I normally get updates on celebrity tweets, but pop star Miley Cyrus' tweets have presented a huge appetite of late. So much so I wonder how she's going to maintain the figure she presented at the Teen Choice Awards?
Just ate bbq chicken, 8 cali rolls, a frosty, and fries. Ughhh Use your imagination.about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter
Just ate WAY to much cheesecake. On that note... Goodnight everyone.1:24 AM Sep 28th from web
I am on tour dancing for 90 minutes straight and some how I am more out of shape than when I started. Hmm.... Catering?6:38 PM Sep 26th from web
i just got a corndog and i liked it7:45 PM Sep 25th from web
Just drank a coke for the first time in a lonnngg time. Tonight should be interesting.7:06 PM Sep 25th from UberTwitter
Mommy look! My face matches my cupcake!!!! :) http://pic.gd/8a65a9 6:29 PM Sep 24th from UberTwitter
Miley's yummy cupcake
Miley, it's not the catering but what you're putting in your body! Let's see, corndog, cheesecake, a frosty and fries, a Coke, and a cupcake! Cut the junk!! Try fruits, salads and veggies (spinach!) and, ok, a really good burger for meat protein.
But Miley you're putting junk in your trunk and after a while people are going to notice the junk in your trunk.
Thanks to the popularity of Miley Cyrus, the new buzz around Susan Boyle, and the peerhole video scandal around Erin Andrews, and the outspoken Megan Fox, President Obama, politics, celebrities, Oakland, and the NFL Draft, My YouTube channel Zennie62 is now over 8 million video views (not channel views) at 8,133,111 views as of this writing.
Today we are at between 18,000 and 24,000 views a day and earlier this year we hit over 100,000 views daily. Even at low end of the current view rate, that's 760 video views an hour each day. It's not my objective - I am aiming for the 100,000 view mark we were at - but its a sign of progress.
My channel was established in 2006, (and its not the only one I have as I'm on several more video systems thanks to Tubemogul) but its grown by 6 million views in just the last year, with my video "Susan Boyle: Who is Susan Boyle" gaining over 1 million viewers in its first month of life. Since then my blunt focus on hollywood and scandal (and tracking Miley Cyrus, Susan Boyle, and Erin Andrews) has paid off: we have several videos of over 100,000 views in the last three months alone.
Zennie62 from 2006 to 2009
All of this growth is due to a decision I made to cover celebrities and Hollywood news and gossip and to the good fortune of having my videos on more blogs like SFGate.com.
My objective has always been to "surf the wave of the Zeitgeist" (or the sprit of the times) and in fact my blog was originally called "Zennie's Zeitgeist". All of this started because I was trying to get more traffic to promote the sim games I created but it turned into this monster that you see now. (Ok, well, that's stretching it!)
But one day in September of last year I elected to move away from that name and to the more easily "brandable" Zennie62. Part of the reason was too many people were misspelling Zeitgeist and the other reason was I wanted to embark on a plan of developing a personal brand. "Zennie62" at first was a little used name, but as I thought about it, the name defined me and the fact that I'm between many generations at once.
CoLoursTV
The other main reason was my new TV show "The Blog Report With Zennie62" on Denver-based CoLoursTV that features the use of my videos on their network at DISH Network 9407. I'm proud of my relationship with CoLoursTV and Art Thomas and Damon Purdy and believe we've only scratched the surface of what we can do.
The show takes my videos from online to TV and has really made me pay attention to the craft of storytelling beyond just talking to the camera. I think our fall shows will refect that.
Zennie62's direction
I want people to think of Zennie62 as following "what's happening" in industrialized culture. As I say on the TV show, we focus on politics, news, sports, and tech.
Now if you consider what I just wrote that's a tall order. But it's the objective. I want to grow my blog network and Zennie62.com and The Blog Report with Zennie62 TV show into a place to go to find out what's happening from my perspective and regardless of country.
Eventually, I want to have bloggers from different languages here and selected videos that have me and someone else who speaks Russian, for example. And what I already have is an integrated media presentation that's video blog, blog, and social network based to carry that content.
Being a YouTube Partner helped
I could not have gotten this far were I not a YouTube Partner. I can't say enough about this program where the video maker is paid for the views generated by their videos. The YouTube staff, from founder Chad Hurley to folks like Hunter and Heather (you know who you are), have been incredible to work with.
It's too bad that out of the millions of videos uploaded on YouTube there are only about 600 YouTube Partners. I crack up whenever someone writes "get a life" as if I'm not generating income from this activity.
