HAPPY NEW YEAR / JOHN CASSAVETTES

Went to a friend's Facebook this morning and found ideas to share - Adria Petty is a filmmaker (www.AdriaPetty.com) - she quoted filmmaker John Cassavettes - wise words to ring in a new year: "you have to fight every day to stop censoring yourself. and you never have anyone else to blame when you do. what happens to artists is that it's not that somebody's standing in their way, it's that their own selves are standing in their way. the compromise really isn't how or what you do, the techniques you use, or even the content, but really the compromise is beginning to feel a lack of confidence in your innermost thoughts. and if you don't put these innermost thoughts on the screen then you are looking down on not only your audience but the people you work with, and that's what makes so many people working out there unhappy. these innermost thoughts become less and less a part of you and once you lose them then you don't have anything else. so many people have so much to say and there are so many really worthwhile things to say that it seems impossible that we could cut ourselves off from this whole avenue of enormous excitement." The quote inspired me to find more: "...in no other activity can a man express himself as fully as in art. And, in all times, the artist has been honored and paid for revealing his opinion of life. The artist is an irreplaceable figure in our society too: A man who can speak his own mind, who can reveal and educate, who can stimulate or appease and in every sense communicate with fellow human beings. To have this privilege of world-wide communication in a world so incapable of understanding, and ignore its possibilities, and accept a compromise--most certainly will and should lead the artist and his films to oblivion." More John Cassavettes: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001023/ Happy New Year! Rob

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PAUL RUDD on MY DAMN CHANNEL

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NO SECRET

Merry Christmas to all. A few more days of relative calm before we return to battle. Our band of merry rebels won't take anything away from the mega success of the self-help phenom: "The Secret." But an obvious lesson learned in old media fuels our web war machine for '08: Corporate secrets are poisonous. When I started in rock radio, the first wave of FM freedom fighters were under attack by a small handful of wolves dressed in corporate clothing. A few ex-disc jockeys and program directors cut their long hair, dressed up in fancy new suits, and jumped up on a new pedestal as self-appointed "consultants." These bad boys devised plans to rake in megabucks by convincing radio owners and general managers they possessed secret formulas for ratings success. Veteran radio warriors earned scars and stripes as we watched these wise guys disappear behind the closed doors of power and suck the spirit out of an industry built on innovation and creativity. Originality was replaced by cookie-cutter formats with identical playlists making stations separated by thousands of miles sound exactly the same. A number of these same consultants invaded other bastions of cool and followed some of radio's best & brightest to new fronts fighting for mindshare of the pop culture planet. It was surprising and sad to see these wise guys show up in the hallways of MTV. More secret meetings, more secret memos, more secret sauce to romance executives into dishing out fat retainer fees to the con-sultans. We have a few important rules in our rebel army. "Dirty Hands" means anyone who works with us has to produce actual work. We can't afford the luxury of paying people to navel gaze and dispense wisdom. The new world moves too fast and our gang is too skeptical to be sucked in by snake oil. We've got another pretty old-fashioned rule for My Damn Channel. "No secrets." Everyone in our community has direct unfiltered access to our people and our site. Everyone who works with us - our artists - staff - interns - co-conspirators - and backers - get the buck naked truth. It's easier. We're unafraid of what lies ahead and too psyched to be bogged down by bullshit.

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A VERY SPECIAL TIM AFTER TIM HOLIDAY SPECIAL

http://www.mydamnchannel.com/channel.aspx?episode=329 BIG FAT BRAIN: better than the Divinyls - in their My Damn Channel Special Special

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A CHRISTMAS CARTOON

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from the Saints & Sinners at MyDamnChannel - Better than The Queen's YouTube channel: http://mydamnchannel.com/channel.aspx?episode=350 Written by Kate Christensen Sound Design by Matt Simnowitz Animation by Dan Pinto Bryan Brinkman Matt Gaston

