilarious clip has been renewed just in time for the end of the playoffs as all of the NFL fans prepare for the upcoming Super Bowl.

    The NFL has already been given the special treatment of having their players and coaches’ finest moments changed to hilarious moments thanks to the Bad Lip Reading Youtube channel.

    The people that run the Bad Lip Reading channel have remained anonymous, but along with their two hilarious clips about the NFL, they also have several others.

    The NFL clips do not have to be seen by fans of the NFL to be enjoyed either, as they do not relate to football at all, and simply show the players and coaches saying absurd things.

    The latest video from the Bad Lip Reading channel featuring the stars of the NFL runs just under 4 minutes, and it is worth every second. It can almost be guaranteed that everyone will be laughing at some point during the video.

    The newest NFL clip features the biggest stars playing right now, and even some that will be featured in the upcoming Super Bowl. The Super Bowl will feature the top offense and the top defense with this year’s match-up between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos.

    Some of the leading quarterbacks are featured saying some outrageous things such as Peyton Manning, who lists things that gross him out, and Colin Kaepernick, who talks about his time as a secret agent.

    Jim Harbaugh is featured hilariously running down the sideline and speaking nonsense just like he did last year, and he has a history of getting on the field during games. He also talks about how he would kill Dracula if he ever went to Transylvania.

    For those that somehow missed the exciting and hilarious clip that the whole world was laughing at for months, check out the first Bad Lip Reading of the NFL that was published to their Youtube channel around this time last year.

    Image via Youtube

  • YouTube Gives Users New Comment Management Page

    Google has launched a new Comments page for video creators so they can manage their comments from a single place. Recent changes to the commenting system have caused a great deal of backlash among users. Some of that (but certainly not all of it) was related to this.

    In a blog post, YouTube engineer Patrick Doyle wrote, “Many of you have told us that you use your YouTube Inbox to manage comments. With the new commenting system moving comment notices to alerts, removing this feature was, well, a bummer.”

    “Staying connected with your audience is critical on YouTube, so we fast-tracked the development of a new comment management page that lets you see, respond to and moderate your comments all in one place,” he added.

    You can simply go to youtube.com/comments to manage comments. From here, you can remove and flag comments as spam or for abuse, give them a thumbs up, and go to the video page to reply. It will also let you toggle between comments published on the channel and those pending, as well as those marked as spam.

    Google says it will be adding additional features to the page in the near future. They give a couple examples like the ability to reply inline and expand all replies.

    The commenting system was changed in November. The backlash was quite great for a variety of reasons. Many criticized Google for making people use Google+. Even one of YouTube’s co-founders came out of years of silence on the site to slam the new system.

    Still, this isn’t the first time Google has tried to ease some of the concerns with the new system. Later in November, Google implemented better recognition of bad links and impersonation attempts, as well as ASCII art detection and a change to how log comments are displayed. These changes were aimed at reducing spam that was taking advantage of the new system.

    Image via YouTube

  • Beagle Chicken Nuggets: Smart Dog Raids Oven

    Have you ever wondered what your dog is up to while you’re away? The owner of a beagle named Lucy was curious, so he set up a video camera to record his dog while he was out and discovered that Lucy has a really clever way of stealing food. The owner posted the video of his beagle stealing chicken nuggets on YouTube, which has been watched almost 2 million times so far.

    Rodd Scheinerman of Phoenix, Arizona posted the video of his dog Lucy stealing the chicken nuggets to his YouTube account back in July, but the video has just gone viral over the past couple of days. According to Scheinerman’s comment on the video, he would come home and find a mess in the kitchen and notice that food was missing, so he decided to set up a camera to find out exactly what was going on. It’s probably safe to say that Scheinerman was in for a bit of a surprise when he saw how Lucy was getting to his food.

    Check out the full video of the beagle stealing chicken nuggets from the oven below.

    As you can see in the video, Lucy goes through a few steps to get to the counter top oven to steal the chicken nuggets. The beagle first pushes a chair over to the counter. When the chair is close enough, she jumps on top of the counter and makes her way over to the oven. Lucy then uses her paw to open the oven door, which is probably one of the top 10 cutest things you will see in 2014. The dog eventually rakes out the pan the nuggets are on and knocks it to the floor, where she then enjoys her stolen food. Some YouTube users have asked if Lucy was trained to do this, but Scheinerman says in the comments that his family didn’t teach the dog how to raid an oven.