It's also a sad statement on our economy that so many people don't "get" how our society is changing and are stuck in a position where they can't get out of their own box of thinking to try something new.
Being a YouTube Partner is that something.
The Vloggers who made me
I have been influenced by many vloggers, starting with Amanda Congdon and Andrew Barron, the founders of Rocketboom who I met in 2006 at Vloggercon:
And my friend Irina Slutsky and Schlomo Rabinowitz who established that "Vloggercon" event:
Of course, I've mentioned Renetto, or Paul Robinett, many times. His simple conversational style made me realize that authenticity of message was better than presentation of message. That is, I really didn't need a studio set like that of Rocketboom; the World was my studio.
Others who fall into this "Renetto style" are Kenrg, who I still plan to get together with and make that video...
and who was a co-founder of Vloggerheads.com - the coolest site for hardcore vloggers ever made.
Sarah Austin, who's welcome back party I attended and is here with Ashton Kutcher, has the business of vlogging down and I've learned a lot just observing her...
Finally, Michael Buckley of the "What The Buck" show, who's drawing a six-figure salary from vlogging, has great advice for vloggers and I refer others to this video:
On being African American and vlogging
I have to discuss the matter of being a "black vlogger" because let's face it, there aren't a lot of us who do this. There should be, and the number's growing, but it's not reaching critical mass - yet.
I'd like to think CNN's featuring my iReport video work encouraged African Americans to vlog who'd never have considered it before. In fact, I got a call from someone who said just that several months ago. Her 11 year old daughter was happy to "see a smart black man on TV". That made my day.
What disheartens me are those few who just don't want to see someone black stating an opinion in this format. It reminds me of the movie Nixon by Oliver Stone, and a scene where the actor James Woods played HR Haldeman saying "There's that Negro saying those Negro things." I seem to draw the HR Haldeman's of America.
But with that, people have changed and frankly I've done this so much the concern I have for those types diminishes daily. Plus, over the last three years, I've been helped by folks like Owen Thomas, who was editor of Valleywag.com and now runs NBCBayArea.com, and a number of people in the Tech community who just give a "thumbs up" once in a while.
I hope more women, blacks, and minorities become vloggers and get over the "self-promotion" tag that others - who are trying to find work and can't pay the bills - might tag one with. If you don't stick your neck out there and present yourself to others, you'll go broke waiting for someone else to do it for you. This takes work; do it.
Vlogging's here, but that community...
While vlogging's certainly grown I have the feeling that the once-close community has splintered. I think part of the reason is many just could not make enough money to do it consistently, others didn't want to do what it took to make money, and still another set didn't care to make money. Whatever the reason, we don't have that one yearly gathering that defines the community. We're all just sort of out there doing our thing.
That needs to change, and soon.
The reason is we have a lot to show the sponsorship industry, but we've got to get them to look at us as a viable community. We can't do that if we don't present a united front.
Folks, I can't believe this and I'm in total agreement with Karen Hawthorne and Tolu Olorunda that we've gone too far as a culture. At a time when we should pay more attention to adult women like Candice Crawford (who's rumored to be dating Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo), we have this news.
Miley Cyrus' pole dance is part of a trend
First and just recently we had Miley Cyrus dancing with a stripper pole on the Teen Choice Awards. Before that we had and have poll dancing as a fitness class. We even saw airline stewardesses pole dancing in the Iron Man movie last year. But a pole dance doll? This is the end of civilization as we know it.
A pole dance doll.
Pole Dancer Doll
Yes. According to the blog Gizmodo the "Pole Dancer Doll" "rotates. It has blinking lights, a disco ball, and a pole. And it's probably one of the wrongest toys you can give to any girl." No kidding. On top of that, the doll is made to look like a girl rather than an adult woman as was the case with another pole dance doll released in 2006.
We're going backward as we move forward.
Susan Boyle is older and innocent; girls are sex symbols?
This is weird. This year 2009 we have the 48-year-old singer Susan Boyle, a middle-aged woman, as the picture of innocence and purity, and 16-year old Miley Cyrus as the poster child for sexual fantasy.
As we've "advanced" over the decades the idea of what a female sex symbol should be let alone what we allow youth to do, has been turned on its head.
When I was little and gentlemen were respected and desired, older women were the sex symbols because they were classy, beautiful, experienced, and just plain dripping with hotness. They sang to presidents, as Mariyln Monroe did, and slept with them too. (No, I'm not thinking of Monica you-know-who here!)
