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Starkid says goodbye to Harry Potter, hello to… Aladdin?

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Starkid has learned more than just how to make magic in the three years since A Very Potter Musical became an overnight YouTube sensation and spawned an entirely new fandom-within-a-fandom. 

The performance group that launched Glee's Darren Criss to stardom and turned a University of Michigan theater troupe into a professional ensemble when it created a viral hit with A Very Potter Musical showed its marketing colors on Friday night. Around midnight Pacific, it released the final Harry Potter musical onto YouTube, A Very Potter Senior Year. Oh, yeah, and it also dropped the teaser trailer for its next big project.

The video of Starkid's last Harry Potter musical, which was given a staged reading at last year's LeakyCon, has already been viewed more than 220,000 times since it was uploaded. Long-anticipated by fans of Harry Potter and Starkid, as soon as the video premiered late Friday night, Tumblr exploded in a sea of GIF-sets and emotions. Prior to LeakyCon, the group had announced that Senior Year, or AVPSY, would be the last of the Harry Potter musicals. The production brought back nearly everyone who'd been a member of Team Starkid, including Criss and writers Brian Holden and Matt and Nick Lang. The show also featured a guest appearance from Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna in the Harry Potter films, reprising her role onstage.

The cast was openly emotional at the October performance, but for members of their fandom who weren't able to be in Chicago for LeakyCon, the final goodbyes had been delayed until now. "Do you remember reading the last Harry Potter book for the last time?" asked veeblog on Tumblr. 

That feeling knowing that it was the end. Knowing that you will never again have to anticipate another book and read any new adventures? You were truly saying goodbye to something that was a really big part of your life. You were left with this sort of hollow feeling inside because you knew nothing more was going to fill it up. That’s kind of how I felt after watching AVPSY.


Illustration by ninakask/Tumblr

The theme of AVPSY is all about moving on and saying goodbye, a moral that serves the narrative of Harry Potter as much as it serves Starkid directly. At times the show is almost too meta, as Starkid struggles to branch out and establish itself professionally in ways that don't hinge eternally on the success of Harry Potter. While Starkid has done other projects, none of them has been as wildly popular as the viral Harry Potter musicals. 

But fans who want to know what's next for the Chicago-based troupe won't have to wait long; Friday they also uploaded the teaser trailer for a brand-new musical with an intriguing premise:

That's right: After tackling Harry Potter and Batman, it looks like Team Starkid is going the route of Wicked and getting into the mind of Aladdin's grand vizier. Twisted seems to be playing heavily off Disney's 1993 film, with references to Jafar's iconic parrot and a line from the film that's used to describe his villainous appeal.

Still, not every fan is ready to move on, and for some fans, Harry Potter will always come first—like Tumblr user jtwhiteside:

I know that AVPSY is all about moving on that nothing lasts forever.

But after I watched AVPSY, I turned on the TV and HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban was on,

and today when I ran into some friends, I realised that they were in a heated discussion about Harry Potter (which I joined in and continued for another 10 minutes).

I’m sorry, but HARRY POTTER FOR EVER. It will never die.

As the Very Potter musicals come to a close, we can only hope that Starkid's fanbase will prove to be as long-lasting.

Photo via stapletoothtiger/Tumblr


These classic movie scenes look even better in pixel GIFs

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James Cameron, Ridley Scott, and Christopher Nolan are just as much filmmakers as they are technology mavens, using high-definition cameras and sophisticated editing tools to make big-budget films that blur the line between reality and fantasy.

Yet in a world where up and coming directors are trying to replicate their success, it's simple things like pixel animations that can still make thousands of people stop and stare.

That's what happened Sunday afternoon after Reddit user Mostan posted 13 movie-inspired GIFs on the social news site. The GIFs feature some of the best moments in movie history, including the scene from Ghostbusters when Bill Murray and the guys capture a green ghost at the Sedgewick Hotel.

The animations were originally created by artists Andy Helms, jonroru, and radstronimical. They have since collected more than a million views on Imgur.

Photos via Imgur

Gerard Butler talks Morgan Freeman and his mom in Reddit AMA

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Sometimes the real-life figures behind image macros come to Reddit for an Ask Me Anything interview, and it's becoming commonplace for movie stars to do them in anticipation of a new release. But rarely do users get both for the price for one, as they did when Gerard Butler—action and romantic comedy star, plus the "this is Sparta!" guy—stopped in Monday evening.

Butler was unabashedly enthusiastic about most topics—like how he recorded Happy Birthday for his mom four times, or how much he identifies with Leonidas, the Spartan king. But he was also humble, noting that his high school accomplishments peaked at "I won some raffles."

How often do people scream lines from 300 at you? (THE_OWL_KING)

Probably once a day. I actually don't mind it - I don't like it if I'm in a place with a lot of people around like an airport - then they scream the line and you're stuck in line with a thousand people staring at you. But to be honest, I love that people feel so passionate about it. That, to me - the best thing as an actor is to do a role that people don't forget and they get excited about and they want to shout that excitement out to you when they see you.

Ever said "P.S. I Love You" to anyone? (Lunney)

Yes. In the movie. But a lot of people say it to me.

Did your mom get to see all of your Happy Birthday wishes to her? Did she like Angela Bassett and all of the others singing Happy Birthday to her? (jen2mat)

My mum turns 70 the day after Mother's Day, and I sent her 10 bouquets of flowers, and I recorded her HAPPY BIRTHDAY at the Kelly & Michael show with the whole audience, and I recorded a message with the crowd outside the Kelly & Michael show, and with Bridgit Mendler. And I recorded another message with me and all my team and people on the street, and with every new line, new people jumped up. And I THEN recorded another HAPPY BIRTHDAY at the Piers Morgan show with me, Antoine, and Angela Bassett. So i sent her FOUR HAPPY BIRTHDAY songs.

Have you ever been so ripped that you were able to bend time? (endercoaster)

Yes, I was once so ripped I was able to bend time in a loop and I was able to come back round to when I was fat again.

Is Morgan Freeman's voice as captivating in person as it is in the movies? (saltyspitoon)

It's MORE captivating in person (Morgan's voice, that is). When Morgan came up on set to say hello, I had met him once before but had forgotten about how tall he was - and he's such a charismatic, captivating presence. And he walks up, and he's right in your face with a big smile, and a warm hello, and a strong handshake, and you know he's arrived. And that's why he creates such electricity on set.

What was your favorite scene/line to film in 300? (ThatGuy1990)

My favorite scene was my dying scene, when I had to stand up and suddenly in that moment recall my wife and everything I stood for, and I say "My queen, my wife, my love" and I think of all my movies, that is the most powerful moment I ever had. In preparation for each take, I would scream at the ground, clench my fists, and scrape the ground, and cut all my knuckles and rip my nails... I would scream, and scrape, and scratch, and then I would stand and go "GO."

And they would film.

And it felt so visceral, and so powerful, and the next day, that was my last day of filming, the next day I was leaving Montreal and I went through US IMMIGRATION and the officer asked "what happened to your hands" and I said "I was just scratching the ground" and she took me for secondary questioning, and I missed my flight, and had to stay another day.

So the next day I wore gloves.

Photo via @GerardButler/Twitter

Pres. Obama and Nate Silver compete in March Madness

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Statistician wizard Nate Silver is crunching the numbers for this year's 2013 NCAA men's basketball national tournament. The man who correctly predicted the winner of every single state during the 2012 presidential election is hoping to do the same by correctly picking the outcome of every single game.

Also partaking in the March Madness is President Barack Obama, who went on ESPN Wednesday to fill out his bracket for the fifth time in as many years. Obama's staff also posted the president's predictions online.

So how similar are Obama's predictions to the statistical oracle?

Obama and Silver picked the same team 29 times for the round of 32. Instead of picking the higher ranked team of each matchup, Obama picked Cincinnati over Creighton, Oklahoma over San Diego State, and— upset alert!— Tenn.-based Belmont University over Arizona. According to Silver's odds, the president's picks' chances of winning are 41.5 percent, 43.9 percent, and 28.3 percent, respectively.

When asked by ESPN why he picked 11th-seed Belmont over 6th-seed Arizona, the Obama responded by saying that "they're small but they shoot lights out."

For the Sweet Sixteen, both men picked identically.

The two once again disagreed in their selections for the Elite Eight. Both agreed that Louisville, Duke, Ohio State, Florida, Indiana, and Michigan were moving on to the quarterfinal portion of the tournament, but they disagreed when it came to Wisconsin vs. Gonzaga and Michigan vs. Kansas.

Photo via White House

Citing a bias for the Big 10 (his home state of Illinois plays in the conference), POTUS gave the nod to the Wisconsin over Gonzaga— despite Silver only giving them an 19 percent chance of making the Elite Eight— and to Michigan over Kansas.

In terms of the Final Four, Obama and Silver picked three of the same four teams: Louisville, Florida, and Indiana. Ohio State rounds out the president's bracket, whereas Silver picked Gonzaga to make it to the semifinals.

The national championship game looks exactly the same for both men. If they're correct, the final will be Indiana versus Louisville. Obama has Indiana winning it all. Silver's bracket gives the nod to Louisville, who he says has a 23.8 percent chance of winning it all.

Indiana's tournament odds, according to Silver? 18.4 percent.

Photo via Senor Glory/Flickr

Hannah Hart and Grace Helbig: YouTube's drunk odd couple

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It's 82 degrees in Austin, Texas, and the hottest girl on YouTube is out drinking a 12 oz. canned Tecate beer on a picnic table's park bench.

"Hannah will probably wear this exact same leather jacket," Daily Grace namesake Grace Helbig tells me, tugging at her black coat, on the first Saturday of the annual South by Southwest conference. "Unless she's wearing the vest. If she's not wearing the vest then it might not be a great day for an interview.

"The vest and the plaid shirt. She's like Al Borland in heels."

We're talking about Hannah Hart because I'm about to scoot two miles across town and interview the YouTube star, the creator of My Drunk Kitchen who just raised $223,000 to travel around the world and meet thousands of her fans in their hometowns.

That interview's scheduled for 4pm, and Grace's ends well before that, so I head due west and stop into a bar near my next destination to grab a beer with a friend. Inside, the crowd upstairs is a mob scene, but through a row of people I manage to lock eyes with Hart, who's evidently a little early to our interview as well.

"Grace said you'd be wearing that vest and plaid combo," I tell her after I make my way to her. She smiles and tilts her head back softly.

"Aha, did she really?" Hannah asks. "She is such a bitch!"

...

Hannah Hart and Grace Helbig are the Amy Poehler and Tina Fey of YouTube, two independent and ridiculously likeable stars who are both charming enough to make you want to ask them out to dinner and funny enough to make you spit up your drink. They cemented their standing as Best Friends For Life in November 2012, when the woman who turned Daily Grace into an online video empire packed up her tiny Brooklyn apartment and headed out for the sunny skies of Los Angeles and the on-air opportunities that accompanied them.

The two had known each other for years—they'd see each other at conventions and speak freely about their undying fondness for one another—but it wasn't until Helbig showed up out west that the two were able to do like friends do and actually, you know, hang out.

"She's a wonderfully caring person," Helbig said of Hart. "We've become really good friends in a really short amount of time. It's such an interesting, weird field that I think there's an underlying sense of camaraderie when you meet someone who does what you do."

The two's kinship extends into the social and accessorial sectors as well.

"We've synched up in more ways than just our periods," Helbig admitted. "We'll pick each other up and find out that we're wearing the same outfits. It's horrible."

Then there's the boozing, a pastime Hart's become quite synonymous with thanks to the success of her show, which comes out once a week and finds her cooking foods as she gets progressively drunker on whiskey, wine, or whatever other liquid lubricant she can find around her house. Hart says Helbig drinks as often as she can.

"She's a booze hound—one part vodka, two parks vodka."

As such, Helbig and Hart, along with You Deserve a Drink creator Mamrie Hart (no relation), have assembled a Femme Fatale comedy Rat Pack built to best terrorize the city of Los Angeles. They've appeared on each other's channels, brought laughs to topics that may have been otherwise dry, and generally kept things a little wilder than the three parties had originally intended.

"It's always nice to have friends in your field," Helbig said. "It's even better on YouTube. You can call them over at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and just say 'I'm going to turn this camera on,' and they don't mind. Then all hell breaks loose."

"I was in Grace's ‘Sexy Friday’ video the other day because we were hanging out and helping Mamrie with a show she was working on," Hart added. "Grace was like 'Hey, I still need to make the ‘Sexy Friday’ video. You guys want to help with that?' We were like, 'Yeah, sure, let's do that now and then we can get back to work.' Anytime I'm not feeling a Kitchen, I can call Grace and have her come through and help."

"It's not collaboration," Hart specified. "It's coworking. YouTube can be a very lonely place. You're in your living room, or your kitchen. You don't get to see people every day.

"[Epic Meal Time creator] Harley Morenstein said it best: 'Other YouTubers aren't my competitors. They're my colleagues."

...

Friendship is actually the way that both stars got started on YouTube.

Helbig, 27, started vlogging with her friend Michelle Vargas to pass the time while the two housesat for one of her parents' friends the summer after they'd graduated college.

Hart, who's a year younger and started producing episodes of her wildly beloved My Drunk Kitchen in 2011, filmed her first episode for the singular audience of her best friend.

"I was just being myself and making jokes," she said. "I still try to trick myself into thinking that I'm making it for my best friend. In a way, I am. I'm just also making it for my fans."

Today, those fans number somewhere in the range of 500,000, making her one of the site's most popular female personalities.

She plans to thank those fans this April when she embarks on her two-month North American tour known as Hello, Harto!, an Indiegogo-funded road trip through 19 cities that will also include stops in Europe and Australia. Hart originally set out to raise $50,000 for the trip; she hit that goal in her first day on the site. After a month, Hart closed with $223,000.

"It's kind of like a Thank You tour where I get to go around and visit with the people in the cities that have supported me," she said. "I feel very lucky in that the Hartosexual community seems to be made up of people who are smart and funny and interesting and caring. I've only met fans of the show that I find interesting, and I feel privileged that I get to meet them, as well."

She said the tour will include a series of charity-related events where Hart sets up shop in each city.

"We ran an event at the L.A. food bank right before Christmas, and it was absolutely wild," she said. "We had over 150 people show up. We did three hours of manual labor, sorting carrots and potatoes and squash right before the holidays. That was really great. After that was such a success and I got to really interact with all the fans that came out, I decided that's what I wanted to do. I didn't want to do the meet up at bar thing or the comedy thing. It all felt too one-way. I want to spend time with people and do things that are important."

She said that she sees the Hello, Harto! tour as a culmination and final chapter in the My Drunk Kitchen saga.

"Two years, and it's literally one joke," she said. "I'll still do Harto, and maybe I'll expand the brand somewhere else, but where do you go from there? Where do you go after you've done a world tour to meet everybody who likes your show?"

To those questions, Hart holds no answers.

"The present is so amazing," she said. "I feel so grateful that I don't even want to think about the future almost. This is a great moment to be in, and I want it to last forever. I just want it to be here, now."

Helbig has gone about procuring her popularity more professionally. She came to Austin with Subway, in promotion of the sandwich maker's Fresh Artists series with IFC and My Damn Channel, and she moved to Los Angeles just in time for pitch season, a move that foreshadows her inevitable crossover to television.

"TV has been my goal since before I started YouTube," she said. "Now my aim is starting a show of my own that has roots in the digital world. Everybody wants to know if TV and the Internet are going to make love to each other or fight each other to the death. I think they should make sweet, sweet love, and I'd like to make a show that starts the courtship."

Helbig said she felt an immediate sense of pride for her friend during the Hello, Harto! fundraiser—"I was so excited that I felt like I was raising the money myself," she said—but that touring’s not her cross to bear.

"Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix are creating original content now," she added. "It's weird, but it's how things are going.

"A lot of YouTubers, because they have such pride in what they do, have a negative connotation towards television. I don't feel that way. I feel like it's another medium to reach a broader audience. I don't know if there will be one box that you watch, but I feel like it will all merge in someway, so it only makes sense for me to get into both pools before they become a lake."

Hart said there's nobody on YouTube more fit for the task of bridging the gap between the television and computer screen, and Helbig's accolades back it up. In the last two months, she's won Best Host and Best Hosted Series at January's IAWTV Awards and Best First Person Series and Audience Choice for Personality of the Year at last month's Streamys.

"The irons are hot," she said. "Let's make a fire."

Sounds great. Make it a Flaming Dr. Pepper.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the ages of Hannah Hart and Grace Helbig. Hart is 26, and Helbig is 27. We regret the error. 

Photo via Julia Hoff/My Damn Channel  

We pity the fool who's not watching Mr. T on YouTube

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Mr. T now has a YouTube channel, and as trite as it is to use this line to open a story about Mr. T, we pity the fool who don't go and watch it right now.

The legendary actor, famous for his roles as B.A. Baracus on The A-Team and 'roided-up tough guy Clubber Lang in the epic Rocky III, has brought the mohawk and his massive collection of ginormous gold chains to the small screen, gracing our billion-strong community with wit and wisdom in the form of "Ask Mr. T."

The show launched last month and has thus seen three different episodes, all of which are about a minute-and-a-half long and find Mr. T answering questions Dear Abby style in front of a green screen.

ON WORK

Cubicle monkey Nigel has a problem with the office copier and wants to know how to fix it.

"The battle of man versus machine continues. You need to open that sucker up, slide open tray A, grab hold of that paper jammed in there, and pull that sucker out. And don't let no machine take you for a ride. I once had a fight with a printing press machine. Mr. T made headlines that day."

ON TRANSPORTATION

Fleet footed Jennifer is afraid of flying.

"Any sucker try to tell you they ain't afraid of flying, they're lying. Man wasn't meant to fly. The Wright brothers were the wrong brothers. Why don't you get a boat? Don't fly, float!"

ON MOTIVATION

World-class wimp Leon wants to know what it takes to be a tough guy like Mr. T.

"Without pain, there ain't no gain, fool. Do you think I became Mr. T sitting on my backside? No sir. When I could have just walked, I ran. When I could have just ran, I flew like an eagle. My advice to you is this: quit hiding from your pain. Your pain is driving me insane. Now drop and give me 20."

Mr. T's new YouTube channel is part of an across-the-board blitz of new media for the timeless tough guy, now 60. He joined Twitter in January, noting five days after opening his account (@MrT) that there's"a whole lot of jibba jabba" on the microblogging site.

Two months later, he's "still learning" how to handle all that"tweet'n, retweet'n and all that jibbajabba" but he's moving at a good clip.

"I'll get there tho 'cause I never quit."

Damn straight, T!

H/T Death and Taxes | Photo via OfficialMrTVideos/YouTube

Let's try to talk about Adria Richards like adults, OK?

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Every evening, the Daily Dot delivers a selection of links worth clicking from around the Web, along with the day's must-see image or video. We call it Dotted Lines.

  • Do better, Hacker News. Why can't the tech industry talk about Adria Richards like grownups?
  • I Am Jane Doe: An open letter to CNN, Poppy Harlow, and all the Steubenville rapist sympathizers.
  • On a lighter note, Tina Fey will be in the upcoming Muppets movie.
  • And Miley Cyrus is dancing in a unicorn onesie. 
  • And James Deen, the porn star everyone can agree on, talksFifty Shades of Grey.
  • This lizard robot will make you jaw drop. And also maybe terrify you.
  • Game of Thrones gets the Calvin and Hobbes treatment for a T-shirt.
  • And a baby tries to imitate the Incredible Hulk: 

Photo via blogumentary/Flickr

Amanda Bynes's crotch has an urgent request for Drake

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One-time teen role model Amanda Bynes is evidently not too pleased with the amount of attention being showered on Lindsay Lohan or those girls from Spring Breakers.

The former star of All That decided to take her affection for rapper Drake public last night, announcing none-too-subtly that she'd like for him to do some vulgar things to her female anatomy.

Yikes!

Drake has not yet responded (on Twitter! Who knows what's going on behind the crime scene), but it does appear as though he has a solid affinity for all things teen-culture. His latest tweet, sent about 24 hours before Amanda Bynes wrote, "I want @drake to murder my vagina," is a retweet from Complex magazine about who holds the title of Best Teen TV Couple: Seth and Summer or Cory and Topanga.

Uhhhh, what about Drizzy and Bynes?

Photo via Amanda Bynes/Facebook. Art by Fernando Alfonso III for the Daily Dot


"Lizzie Bennet Diaries" Kickstarter raises $269,000 in 2 days

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It’s a big week for hit YouTube series TheLizzie Bennet Diaries. After its 100th episode on March 28, the show’s modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice will draw to a close, but this certainly isn’t the end for Lizzie—or her fans.

In July, the entire show will be available on DVD. On Friday the show’s co-creator Hank Green (also known as one of the Vlogbrothers, and the founder of VidCon) announced a Kickstarter campaign to fund the DVDs, including special features and spinoff episodes from side characters. 

Within three hours the campaign met its goal of $60,000—and revealed some intriguing plans for the future. As well as including a production timeline for the DVDs themselves, the Lizzie Bennet Kickstarter mentions a second series in the works for July of this year. Since the 100th episode of Lizzie Bennet will mark the end of Pride & Prejudice, fans are speculating that series two will concentrate on side-characters such as Lizzie’s friends and colleagues, or be an entirely new Jane Austen adaptation. 

Although the source material is 200 years old, many of the show’s loyal fans were keen to remain spoiler-free for the end of the series. Happily, the Kickstarter rewards include a special Lizzie Bennet-themed edition of Pride & Prejudice, for those who want to go back and read the original once they’ve finished watching the show. 

In a video on the Kickstarter page, Green explained that any excess funds raised would be treated as royalties for the writers and actors. Considering the Kickstarter has already raised $269,000 over its first weekend, this YouTube phenomenon is proving to be as lucrative as it is popular. 

Photo via The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Anthony "Spice" Adams announces retirement from football—on YouTube

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It's been nine years and about 9 million laughs, but eventually all good things must come to an end. On Sunday, former Chicago Bears defensive end and all-around funny dude Anthony "Spice" Adams announced that he was retiring from the game of football. 

The amicable lineman announced his split from the game in a rather expected fashion, turning to YouTube to produce a fake press conference from inside of an empty White Castle restaurant on the outskirts of Chicago.

"I enjoyed my time in San Francisco and here in Chicago," Adams says behind a White Castle counter. "Appreciate y'all. Thanks a lot."

The Detroit native, 32, had actually spent the entire 2012 season out of football, looking for a team that wanted to invest in his boisterous personality and 10.5 career sacks. He used YouTube to help lead that free-agency charge, producing a number of videos that, among other things, showcased his humility, humor, and out-of-this-world athletic ability

The free-agent operation never worked out, but Adams did obtain a pretty solid fanhood online, with more than 260,000 fans turning out for his"Stuff NFL Free Agents Say" video and another 118,000 for"Basketball Is My First Love."

"That's just how I act all the time," he told the Daily Dot last August. "People don't get a chance to see it. I would do stuff in the locker room, and I always noticed that people would be taping it and putting on Twitter. It would crack people up. I realized that I should put it all onto a video."

Adams didn't announce plans for anything post-football, but you can expect he'll be around. After all, 300-pound people named Spice who've demonstrated a propensity for hamming it up for the camera usually have a tendency to stick around. 

Photo viaAnthony Adams/YouTube

"YouTube glitch" blocks K-pop videos, enraging fans

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The Internet hath no fury like a K-pop fan denied access to K-pop—or so one music distributor learned this weekend when it blocked dozens of videos from English-speaking YouTube fans.

Universal Music Group is calling it a "YouTube glitch."

Billboard reports that fans began trending #giveususkpop and #umg on Tumblr and Twitter yesterday after discovering that a number of K-pop videos distributed internationally by Universal Music Group were suddenly being blocked in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and other countries.

An angry plea posted to Asian Fanfics was retweeted more than 400 times Sunday: "Most Cube Entertainment videos have been blocked in the USA and UK," it read. "They want to keep kpop restricted to Koreans like it originally was. I guess they hate the hallyu wave."

"Hallyu" is the Korean word for "wave," which for several years has been used to describe the increasing export of Korean culture to other countries—particularly Korean drama and K-pop. Cube Entertainment is a small, relatively new entertainment studio representing a number of popular artists like 4Minute, Beast, and Hyun-a, whom overseas fans might recognize as Psy's "Gangnam Style" muse:

Fans attempting to access the group's official YouTube channels yesterday found the "restricted" message in place of their usual MVs (music videos):


Photo via chunjoexx/Twitter

Fans sprang into action, showering Universal's Facebook and YouTube accounts with pleas to unblock the music, in addition to the trending Twitter tags. 

"[W]ithout kpop it's like twitter without followers,Sehun without bubble tea & soul without a body," wrote one fan

Hours after the outcry began, Universal updated its Facebook with an explanation, indicating that it had taken notice of the clamor and the hashtag:

Glitch at YouTube blocking videos. We're doing all we can to get them back online. #GiveUsKPop

Fans suspected the "glitch" was actually a push by Universal and Cube Entertainment to redirect traffic to the bands' VEVO channels. Neither company has confirmed this, although Universal has previously confirmed to the Daily Dot that it has focused its efforts on its Vevo-driven channels. Still, in some cases, like Beast's, the official Vevo channel only has one or two MVs, and it would make very little sense to deliberately block access to the 60 other videos on its own channel.

As of today, the video access seems to have been restored to at least the U.S., although K-pop fans are still circulating the alarm and commenting angrily on Universal's Facebook—though not on the post where they explain what happened, which only has a surly 11 comments. Cries of racism and censorship run rampant, though in this case, it does appear that the issue might be just what's reported: a simple glitch.

Whatever the cause, international K-pop fans have made their need for readily available K-pop abundantly clear. It will most likely be a long time before anyone attempts to break them up again.

Screengrab via YouTube

Kate Upton can't make it to the high school prom

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The Daily Dot would like to extend a hearty "Good job, good effort" to Jake Davidson, the high school kid who made headlines last week when he asked the supermodel Kate Upton to prom. Unfortunately for the sprightly high school senior, the supermodel can't make it.

Upton declined the Los Angeles kid's invitation this weekend, telling People Magazine that "I'm not sure if I'll be able to go with him or not, due to my schedule.

"I want to, but I just don't know if I can make it work. But I really appreciate being asked; it made me feel really great!"

Surely making Kate Upton "feel great" is a suitable consolation, right Jake? Pshhh.

Davidson's chances may have been altogether doomed from the start, but he did put up a pretty good fight. Posted last weekend, the kid's invitation video received over 2 million views and  eventually earned the attention of the Sports Illustrated cover girl herself, who spoke via telephone with Davidson on the Today show, a brief segment that found the tall, blonde model giggling and complimenting Davidson even though she was probably busy doing something else like painting her toenails the whole entire time.

Davidson will now be relegated to asking one of his female classmates to accompany him to prom, a move that will likely remind him, just as it did for many of us, that prom's more or less a waste of time unless you're one of the kids from Full House.

Then it's a valuable learning experience.

Image by Fernando Alfonso III

CAPS OFF PLEASE Podcast: On kid rappers and quitting Reddit

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In this 9th installment of the CAPS OFF PLEASE Podcast—now with new logo!—the boys discuss child rappers, why we all should abandon Reddit, spending Bitcoin, why Pizza Hut sucks, strippers on Twitter, and Google Glass. And they even take some listener questions!

As usual, the podcast is extremely NSFW. The views expressed are condoned only by the CAPS OFF PLEASE hosts.
 
Go ahead and download the episode from this handy link, or look for it on iTunes

"Teen Wolf" fan hacks private photos of actor Tyler Hoechlin

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Pitch Perfect actress Brittany Snow recently celebrated her 27th birthday with a photo booth for her and her friends—including her boyfriend, Teen Wolf heartthrob Tyler Hoechlin.

But when a well-liked Teen Wolf fan stumbled across the online archive of the photos Snow and Hoechlin took together, she may have ruined the party for everyone and created a divide across the Teen Wolf fandom in the process.

Known for reblogging pictures from Teen Wolf, Glee, and other shows, Tumblr user stonesourwolf produced photos from Brittany Snow’s birthday party last week, ones which seemed to confirm the long-guessed-at relationship between Snow and Hoechlin. Fans immediately reblogged and edited them.

Photo via Tumblr

Photo via godsandheroines/Tumblr

After stonesourwolf confessed that she’d gotten the pictures by guessing the password of a locked online photo gallery, concerned fans alerted Hoechlin, who lashed out on Twitter.

Perhaps he was upset because the pictures, while tame, weren’t exactly formal.

Photos via dylanofuckme/Tumblr

Upon realizing the photos were never meant to be public, many fans deleted their reblogs and edits of the pictures. “As cute as those pics are, i will not reblog or work with them until tyler or brittany put them somewhere public or say it’s okay,” wrote weasleysgranger on Tumblr.

Stonesourwolf responded by posting a message stating that it “took less than five minutes” to guess the password to the site at which the photobooth gallery was hosted. Her non-apology only stoked the controversy.

“I think she was completely in the wrong,” wrote savagepierce. “[C]elebrities deserve their fucking privacy. There’s a line, and she crossed it.”

The friend of Snow and Hoechlin who rented the photobooth for the party also felt guilty. Courtney Knowles of the Jed Foundationposted to his own Tumblr to clarify that the stolen pictures belonged to him and urge the fandom to remove them from the Internet:

“A couple weeks ago, I threw a bday party for a friend. I rented a photo booth for the guests to use. As the host, those guests counted on me to respect their privacy. I never dreamed that the photo booth company would be silly enough to make the private login searchable or that they’d make the password easy to guess. And I never dreamed that a Tumblr user called @stonesourwolf would break into that private gallery and post the pics.”

Most fans did as requested and pulled the pictures. However, when Hoechlin “outed” stonesourwolf as the source of the photos, many fans weren’t pleased. And when stonesourwolf ultimately deactivated her Tumblr after receiving a barrage of angry emails and comments, the fandom grew even more divided.

“What Stonesourwolf did wasn’t cool. But stating her url in a tweet just invites a lot of bullying and bashing,” wrote idaredyoubambi.

“A tumblr blog name is NOT publicly exposing,” countered derekleftstilesforme. “All he did by naming the blogs [sic] name was effectively shut it down. She had no personal photos and no personal information. Further more [sic] she showed no remorse for her actions so why should he care about her ‘privacy’.”

While many fans were taking sides, many more were declaring themselves ready to move on, like beaconhillslacrosse24:

You know what? I am going back to reading sterek now. I’m reading rly cute nerd!stiles jock!derek ok and I do not need this dramatic pointless bullshit. stonesourwolf and tyler were both wrong, and I am disappointed in both of them. The end.

To user trollfight, however, the blame for the fiasco was much larger than just one fangirl hacking an online photo gallery. “You are all partly complicit in this kind of thing because you salivate for glimpses into your favorite celebs’ lives,” they wrote.

Hoechlin went on to upload another, less drunk-and-embarrassing picture of himself and Snow on Twitter. For his “TRUE” fans, he said.

But, as he’s probably learned, what makes a “true fan” may be different for everyone.

Photo via pariahpalace/Tumblr

Robin Thicke's new video is filled with boobs and still on YouTube

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Two seconds. Six seconds. Nine seconds. Twenty seconds. 

Those are all the seconds within the first 20 seconds of Robin Thicke's new music video "Blurred Lines" in which there's very obvious nudity going on among Pharrell (just kidding) and a few attractive women, one of which appears very comfortable holding a goat. 

Posted to YouTube yesterday, the song has more than 17,000 views and has somehow managed to remain online despite its incessant disregard of YouTube's anti-nudity Community Guidelines. 

In addition to Pharrell and the six other wayward boobs, the video also features a banjo; the rapper TI; a typically suave Thicke, who at times will appear eating an ice cream cone; a hilariously grandiose syringe; one of those big foam #1 hands; and an extra-tall stationary bicycle. 

There's also this image, which comes at the 3:14 mark and forever can't be unseen. 

Robin Thicke is not at all a no-name artist, and this video currently streams from his main YouTube channel, which has more than 3.3 million views so far. (His VEVO channel offers a second iteration, one that's running pre-video ads and contains considerably fewer boobs.)

It's really only a matter of time before YouTube drops in and cuts this booby brigade offline, but until then… Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," ladies and gentlemen. 

H/THyperVocal | Photo viaRobin Thicke/YouTube


The 25 most GIF-worthy moments from "Beetlejuice"

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"It's showtime!"

Twenty-five years ago, a relatively new director by the name of Tim Burton was fresh off of his debut success, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

Burton's sophomore project, an odd film named Beetlejuice, was originally envisioned as a flat-out horror piece. While it ultimately morphed into a horror-themed comedy, it nevertheless allowed Burton to fully flesh out aspects of his filmmaking that have become trademarks of his work: camp-gothic sets and characters, stop-motion animation, homages to 1950s cinema, and of course a continuous score of spooky carnival music courtesy of Danny Elfman.

Starring Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, a young Winona Ryder, and, in the title role, Michael Keaton (not Johnny Depp, believe it or not), Beetlejuice won over audiences, further cementing Burton as a bona fide director. While its intended sequel, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, never saw the light of day, the film nevertheless spawned off a line of toys, a Saturday morning cartoon, and a series of video games. It would be Burton's last film before his breakout blockbuster, Batman, which reunited him with Keaton.

To commemorate the silver anniversary of the Beetlejuice's March 30, 1988, release, here are 25 GIFs of the movie's more memorable moments.

"You'll feel better once you dry, honey."

"Let's just pray the other closets are bigger than this one."

"Sandworms. You hate 'em, right?"

"This is my art and it is dangerous."

"Say it once, say it twice, third time's the charm."

"I came here to relax and clip coupons, and dammit, I mean to do it."

"This is what happens when you die. That is what happens when he dies. And that is what happens when they die. It's all very personal. And I'll tell you something: if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have had my little 'accident.'"

"How do I look? There are no mirrors on this side. I've been feeling a little flat."

"Never trust the living!"

"I'm not scared of sheets."

"I'm the ghost with the most!"

"Can I be scary? What do you think of this?"

"Don't you hate it when that happens?"

"Nice f**kin' model!"

Day-O!

"We come for your daughter, Chuck."

"Hey, Adam! Nice move!"

Adam de-Baldwinizes himself.

Barbara was always told that she had a big mouth, but geez...

"Beetle-breakfast? Beetle-drink? Beetle... juice?"

"It's showtime!"

"Welcome to Winter River! Museum of Natural Greed! A monument to the bored businessman! Step right up and test your strength!"

"You're getting hitched to the most eligible bachelor since Valentino came over."

"This might be a good look for me."

Shake, shake, shake, Senora!

GIFs via Mike Fenn/Photo via YouTube

Hillbilly band hijacks Google Street View car for music video

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Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys may be the first folks to create art out of a Google Street View taping.

Unless they're lying to you. In which case they'd be just another band in the back of a pickup truck.

The Grand Rapids, Mich., sextet, an outlaw country outfit that likes "Fishing, Hunting" and "Ridin' in the Hillbilly Hummer and the Hummer Deluxe," just dropped a new music video for their Nashville name-dropping anthem "Could Be Me." In it, the band reportedly puts a friends' access to a Google Street View car to good use.

The video tracks the Grizzly Boys and a big group of their friends as they cruise down a snowy road in Michigan on the backs of three pickup trucks. Rather than appearing in standard video form, the camera's focus fades in and out, as if someone's pushing the forward arrow on a Google Street View map.

Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys say it's real—"To protect our friends at Google who bent the rules to make this video possible (and their jobs), we can't disclose when and where this was filmed," they wrote on the video's page—but a number of viewers are claiming false advertising.

"Just a camera car and clever editing," one YouTuber wrote. "Not a Google car."

"Google blurs faces, so it's fake, but entertaining," added another.

Update: Gunnar responded to the Daily Dot, "I think it would look a lot cooler if it wasn't shot by an actual Google car."

H/T Scott Keyes | Photo via RobBlissCreative/YouTube

Why Steven Moffat rules Tumblr fandom

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If Joss Whedon is king of the nerds, then Steven Moffat is fandom’s evil overlord. He may not be a household name in the U.S. (yet), but in the world of Tumblr, things are a little different.

Along with MTV’s cult hit Teen Wolf, Tumblr fandom is ruled by Superwholock, the catchall tag for Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock. Teen Wolf and Supernatural both rely on the ever-popular topic of hot guys battling the undead, but Sherlock and Doctor Who have longevity on their side. Sherlock brings with it more than a century’s worth of Sherlock Holmes fandom history, and Doctor Who is the world’s longest-running sci-fi show. And both are helmed by Steven Moffat.

Still wondering how a middle-aged Scottish sitcom writer came to be the idol of Tumblr users across the globe? Let us count the reasons.

Photo via joeyrrichter

1) He writes fanfiction for a living.

While Doctor Who is something of a cult favorite in the U.S. and overseas, it’s mainstream family viewing in the U.K. Three generations have grown up with the show, and Doctor Who has now reached the point where most of its cast and crew are lifelong fans of the show. Basically, its writers are filming fanfic of a TV series they watched as kids. And what’s Sherlock if not a modern-era fanfic of the Sherlock Holmes stories?

2) He’s the inmate who took over the fandom asylum.

Moffat’s participation in the early days of online fandom is public knowledge, so it’s easy for today’s fans to see a little of themselves in him. If you do some digging, you can still find his old Usenet posts from the ‘90s—including one thread where he discusses a Doctor Who backstory idea he then wrote into an episode over 15 years later.

3) Sherlock and Doctor Who fandoms are famously intense.

In the real world, Doctor Who is loved by everyone from 6-year-olds wielding Dalek action-figures to their grandparents who watched the first episode back in 1963. Online, the fandom is similarly varied—but way more intense. While many of the older fans may have rubbed shoulders with Moffat on Doctor Who’s old-school fan site Outpost Gallifrey, most Tumblrites focus on the show’s 2005 reboot series, posting hundreds of GIFs and images every day. If you look up Doctor Who on Etsy, there are over 10,000 items of fanart and clothing on sale, many of them popularised by the Tumblr generation’s enthusiasm for cosplay and DIY merchandise.

