Wednesday, July 12, 2006

RocketBoom is dead to me.


If you've ever checked out RocketBoom.com you know it's a video blog ("vlog", I guess, if you want to get into ever-more-ridiculous slang) hosted by hottie Amanda Congdon.

At least it was, until an apparent disagreement with the show's co-creator caused her to leave/get fired/whatever. So I shall no longer watch the RocketBoom.

You see, RocketBoom was amusing in that it was just a video version of a blog, presenting random internet memes and funny news stories. It wasn't particularly timely - I usually read the day before on BoingBoing or Metafilter about whatever RB was presenting. So the real reason to watch it was Amanda, who at least presented it in an enteraining and easy-on-the-eyes manner.

But now RB has replaced Amanda with someone definitely not as hot. That is why RocketBoom is dead to me. If I'm going to watch a video about what got posted on BoingBoing yesterday, it better be done by Amanda.

Of course, Amanda, who was already getting some attention I am sure from various TV entities, is now getting interviewed all over the place, including the evil Scarborough Country.

Internet "fame" is a bizarre thing. It is fleeting, and mostly of minimal profit, Penny Arcade not withstanding. And your fans are a subset of the population, so you'll never become a household name, but you'll still get recognized anywhere there are techies and geeks. And to them, you may be more famous than those in the so-called "mainstream" types of media. I would know Amanda on sight, but I'm not sure I could pick Katie Couric out of a line up even though I know her name. I wish I could explain better the differences I see between Internet fame and, say, TV fame, but it is hard to define. Ms. Congdon has already gotten the internet variety, and hopefully she will get her wish and get some of the "mainstream" variety too.

Good luck Amanda. And RocketBoom, fuck you.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kick Ass Matt!

I second the motion, RB go get Fucked.

-Psyber Wolf

Anonymous said...

My initially reaction to this was "What a bad business move on Rocketboom's part..they're fuct" but then after the initial brouhaha took off and the dust cleared, I checked out Andrew's side and the story gets more interesting. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWf7yVt5NA0&search=rocketboom%20andrew

Shows can get second lives (remember, John Stewart isn't the first host "The Daily Show" has had...), so I'll give it a chance. Hell, the current host is just an "interim" filler girl.

W

Mattbear said...

Yeah, it's a real he said/she said kind of thing. I probably shouldn't sound so harsh against Andrew/RocketBoom...it's just that the show isn't that great to begin with. They're going to have to do a lot to make up for losing her.