The video at left, an actual promotional video for Microsoft’s new product Songsmith, brilliantly and comically embodies a theory of mine. A long time ago I suggested that if plotted on a graph, the quality of available literature would follow a curve exactly inverse to the proliferation of literacy and the accessibility of desktop publishing tools. I think a random sampling of the shelves of any chain bookstore bears out my theory (as does the mere existence of books like Bright Shiny Morning). However, I never exactly envisioned the same thing occurring with audio and video. The Songsmith promo kills two birds with one stone. Not only was the video obviously produced with high-quality equipment by people who have no sense of the tone of what they’re producing, it’s promoting a product that allows people who have virtually no musical talent to create music with virtually zero substance or soul. It’s like a home movie about making your own elevator music, except there’s no home, and no elevator! I ran across this video while browsing VideoGum.com today and it suddenly hit me how much video there is on the web that’s relatively well-shot, has some kind of serious intention, fails with almost epic humor, and is totally devoid of an awareness of its own irony. That’s why I’m left with no choice. I’m going to start a review site devoted exclusively to pole dancer tutorial videos.