Wednesday, June 24, 2009

NY1 Video Star

So Monday, in the process of moving around some furniture, I somehow managed to completely dislodge the cables connecting my TV and cable box and have yet to figure out how to restore the connection. I have never felt quite so dumb. Needless to say, until I have time to actually deal with this, I will not have access to NY1. Thus, the rest of this week's blog posts will deal with the station's Web site, NY1.com.

As you all know, NY1 has been running a contest, "NY1 Video Star", the winner of which will be featured in a new station ID ad. What you may not know is that every submission they have received so far is online. And people, there is a wealth of entertainment there.

Many of the entries are charmingly low-budget, like the station itself. The majority appear to have been filmed in the contestants' apartment buildings, and for most of them, the phrase "production values" does not seem to apply.

Among the best low-budget entries so far is a submission by a girl group called ko chicks lares, who did as much as possible with a budget of what appears to be about $5. They even have costume changes and a backup dancer! (Plus they can actually sing, which helps).

I also LOVE the entry by Judy Berman - they've actually shown this one on TV; she's the batty old loon who's standing in the stairwell of her apartment building, strumming a ukelele and warbling off key. Not only can she not sing to save her life, she's wearing clothing that looks like she pulled it from a dumpster and has not even bothered to memorize the lyrics, instead referring repeatedly to sheets she's taped to the wall. In other words, it's delightful.

There's also one by a gentleman named Huck Demilo, who performs while wearing a bizarre butterfly mask. He looks like a psychopath, but his lyrics are fairly amusing.

These are the only ones I've had time to watch so far, but I'm sure there's lots of (comedy) gold in these vaults. Go check it out.

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