Do you want to be a star on YouTube? Do you just want to understand a little bit more about how YouTube works? Whether you are at either of these extremes, or somewhere in between, YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts is the perfect book for you. Written by Alan Lastufka, one of the most subscribed comedians on YouTube and Michael W. Dean, filmaker, the book doles out easy to read, expert advice on making videos and understanding the social networking side of YouTube.

You will find advice on both the artistic and technical aspects of making videos. In the marketing and social networking sections there are discussions on how to fit into the YouTube community and cultivate a devoted audience. If you don't want to make your own videos, there is even a chapter on Re-broadcasting commercial content. Interviews with YouTube stars and staff are included. YouTube: An Insider's Guide covers everything you should and would want to know.

To get a better idea of what is covered in YouTube: An Insider's guide to Climbing the Charts, below is the Table of Contents:

1. What is this YouTube of which you speak?
2. Storytelling and directing
3. 99-cent film school: Shooting, editing, and rendering
4. Creating your very own channel
5. Broadcasting yourself: User-generated content
6. Rebroadcasting: Commercial content
7. Building your audience
8. The community: Where do you fit in?
9. Hacking the system: How to cheat (and why you shouldn't)
10. Reaching the world
11. Money, Money, Money!
12. Beyond the Tube
13. Becoming a success story
14. Closing arguments
15. Interviews with other YouTube rock stars

I highly recommend YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts to anybody with an interest in learning more about how YouTube works.

See also: Network Your Home Computers and Impress Your Teens

View blog reactions

Chuck and Heroes are coming back next Monday, February 2nd, and they are going to face much stiffer competition. Chuck now has to go up against House, in addition to the CBS comedies, The Big Band Theory and How I Met Your Mother. And Heroes now has to contend with not only Two and a Half Men, but 24. I am very glad that I own a DVR.

Chuck isn't taking any chances. The February 2nd episode, "Chuck vs. the Third Dimension" is in 3D! Piggybacking on the Super Bowl from the day before, everyone can keep their 3D Super Bowl glasses for this episode. And, they are going the guest star route also. Dominic Monaghan, Lost's deceased Charlie Pace, guest stars as a rock star. NFL star Jerome Bettis will also guest in this episode. I'm sure we will see many Chuck ads during the Super Bowl.

Here is a clip of Dominic Monaghan and the cast of Chuck discussing this episode (sorry about the 10 second commercial from NBC):


Heroes first episode back, "A Clear and Present Danger" needs to make its fans happy. Word is that plans are to streamline heroes and make it less complex. It would be wonderful if it could return to its season one magic. The episode begins with all the Heroes back to living their old lives, except Nathan.

Here is a clip from "A Clear and Present Danger" (thanks to Buddy TV):



I am definitely watching Chuck and Heroes live Monday night and recording my other favorites. These shows are both family favorites of ours and having Charlie from Lost on Chuck is going to really make it fun to see.

View blog reactions

Life on Mars is back. I didn't realize how much I missed it until it began last night playing the great 70's song, No Time. Here is the complete list of songs that played in episode 8, "Take a Look at the Lawmen":

1. No Time - The Guess Who

2. Legs - Darondo

3. Whiskey in the Jar - Thin Lizzy

4. My Maria - B.W. Stevenson

I enjoyed the subplot with Sam and the woman that turned out to be Gene's daughter more than I did the main plot. The look on Sam's face when he found out who she was, just priceless.

To see the lists of songs played in previous episodes, go to the labels section in the right sidebar and click on "Life on Mars".

Edited to add:
Life on Mars music episode 9

View blog reactions

Image via Wikipedia

The 3rd episode of Lost, "Jughead" did not have as much excitement as last week's season premiere. Nor did it have the humor. However, it did have some revelations and some nice moments.

My highlights, observations , questions and quotes:

1. I loved that Desmond and Penny named their baby boy Charlie.

2. Charles Widmore was an Other! When Richard Alpert said "put the gun down Widmore", I was shocked for a second, and then it made so much sense. Enjoyed hearing Locke say to Widmore "Nice to meet you".

3. Daniel's declaration of his love for Charlotte was one of the sweeter moments on Lost. He said that he could be trusted not to blow up the island because "I am in love with the woman sitting next to me and I would never do anything to hurt her".

