Viewpoint: The WhatCulture Exodus: What Just Happened?

WhatCulture announces staff departures. pic.twitter.com/FRMauHon7t

— WhatCulture (@whatculture) September 19, 2017

When I woke up this morning, I wasn't expecting this to happen.

This is a surprise in the world of new media.  WhatCulture may have originally been a film blog in 2006 called Obsessed With Film, but in recent times, it has become far more than that.  With sections covering Wrestling, Film, TV, Gaming, Comics, Sports and Offbeat stories amongst other things, WhatCulture has become one of the biggest sites on the net, with articles and lists every day.

And then there was the YouTube channels.  They started about three years ago, and the first voice and face that became a character, and more than just a narrator, was Adam Blampied.  His first video was on the WhatCulture Wrestling channel and it was this little masterpiece.




From there, Adam Blampied became a big part of the WhatCulture brand.  His face and voice became synonymous with WhatCulture Wrestling mainly, but WhatCulture in general as well.  He created the "How WWE Should Have Booked" series of videos, and the "What Just Happened" series, as well as others.

From there we got Adam vs Adam, as Adam Pacitti joined the fray.  From there would be born a rivalry that powered WhatCulture into the internet stratosphere.  Adam Blampied would also team up with Brian Zane from Wrestling With Wregret to do videos, including How WWE Should Have Booked The Invasion, and Heroes Of Wrestling.

Then Jack King aka Jack The Jobber arrived and joined the fun and games but he seemed to be a bit of a third wheel, and to be fair, he was definitely outclassed in the wit department by the two Adams, but he had his own style which made him stand out, in both a good and bad way, but mostly good.

Then Ross Tweddell arrived and became King Ross, and he became a larger than life character in general.  These four people, along with unseen editor Sam Driver, who Adam Blampied would often reference in his videos, have been the core of the explosion in WhatCulture content on YouTube.

But now, these 5 people have left WhatCulture, and also left WCPW, the wrestling promotion that they created just over a year ago, and Adam Blampied was the General Manager for, before today.

So what does this mean?  Well it means that WhatCulture and WCPW will be much the poorer.  Although most of these people didn't write the stuff they were saying, they gave it life in their own unique way, by adding in their own personality and character, and most of the rest of WhatCulture's hosts just don't have the same levels of engagement with the readers and viewers, or the same levels of personality.

It's a real loss to WhatCulture, but what about the internet?

Well, Adam Blampied's twitter account has given us a teasing clue about what happens next...

Join us. pic.twitter.com/m00QLBHssm

— Adam Blampied (@AdamTheBlampied) September 19, 2017

I guess we will be finding out soon enough, but in the meantime...

...I'm Ian Beaumont and that's What Just Happened.

A Republican I can agree with… almost!

The video you see below is Republican Congressman Peter King on New York, and he’s talking about the way the media has treated the Michael Jackson story.  Now, I can agree with almost every word he says, but there just a few I can’t agree with.  Look at the video and can you guess which ones I can’t agree with?

 

So, any guesses?

 

The words are “low-life”, “pervert”, “child molester”, “paedophile”. 

Michael Jackson was NEVER convicted of child molestation or paedophilia.  Now, if Peter King had used words such as “celebrity”, “singer” or “superstar”, then I could have agreed with him 100%.  Being the TruthSeeker isn’t something I am for show, it is something that pervades every ounce of my being.  Factual accuracy has to be at 100%, 100% of the time.  It may well be that Peter King believes Jackson was guilty, like many others believe OJ Simpson was guilty of murder, but like OJ, he wasn’t convicted, so he should have tempered his opinions with words like “I think”, “I believe”, “in my opinion”, you get the picture.  But no, Peter King used those words as though they were fact, recorded history, truth, undeniable.  So, Peter King gets +50% on the TruthSeekerMeter, which rates a “partially true”

Chanelle Hayes Sex Tape - Real or Viral Advertising?

Once again, I touch on a territory that I don't tend to deal in. This time, it's the world of celebrity sex tapes, which seems to be quite a popular line in the tabloids. But this one... well, you tell me.

