In this episode, Irina found herself an embedded reporter in the manly brown leather and earthy wood enclave of serious tech guru Leo Laporte. In case you haven’t listened to or watched one of Leo’s 14 netcasts, feel free to Google his name. Not only is he famous on the Internet, he’s also won an Emmy for his work on MSNBC. At Leo’s cottage studio in Petaluma, Irina and producer Nick were surrounded by microphones and were LIVE on TWiT — Leo’s daily tech talk show — as they recorded two episodes of GETV — one you see here and one for a later surprise. Being live is not something Irina is used to, so some regular TWiT viewers gave her a talking to in the chatroom! But Leo’s candid interview is a treat for his fans — he tells us his first crush was a man (leo WAS wearing a pink shirt) and reminisces about the summer of 1970 when he wore a blazer and an ascot. His family moved from the east coast to Santa Cruz where young Leo was shocked to see a girl in a bikini! Leo is his incredibly charming self and he talks about always giving the audience what they want! Here at GETV, we BLEED for our audience and we certainly never worry about our ratings. So what do you want next? Tell us at media@geekentertainment.tv.

Episode links: Leo Laporte, TWiT

While Irina was in NYC doing fancy schmancy things for Columbia Journalism School, she called her long-time Flickr friend and graffiti artist Royce Bannon to catch up. Irina met Royce when he was the photo editor of The Source hip hop magazine — he sent her a hand-painted tshirt that she wore an early episode of GETV. Irina and Royce discuss how he got into what he’s into. Royce Bannon aka R. Bizzle is a member of New York’s infamous Endless Love Crew and his work will be on display on the west coast at LA’s ThinkSpace Gallery from Jan. 9 – Feb 6, 2009 in a show called “From the Streets of Brooklyn.” (GETV would like to thank Matt Matossian of For Your Imagination Studios in NY who shot this episode for us. He is also the world-famous Shirtless Apprentice)

Episode links: Royce Bannon (myspace), (photos), Endless Love Crew, Diamond Headz, ThinkSpace Gallery, GETV: Charlie’s Real Life Chocolate Factory

After seeing that the old confederate state of Virginia went and voted for Obama, the GETV crew make some history of its own by pulling an all-nighter and doing a first-ever spot-news deadline episode! BUT ITS CUZ OBAMA IS PRESIDENT ELECT! We had to go out and party with the people of San Francisco and stop by the Current TV and Digg party to show you what it was like out here in the West Coast of A.

Episode links: Barack Obama

So this episode is what happens when our own wacky lady Irina meets an even wackier lady, Leslie Hall. In case you dont know Leslie Hall, she’s best known for her Gem Sweater Museum and her incredible hip-hop influenced music videos, like “Shoot them in the Brain.” Leslie has toured the world with her music and gem sweater collection, but chooses to live with her parents in Ames, Iowa. After arriving at MIT’s ROFLCon and waiting in line behind the likes of NPR, Wired and the UK Observer to interview Leslie, we decided that instead of asking Leslie the same ten questions over again, we’d do something different! So Irina handed Leslie the mic and here’s what happened. It’s a little strange.

Episode links: Leslie Hall, Gem Sweater, ROFLCon

By any non-petroleum means necessary. That is the motto that propels a dozen vehicles of various design along the “Escape from Berkeley” road rally from Berkeley, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. Part Cannonball Run and part Mad Max, these NASA scientists and junkyard fabricators aim to complete the rally, win the $5000 prize and forever cement their place in history. All fuel has to harvested along the route, none of it can be purchased. GETV’s Roving RoboReporter Violet Blue chats up a few of the eclectic participants who run their vehicles on switchgrass, wood chips, veggie oil and even a tasty bio-salad. The brilliance of the event has even put Stephen Colbert on notice.

Episode links: Escape from Berkeley, The Shipyard, Michael Michael, The Green Team, Prisoners of Petroleum, All Power Labs, The Spooning Cruisers (music), Photos (Laughing Squid), Colbert Report clip, Violet Blue

When Bryce Case, Jr. aka YT Cracker called the GETV team to say he was in San Francisco to record an album with MC Lars, Irina had an idea. “Let’s make a rap video!” she said to the two pillars of nerdcore, who emailed her a song immediately. A few days later, Irina and producer Nick the Dude rudely interrupted the musicians, threw them in a car and drove to the mission, where they filmed a video to go along with “Manifest Destiny.” Here is what Bryce wrote about the song:

“Manifest Destiny” is a song loosely about humans’ need to conquer and assimilate by metaphorically alluding to the eponymous period in the American Old West. Chiefly, human nature hasn’t changed, and the attitude of manifest destiny strongly relates to the modern day, specifically the Internet. In people selfishly following their own interests, naturally good and bad consequences arise. The Rondo Brothers produced the beat for us one night and the next day when we went back to their studio, Brandon played the instrumental and immediately thought manifest destiny would be a great topic for asong. Lars and I wrote the lyrics on the spot and a hit song was born.

Episode links: YTCracker, MC Lars, digital gangster, The Way of the West (footage), user Stomp (crowd sounds)

If you’re watching this episode and don’t know what a LOLcat is, that’s like going to France and not knowing what’s inside an escargot shell. But never fear, we try to ‘splain it to you in the first few moments so that everyone, n00bs and all, can have fun at the LOLzoo! Creators of the wonderfully funny icanhascheezburger site met up in San Francisco’s animal habitat to celebrate the publication of their book, for which they had to cull through millions of images of LOLcats so you can enjoy them in the comfort of your own home. GETV was on hand to interview hoomans and animals to get their thoughts on all kinds of issues — language, domiciles, noms and LOLs!

Episode links: I Can Has Cheezburger, I Can Has Cheezburger book, SF Zoo, Doctor Popular (LOLcats song), Barce, Pete Cashmore

For the 11th year in a row, San Francisco film geeks came to worship at the Church of Peaches Christ this past summer of 2008. In case you are one of the uninitiated and unbaptized, the annual two-month-long event known as Midnight Mass is much more than a midnight movie. Irina sat down with the film freak phenom founder and creator, Peaches Christ aka Joshua Grannell, and got down to the nitty gritty details of how a humble (well, maybe not so humble) film student turned into a cult movie diva 2.0, became friends with John Waters, got her own VH1 show, started a religious movement, an SF film festival and got the man behind “Jaw Breaker” to produce her own feature film — titled “All About Evil” due out end of 2009 — and in general, spewed all kinds of fabulosity into the world of film geeks worldwide. Oh, and single-handedly created the status of “Showgirls” as a cult classic. Guests at Midnight Mass have included at least one person you and Rosie Palmer fantasized about during the early days of late night television. (Special shooting & post production thanks to Karim Amira)

Episode links: Peaches Christ

You think you know, but you have no idea…..how tough Chuck Norris really is until you read Ian Spector’s book “The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the World’s Greatest Human.” GETV caught up with Ian at MIT’s ROFLcon and – despite the fact that Irina only knows about “Walker, Texas Ranger” because it comes on after two back-to-back episodes of “Murder, She Wrote” – got to the core of the Ian’s obsession about Chuck. Or at least figured out that Chuck is suing Ian so we really couldn’t talk that much about what Chuck thinks about Ian, but Irina did make plans with the under-21-year-old author to sneak him into a bar for some illegal drinking. The book has since become a best-seller and we hope will pay for Ian’s medical school bills. (Special post production thanks to Jonny Dailey).

Episode links: Chuck Norris Facts, The Truth About Chuck Norris: Facts About the World’s Greatest Human, Chuck Norris (official site), Chuck Norris on Chuck Norris Facts, Walker, Texas Ranger, Murder, She Wrote

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…. well, ok maybe not THAT long ago, but in internet years it feels like forever since the musical Vlog Deathmatch challenge that Doc Pop and Irina (almost) pwned in May 2007! We decided to repost the video here during the week that our new producer Nick settles into San Francisco — he just drove cross country from Buffalo, NY! The Vlog Deathmatch is a community event that is open to anyone who wants to throw down a challenge to the vlogging peeps (basically, anyone with a camera) — so when we heard about the music video challenge, Irina knew she wanted to use her rapping skills (ahem) to kill the other vloggers! GRRR! Memorable Vlog Deathmatchers include Veronica Belmont, who won for best air guitar video and the Rey Brothers for some really unmentionable monologue challenge, but their promotional video is a winner in my book! Miss Behavens for Lake Titicaca in the Drunk Underwear Karaoke challenge and another mindblowing promo from Casey McKinnon! Vlog Deathmatch FTW!

This video was created while Eddie and Irina were still with their “sugar daddy” Podtech, and couldn’t have been done without Nora McDevitt and Lee Cummings.

Episode links: Vlog Deathmatch Challenge, Veronica Belmont’s Trailer, Rey Brothers’ Promo, Miss Behavens: Lake Titicaca, Casey McKinnon’s Trailer, Doctor Popular