Earlier this evening, my cohort co-producer Sr. Valdez said:

American Man is blowing up on Yahoo right now. I’d say we’re over 100,000 views this month. Am I suppose to be feeling something?

I’m not sure. When I used to work at Shemuscle.com and I’d publish a new video, occasionally it would get picked up by a few popular porn blogs and our numbers would skyrocket. In our industry, those numbers translated directly to money in our pockets.

In my current occupation, the translation is more subtle.

There are people out there watching what we do, and some of them are really getting into it. They’re agreeing with us. The feeling I get from this is similar to leaving a really good rock concert. 20,000 people just implicitly agreed on everything for about 2 hours. You take that feeling with you when you go home that night, and it stays with you for at least a few days afterwards.

With video, you feel a little electric shiver when a piece gets watched 20,000 times, but it’s not quite as fulfilling as when 10 people send you nice emails or comments.

When I have an idea for a video, the process usually revolves around how to make it funny or interesting enough to entertain my friends. If I think Nick or Nelson or Valdez will like it, I go with it. If not, I toss it. (Unless I personally think it’s hilarious and then I say fuck what anyone else thinks, I’m doing it.)

It’s the general idea behind Wreck & Salvage production: Make stuff that you would want to watch. Since we understand that there is a segment of the population, however small, that agrees with us, then we have carte blanche to do whatever the hell we want. The point is, it doesn’t matter how many people see something just so long as the right people see it.

Alas, when we make a video for a company, they want numbers to crunch. So luckily we can provide them.

It all boils down to the fact that I love what we do. I think it’s just the greatest. If you do too, then thanks, and feel safe in the knowledge that every god damn video we produce on Wreck & Salvage is custom-built from the ground up, just for you.

Josh Cohen over at Tilzy.tv, one of the two online-video-related blogs I read regularly, wrote a piece about my Summer adaptation series on Rocketboom. It’s great to know that someone is thinking critically about something I’ve made, and insightful commentary is pretty much priceless.

Thanks Josh. “The exhaustion of menial and meaningless work” pays off in spades once again.

Quicktime Video / Windows Media Video

I took the Amtrak Vermonter from NYC to Burlington last weekend on official Wreck & Salvage business. I love trains.

Since the early 1980s small, independent groups of ordinary citizens have attempted to crack the mystery of the space-time continuum using nothing more than the Toyota Camry.

Aaron Valdez is one of our top performers at Wreck & Salvage. He assembled this video from spare parts and elbow grease.

Quicktime / Windows / Cellphone

Billy takes a weekend getaway to his favorite lake to swim, fish, and explore.

Sorry for the duplicate post. Ornamental Concrete plays every other Thursday on Wreck & Salvage.

Threw this together from the scrap-heap of video detritus on my desktop. 15 minutes from edit to upload. Boy King calls this sport Speedvlogging.

Download Quicktime Video

Download Quicktime Version

My 1st video for Wreck & Salvage Propaganda Week 2007, also known as Videoblogging Week 2007 on Mefeedia.

Here are entries from Valdez:

Click To Play

and Nelson:

We all know the bad things about smoking. Here are some good things:

“Scientists have found evidence that smoking might help prevent the onset of various dementias. Many dementias go hand-in-hand with a loss of chemical receptors in the brain that just happen to be stimulated by nicotine. Smoking seems to bolster these receptors, and smokers have more of them. The theory is that smokers may then have more to lose before they start losing their minds. “It does seem that nicotine has a preventative effect, but the problem is that the other stuff in the cigarette tends to rot everything else,” says Roger Bullock, a specialist in dementia and director of the Kingshill Research Centre in Swindon. So if your time is nearly up anyway, and you have somehow managed to steer a course past the Scylla and Charybdis of heart attacks and tumours, smoking might just help you retain your marbles.”

AND…

For man to have started smoking, he needed a reason,
and the reason is still the same today. Man found that by
smoking different substances he could maintain better health,
by supplying the body rapidly with needed elements, and at
the same time combat many microscopic organisms. The rapid
oxidization of the substances, cooks any organisms on the plant
while chemically braking down the elements. It was wise for
man to begin to use for his betterment the fact that elements
enter the blood system faster through the lungs, and not only
does the burning of the bush take the place of digestion, it
also save the energy it would take to digest. Man soon found
that he could better control his mind with a more controlled
diet. And that each person could seek-out, through experiment,
an herb that might help balance his metabolism.

The burning bush has been educational to man, but it has
caused man to have to develop his selfdiscipline, a major move
away from the animals. Let us not forget, what got us here,
what formed man from the dust of the earth, and without which
we would fall back.

[source]

Plus, animals are afraid of smoke, so you can use cigarettes to protect yourself in the wild.

http://www.wreckandsalvage.com/auction

Hai-Bid-Ku

Come on back to town,
the water is warm and brown,
the auction is cheap.

Be a pal, buddy,
Vote with your dollars and cents,
Kick the tires and grill.

Mahna mahna mah,
na mahna mahna mahna,
mahna mahna mah.

I am eagerly
waiting for a hot baby
to play with my hair,

And tell me that all
will be OK, so long as
we get some money.

With the funding from
this Wreck & Salvage
auction, we will buy some beans.

Magic ones, no less.
And soon as we plant them beans
they’ll fructify quick.

I promise that we’ll
make a delicious bean soup
to rub on ourselves.

All will be revealed.
All will be real confusing.
All will be sexy.

Tonight, sexkittens,
is a hot night for bidding.
Get it while you’re hot.

Add to Your Profile

Ornamental Concrete #2 is up. Go watch it on Myspace.

This episode features:

• A racist lamb playing instrumental jazz
• A hyperactive bronze bear playing a boiling tea kettle
• A toad with an odd name who has lost her way, but knows a great chili recipe

Quicktime Video

Sometimes you eat the ants, sometimes the ants eat you.