    While most people seem to think the video is awesome, some folks have criticized the dog’s owner for purposely letting her get into an oven. According to the video description, the oven is set at 325 degrees, which could have given Lucy a serious burn.

    “Hey, did she ever run across the street unattended? If so, maybe next you should set up a tripod and tape her crossing an interstate highway !!! What the hell, why not right? Nah, just stick to 350 to 400 degree ovens for now, I guess, eh?” YouTube user David Colasanti commented.

    Image via YouTube

  • Old Spice Commercial: “Mom Song” is a Hit on YouTube

    Old Spice Commercial: “Mom Song” is a Hit on YouTube

    Old Spice released a new commercial during the AFC Wild Card game between San Diego and Cincinnati on Sunday, and to the dismay of some folks, the commercial didn’t feature the familiar face of Isaiah Mustafa from “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” commercials. Instead, Old Spice went a different route and debuted the “Mom Song” commercial. The commercial has been very successful after being uploaded to YouTube and has reached almost 1.5 million views so far.

    Since Old Spice has a reputation for being more for older men, the company attempts to appeal to a younger age bracket with the “Mom Song” commercial by suggesting that teenage boys who use Old Spice will become men. “I didn’t see it coming, but it came in a can, my sweet son sprayed into a man,” one mom said in the commercial as her son left to go on a date.

    According to the commercial, the body spray is so successful at turning boys into men that it has moms everywhere are freaking out, and we aren’t talking your run-of-the-mill “My little boy is all grown up…time to down a pint of ice cream” freaking out, either. The commercial shows moms weeping and going into stalker mode while checking up on their sons. We see everything from a mom clinging to the bumper of her son’s car to one mom hiding under couch cushions while her son is making out with his date.

    Check out the full Old Spice “Mom Song” video below.

    As you can see below, the Twitter response to the video was mixed. Was Old Spice’s “Mom Song” video just the right amount of funny or was it too over the top for you? Add your thoughts on the commercial in the comments section below.

    Image via YouTube

  • Queen Fan Records Awesome Time-Lapse Lip-Sync

    A young Queen fan decided a few years back to record himself lip-syncing to the song “Don’t Stop Me Now”, which doesn’t sound all that impressive…until you realize that he did it every day for those three years and then created a time-lapse video of it.

    Matt Perren says he started working on the video on January f, 2011 and completed it on Sunday, which might make him the most dedicated lip-syncing fan ever.

    One of the cool things about time-lapse video is that you can watch the physical transformation the person undergoes as they work on the project. Take a look at his work below and watch Matt grow from a baby-faced teen to a handsome young man.

    Image via YouTube

  • Here’s A 4K Video On YouTube (House Of Cards Trailer)

    Last week, reports came out indicating that YouTube would be showing off 4K video at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.

    Netflix has just put out a new trailer for House of Cards: Season 2, which comes with a 4K viewing option (2160p), in addition to 1440p, 1080p and 720p HD options.

    According to a report from Giga Om, Google has nineteen hardware partners lined up for 4K. These include ARM, Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, LG, Panasonic and Sony.

    Google is offering its 4K video via its own ultra HD VP9 codec, which is to reportedly serve as a royalty-free alternative to the H.265 codec.VP9 is epxected to hit PCs and mobile devices first, and then TVs by 2015.

    Netflix revealed late last year that House of Cards: Season 2 would be its first original content shot for 4K. The season debuts on February 14th.

    Image: YouTube

  • YouTube To Reportedly Show Off 4K Video At CES

    YouTube To Reportedly Show Off 4K Video At CES

    It looks like Google is doing its part to make 4K video available to the masses. The company will reportedly show off 4K on YouTube via its own ultra HD VP9 codec at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas next week.

    This is according to GigaOm’s Janko Roettgers, who reports that Google has “lined up a whole list of hardware partners” to kickstart deployment of the codec, which is to serve as a royalty-free alternative to the H.265 codec used by others. According to Roettgers, YouTube has nineteen hardware partners including ARM, Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba, and will be demonstrating the video at the booths of LG, Panasonic and Sony.

    The codec is expected to hit PCs and mobile devices first and TVs by 2015.

    Netflix recently revealed that its upcoming second season of House of Cards will be its first Ultra HD offering though few will likely view it that way for some time.

    These two streaming heavyweights, however, will no doubt usher in mainstream viewing of 4K video, even if it doesn’t happen for a while. The wheels are in motion.

    Image via jm3, Flickr Creative Commons

  • What Was Worse In 2013 – Yahoo Mail Or YouTube Comments?

    Google and Yahoo are two of the biggest tech firms around. They service millions of users everyday with products ranging from email and search to video and news. In 2013, they also became some of the most hated companies in tech.

    People hate change. Yahoo and Google tried to implement some changes into their flagship products and in the process made just about everybody super angry with them. In the spirit of the impending new year, we should take a look at who had it worse and what both companies can do to fix it.

    What did you hate more in 2013 – Yahoo Mail or YouTube comments? Let us know in the comments.

    Yahoo’s troubles began in June when it forced users over to a new Yahoo Mail that delivered ads based on the content of their emails. While it seemed like a simple upgrade, many users were stuck with countless errors and bugs that made Yahoo Mail unusable for some users. In fact, our first story on the matter attracted over 700 comments – most of them angry.

    While you could easily dismiss the problems plaguing Yahoo Mail as something that happens to all upgraded services, it became evident over the next six months that this wasn’t a simple problem. Yahoo continued to see complaints a month after users were forced to switch to the new Yahoo Mail with many users saying they were jumping ship. One in particular said they would be fine if Yahoo Mail actually let them opt out of receiving ads, but found that the process wasn’t as easy as it seemed:

    “Also, though there is a supposed procedure available for users to opt-out of receiving ads; when I tried to opt-out of all advertising, it did not work correctly, and gave me a message something like: You have successfully opted out of receiving ads from 84 providers, but the process failed with these 16 companies”

    In an attempt to smooth things over, Yahoo introduced a new Yahoo Mail design in October to address many of the problems users were having. They also threw in 1TB of storage as a sign of good faith. As it turns out, however, you can’t make everybody happy and the changes that made Yahoo Mail look more like Gmail angered people even more. Case in point – our story on the Yahoo Mail update received over 450 comments and most were negative again.

    Putting the final nail in the coffin, Yahoo Mail suffered continued outages earlier this month that left many people without any way to access their messages. Yahoo blamed the outages on a “hardware problem in one of [their] mail data centers.” With this latest outage, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer got involved and issued an apology on behalf of the entire company.

    Now all that sounds bad, but is it bad as what YouTube did to its commenting system earlier this year?

    Back in September, YouTube announced that it was integrating Google+ into YouTube comments in an attempt to clean things up. The intended goal was to bring the good comments to the top while pushing what you usually see on YouTube to the bottom. It’s a good idea, but the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

    In early November, the new YouTube comments went live and with it, users were forced to sign up for Google+. Google figured that people would be a little less vulgar if their real names were tied to comments, but Google may have not anticipated how much people hate Google+. It’s not that it’s a bad service – it’s just that many people feel that nobody uses it. YouTube creators were especially angry with the change as they felt the new commenting system harmed the community interaction with their videos.

    While you could argue either way on the merit of requiring a Google+ account to comment on YouTube videos, you can’t deny that it opened up an entirely new way to spam YouTube videos. While the original intended goal of the new system was to cut down on spam, we saw in the days following the update that users were spamming videos with ASCII art of a stick man named Bob and his army of tanks and helicopters devoted to destroying the new comments system.

    Just like Yahoo, Google was quick to respond to the complaints. In the two weeks after the new commenting system went live, Google introduced some changes that would cut down on the amount of spam links, ASCII art and other annoying comments that people were seeing. It also promised to soon launch comment curation tools for creators so they could help better shape conversations.

    Even with the changes, YouTube still requires a Google+ account to comment on videos. That obviously rubs some people the wrong way and it will continue to do so in the new year.

    With both tales of woe out of the way, which was worse – Yahoo Mail or YouTube comments? If we’re going strictly by the amount of negative comments, Yahoo Mail easily takes the cake. Granted, Yahoo Mail has had more time to anger users with its rollout beginning in June while the new YouTube comments only launched in November.

    Without any good metric, we’re forced to let the readers decide. Were you angered more by Yahoo Mail or YouTube comments this year? Do you see any way that Yahoo and Google could improve their services going into 2014? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via yahoo/YouTube

  • Macaulay Culkin Back In The Spot Light- For Eating Pizza?

    Macaulay Culkin was a great child star who was best known for his character Kevin in the Home Alone films. As Culkin got older, he disappeared from the spotlight. Rumors about his health and well-being began to spread and in 2004 he was arrested for possession of marijuana and two controlled substances, Alprazolam and Clonazepam.

