TrendMaster: "Rollricking"

TRENDMASTER

This is a new segment where I make and institute awesome new social trends. I am a person of great stature and influence in the trend community so I anticipate there will be much fanfare.

"Rollricking" -

Based on the now-defunct digital trend of "Rickrolling,"

whereby a blogger would misdirect readers via hyperlink

to an old music video of pop artist Rick Astley.

Get it? Rollricking!

Rollricking is very useful, as the name and artistic portfolio of Rick Astley come up often in conversation. Rick Astley.

Puppies.

What a cliche I've become.

I have been going to the pet store in the Beverly Center mall almost compulsively over the last few weeks. It's a terrible pet store because the puppies are all behind glass in tiny enclosed spaces and they climb all over each other and stare longingly at you. But I keep going because the puppies climb all over each other and stare longingly at you.

Today I did some searches, just to see how much this one particular breed of puppy - the Shiba Inu - cost when purchased from a breeder. These dogs are amazing; they look like little foxes as puppies and then they grow up to be miniature Huskies. Some of the baby puppies look like furry bears, they are too cute to be real. I honestly almost started crying just looking at pictures of cute puppies. Then I made a hasty decision to rename this blog "Puppies," and henceforth I will only post pictures of cute puppies. And it will make me a million dollars.

This one is from a website called "puppyparadise.com". Ridic.

Things That Make Life Easier

Useful things are only useful when I use them. I signed up a long time ago but I just recently really started using Jott, which is a brilliant service for transferring ideas from head to paper, via phone (those of you with iPhones, you don't need this, stay smug and complacent).

The Jott service is easy to sign up for, free, and endlessly useful. It works just like the picture above: you call the number, talk, and it sends you an email with the words you've said. You can use it to send yourself emails with to-do lists, screenplay dialogue, blog post text. You can even Jott directly to Amazon, or to your blog (I did not Jott this blog post - I haven't gotten that good at it yet). For someone like me who doesn't always speak - or think - in complete sentences, you might want to stick to having Jott send you personal emails of your thoughts. But when you're feeling articulate, Jott to other people, but as with email and water sports, don't drink and Jott.

This might sound like a plug from ad sales, but luckily for you - SeriouslyJazzed is still sponsorship free. It makes enough money from donations and dreams to run smoothly. This is just another gift from me to you.

Vote for Bethany Grundle, the Perfect Compromise!

We all know Bethany Grundle - social commentator, activist, friend to animals - has dreamed of becoming a political correspondent since she was 2 years old. Well she's 13 now and it's time to start making that dream a reality. And she needs your help to make it happen!

Bethany has entered herself in the Breakout Broadcasting Political Pundit competition - and if she wins, she'll have the privilege of reporting her profound insights directly from the Democratic Convention! The entrants with the most votes make it to the second round. To vote, go HERE - then create a login name, and you can vote 15 TIMES A DAY until Sunday, April 20th! If everyone reading this votes 15 times every day, Bethany can win this thing.

Watch and enjoy Bethany's straight talk on Obama's "bitter" comments, Hillary's ticket to Convention, and the mile-high club. All before (and a little during) bedtime! If you like it, please vote. It's the only way democracy can work, people. Bethany is the most straightforward, honest pundit out there - and because she's a child, she can't lie. Nor does she understand irony. Couldn't we all be a little more like Bethany?

Vote for Youtube Sketchies Finalist "THE ATTACK!"

My dear friends and collaborators, The Attack Comedy - comprised of Josh Covitt and Whit Hertford - have been tapped for their consistently stellar work and are in the finals of the Youtube Sketchies contest. The prizes are considerable; $40,000 in equipment and cash and the opportunity to meet with UTA new media reps, which they deserve anyway. Their final video "An End of an Era" is undoubtedly superior; watch the others if you don't want to take my word for it, but you'll reach the same conclusion and curse the time you wasted.

HOW TO VOTE:

Go here to watch "An End of An Era" (click "next video" a few times to get to it, or search for it in the search box) and click the GREEN thumbs up icon to vote. Then do it again, as many times as you can, until your own thumbs get tired. The Attack also made this great instructional video on voting which should be in its own contest.

Please vote often and pass it along so that these very extraordinary comic talents get their due, and on a philosophical level, to ensure meritocratic outcomes for internet video contests! And watch the rest of The Attack's stuff, it's all incredibly good.

Note: I am humbled by the great and only Kim Weisberg who posted about this first, which is unacceptable, since I am so deeply embedded in The Attack's creative machinery. (Embedded like links? Embedded like Iraq? Think about it.)

Dorm Life Sweeps NCAA Champs

OK, I'm sorry to keep bragging about all the cool developments that are tangentially shooting off from projects I'm involved in. But I can't help it, I'm Seriously Jazzed! (Oh snap! You thought that was going to be a link back to the blog you're already reading!)

Back to business. Let's be honest, this really knocked my socks off. It's the UCLA marching band playing the Dorm Life theme at the Final Four tourney this year. How f-ing rad is that. (and also f-ing nerdy). Either way, we are now rivaling Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" for coolest marching band arrangement song.


UCLA Band Plays Dorm Life Theme at Final Four! - Celebrity bloopers here

A Million Little Pieces of News

(Cool timely reference, right?)

I have a bunch of really great news about my wonderful web series, Dorm Life. First of all, if you haven't seen it in a while, it's gotten good. I'll embed a few latest episodes later in the post. But recently these things happened:

1) Dorm Life is being featured on Metacafe - and is getting big-time views! All together we are at about 750,000 total views.

2) Dorm Life received “Official Selection” honors for both Best Comedy Short and Best Writing from the Webby Awards. The Webbies are basically, like, the Oscars of the internet. So, I basically almost just got an Oscar nomination. Kind of. I’m especially proud of the “Best Writing” distinction. (Oops! Cat's out of the bag - Dorm Life is not real reality? Although - I guess most reality shows have writers). The cool thing is that Dorm Life - shot on almost no budget - was among other financed projects from HBO, ABC, The Onion...what distinguished company!

3) Now that you know what you've been missing, watch some Dorm Life!
Episode 112: Alarmed

Online Videos by Veoh.com

And after you watch that, listen to the full-length cut of "Hamster Heaven" that I busted in the recording studio. It's also my American Idol audition.

Episode 113

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Hope you like!