Subway Fresh Artists Featured Filmmakers Returns!

You know when you have an emotion so powerful inside you that the only way to express it is to break out in song?  I do that a lot, and you know what?  Nobody around me is happy.  I sing about as well as I dance.  And this dog dances better than I do.

Lucky for you, my voice had absolutely nothing to do with “Frat House: The Musical,” an awesome new web series that just happens to be one of the winners of this year’s “Subway Fresh Artists™ Featured Filmmakers” competition!

 

Filmmaking students at USC and NYU—two of the top film schools in America—submitted short films for consideration.  Two teams from each school won the top prizes, which means their series are getting the star treatment!

 

First up is “Frat House The Musical,” the story of a plucky college freshman with pipes of gold and abs of steel. 

 

He wants nothing more than to join his father’s fraternity.  Sadly, the Sigma frat doesn’t want him… until they realize they need him to survive.  Drama!  Dancing!  Singing!  Subway!  What more could you ask for?

For you to watch it.

 

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TOP 11 of '11

It's the 5th year we get to thank you and wish you Happy Holidays from the heart (no joke).

We honestly love you for watching & sharing My Damn Channel original videos.

We promise to deliver the goods again in '12‚ and we'll be launching our new daily live show with YouTube, strangely titled: MY DAMN CHANNEL: LIVE


The staff took an informal poll and picked 11 faves from the past year‚ they're all HERE for your holiday dining and dancing pleasure:

1. WAINY DAYS - Kelly & Arielle (Part 1)
David Wain returns in the triumphant Season 5 of our longest-running hit comedy series with a killer new cast & a new sponsor: FIAT!

2. GIGI: ALMOST AMERICAN - Donate Good Cause
Josh Gad stars as "Gigi," an awesome, original character that infected our fans on My Damn Channel and on YouTube.

3. GARFUNKEL & OATES - David Wain is Sexy
Garfunkel & Oates created this chart-topper to honor WAINY DAYS with David Wain guesting on vocals and guitar.

4. DAILY GRACE - Official Sexy Friday song with Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black recently told YouTube that our My Damn Channel goddess, Daily Grace was one of her favorite people on YouTube. Grace invaded Rebecca's studio for the surprise awesome duet of the year.

5. HARRY SHEARER - Touch My Junk
Our patron saint and in-house hero has blown our brains with original videos since day ONE back in 2007. Here's his musical love note to airport TSA pat-downs.

6. MARK MALKOFF - Apple Store Challenge
MARK MALKOFF - Big Wheel vs. Bus
Every Malkoff adventure captures our imagination, lotsa video views and tons of well-deserved press. He tied for #6 with two videos that tapped the zeitgeist in 2011.

7. VERSAILLES - Episode #7
David Hunt created one of the most original series on My Damn Channel this year with an amazing cast joining him including Patricia Heaton, William H. Macy, Eve Gordon, Martha MacIsaac & the great Fred Willard.

8. SLACKTORY - Slackgeist 2011: The Year in Stupidity
We launched a new My Damn Channel Blog Network this year and Nick Douglas is running an awesome new site for us called Slacktory. Their blog posts are toooo good and they make videos tooo. Here's their year-ender.

9. WAINY DAYS - Kelly & Arielle (Part 4)
Thomas Lennon reunites with David Wain in this new episode from Season 5.

10. SAUL HERNANDEZ - Molecular (from our music channel produced by Don Was)
Don Was is one of the greatest musicians and music producers there is. He's been running our music channel here since day one in 2007 & we all fell in love with one of this year's original songs by Saul Hernandez, lead vocalist and songwriter for the Mexican bands Caifanes and Jaguares.

11. DICKI - Making Friends
We're in love with Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from "24"). She's a new member of the My Damn Channel fam with an original character comedy, DICKI.

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Texans Revolt Against TSA Tyranny, Storm Capitol

Harry Shearer is one of the most conscious, confrontational, comedic voices in America.

Harry has been creating original videos on My Damn Channel since we launched in July, 2007.

Search through Harry's channel and you'll find videos that make you laugh, dance and think about issues that keep appearing in headline news: waterboarding, church scandals, and unnatural disasters.

Harry's latest video is "Touch My Junk" and TSA groping is back in the news in a bad way on this Memorial Day Weekend:

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Go Sukashi! Does It Again!

Remember when I said that Go Sukashi! was crazy awesome?  Well guess what?  They just got more awesome.  This week's episode of Sukashi just really blew my mind.  I don't have words really, just exclamations of mirth and...ecstasy.  Pure ecstasy.

I don't wanna spoil the magic, so I suggest you go and watch the new episode right now.  Parks are blown up and there's singing and dancing.  Perfect combination.  Enjoy!

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Touch My Junk: Behind the Scenes

 

If you're already hip to Harry Shearer's latest video, "Touch My Junk", then feel free to jump down to the links below and check out two new videos documenting the making of. Or maybe you just want some tips on fashionable dress and sassy dance moves?

If you haven't seen the original yet, stop everything - and start watching. Then watch the behind the scenes videos, linked below.

Touch My Junk - Behind the Scenes: Wardrobe
Touch My Junk - Behind the Scenes: The Shoot

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Big Love for The Book of Mormon

Today is the day: previews begin for the new Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon" and I, for one, could not be more excited.  Why?  Three reasons.

1) Josh Gad, star of "Gigi: Almost American," My Damn Channel's original series premiering on 3/23, will also be starring in "The Book of Mormon" as Elder Cunningham, one of the two missionaries who travel to Africa in order to spread, eh-hem, the Book of Mormon. 

2) Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Matt Stone,  TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE!!!  "The Book of Mormon" is the brainchild of these two dudes who also created "South Park," you know, that show that's been hilarious for over a decade now.  These guys always go for it: it's guaranteed that "The Book of Mormon" will bring the hot fire cuz Trey and Matt they don't ever quit bringing the heat.

3) It's Broadway, baby!  I've seen every single show that's ever opened on Broadway since "Show Boat" opened in 1927.  I can't get enough of it!  The pageantry, the hot lights, the buzz, the singing, the dancing...at this tender age of 114, Broadway is more potent than a fistful of Viagra.

So scoop up your tickets right now.  Why wait?  WHY WOULD YOU WAIT?  There are no reasons.  Do it. 

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A SWEDISH LESSON

     

With the big premieres of Spärhusen and Easy to Assemble season 2 quickly approaching, we started thinking about the lovely nation of Sweden and all the wonderful things it has brought us.  We're assuming you guys may not know everything (or maybe anything) about the country squished somewhere between Finland and Norway.  So, here are a few educational facts about this Scandinavian gem!

--Sweden is called "The land of the midnight sun" or "The land of the Vikings".  We’re thinking is should be called "The Land of Apples and Fish" or "The Land of Ikea"…but that’s just us.

--The Swedish alphabet has 3 more letters than the English alphabet; they are å, ä and ö.  We're wondering how this changes the ABC song...

--One of Sweden’s most famous exports is the family friendly Volvo driven by soccer moms all over America.  The soccer-mom in Sweden is known as the  latte-mama. This is due to the Swedes’ obsession with coffee as they consistently rank in the top 5 for countries with the highest coffee consumption per year.  A coffee break is known as a “fika”.  “Fika” can be used as either a verb or a noun (i.e. “let's have a fika” or “shall we fika?”).     This is similar to the English word “dance” or “shit” (i.e. “this is shit” or “I need to shit”).

--Legendary actresses Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman are both from The Land of Apples and Fish! Actor Gunnar Björnstrand, also hails from Sweden (not really sure who he is but he’s got an awesome name so therefore we included him).

--In the 1970’s, the Swedish band ABBA gained worldwide popularity.  According to the always truthful and trustworthy Wikipedia.com, “Sweden is the third largest music exporter in the world, with over 800 million dollars in 2007 revenue, surpassed only by the US and the UK”.  Obviously, with the highly anticipated release of Spärhusen’s “The Best of Sparhusen” these numbers are likely to increase.