    Culkin pleaded guilty to the charges and received three one-year suspended prison terms, and was ordered to pay $540 in fees. Rumors of his addiction continued and when Culkin was seen out in public or photographed by paparazzi, he appeared shaggy and at times unhealthy.

    Culkin still manages to hide pretty well from the paparazzi but he was recently spotted in Paris looking healthy and clean. He also made an appearance at Comic-Con 2013 with a new style and confident attitude. He is currently dating Jordan Price who resembles his most recent ex, Mila Kunis and appears to be happier than ever. Culkin is also a member of the band Pizza Underground.

    Pizza Underground has put Culkin back in the spotlight, whether he wants to be there or not. Although Pizza Underground is not necessarily a famous band, a recent video of Culkin eating a piece of pizza as a way of promoting his band has gotten over 700,000 views in just a short time.

    In the video Culkin eats the pizza, says his name and says that he ate the pizza. It is very strange but apparently very popular. Whether Culkin and his band intended on the video to be such a success or were simply messing around is unknown, but the video’s popularity is likely to inspire similar videos from the band and YouTube copycats.

    What do you think of the video and the band Pizza Underground?

    Image via Twitter.

  • Artsy Macaulay Culkin Conceptually Eats Pizza

    Mysterious former child star Macaulay Culkin has posted a YouTube clip of himself eating a slice of pizza, which has garnered over 800 thousand views since December 16th. The elusive actor is apparently promoting his pizza-centric Velvet Underground tribute band “Macaulay Culkin and the Pizza Underground.”

    To the untrained eye, Culkin appears to be plainly enjoying a slice of cheese pizza. Though, it’s clear that still waters run deep within the soul of the “Home Alone” actor, as the video seems to be an homage to pop artist Andy Warhol’s appearance in the “Andy Warhol Eating a Hamburger” segment of Danish filmmaker Jorgen Leth’s “66 Scenes From America” shot in 1981. Warhol was a frequent Velvet Underground collaborator.

    At the end of the “Pizza Underground”-produced movie, Culkin exclaims, “My name is Macaulay Culkin, and I just finished pizza,” adding an air of intrigue to the already deeply self-possessed clip.

    The similarities between Culkin’s and Warhol’s comfort food devouring segments are astounding:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejr9KBQzQPM

    So far, “Pizza Underground” has released wildly inventive singles including “Take a Bite of the Wild Slice” and “I’m Waiting for Delivery Man.”

    Culkin is again well-known for his Golden Globe-nominated role in “Home Alone,” a 1990 Christmas family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes. Culkin portrays Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy who is mistakenly left behind after his family leaves for Paris for their Christmas vacation. Below is the trailer:

    “Home Alone” was a huge holiday hit, and grossed $285,761,243 in North America, staying at number one for 12 weeks. Culkin, with a reported net worth of roughly $15 million, has also starred in films including “My Girl,” “The Good Son” and “Richie Rich.”

    One of Culkin’s few films as an adult is 2003’s “Party Monster,” which features tuneful genius Marilyn Manson:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRHGpNm96gY

    Culkin is presently dating “All My Children” actress Jordan Lane Price, and has been previously linked to “Black Swan” star Mila Kunis.

    Image via YouTube.

  • Macaulay Culkin Has A Video Of Himself Eating Pizza

    You’ve all surely heard by now about Macaulay Culkin’s Velvet Underground tribute band, “Pizza Underground.” Strange, huh? To make things even weirder, there’s now a four minute video on the Internet of Culkin sitting down at a table and eating a slice of pizza. That’s it. There’s occasional eye contact with the camera, but mostly it’s Macaulay looking somber and eating large bites of a cheese slice (sans crust).

    Confused? Many have speculated that it’s a gag just to promote his Pizza tribute band, which it partially is, but it turns out it’s also an homage to a 1981 video of Andy Warhol sitting at a table and eating a Burger King hamburger. Culkin sits similarly to Warhol, picking at his food and looking off into the distance in the same way. And – the spookiest similarity of all – both videos clock in at exactly 4 minutes and 28 seconds, with both Warhol and Culkin beginning to eat right at 40 seconds.

    It all seems to make sense, as most of the band’s artwork is inspired by Warhol, which you can view on their official tumblr page. Which is appropriate, given that The Velvet Underground was also largely influenced by the late artist.

