Steve Nelson has one of the coolest jobs at Next New Networks. This former intern was so into what we’re doing, he left Rutgers to become a full-time Indy Mogul. I gotta admit, the stuff I’ve seen him do around here is way more fun than hittin’ the books. I was having a hard time choosing my favorite clip, but I went with a sentimental favorite . Check out Indy Mogul’s P.A. in “The Egg.”
A lot goes on from week to week at Next New Networks and every week I’ll try to point out all the cool content coming your way.
We have three launches coming up. Channel Frederator will get a classic cartoon show (ReFrederator), Garage 419 marries car culture and ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, and ThreadBanger has a new series of Holly-Jolly How-To’s. Refrederator’s first episode will be Monday, December 17th (and will run once a month), Garage 419 will debut in two weeks (day TBD), and Holly-Jolly How-To’s launched on Wednesday.
Starting December 16th, ThreadBanger and Indy Mogul will be asking viewers to roll their own episodes using old episode footage (”Viewer Takeover!”) with the winning episode for Indy Mogul set to air on Christmas Eve.
December also brings us Veracifier counting down the worst muckraking scandals of 2007 and Barely Political’s video of Barack Obama’s grandmother watching the Obama Girl on a laptop in Africa.
Also, one of my favorite shows, The Stack on Pulp Secret, is now split into two shorter episodes that air every Monday and Thursday.
That’s all for now.
…from Floyd Bishop, Channel Frederator, and Next New Networks.
For months now I’ve secretly wondered how tall our Systems Desktop Engineer, Dustin is. I suppose I never asked because I assumed he was tired of fielding that question. However, recently, my curiosity got the best of me. Though he stands 6′6” (at least the last time he checked), Dustin is one of the most inconspicuous people at Next New. Maybe that’s because he’s rather soft-spoken compared to many of the chatty ones here (myself included) . Both he and Matt Falconieri have been a tremendous asset to our team. We’ve all grown to rely on them heavily and they never let us down. Here are some facts I learned about Dustin after I hassled him for some facts about his life outside of Next New.
1. Yes he can dunk, but he avoids basketball like the plague.
2. He’s a home-grown talent, born and rasied in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen
3. In his spare time he likes to rock climb and swim
4. He recently got a cool haircut, but insists his hair is “styled by his pillow.”
To kick off our recent partnership with Bebo, Next New CEO Herb Scannell spoke at the official launch of their Open Media platform which had him on a panel with folks from CBS and MTV. While there are about a dozen or so launch partners, Next New was one of the three highlighted at the event. Needless to say, we’re pretty excited to share our programming with Bebo’s millions of users world-wide as well as be in the company of networks like CBS and MTV.
The first of our live programming are Bleacher Bloggers, Ultra Kawaii, Indy Mogul, and ThreadBanger, with Epic-Fu coming soon.
I’ve known Patty for a while now, yet I seem to be one of the few people in the office who was unaware of her musical ability. I finally caught on when I previewed this week’s Meth Minute in which her voice is showcased in Ultra and the Lazer Hearts. Seen here.
When she’s not singing, snowboarding or playing dodgeball, yes dodgeball, she can be found managing the whereabouts of CEO Herb Scannell, COO Jed Simmons, and our Senior VP of Media Sales, George Stewart. Patty’s used to multi-tasking though, she spent fours years at Sony where she worked with acts such as Britney and Beyonce (though she’s quick to point out, Britney was in her prime then). Periodically she still gets huge envelopes with Sony swag and makes us all jealous.
This week’s nod goes to Alex Zalben’s recap of an article featured in Entertainment Weekly discussing the nose-dive Heroes took in season two. Let’s hope they can recover from the sophomore slump.
as seen on Pulp Secret
08 November 2007
Kring Apologizes for Heroes, Season Two
By: Alex Zalben
Don’t like Heroes, Season Two? Neither does exec. producer and creator Tim Kring.
Speaking ridiculously candidly with Entertainment Weekly, he outlined the faults with the second season, including:
THE PACE IS TOO SLOW ”We assumed the audience wanted season 1 — a buildup of intrigue about these characters and the discovery of their powers. We taught [them] to expect a certain kind of storytelling. They wanted adrenaline. We made a mistake.”
THE WORLD-SAVING STAKES SHOULD HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED SOONER The premonition of nuclear apocalypse created a larger context that unified every story line last season. Kring now sees that Volume 2 (the first 11 episodes of season 2) would have been better served if Peter’s vision of viral Armageddon had appeared in the season premiere rather than episode 7. ”We took too long to get to the big-picture story,” he says.
THE ROOKIES DIDN’T GREET THEMSELVES PROPERLY New Heroes Monica (Dana Davis), Maya (Dania Ramirez), and Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) ‘’shouldn’t have been introduced in separate story lines that felt unattached to the show. The way we introduced Elle (Kristen Bell) — by weaving her in via Peter’s story line — is a more logical way to bring new characters into the show.” (That said, Kring says a few newbies won’t make it beyond this second volume, which wraps Dec. 3.)
HIRO WAS IN JAPAN WAY TOO LONG Hiro’s (Masi Oka) time-bending adventure in 17th-century Japan — where he mentored samurai hero Takezo Kensei (David Anders) — finally came to an end on Nov. 5. But Kring says it ‘’should have [lasted] three episodes. We didn’t give the audience enough story to justify the time we allotted it.”
YOUNG LOVE STINKS Kring regrets sticking Claire (Hayden Panettiere) with a super-dud boyfriend and forcing Hiro to moon over a cutesy princess. ”I’ve seen more convincing romances on TV,” he admits. ”In retrospect, I don’t think romance is a natural fit for us.”
Cool. Now, if we could get him to apologize for Season One, as well…
Alex is a good sport. Every so often I joke around with him about his lip synching in the Next New Networks version of Internet People, but he just laughs it off. Alex joined our staff as our system administrator in late June and brings with him a stacked resume including knowledge of JSP, PHP and CSS among other acronyms. He says technology wise, he’s done pretty much everything.
Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Alex came to the U.S. in 1990 less than a year before the Soviet Union collapsed. Now living in Staten Island, home of the Fresh Kill Landfill, he jokes, “so between the landfill and Kiev being less than 63 miles from Chernobyl, I slightly glow in the dark when the conditions are right.”
This week Fast Lane Daily is on location covering the 2007 SEMA Show from Las Vegas. For those in the know, it’s the premier automotive trade event attracting industry leaders from across the globe as well as a bevy of car-minded celebrities. FLD snagged a one-on-one with rapper 50 Cent as he flaunted his Pontiac G8.
Today our friends Steve and Zadi launched “EPIC-FU”, a JetSet presentation. They have been working so hard to get this out and it looks fantastic. EPIC-FU? Your guide to internet pop culture. While the show’s format will still be largely the same, (we could never mess with the magic formula) look for a sharper edge and more from EPIC-FU’s correspondents. As always EPIC-FU will support independent artists and the new online culture. Can you master the Fu?
The new site looks great. A big shout from all of us at NNN to these two incredible creative and talented people. Live the Fu!
In the News