Meetups and Wise-guys in SOHO

Tonight I attended a vloggers meet-up at the rocketboom studio here in NYC where my friend Kathleen and her producing partner Tom of Dinosaur Diorama productions spoke about the realities of producing video for the web.  It was a good time, and Kathleen and Tom did a good job of laying out there both their understanding of what it takes to get video on the web and the enormous economic and logistical challenges that they wrestle with to get their bumble bee to fly.

And then the night got interesting.  We went over to a bar called Two Eighteen and happened into what appeared to be a wise-guy convention complete with a fellow standing just outside an alcove opposite to the bar SINGING the tunes (with a microphone) over the bar's speakers.  Some serious "fly me to the moon" going on.  Kathleen remarked how fantastic this was to have what looked like a wise guy singing rat pack for us while we drank.

And then it got better.  Vinnie Vella walks up to us (yes, THE Vinnie Vella) and tells us he's the emcee for the night and that there is quite a show coming up.  He then proceeds to got on the microphone and tell the whole bar not to worry about the dozen or so dudes who look like wise-guys, they're just actors.  He then proceeds to introduce a Barbara Streisand look alike who sings a Streisand song in a full length sequined evening gown.

Well as it turns out from what I can tell the actor Vinny Vella has made living playing mob types for some pretty high powered mob movies.  He played "Artie Piscano" in Martin Scorsese's Casino.  There is a video link on his site of him talking with Martin about a scene he did with Scorsese's mother.

To circle back around it was really interesting talking to people in the independent content generation scene, i.e. vloggers, try and reason out how to monetize through the various avenues of distribution and streamlining content to keep costs down.

Finally, because I pay attention to what Kathleen says and I am unendingly willing to plug my friends work, I offer you the following thought:  Respect your independent web video content creator.  They are likely working on a shoe string trying to squeeze just a little more blood from a stone to raise the money to keep going.  So go watch theburg.tv the allfornots.com and give them your eyeballs and tell your friends.

Thanks go to Kathleen for letting me be part of her entourage.  By the way my entourage name is "Cheetah" - just so we're clear.