4. When the Others first capture Daniel, Charlotte and Miles, the female Other, Ellie says to Daniel "You just couldn't stay away, could you". Did she recognize him, or did she mean the group of them in general. Later in the episode, Daniel tells Ellie that she looks familiar - any guesses?

5. Widmore funded all of Daniel's research for years. Could this be because he knew that a knowledge of time travel was necessary to get back to the island?

6. Jughead is the name of the bomb. What happened to the bomb after the survivors time jumped?

7. Daniel said that he knew the bomb wouldn't explode because the island still exists 50 years from now. That is when we first find out how far back in time they are. It is also when Ellie finds out that Daniel is from the future.

8. In the beginning of the episode, Penny says to Desmond "Promise me you'll never go back to the island again". He says that he won't. I'm not sure why but that scene gave a me bad feeling about their future. I hope I am wrong.

9. Widmore tells Desmond to keep Penny hidden because she could be in danger (he doesn't mention the danger is from Ben). Desmond is prepared to call off his search for Daniel's mother to save Penny, but she insists they go on.

10. Daniel's mother is in Los Angeles. I'm even more convinced now that she is Mrs. Hawking because we last saw her in L.A. speaking to Ben.

11. I was surprised that Richard didn't recognize Locke. I realize that this meeting took place before Locke was born, but I had assumed that Richard must have time traveled into the future at times. Locke had to tell Richard that Jacob sent him to gain Richard's trust.

12. At the end of the episode the survivors jumped in time again (no idea to when) and Charlotte's nose started bleeding profusely and she passed out.

13. Ben and the Oceanic 6 were not in this episode at all.

What were your favorite moments. Did I miss anything?

Make sure you read the comments below. I've added additional theories there.

View blog reactions

How did Super Bowl commercials become such a big part of American pop culture? For a country that records and then fast-fowards through most of the ads, it is odd that one day a year we not only look forward to, but actually get excited about, commercials. And, unless you are a real football fan, you probably remember the ads much longer than you remember the game.

Do you remember some of these commercials that played in Super Bowls past?

1. 1984 Apple "1984" commerical



2. 1985 Pepsi "Archaeology" commercial



3. 1999 Monster.com "When I grow up" commercial



4. 2000 Mountain Dew "Mock Opera" commercial




If I didn't include your favorites above, you can view many more classic Super Bowl ads at Adweek Superbowl Videos. If you are more interested in reading about and watching the worst Super Bowl commercials, then head over to Super bowl's Biggest Fumbles. I hope you all enjoy the game on Sunday. Or should I say, I hope you all enjoy the commercials.

See also: Super Bowl Commercials - 3 Best Websites to Watch, Rate and Share

View blog reactions

Everyone seems to be writing about the Millennials nowadays. It seems as if this group of people, mostly in their teens and twenties, are being researched more than any age group since the baby boomers. However, the Millennials aren't important because of their size, as were the baby boomers. The Millennials are the first generation to grow up digital. Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World is different than other books on the topic in that it is written as a guide to adults on how to best deal with this generation.

The book starts out by discussing the characteristics and the brain of the Net Generation. After that, come perhaps the most important chapters of Grown Up Digital, discussions of the five areas of society that need to transform to best deal with the Net Generation. These are:

1. Education - This generation learns differently and schools must adapt. This book offers 7 guidelines for educators to tap the Net Generation potential.

2. Workforce - The Net Generation is going to change the current workforce. Read about 7 ways to attract and engage young talent in the workforce.

3. Consumers - Marketers will need to completely overhaul old rules. Forget about TV ads with these Millennials.

4. The Family - Very often, the teens in the family now are the experts and know more about an important area than the parents - technology and the Internet.

5. Citizenship and Democracy - Just look at the 2008 presidential election and the way President Obama used email and text messaging to get his word out as proof of the Net generations influence on changing politics.

Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World is an important book. This quote from the book sums up the reason why, "The bottom line is this: if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future. You will also understand how our institutions and society need to change today."