My favorite was Rachel Welch. Ms. Welch was sexy, curves all over the place, and a smile that could light up the world. And then there was Pam Grier, who today is still as lovely and hot as Jackie Brown as she was during the days when she was the star of Foxy Brown. Thank God for Quentin Tarentino!
What's happened to our society? Is Tolu Olorunda right when he points the finger at corporations like Disney for doing anything in the way of image-making to make a buck? (To be fair, Disney has nothing to do with this doll.) Or is it that the Internet age has broke through a moral barrier I'm used to and to expose the fact that sexuality isn't confined to those over 21?
This trend of the sexualization of youth has been long in development. I remember a party in San Francisco during the 2003 Fleet Week where my friend's dad, visting from Florida and 65 years old at the time said in response to my question of how have things changed "In my day," he said, "the girls didn't wear these jeans cut low around their privates; but (openly pointing to two young women walking by) now, they leave nothing to the imagination."
He's right. We've gone too far, but do you care? For all those who may comment in protest, and rightly so, this social trend seems to march on unabated. Do you really care? Take my poll.
Wow, leave it to Perez Hilton to dish out the back-handed complements, this one to Miley Cyrus. Just when he's praising the teen singing star for her "mature" singing direction, the acid-tongued celeb blogger can't help but toss out an insult that I guess he thought was going to slip in under the radar:
"We can't believe we said all that! Oh well, check out the Disney Slut's latest song, When I Look At You, below."
Yikes. Well, my God I have no idea what he's referring to...
Ok.. I do.
Perez Hilton just shot down Disney's recent attempts to place distance between the Mouse and Cyrus by issuing this statement ran by MTV.com and Newsday.com:
"Disney Channel won't be commenting on that performance, although parents can rest assured that all content presented on the Disney Channel is age-appropriate for our audience — kids 6-14 — and consistent with what our brand values are."
Plus, Perez has been all but in Miley's PR face, insulting her whenever he got the chance:
"She just seemed to do nothing right. She started off poorly with pictures, leaked from her cellphone, of her in the shower. Then the Vanity Fair shoot, the trashing of her fellow costars, dating a 20-year-old when she's only 15 . . . but, whether we like it or not, she's a superstar. She's very crafty at getting our attention."
But all that aside, all of this elaborate marketing plan to get our attention wouldn't work half as well if Miley Cyrus didn't have a voice that's out of this world. Folks, you've got to hear her sing When I Look At You.
Until I did, and frankly due to a visit to Perez' blog, I really didn't think much of her talent; no more. Miley takes this song into orbit. Take a listen, please:
Meanwhile, Hilton's making nice with Cyrus. After hearing her other latest song "Obessesed" then posting a link about the song (calling her "Slutty" in the process) on Twitter he tweets:
@mileycyrus Got it! Damn that's good too! Damn you, Cyrus! I'm starting to become obsessed with you! Ha. In a good way! xoxo
And yes, Perez is right on - Miley's rocking the house!
That Miley takes all of his playful(?) insults in stride - thanking him on her Twitter page - says much about her and the realization that it's all one big socio-economic game.
Last week, 16-year old singing sensation Miley Cyrus performed a song and dance number using a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards as she introduced her new single "Party in the USA."
The controversial production was the focus of much discussion and even outrage in some quarters. But according to US Magazine, Miley's father Billy Ray Cyrus defended his daughter's actions Thursday at the Hellman's/Facebook Feeding America event in New York City.
"You know what? I just think that Miley loves entertaining people, She loves singing, songwriting. I always tell her to love what you're doing and stay focused for the love of the art and not worry so much about opinions."
On the matter of opinions, the poll I ran asking what you thought of her dance presentation has drawn 1,763 votes with 38.84 percent preferring she had not used a pole and another 30.46 percent hating both the pole dance and Cyrus too.
What I find interesting is that people don't understand that even a negative online reaction is an endorsement of Cyrus in that it's additional content about Cyrus.
As I will present in a a future post, Miley Cyrus has a remarkable worldwide online search reach I've never seen before, reaching three continents. There's a marketing formula here that seems to tap into our basic primal instincts and generates buzz, traffic, ratings, and sales. ("Party In The USA" opened this week at number two in the Billboard Hot 100.) In effect this approach actually uses society against itself.
