Thursday, September 20, 2007

BlogTV Runs Out of Gas


It wasn't long ago blogTV.ca (no relation) announced its TV portal of the future by cruising the city in obnoxious Hummers screaming out for attention, and 'viewers'. Initially business was good for the social networking slash video site, owned and operated by Alliance Atlantis. However, since the launch in March, traffic had dropped steadily and sales never really got off the ground. Today, a memo explaining this and declaring that the end is in sight was circulated to employees in the interactive department. There's no future for these kids. Playback speculates several execs may go down with the ship too.

I can't say I'm upset about this. My first experience with the site was one of disgust. I'd attended Ron Jeremy's book launch at The Gladstone and suffered some audio issues with my camera. I needed some video fast. Since I knew the crew from blogTV had been there I scoped their site for some video of the event. The first I came across was a pre-Jeremy interview with two lovely ladies in the back of the blogTV limo, er, Hummer. The backseat sleazeball from the site kept zooming in on the girl's boobs then began asking them to take their tops off for the camera. It didn't seem like these girls had expected the 'interview' to take this direction. They politely declined, and then it just got gross. The 'interviewer' was fixated on getting his money shot and wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept repeating his proposal. They held firm, surely hoping Jeremy would soon arrive and break-up the routine. It was uncomfortable for me, so I can only imagine how these ladies felt. Next time I saw the blogTV Hummer parked on College Street I made a point of telling them how horrible I thought they were and never visited their site again. Adios sleazeballs.

According to the memo the site will cease operating on the 28th. As of yet no plans are in place to maintain or move user-generated content. Read what people think about the demise of blogTV on blogTO.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Get Your TIFF Tickets Here!


[TOfilmfestSept2005 - lomo01]
Originally uploaded by nsbkim
Yesterday the Toronto International Film Festival prepared itself for the next wave of filmsters, opening up single ticket sales. I was impressed with the addition of a relatively quiet stand at Roy Thompson Hall to take the burden off the continually busy box offices at Manulife and College Park. However, I wasn't so impressed when I walked down to RTH only to find the film I wanted to see had already sold out. Though I might be able to RUSH This Beautiful City, a film about the gentrification and friction between classes in Toronto's Parkdale neighborhood, I'm doing my best to work facebook and craigslist angles to see what pops up first.

The festival starts today!