Melbourne says hello to DaveDays

I believe that Melbourne cemented its place as the YouTube capital of Australia this weekend. Popular American YouTuber Davedays is visiting Australia and did a public meet and greet of fans along with some popular local YouTubers. How popular is he? Over 1.3 million subscribers, #12 most subscribed of all time and currently #1 musician worldwide on YouTube and his videos have been viewed over 245 million times in total. THAT popular.

The get together was organised by Daves friend Kimmi who didn't think it would be such a big deal. They organised a similar event in Los Angeles and about 50 people came along. See for yourself what a big deal Melbourne made of the event:

Young Spice vs AngryAussie

Old Spice meme is Old. We have Young Spice. Allow me to explain.

I do a lot of my video development with my friend Adrian Calear who is very well know in Melbourne comedy circles as both a performer and director. Adrian and I recently met Michael (the young man in the video below) at a mini-gathering in Melbourne. He was here getting some treatment to make sure his body doesn't reject a bone marrow transplant which was itself treatment for a second round of blood cancer. Which is clearly shit-heaps fun.

And yes, I said second round of blood cancer. Michael has previously been treated successfully for leukaemia. So we figured he should have some fun while he's here. We worked on a few ideas and techniques then shot this video. I think he's done a damn fine job for his first time on camera.

After we watched the video, we realised the fact we had used a blue sheet as the backdrop meant we could have some fun with chroma-keying (AKA BlueScreening) and so started messing around. Then we remembered we had a friend who has quite a good studio set up with a green screen so we've come up with a collaboration project that we'll be unveiling soon.

In the meantime, this video is a teaser:

Song for Boo

In the eternal quest for internet domination I got together with a few friends to try and come up with a song. Not just any song, mind you. Given the viral nature of cat videos and how songs are always popular we decided to come up with a song for Mistress M's cat, Boo. Here's the result:

There are some very good singers at work here but we may still have a little work to do. And in response to some recurring comments on YouTube, I feel compelled to point out that there was no alcohol or drug consumption involved in the making of this video.

Not that I have anything against that sort of consumption, it's more a case of being surprised that there is a subset of people who seem unable to understand that creativity, fun and/or any behaviour slightly left of centre does not necessarily involve imbibing substances.

And if you liked that video, here is the whole improvisation session, unedited:

Queensland Flood Appeal

Flooding in Queensland has caused a disaster areas more than twice the size of Texas and it's getting worse. You can help by clicking here to donate to the official relief fund.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt7-SaiMMH8]

I'll be donating the money I earn from the YouTube partner program for the next week so share this video around and you'll also be helping! The more people who know about this, the more we can help.

And regarding the Melbourne YouTube gathering, here is the video from Kimmi:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrZekTJurXk]

In short,
When: Saturday, January 22nd 2011
Where: Federation Square meet in front of the Giant Screen/Stage.
Time: 12pm - 3pm (hopefully it's not too hot!!)

Cutest Christmas Kitteh EVAR!

I know this was a little late but I didn't get this on video in time to make it a Christmas video.

Just before Christmas, we adopted a new kitten from the Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne. Shadow has well and truly made herself at home in our house and it turns out she really likes Christmas trees. As in, really likes to destroy them. Oh well, it was time to take it down anyway.

Angry New Year's Resolution

I don't do new year's resolutions - never have. This is a resolution for other people. I'm allowed to do that - declare resolutions that other people need to follow. It's one of my official powers.

This is a video for sharing with those in need - namely if there's someone you think is being a dick, send them this and they might mend their ways. We can always hope.

The music at the start and end of this video are two different pieces of theme music created for me by YouTubers. That's right, I need more than one theme tune. Deal with it.

The hip hop theme at the start was done by NSG

The heavy metal theme at the end was done by Shaun/Blordough

The 2010 TFU Awards

For my last video of 2010 I decided to inaugurate the TFU Awards, the first annual awards recognising the most totally fucked up of all the stories I noted for Totally Fucked Up Friday. It certainly wasn't an easy task but I gave awards in four categories:

Most TFU Moment in Racism:

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2010/01/19/nba_563760.shtml

Most TFU Moment in Law enforcement:

http://gawker.com/5636011/stupid-california-police-warn-parents-of-pedobear-the-pedophile-mascot

Most TFU Hypocrite of the year:

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-06/news/christian-right-leader-george-rekers-takes-vacation-with-rent-boy/

Most TFU Trend of the year:

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/20/will-porn-lock-in-uk-and-france-lead-to-internet-censorship/