It’s the only place where you can legally get free videos of your favorite episodes of SNL and Family Guy. Seriously, I’ve watched more Kristen Wiig videos on Hulu than I have seen Kittens Inspired by Kittens on YouTube.

Google recognizes the awesomeness of Hulu.com (much like Facebook recognizes the awesomeness of Twitter) and will do many of the same things that Hulu already does, like feature premium content, but most especially, will feature in-stream, interruptive ads. (Funny or Die already does this.)

I am not sure if they can target the videos, but, you bet your sweet charity that I will be getting the in-stream ads for Jennifer Holliday AND Jennifer Hudson’s And I Am Telling You video.

We’ll see this new launch April 16, the delay due to on-going negotiations with Disney.

Obviously this begs the question about questionable behavior during live performances, doesn’t it? That “no photography of any kind” rule includes “no recording devices,” so unless the person who captured this is exceptionally quick to recognize a newsworthy moment, he or she was flouting the very same rules as the snapper. Both are wrong, true, and listening in like this  does make us culpable in the act,  but it’s still pretty fun to hear La Lupone going off on this lout, isn’t it?

Here’s the interesting thing: Take a look at some of the comments from this blog post about the incident on the Gay TV blog.

First of all, wow, these are some vituperative people, some of whom clearly have no understanding of what they were even listening to, but sure are ready to sling some serious smack about a famous person.

Second, boy, do theatre folk get sanctimonious, particularly about their sacred cows (no insult to the lady in question intended).

Third, I just don’t understand the urge to snap photos–or make recordings–of entertainment events. For what? Was that guy going to try to sell crappy cell phone pictures of Lupone on Ebay?  Was the recorder planning to make a cd of the show? (Before he realized he could post the show-stopping episode on Youtube, naturally.) Is there really a market for this kind of thing, or are they planning to gaze/listen to their blurry/mostly inaudible contraband in the privacy of their lonely rooms? Whichever, it’s just kind of sad.

Fourth, full disclosure, I detest people who do stuff like this and have been known to personally, publicly and not-very-nicely request them to desist, so I’m pretty much on Patty’s page here (ha).

That’s what Charles Dickens wrote about money and budgeting in David Copperfield. Simplistic, but true. Unfortunately, as we know, theatre and arts organizations of all kinds are contemplating a pretty miserable forecast for this year, and next, and . . .  oh, who can say when it will end?

Necessity being mother of fundraising, people are starting to get creative about using the power of the internet to expand on the usual (and ubiquitous) year-end appeal. AMC client, Terry Greiss, Executive Director of the Irondale Center, created a video appeal in an effort to shore up their faltering finances, blasted it,  posted it on Youtube and uploaded it to their website. The campaign got picked up by the Daily News and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which we’re all hoping will  help get the word out and the dollars in.

In other news, the Times ran an article the other day on the bigger (BIGGER!) picture in arts funding, i.e. the American Recovery and Reinvestment bill, which includes a $50 million supplement for the N.E.A. to distribute directly to nonprofit arts organizations and also through state and local arts agencies. No way is this enough (is there ever enough?), but at least it offers a ray of hope that the arts will reclaim some part of the national agenda. Lord knows, they’ve been absent from the national political stage (except as a punching bag) for far too long.

Barack Obama was lauded with having an amazingly seamless and beautiful website, far superior to any of his rivals. Obama is so web 2.0 that he instantly connected with the youth of our nation reaching out for support in very nontraditional ways. Obama has also started a new site, Change.gov allowing ordinary people to feel included into the happenings of the government.

This brings me to the new whitehouse.gov website. Obama and his team certainly understand the importance of branding because the new White House website matches the look and feel of change.gov, his youtube page, facebook page and campaign website. CNN.com posted an article about the website this morning. The website is very interactive including a blog and allowing people to contact the president via email (500 characters max. meaning you can only say “I love you” so many times). The website is so clean and sophisticated to puts past websites to shame. Here are a few screen shots from past Whitehouse.gov home pages.

December 1998 (Remember the internet was still new)

July 2002

June 2007

The New Website – January 2009

Ready for your close up? The cast of ROCK OF AGES proved they were BORN ready when we asked them to create their own footage for the production’s exclusive video diary. They performed like true troupers, providing hundreds of handmade videos chronicling all kinds of backstage folderol and giving fans a peek into what it’s like to be in a hit show. They took their cameras on the town, too, filming in restaurants, at the closing party of HAIR in Central Park and Lauren Molina even took viewers on surfing safari to Far Rockaway beach. “I had a blast using the cameras,” says Molina. “It was fun and easy. Fans at the stage door told me how much they loved watching the videos, too. Certain women didn’t want footage taken in the dressing room, though, because people get naked in there!”

We gave the ROA-ers Flip cameras (www.theflip.com), which cost a little more than $100 apiece. They’re small, light and hold up to an hour of footage; plus they’re simple to use—just point and push record. We ended up posting about 40 videos, uploading them to Youtube and embedding them on the official site. At AMC, we’re starting to include Youtube videos on sites, rather than creating custom players: They’re cheaper, load more easily, are more reliable and have all those nifty “social” features like sharing, rating and auto-loading related videos built right in. It’s also a user interface that people already know how to use, which helps increase functionality—never a bad thing.

The fan response to videos from cast members Molina, Constantine Maroulis, Tad Wilson and Will Swenson was amazing. In fact, the Diary quickly became the most popular feature with users, garnering 35,620 views since the campaign launched last October.

Video Diaries are an easy, fun way to build brand loyalty for a show, to keep people on your site and generate viral attention for your production—and your cast. Best of all, they’re CHEAP! What’s not to love, right?

YouTube launched a new 16:9 format.
The quality is beautiful!

Check it out, we used it to put a social network code on the Fela video:

See Bronson Pinchot in his brilliant performance of Rick Astley (good catch, Jaisen!):