See also:
2 Essential Books for Parents of Teenagers Hamlet's BlackBerry: Should We Be Connected 24/7
3 New Books for Moms of Teenage Girls
Quotes on Millennials and the Future of Privacy

View blog reactions

The Secret Life on the American Teenager mother and former Brat Packer, Molly Ringwald, is pregnant with twins. According to a spokesman for The Secret Life, her pregnancy will be written into the show. This should be very interesting since the show is about the pregnancy of her teenage daughter.

Molly Ringwald, 40, already has a 5 year old daughter with husband Panio Gianopoules, 33. Ringwald originally became famous in the 1980s starring in the John Hughes teen movies Sixteen Candles,The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. It is ironic that she went from playing the teen to the mother now on a hit teen television show The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Added 10/31/09:
Secret Life of the American Teenager - New Season and DVD Coming Soon!

View blog reactions

It is so great having Lost back again. And three hours in a row of Lost (I always watch the recap) was a great way to begin. I am not going to attempt to completely dissect and review the full episodes of Because you Left and The Lie. My plan is to list the most interesting parts of the episodes, the questions, quotes, etc. Please comment with any you feel I missed.

1. Best line of the night - Hurley to Sayid: "Maybe if you ate more comfort food you wouldn't have to go around shooting people".

2. The record skipping at the beginning foreshadowed the Losties skipping through time. The song playing is Shotgun Willie by Willie Nelson.

3. The clock read 8:15 as the show began.

4. Daniel was in the Dharma station with Marvin Candle in the 70s. Did he find a way to travel there to help save the Losties on the Island?

5. Why did only Charlotte have a nose bleed when they were all time skipping? Had she done so before, so that maybe it was getting to be too much for her?

6. Only the Lost survivors moved through time, not Richard Alpert and the Others.

7. The Lostie character Neil, that was complaining that they couldn't make fire, was hit by a flaming arrow. He was wearing a red shirt.

8. Sawyer had some great new nicknames. I especially like Ginger for Charlotte since Ginger was from Gilligan's Island, a television show about people stranded on an island.

9. Could the island whispers be related to the time jumps

10. I assume the reason that the rules don't apply to Desmond (as Daniel told him) is because of everything that happened to him since he turned the switch and blew up the hatch. Since then he skips through time on his own, and that is probably why Daniel said that he is special.

11. Does anyone else think that Daniel's mother, the person he asked Desmond to find in Oxford, is Mrs. Hawking? Mrs. Hawking was the woman that told Desmond that time always corrects itself in the Flashes Before your Eyes episode in season 3. She was also the women that Ben met with at the very end of The Lie. If so, looks like the study of time travel runs in the family.

12. If was fun seeing killed off characters once again. We got to see Ethan because Locke traveled back to when Ethan was still alive and Ana Lucia because Hurley hallucinated her. I'm looking forward to more of these visits. Hopefully we will get one from Boone.

13. When Sayid first took off with Hurley he told him to never trust Ben. That was still in Hurley's mind at the end of The Lie when he gave himself up to the police rather than go with Ben, even though Hurley was the biggest proponent of going back to the Island all along.

14. Who hired the lawyers to see if Kate was really Aaron's mother?

15. Who was the woman working at the butcher shop that Ben spoke to? She seemed to be in on everything. It seems like the Others do have people working in the real world.

16. Hurley's father was watching Expose, the TV show that Nicki starred in.

17. I don't know if this meant anything, but when Jack asks Ben why he has to keep Locke's body safe since he is dead, Ben pauses and then doesn't answer. Although I think Locke really is dead, could it be that because Locke was so special to the island that he can be healed when he is brought back?

18. Big laugh when Ben startled Hurley and he threw his hot pocket.

19. Sawyer was shirtless for the entire first episode.

20. Who are the military men that tried to kill Sawyer and Juliet?

Please let me know what you think of the above. Did you have any other revelations that I missed?

View blog reactions

Back in June of 2008 I wrote the Top 20 Classic Books for Teenagers. At the time, I had no idea it would be my most visited and most commented upon blog post. I received so many comments with suggestions of books that I should have included, I decided to make a second list or a part 2 to my original list. I had to leave out a few books suggested in the comments for various reasons and I included a few of my own. Please forgive me if I left out a suggestion of yours.

Don't forget that this list is made up only of classic books. That is why I don't have Twilight and many other wonderful recent books.

