Looks like they did it again. The “Iron Man 3″ trailer that was sweded by Fresno nerds The Dumb Drum and debuted at Sunday’s Swede Fest X at Tower Theatre, is all over the Internet. You might recall their previous efforts, particularly their sweded “Avengers” trailer, have conquered the geekiest corners of the web and racked up hundreds of thousands of YouTube views.
On a Swede Fest note: Organizers Bryan Harley and Roque Rodriguez say Sunday’s event, its first at Tower Theatre, drew 500 people, which is a good crowd for the Tower, which seats about 761. Other swedes from the festival should be up today. Check swedefest.com.
Starring (in order): Anthony Taylor of Nothing To Do, Nicole Giordano-Ashjian of Street Scene, Roque Rodriguez and Bryan Harley of See Saw Seen, Cindy Wathen and David Kennedy of Blend, Roger and Bo of Who Eats Brunch, Alisa Manjarrez of A La Carte and a certain mayorly lady you might recognize.
Much like YouTube, anybody can upload content to Gotta Love Fresno. Unlike YouTube, the folks behind Gotta Love Fresno invested in our local Internet community, commissioning new, original shows from some faces you’re probably familiar with. (Because it needs to be said: Kudos to Comcast to shelling out some money and getting behind some proven voices, instead of just recycling content.)
Gotta Love Fresno has three clip-style shows that’ll have new episodes weekly:
The guys at Dumb Drum are back with another amazing Swede.* Their last effort, the fantastically funny Swede of the Avengers trailer has racked up nearly half a million views, and already their swede of “The Dark Knight Rises” trailer has been picked up by Collider, Cinema Blend and Buzzfeed.
Check it out:
Here is the original trailer for comparison. As usual, the attention to detail is spot on. Another job well done by Roque and Bryan.
*Yes, I’m in it. Yes, I’m totally biased. No, I don’t care.
Fresno’s creative community got a little boost this morning thanks to NPR (National Public Radio), who ran a segment on Swede Fest, our local festival for movie parodies.
We’ve covered Swede Fest pretty extensively on the Beehive, but for those who may not know, the festival was started by Dumb Drum’s Roque Rodriguez and Bryan Harley, who put the free event on twice a year. Wannabe moviemakers and film buffs (myself included) reshoot scenes from their favorite Hollywood movies and TV shows, and those four- to five-minute films are shown at the festival. Until recently, Fresno’s Swede Fest was the only festival for sweded films, but that changed in October when Swede Fest Tampa, started by former Beehive blogger Will Albritton, took place.
The name “swede” comes from the movie Be Kind Rewind directed by Michel Gondry. NPR asked Gondry what he thinks about the genre of sweding and the festival that was inspired by his film. You can listen to the interview, which also includes sound bites from co-founder Bryan Harley and my Scott Pilgrim vs the World swede (shameless promotion!), here.
In the last couple of months, Swede Fest has garnered more and more notice thanks to Dumb Drum’s Avengers swede getting covered extensively on TV and the Internet. NPR’s segment is the latest feature on the local festival, though it surely won’t be the last.
Fresno has a lot of squirrels. They are everywhere, dropping things from trees as you walk beneath them, fighting with birds for no good reason, darting out in front of cars and littering the roads with their tiny carcasses.
Finally someone (namely, the guys of Dumb Drum) has come up with a way to control the squirrel population. Observe:
Really, is there any sound more satisfying than the swish of a light saber? How is it 2011 and we don’t have these things yet?
UPDATE, 10/20: Apparently “The Avengers: Sweded” will be on tonight’s “Attack of the Show” on G4 at 7 p.m. Yesterday the show’s Twitter account linked to the Swede.
UPDATE, 10/20: “The Avengers: Sweded” is officially a viral hit with over 88,588 views since yesterday. It’s since been picked up by Laughing Squid, MTV SplashPage and the Yahoo! Movies blog. On top of that, the Swede Fest Twitter feed just announced that the Swede is the fourth most popular video “around the web” on YouTube’s charts for Film and Animation, and it was even seen by one of the producers of the movie The Avengers.
Can’t wait to see how much farther this video goes.
Original, 10/19: This is a friendly reminder that Swede Fest 8 submissions are due November 1. You’ve been working on yours, right?
To encourage you to get going, the guys at Dumb Drum put together and released their Swede early. Check out their version of the newly released trailer for Marvel’s The Avengers, due in theaters May 2012:
If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out the Swede Fest page, which has submission rules and links to entries from the previous seven events.
The Fresno interwebs patted itself on the back last night at the second annual Frebby Awards, held at Fulton 55.
I’m proud to say that I was among the winners for my work here on The Beehive, so thanks to everybody who reads all my “information.” As a whole, the Fresno blogosphere was well represented among the winners. Here’s the list:
There’s a long list of honorable mentions you can see at The Daily Dues. Congrats to everyone.
