The longest drawn out viral mystery ever produced for the internet, iamamiwhoami, which I wrote about here back in January continues to periodically churn out interesting Youtube music videos without reaching a conclusion.
Originally, the enigmatic productions featuring a blonde woman and lots of vague symbolism was purported to be any one of a range of pop stars and musicians: guesses included Christina Aguilera, Goldfrapp, Lady Gaga, The Knife and Little Boots. None of these were correct and while there is no absolute reveal of the artist in question; many observers (myself included) believe the project is the work of Swedish singer Jonna Lee. The songs featured in the videos have become more memorable while the mystery has all but vanished. A commenter on my site Nialler9.com revealed that the single letter title of the most recent videos spell out ‘B-O-U-N-T-Y’ and that a simple internet domain search on the website iambounty.com reveals that that site is registered to Ms. Lee.
It’s a pity that the viral has dragged on so long, as it has inevitably lost interest of the course of the last seven months. A pity too because the most recent song was actually the best thing I’ve heard from the project. You can see all 12 of the videos here.
Another mystery long-awaiting an answer is “whatever happened to Lauryn Hill?”. The former Fugees singer and solo artist whose The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album was amongst the best of the ’90s has been absent from music for much of the new century and with gig cancellations, erratic behaviour and stalled recording sessions defining recent years. Hill finally broke the silence last week in an interview with NPR in the US where she talked about the reasons for why she stopped releasing music, her voice and a possible return to the stage. You can hear the whole interview.
Meanwhile, anarchic Photoshop-heavy message board 4Chan devised a cunning plan based around teeny bopper Justin Bieber’s upcoming world tour. Bieber is giving fans around the world an opportunity to decide where he performs. The pranksters at 4Chan have rallied around North Korea as the number one country of choice. The ploy has worked with North Korea at the top spot with over 460,000 votes closely followed by Israel. Somehow, I doubt that Kim Jong Il is the kind of guy who dances on his “ronery” to songs like ‘Baby’ but if he is, and he is truly an internet expert like he claims, then it may be ‘Great Leader’ himself who is doing all the voting.
See the final result.
Features
Fri, Jul 9, 2010