I am frankly amazed over how this obvious marketing campaign is unfolding with amazing success. First, in June she signs with WalMart to have her own special line of clothing for sale designed by Max Arela, then there's the dance poll matter, and now this. That's buzz and to intensify the issue, WalMart's running commercials announcing her clothing line. It's clear just from a glance at Google Trends, Cyrus is on a buzz tear and she's taking WalMart,
The Vanity Fair photo issue still ranks as the highest buzz generator in her history, but 2009 has seen more sustained internet chatter and content related to her than ever before. And the formula is clear: music, fashion, and sex in different variations fed as a steady diet to a hungry public and to drive teenage girls into WalMart just in time for "back-to-school". With all the attention paid to the discussion of her Teen Choice Awards dance routine and her use of the pole, one would thing Cyrus drew the attention of older men - actually she, in political terms, solidified her base: the YouTube videos on the subject all have captured the 13-17 year old female demographic group and the male group.
What this proves is not so much that sex sells, but we've gotten to a point where we're using teenagers to do it, openly. Equally amazing is the development bothers few, certainly not to the point of even putting a dent in the buzz machine she's got going. It's wild.
Given some of the stories my friends who are teacher have told me about what goes on with students and sex in middle schools, we may be totally out of touch with what's normal to that group. To them the poll dance was nothing and Miley can do no wrong at all. But where all of this is going is that that same group of teenagers will flock to see her in Sex and The City 2 (if the rumors are confirmed), drawing them into a movie that would seem to have nothing to do with them. I've got to get a hold of that movie's script because it's can't play to the form of the past and have Cyrus in it, right?
What are they going to do, work in the whole Vanity Fair photo controversy all over again with Sam as the PR client for Miley? Hmmm...
Perhaps they should add Perez Hilton to the cast if only to keep her tweets honest. Witness this Twitter exchange:
@mileycyrus Maybe. But it seems more like selfishness/personal issues than sharing wisdom. Just saying what it can be perceived like.
about 5 hours ago from web in reply to mileycyrus
@PerezHilton I don't see the harm in sharing someone else's wisdom.
about 5 hours ago from UberTwitter in reply to PerezHilton
@mileycyrus Can you go 24 hours without quoting something? If you're quoting yourself, that's okay then. xoxo
The Twitter natives are restless over the Miley Cyrus issue, where the teen pop star appeared on the Teen Choice Awards Monday and sang and danced to a stripper poll. I gave my take on her "performance" and wondered just how far she would go in promoting the sexual side of herself here:
But on Twitter, Cyrus' controversial dance has been the focus of a "hashtag war" pitting #WeLoveMylieCyrus against #WeHateMylieCyrus factions. What do they write? Here's a taste:
MoNiCa_90 @mileycyrus #WeLoveYouMiley #WeLoveYouMiley #WeLoveYouMiley #WeLoveYouMiley #WeLoveYouMiley #WeLoveYouMiley #WeLoveYouMiley #WeLoveYouMiley less than 20 seconds ago from web
But since the hastag doesn't go to Mylie's Twitter profile it's not directly benefiting her follower count, but indirectly?
Yes. Now, the #WeLoveYouMiley warriors are winning big time, as the #WeHateMylieCyrus hashtag is not within the top trends on Twitter as of this writing, yet the "love" one is.
Meanwhile what's Mylie doing? Well...
Drinkin' a pink lemonade listening to its 5 o'clock somewhere :) http://mypict.me/k3FW
While this may seem meaningless, it's not, and only a fool would ignore it. Marketers should pay attention to how the actions of one person communicated on television are amplified online to the ultimate benefit of that person, in this case, Miley Cyrus. There's a formula at work here that's repeated again and again and it does involve sex. How far this approach will go is anyone's guess, but I can say this: it's now all too mainstream.
When I learned that teen star and Twitter mogul Miley Cyrus had literally done a number on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards Monday night, two thoughts entered my mind: first, who convinced the 16 year old to do it, second, does this mean a sex tape's in her future too. I say and write that because I learned she and her father Billy Ray Cyrus came up with the dance production idea. So if her dad's cool with his daughter dancing around that pole at her age, the sky's the limit, right?
Miley Cirus and pole at Teen Choice Awards
Look at how much buzz this act has created for her. In an era where the next ultimate media-based tease is right around the corner, drawing all of us to some news or celebrity website, here's Miley picking up traffic from searches for "stripper pole" in addition to those terms that are to be expected like "Teen Choice Awards". But unless you doubt Miley's turned the corner and so in the moment of what she's doing she's either got no idea of how far she's come or has every idea of how far she's come, she invoked the name of that ever-loving past queen of the flash no-panties shot, Britany Spears in her Twitter updates when she tweeted...