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GAME - SET - MATCH

pop art credit to Colin72

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JUDITH OWEN

Here's a new Christmas video made for My Damn Channel and for your emailing pleasure. Judith Owen performs the Spinal Tap classic: "Christmas With the Devil" http://www.mydamnchannel.com/channel.aspx?episode=352 The Devil's on bass. Judith Owen combines beautiful music with a sweet and powerful voice. Her stage presence and performance is cutting, comical, honest, and raw. I've taken at least ten uninitiated friends to see Judith play live over the years and everyone leaves high on her cool-aid. You can barely discover new music in the old ways - but we thought My Damn Channel was the right forum to introduce you to Judith. Her bio & her website are linked below. Her albums are weekend essentials gettable off the discography on her site. We just filmed two of Judith's shows last week in beautiful, downtown Burbank. We'll be giving you more videos from this music on The Harry Shearer Channel.....Judith's so in love with this man of all seasons that she married the Devil. http://www.judithowen.net/biography/ http://www.judithowen.net/ CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.mydamnchannel.com/channel.aspx?episode=154

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LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

In a world of too many sports analogies, you'll often get the phrase: "level playing field." Dot-commies use this line to help them build confidence in our fight for new democracy vs. Old Media. The field is getting more level by the minute. I've sat inside old skyscrapers long enough to see million-dollar execs sweat bullets when a few too many websites or emails dare to question their mystical ability to know what the public wants. Honesty is a sacred currency in new media. A small group of intense fans can shake skyscrapers from their foundation. The mistake too many execs make is to run in fear from fans who attack. Mass communication is a contact sport. When we first started MyDamnChannel.com, we had arguments about whether or not to let users comment and post negatively on our videos. We quickly decided before launch that we'd be doomed the minute we started editing or blocking feedback of any kind. We're planning to launch new features by Feb 1st to ensure that My Damn Channel becomes more BOTTOM UP. Keep Attacking.

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ADAM CAROLLA

Last weekend, I googled the man I hired for the awesome little job called "replace Howard Stern." I found an anonymous blog that smelled like something rotten was stinking up the kitchen at CBS: http://somedudefromjersey.blogspot.com/2007/12/shit-in-my-awesome-sandwich.html Adam Carolla has a playbook filled with more options and winning strategies than any idiotic morning zoo or any hack program directors can ever hope to create. Danny Bonaduce was a desperate hail mary pass thrown by people too short-sited to see that it took Howard decades to build his radio empire. When Stern first syndicated, it took four years for him to lay waste to the competition. Adam was always first to say that Howard was irreplaceable. I couldn't have agreed more. But when 'the KING' departed for a new throne, someone was left having to figure out how to start over. That someone was me. I went home the night that I was given the ball and told my wife there was good news & bad news. The good news was that I was made President of CBS Radio programming. The bad news is that I had to figure out how to replace Howard. We'll skip the long stories here about who the REAL choice was for NY & save all that for later. The ONLY choice for LA, and for the west coast Stern stations was the man who'd been on Howard's show for scores of LIVE appearances - the man who rocked THE MAN SHOW with Brother Jimmy Kimmel - the man who made LOVELINE a latenight hit - the man with unique comic skills to improv and create immediate compelling content out of every scrap of raw material - the man who can build a house with his bare hands - and you get the drift: C-A-R-O-L-L-A. We gave Adam a new start in a new format called FREE FM. Our mission wasn't complex. Hire BIG talent and give them the support and freedom they need to build better radio on their own terms. People are sick of over-formatted radio with too many commercial interuptions. No breaking news there. Talent is the only answer to better ratings and revenues. But old media doesn't have a terrific track record backing talent. The current writers' strike is front page news that tells the same story in Hollywood. A great drama seems to be unfolding. Morning radio fans in LA, Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Sacramento, Reno, Fresno, Palm Springs, Portland (Oregon & Maine), Boise, and Pittsburgh wait to find out if Adam Carolla will be back on January 2nd. I'll lay down this bet with a song: Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying 'Tis you, 'tis you must go.

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BIG FAT THANK YOU

As we race towards Friday night & the first promise of sleep in 07 - big fat thanks to the few, the brave, the FREE...who took a bet on our new media machine to break with the past and embrace what's next. The writers' strike continues - and we'll continue to offer every artist TOTAL CREATIVE FREEDOM, MASS DISTRIBUTION & REVENUE under the My Damn Channel tree & into 08. Best to you & your families!!! Rob

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