Byrd Betsy Talks

“I see empty seats! I was told this was sold out,” Bill Maher yelled into the crowd at Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre Sunday afternoon. To his right, “Borat” director Larry Charles had a suggestion as to why. “Its for the Archdioceses of Toronto.” Charles and Maher, in Toronto to promote their upcoming doc, “Religulous,” were joined on stage by Toronto International Film Festival programmer Thom Powers, who moderated a discussion between two of America’s most prominent comic geniuses. Charles and Maher remarkably had not met prior to making “Religulous”. “If there was a God, this would be fate,” joked Charles. “This was our passion project.” Lionsgate teased the unfinished film- twenty minutes of which were shown to constant and resounding laughter, as it chronicles Maher and Charles as they travel the world discussing religion with various “experts” (focusing mostly on the “big 3″: Islam, Christianity and Judiasm). “We explore the origins of the beliefs and then show you what’s going on today,” said Charles. “It’s a suspense film.”
When asked about other comedic takes on religion (such as this summer’s “Evan Almighty”), Charles explained that while those films “poke fun,” “we stab it to death.” Their goal was evident throughout the nearly 90 minute presentation, in which both men brought the audience into bursts of applause for comical quips on the absurdity of current religion. “I should be an anti-preacher,” Maher decided. “This is my Sunday service.”

Both Maher and Charles discussed their own relationships with their subject matter. “Its been an evolution,” Maher deadpanned. “I used to make a career out of making fun of my religious childhood.” Half Jewish and half Catholic, Maher joked that he “used to go to confession with a lawyer.” Charles, technically Jewish but with secular parents, actually had at one point wanted to be a rabbi. “Are you out your goddamn mind,” his parents had reacted. “Get bah mitzfahed and get the hell out of there!”

But not everything was about getting a laugh. Charles spoke poignantly about what motivates people’s religious beliefs. “We should be mature enough as a species to not need that crutch to be nice to each other,” he said. Maher warned about the severe reprecussions of religion, summarizing it as “stupid and dangerous.” He added that “religion is just like a movie. It needs an ending.” Cue uproarious applause.
Though they could not say with certainty when “Religulous” will find its way to theaters, they agreed that they were eyeing a Spring release. When an audience member inquired if the release made either of them nervous for their personal safety, Maher simply answered: “No. Its a comedy.”

[Bill Maher and Larry Charles before showing off about 20 minutes from their new film, “Religuous” on Sunday. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE]

Alternate Reality Games have started to become a huge phenomom. The biggest to date was probably for Halo 2 (ilovebees.com). There are entire sites dedicated to following and tracking these. I played the Lost one a bit last summer that had you calling phone number and entering codes on websites that eventually revealed more of the Lost lore.

The sequel to Batman Begins, has started an ARG at whysoresious.com. I’ve gotten passed the first screen.

If you call 1-800-395-9646 you’ll get a recording with a password. Enter that password on the main site and you’ll get to page 2. I’ll keep posting here as I get farther.

update:
Answer to the second question is “Jack The Ripper”

update2:
Here is the solve sheet. I would have played the game more if it had more bandwidth and didn’t crash out. It eventually gets you a trailer.

“Inside Joke”

“Jack the ripper”

“Mountebank”

“Crime of Passion”

“head games”

“74 bars”

“clement vallandingham”

“gaslamp dan haslam”

“unforgivable”

“baseball bat”

“larceny”

“starve”

“reaper”

“2971759″

and here is what you get

http://www.whysoserious.com/n_000212.htm

The “winner” on the ground got whisked away into a waiting SUV and participated in the ending.

