My First Shout Out (boring “history of nalts” post)
Don’t know what a “shout out” is? It’s when you mention someone in your video. Don’t care? Stop reading. This blog entry isn’t for the industry watchers, but for the small group of obscure people that watch my crap.
I stumbled into my first “shout out” video recently. In this fake PSA I did about Revver.com, I spoof the “art” of independent creators, and shed light on the folks that were ripping content and then making money on it (my brother in law played the video artist that made $9 a week dropping forks on the ground). The video was called “Revverberation,” which would later become the name of my unofficial Revver blog that spawned this one.
At the end you’ll see a legal document that lists Marquisdejolie vs. Texas. I remember Googling for a legal template, then altering it with his name and then photographing it… wondering if he’d notice this homage since he seemed to be watching every new Revver video like I was.
I also remember going nuts that this video got thousands of views, since most got 50-100. To gauge the magnitude, I adjust for view inflation by multiplying 2006/2007 views by 1,000 times. So this was a 3 million view video, as far as I was concerned.
More related trivia. When I was first featured on YouTube with “Viral Video Genius,” I mention being called an Andy Warhol of online video… “by a homeless guy in Texas. He has a blog. Google it.” Well this time Marquisdejolie caught the “shout out” before I had to spoon feed it, and no response tickled me like his spontaneous laughter clip. Can you listen to that and not crack up?
Here’s Marquisdejolie’s recount from a year ago, but I can’t seem to find his original blog post calling me the Warhol of online video.
And then there’s this post from MarquisdeJolie’s blog:
Nalts doesn’t need a tribute from me. He’s doing just fine on Revver and Youtube and Livevideo and Metacafe and wherever else he may be…. Wherever 10 or more viral video fans collect to watch videos, you find a Nalts video there…. I just needed an excuse to use his name in my blog so that the Internet search engines will spot my blog and up my ranking. His screen name is a commodity now like gold or silver or pork bellies. Use it in your blog and watch your hits skyrocket.
We’ve been around this online video stuff a loooooong time, haven’t we!?
It was Matt Drudge I likened you to most, Kevin. Andy was a screwed-up personality. No wonder you couldn’t find the post on my main blog. It was entitled “Viral Video Genius (last reposted Jan 10, 2007).” Who’d a thunk?
Since this blog blocks all links to my main blog (for about a year now), I can’t link you to it here. So I’ll paste it in:
It’s kind of fun to know, or at least be acquainted with, someone before they become famous.
Take Matt Drudge for instance. I met Matt Drudge before he became famous for ‘The Drudge Report’, back when he was living two blocks north of Hollywood Boulevard in an old 1920’s New York-style rattrap 11 or 12 story apartment house right around the corner from Musso and Frank’s.
I think the address was 1944 Whitley Ave, but it’s been a while.
I met Matt through some friends of mine in the callgirl escort business: The Mad Turk and his dominatrix wife Sherry. They lived in the same rattrap, scary-assed single-occupant-elevatored apartment building. Just neighbors. As far as I know, Matt had no truck with escort agency callgirls.
Matt and I had moved to Los Angeles the same year. Matt, ten years younger than me, acted older, as if he was carrying more of the weight of the world on his shoulders than I was bearing. And that was true.
It IS fun to know, or at least be acquainted with, someone before they become famous. And I think I’ve met — over the internet — the next Matt Drudge, the Andy Warhol of viral video, the Einstein of online, the Feynman of fantasy: Kevin Nalty.
Matt, as you recall, started out with a little Hollywood insider’s gossip sheet which grew to a political gossip website which grew to a megawebsite and radio show. The Next Matt Drudge, Kevin Nalty of Pennsylvania (that’s him above), started out with a little blogsite ( Revverberation ) about making videos for a little-known internet video site still in beta mode called Revver.
From that, Kevin expanded to a seriously informative blogsite “dedicated to helping video junkies make better viral videos, earn a side income on them, and stay current on the rapidly changing landscape of online video sites, tools and software.”
Then Kevin exploded on YouTube and got the big head (see video above). But it’s okay because Kevin throws me a bone now and again. You see, I got tangled up in this viral video mess, too.
Kevin is, as Matt was, on the cutting edge of a burgeoning trend. Kevin could blow up to be king of the viral video-producing community just like Matt blew up to be the king of political gossip. They even look a little bit alike.
Then I can say,” I knew him when…”
Oops. I should clicked before I pasted. I meant to post this one:
“The Face of fame is changing. The ranks of the world’s celebrities used to be dominated by millionaire actors, athletes and musicians, but the Internet has leveled the playing field. A kid with a video camera has access to as large an audience as the biggest Hollywood star. A mom with a blog can attract more readers than a best-selling author. And an opinionated entrepreneur can become a guru to millions.” — Forbes
I make fimiculous little videos for the internet. Mostly for Revver and YouTube. Some of them disturbingly attractive. Some of them not. Sometimes I get noticed (click picture above to watch). Most of the time not.
I don’t know where this level playing field that Forbes talks about is located exactly, but if I am on it, I’m on the muddy end where traction is measured in handfuls of web viewers, not millions.
Maybe I just don’t have talent and am jealous, but looking over at their end of the field, the dry, slick, astroturfed end, it appears to me that the famous are an incestuous lot, pumping each other’s fame like priming a country water pump.
Nah. That’s definitely just jealousy. But I’ll tell you this: what the web celebrities do is so far advanced from what I can figure out to do that it just plain looks like magic.
The top 26 web celebrities; lonelygirl15, perezhilton, dailykos, drudgereport, sethgodin, buzzmachine, instapundit, amandacongdon, scobleizer, techcrunch, zefrank, jimmywales, aintitcool, postsecret, craphound, xeni, leoville, merlinmann, powerlineblog, littlegreenfootballs, kevinsites, defamer, calacanis, gigaom, tinynibbles and nalts have nothing to fear from me. Their crowns are safe from my dirt-caked fingers, but internet ‘cewebrity’ is a house built on fickle soil. We’ll see who’s hot next month.
To be accurate, the people listed above are hard chargers who will not be ignored. The Fickle Factor only applies down at my level. Once you hit a certain level of fame, natural selection will not let you become unfamous.
So hand me a jawbone and I’ll throw it up against the obelisk. You know, to see what space odyssey I can evolve into.
As long as we’re traipsing down Memory Lane, Kevin, remember the time I told some moderator over on the Revver forum that my face was copyrighted?
Apparently MDJ is the only one that cares about this post.
Wow, your head is in a really weird place this week. I hope you didn’t just find out you have cancer.
Speaking of cancer, here is an interesting and informative video that we were watching in nutcheese’s stickam room last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9mDU1D5dWU&feature=related
Do not watch this video at work. Or at home in front of young children. Or anywhere else than in a darkened room with the door shut and locked.
There are three people I make sure I blog a lot: Nalts, Happy Slip, and Alodia. Those three bring great search traffic. 🙂
P.S. Obscure? Really? Really?????
You have broken my heart, kevin. It is bleeding everywhere. In fact, at this moment is it spewing blood all over the upholstery inside your car. Have fun explaining that to the cops.
Okay, Kevin, your shoutout to me is over for another year. These posters want shoutouts, too. Then you have 39,963 more to go. Better get crackin’
I think the only shout out I’ve ever gotten by somebody was Mattandcorey, and that was just them saying that you were in my Christmas colab, but not theirs. Hahaha!
So i thought this you would find this interesting, i stumbled apon a site while looking at new code developments, that tracks whats being watched on youtube, but not in the way youtube does it. this is wth a language called Ajax, Youtube uses XML and fklash. but it is an upto the second view of what people are clicking on. actually the site has a few interesting gadgets on it, but i give oyou, TubeSpy
http://www.ajaxonomy.com/tubespy/
Catchy name huh?
I’d explain it to you but then i would have to kill you
Stupid me, if you hoover over the thumbnail, it will play clips of the video, but thats all i am telling you
Boy I wish I had seen thor’s partnership video rather than just heard about it last night in stickam.
Sukatra, I was in stickam last night? did you forget to ask me?
I remember watching your Viral Video Genius video long after it had been featured (I’ve only been in online video about a year). I didn’t get it because I had no idea who the homeless guy was supposed to be. Now I know – I get it now!
Meeeemmmmories…
it’s the little community references in videos that let insiders know they’re on the inside – and that sense of belonging is why many of us stick around.
long live the shout-out, and the more oblique the better!
someone ought to do a study.
in a community as big as YouTube, it’s the little things like shoutouts, however obscure they may, that really can make an impact. 🙂 sometimes effecting one person is funnier and more life affirming that effecting hundreds 🙂
^ain’t that the truth. hey, kevin snap out of it! don’t make me come over there with a colonic bag filled with words of affirmation. you have an irresponsibility to put upon your adoring public! get to it!
now sing the song, c’mon, you can do it, start nice and slow…
there’s no business like show business…
I recognized the “homeless man in texas” reference when I first watched your Viral Video Genious video. I think I referenced that line in another of my videos. But I am not nearly as popular as either of you guys so no one will see my references. You are right about not caring Kevin, I was recently tuned down as a partner and now I could really care less about becoming one. When they come around and offer me a “partnership” I’ll just feed them the line they fed me… “Sorry, but you do not currently meet my requirements to consider being a partner on your website!” HA!
My shoutout to the big boys of Youtube. (linked here) It explains everything, Boobtubious.