If you travel in meme circles, then you’ve probably heard of Parry Gripp. If not, then let me fill you in. Gripp is a singer and songwriter who, before 2008 at least, is known for starting the band Nerf Herder, whose music was featured as the theme song for Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. On January 1, 2008, he launched a website, Parry Gripp Song of the Week, whose purpose is self explanatory. Since then, he has kept true to his promise, uploading at least one song every week. He has also written jingles that go along with some of the most popular Youtube videos, which in turn become even more popular Youtube videos. As such he has become something of a web phenom, most recently with his iPad/Nachos song and video featured below. I recently had a chat with Parry about his career, the oddities of internet-creation, and some of the darker legal corridors that come with trying to have a good time online. It’s worth a listen and features some of his silliest work.

 
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Now that the dust has finally settled on NBC’s “Tonight Show” debacle, with Jay Leno returning as host of the program, speculators can’t help but predict a landing place for the now jobless Conan O’Brien. It’s assumed that he’ll go to Fox, the only network without a late night talk show currently. However, over at the New York Times’ Bits Blog, writer Nick Bilton has a different, more ethereal outlet for the ginger haired comic: The Internet!

“So here’s my advice to Mr. O’Brien:” Mr. Bilton offers up, “After he leaves NBC and spends a few months healing his wounds and pulling the troops back together, he should come back and make the Internet his time slot.” The rest of the piece doesn’t say all that much about how to achieve such an end, but does revolve around buzzwords like “Leno!” “Conan!” and “Internet!” proving that even the New York Times isn’t above link-baiting. But there is a story to pull from Bilton’s piece: that the logic behind his Internet Time Slot reflects the outdated viewpoint of the web that still runs rampant among popular thought. Read on...

You may not have heard about AnyClip yet, but you should definitely prick up your ears and listen to this interview with their VP of Product, Nate Westheimer. This tenacious tech startup’s plans for video search have been causing a lot of buzz in the tech community ever since they won the Audience Choice Award at TechCrunch50 (think American Idol for tech companies). The short of their idea: cataloguing every clip ever. Their flagship site, anyclip.com, is currently in private beta, but if you land an invite it is definitely a lot of fun to poke around. You can search through moments in their growing collection of films using simple terminology, just like any other search engine. Nate describes it better in our conversation (and on the anyclip blog), so you really ought to download the audio below.

 
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A cooking, blogging biopic is about the least interesting way I could imagine spending a muggy summer afternoon. And yet, there I found myself, utterly mystified by Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, the story of two women who are seemingly redeemed through the power of food alchemy. Featuring the second delightful pairing of Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci, the film is a phenomenal take on the art of writing. In terms of scope, Ms. Ephron has pulled off a monumental feet by taking the most boring thing in the world, sitting down and putting pen to paper, mouse to blog, and pulling together a solid narrative with thought-provoking implications.

Let’s start with those memorable performances. Mr. Tucci has long been regarded as one of the finest (and fewest) character actors working today. Consistently winning over our hearts with whatever minutes of screen-time he can steal, the secret to his success is his embrace of being a bridesmaid, never a bride. Here, he plays Paul Child the, loving, caring, pencil-thin mustachioed husband to the as-yet famous Julia Child. That role is filled in by Ms. Streep who crackles with energy. Long regarded as one of the finest leading ladies in the biz, another dying breed, the actress seems to wish to be demoted to the status Mr. Tucci enjoys. Her character work is ultimately superb, in many ways out-sizing her front-and-center roles. Though she is technically a lead here, I would argue that she is filling out a supporting role with incredible finesse; Mrs. Child is ultimately a MacGuffin for the modern blogger Julie Powell’s personal redemption. Read on...

Last week, Google announced an upcoming product called Wave which the tech giant refers to as “what e-mail would look like if it were invented today”. By that they mean a communications system with all of the acquired knowledge of the 21st century without the hangups of the 20th. For detailed info you should really check out the official Google Wave site, but I’ll try to keep the pre-required knowledge to a minimum here.

This isn’t a tech site, it’s a film site. So what on earth does this have to do with cinema? Google is inventing this to revolutionize communication and productivity which has essentially been stagnant for decades if not longer. E-mail, as one example, is sent back and forth between one or more people just as the letter or the memorandum was before before it. Wave basically breaks that wide open, offering contextual live editing of a single communiqué. Now, while this can certainly help in producing a film just like it could help any general office task, the overall Wave concepts could be applied on a grander scale for filmmakers. Read on...