Guns n Curry n Friendship.

A good friend of mine organized an evening for his Scottish friends living in LA to meet up over dinner.   Sort of a Scottish gentleman's club, without the implications that the phrase "gentleman's club" might have.

The premise was simple.

Why not have an evening where everyone was understood, and their accents were only an issue to the restaurant staff.  We had a shared understanding of humor and a strong cultural link.

I could call someone an eejit and not only would they know what I meant, they'd know I was just having fun.

We had a great night, which included suggestions about what to do when we meet up next time.  I suggested we go to a gun club, as this is one of the most alien aspects of American culture to me.   And let's face it, it would be both exciting and relatively safe in such a controlled environment.  We  decided we should also add a particularly Scottish activity - and there are few things more Scottish than going to an Indian restaurant.

We agreed to call the next evening "Guns n Curry" - which sounded to us like the name for a Scottish "Guns n Roses" tribute band.  We predicted that we'd be singing "Sweet Japati of Mine" by the end of the evening.

I've just sent out an email and we've all agreed that we're not going to a gun club anymore.  We don't need a gun experience right now.

There's a lot of talk right now about gun control and new laws and services.  It's good that there is and I hope that something good comes of it.  However, I think we need to act as individuals as well. 

If you have a gun, I believe it is your obligation to reconsider whether you should have such a weapon.  Your gun(s) will probably never protect you and your family.  In fact, it is more likely that they will be used to inflict harm on you or your family.

I believe that it is the actions that we make as individuals, that will ultimately make lasting change.  And so I hope that you personally decide to get rid of your guns.

The Glasgow Garam Masala evening will now take place in early in the New Year...without the risk of any  rock anthems being badly sung with Scottish accents.


I'd love to get your comments
  -Do you have a gun and think I am wrong to ask to you to consider getting rid of it?  If so, why?

Tubefilter #PayToPlay Meetup Review.

Tubefilter #PayToPlay Meetup Dec 4, 2012

This is my first review of this type.  Actually, come to think of it, my first review of any type.  Why write it?  Because this was one of the best and worst panel discussions I've ever been to.

In my view Tubefilter's meetup last night wasn't really a panel discussion.  The format was somewhere between a sales presentation  and 'an audience with.'

From a technical point of view it met the definition of a panel discussion, in that there was a panel and there was some discussion.  That's where the similarity ends though.
The panel were:

Brian Norgard -  CEO and Co-Founder of Meetup sponsor Chill.
Dan Dobi - Director of "Please Subscribe" a movie being released on Chill.
Michael Urie - Ugly Betty star, who's made  "Thank You for Judging", a movie to be released on Chill.

The proceedings were moderated by Drew Baldwin from Tubefilter and they were sponsored by Chill and SAG/AFTRA New Media.

So I knew before I went, that the discussion would be Chill-focused and Chill-biased, but I've often dabbled in the space of pay-per-view and I was happy to hear their perspective and context.

What I didn't expect was that both Michael and Dan knew virtually nothing about this subject.  They'd separately stumbled upon Chill, by making an interesting movie and not having a distribution channel readily available for their niche markets.  So the best and most relevant information was being imparted by Brian, hence why in parts there was a feeling that we were attending a different event called either "An Audience with Brian Norgard" or "Chill's Emerging Dominance of Community Driven Direct Online Video Revenue"

The whole feel of the meet up could have been that a promotional talk....however, right from the start the panel was hit by a curve ball from Dan Dobi.  He mistakenly tried to justify that he never goes to movie theaters and watches movies for free using bit torrent.  Nice!

Drew, a skillful moderator, let Dan continue his rather odd confession to include using bootleg copies of all the software he uses...including Final Cut Pro and other tools that he no doubt used to create his movie...

Oh and did I mention, Dan would like you to pay $5 to watch his movie "Please Subscribe" on Chill?

Dan did however also impart some quite useful information, when he told us that you need to be quite technically knowledgeable to make bit torrent work.  I wouldn't know, as I've never used it, and won't... well not until his movie is available. ;-)

Do you like comedy that plays on uncomfortable situations?  I do.  So, I particularly enjoyed when Dan was confronted by an audience member question. His discomfort and embarrassed looks were a joy to experience.

Can I add to this comedy of discomfort?  This was a SAG/AFTRA union sponsored event where a panelist had admitted that he steals from pockets of SAG/AFTRA members... and would like you to pay him for something he produced using stolen software.  Surely the discomfort couldn't get any better?

For me though, I had a force multiplier sat next to me.  Before the event started I had been chatting to the guy next to me.  He was really knowledgeable and interesting to talk to... and he is a SAG/AFTRA New Media representative!  We didn't manage to talk after the 'panel discussion' which was a shame.  He seemed... well... quite busy.

It's often said that the internet is like the 'Wild West'; full of pioneers, adventure and risk.  Well I think I may just have had an audience with modern day version of Broken Nose Jack McCall

**Update:  Having written this, I then sent it to all of the panelists via Twitter.  I got a response from Brian saying he'd hoped for a fiery debate and a response from Dan asking for my email address.

Swapping emails with Dan was fun.  He is clearly not the serial pirate that he came across as and merely wanted to make the point out that there are significant numbers of people out there using bit torrent and other services.  Dan hopes that these same people would perhaps forgo those services, if they were offered the movies that they want to watch at a more realistic and affordable price.  After all it's got to be a lot easier to pay a couple of dollars and click download, than to use bit torrent and then worry that you'll be caught out legally later.  I hope he's right.

Free Daily Video Content

We now have a lot of videos.  One a day since March 1st, plus a couple of extras.  And they just keep coming, relentlessly day by day.  And day by day we learn how to better form the videos; better writing, better performances, better filming, better editing...  We love it.  Where we should be focusing more of our effort is in the sharing and promoting of our videos...but it's much more fun focusing on the videos, after all that's what started this project.

So yesterday while editing, I stumbled on a way to make it look like there was a TV playing in the background, partially obscured by a hanging model of a car.  This kind of experimentation and learning happens everyday and is a large part of the fun of it all.

And today?  Well it occurs to me that there are people out there with websites needing daily content to keep their sites looking fresh.  Perhaps they'd like some free daily video content?

Our videos always aim to be informative, funny and suitable for everyone.  Hmm... What does "suitable for everyone" mean?  Well, we won't do bad language and we won't do that 'drive by' vicious type of humor.  From time to time we may poke fun at Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh and those who seek out controversy...as we're pretty sure they'll still be happy to be mentioned even though we're poking fun at them.  In essence, we try to keep things at level where our 9 year old son could watch without being shocked.  Though he may not laugh when the concept is beyond his experience.  They will only have implied naughtiness without gratuitous references to erm whatever... 

So if you'd like to use our videos, the playlist is here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUB2sQL0CEoBZ5nTrBm4PsQw&feature=plcp

To embed it on your site you need this piece of code:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=UUB2sQL0CEoBZ5nTrBm4PsQw&hl=en_US" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
You can get the code yourself and choose the player size by going to the playlist and then clicking on 'share' and then 'embed'.

It'll look like this: