Lonelygirl15 appears to be an innocent, home-schooled 16-year-old, pouring her heart out for her video camera in the privacy of her bedroom. But since May, her brief posts on the video-sharing site YouTube and the social networking hub MySpace have launched a Web mystery eagerly followed by her million-plus viewers: Who is this sheltered ingenue who calls herself "Bree," and is she in some sort of danger — or, worse, the tool of some giant marketing machine?

I'd totally missed out on this little cultural phenomenon. Then again, I miss out on most cul-phenoms, being a bit out of the loop. I found this interesting, and hey, if it is a marketing ploy, it's a darned good one.

Sadly, if it is, it will be successful probably, then *everyone* will feel they have to do it, and then it will become an annoyance instead of a brief percolation in the bubbling pot of creativity.

~Heathyr

Mystery Fuels Huge Popularity of Web's Lonelygirl15

"The Americans are more action-oriented. They want to see the puppets beating each other up. British audiences are more intellectual. They like to see it sick and twisted but in an intellectual way."

I like intellectually sick and twisted action! Actually, I just like the idea of muppets behaving badly. There's something as wrong and amusing about it, as there is about all the dirty cartoons with the Jetsons that I find when I peruse "certain sites" if you catch my drift. Nothing says "adult entertainment" like your childhood buddies going wrong...

~Heathyr

Muppet creators go adult - Yahoo! News

The rapture has become somewhat en vogue recently, due in large part to the inept, poorly-written, mind-bogglingly popular Left Behind series of books.

Okay, so it's old but I just found it and about spit my water out laughing unexpectedly on his rapture rant.

~Heathyr

MC Hawking's Crib

Because as of June 6, 2006, Satan is officially lame, ruined by advertising. Behold, I give you six reasons why:

Ah overcommercialization, how do we loathe thee? Let me count the ways.

An easy read and moderately amusing. I'm undercaffeinated, so easy, moderately amusing reads are about at my level this lovely morning.

~Heathyr

As of 6/6/06, Satan loses his indie cred

It's the final night of Devo's latest reunion tour, and keyboardist Mark Mothersbaugh and his bandmates are jumping around the stage in identical yellow radiation suits and crimson flowerpot headgear. One of the weirdest groups to rise from the ashes of punk rock, Devo racked up one major hit - the MTV smash "Whip It" - in 1980 and has performed sporadically in the 15 years since its last proper album. But to the audience at the LA-area Canyon Club, the band is as relevant as ever. "How many of you believe devolution is real?" bellows singer Gerald Casale as the quintet prepares to launch into another song. "It's certainly more believable than intelligent design!"

Whip it good, baby, whip it good.

~Heathyr

Wired 14.05: Devo Is Dead. Long Live Devo.