Photo via Etsy/smarmyclothes

As for Sherlock, this show’s fans are famed for their dedication. Although only six episodes have aired since 2010, the fandom has taken over Tumblr with fanart, graffiti campaigns, infighting, and a selection of increasingly outlandish ways to mourn the (fake) death of their beloved Sherlock last year. One of the unwritten laws of Tumblr is that once any post reaches over 20,000 notes or so, WhoLock fandom will show up and start posting GIFs on it, regardless of the original topic.

4) Moffat fandom is constantly fuelled by more backlash.

No one can reach Moffat’s levels of geek credibility without making a few enemies, and he’s made more than most. He’s received a lot of criticism for his treatment of female characters, along with the fact that Doctor Who hasn’t aired a single episode written by a woman since he became showrunner. This isn’t helped by Tumblr’s ability to make controversial quotes go viral, even if they’re from years-old interviews. Blogs like feministwhoniverse and STFU-Moffat have collected a wide variety of press statements over the years, including instances where Moffat described women as “needy” and claimed that middle-class men are the underdogs in British society.

GIF via ser-merlin-of-gallifrey

5) He’s kind of a troll.

Having deleted his Twitter account after one too many clashes with critics, Moffat now has far less opportunity to troll his fans. Still, he has a solid reputation for teasing fandom with minor plot spoilers, only to disagree with himself months later. There’s even a “Steven Moffat is a troll” tag full of posts about his love of revealing near-meaningless spoiler hints to the press.

Since Doctor Who returns this weekend and the stars of Sherlock have managed to find time in their Hollywood schedules to film a third season, Tumblr users will have to accept that Steven Moffat is here to stay. Just don’t wade into an online discussion about him unless you really know what you’re getting into.

Illustration via deviantart/xLuneNoire  

Jenna Marbles gets real, draws her life story on YouTube

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Jenna Marbles (real last name: Mourey) entertains millions with weekly insights and observations into her and her dogs' lives, but her latest video gives them an entirely new perspective on the vlogger they've come to know.

Currently the most popular woman on YouTube—as well as the first woman to break the top 10—Mourey followed the footsteps of fellow YouTubers Shane Dawson, Smosh's Anthony Padilla, and PewDiePie, illustrating (like, actually illustrating) an honest and personal video recap of her life.

"This video accidentally turned out to be kind of sad," Marbles wrote in the video description. "ME SO SOWWY IT NOT POSED TO BE SAD WHO WANTS HUGS AND COOKIES?"

Using a marker and dry-erase board, Mourey uses stick figures to paint a picture of her early life with her parents and older brother. Her parents divorced when she was young, but she had a fairly carefree childhood with both sides of the family. She shows a more vulnerable side, revealing that her dad told her to switch to softball because she was "distracting the boys" and she had self-esteem issues because she didn't feel that she was smart compared to her classmates.

She covers heartache, the uncertainty that followed receiving her master's degree, and her eventual start on YouTube with the "How to trick people into thinking you're good looking" video and fallout with BarstoolSports.com owner David Portnoy. (Portnoy now says he's ready to bury the hatchet as a result of Mourey's video. His blog post is caled)

In order to be closer to her YouTube friends, she moved to Los Angeles with her boyfriend, Max, but she was still sad over their split about four months ago.

While Marbles may put on a good face on for her videos, her life isn't as carefree as it seems to play out on camera.

"Life is complicated and you never know what's gonna happen, but if it's meant to be it'll be, and if it's not it won't," she says.

Jenna might not know what she's doing with her life, but she would rather have it that because if she had it all figured out, she would be doing it wrong and wouldn't be able to grow.

She is certain of one thing: no matter what happens in the future, YouTube and her viewers make her happy and she's thankful for them helping her become who she is today.

H/T: Daily of the Day | Photo via Jenna Mourey/Facebook

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's HitRECord is making a TV show

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After building an online community of artists, musicians, remixers, and curators, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is reaping the rewards: His collective artist project, HitRECord, is hitting prime time this fall with a new television show. "HitRECord on TV" will air on new independent network Pivot, with Gordon-Levitt as the host.

"I'm not lying, this is probably our biggest news ever," said the star of Looper and The Dark Knight Rises in his announcement to the community on YouTube. "I dressed up, 'cause it's really big news!"

The show will be in a half-hour variety format, featuring short films, music, animation, live performances, and other types of media frequently found on HitRECord's website. Each episode will have a different theme, and all contributors will be paid for their work.

HitRECord is an oddity among production companies, functioning as a social network that encourages artists to collaborate, piggy-back upon one another's works, and contribute to massive group projects, such as their bestselling series of Tiny Stories, edited by Gordon-Levitt and illustrated by elusive artist wirrow. Another thing that makes Gordon-Levitt's production company unique is that it pays each of its collaborators, no matter how small their contribution, for the work that it chooses to include in its professional output.

Pivot bills itself as a new network for millennials, aimed at the demographic that most frequently flocks to HitRECord's annual fall "Fall Formal" tour with Gordon-Levitt and special guests. Both HitRECord and Pivot have strong ties to Sundance; Pivot president Evan Shapiro was the president of the famed film festival, which hosted a special HitRECord panel this year, and has featured films made by the community in the past. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gordon Levitt cited Sundance as one of his primary inspirations for forming HitRECord.

Although HitRECord is only about 80,000 members strong, their combined creative output has been enough to power three volumes of Tiny Stories (with one more due out this fall), multiple film festival appearances, and now the tv show. Still, Gordon-Levitt says he's only begun tapping into the potential the site truly has to reach out to online artists and collaborators.

But a television show? That sounds like a big step forward.

Screengrab via YouTube

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