Kanye - So Appalled

dark knight feeling, die and be a hero

or live long enough to see yourself become a villain

I went from the favorite to the most hated

or would you rather be underpaid or over-rated?

I promised an influx of entries on the blog and I'll be damned if I break that promise because of a drug named Charlie Sheen. But on the bright side, apparently being fired isn't all that bad as they make it to be. So now that I'm "Employment Single" the blog will be back with more attention, more time and with way more dedication, so much so that you might confuse the new and improved ETC with Heather Mills circa 2002 (get it, second wives? no...).

Well I wanted to write to inform you that for the rest of the month I will be compiling Top 10 lists on a wide range of topics. I'm not talking basic "10 Best Movies" or "10 Best Athletes". Instead I will try to compile lists that will make you want to debate your friends. You will want to question co-workers on the subject so you can compare your list to theirs. And ultimately disagree with their list while confirming in your head that your list is best. So starting tomorrow there will be a Top 10 list and I encourage as much feed back as possible. But as I said that is starting tomorrow.

The point of my entry tonight is to address the timeless, but recently lost art of storytelling. Either you can tell a great story or you can't. In my opinion everyone has a story to tell that people want to hear. It's just a matter of properly retelling the story so that your audience can't help but get caught up in it, anxiously waiting the punchline. I consider myself an excellent storyteller (not to blow my own Johnson rod but I think I can tell a good story), so much so that in college I was once dubbed "the storyteller" (that's a whole different story that I will have to tell you some other time). But last night, I was fortunate enough to hear a re-telling of my all-time favorite story.

I was not even involved in this story but from the very first time i heard this story, I instantly knew it was my favorite of all time. It just so happened that last night was a perfect storm of ingredients that forced my roommate to re-tell my favorite story of all time. Now, unfortunately (because ETC's readership is not enough to warrant me telling the actual story) I can not tell you the details of this story. I'm currently working on writing the Hollywood screenplay so I can't reveal any details until the screenplay is more than 60% written. Anyway, I came to a strange but provocative realization as I enjoyed the re-telling of my favorite story. As this was happening, I thought to myself that this incredible, hysterical, outrageous story would make a viral sensation on YouTube (especially because I secretly captured the entire 16 minute re-telling on my phone. Maybe later in the week I will release the casting sheet that was created in the said 16 minutes).

With the recent success of viral videos, one can't help but think of how the landscape of video "response" has changed. Think of the past few years and all of the YouTube video's that you have seen. I mean who hasn't seen "Charlie bit my finger" (I'll admit, this was the first time I watched this video and I died laughing. Please click if you are having a bad day), "Double Rainbow" or "The Evolution of Dance". These are video's that have been seen hundreds of millions of times. And so my question is this to young filmmakers: is it better to have your video seen hundreds of millions of times on YouTube, or is it better to have an Indy film produced in Hollywood that makes you $3 million.

Before you quickly answer that question consider this. $3 million sounds like a lot of money to me and you, but in the year 2010, the movie "Inspector Bellamy" earned 3 million at the box office. I dare you to find a friend of yours that has even heard of this movie, let alone has seen it. So which film-making avenue is better? Becoming a cultural phenomenon or achieving "Hollywood" production.

I debate that very question as you read this. While I try to type up the screenplay. Or is it just easier to upload those video's to YouTube from my Iphone?