    The New York City-based band obviously isn’t very concerned with taking themselves seriously, even now that the band has gained notoriety by inviting Culkin. “He’s amused by it, as we all are,” lead vocalist Pheobe Kreutz told Vulture earlier this month. “I don’t think it was anything any of us were looking for, and none of us know how long it will last or when we’ll feel like it’s over. I think we’re sort of waiting for the universe to let us know what to do.”
    (image)

    Image via Youtube

  • New iPhone Christmas Ad a Sad Commentary on Culture

    Worried about being criticized over the dependency on technology? How about having to give a reason for those inseparable elongated moments with your smart phone? It’s okay, for Apple knows what you’re really doing.

    In a 90-second commercial titled “Misunderstood” aired yesterday, Apple shows a family getting together with the focal point on the seemingly self-isolating teenage son; he stares at his iPhone all day. What could he be up to? What is he doing? I won’t spoil it for you. Okay I’ll spoil it. The following sentences contain *spoilers* that may take away the holiday magic of Foxconn assembled products. The teenager, despite missing out on life’s most important moments (assuming you find importance in family time) is actually capturing them via his iPhone. Surprise!


    “Wake up in the morning feeling like iPhone, got my fingers on the screen, in my home, all alone.”

    It’s normal to want to capture and document life (I am writing this on a computer and publishing it on the internet, aren’t I?), but is there a point where spending too much time with technology takes us away from everything else? Is too much a bad thing?

    Jennifer Rooney at Forbes asked, “Are we happy that this year’s Thanksgiving and Hanukkah was Instagram’s busiest ever? This commercial glorified that reality. And I don’t think it is a positive message.” Rooney went on to write that this modernity of smartphone obsession is facing a “backlash”, adding that “restaurants offering 5% off of your meal if you relinquish your devices so that you have meaningful conversation with your family at dinner. Like my friend who got so fed up with her daughter’s 11-year-old friends texting–to one another–instead of skating at her ice-rink birthday party that she confiscated their phones. Like texting-while-walking bans.”

    Jonathan Salem Baskin, founder of brand consultancy Baskin Associates and a Forbes contributor said that the ad was “really depressing”, adding that it’s “about loss, not embracing the present (pun intended). It’s also really bad advertising, insomuch that he could be staring at any phone, and the punchline — use our equipment to record all the moments in which you don’t participate — isn’t really promotional anyway.”


    Everywhere he goes, our hero is controlled by the machine. Or is it he who is control?

    The average American adult spends about an hour a day on their smartphone. For teens, Washington Post says it’s: “more than 71/2 hours a day consuming media — watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Web, social networking, and playing video games, according to a 2010 study of 8- to 18-year-olds conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.”

    According to eMarketer, for this year, 2 hours and 21 minutes is the average time adults spent per day on their mobile phones. The phones weren’t used for talking.

    Average Time Spent per Day with Major Media by US Adults

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013
    Digital

    3:14

    3:50

    4:31

    5:09
    -Online*

    2:22

    2:33

    2:27

    2:19
    -Mobile (nonvoice)

    0:24

    0:49

    1:33

    2:21
    -Other

    0:26

    0:28

    0:31

    0:36

    *includes all internet activities on laptop or desktop computers

    While the future may hold human rights movement for designer babies or voyeuristic glasses that glimpse into one’s life, mankind presently lives in the screen.

    This is the first time we see Captain Emo look at something other than his iPhone. Although it’s another screen he’s looking at, he has a surprise for everyone.

    “I know I’ve been on my phone forever, ignoring you humans, but I have a surprise for you. I’ve actually been…

    …watching you the whole entire time.”

    “Is that an iPhone you got me, grandson?! Please tell me it’s an iPhone! Grandson, is that an iPhone?”

    He was there during the coldest snow fights.

    The ritual sock throw is part of our family tradition; when the son decides to isolate himself from the rest of the family, we kick him out of the house.

    Suspicious or heart warming?

    “You creepy little pervert! Were you watching us make love the whole time?!”

    Apple touches our hearts with such cuteness.

    I must have “Misunderstood” you.

    Captain Emo smiles for the camera, revealing his true identity: the family’s son.

    Mom was wrong this whole time, her little boy isn’t an anti-social grease monkey after all.

    “My job here is finished… I must go now, back to my home planet.”

    Pictures via YouTube