Our leaders have failed us – why am I not surprised

I rarely get on here and talk politics – it is so personal with people but I can’t help but think that the vote yesterday to not approve the bailout plan was more than just a NO vote.  I think it reinforces why Time Magazine says that only 18% of Americans do not trust Congress.  Think about it – most Americans do not understand the complexities of the market system – that is why we have experts.  And the experts along with the President of the US, the Vice President, the Treasury Secretary, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Chairman of the SEC and our two political candidates for President say vote yes for the bill.  Americans, on the other-hand, are upset because they think the bill will reward those who caused the problem and righteous indignation should prevail.

And now politicians are caught between a rock and a hard place.  Do you vote with popular opinion that might not truly understand all of the nuances of the economic and market system or do you take a stand and make the difficult vote that voters will not like?  And better yet do you take the time (I mean really really take the time) to explain why and how this bailout works and what will happen if it doesn’t (in simple layman terms that Americans can understand)?   If ever a time that our nation’s leaders should be inspiring Americans, and supporting Americans and calming Americans and telling us the potential of our future – our politicians are doing what they have done for years – look out for themselves first before looking out for the American people.

Am I surprised at the No vote.  Not at all.  I think that it cleary shows that one of the greatest nations in the world has leaders that no one trust, no one respects and no one has confidence in.  I think that is a much bigger failure than any bailout plan could ever cost us.

just my 2 cents….What do you think??

Thomas

Congrats Summer Breeze & Zavier Simpson Litter

I had a fun time in St. Louis this weekend filming the first preliminary to the National Entertainer of the Year pageant – Missouri Entertainer of the Year.  I love going to St. Louis to talk to the EOY fans and meet all of our friends and supporters and this year’s contests had a lot of contestants.  In the end, the talents of Summer Breeze and Zavier Simpson Litter prevail as they were announced winners and will move on to the National competition to be held in 2009 in Louisville, KY.  Thanks Vicki Valentino for your kind words & support all weekend and thanks Anthony Watson (the owner of the pageant) for your hospitality and thanks to everyone I met at the brunch.  Thomas will be editing the video this week and should have the DVD done by next week and also have it up on the Pageant Pay Per View system.  Pictures coming soon and if you haven’t seen the  preview videos – head over to our all gay video sharing website at Planet Q TV to check out the preview videos.

Adrian

Driving a “gay car?”

Some months ago, I had an opportunity to email chat with a video producer up in Canada who had (I think) a

2008 Audi Q7 - Outdrive.CA Car Review

wonderful idea.  He had uploaded a video to Planet Q TV (back when we had our site through Brightcove) and at first I thought is was someone putting up a car advertisement on our site.  It turned out it was a “car review with a twist.”  To quote the guys over at outdrive.ca - “There may be no gay cars but there certainly are gay car reviews.”  I was hooked.  While I will never be able to afford these bad boys – Neil Johnston and the folks over at Outdrive.CA have a unique and wonderful concept and I am so glad they shared their videos with us before. 

It’s a classic example of using the power of the internet and creative video work to really get your product and brand out there.  Sometimes it takes “us” to market what is “in” or “right” for our community and Outdrive does that. We have a few of their videos up on Planet Q TV but if you want to take a look at all of the reviews they have done for the past couple of years,  go take a look at their website.  You might find the car of your dreams there and you can see if it is “gay” enough for you (LOL).

Happy Driving and thanks Outdrive!!

Thomas

Could cable TV be the death of online videos?

If you are like me, you have a growing concern over the high cost of cable TV.  Prices are going up, selection is down and the quality is sub-par.  If you are gay and want channels like Logo TV – you are forced to buy the upper tier of cable or satellite programming in order to get the channel.  Same is true if you are a person who likes the Military Channel or the International History Channel.  I pay almost $100 every month for cable TV and I must say there may be 5 to 10 channels out of 250 that I watch – to me it is a complete waste of money.

So why do I think that cable TV could be the death of online videos?  There is a trend now with ISP to regulate how much traffic you use on the internet.  It is scary but the days of “unlimited web traffic” may be passing us by.  If you are the unfortunate person (like me) who has to have Comcast for cable and internet – you will get or have gotten the letter that says you will be limited to 250GB of traffic a month.  Now while 250GB might seem a lot, if you are an online gamer, download movies, watch HD content or use any of the Internet TV services – you might find yourself using a lot of that traffic.