My 2nd list of classic books for teenagers, in alphabetical order:

1984 - George Orwell
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret - Judy Blume
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Call of the Wild - Jack London
Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider haggard
Marjorie Morningstar - Herman Wouk
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Night - Elie Wiesel
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
Roots - Alex Haley
The Scarlett Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'm happy for any and all suggestions once again. Please make sure you look over the first Top 20 Classic Books for Teenagers and make sure any book you are suggesting isn't already on that list.

See also:  
18 New YA Books for Teens in 2011
20 Coming of Age Novels for Teens
3 New Books for Teens - Poetry, Dating and a Reading Journal
Teens Engage with Classic Books via Video Recaps

See the Books label in the right sidebar for other great books for teens.


Bookmark this on Delicious

View blog reactions

A wonderful young adult biography of Barack Obama was published last month. Barack Obama: An American Story is the inspirational story of Obama's life, from being raised by a single mom and his grandparents to being elected President of the United States.

This book is not political and can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their ideologies. It therefore makes a great book for school and classroom use, in addition to personal reading. Since the youth vote was overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, I would imagine that teens would be very interested in learning more about him. It is a story that should inspire and empower young adults.

Here is a teenager's review of Barack Obama: An American Story in an Illinois newspaper.

View blog reactions

Lost: 20 observations on Because you Left and The Lie

The Event
On Saturday, January 17th, I attended a special event for the TV series Lost at the Paley Center for Media in NYC. The description from the Paley Center website was: "The Paley Center is taking a look at the cultural phenomenon that is Lost on a Lost-filled Saturday in January, before the season five series premiere."

Favorite Episodes
The day began with a screening of the top two episodes of Lost as voted by fans. The winners were Through the Looking Glass, the season 3 finale of Lost, and Walkabout, the season one mind blowing episode that revealed that Locke had been in a wheelchair.

Season 5 Preview!!!
When we finished viewing those 2 Lost classic episodes, you could feel the excitement level of the audience rise. After showing us the Fray music video and a Lost season 5 catch up video, The Paley Center then screened the first 20 or so minutes of the season 5 premiere of Lost, Because You Left, made available to them by ABC. I am not going to give anything away, except to say that nobody was disappointed and there was applause. I cannot wait until Wednesday night.

Interview with Lost Producers Video
After that came an unscheduled treat. Before the panel began, we saw a screening of Entertainment Weekly's Lost guru, Jeff Jensen interviewing Lost producers, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. Damon and Carlton said they wanted to attend the event but kidded (?) that ABC wouldn't pay for them come to NY.

Carlton said that getting a tribute now, before the show was over, is somewhat scary because they could still screw it up. Damon then reminded him that they already had, as a picture of Nicki and Paulo flashed on the screen above. When discussing fan's favorite episodes, after the 2 above, number 3 was the the 1st episode ever, the Pilot. Number 4, was very recent and a season 4 favorite, The Constant, the beautiful love story of Desmond and Penny.

When discussing what to expect in season 5, they agreed that this year will focus more on science fiction and fantasy elements. When Jeff Jensen asked if they are ever afraid of "Jumping the Shark", the interesting response was that they are more worried that fear of Jumping the Shark might prevent them from doing something great.

Jeff's final question was how they think Lost will be viewed down the road. One response that Damon gave really stood out in my mind. He said that he hopes that people have great memories of it and will say "when I grew up I watched Lost with my family". All I could think of was the first post I ever wrote on this blog "Why Lost is the best TV show to watch with your teens" and the great times I've had watching and discussing Lost with my family.

Panel Discussion
After all this, there was still a live panel discussion. The moderator was Josh Wolk, senior editor of Entertainment Weekly and the panel was made up of Daniel Manu, site director of Television without Pity, James Poniewozik, TV Critic of Time and author of the Tuned-In blog and Christopher Rosen, blogger for The New York Observer.

One of the questions asked by Josh was "What has the Internet done for Lost?" Dan replied that he thought that Lost could not have existed in its present form 10 years ago. Without the Internet, Lost could not have been as complex. Viewers need to go online to understand and decode it. But, Josh then asked, do you think in all these online discussions, that people think things up about Lost that aren't there. Definitely, especially in season one, was Dan's response. Theory is a big part of the show so viewers are going to keep venturing new ones. When asked how this show will be looked back on, James said "as the seminal show for the Internet and blog era. It is a multi-level experience".

