Dear Visitor,
BathTubYoga was an active blog and videoblog from November 2005 through March 2006. It was the collaborative effort of nearly a dozen people, most of them undergraduate students at Yale University.
We've reorganized the website a bit, as of April 2007, to put our favorite eps ("episodes") and posts on the front page.
You can check out the orange box under the videos to learn what BTY was all about.
We had a lot of fun with this. We hope you enjoy it!
“Cell Phone Etiquette v2” (2m:31s)
Always hang up on an Englishman
link to this ep:
http://www.bathtubyoga.com/ep/cell-phone-etiquette-v2.html
About BTY
BathTubYoga is a blog. And a videoblog. Get it? Mark and Henry have just moved from London to New York City, where they are trying to live the dream as professional bloggers. BathTubYoga is their blog -- it's about social life on the Internet and the new technology that's become a part of our lives. Read what Mark and Henry have to say, every day, and then watch eps about them a few times a week.
Credits
Satya Bhabha as Mark
Stefano Theodoli-Braschi as Henry
Lacy Gattis as Sarah
Austin Allen as Everyone Else
Written and Directed by
Kai Hasson, Robert Spiro and Daniel Abrams
Blogged by
Robert Spiro as Mark
Nathaniel Houghteling as Henry
Created by
Robert Spiro and Kai Hasson
Contact the BathTubYoga team at
[X] Mark (view Henry's profile)
Name: Mark Akaky
Age: 24
Hometown: London, England
Current Residence: NYC
Job: Professional Blogger
A little bit about me: One year ago I was sitting in a posh office in downtown London, about to start my life in the business world. And then catastrophe struck: I downloaded an MP3 onto my computer at work. Harmless, don't you think? Two days later I found myself fired, fined, and jailed. Collateral damage of the digital age.
So here I am, living to New York City with my childhood friend Henry, making a go of it in the blogosphere. Enjoy the posts, and feel free to drop me a line!
[X] Henry (view Mark's profile)
Name: Henry Scott
Age: 23
Hometown: London, England
Current Residence: NYC
Job: Professional Blogger
A little bit about me: Hello, Internet! It's me, Henry Scott. You've probably heard of me. If not, here's a primer. I've been a stand-up comedian in London for the past few years, before I realized my true calling: blogging. I didn't like the comedy world much anyway. Too many agents. I hate agents. In November 2005 me and my best buddy Mark packed up for New York City, and here we are, proud parents of BathTubYoga. What else? I like Ginkgo Biloba and Ginseng, and women love me.
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[X] “Cell Phone Etiquette v2” Script
Mark approaches the front door of his apartment building and begins searching for his keys. Just then, Sarah runs up to greet him from across the street.
SARAH
Winston! Winston!
MARK
Oh, hi Sarah!
Mark is puzzled.
MARK
Winston? Oh, Winston ... right ... thats me.
SARAH
How's it going?
Mark babbles.
MARK
Yeah Yeah Yeah yes ... I mean, well, right ... you know ... New York ... forgettaboutit ... crazy place ... Anyway ...
Mark begins to ask Sarah a question, but is cut short by the ring of his cell phone. Mark dismisses the call and puts away his cell.
SARAH
You can get it if you need to.
MARK
Oh no, it's fine - it's just Henry. Anyway, how is the EBay business going?
SARAH
It's going fine.
MARK
Good... Look, Sarah, I was thinking, maybe if you want to some time maybe ... we could, I don't know ... get ...
Mark is again interrupted mid-sentence by his rining phone.
MARK
It's Henry again, it must be an emergency. Hold on one second.
MARK: Hello?
HENRY: Hey Mark, how are you doing?
MARK: I'm fine Henry, fine. What's the emergency, what's going on?
HENRY: Nothing, I just wanted to see how you were.
MARK: Henry, I ignored the first phone call. And you called immediatly back, you didn't even send a text message. That's a recipe for an emergency!
HENRY: No, no. No emergency. I just wanted to see what you were up to, if you were around.
MARK: Look, it's a rule! It's protocol!
Sarah nods in agreement. Mark hangs up in frustration. Henry is disconcerned.
MARK
Anyway ...
SARAH
You know, I have an EBay auction that is going to close in like two minutes. I really have to go. Bye Winston!
Sarah leaves in a hurry.
MARK
Bye Sarah... Dammit, Henry!
Highlights from the BTY Blog

World War I. World War II. Vietnam. None of these movies was half as exciting as the battle being waged right now in the shaving aisle of your local grocery store. Gilette and Schick are going head to head, wand to wand. And the blood that is being spilt can't be covered up with tiny pieces of toilet paper.
About three years ago, Gillete came out with a breakthrough in shaving technology, which they called Mach 3. The commercials for this product featured chisled Aryan men who flew so fast in fighter jets that their facial hair literally evaporated. Then, two years ago, Gilette merged with Duracell and created a vibrating razor called the Mach 3 Turbo.
On the coattails of these dual breakthroughs, Schick came out with their own masterpiece: the Quattro. I would have loved to be in the boardroom where they came up with that one.
Idea Guy: I got it! Four motherfucking blades.
Schick CEO: That's why you're the Idea Guy.
So how do you think Gilette responded to this threat on their monopoly? You got it. They threw another blade on there and gave it an even crazier name. When I saw the commercial for the Fusion during the superbowl, I stood up and started applauding. I love this country.

Keep your eyes open for Schick's Sexto. All you have to do is think about shaving and you're as hairless as a newborn albino.
MySpace vs. Facebook (Or, Why Facebook Needs Artist Pages)

When it comes to social life on the Internet there are two websites that matter: Facebook, with it's 6 million (11 million?) members, and MySpace with its 47 million. Friendster is old news and TagWorld doesn't matter.
Which is better? For college students graduating this spring -- should you stick with Facebook or switch to MySpace? For high-school students -- should you switch to the new Facebook highschool-edition, or stick with MySpace? For two websites that essentially do the same thing, it seems like a real comparison is in order.
There have been a few "facebook vs. myspace" blog posts around the Internet in the past few weeks... All Things Nerdy does a pro/con list for the two services and concludes that MySpace is better because it has more features and allows anyone to sign up -- even though Facebook has a better user interface. The Bofe Blog endorses the Facebook because there are less errors... but at the same time bemoans the fact that after graduating college, the Facebook loses a lot of its usefulness.
As I see it, the Facebook has most of the advantages: the fact that it's organized around real-world communities makes it 100 times more useful than MySpace. The design is cleaner and the directory is easier to use. The photo-sharing is much better. It's relatively bug-free, and always loads quickly. The school-oriented "announcements" as a form of advertising is useful to school communities.
But MySpace has two significant advantages: (1) after college the school-oriented focus of Facebook becomes a restriction, and Facebook hasn't yet found a way to make the directory relevant. Because MySpace is more open, it becomes more useful out there in the real world. And (2) MySpace has Facebook beat on music and video because it allows for "artist" pages.
I'll deal with (1) in a separate post... for now I'll write briefly about the lack of media on the Facebook. Every community has media-makers -- bands, singing groups, painters and photographers, film makers, etc. When I say "media" I'm not referring to personal photos, because when it comes to personal photos everyone becomes a media-maker. The same can't be said for other media; not everyone creates music and video. The majority of people don't. But in every community, especially school communities, there is a sub-community of artists that creates media that is meant for broader distribution.
Around a year and a half ago, if I remember correctly, the Facebook launched Wirehog, a P2P file-sharing application. As far as I can tell it didn't take off. Because when it comes to distributing and sharing the media from a community, straight-up file sharing won't cut it. It just turns into a way to pirate MP3s and TV shows. But there is another way to share media in a community...
The MySpace model of "artist pages" allows media-makers to freely distribute media from within a social network. Artist pages exist alongside individual profiles, and in addition to the regular profile features they allow the artists to upload media and distribute it in the network. Individuals can use their own profiles to link to artist pages, endorse media, and participate as fans. The model has been proven successful -- most analysts agree that one of the primary reasons that MySpace took off is that bands starting using it to distribute music and connect with fans. Artist pages are versatile: they can be used by bands to distribute music and promote concerts, by photographers and painters to release their work and promote exhibits, by film-makers to distribute movies, by literary magazines to distribute literature and promote their magazine, by comedy groups and a capella groups and... the possibilities are endless.
Artist pages are a great way for community groups to distribute media, and they're also a great way for community members to find out about the media that their peers create. It makes for a richer online community and a more engaged real-world community. The Facebook is sorely lacking this feature. Which is why potential competitors see room to steal market share... next week, Uspot.com is launching a social network for college-students, based on music and video. B2Day is right in pointing out that "the Facebook already has a community of six million college students, [which] is a huge network barrier to any new entrant, no matter how great the site is." So Uspot will probably fade into obscurity. But they are right to see an opportunity.
To wrap all this up and get back to my main point... for high school and college students, Facebook is a better directory. But MySpace is a richer user experience because it has artist pages that incorporate media into the community.