The cable company will claim that this is an attempt to enhance your internet experience, to cut down on piracy and reduce congestion but frankly I think it is a ploy to get you to stop watching online video and get back to watching cable TV.  You Tube gets more than 10 million unique visitors a month (Source: Kirkpatrick, “Tech Blog” July 17) just for starters (not to mention all of the other video sharing websites).  If I was cable TV, I would be a little worried.  Online video has proven to be the future, its quick, easy – you can find most of the time what you want and often find hidden gems out there that someone has taken the time to make or produce (DuderShow or U People TV are examples for me).  You just can’t find that on regular tv anymore.  I spend more time watching internet video than I do watching standard tv.  And don’t get me started on high definition which is compressed to ridiculous levels and you can never get “good” high definition with Comcast or Direct TV.  And Comcast is more than guilty of trying to stuff more HD channels in its line up than it can possibly have.  Let’s face it, you can’t put a six lane highway down a two lane highway  and get the same results – and that’s what these cable and satellite companies are doing with their HD offering (but I digress).  The point is that with the easy advent of online video, why bother with cable TV?  If you can find niche programming that interest you, once again why bother with cable TV?  If the internet can be a source for thousands upon thousands of videos, why bother with cable TV?  And until there is technology that will allow video to be shown in high quality on the internet and not take up a lot of bandwidth traffic – watching video online will always be a resource hog.  So let’s just simply limit what you can do online, let’s limit your traffic, let’s say we are doing it in the best interest of our customers and then charge you if you go over that limit.  Can I say with certainty that is what the cable companies are doing? No, but it sure seems like it.  Time will only tell.

So I will keep using the internet as it evolves into the next viable multi-media platform of choice but I can’t help but wonder if the reason why our nation has such a inferior internet backbone (compared to let’s say Japan or other Asian companies) is because the cable and satellite industry has such a hold on this country that they are preventing the very evolution that should be happening with online video and internet tv.  What do you think?

How to waste away your time – play peggle

Now that I have a chance to break away from editing videos…it’s time to start throwing away my time.  I usually do that playing video games.  I am a hardcore PC gamer, so strategy games, RTS, simulations are my thing.  Now it’s been a long time since I found a game that made me say WTF – 5 hours have passed by already.  Sim City 4 did that to me for many months and Command & Conquer did that as well but now I have found a new game – its called Peggle.

Extreme Fever with Peggle Deluxe - Try It

Now you hardcore gamers out there – calm down – I really haven’t lost my mind.  This game is addictive.  The object of the game is really simple – use a bouncing ball and get rid of the orange balls and blocks.  Along the way are special bonuses, points and hints.  Seems simple but the upper levels are hard and makes you want to keep trying.  I found myself moaning when I missed a shot by inches (replayed in slow motion complete with crowd noise) to screaming “yes” when I hit that lucky shot.  The music is catchy, the graphics simple but clean and the humor infectious.

How did I learn about peggle?  I listen to the PC gamer podcast all of the time and I swear those guys were always talking about the game.  I didn’t really give it any thought until I got tired kicking alien but in Supreme Commander and wanted to try something new.  So I loaded up my Steam account, played my free demo of Peggle and after 30 minutes I was hooked.

So today I have checked my email, check my calendar, clear up my hard drives and now it’s time to waste away my day…peggle anyone

Oh hear’s a video to give you an idea.  This guy must be a queen – where in the hell did he get that song from to put in his video.

Thomas

Podcast Network Updated Today

Podcast fans,

The podcast network has had some shows missing in the past few weeks as we are still in the process of moving our offices and we are still not done yet.  So some shows will be missing in the coming weeks.  HOWEVER, we did update the shows with 5 shows today.

Pageant Soup Podcast Show - Episode 45

Check out our last Pageant Soup Podcast Show for the year as we tackle the question of drag queen entertainers vs transgendered entertainers.  While we were hoping for entertainers to come on and give us their opinions on the topic – it didn’t happen – nethertheless Vicki and Thomas talk about where the two groups come from and what they bring to the pageantry world.

DJ Carlos Dali - Music Show Number 22

DJ Carlos Dali hits the air waves this week with his 22nd show called “All Hail to Queen Carlata.”  We also have a church sermon rebroadcast from Rev. Jim Merritt called “When Good People Suffer,” and we have a queer history fact where we look at US film writer and critic Vito Russo.

Happy Listening!!!

Thomas

Pageant Soup Podcast Show blog

Hey pageant fans,

The Pageant Soup Podcast Show blog will be wrapped into the Click Click Expose blog for the remainder of the show.  You can still view the old post by visiting this link.

