It’s Earth Day, if you hadn’t heard. I thought I’d see a lot more web series tackling the subject, but a quick look around came up with nothing I could really link to that was Earth Day-specific, even over at The Green (If you know of any great Earth Day eps from the web, please add a comment or link below). Of course, on Viropop and ThreadBanger, Earth Day’s a big deal. For starters, we have this special Zaproot episode (though, oddly, it’s their Paris Hilton episode that’s featured on YouTube’s front page today), which includes things you can do on Earth Day.

ThreadBanger has an Earth Day special edition of Decor it Yourself, our newest popular series, featuring the very winning Meg Allen, who shows you how to compost and create your own indoor garden. (more…)

This year a number of us from Next New Networks will be at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, and if you’ll be there we’d love to meet you and hang out at the event.

Three of our networks will be covering the Film, Music, and Interactive portions of the Festival — Indy Mogul, ThreadBanger, and Epic Fu — with episodes both during and after the event. If you see anyone you recognize from the networks walking around, please say hi!

In addition, we’re joining with our friends at Tumblr to sponsor the most epic Rock Band party the world has ever known on Monday night. Party attendees can play Rock Band onstage (first come, first serve for signups), and SXSW Showcase bands Brenn and The Vettes will be playing to close out the night. More details on our SXSW party page, and you can RSVP on Upcoming or Facebook to make sure you get in the door.

For those of you attending the Film or Interactive portions of the festival, I’ll be moderating a Joint Film/Interactive Panel on Saturday morning at 10am called “Quit Your Day Job and Vlog,” with Lindsay Campbell from Wallstrip and the upcoming Mob Logic, Zadi Diaz from EPIC-FU, LisaNova’s Lisa Donovan and Bre Pettis of Make / Etsy fame. Please come on out and join us, and hope to see you there.

Along with what looked like a couple thousand other curious people from the online video, advertising, and marketing worlds, a group of us attended YouTube’s “Videocracy” advertiser upfront here in New York City Wednesday afternoon. A pretty massive production at NYC’s Terminal 5, it was also YouTube’s first real event of notice since the Google acquisition. YouTube pulled out all the stops, including an introduction from founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, testimonials from Tom Brady and Anderson Cooper (who showed up in person to talk about the YouTube-CNN debates), and a number of presentations about YouTube’s advertising initiatives, from their internal ad targeting and campaign creation system (called “Ginzu” — it slices, it dices…) to case studies from advertisers like HP, General Mills, and New Line, to their work with the IAB and sites like MySpace and Facebook to develop standards for video advertising. There’s a good recap on Ian Shafer’s blog. And of course — an eclectic mix of entertainment from some of YouTube’s biggest stars, including the Blendtec guy, singer Esmee Denters and Soulja Boy, who performed his ‘Crank that‘ song onstage that inspired tons of YouTube dance videos this year, which played in the background on a big screen.

YouTube set up a nice area for Rob and Corinne from ThreadBanger to meet advertisers and give demonstrations in the How-To pavilion of the event (near our friends from Make Magazine) - and incidentally, ThreadBanger’s featured on the front page of YouTube today for their special Valentine’s Day episode, so we’re appreciating two days of love.

While Rob and Corinne worked their magic (with Soulja Boy, I kid you not, crashed out on a nearby couch), we spent a good amount of time catching up with other people at the event, which included lots of agency and consumer brand contacts, execs from companies like Revision 3, Vuguru, and 60 Frames, and innovators of online video like Andrew Baron and Orrin Zucker. There was a moment when I looked around and realized the group of people standing together off to the side of the stage near me included Tay Zonday, Ian from Smosh, Lisa Nova, Michael Buckley and William Sledd — many of the individuals with the most subscribers on YouTube, standing for the moment incognito chatting together on the main floor, despite the millions who have watched their videos on the site. I thought of other upfronts I’ve attended, where the network stars would be carefully brought in and out of the crowd, and realized I’ll probably be looking back on that moment a few years from now as either the beginning, or the end, of something. Exactly which? Ask me next year.

update: Media Kitchen’s Darren Herman — whose advertising work I’m a big fan of — was at the event as well, and has posted some smart thoughts.

With the new year craziness, I don’t think we’ve had a chance to properly roll out the welcome mat or celebrate this, but recently Corinne and Rob of ThreadBanger renown have made the big move from Florida to New York, following the trajectory of other awesomely talented people like Erik Beck, Justin Johnson, and Scott Moschella that we’ve managed to entice here, despite cold winters (well, not today), ridiculous rents, and near-constant giant monster attacks. We’re a little used to seeing Rob and Corinne around, since they’ve visited here probably more than any other producers, but the last few days it’s been great to run into them around the offices and realize they’re not leaving.

I can’t wait to see what kinds of great things happen with them sharing space with Indy Mogul and Channel Frederator, to name a couple networks (and maybe they’ll finally improve Derek D’s wardrobe on Fast Lane Daily), but until then, it’s as good a time as any to point out their awesome end of 2007 episode, where they counted down some of the amazing moments of their first almost-year. Though I might have to fight with some people on the forums for the biggest fan title, I’m really proud to be ThreadBanger’s first fan, if only because I got to see their first episode before anyone else (that I know of). Congratulations, Thread Heads, and welcome to the Big Apple. We’re so glad to have you here.

Back in June, in one of my many favorite episodes of Thread Heads, Rob and Corinne responded to a request video from viewer John Paul, where he asked for their help making a baggy shirt fit like a custom-tailored shirt.

Little did any of us know at the time, “John Paul” was John Paul Flintoff, a writer for the UK’s Sunday Times, and a month later, after we had also featured another viewers’ use of the “pinch and pin” shirt tailoring method in the Viewer Appreciation Week episode, Mr. Flintoff got in touch with the ThreadBanger gang and asked for an interview. The resulting article was published in yesterday’s Sunday Times, and it’s a great ode to the DIY movement that ThreadBanger represents, which he rightly ties into a raise in awareness we all need to have to stop being such a trash-generating culture and learn to live more lightly on the Earth. Flintoff writes,

But soon we’ll all have to become more self-sufficient – to undergo what Rob Hopkins of the fast-growing Transition network calls the Great Reskilling. We must learn to grow and cook food, build and restore buildings and infrastructure, process sewage, create a healthcare system that does not rely on petrochemical-based pills, and puzzle together a no-growth economic system. And, I modestly submit, we must learn to make and repair our clothes.

Just goes to prove again that you never know who’s watching, and the power of answering viewer requests. Thanks, John Paul, for a great video submission in the first place, and we’re glad you dig ThreadBanger.

Read the full article: Climate change: A stitch in time

Corinne and Rob from ThreadBanger made their network TV debut today on the second episode of this season’s Rachael Ray show, as part of the show’s new YouTube Stars Competition.

We’re in incredibly good company with our friends William Sledd, Madeline Merced, and Adrienne Nelson. Viewers can vote on who they’d like to return and be featured in a future Rachael Ray episode. As of right now, we’ve got a nice lead, but remember that despite all of Rob and Corinne’s charms, the others have a lot of YouTube friends, too… we’ll only win if our friends turn out in force.

Let’s get out all the ThreadBanger and Next New fans and swamp those polls! Watch their segment and vote here now, and please vote often! Competition ends in one week, September 18.