Jacob Wirtschafter

"I became the most hated girl in Germany. But maybe that's not a bad thing."

At just nineteen, Helene Hegemann has experienced the full volatility of fame. She was crowned "Wunderkind of Bohemia" for her novel Axolotl Roadkill, a sex and drugs-infused depiction of the German club scene, but later became the "most hated girl in Germany" after it was revealed that she borrowed ideas and characterizations from fellow fiction friends in the blogosphere. She is currently ensconced at Villa Aurora, the residence of former exiled writer Lion Feuctwanger that now serves as a Los Angeles retreat for international artists.

Hegemann presented selections from her debut novel Axolotl Roadkill to a packed audience of Los Feliz literati at Skylight Books in Wednesday night. The daughter of a theater director, Hegemann staged her own reading with a mix of self-deprecating humor, ambiguous apology and a dash of naivete.

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It's official -- dreams do come true on the Internet. This whole time we thought online shopping store Etsy.com was mostly for stay at home moms pimping handmade oven mitts or for hippies slinging animal cruelty-free soaps. Turns out we were wrong. So, so wrong. Exhibit A: Vintage Nintendo video games like Star Wars, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda and Mega Man 2 re-purposed into your choice of 500GB, 750GB or 1TB external hard drives, created by an Etsy user named 8Bit Memory.

8Bit Memory

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Tony Adam

The other day while eavesdropping at brunch I overheard a man insist to his companion, "The Internet is the future." Seriously. In 2010. Well, sorry to ruin the anticipation dude, but forget the future, the Internet is now. And contrary to what our favorite purple-clad know-it-all, Prince, declared to the press recently, the Internet is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Stalking your ex on Facebook and Chatroulette-ing aside, when it comes to business, the Internet has provided seemingly limitless real estate for young entrepreneurs to stake claim and turn innovative ideas into big money. But without a "now what?" plan, and without new media marketing savvy, that success can disappear as quickly as it came. With so much competition, how does one set themselves apart from all the white noise?

Current Sr. Manager of SEO and Online Marketing at MySpace, Tony Adam insists the biggest asset a start up can have is strong online marketing strategy and that's exactly what he hopes BlueGlass L.A. -- the July 19-20 conference co-created by Adam -- can bring to L.A.'s next start up superstars. These days, terms like "social media" and "viral marketing" are tossed around in conversation ad nauseam but only few individuals seem to correctly use those tactics in their business' favor. Whether you think you're a pro or just getting started, BlueGlass' goal is to show up-and-coming business owners how to work smarter, not harder -- something we could all use a bit of guidance on these days.

L.A. Weekly: You've been to a lot of conferences and start up events. What were the things you saw at other events that weren't working or not engaging people enough that made you want to take action in the form of BlueGlass?

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Buh-bye

Jason Calacanis, Internet entrepreneur and "L.A.'s brash tech superstar," thinks the future of the web is streaming video and he's willing to put his money where his mouth is. Literally, since his mouth is on "This Week In Startups," one of the shows featured on streaming video network ThisWeekIn.com. The Mahalo.com founder teamed up with actor and web series creator, Kevin Pollack, and a group of investors including Sky Dayton (founder of Earthlink and Boingo) and Matt Coffin (founder of LowerMyBills.com) and put $300,000 into expanding the network.

This Week In already has 8 shows and a steadfast plan for growth. They've been casting for new talent and will be launching additional shows in the coming months.

"The long term vision is to have 30 shows that each have a natural audience of between 10,000 and a million people," Calacanis explains. "Maybe they have on average 100,000 views each which means we could have 3 or 4 million people a week watching these shows pretty easily I think. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if in 2 or 3 years we're sitting here and each of the shows has a quarter or half a million people watching on a daily basis and now you're looking at a network that has 10 million people watching and that starts to look a lot like cable TV and that's a real business."

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On April 26, Denis Leary became @denisleary on Twitter, feeding fans with commentary like "Twitter is about to announce a new pay model. For 25 bucks a month you never hear from Ashton Kutcher again." The move came a few weeks before the star of Rescue Me launches the eleven-city "Rescue Me Comedy Tour 2" with fellow cast members Lenny Clarke and Adam Ferrara.

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View the photo gallery here.