They were all asked who their favorite character on Lost is:
Dan - Desmond, because he has no flaws like the others, he just wants to be with the one he loves.
Chris - Jack, because he is completely not the hero that he is thought of and Ben, because he is so funny and such a great actor
James - Locke, just an amazing character and Rose, his favorite character in a smaller role
They all miss having Charlie on the show.

The identity of Jacob seemed to be one of the biggest mysteries to the Panel. They discussed that many of the mysteries on Lost might be explained by time travel or time shifting. There was a debate whether Lost becoming more involved this season with time travel would cause it to lose its less science fiction loving fans. The majority thought that it wouldn't because character stories are always still so much a part of Lost.

My next post about Lost will either be late Wednesday night or Thursday morning about the season 5 premiere. I hope you will all come back and add to the discussion in the comments section.
Edited 1/22/09 to add:

Lost: 20 observations on Because you Left and The Lie

View blog reactions

Anybody that wants to know what is going on in the mind of a teenage girl should read the book Red: The Next Generation of American Writers - teenage Girls - On What Fires Up Their Lives Today. Instead of reading the thoughts of a bunch of experts trying to analyze teens, this critically acclaimed book allows us to learn even more by giving us the honest, raw voices of the teenage girls themselves.

For teenage girls, reading this will be like therapy. They will see all of their problems in many of the almost 60 essays in Red and feel comfort knowing that they are not alone.

If you are wondering how so many teenagers feel so comfortable writing about themselves, the book flap says it best:

"If you're a teenage girl today, you live your life in words: in e-mails and text and instant messages, on blogs and social network pages. You're a reporter embedded in your parent's home, your school, your own head."

Red was edited by writer Amy Goldwasser. She titled the book Red because she felt that teenage girls are "the best shades of red (not pink): a little big angry, a lot passionate, fired up, primary-color invested in their causes." For more information on the book including readings and book tours, see the Red the Book website.

Red: The Next Generation of American Writers - teenage Girls - On What Fires Up Their Lives Today is a must read book for teenage girls and anybody that has teenage girls in their life.

See:
Tips for Teens by Teen Author in Brain Snacks for Teens on the Go
If I Stay: New Teen Book Not Just For Teens 
TEDxWomen - Teenage Girls Harmed by our Culture

View blog reactions

Lost: 20 observations on Because you Left and The Lie

With exactly one week to go until the premiere of Lost, everybody is writing about it. Many journalists have already seen the first two episodes and are posting mostly spoiler free reviews to their websites. I thought that I would gather some of the best of these Lost articles here for you in one place. There are no big spoilers in any of them, but there is some information that complete spoilerphobes may want to stay clear of:

1. TV Guide - Review: Lost Premiere Fires Up One Trippy New Season

2. Entertainment Weekly - 'Lost': Five Episodes With Clues for Season 5

3. TV Squad - Lost season five - An early look

Although I am not one of the elite journalists that got to preview Lost's first 2 episodes, I am attending a Lost event at the Paley Center for Media this Saturday in which the first 30 minutes of the premiere episode will be shown. After the airing, there will be a panel discussion moderated by Josh Wolk, senior editor of EW. The panel consists of Daniel Manu of Television without Pity; James Poniewozik, TV critic, Time and Chritopher Rosen, blogger from The New York Observer. I will blog about their observations on Lost on Sunday.

Lost Season 5 Finale "The Incidents" Top 37 Moments, Questions , Quotes and More

Lost Season 5 Episode 14 The Variable Highlights

Lost season 5 episode 13 Some Like It Hoth Highlights

Lost Season 5 Episode 12 "Dead is Dead" Highlights

Lost ABCs: Must-See Slideshow for Lost Fans

Lost Season 5 Episode 11 "Whatever Happened, Happened" Highlights

Lost Season 5 Episode 10 "He's Our You" Highlights

Lost Season 5 Episode 9 Namaste Highlights

Lost season 5 episode 8 "LaFleur" Highlights

Lost: 20 observations on Because you Left and The Lie

View blog reactions

Image via Wikipedia

Will you or your teenager be applying to college soon? Have you been rejected from a University even though you had the credentials and don't know why? Then you must read "Dirty Secrets of College Admissions" by Kathleen Kingsbury, published on The Daily Beast blog. Kathleen spoke to current and former admissions officers from schools across the United States and found some very interesting revelations:

In a Daily Beast exclusive, college admissions officers reveal just how whimsical the selection process can be. Boring math geniuses, oboe-playing poets, and rich kids from New York need not apply.

