I tend to see viral videos either right after they get posted and the Internet has yet to notice, or months (or years) later. I'm sorry I missed this for so long. Any response from Pixar yet?

It started when Canadian musician Dave Carroll was on a United Airlines flight, waiting at O'Hara in Chicago. People on the flight pointed out the baggage handlers on the ground tossing around guitar cases, which turned out to belong to Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell. Carroll's pleas fell on deaf ears and he discovered upon arriving at his destination that his custom Taylor guitar, valued at $3,500, was severely damaged. There followed a year of Carroll's attempts at getting United Airlines to even acknowledge the incident, much less pay for the $1,200 of repairs that still didn't quite restore the guitar to its former sound.

Finally Carroll told the last representative, a Ms. Irlweg, that he would write and produce three music videos about his experience and release them into the wild.She may have been less than impressed. That was then.

His first one, "United Breaks Guitars," (above) was a happy little ditty that sticks in your brain. It went viral in a big way, pulling in millions of views, getting picked up by CNN and MSNBC and boosting Carroll's career (and adding a secondary one as frequent guest speaker about customer service) and humiliating United Airlines. United finally came forward with offers if he'd pull the video, but he refused, asking that if they paid anything they should give it to charity or to another inconvenienced musician. He promised three songs and three songs they would get.

The second was released a few months later, dedicated to the United Airlines rep:

The third has been promised and I'm eagerly awaiting it. This is what the Internet was made for. The military uses and the porn thing were just sidelines; the real power of the web is to give a single person the voice to outshout a major corporation.

And to spread cool videos around. The songs are available from his band's site and from iTunes, by the way, and you can get more details of the continuing saga at his website.

Available on iTunes, Amazon and other fine MP3 retailers. Video is also at iTunes.

In honor of their 25th anniversary and their new album "Back From the Dead," just released last month, Spinal Tap is asking the fans to get involved.

David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap are inviting fans to create an original video to be posted on YouTube for one of the following songs off of their album BACK FROM THE DEAD — Hell Hole, Warmer Than Hell, Big Bottom, Stonehenge, Back From The Dead and/or Short & Sweet. Judging the contest, will be Colman Hickey, who created the classic video for Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight using characters made of Legos.

One lucky winner will receive an autographed, limited edition Spinal Tap prize pack!

No idea what the autographed prize pack consists of, but what the hell. More details available at YouTube and you can see a sample contest entry here.

Also they've produced an official Spinal Tap iPhone app. Listen to music, watch videos, get the latest Tap news, and see what other fans are writing on their wall. Free app, but it looks like you'll need to be connected to get anything from it so put it on the phone or keep your iPod Touch near a wifi connection.

If you haven't picked up the new CD "Back From the Dead," you should. Amazon has it for just $10.99 and you get 19 original songs, a one-hour DVD, and a "unique pop-up diorama package that unveils three 12-inch action figures (courtesy of Sideshow Collectibles) of the band along with a proportionally sized Stonehenge." What's not to love?

This brilliant remix shows what happens when stalkery vampires come after a real girl. Or a real slayer, anyway.