http://video.whysoserious.com/TDK_Teaser_HD_Best_L98hufT.mov

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Klaus

Frequently Asked Questions:
What is TechWalk?
TechWalk is a large-scale urban game using the physical world of a 6×6 block area of downtown Birmingham, Alabama as a virtual game board. Using wireless technology teams of people will compete in games of Othello, capturing grid intersections by completing a film-themed challenge with a camera phone, by uploading the images to a centralized server. Challenges will be in the form of performance art using a combination of noun, verb, and adjective randomly assigned to the team when they arrive at the intersection. The game will be time-limited so that an overall winner can be determined before the evening’s screenings at Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival. The public is invited to observe the game in progress but can also track the progress online via the web.How Do You Play?
16 teams of between 4 and 6 people each are expected to be accommodated in our game. The game board is made up of 36 blocks of downtown Birmingham (2nd Ave N to 7th Ave N and 17th St N to 22nd St N). Using a PDA, the team will determine where they wish to place their virtual token. They will quickly move to that location and request a challenge from the server. Together, all but one of the team members must act out the challenge sequence and the remaining team member will use a camera phone to capture the image and upload it to the server. A moderator will visually inspect the uploaded photograph and award the team’s token to that location. The game is over when all intersections are claimed or if a prescribed time limit has been reached. The winner of the round is determined by the total number of colored tiles placed/captured according to the rules of Othello.Technology to be used:
This game will make use of a wireless network, digital capture devices (camera phones), display devices (PDA), and personal cell phones (for communicating between team members if they send out scouts).Challenges:
Obviously, this is our first attempt at running this game. Wireless network latency may be an issue, but we don’t expect to have to share this network with many others during the event. While we can accomplish the effort with nothing more than walkie-talkies and marshals, we’d like to play the game totally electronically… which will allow us to scale to virtually any number of groups that wish to play the game.Why Play?
This should be a fun, fast-paced game on the city streets. Teams will be pitted against each other in a random manner, intersections on the grid must be claimed within a prescribed time limit, and your team will have to move quickly and travel across up to six city blocks to position your team for the next challenge. What could be more fun?Who’s behind TechWalk?
While TechBirmingham is the lead organizer of the game, several other groups have been engaged to help out. ITAC Solutions is a sponsor of the event and will be helping to manage the logistics. Auburn University’s Urban Studio students and instructors will be studying and documenting the game as part of their assigned curriculum this semester. And, UAB’s GameDev group is creating the Urban Othello game itself.Who Created TechWalk?
This effort is being led by Curtis Palmer of TechBirmingham. It is actually a blend of several different similar efforts undertaken over the past few years primarily in New York City (see our blog posting about large-scale urban games for details). However, none of this could be accomplished without the steering committee members and other volunteers.

Marketing Sherpa has recently awarded the top 12 viral marketing campaigns. I applaud them for awarding campaigns where performance metrics are a key factor.

Per my paper published in the Journal of Consumer Behavior’s titled “Buzz Marketing: Building the Buzz in the Hive Mind” I take issue with the term viral marketing. The much preferred and more accurate term is “buzz marketing.”

To better understand the machinations behind the campaigns I have assessed these buzz marketing campaigns and categorized them into various buckets based on promotion vehicle and market served (B2B or B2C). Of the various campaigns categories the type utilized the most frequently was a tie between “games” and “entertainment”. These methods were only applied to consumer markets.

Information of a “how to” nature was used in the B2B markets whereas, semi-exclusive information was offered in B2C markets in the form of new-to-the-world music and unreleased films.

Advocacy marketing, which is marketing for a social cause, was used in a campaign that crossed both B2C and B2B markets. And unique offer value, in the form of a belt buckle knife, was also promoted to both markets.

The campaign that impressed me as the most innovative and humorous is the Monk-e-email, a campaign from Careerbuilder. This campaign makes novel use of customized audio (text-to-speech, phone recorded, or computer mic recorded) to send messages. It caused quite a stir amongst the friends I directed it towards. It is definitely buzz worthy.

Below is a table that shows the campaign classifications.

