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So far, no signs of the apocalypse for the startup-company-for-startups kickstarter.com, a website successfully proving that frugal, unemployed Americans do care about things enough to donate a dollar to a dreamer.

February brought about two million-dollar projects that amazingly surpassed their fundraising goals, and of course about a million projects that weren't worth two dollars.

Surfing though the ideas of its hopefuls, we found a few Los Angeles-based, Los Angeles-bettered projects worth looking into your Google wallet for, in no particular order:

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Special Entertainment

The iconic "What" zeppelin, projected onto MOCA downtown

In 1972 Asco spray-painted their signatures onto the walls of LACMA, asserting themselves as active members of the art community despite the fact that LACMA wasn't yet willing to show their work.

Last Wednesday night, Milwaukee-based Special Entertainment, the partnership between artists Andrew Swant and Bobby Ciraldo, also inserted their signature into the L.A. art world. Swant and Ciraldo, creators of Samwell's "What What (In the Butt)" viral video, which has gotten 45 million views since it was posted to YouTube five years ago, projected the video's iconic zeppelin with the word "What" on it onto MOCA downtown, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Scientology Center and various other cultural institutions and locations around Los Angeles.

Then, on Thursday, the duo presented video footage of the drive-by projection event at Nate Page's Machine Overnight Guerrilla Project at Storefront Plaza, hosted by Machine Project.

Special Entertainment's trip out West and its series of projections was organized in part by Sara Daleiden's MKE-LAX program, promoting artistic exchange between Milwaukee and L.A., fostered in celebration of the five-year anniversary of "What What (In the Butt)."

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Rachel and Carlyle brainstorm the next Couple Time vignette

There are few Internet series that have me itching for the next installment, checking the Vimeo page for new videos several times a week and squealing with delight when one's posted. But that embarrassing behavior is exactly what I do with Couple Time. Comedians Patrick Carlyle and Allyn Rachel, who have been a real life couple for coming on eight years, write and star in the series of 90-second vignettes that explore, in their words, "weird stuff couples do when no one else is around."

No! Not kinky weird stuff! Silly weird stuff. Things we all do when we feel so close to someone that it's almost like they're part of us. Like singing the full Ally McBeal theme song in the middle of breakfast, or having a serious debate about what percentage of pumpkin carving is scooping, or making up fantastical bribes to convince your partner be the one to crawl out of bed and feed the cat .

These moments might fall flat when described in words, but Rachel and Carlyle bring them to life with such honesty, love, and pitch perfect comedic timing, that each vignette leaves you not only in stitches but also with the odd, poignant feeling that you will now appreciate the small joys of life a little bit more.

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Ever had questions about Hell, Satan or various and sundry demons? Then TV writer Martin Olson's Encyclopaedia of Hell: An Invasion Manual for Demons Concerning the Planet Earth and the Human Race Which Infests It will prove most edifying, as it sheds some much-needed comedic light on the dark side.

Purporting to be a detailed manual for demons who are invading the Earth, with a truly encyclopedic glossary of terms featuring often hilarious definitions, fastidious, Sears catalog-Gothic artwork by Tony Millionaire and Mahendra Singh and interesting cosmological stories and sidebars, the comedy is close-to-the-vest and sophisticated enough that the exceedingly pious and godly may still take offense at its flirtation with the Satanic and demonic.

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Jackson Rathbone takes charge as Nick Green: a high school student/CIA assassin in Aim High

Have you heard of the new WB/Facebook web series Aim High? You know, the show about a high school student/CIA operative that actually allows you to incorporate your own pictures and data into the story? I didn't think so. Neither had any of my 997 Facebook friends, or the people I interrogated at Halloween parties last week, or the 50 teens I tracked down around Fairfax High School.

Exec produced by mega-producer/director McG, Aim High stars Twilight star Jackson Rathbone as Nick Green, a teenage undercover CIA agent who assassinates terrorists in between homework and coffee dates with his crush Amanda -- played by Aimee Teegarden from Friday Night Lights. The first 11-minute episode premiered on Facebook and Cambio.com in October.

The series' signature gimmick is that on Facebook you can choose a "personalize" option and have your public data (profile pic, name, etc.) incorporated subtly into the show. After choosing the option, for instance, I saw a "Steph for Prez" sticker with my picture on it on the back of Nick Green's laptop. Aim High claims to be the first "social series" ever, and with blockbuster production quality, breathtaking stunts, a smart script, some semi-name actors and McG's involvement, I would have expected Aim High to go viral instantly. Yet much like its stealthy hero, this show is still flying way below the radar.

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It is when watching the movie Titanic in 3D that one appreciates anew the obsessive dedication to visual splendor, period detail and overall cinematic majesty that drives James Cameron to be the maker of not merely movies, but giant epics for the ages.

A special screening was held recently at Paramount to give a sneak peak of some of the three-dimensionalized footage of the 1997 blockbuster, the entirety of which will be released in theaters in April 2012 as Titanic 3D. Whatever one's usual taste or preference in filmed content, one simply has to admit that this movie looks fantastic, it's a hell of a piece of (dark) fairy-tale storytelling and the addition of that third visual dimension makes it in an even more immersive trip.

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Courtesy Kenneth Tam

Artist Kenneth Tam receiving a massage from a man he solicited over Craigslist to make a video with him

One of L.A. artist Kenneth Tam's most recent videos begins with Tam taping shut a big cardboard box. There's a man inside, we quickly realize, and he has an agenda.

"Have you ever wanted to be an exhibitionist?" the man asks calmly from inside the box like a doctor trying to cajole the truth out of a resistant patient. "Do you ever walk around the house with no clothes on?"

The box man keeps talking as Tam circles, eventually convincing Tam to undress so that the man can caress him through holes awkwardly cut in the cardboard. This video, which can be seen through Sunday at Latned Atsar gallery, is fueled by tension. It's not clear who has more control: the man who clearly wants into Tam's pants or the artist who's constrained him to a box.

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My Bracket

MySpace, the once undeniable alpha dog has long been dethroned and most people see no hope of resurrection, especially after its recent sale for $35 million. It seems everyone has long forgotten the honeymoon days of MySpace, and that's unfortunate.

Before MySpace started constantly redesigning like they were the online incarnation of the cat lady of New York, it worked. It worked really well.

And so, MySpace, here's to you:

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Dead Poets Society

Yes, you heard that tweet correctly. LA Weekly is now accepting submissions of original poetry to be published on this very arts blog! We're interested in your sonnets, haikus, ballads, lyric essays...hell, even your raps, perhaps? Anything you've written and have rights to that is previously unpublished. Send it to poetry@laweekly.com for consideration.

Here are some things you should know:

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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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