Yes amazingly it is only 6!

As a long time consumer of YouTube I see a growing tendency to follow themes and personalities, quite of few of which are unique to the medium.

While I'm not a big fan of those posting multiple Youtube links in these forums, in celebration of the first uploaded video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw exactly six years ago this Saturday the 23rd of April, I thought it would be interesting have fellow OLOers 'YouTubeists' name three they might be following right now. They can be historical or topical but a brief description on why they push your buttons would be useful. I should note the 10 minute duration maximum placed on most uploads can be at times frustrating but it has served to chop up longer pieces into consumable bits for busy days.

My current three are as follows;

Any Hitchens clips do me, however there is a series of twelve of the Hitchens vs Galloway debate that have given me great pleasure. Hitchens usually cleans most opponents up but he knew he had a fight on his hands with this one. He was working the queues outside the venue with zeroxed quotes from Galloway well before the show started. Starting clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZnUIeKOIgc

Stefan Molyneux is a Canadian philosopher/blogger who hosts Freedomain Radio. A fan of Ayn Rand (Ouch!), and growing favorite of the right in the States but never fails to disappoint with content. My daughter finds him a little creepy and I can understand why, but with over 500 bits of video he is certainly prolific and interesting. He needs to come with a warning label though, rumours of a cult status should not be treated lightly. Introduced me to the word Statism.
http://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot

For those who find Rachael Kohn from the ABC's The Spirit of Things just that little bit sexy there is a quirky, also sexy, Romainian athiest out there channeling her. Chrisina Rad delivers pearls of wisdom with attitude, often from her bedroom and a sometimes co-starring her cat. Funny and irreverant but satire with punch.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ZOMGitsCriss

Love to hear others.

I "borrowed" this from a radio station link, but just have a look at this and tell me it didn't make you smile!

It's just animal behaviour with some classic British voice-overs.

Funny or what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aAtFrWft2k

Enjoy

Dear csteele,

I am a member of the derrierre garde. Cab Calloway, Fred and Ginger, the Nicholas Brothers, people doing the Charlestown, the Hoosier Hotshots and the like are my fare on you tube.

Cab Calloway is not forgotten. My granddaughter goes to the Wilmington, DE Cab Calloway High of the Arts. Cab's daughter is active in supporting the school.

After this comment I may relax watching a Busby Berkeley DVD.

I just deactivated my facebook account, but you tube remains a source of joy.

Only six years csteele. Seems much longer.

Hitchens would be among my favourites along with, Noam Chomsky, John Ralston Saul who talks about the intellectual cleansing of economics with a focus on issues of free trade and globalisation. Many others too numerous to mention.

John Ralston Saul:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gZ8ew7ISEg
(There is more than one part)

Love a bit of the Colbert Report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PlHx_JjEo

Youtube has been invaluable in sourcing information about organic gardening, permaculture, food forests, urban food farming and seed saving which would make up the majority of our youtube visits. Even for such mundane things as how to use and harvest jerusalem artichokes and how to extract juice from pomengranates. (I can hear the yawns now :))

Some favourites:

Permaculture Food Forest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ul1bI2lr8I

The inspirational Joel Salatin-Polyface Farms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxTfQpv8xGA

Path to Freedom-Homesteading:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AcmaGbldU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q&feature=related

Youtube is also great for music - trying before buying.

“I just deactivated my facebook account, but you tube remains a source of joy.”

Let me know if that works for you David, I deactivated a couple and they just will not go away.

I love youtube, mostly entertainment. Galloway rocks.

I really enjoy some of the 3d animation stuff, short flicks. This one still freaks me out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HMz1WKkso
Fallen Art

And finally when an old song is stuck in your head you can go find it and get it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a0z9ZcSwPQ
Bliss!

Dear Radar,

Thank you. This is quickly becoming a youtube classic. Cries of Nighttime! Daytime! and Alan! Alan! Alan! have been ringing through our household over the last few weeks.

Dear davidf,

As much of a technophile as I am I have so far resisted the clutches of Facebook or Myspace. Privacy is so under-rated nowadays. As for dancing clips did you know one of the most viewed youtube clips of all time (number 9 with over 22 million views) features dancing from Melbourne or the style at least? It is called the Melbourne shuffle Compilation. I'm not sure what Ginger, Fred or Cab would have thought but the figures don't lie. A young nephew of mine has been right into it for years. Not saying you are that old David but I suggest going easy on the volume. Let me know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPaMdxC6CQI

Dear pelican,

You are right about it becoming an invaluable source of information. After retrieving my sister's digital camera from the bottom of a river I needed to dismantle it to attempt a clean. With very little searching I found a 10min clip going through every step with a useful calming opera soundtrack to boot.

Dear Jewely,

What a brilliant clip. How dark though. You are right about retrieving old songs. My recent find was a song from my childhood by Johnny Cash's Egg Sucking Dog album. It was called The Bug that tried to crawl around the World. Sounds dated now but boy it was inspirational at 6.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmT12jC9skI

Love Johnny Cash and hadn’t heard that song before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzwBHP3nnNM&playnext=1&list=PLA2F9D8BF99328B63
Awesome animation and an awesome song. Sad but.

I used to broadcast news and commentary on 4zzz, a radio station in Brisbane. Occasionally I would accompany my commentary with a song. The station asked me for an Easter song. I wrote and sang the following to the tune of the old US pop standard.

The Imitation of Christ

Six feet two, eyes of blue
Jesus Christ, he was a Jew
Has anybody seen my lord?

Big hooked nose, There he goes
Preaching so that everyone knows
Has anybody seen my lord?