--Finally, in Sweden dates are written Date/Month/Year unlike in America where we insist on being different from the rest of the world and writing    Month/Date/Year.  Therefore to avoid any confusion Spärhusen and Easy to Assemble Season 2 will be debuting on My Damn Channel on 8/10/2009 for the Swedes and 10/8/2009 for the Americans.

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9 DEFINED

If you made it here to THE NIGHT FEED blog on MY DAMN CHANNEL even once before, then you've likely made it into more than one of the 9 circles below.

HAPPY 09! The sun is coming up & as we get ready to race around it again with you - here are nods & promises: 

To Our Families & Friends:

The work is impossible without your support & meaningless without your love. 

To Our Artists: 

To those who've been with us, those who remain, & those about to join My Damn Channel in 09...we built this ship for you: a studio, a network, a syndicator & a cash-creator like no other. Freedom reigns - red tape disappears & you're in the driver's seat to reach as large an audience as you can - and to reap the rewards you deserve. We worship your ability to make people smile, dance & think.

To Our Fans: 

Thank you for finding us, for spreading our url and our videos - but most importantly - thank you for setting the bar as high as you like. The stats don't lie and we're ready for another 365-day lesson about what you want and what's not worth shit.

We built the site going against the grain where a zillion others put a few needles inside a humungous haystack. Here, we bring you a smaller number of better web series. But there's enough of you coming now on a daily basis to grab more help from sponsors - so you'll get MORE series to watch.
 
We trust you to keep attacking us with what's right & what's horribly wrong. You know how to find us.

To Our Advertisers:

We found you an experienced and skilled new leader in Suhaila Suhimi. In the first days of 09, we're ready to unveil our new plans. We're going to give you the opportunity to get inside new series with major talent. And we're also ready to co-create more branded entertainment that delivers high-quality, affordable, effective results.    

To Our Backers: 

Others have fallen trying in 08. They raised too much (or too little), they over-promised, under-delivered, and crashed. Thank you for believing that we could sign pro talent, build big audience, and win the trust of major advertisers to bring us to break-even at break-neck pace. We've proven that our model works, now we prove that it scales. 

To Our Syndication partners:  

You've given us the promotion and the placement we needed to prove that our videos deliver for your audiences. To potential new partners, we'll continue to offer the best original music & comedy and ask just two things in return: significant promotion and a straight-up rev deal.

To Our Competitors: 

Respect to every runner out there who is brave enough to enter the race.  There's room for more than a few winners. And there's room for some of the smarter teams to run together.

To Our Staff & Every Human creating My Damn Channel 24/7: 

We're a small group of determined punks proving that you don't need a thousand execs to screw in a light bulb. Your brilliance is blinding. Your dedication is inspiring. We're winning the game inside the worst economic crisis of our time because of YOU. You make it fun to get out of bed every morning. 09 will be an even bigger blast for all of us.

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COMING UPs

First, let's clean up a rumor. As far as we know, Keith Richards was (not) at the Was (Not Was) gig last night. His 'people' were there. So was Paul McGuinness, manager of the little four piece rock band, U2.  

If you wuz not at the Blender Theatre in NYC, you missed one of the funkiest, tightest nights of dance grooves in a dog's age. Was (Not Was) is essential live music medicine. SEE THIS TOUR - BUY THIS ALBUM. Here's a clip from Wednesday night in Boston of their BADASS Temptations cover.


Here's what's in the My Damn Channel pipeline.


ANDY MILONAKIS shot a short film for us with JASON MEWES (Clerks & more) - premiering next week with a chance for you to create alternate endings to their oddly artful piece o' cinema.




HARRY SHEARER is about to shoot a new My Damn Channel video and stick another swift boot in the ass of the sitting President of the United States. More on this next week.




DAVID WAIN is about to start filming Season 3 of WAINY DAYS next week!!!  Debuting in June. Rumors that Elizabeth Banks is returning as "Shelly."

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MANLY DANCING?!

Just heard old palz Adam Carolla & Penn Jillette are joining the new cast of ABC's "DANCING WITH THE STARS"

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