Now that all that award stuff is out of the way, I need to say something about the videos. They were great — my favorite part of the Frebbys. The wonderful intro video (see above) was made by Windsong Productions and stars Frebby host Zara Arboleda of CBS 47. Each category had an intro video, created by folks like Dumb Drum and Dead in 60 Years — and those were quite entertaining. Some of them are below for your enjoyment.
Our post last week on Taco Bell’s Doritos Loco taco — which Fresno is currently a test market for — proved one thing: People definitely have opinions on this dusty orange taco concoction. So we knew what our next step had to be: assemble a panel of taste-testers from the local blogging community and put the whole thing on video.
You enjoy the Cross Streets video series. I enjoy the Cross Streets video series. And apparently, Mayor Ashley Swearengin enjoys Cross Streets too.
As part of her State of the City event today, Swearengin recruited the Cross Streets guys to help her capture the current pulse of the city. I won’t give away too much, but I will encourage you to watch until the very end.
Three afterthoughts: It’s nice to see City Hall tapping into the blogosphere (more on that later), the Mayor is a pretty good actress and we need more of Mr. Fitness on the Fresno Internets immediately.
Fresno’s Swede Fest prides itself on being the only festival for sweded films in the country, but that is about to change. A second Swede Fest is gearing up to take place in the fall, and it’s being started by a former Beehiver.
Long-time readers will remember when former Beehive blogger Will Albritton left Fresno for the greener (?) pastures of Tampa, Florida. Will has set up a nice life for himself in the Sunshine State, a life that now includes organizing Swede Fest Tampa Bay. Here’s the man himself explaining the dealio:
It’s great to see an original, Fresno-born idea like Swede Fest grow; first Tampa, then the world, eh? Much luck to Will on this new endeavor.
The guys at Dumb Drum (you may know them as the Cross Streets guys, or the Swede Fest guys) made a video about the Liberty Theatre that was shown at the Fresno Grand Opry this past weekend.
If you like Fresno history, or think old theaters are cool, you should check this out:
We have so many cool theaters in Fresno. As I’ve mentioned before, it sure would be nice to see them used more for entertainment purposes.
The Dumb Drum, Cross Streets, Swede Fest guys, Bryan and Roque, have released a humorous video to let you know there is still a good amount of time for you to create your own Swede.
The video includes all the details on Swede Fest 7 so you can mark your calendars accordingly, plus a not-so-subliminal message about taking public transportation to the event. Check it out:
The Cross Streets guys are back with a new installment of their funny web series — this time exploring the ugly eyecare building, drive-thru Domino’s and hobo ninjas that you’ll find at the corner of Herndon and Blackstone. Warning: Language NSFW.
Last week, I challenged people to donate to Fresno Urban Sound Experience’s Kickstarter fundraiser. Thus far, I’m thrilled with the outpouring of support from local people who are willing to toss down some cash to help local music.
As a whole, people have donated $1,725, a good chunk of the festival’s $2,500 goal. Personally, I’ve got 13 donors who applied for my incentive program, totaling $700. You guys all rock! (Reminder: You gotta send me your donation confirmation to get your gift).
Here’s the first wave of rewards for donors. I haven’t gotten to everybody yet, but please be patient. More are coming soon. And if you want to donate, you can get something fun too!
The guys from The Dumb Drum are back with another installment of their most hilarious Cross Streets series, in which they examine various local intersections. For this one, they head downtown to Divisadero and Fulton. I had an actual LOL moment in this one.
If you’ve never been to a Tweetup before, it’s basically just a real-life meeting of Twitter users. We’ll all gather in one area of the ballpark and watch Thursday’s Grizzlies game. There are specially discounted $5 tickets that include your first beer (it’s Thirsty Thursday!). But you have to RSVP with The Grizzlies on Twitter to get the special ticket price.
If you’re more into trying to win tickets, there’s a little bit of that happening too.
On more important note: The Tweetup starts at 6 p.m., when the gates open and the beer sales start. So get there early and avoid the $1 beer lines. You also want to make sure you don’t miss @ImJmi throwing out the first pitch.
Here’s the latest, hilarious installment of Cross Streets, by the Dumb Drum guys. Hands down, it’s the best video series on the Fresno Internets. This time, they head out to my ‘hood: Sunnyside. Oh, and remember they got their Swede Fest coming up this weekend.
Not mentioned: I heard there’s gonna be a Wing Stop over there soon. That’s worth a man-hug, methinks.
Shown in the video is Roque and Bryan’s first Cross Streets, not the second as anchorperson Carolyn Bruck said, but she’s right about the series being worth checking out.
Dumb Drum’s Cross Streets series is easily one of the best things on the Interwebs of Fresno. Brodiemash and Bryan are back with their third installment, this time covering all 360 degrees of The Belmont Loop. If you missed the first two Cross Streets installments, you can see them here.
1. GET MEATY
Tired of Top 40 club nights? Give Meatball Magic a try. Tonight is actually its five-year anniversary (congrats!) of playing indie, electro, new wave and more bi-weekly at The Red Lantern. If that’s not a good enough reason, how often do you party at Belmont and Maple?