Remember their is no show on Thursday Sept. 11th.  Our last show is on Sept. 18th and covers a topic that everyone has an opinion on: What exactly is female impersonation and can it be achieved through transformation or body augmentation? The show will be 1 hour long and will cover everything from what drag use to be, what drag is now, is being transgendered truly female impersonation, pageant system requirements and limitations, etc, etc.  We want your opinions, your thoughts and your comments (and I know they are out there – let the debate begin). If you want to be a guest on this issue, please contact me - I would love to have you on.  It’s going to be a great discussion.  That’s Thursday Sept 18th at 7 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Thanks and happy listening!!

Thomas

What do you think of the new website?

I thought I take a break from editing a wedding video to let you guys and gals know that the new Click Click Expose website is up and running.  I have to do some minor tweeks and updates but the for the most part the new site and the new look is now live.  Let us know (or better yet let me know) what you think of the site.  With the help of our graphics artist Eric, our new site was built from the ground up (sort of speak) in HTML and Javascript.  Normally, in the past we have built websites using programs designed for that – but with every program comes limitations on what you can do and sometimes these programs force a look on you that you can’t escape (especially if you are not the world’s best web site designer).  This time around, the goal was to build an entirely new website using basic HTML and Javascript.  Can you say pain in the ass – reading lines and lines of code can be daunting – that is why I am not entierely finished but I hope you like it.

We try to make things a lot simplier and easier for everybody with the goal of making it easier to get to the specific content you are looking for.  Did we do it?  Is it easier to find what you want or do you like the old design better?   I need your feedback so I can keep the website the best way possible.  So take a second, stop watching our videos and listening to the podcast shows (LOL) and tell us if you like the new site or the old site better and any suggestions on how we can improve for you.  Thanks in advance for letting us know and enjoy the new look of Click Click Expose.

Thomas

Erica Andrews having a bad hair day

I always like to check the different sites to see what funny video I can share with our fans.  Pageant fans will enjoy this video from Erica Andrews – the child is having a really bad hair day!!  it’s late but I thought you guys with get a kick out of this one if you haven’t seen it yet.  I will ask permission to see if we can get it up on Planet Q TV.  Enjoy!!

New videos uploaded on Planet Q TV – new website look coming soon!!

Now that I am done editing two of our biggest pageants for the year, it is now time to settle down on the other portions of our family of multi-media websites. 

Planet Q TV

I uploaded 12 new videos on Planet Q TV - representing Mr. EOY, Miss EOY and Mr and Miss International and International Plus.  When you get a chance, take a look at Skyler Styles (contestant – presentation category – Mr. EOY), Tasha Cole (Entertainer for EOY 08 – Finals Night), Sabin (talent category – prelim night – EOY 08), Octavius Rashad (Finalist – talent category – Mr. International), Mya Douglas (Entertainer for EOY 08), Marsean Devine (Finalist – talent category - Mr. International), The Lady Angelica and Anatasia Beaverhausen (Entertainers for Mr/Miss International), Kitty Litter (Entertainer for Mr/Miss International), Dashe Desmond Rose (talent category – prelim night – EOY 08), Chasity St Cartier (contestant – talent category – Miss International Plus), Adonis Diamond (Finalist – talent category – Mr. International) and Camille Simpson (talent category – prelim night – EOY 08)…  woa…yeah I was on a roll so I thought I would throw some videos out there.

Also, for those of you who have been with us for years – it’s coming – yes another website design change

Click Click Expose "New Logo"

 for Click Click Expose.  I know what you are thinking – NOT AGAIN.  This time however will be different, a more simplified website with a much better polished look – many people have told us they like our website but many have told us that it is extremely overwhelming and has so much information that it is hard to navigate and sometimes confusing.  So we are going to simplify things and polish things up.  We think of Click Click Expose as a “brand” especially as it relates to the pageantry community – but we are more than just pageants and pageant videos.  We want to be one of your gay multi-media destination sites of choice.  So rather its gay videos on our video sharing website “Planet Q TV,” whether its the nation’s only online digital download pageant pay per view service, internet radio, blogging or podcasting – we hope you will find something of interest that will keep you coming back for more.  So with any brand, their needs to be a “logo” that signifies the brand.  We really haven’t had that in the past but now we do thanks to our graphics and animation artist Eric who is working with us on the new website look.  The new website look should be up in about a couple of weeks.  We are excited about it and think you will be surprise – it will be our best look ever.

If you are look for Entertainer of the Year on pay per view (the miss division) – it will be up in about 1 week.  The Mr. EOY and all of the International pageants are up now online.

That’s it for now.  More coming soon.

Thomas