The Buzz Campaign List
1. Peerflix Paparazzi
2. Beer.com’s Virtual Bartender
3. New Rules of PR (PDF)
4. Wadsworth Atheneum - Surrealist Exhibit
5. The Quantum IT Challenge
6. MakeMyTrip Viral Series (India)
7. Blog in Space
8. Kreedo Brand Democracy
9. Monk-e-Mail
10. mySBC eBill Service: Trees in the Forest of Change
11. Belt Buckle Knife
12. The ERP of This Century

Related links
- MarketingSherpa’s Viral Marketing Hall of Fame 2006: Top 12 Campaigns You Should Swipe Ideas From

- Monk-E-mail

Copyright Steve Simon
Okay, the six-week big trip through Mozambique and South Africa continues. I’ve already bared-all with the description of what I take with me equipment wise. The big question remains, what kind of underwear and how many?
Clothes
10 Pair Underwear (Ex Officio Boxer-Brief Quick wash and dry)
Okay, officially too much information for the Inside Aperture Blog.
10 Pair Socks
3 Long Sleeve Quick Dry Shirts
2 Long Sleeved Jerseys*
1 Fleece Zip Jacket
1 Sweater (it’s Africa and it’s Winter there, and it does get nippy)
2 T-shirts
1 Gortex Jacket
Two Jeans
1 Mosquito Net
1 Silk Sheet
1 Mosquito Head Net
1 Mosquito Hat
1 Hat
1 Sports Towel
Sandals for the Shower
1 Travel Pillow
Travel Umbrella
First Aid Kit
Blundstone Original Boots, tough, breathable and comfortable.

Copyright Steve Simon
Electrical
Plug adapters for South Africa and Europe/Angola/Mozambique. If you come to South Africa remember it takes a unique big plug adapter, which you should always have before your trip, but you can get them at the Airport in Johannesburg. Some hotels also have the European plug.

Copyright Steve Simon
Health
Toiletries: You know what you need to make yourself beautiful. But here are a few things you guys might want to have in your bag. Ladies, you’re on your own.
Shaver
Shaving Cream
Skin Cream
Shampoo/Soap
Brush
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Floss
Deodorant
Nail Clippers/Scissors
Mini Toilet Paper Roll (These little travel sized Charmins come in a plastic mini-roll and are priceless)
Vitamins (lots of C)
Ear Plugs
Brush
Little Toilet Paper
Kleenex
Moist Wipes
Deep Woods Off Moist Wipes
Insect Repellent with Deet 35
A good Travel Alarm Clock or a watch with an alarm feature you can figure out that is loud enough to wake you up is really important!
On my last trip they called me “The Pharmacist”, since I had a bag full of over-the- counter medications ready for anything a hypochondriac could dream up. Depending on where you are going, you may want to consider taking this stuff, particularly in places where finding a pharmacy is not easy.

Copyright Steve Simon
Pharmaceutical Carry On Kit
Insect RepellantAfter Bite
TernaFlu Strips
Rolaids
Neutrogena Sun Block
Ear Plugs
Murine Eye Relief
Dramamine
Advil
Aleve Caplets
Vitamin C
Jetease
Antihistamine
Imodium Chews
Malarone (Malaria Drug)
Cipro
GasX
Utility Bag
4 Mini Toilet Paper Rolls
Clothespins
Clothesline
Seat Covers
Duct Tape (mini roll)
Gaffer Tape
Kleenex
Soap Leaves
Woolite Suds
Mosquito Repellant for Clothes
Not needing all this stuff is the hope, so prevention is the best idea. Here are a couple of products that may just help alleviate the need for bringing a bag full of drugs.
I found these while on a layover at the airport in Munich.

Orthomol Immun
Comes in 10 ready to drink bottles, which are micronutrients for frequent travelers. Full of vitamins, the pharmacist in Munich where I found them said they really work to reduce jet lag and build up the immune system, which is crucial during long voyages. I’m going to give the product a try this trip and I’ll report back to you.
The other anti-jet lag product I found at this same little travel pharmacy at the Munich airport is something called Jet Ease, from a company in New Zealand. These 32-tablet strip packs are also vitamin rich and they say it will help reduce the effects of jetlag.

Copyright Steve Simon
More on how Aperture performed on the big trip next post.

