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Now That They've Been On The Today Show, Will My Tweets Unionize?

Steve Garfield (http://stevegarfield.com) captured this screenshot the old-fashioned way: he took it without the express written permission of NBC and redistributed it. A few weeks ago, I noticed him talking with Today Show reporter Jamie Gangel on Twitter. She was asking all sorts of questions like, "Why do you use Twitter?"

Never one to shy from an interview, especially one not involving me, I started pelting Gangel with answers as if she were interviewing me. Eventually, she could not ignore my projectile tweeting, and she followed up with a few questions to me directly.

Here's the thread (http://bit.ly/Lmj8). You can click on "show conversation" under the first result to sort of see how it went down. It makes less sense without seeing the questions Gangel was asking Newt Gingrich etc.

The worst part? My tweets are probably gonna get representation before me.

Posted via web from baratunde's posterous

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Shit, Damn, Motherchucker - Mieka Pauley Sings To Chuck Bass (video)

Yesterday's Ultimate Gossip Girl Summit IV at the People's Improv Theatre was amazing. Not only did we have funky cool panelists, but three actors from the series showed up (Jake, played Chuck 2.0; Matt, played Skull n Bones; Zuzanna, plays Dorota).

Sara Benincasa is a saucy and well, actually quite naughty summit host who gives out sex toys to guests and audience members alike. As the newly-minted "brownest" member of the summit panel, I explained that I spent all of 2008 working to get Barack Obama elected. Starting November 5th, I wanted to do the opposite of campaign for Obama. Gossip Girl fit that need perfectly, and I've been hooked ever since.

But the real highlight of yesterday's summit was seeing Mieka Pauley perform a song to Chuck Bass that we wrote together just hours before the event. Yes, we waited until the last minute. Yes, Mieka treated me like a joke factory all day long demanding I write more funny lines despite my fatigue, but I'm really proud of the collaboration.

Enjoy

Posted via web from baratunde's posterous

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Baratunde Quoted In NY Times On People Cutting Cable TV

Mr. Jackson and many others said that doing without a pay television service had economic benefits, too. Not spending $39.99 a month for a basic cable package from Time Warner or Cablevision means he has more money to spend on the weekend.

“It’s expensive to live in New York City and very expensive when the economy is imploding,” said Baratunde Thurston, 31, a Web editor at The Onion who watches video podcasts, YouTube and streaming video over the Web from Netflix.

“In very uncertain times, you want to lower your expenses, and cable was something I wasn’t using,” he said. “So I had a strong financial incentive to cut it.”

I could talk about this subject for hours, but there's one notion that didn't make it into the final post which I think deserves some attention.

Since Ken interviewed me, Boxee had to remove the Hulu service from it's software. Boxee has acted as my primary cable TV replacement, allowing me to sit on my couch and use an apple remote to watch video, much like... television!

It seems like many cable companies pressured Hulu into blocking boxee, hoping to force us back to their monopolistic teet. What is missing from most analyses of cable-cutters like me, however, is the idea that we'll just watch or do something else.

A business model built on exclusive access can only last so long. Either people will find other ways to access your content (iTunes, bittorrent), they'll watch something else (shows that are available, clips on YouTube) or they'll do something else (read books and blogs, play video games, hang out on Facebook and Twitter).

While cost was a big driver of my decision to leave cable and the ability to access some of my favorite shows via Hulu helped ease the transition, the bigger factor was that I'm doing a lot more with my time besides watching TV programs, and I don't really miss it. I feel as informed and culturally connected as in the past but with the added benefit of significantly lower cost and significantly more control.

Posted via web from baratunde's posterous

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Me On CNN With Soledad O'Brien - MLK Day 2009

I'm always in a rush but especially today. Thankfully, some friends pulled this video, and I could get it up. Watching the segment, you'd never realize that my earpiece was dead, and I didn't hear a word the Republican strategist said. Big up to Soledad for some smooth moderating to keep that invisible. Ok, here it is.

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My Daily Beast Sidwell Blog Post Picked Up By Anderson Cooper Blog

How many times can I use the word "blog" in the title of this blog post? Anyway, I forgot to post this on my own site, so for reference and bragging rights, I wrote an oped at The Daily Beast about my life at Sidwell Friends, with advice to the Obama parents. It was shortly picked up by the Anderson Cooper 360 blog. Hooray for blogging! Note, the comments on both sites really seem to have been made by people who are not that smart nor observant.

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