Well, it’s that time of year again as I’m all packed and ready to schlep up to Rancho Palos Verdes for Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference this year, D8.  As I packed this morning, I had to laugh as every year I debate whether to attend and always end up registering after remembering the “one key meeting” I had the year before (that I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise).  This year I’m excited to have a number of meetings to discuss one of my portfolio companies, My Damn Channel, as they seem to have become the belle of the ball of late and truly are producing some remarkable content these days.  You’ll know whether I find the conference useful again by whether I blog from it.  If I don’t, then it means that I’m too busy to do so (or I ran into IT issues of some sort).  Until next time, aloha.

Despite the odds, My Damn Channel continues to produce the goods and prove just what a “small, extremely focused, capital efficient rebel-media-army” can do…even in a downturn of today’s magnitude.  If you aren’t already hip to the MDC crew, check ‘em out at www.mydamnchannel.com.  If you like what you see, please make sure to spread the viral love!

Well, it’s official.  The people have voted and they do, in fact, want their MDC…  The “MDC Crew” does it yet again and scores big time in this year’s Webby Awards (see below).  Congratulations to Rob, Warren, Paul, Matt, Troy, David, Harry and the rest of the new media rebel army.  You can read more about them here.  I am very proud to have invested in them and continue to expect GREAT things from them (stay tuned)…

Webby Award Winner: Best Comedy Series - Wainy Days

People’s Voice Winner: Best Comedy Series - You Suck at Photoshop

Webby Award Winner: Best How-To & DIY - You Suck at Photoshop

People’s Voice Winner: Best How-To & DIY - You Suck at Photoshop

3 Honorees:

Official Honoree / Humor: My Damn Channel

Official Honoree / Comedy: individual short or episode: Wainy Days - Season 1 - Episode #10 - The Future (guest starring: Rob Corddry, Zandy Hartig, A.D. Miles)

Official Honoree / Viral:
Harry Shearer’s “Found Objects” - Katie Couric #1

Harry Shearer’s “Waterboardin’, USA” was nominated for Best Music Video and we congratulate Freestyle 101 from G4TV.com on their win - as well as Minilogue from Blink Productions as the People’s Voice Winner for Music Video.

Keep up the good work guys!

Congratulations Team MDC!!!  I continue to be amazed at the crew over at My Damn Channel.  They continue to prove that they are a runaway success on the Internet and are currently nominated and/or honored by 7 different Webby Awards despite there being over 10,000 entries from 60 countries.  For those of you “not in the know”, the Webby Awards are the Internet’s version of the Oscars and are a very big deal in terms of validating the “coolness” of content.

-         My Damn Channel (honoree for humor sites along with the Daily Show, etc.)
-         Wainy Days (best comedy series)
-         Wainy Days – The Future (#10) (Honoree for Best Individual Comedy Episode)
-         Big Fat Brain/You Suck at Photoshop (best comedy series)
-         Big Fat Brain/You Suck at Photoshop (best how to series)
-         Harry Shearer – Waterboardin’ USA (best music video)
-         Harry Shearer – Found Objects – Katie Couric (#1) (Honoree for Best Viral Video)

You can check out some news coverage on My Damn Channel’s nominations over at People.

To really show your support, you can vote by clicking here - then register and follow the instructions below.

Go to Online Film & Video

Find COMEDY LONG FORM OR SERIES (& vote for WAINY DAYS or You Suck At Photoshop)

Find MUSIC (& vote for HARRY SHEARER)

Find HOW-TO/DIY (& vote for You Suck At Photoshop)

I thought I’d share a couple thoughts with you this Friday. First, I spent a lot of time with VCs prior to becoming one myself and two “pearls of wisdom” seem to constantly come to the forefront in this industry. The first maxim is “don’t be greedy”. Venerable VCs will tell you that any time you get greedy bad things happen. The second maxim is “don’t be stupid”. This latter advice is easier said than done, to be sure, but a fair amount of this industry is predicated upon old fashion common sense. My second thought this Friday afternoon is about a different common sense — Common Sense the band. They are one of my favorite bands and, it just so happens, Rob Barnett has a nice post about them (and me) that you can check out here. While you’re visiting My Damn Channel, make sure to vote for them for this year’s YouTube awards by visiting The Night Feed and following the instructions. Until next time, exercise and listen to Common Sense.

Turns out, the new school double-O is down with the old school double-O…so I thought I’d give both some props to the extent that I’m a big fan of both. You can read more about the matter by visiting The Night Feed. In the interim, enjoy the clip below. Gotta slide, slide, slippety-slide to a board meeting so I’ll catch y’all later.

Let’s play a new game of “Where’s OC VC?” and see if you can spot me hiding in the back of the video in the link below… I went to Vegas for CES and ended up in a music video. Ah, what an interesting job I have…

Love Vegas

Howdy there. I just returned from having spent the past three days in Vegas and thought I’d give you a teaser of what I was up to. Like 200,000 or so other folks milling about the city (most still there), I was there for the Consumer Electronic Show and for a project we are working on at My Damn Channel. We shot a live video from The Recording Studio at the Palms (thanks, Zoe and George, Jr.!!!) so stay tuned for more on this matter. In the interim, here is a clip of what the “MDC Rebel Army” is up to these days. Enjoy.