• by Kelly Samardak , June 10, 2008

12th Annual Webby Film and Video Awards, Skirball Center For Performing Arts, New York
June 9, 2008

Yesterday I lost about 10 lbs walking from 1140 Broadway to The Skirball Center on LaGuardia Place. Washington Square Park was packed with drum circles, stinky sweaty humans, and lazy fat squirrels. Perfect night for the Webby Film and Video Awards, don't you think?

I had a stroke on the way there, leaving my wallet (id, all that) on my desk at work. I blame the heat. I also blame the heat for my mush mouth when Media Check-In asked who I was affiliated with. I said "me me Media Me" and then just gave her my card. Maybe heat was a factor in some of the press not knowing who Tay Zonday was. You don't have to like him, but as a breathing Internet-knowing human, shouldn't you at least be aware? Anyway.

This red carpet was online video/film nerd paradise. Who cares about Hollywood A-listers when you can shake hands with David Wain of Wainy Days and snark a little after he's answered questions intended to be insightful from PC Mag. I would rather gawk at Obama girls' rack and Rosie Perez's hoops any day, over Gwyneth Paltrow's perpetual long face. And I'm pretty sure I'd choose the spikey-haired, Diggnation host Alex Albrecht, who was still genuinely appreciative of the passionate nerdfan crowd they drew at Studio B - and who also made sure to mention that his life is pretty freakin' great considering he sits on a couch, drinks beer, and puts it on the web -- over Clooney any day.

Tim and Eric, winners of "Best Actor" are, well, awesome. They floated down the reddish carpet on wings tipped with poop jokes and potty talk. They deadpanned their pants off to unsuspecting interviewers who nodded obliviously to everything they said. I snorked a small snot out my nose when they confirmed to PC Magazine that some jokes don't pop up on a Mac the way they do on a Gateway, which is why they customize different jokes for different brands.

Judah Freidlander, emcee of the evening, did not disappoint as the irreverent jerk of the stage. When he netted out the rules of honorees' 5-word acceptance speeches, he threatened that he could "kick the whole audiences' ass with my left nut. And that's just one of seven."

While my favorite Webby-Nerds brought me to tears of laughter, it was the rude awakening machine gunned by the creaters of "Hometown Bagdad" that choked my heart and sucker-punched my gut. I walked to work in the heat and complained about the lack of A/C at home, but I'm not walking to my friend's house under sniper fire. I don't know what it's like to wake up every morning expecting death. Films like that make my internal activist want to leap up and change the world. These people are doing amazing things, humanitarian things by exposing the muddled-up world and showcasing the truth -- in easily digestible bits and bytes.

Rosie Perez presented Michel Gondry the Webby Person of the Year award with frank and open respectful awe. "He's very strange, he's really weird. He's French, and that's why."

I wish I could recall the whole story, but let me just tug at your curiosity with this little tidbit from the "You suck at Photoshop": cheese and chafing.

That is all.

Want to give Kelly a front row seat at your party and have it covered in Just An Online Minute? Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com

See all the reddish carpet photos on Flickr!