Excited at all the trailers for the movie and no.1 ranking in almost every movie countdown show in Tamil TV Land, not to mention the adorable promotional pitch made by his bro Surya, I could not wait to watch this movie. I was also so happy that an underdog like Priya Mani, a non-south-indian-heroine-in-tamil-movies was lauded for her performance.

One fine sunday, (should have noticed it was April 1, Fools Day,) I was so excited that I was able to get my hands on its DVD( claimed as original not pirated by the DVD guy). My husband being a north indian, wanting to share, appreciate and enjoy the rustic village setting fully, I called my maid-friend ratna and her daughter who were all too excited to join me.

The title and credits played and we all were tingling with anticipation. It started with a thiruna/jatrai/mela scene. I had to stop myself from making the sound one mouths after eating a delicious dish. Then came the LONG terukuttu song and dance sequence. It tested my patience, but quickly ignored it in wanting to see surya’s little brother’s intro. The terukuttu went on and on for another 10 minutes and then he came and boy ! did he arrive! he was so good, so convincing, I felt such a sense of pride, as if my own lil brother was having the best debut in this whole wide earth. Yeah!, I am like that, I like to call myself a person who can identify capabilities in unlikely underdogs of the motion picture industry and they all get better, eg( vijay, surya, milo ventimigilia, sneha, priya mani, stephen colbert) moreover I am a sucker for little siblings succedding in real life and reel life.

Karthik’s acting, the screen play, Priya Mani’s characterization and potrayal, comedy, everything was great. I am not going to beat the dead snake here, you can read great things being said abt the movie from many many reviews and blogs out there.

The reason why I am writing this blog is, after the ending I feel the movie is such a CRAP. A TRUCK LOAD OF CRAP. A CONTAINER LOAD OF CRAP. Contrary to the popular opinion that this is the best movie and our tamil movie industry has finally arrived.

The reasons could be one of the following
1. I am still shell shocked at the ending.
2. I am sleep deprived after getting nightmares of the final scenes.
3. I am still heart broken at the fate of those 2 very much likable characters.
4. I have seen it all and I now truly beleive that a tragedy ending does not automatically qualify a movie as being good/oscar worthy etc. etc.
5. I just plainly dont like a movie that make me pray and desperately want the saravanan character to shut his mouth and listen to the old lady and open the door and rescue the girl!. I DONT like to be so pulled into a movie without me knowing.

Dont get me wrong, I love a movie which moved me and make me bawl, in kadhal I knew the ending and I was prepared to cry my brains out, but here I was not, I was hoping for an ending, obnoxiously funny and daring. I would have settled and called it a great movie even if it ended with what I had expected, even if it was a cliche. I would have just been happy knowing that this was a movie which has a great debut and great actress.

You know what, I am so agitated right now that I an incapable of continuing my train of thoughts. I just want to find that completely @!#!@#!@# director and kick his butt black and blue and all colors of vibgyor.

He could have killed that freaking Paruthiveeran, but why kill my girl Muthazhagu ?

God!. Please dont watch this movie. If you have to!, then watch till Paruthi and Muthazhagu decide to elope. After that burn that DVD/CD/Tape, break the DVD player,
TV, tear the movie screen and walk away without turning back.

If not you will end up feeling just like me and pledging to never watch any movie uptill the ending.

WHAT A WASTE ! and what a great april fool I was made as!.

I don’t normally listen to French-Candian rock, so forgive me if I’m little behind on this find.

The band is Malajube and the song is ‘Montréal -40° C.’ And even though I have no idea what is being said in the lyrics, the tune is just oh so catchy in a strange, weird way. In fact, AMG’s Tim Sendra has described the band’s music as:

“some Flaming Lips-style weirdness, a dash of Radiohead majesty, traces of early Mercury Rev’s kitchen sink approach to recording, some Arcade Fire drama, a bit of post-punk à la Franz Ferdinand and tiny scraps of chamber pop iconoclasts like Sparklehorse, Sigur Rós and Mew here and there.”

Watch the video for ‘Montréal -40° C’ below: