Celebrity Sports

In many aspects, professional athletes are thought of as celebrities. To many children they are even their heroes. One little boy might grow up his hold life wanting to be like Mike. So I searched the NBA's website to see what kind of multimedia I could include that focuses on professional athletes.

The NBA has a special feature on its website that allows fans or anybody to put together clips of various moments that happened in the NBA. You can put together any clips from Buzzer beaters to 3-point shots to slam dunks. They call this tool that allows you to do this 'The Mixer.'

There are other cool features that you can do such as adding special effects like slow motion, cropping clips, adding transitions between clips, adding music, titles and the ability to share the clips you put together.

Below i put together a set of my own clips just try it out.

To the clip above I arranged which order I wanted the clips to appear in. I also chose the music and the effects, such as black and white and fast motion, to go with the clips.
I think 'The Mixer' allows people to become videographers. This is a great tool for aspiring journalists to use. It's free and available to anyone who has access to the Internet. Also if someone wanted to be a sports journalist, these mixer clips could be added to a resume.

As technology is allowing everyone to do things themselves. This is just another example of how the Internet is allowing people to do what they want, when they want and how they want.

Celebrity Bloggers

Blogging is starting to become an outlet where many people are turning towards to get their news. Some blogs are by official journalists while others blogs are updated by people who have a thought and want public broadcasted voice so blogging is a way to communicate that thought.

I would be remiss to include information about celebrity bloggers. So this blog will be dedicated to those individuals who are celebrities but are also regular people who want their voices to be heard.

Some celebrities blog because of an upcoming movie or television show. This is a way for them to connect with their audience.

Other celebrities blog about their passions whether it is politics or food.

Below are link to some celebrity blogs.

MC Hammer - MC Hammer has been blogging since 2006 and his blog includes clips from him in the prime of his musical career. It also includes clips from Obama, the presidential candidate he is supporting and video clips of his own family. He even has a Twitter account. I thought that that was very interesting.

Rosie O'Donnell - Since 2004, Rosie has maintained a blog about anything from love, movies, family and the news.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen - They blog about the different events they attend and other fashion related issues.

I think it is a good idea for celebrities to write. It is a great way for them to stay in contact with their fans and find what their fans expect from them if their blog allows comments. Blogs are also a great way for celebrities that are not that active in their careers anymore to stay in contact with their devout fans. So celebrity bloggers, blog on.
Click here for a list of other celebrity bloggers.

Shows - Just Not For TV

Have you seen this show which airs for under 7 minutes, talks about the latest fashions and uses some of your favorite celebrities as host? Well, you definitely did not see it on TV. These shows air on Myspacetv. Myspace is no longer an outlet to stay in contact with your friends and meet new people. Now you can watch "television" without using the TV. The series is called The Fit. A different celebrity host is used each show as cameras follow them around to stores and tell you what the latest fashions are. Some of the celebrity hosts include Perez Hilton, Solange, Fergie and the Kardashians.

One clip is shown below with Solange (R&B singer) as the host.

MySpace Presents: The Fit with Solange



The other cool thing about Myspacetv is that you can leave comments, see how people have watched the same clip as you, rate the video and there are no commercials to interrupt what you are watching. There is one ad at the beginning and the end of the show.



The video is well put together with great graphics and editing techniques. So what is this saying for the future of television. Maybe there will be no need for the TV. Everything is going online. You can even watch shows, whole seasons in fact, right from the comfort of your own computer. You don't have to watch your favorite show on the network's time frame. In this generation, we want what we want when we want it. And it is coming to that period when that is what is going to happen.

Celebrities Broadcast Themselves On-line

There are just some celebrities that I can't stay away from. Ok, Sean "Diddy" Combs has his own website. His website is a multimedia world all on its own. You can listen to songs that his various groups including himself have made. You can also watch his videos, see pictures. write to him and more. But Diddy has taken it to a different level. He is no longer waiting to make announcements about whatever venue his company will be doing next. He is taking the initiative to do it himself with his own computer and computer video camera. He made a video blog also known as a vlog. On his website you can watch these blogs. Below is his 5 minute clip about a new show that will premier in the fall which he posted to his website.



This can be viewed in two different ways.

1. He is simply saving his money. He is producing this himself and then posting it to his own website.

2. Maybe this will be an eye opener for other celebrities to follow up and produce their own content (blogs) on their own time without using their own money.

What Diddy has done can be done by anyone. Another celebrity who has done the same this is Bow Wow and Game (two rappers). They announced that they would compete in a Madden video game on XBOX 360. They both made video clips about the up coming game. They both put $100,000 on the line and the winner would donate that money to a charity. This was not broadcasted on television but all done on-line.The recorded everything themselves and then posted it on-line.



So let's recap.
Its easy, cheap and allows these celebrities to reach out to a new audience - the on-line audience.

News at the Moment

Track and Field sprinter Marion Jones is out of prison tonight. She completed most of her six-month sentence. Jones admitted to using a steroid for a 10-month period before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Jones is on probation. She returned the five medals she won and her world breaking times are out the books.

Drivers will dig deeper in the change jar as tolls on the Powhite Parkway will increase starting Monday. The main toll plazas are now 70 cents, a 20 cent increase. And E-Z pass drivers can take a few minutes off their commute as northbound E-Z pass lanes are now open. Drivers can cruise through at 40 miles per hour.

Virginia Commonwealth University students are looking for many ways to fit it and find their niche as the school year begins. Some are turning to fraternities and sororities. The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life hosted its first Greek barbeque two weeks ago. Students enjoyed the nice weather and food and got a chance to mingle with their potential Greek brothers and sisters.

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Obama: The Celebrity?

Well this is an election year and I thought why not add some politics to my blog. On several occasions, Barack Obama has been alluded to as a celebrity in this presidential race. So I want to focus on that aspect of Obama. As a celebrity Obama has reached new heights in this presidential race. One of the most intriguing and new ways that he reaches out to the American people is through technology. When he decided to announce his vice president running mate he wanted people to know via text message. Now this is new and unique. It use to be that news like this would occur during a news conference or as breaking news via television. Hillary Clinton announced that she would run for president via on-line (the Internet). But Obama has taken everything to a new level. Just about everyone has a cell phone, young and old. This was great way to get everyone involved. Obama has crossed every line of media that is available to help his campaign. Just last week, I received some literature at my front door about his campaign. Of course he uses television advertisement and appears on television shows. He also uses the Internet with his own website and other sites, emails, etc. But the text message is a new media that is sweeping the country.

Television ad approved by Obama


Obama has also used text messaging in other ways. On way was to ask for donations for the Red Cross.

If you watch any show on television show, viewers can now engage themselves via cell phones and text messaging. You can have different backgrounds on your phone, ring tones, video clips or even full episodes. CBS does a great job with trying to get everyone involved via text messaging. With CBS you can receive alerts, full episodes, ring tones and graphic for almost any show that they air. Cell phones are the new way of staying involved. Some people feel lost and disconnected from the world of they do not have their cell phones. So it was a very smart decision for Obama to utilize the cell phone as a media device. So my question is what will be the next medium?