Eugene woman becomes YouTube idol.Byline: Best of . . . The Register-Guard CORRECTION (ran June 20, 2007): YouTube video producer Cree Ingles This article is about an American supermarket chain. For a town in Gran Canaria, see Playa del Inglés. Ingles (NYSE: IMKTA) is a regional supermarket chain based in Asheville, North Carolina, where Robert "Bob" Ingle opened the first store in Asheville, NC in lives alone. Her living arrangements were misstated in a Best Of story on Page 3 on Friday. Cree Ingles was down in the dumps one day last winter and messing around on the Internet when she discovered YouTube. Her life won't be the same again. Neither will ours. "I thought, `All these people are on there saying what they think,' ' Cree explained when we caught her at her home in Eugene. "Why not me?" Cree, who is 38, posted her first YouTube video six months ago: "Introducing Cree." "It told about myself and said, you know, `Here I am. Here are my opinions. I'll shout them to the world!' ' As of last week, Cree had posted 587 short videos to YouTube, the Internet site that has energized videography vid·e·og·ra·phy n. The art or practice of using a video camera. vid  e·og with its all-comers
inclusiveness.
On that same day, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the site itself, Cree was the fifth most-viewed "guru" on YouTube (she bills herself as an authority on "American Idol') , with nearly 10,000 views. Best of ... found its way to Cree by going to YouTube and doing a search for "Eugene, Oregon The city of Eugene is the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 60 miles (100 km) east of the Oregon Coast. ." We found a lot of what we had expected to find: A couple OK skateboard videos. Some student video work that was all polish and no energy. A handheld, pirated video from a 1984 Grateful Dead concert at the Hult Center that isn't polished at all (you can barely make out that there's a band somewhere on stage). What we didn't expect to find was a 306-pound (though she's recently dieted down to 290), moon-faced woman who does short, deadpan, lo-res videos with names such as "Confessions of a Fat Ass" and "Crotchless Panties pant·ie or pant·y n. pl. pant·ies Short underpants for women or children. Often used in the plural. [Diminutive of pant2. " (that's about the day her boyfriend's dog chewed up the laundry) and who gets fan mail from around the world. She may not be a paid celebrity, but Cree already is living the American dream American dream also American Dream n. An American ideal of a happy and successful life to which all may aspire: , YouTube style. An ordinary woman in real life, on YouTube she is "Cree here, comin' at ya," a gritty, unkempt Everywoman who can swear like a sailor at one moment and talk passionately the next about issues between her boyfriend's dog and the neighbor's cat. But mostly, Cree talks about "American Idol American Idol is an annual American televised singing competition, which began its first season on June 11, 2002. Part of the Idol franchise, it originated from the British reality program Pop Idol. ," a show with which it would not be unfair to say she is completely and utterly obsessed ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. . The obsession led to her greatest fan encounter - with Hollywood actress Jennifer Hudson Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981) is an Academy Award-winning American actress and singer. She first gained notice as one of the finalists on the third season of the FOX television series American Idol. . Hudson is an `Idol' alumna who won the Academy Award for best supporting actress supporting actress n → attrice f non protagonista for her role in last year's "Dreamgirls." After Cree did a video about the Oscars in February, she picked up the phone and found herself talking directly to Hudson. "She said she saw my video and she was really touched and she wanted to let me know to keep following my dreams," Cree says. Was it really Hudson? We think so. You can judge for yourself by clicking on the video (find it at her Web site), which picks up the conversation after Cree recovered enough from her shock to turn on the Web cam See Webcam. . She has other fans, too. "I have a big following with gay boys," Cree says. "I believe that is because I did a video kind of supporting them and saying, `I really feel for you.' `It's hard when you're growing up and you learn you're gay. You should see some of the letters they have written me, telling me I am their hero." Cree, who lives with her boyfriend and his 7-year-old son, recently bought a real camcorder with the idea she'll start using it to do her monologues on location. But she hasn't figured out how to connect it with her computer yet, so all her work is still just Cree sitting there in front of the computer, the same background behind her, maybe a goofy hat on her head, talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to the Web cam. No matter. Cree crams it all into that little YouTube screen. She is a Best of ... winner by virtue of the exquisite trainwreck quality of her work, the slippery voyeuristic element of those six-minute clips and the fact that she reports on her life almost before it even happens. We talked to her one evening just before leaving work. By the time we'd had dinner and fired up the laptop at home, Cree had already shot and uploaded a new video about the interview: "Stop the presses! Eugene Register-Guard story ...' For an online archive of earlier Best of ... columns - without all the annoying video - go to www.registerguard.com/bestof. BEST EUGENE YOUTUBER Cree Ingles What: A Eugene woman gazes into her Web cam and reflects on life, love and "American Idol" Where: At www.YouTube.com /CreeIngles More Cree: At www.CreeIngles.com |
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