For all the people calling me the "next Britney" THANK U. I couldn't ask for a better compliment :)
Now, with those short shorts, boots and moves, Cyrus did stake her claim as the next Britney, which is why I openly wonder how far she's going to take this over the next 10 years? Moreover, as Miley's seen as teen influencer, what does this say for the trend in the overall habits of teenage women today? Have we so desensitized sex that we should expect to see teen women taking pole dancing courses as a substitute for physical ed? And if that's the case, are we preping them for future employment as strippers?
What's going on here?
I feel like I'm walking a tightrope between being a schoolmarm who wants to take the spiked punchbowl away and a modern member of our media-driven society who likes that someone like Miley keeps pushing the edges of taste and sensibility. But to what degree and when does it stop? The whole hyper exposure movement has placed extreme pressure on our culture's ability to accept and reject sexually suggestive actions such that we have Miley doing things on camera before millions that she would have gotten kicked out of school for doing before a small class of people at a dance-off.
Does that make any sense at all?
All I ask is how far are we taking this and is it ok? So, I ask you now in my poll:
Now, me? Ok, I had little problem with Miley's act, I'm just concerned she's going the sex tape route to megastardome. What say you? Or maybe you're the type that just doesn't care and wants Rome to burn as long as you get your work done and you're not impacted. Or perhaps you want Mileu to apologize for the act? Whatever the case, share your view. One thing's clear, Miley started the Tuesday after her show with not a care in the world, tweeting...
Good morning people! Doo da friggen doo LIFE IS SO GOOD :) I laughed so hard I literally threw up! Hahahahhahahahahaha34 minutes ago from UberTwitter
Miley Cyrus has been sexually exploited by her father, Billy Ray (one-hit-wonder) Silas for before she reached puberty. The Vanity Fair pictures were a national disgrace, yet her career continues to be supported by Disney, one of America's premier entertainment corporations.
The huge Media conglomerates of the World are merely concerned with inducing the masses to part with their escapist dollars and cents, nothing more.
Our moral decline as a society means nothing to them.
Ok. Maybe I'm being a grump but who the heck is Zac Efron? All of a sudden I'm told through the media that some guy named "Zac Efron" is a star, an idol, and - like I care because I'm straight and male - a hunk.
So what! Why him? And why not someone who's Black?
I'm concerned that we as a society don't think critically about what institutions push at us to consume -- Zac Efron's a great example. I fail to see why he's star and I am very derisive of the system that tells me he is.
Zac's not the product of a vote on American Idol and if he were on it, he would not win. I learned that Efron's voice was digitally blended with that of Disney singer Andrew Seeley for the album for High School Musical. So if he needed that kind of help, there's no way he'd survive "Idol" at all. Simon Cowell would eat him alive!
In fact, I'm surprised Simon Cowell actually offered him a record deal and Cowell can thank God and Efron, for Efron's rejection of the offer. The failure of his record would have made Cowell look real bad.
The fact is Zac Efron's the product of a Disney PR machine that's produced Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, and other famous singers, and all either White or "of color" but light-skinned. The only exception is "Raven", the star of "That's so Raven."
If you're saying "Why the focus on race?" my counter is because Disney's focused on race, and in fact a commitment to diversity, while more desirable, is still an emphasis of race - you can't escape that fact.
But I'm tired of having a certain kind of look pushed at me and in the collective face of the industrialized World without a vote. That's what makes Susan Boyle's story so cool! The World voted for her 30 million times if you consider the video views as votes.
And if you think of the rise of Hip-Hop and Rap stars, that could not have happened without a vote by dollar: white guys and white girls buying their albums (and without Disney's influence.) That dynamic has produced many a Black sex symbol and yes to White women: LL Cool J is a great example and he's performed for over 22 years!
In fact, I contend that Hip-Hop and Rap caused an integration of American society through music with Whites and Blacks enjoying popular "Black music" together and in such a way that a whole generation was essentially mentally prepared to vote for Barack Obama for President.
What's that you say? Disney's promoting White talent because they're seen as wholesome? Yeah. Ok. Then explain the whole Vanessa Hudgens sex tage episode? Don't tell me the Disney PR machine wasn't involved in that; I won't believe it. And besides, Zac Efron's got a crush on Tyra Banks and she's Black.
As we close out 2007. we do so with this report on singer Miley Cyrus, who has photos of her being friendly with her female friend. To that, I say, so what.
I mean it is really nothing to get excited about in my view. I just can't see what all the fuss is about. Can you? I think too many Laure Manadou posts have left me chilled.
You can go over to Perez Hilton's website to see the picts, but to me the photo I have here is much better and plus, she's a teenager! Geez, people. What's wrong with you???
