This Mahalo Vlog Idol has had some interesting titles…the Bachelon and now the Mapprentice. This is where the top 6 finalists are reviewed in a board room type setting by Jason and the judges. They narrow the field to the top 2 and sadly I am not one of them.

I must say that I have gotten pretty frustrated through this long and stressful process. Between the bluntness of the judges and the audacity of some commenters, I questioned why I have chosen to pursue this type of career. But, on the flip side, I’ve been so touched by the outpouring of support I’ve received. I can’t thank my fans enough for sending me fabulously positive messages and posting such lovely comments. It was a constant reminder of why I am hooked on the community that is the internet. I want to work in new media because of interactivity. I love connecting and communicating with my audience. And over the past couple months my audience has not only grown but reached out to me even more…so for that I am truly grateful to Jason, the judges and the Mahalo Daily team.

The top six in Mahalo Vlog Idol were asked to produce and host an episode for the next round of challenges. Today mine was posted. With all this Mahalo talk, I’ve been dreaming about visiting Hawaii. Since that isn’t an option, I figured lets learn about Hula dancing! I had lots of fun shooting it with Conrad and John and editing it with Michael, all fabulous guys on the Mahalo Daily team. Kalua, the Hula teacher I interviewed, turned out to be a cool lady. She told me stories of her years performing with the USO as a young child. She even had a dance off with Sammy Davis Jr. How cool is that?!

Please, help me continue in this competition by leaving a comment on Mahalo Daily. I truly appreciate the support.

The Mahalo Vlog Idol continues.  The top 20 were narrowed down to the top 12 and those 12 have entered the Bachelon!  This was a far better round for me.  I was comfortable doing the “man on the street” competition and the judges were impressed…even Alex!  I am featured in the first episode…check it out.

Mahalo Daily started posting their Idol episodes on Monday.   Its really well produced.  I love how they are editing them.  I’m also enjoying watching how the other girls performed since I only got to know them in the waiting area.  Today features my round 2 mock interview.  You can totally tell I’m nervous.  I wasn’t my bubbly self.  They even threw in an awesome yawn from Alex in the middle of my performance.    Good times!

What an amazing weekend I had at Mahalo headquarters. The auditions have taken us through various reality show type challenges. It started with a basic preliminary interview, then we entered American Idol and then the Bachelor.

My preliminary interview went well and I was passed on to the second round. I did a mock interview in front of Jason Calacanis and two celebrity judges, Alex Albrecht of Diggnation and Loren Feldman of 1938 Media. The overall consensus was that I needed more energy. Alex didn’t think I pop’d enough for him so he gave me a no. Luckily, Jason and Loren gave me a yes! I must admit…the combination of streaming live the entire 4 hours leading up to the mock interview mixed with my nerves…my energy was low. You can watch this part of the audition here.

Sunday, the top 10 met back up for a new challenge. We had five minutes to interview people “man on the street” style. This was a fun and easy challenge for me. I think this will truly show who has the chops for this job. The nerves were gone for me and I just had FUN! (and lots of energy)

The judges will review the footage and announce the top 5 on Thursday. I am really looking forward to the next phase (fingers crossed). The top 5 get to produce/host a full Mahalo Daily episode. Well, nothing makes me happier than doing the actual work that I love! Check out my seesmics if you want to see my updates throughout the weekend.

It appears the front runner in this race is Lisa Brewster. I met Lisa almost immediately on Saturday. She is a very smart, tech savvy gal who doesn’t have on-camera experience but is clearly a quick learner. Lisa announced her campaign for the job and called for a “Lisa Nation” to help support her on her blog. I’m sure people are waiting for me to do the same but I announced my campaign before Mahalo Vlog Idol was even announced.

I am a true believer in letting the work speak for itself. I think it is clear that I know this industry and am a part of this online community. And those that have gotten to know me well, know that I truly love this community. Its awesome that Lisa asked for people to comment on a flickr picture, what a great idea. I’m glad my network of supporters jumped on my pic as well but I also have a large network of supporters who aren’t flickr members. They are your average internet users that need Mahalo.com and will follow me to Mahalo Daily. Lets not forget about them.

The fact is, I’m the only girl in this competition that has the blend of on-camera experience and web savviness. I feel I compliment the Mahalo brand and would love to have the opportunity to bring my quirky style to their daily podcast. I just hope my work speaks for itself!

As some of you may or may not know, I started my new media career at Nontourage. Julie Daman, the master mind behind this podcast production company, took me under her wing and opened up a whole new world for this traditional media girl. She allowed me to hone my producing skills and perform in most of the things we shot. I will forever be grateful to her for showing me the ropes and giving me the room to grow.

And now she has gone above and beyond. I can’t imagine the time it took her to go through the tremendous amount of footage she has to find these outtakes. The first time I watched this, I laughed so hard I cried. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do and know that I appreciate everyone’s support in anything and everything I do. I lurve my internet peeps!

This weekend is the beginning of the Mahalo Idol auditions. I am revved up and ready to go! They are fairly extensive and a great PR campaign for the show. Part of it will be streamed live Saturday from 2-4pm with “celebrity judges”…so tune in if ya can! It promises to be an entertaining parade of chicas if nothing else.

I am, of course, rooting for myself to get the gig but I found my second choice. (if for some reason I don’t get hired) Alana Taylor. Why? Cuz she wrote a song about Twitter. If you have learned anything about me in our times together here at wordpress, its that I. <3. Twitter. Alana wins my respect for the awesome lyrics in “The Twitter Song.”

When I wake up in the morning,
The first thing I see,
Is an e-mail in my Gmail,
Sayin’ you’re followin’ me.

And next thing you know,
I’m followin’ you,
Not everybody does it,
But me and Scoble do.

Chorus:
Cuz Twitter beats Facebook any day,
140 characters is all you need to say.

Cool thing ’bout Twitter is you meet new people,
You even get to stalk the famous ones too,
We’ve got Veronica Belmont from Mahalo Daily,
Barack Obama and Hugh MacLeod too.

Chorus

Twitter’s like a family,
As long as you’re not spamming me,
We keep in touch, we share too much,
And @Garyvee meets up for lunch!

Chorus

But be careful, with you’re iPhone…
Don’t DM the whole worlldddddd

Chorus

She notes on YouTube that she’s not a singer and her guitar is out of tune but I appreciate her admiration for the one…the only…TWITTER! Here’s the vid…

Christina Warren
Christina co-hosts The Squadcast with Grant Robertson. They started JasonStealMyCoHost.com with the Christina Drinks Your Milkshake video.

Secret Agent Clip
Julie Daman and I made a video map of a TV home tour.

Jackson West Interview
I interviewed Jackson West at SXSW 2007 for Nontourage’s Techie Travels.

The Vloggies
Julie and I documented out trip to San Francisco in November 2006 for The Vloggie Awards where we ended up taking home a couple statues for Almost There!

Snowboarding Clips
For obvious reasons this footage has never before been published for public consumption. Your welcome.

Vulcan Death Pinch
Casey McKinnon was kind enough to work with me in a little video we like to call Galactourage. Girl fight!

Mahalo Daily
This daily podcast supplements the web directory Mahalo.com.

*The lighting in this week’s episode is wonky. My apologies.*

Dancing With The Stars
To my disappointment, the Gute was kicked off this week but I have been super impressed with the guest dance performers this season. If anyone has information on the LA based dance troupe that performed last week, please pass it along to me. This week it was the Alvin Alley Dance Theatre.

MuxTape
Easily upload 12 MP3s at muxtape.com and share your favorite tunes with the world wide web! Some of my favorites are zadi.muxtape.com, rickrey.muxtape.com and jimkirks.muxtape.com. Mine is sarahatwood.muxtape.com. Take a listen and if you make one yourself, send it my way!

Internet Lovelies
I can only assume by the recent changes that Maria Sandstone of Yahoo’s The 9 and Veronica Belmont of Mahalo Daily are moving on to bigger and better things.

Pennywise
If you’re a fan of Pennywise or just a fan of free music get on over to this MySpace page and download their latest album. Its free until Tuesday, April 7.

NBC
The Peacock network has announced their fall season and its a beaut!