The article can be somewhat depressing, but there are also many tips offered up by the admissions officers. And most students do not have to worry. All of this mostly applies just to the most difficult to get into colleges and Universities.

See also:  
SuperFutures Offers Teens Online Guidance Counselors
Should Rankings Matter in College Selection? 

What College's Look For in an Applicant  
College Search Admission Advice for both Parents and Teens

View blog reactions

I love to watch awards shows. Not all of them. I refuse to watch The People's Choice Awards and others that are pure popularity contests. However, I love and look forward to each year, The Golden Globes, The SAG awards, The Oscars and The Emmys. Here, in no particular order, are the highlights of last nights Golden Globes awards show:

1. Bruce Springsteen winning for Best Song for a motion picture. Great speech "This is the only time I'm going be in competition with Clint Eastwood. It feels pretty good." Bruce looked fantastic. He just keeps getting better looking.

2. John Adams sweeps the miniseries/TV movie category. I didn't see it but Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson are great actors and I have to mention a sweep.

3. Ricky Gervais continues his streak of being hysterically funny at award shows. Going out to present with a drink in hand and saying to Kate Winslet "I told you do a Holocaust movie and the awards would come" was priceless. It was even funnier in you saw the episode of Extras that Kate Winslet starred in.

4. Heath Ledger winning the award for Best Supporting Actor award posthumously. Although completely expected, director Christopher Nolan using the expression "A hole ripped in the future of cinema" brought to the forefront what a tragedy his death was.

5. 30 Rock sweep. It is a brilliant show and deserves every award it gets.

6. Tracy Morgan's speech for Best Comedy show win, "Tina Fey and I had a bet, If Barack Obama won the presidency, I would speak for the show from now on. I'm the face of post-racial America!"

7. Tina Fey's speech for her Best Actress in a comedy win, "If you're ever feeling too great about yourself, there's this thing called the Internet". Best line of the night. I also loved the line that she thanked Will Arnett for, "As a kid I had all the Hollywood Foreign Press action figures".

8. Steven Spielberg Cecil B. DeMille award - the montage was wonderful. You remember the most famous of his movies but sometimes you forgot some of the other great movies that he was responsible for. His speech, though, could have been shorter.

9. Looked great on stage (not getting into the whole red carpet extravagnaza) - Patrick Dempsey, Demi Moore, Bruce Springsteen, Kate Winslet.

10. Mickey Rourke comeback by winning Best Actor in a Movie, drama. He looked a little weird and thanked his dogs, but everyone loves a comeback.

11. Kate Winslet's 2 wins. If you didn't realize, although Kate's been nominated many times before, she has never yet won. That is why when she won her first award of the night for The Reader, she said that she never wins anything. Her second speech for best actress in Revolutionary Road was much more heartfelt because she was so shocked. I loved when she professed her love to Leonardo DiCaprio and her husband and director, Sam Mendes.

12. Slumdog Millionaire swept Best Movie, Drama awards. It won Best Picture, Best director - Danny Boyle, Best Screenplay and Best Score. It is starting to look like this will be the movie to beat at the Oscars. I saw Slumdog a few weeks ago and it deserves every award it gets. Although unique, it is a movie for everyone. My older teen sons loved it and so did I. It is for males and females, young and old.

Some winners that I didn't mention above: Best TV show, drama - Mad Men (I'm still mad that Lost wasn't nominated); Best Movie, comedy - Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Best Actor Movie, comedy - Colin Farrell, In Bruges (Never heard of it before last night, but now added it to my netflix list); Best Actress movie, comedy - Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky; Best animated Movie - Wall-E (Loved it and it deserved to win, but wasn't a highlight because it was a given); Foreign Language film - Waltz with Bashir; Best Actor in TV show, drama - Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment (When will Michael C. Hall of Dexter finally win?); Best Actress in a TV show, drama - Anna Paquin, True Blood; Best Actress in TV movie - Laura Dern, Recount.

The next awards show, The Screen Actors Guild (SAGS) will air on January 25, 2009. Just like the Golden Globes, the SAGs award both Movies and Television. The academy award nominations are scheduled to be announced on January 22nd. What are you hoping to see nominated? What were your favorite moments of the Golden Globes?

Added: 10 Academy Awards Articles to Read to Prepare for Oscars 2011

.

View blog reactions

Josh Shipp is an inspiring youth speaker who has appeared on MTV's TRL, Comedy Central, NBC and more. He is dedicated to entertaining, inspiring and empowering teens. One of the ways in which he does this is through his website, Hey Josh. Written mostly as a blog, Josh writes about teen trends, entertainment reviews, school, technology and a variety of other subjects. From his website:

Hey Josh is a website that provides advice, entertainment and community to teens through the web, films, live events and published books. Based on the old-school principles of Dear Abby, Hey Josh provides digital advice to a digital generation that is “in your face, but on your side”.

Josh also reaches out on a more personal level. There is a page called "Ask Josh" in which teens can write in for advice about anything. Josh then publishes his answers in the advice page of Hey Josh, leaving out all information as to who asked the question. Josh also has profiles on Facebook and Myspace for teens to friend him.

Josh Shipp also speaks all over the U.S. at schools and many other events. See his schedule page for a list of his upcoming schedule or to book an event with him.

As soon as I saw the Hey Josh, I immediately loved this website. After I read his about page, I really admired Josh Shipp even more. He got into what he does because he was abandoned and abused as a child. He found that the power of laughter can help to overcome struggles and he is very funny and entertaining when he speaks. Check out Hey Josh and recommend it to the teenagers in your life.

View blog reactions

So now that Amy and Ben got married in the 1st episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager season 2, what is going to happen next? In the following sneak peek video from episode 2, we see Ben and Leo discuss the wedding:



For any parents reading this post, I just have to tell you that I get more visits to my blog and comments from teens from The Secret Life of the American Teenager than anything else I write about. Teenagers love this series and can't get enough information on it. If any adults want to give it a try, there are great adults cast on this show, such as, Molly Ringwald (Pretty in Pink) and Mark Derwin (OLTL) as Amy's parents and Steve Schirripa (Sopranos) as Ben's dad.

Update 5/2010: Secret Life of the American Teenager Season 3 episodes and Volume 4 DVD

View blog reactions

It has been so long since Life on Mars aired its last episode, I almost forgot it existed. That is, until I saw a commercial for it last night during Private Practice, which took over the old time spot that Life on Mars had. Now I am excited again to watch this great show and hear the great 70s music again. Life on Mars will begin again on Wednesday, January 28th at 10pm ET directly after Lost.

To get you excited again, here is a video from ABC.com. It starts off as a commercial, but after the commercial a scene from the next episode will play. After that, if you click on "video" below the screen, you can look at Life on Mars photos and read news about the show.



Don't forget that Life on Mars will be airing on Wednesday nights when it returns. I'll be back listing the songs from the episodes once again. See the "Life on Mars" label in the sidebar for all the previous posts that contain the lists of songs from each episode.

Edited to add:

Life on Mars music episode 13
Life on Mars music episode 8

View blog reactions

Do you ever miss a television show and try to find the episode online? Do your teens, especially those in college, prefer to watch most of their TV on the computer? I've already written about free TV sites such as IMDB and Hulu, but you will find more full-length TV shows using Blinkx Remote than anywhere else. That is because Blinkx is actually a search engine and aggregator. They find all the free television shows everywhere on the web, and then offer them to you in one place.

The home page of Blinkx Remote has an alphabetical list of all the television shows that it has episodes for. Every type of series is included - new, old, primetime, daytime, childrens, teens, adult, cartoons, soaps, etc. Each TV show page lists the episodes they have by season. You are given the name of the episode and the original air date. When you click on the episode that you want to watch, you may have a few choices to click on since blinkx pulled all the episode from every site that is was available online.

Blinkx Remote recently added a new site called Blinkx Remote4kids. This new site is identical in every way except it only list children's TV shows.

Blinkx Remote is part of the larger website Blinkx. Blinkx, however, offers much more than just TV. This website offers over 32 million hours of video of all types. On Blinkx you can find video for news, fashion, teens, health, sports, technology, video games, parenting and more. You can either browse each category for videos or use their seach engine which searches the entire web to find the video that you want.

Is there any reason to ever use any other website to watch free TV online again?

View blog reactions

Looking ahead at the movies due to be released during 2009, there are many that will have teenagers lining up at the movie theaters. Many of these movies are not just for teens, but they will probably bring in the biggest box office for these movies. Science fiction lovers and geeks rejoice, most of these movies are for you. As usual, there is a much smaller crop of female based movies, but there are a few biggies.

Here are the 14 movies that I think teens will want to see in 2009:

February
Fanboys - A group of friends in 1998 are anxious for the premiere of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and begin a crazy road trip. The film stars Sam Huntington, Jay Baruchel(Undeclared, Tropic Thunder) and Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes). (2/6/09).

Friday the 13th - Starring Derek Mears, Jared Padalecki (Supernatural) and Amanda Righetti (The O.C., The Mentalist). It actually premieres on Friday the 13th. (2/13/09).

Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience - The Jonas Brothers during their Burning Up Concert Tour with documentary footage on their lives. The soundtrack will be released 3 days before the movie. (2/27).


March
Adventureland - A comedy drama set in 1987 in which a recent college graduate finds a job at a local amusement park. He then learns life lessons and finds love. Directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad) who based it on his own experiences. It stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Ryan Reynolds, and Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks).

Watchmen - due to litigation, the Watchmen premiere may be pushed back. This is a superhero movie adapted from the Watchmen comic book. It is set in an alternate 1985 where tensions are heightened between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. There are superheroes, one of which is murdered, and a vigilante investigates and finds a much bigger conspiracy.


May
Star Trek - the long awaited 11th film in the series, directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost). This film features the original Star Trek crew at an earlier time than the original series. Kirk is now played by Chris Pine (Just my luck) and Spock by Zachary Quinto (Heroes' Sylar). We will see the meeting of Kirk and Spock.

Terminator Salvation - The 4th Terminator movie is set in 2018 and centers on the war between humanity and Skynet. Christian Bale now plays John Connor with Sam Worthington the new Terminator.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Hugh Jackman continues to play Wolverine in this prequel to the X-men trilogy.


June
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Sequel to the 2007 Transformers film. This live action science fiction movie is also directed by Michael Bay, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and stars Shia LaBeouf. A teaser trailer will be released in February.


July
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - based on the 6th book of the series. Directed by David Yates, director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The movie was originally supposed to be released in November 2008.

S. Darko - A sequel to the 2001 cult movie Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The original director and writer are not involved with this sequel. The only main character returning is Daveigh Chase in the title role of Samantha, Donnie's younger sister. S. Darko takes place in 1995, which is 7 years after the original.


November
New Moon - based on the 2nd book in the hugely popular Twilight series. There has already been controversy as the director of Twilight, the hit film just released in November, is not coming back. There has also been controversy on whether the role of Jacob will be recast. This character has a much more significant part in New Moon than he did in Twilight. As of now, the November date is just tentative.


December
Avatar - Director James Cameron (Titanic) has been working on this project for years. It is a 3-D science fiction movie set in the future. Many innovative special effects were used.

The Lovely Bones - Based on the best selling novel, The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold and directed by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings). It is the story of Susie, a young teen, murdered by a serial killer observing life below from Heaven. The movie stars Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) as Susie, Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg as her parents and Susan Sarandon as her grandmother. The role of the killer is played by Stanley Tucci with Michael Imperioli as the police detective in charge of the case. With such an amazing cast, director and best selling book, this seems as close to a sure thing to me.

Which are you most looking forward to? Are there any that I left out? Please let me know what you think.

See also:
42 Movies for Teens 2011
75 Classic Movies Teens Should See!
Top 20 Fall Movies for Teens 
20 Summer Movies for Teens 2009
Adventureland: Movie for Teens and Adults 
35 Best Movies about Teens

View blog reactions