Network Awesome
It’s common knowledge that curating is becoming a dominant art form in the 21st century, which only makes sense as we’re entering the era that Patton Oswalt calls Etewaf: Everything That Ever Was—Available Forever. All over the internet people are trying to sort through infinity, and others are stepping up to help them out. That’s where Network Awesome comes in. The site is pure curation. Digital diving in the galaxy-sized dumpster of video that is You Tube.
Aside from an international touring, recording, label-owner and DJing career, Jason Forrest aka Donna Summer is the founder of Network Awesome. I first “cyber-met” Jason Forrest when he was hosting a radio show on WFMU called AD&D. I was totally unfamiliar with the styles of music he was playing IDM, Breakcore, Electroclash… I dunno know, I guess that’s what you’d call it, but it inspired the hell out of me. Anyway, I sent him some writing I did while listening to his show and it became a weekly collaboration that he’d post on his website. (The story was called “Billy Hubris” and is archived here.)
We’ve kept in touch over the last decade and this past year Network Awesome has been blowing my mind. Mr. Forrest has never been comfortable with self promotion so I’m honored to have him answer some of my questions.
Hey Jason,
Some questions for you:
-The easiest way to hook someone on Network Awesome is sit ‘em in front of a computer when they’re over my house drinking beers. All those suckers who won’t click the damn links I send ‘em. (The last time I did this involved a behind the scenes Muppet Show documentary.) How would you describe Network Awesome to someone who may be wary to just check it out for themselves?
It’s funny that people are so wary of discovering new things and spending even a moment on an unfamiliar site when we all spend a large % of our time on computers “looking for cool stuff”. Maybe that’s the paradox of our era.
But anyway, Network Awesome is a place where we present interesting and entertaining media from all eras and present it to the viewer in as clear and fun a way as possible. Our goal is to entertain as well as inform and we consider Network Awesome to be a bit like a living cultural museum.
We present 6 shows a day. These shows can be anything from an episode of The Muppet Show to a cult-film like “The Abominable Dr. Phebes”.
Additionally we realized that we could collect groups of videos to make our own shows such as The Live Music Show (live music clips), Trailer Trash (movie trailers based on themes such as Japanese Horror or The Sex Pistols), Talk Show (Interviews with interesting people, like Gary Winogrand), Variety Show (a meta-Variety Show really), and then Collections focused on a common theme – like Malcolm X or Jim Henson Commercials from the 50′s.
But I disagree with Patton Oswalt, as there are quite a lot of things that are not on the Internet. That’s why we started a digital magazine to comment on and explain some of our content. Network Awesome Magazine publishes in-depth articles about 10 times a week from a variety of writers of all disciplines.
I’m curious about the behind the scenes aspects, I hope you don’t mind sharing.
Not at all, I’m an open book…
-How many people actively work on Network Awesome team, and what is your role? Sometimes I see you listed as founder, other times as co-founder.
Network Awesome is growing literally every day! We have 7 of us who are working on various aspects of the business or management of the site, with an additional 8 video curators and then over 50 writers who contribute to the magazine!
As for me, I conceived of Network Awesome largely by myself last summer then connected with my co-founder in Greg Sadetsky in November 2010. Together we had an amazing 6 week sprint where the idea of Network Awesome came into full bloom and we launched the site Jan 1, 2011. I’m currently the CEO and Creative Director.
-This is an enormous labor of love. You’re not just combing You Tube you’ve created your own aesthetic shell to house the videos, your own commercials and all the promotion. There is obviously a lot of time spent. About how much time do you spend on it, say weekly?
A LOT of time! haha! We actually all do a bunch of other stuff too (I run 2 record labels and work as a musician most weekends) but that said, I spend more and more time on Network Awesome. Maybe 50 hours a week?
I will say that being so “busy” has only really meant that I have less time for doing things twice. I make all the N.A. videos you see on the site, and most of them are done very quickly. haha
-How many days, or weeks of programming do you have ready in advance?
As of June 27th, we have shown 1,062 shows since Jan 1st and we have more than 456 shows ready to go but we get more and more great content every day!
-I’m all for art for art’s sake, but I feel like at some point monetization may appear. Am I right? If so how would that work? If not well hot damn!
It will. We are working on it now and expect advertising to start happening in a more visible way in the next few months. We have lots of ideas about how to incorporate Ads and Sponsorship but still keep the site focused on the user. It’s a real concern for us.
-Do you watch every single minute of content on Network Awesome? (a leading question as the interviewer is curious if he watched all of the Live Music program he contributed.)
I watch a great deal of it but I miss stuff every day though.
-We’re about the same age, and definitely grew up watching the same TV. A big part of Network Awesome is the nostalgia factor. Old cartoons, talk shows and commercials from decades past. Do you have anything to add to this thought?
At first Network Awesome was going to exclusively be nostalgic content, but then we realized that broadcast TV does such a bad job these days our scope opened. There appears to be a great need for good content and it appears that the mainstream broadcasting companies choose to focus on this less and less. We’re more than happy to bridge the gap!
-There are tons of creative people who are regulars at this blog, how would they go about contributing to Network Awesome? Are there types of content you’re especially looking for?
We fully understand that diversity of opinion and inclusivity only help to strengthen every aspect of what we do. We need people in almost every capacity from video curators to writers for the magazine to accountants to advertising folks and interns.
We are also producing original shows too – but maybe I’ll get back to you more on that later. Oh, we’re also starting a Tshirt series soon, so visual artists are always encouraged to get in touch!
Oh -and poets! We like you!
So again: Everyone – do you want to get involved?
It’s fun! hit me: info@networkawesome.com
Maybe it turns into a real job…
-Finally, I’d love for you to get meta-curatorial (mega-curatorial? micro-curatorial?) on our ass and chose your current favorite episode of each Network Awesome Feature (so far!)
My pleasure!!!
Live Music Show
Best of Beat Club (1)
Talk Show
Talk Show: Aldous Huxley, Syd Mead
Documentary
Doc – “Muhammad Ali – When We Were Kings”
Collection
Collection: Michael Clark – Excerpts from “Hail the New Puritan”
Cartoon
Captain America: “The Return Of Captain America”
Movie
Movie – Demon Seed
Old TV Show
What’s My Line? – Elizabeth Taylor
Commercial
Trailer
Thanks Jason! I love Network Awesome! I’ll finish off with the Live Music Show I put together for NA… it was so much fun to do.