JacobNahin, Freelance Journalist

Note: Recently, I met up with @HardlyNormal, aka Mark Horvath, founder of Invisiblepeople.tv, a man for whom I have developed a deep level of respect. Mark doesn’t just talk, he acts. When people hurt, he helps. When children starve, he feeds, he clothes. Now, Mark would be the first to tell you that this mission is not about him, but I felt that revealing his rough past under a bright light through a profile-piece would be the best way to, as Mark would say, open blind eyes to the epidemic of homelessness.

Thank you to Mark Horvath for his time, meeting me at the Hollywood and Highlands Center. Also, many thanks to Ann-Marie Welsh (@padschicago), William Marc Salsberry, and Pastor Matthew Barnett (@matthewbarnett) for lending their voices to this piece. May they be heard by all who read it.

For publications interested in running this article, please Contact Me. All photos were taken by Wm. Marc Salsberry.

With that, here is…

“The Untold Story of @HardlyNormal”

He stands on the matte black stage of the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Calif., surrounded by fans and followers seated in padded, red seats, a guest and lauded speaker. It’s Oct. 27.  The event: a Twitter conference called 140 Characters, is casual in nature and stands in sharp contrast to the Academy Awards. Dressed in blue jeans and a cream-colored collared shirt with black pin-stripes, this 6-foot, gray-haired, green-eyed man loaded with charisma stands straight and seems well-fitted to the building where celebrities like Jack Nicolson and Will Smith pass out gold-plated statues each year.

But this theater, next to famous landmarks like Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the “Hollywood Walk of Fame,” is not that unfamiliar to the man on the stage. More than 14 years ago, Mark Horvath called the loud, dirty street of Hollywood Boulevard home.

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This past week, like many Southern Californians, I experienced something rare for the dry state: rain, little droplets of it splashing on sidewalks, side streets, and freeways. I even witnessed two, simultaneous accidents on the 405 while on my way to Orange County.

In a similar manner, I also experienced a #CloudFail of a different kind. Continue reading

Everyone from kids to adults use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. We’re talking millions and millions of eyeballs, many of which walk by your business everyday.

They access their social media from home, from work, and from their cell-phones. The best part: many big-name competitors still don’t have a social media strategy, giving you, the small business owner, the opportunity to capture some of that cash while pleasing your customers.

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Recently, Twitter has seen a lot of positive press in the media. It has been climbing up the hill of success for years. It started out small and keeps on growing. However, the other side of the Twitter-slope looks very much like that of other social media. Twitter is gaining and will continue to gain more followers, and the negative press that comes with that fame.

There isn’t really any need to cover Twitter’s history in length, but here is a short, short summary of its most recent developments.

First, there has been a huge influx of money/financial Twitter-related news in the last week. The Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) /CNN (@cnnbrk) competition received a lot of media attention, especially when Kutcher brought charity dollars into the equation. Then CNN bought the @cnnbrk account for an undisclosed amount. Furthermore, the Twitter-related business ventures are increasing as more and more businesses use twitter to advertise.

Second, twitter is now mainstream. Oprah (@oprah) is using the service for goodness sake. More and more people have been asking me lately, “What is Twitter?” Eventually, Twitter will see the numbers that both Facebook and MySpace have seen. Some might say that Twitter will never reach the mass of these other social media services because it lacks the mainstream appeal that makes these other services popular. This group says that because it is difficult to find friends on Twitter (comparatively), Twitter’s ease-of-use will hinder the services ability to add new users.

Unfortunately, this is no longer true. Twitter and Twitter-based apps have made finding people easy. First, the suggested persons feature on the Twitter home-page makes it easy for new users to find people they would consider interesting (how many girls are interested in Britney Spears? How many teenage boys, for that matter, are interested in Britney Spears?) Second, there are several independent Twitter-based apps that make finding friends easier. The development of these apps, and there possible integration of these services into programs like Seesmic Desktop or Tweetdeck makes it all that much easier. Third, and this is the big one, now that Twitter is mainstream, it is as easy as exchanging a username to find friends. People will find each other the same way they did on Myspace. They will use internal search tools (Twitter’s own search), Google, and word of mouth. That last one is how I found many of the people I follow. Some may say that Facebook is popular because people want to find classmates, and Myspace is popular because of its use of multimedia or because it was just at the right place at the right time. The same is with Twitter.

Simplicity has mass appeal. The difference between Twitter and these other services is that it is more piecemeal. If I just want to do updates, I can do updates. If I want to send pictures, I can send pictures. If I want to link, I can link.

Twitter’s numbers finally reach the level of mass these other services have, the mainstream media will turn on it. What happens if a teenager meets someone in real life that they met using twitter, and things go wrong? What about a tweeted suicide? These are things that the mainstream media will latch onto and report for days.

The real question is, will people keep twittering?

There’s this internet television show called Goodnight Burbank and it is part of Hayden Black’s dream. Black describes the show as a combination of NBC’s The Office and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Black is an immigrant from the UK and for years he wrote promos for Warner Bros, ABC and NBC, working on such TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Black wanted to do more with his life.

He decided to quit his job three years ago and give up a six-figure salary to pursue his dream of writing and acting. Black said he took some improv classes which led very quickly to the world of internet TV when someone talked to him about podcasting.

“I had never acted in my life. I’d never even been in a high school play or anything like that,” said Black. “I thought, you know, I’ll try it, and it went from there.”

Then Black started his own production company Evil Global Corporation and started work on Goodnight Burbank. He writes, produces, acts in and sometimes directs the show. Black fights hard for his dream and has had to take loans from friends to keep the show going. Recently, Babelgum – a video portal website – came on board and funded 20 episodes of a spin off, the Goodnight Burbank: Hollywood Report. The show was also shot on a Disney sound stage with a bigger budget. Black directed this series himself (previously it was in the hands of Bry Sanders).

Except for his dog Salford, Black also lives alone. But things are looking up for Black and his brand is becoming something of a success. Evil Global Corporation-produced shows have seen multi-millions of views for several of its series like Goodnight Burbank and Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary, a show about the struggles of a 13-year-old girl who has a (fictional) genetic condition that makes her look like a 30-something guy.

Black said that Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary was a real change in his acting style compared to Goodnight Burbank.

Black plays the main character on the show.

“You either go all the way or you just don’t bother at all … so I had to throw myself into this,” said Black.

Black is also getting ready to start production on his latest Internet show, The Cabonauts. That show is a sci-fi musical comedy about cab drivers in space and Black has built a green screen studio in his garage to shoot the show, and will edit it from his own editing suite. Black will also write, direct, and act in the show just like in Goodnight Burbank.

Black said he is excited about The Cabonauts and that it could be larger than any of his other shows. His number one inspiration is Douglas Adams, the writer of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Those who want to watch Goodnight Burbank: Hollywood Report can find it at www.babelgum.com or any of his other shows linked from www.evilglobal.com.

(Photo courtesy of Hayden Black)