Ah, the new Facebook and what your "likes" say about you. As you've (hopefully) read by now, Facebook's new API turns the social networking site into a bargain bin of users' tastes to sift through, store and sell to companies like Microsoft, Yelp and Pandora. Facebook assigns marketing information to your stats, photos and any update you and your friends "like," and then shares that info with other companies so they can target you elsewhere on the Web. One giant step for Facebook world domination, one small step for personal privacy. You are being watched. Read more in Alexia Tsotsis' "What Privacy Settings?" and scroll through for examples of what Facebook sees when you "like" something.

Facebook says: "Likes" Young Republicans

Mark "The Cobrasnake" Hunter

Facebook says: "Likes" Hooked on Phonics

Mark "The Cobrasnake" Hunter

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Henie Reisinger

"Speed and efficiency connects us so we can fly like birds," said Grenier.

Just when technologically induced real-time ADHD seemed like it couldn't get any more out of control, Tinseltown revealed the next level of broadband innovation (because let's face it, celebrities get everything first) April 20 at Hollywood's W Hotel. In an intimate and sleek setting packed with entertainment industry players, silicon solutions provider Marvell introduced AVANTA, a new technology that delivers 100 times more bandwidth than any other chip or service.

Before giving the crowd a vibrant eyeful of AVANTA's capabilities, Simon Milner, Vice President of Marvell's Enterprise Business Unit, and a few special guests warmed up the audience by sharing their visions and dreams for faster connectivity. Entourage star Adrian Grenier, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jason Reitman, game designer Robin Hunicke, and California Secretary and Broadband Taskforce Co-Chair Dale E. Bonner, each graced the miniature catwalk and explained why high-capacity broadband matters to them. Coincidentally, it took over an hour to upload the following video. Suffice to say, we're also looking forward to ultra-speed performance.

In full prose mode, Grenier shared his musing on technology, more specifically high-speed fiber optic technology. Video clip:

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Prior to the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards on Sunday, April 11, L.A. Weekly camped out on the red carpet with a video camera and asked nominees, presenters and winners what best piece of advice they'd give to someone just starting out who wants to create their own web series. We figured you wouldn't want to sit through five hours of chit chat so we narrowed it down to our favorite answers. Watch the video for appearances by Chris Hardwick, Chad Hurley, Jesse Warren, Jaleel White, Felicia Day, David Faustino, Zoe Bell, Michael Irpino, Zadi Diaz, Steve Woolf, Alex Albrecht, Bernie Su, Jason and Randy Sklar, and more.

Check out our complete coverage of the 2010 Streamy Awards and Web TV week here:

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@Shadhavare twitpic

Felicia Day and David Faustino on stage at the Streamys

Text received April 11, 2010 7:54 PM

"When does this end?"

Text sent April 11, 2010 7:56 PM

"Supposedly in four minutes. Trainwreck? I'm hearing bad things back here."

Sunday night was rough for the web TV community, and by now you've heard all about it. Before we could even begin to nurse our wicked hangover this morning, the blogosphere was already writhing in reaction to the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards, citing fails across the board for the web TV evangelists: technical difficulties, crude humor, a run time of more than three hours, a poorly executed script, etc. Even Twitter got its gossip on with a rumor that the show's sponsor Trident wants its $100k back.

Most of the first-hand accounts and dismal tweets, however, came from those in the audience or the nominees and winners themselves, because backstage in the press room watching the live broadcast on a poor screen projection, we could barely make out host Paul Scheer's facial expressions let alone hear much of what was said on stage. It was another technical difficulty, but problematic for journalists whose only source of information about what really happened during the program became insider-y Twitter streams, texts from within the belly of the Orpheum Theatre where the ceremony was held, or stragglers from the audience who accidentally wandered into the segregated press area while looking for the bathroom.

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Please be patient while my nephew builds my internets. Namaste...

There's a new social media guru in town, only this one is an actual guru. Our new friend Guru Ji has been summoned by the universe to grace Los Angeles with his wisdom and spiritual healing. After four years, four months, four days, four hours, and maybe a few minutes living in the forest and philosophizing with the animals, Guri Ji has decided to make this great city his home. He learned of our digital tools and communication strategies through the power of yoga, which has become so popular in Los Angeles that it has spread all the way to India.

Guri Ji's first message to us is to tweet out our feelings with romance. He says with humble abode, "There is no point in engaging with transparency if you do not do it with romance."

He'll be romancing the red carpet at the Streamy Awards this Sunday, April 11. So keep an eye out for a stately male yogi with a long beard. (He's camera shy, so we need to make him comfortable.)

In the meantime, take a listen to some simple and sound advice he has for all Streamy Awards nominees here.