Chanelle Hayes, who was a contestant in Big Brother 8 in the UK, has a new reality TV series airing in the UK and Ireland on VH1 called "Chanelle: Wannabe Popstar". Her debut single, I Want It, is released on 18 May. But the video is already doing the rounds on the music TV channels.



So, with all this happening in her life, what do you think gets uploaded to YouTube? A Paris Hilton-style, night vision-esque production of a 'sex tape'.



It's not that we're not used to seeing her with very few clothes on in provocative poses. She's practically a contract babe for the Daily Star, she seems to be in the paper most days in some pose or another wearing very little. It's either very cynically timed by her management to coincide with her music and relaity TV projects and garner more publicity, or it's very cynically timed by some ex-boyfriend out to destroy her. I know which one I believe.

On the YouTube page,the video is titled "Who Is That?", and the "user" who uploaded this is called "ohnoshedidnt90". They only joined on April 18th 2008, the day the video was released and exactly a month before the single is released. I don't know about you guys, but I smell a rat, or should I say, a viral.

This looks like nothing more than an attempt at viral advertising for her single. After all, the girl in the sex tape wears exactly the same outfit that Chanelle does in the bedroom scenes of her music video. The bedroom also looks very similar, although it appears to have been shot from a different angle. I'd go so far as to say this is a piece of viral advertising shot on one of the sets that her video was shot on. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am here.

Politically biased musical butchery!

Do you remember the old 1983 song from the Weather Girls, It's Raining Men? Released in the UK in August 1983, it reached the dizzying height of Number 73, before being re-relased in March 1984 and reaching Number 2!

I say this because of a video that is on You Tube. I will link to it, rather than embedding it, because it is SO crap that it makes the people Simon Cowell insults on American Idol and other so-called 'talent' shows look like pros!

Out of tune, out of sync with each other, discordant, and that's just the good points!

This piece of pro-McCain idiocy not only butchers a perfectly good piece of music and turns into politically biased mush, but proves conclusively that the concepts of parody and satire are completely lost on conservatives. This comes across as a pure attack video with nothing redeeming about it.

If you think your ears can stand the pain for 2 minutes 35 seconds, then go ahead. Otherwise, save your sanity! And to be honest, would you defend any of these three at a Sanity Board hearing???

Oh and perhaps they ought to consider when they choose clothes for their next bluescreen bonanza, not selecting clothes that disappear in the chromakey!!!

If I could have rated it a minus score, I would have!

US Cable News Ratings: Fox lose to CNN Republicans!

Both TV Newser and Inside Cable News have reported the cable numbers for Wednesday 28th November and show that CNN won the battle that night handsomely, with over 4 million people tuned in to watch the CNN/YouTube Republican Debate.

Despite Bill O'Reilly scoring well with over 2.2 million viewers at 8pm ET and 1.2 million viewers at 11pm ET, CNN won the night handsomely. They also have recorded the best figures for any debate this campaign season so far.

Just wait until we get to the presidential debates. Those numbers could well be much higher.

The Weather In Leather - Joanna Rice

The web has a funny way of allowing you to dig up things that you may have forgotten or had not known about. I found one such incident on YouTube, when we had a weather forecaster dressed pretty much exclusively in leather on Sky News some years ago.



Hopefully my HTML skills are up to scratch and the video in question should be seen above. If not or if you're reading this blog via an RSS reader which doesn't work with video, the link to the video is here.

This got me searching for more, and turned up this slideshow of other occasions when the same forecaster, Joanna Rice, appeared in leather outfits. There's one outfit in particular in that slide show which looks like a catsuit of sorts!



Again, hopefully the video slideshow should be above, if not, or for those on RSS readers without video, the link is here.

I did some further digging around. Unfortuantely I couldn't come up with an official site for her, nor an agent's site, more's the pity. But I did dig up this site, which has 10 pages of her myriad outfits for weather forecasting, most with leather in them somehwere.

I also turned up information about her here and here, which also has a limited selection of images.

It just goes to show, you never know what you can find on the net. Go forth, my friends and explore