Speared by a Roman
In the abdomen
Blood gushing out

Rose from the dead
So it is said
People believe without a doubt

Jesus died, still a Jew
He's a Jew so why aren't you?
Has anybody seen my lord?

You can see me perform it at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKBR23d-UDE

Deeeeear oh dear o dear. That’s funny David! Thanks for bringing that to our attention.

Music! That’s what I use Youtube for above all else.

It is just wonderful.

I thought I’d heard every Elvis track but I found one that I don’t recall having heard before, and I reckon it has simply got to be the best song he ever recorded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-sAPQZwEQQ

Dear Ludwig,

What do you think of this line-up at a high school prom in Texas?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylal5gfj_kY

Dear davidf,

Lol, very good. You just needed an ukulele accompaniment to top it lot off. Apologies to the Californian Ramblers of course. And have you spent time on the football terraces of England?

Dear Jewely,

Good art both sticks in one's mind and informs one's circumstance. You original link has done that for me. I see the fat 'producer' as representing our leaders and ourselves, the photographer as the war correspondent, the film machine as the media delivering every so often news of another Australian claimed in this war, the single tear as ANZAC day, quickly forgotten, and then the kaleidoscope continuing. Powerful stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Speaking of the media one of Zomgitscriss's uploads that had me really cheering was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6sW9Mt2axc
She went where our media often seems to fearful to tread. In the face of numerous death threats she came right back at 'em. I could be wrong but there is something here that gives me hope for the future. Ah the fearlessness of youth. And at around 80,000 views per posting that is triple my city's Murdock paper's circulation or nearly a thousand times the average weekly church congregation.

For those who might not have heard of Natile Tran http://www.youtube.com/user/communitychannel she is Australia's most popular YouTube personality. With 364,830,646 Total Upload views and 49,062,487 Channel views plus nearly a million subscribers her reach is mindboggling.

Sure Youtube does represent a treasure trove for those with years of memories, a vault far more easily accessed than the trunk in the attic, but what I get excited about is how generation x and y are using it in fresh ways. The present media seems so slow in responding and so do our political parties.

One thing I am coming to respect is the fact that the Youtube community has a great capacity for crap but also good nose for bulls hit. Love to see what the next six years will bring.

David that was wonderful, really was.

Csteele I am glad you liked that clip, I’ve gone back and watched it a few times. I like how you saw it.

I’ve been watching comedians on youtube lately, great stuff out there.

Now when will our televisions become ‘hometube’ so we can just go through and pick what we want to watch? I heard Apple might be releasing something like it. TV will disappear overnight I reckon.

Dear csteele,

Thank you for referring me to the California Ramblers. I looked them up and played the music on the following:
http://www.archive.org/details/1920s-californiaRamblers-01-10 Then I started roaming the net. Roamin’ in the gloamin’ I fell on my abdomen.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood rejected what they considered to be the mechanistic approach first adopted by the Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo I reject rock and roll with its harsh voices, electronic instruments and general lack of fun. I miss the witty lyrics of Cole Porter and hope to outlive rock and roll. I prefer pre-Beatle/Elvis pop music. Bob Dylan should blow his nose. Fortunately there is youtube and the net.

The late, great Russ Columbo sang “Good Night, Sweetheart” on
http://www.pcdon.com/BingCrosby-RussColumbo.html I think he would have been better than Crosby if he hadn’t died at 27.

I have a CD of Eddie Cantor singing “Keep Young and Beautiful.” The film clip on youtube
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=285-qOZjt2g&feature=related) shows a politically incorrect scene with Eddie in blackface garbed in a quasi-Roman or Greek costume singing to a bevy of white beauties attended by a group of beautiful black slaves. Eddie winds up chased by both groups of ladies and drowning. Dated but hilarious.

On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glnz45NZ_wk&feature=related Cantor out of blackface sings “Yes Yes!” in a number choreographed by Busby Berkeley with Busby’s great overhead shots of the chorus forming geometric patterns.

Now a novelty number. The Hoosier Hot Shots do "Indies to the Andes In His Undies" on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5U8iJ0fEns Hoosier is the nickname of Indiana, the Hoosier state. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmlAgcfQ44 has the 1931, Who's Your Little Who-Zis?, Arden-Ohman Orchestra. Hoosier little whozis?

The Hoosier Hot Shots also do “Darktown Strutter's Ball (1936)” on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBiEfMVrDXQ&NR=1 The ancient and wonderful Alberta Hunter / also does “Darktown Strutters' Ball” on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP-0geORbvM&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Hoagy Carmichael, another Hoosier does “The Darktown Strutter's Ball” onhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4lrdawmUg8&feature=related
"The Darktown Strutters Ball" was also rendered by Miff Mole and his Molers on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSZ1YsDdjnc&feature=related I have a record of Miff Mole and His Mound City Blues Blowers.

Continued

continued

Then I found http://www.archive.org/ (The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.)

Speak Easily (1932) on http://www.archive.org/details/SpeakEasily starred Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante. Speak Easily is the way the pedantic, pompous professor played by Buster speaks of the prohibition era speakeasy. The inimitable Durante does some sharp piano playing and singing. Durante led a jazz band and may have been the first band leader to integrate white and black musicians. Durante also made a great statement, “Why doesn’t everybody leave everybody else the hell alone?” Missionaries, prohibitionists, intrusive governments, ideologues of all kinds should heed the words of Durante.

Moving on I wondered if I could find another rendition of ‘oh by jingo’ duplicating the version my grandmother had.

Spike Jones “oh by jingo” on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewh2aVCDQ-s doesn’t fit the bill, but he is great and also plays ‘we have no bananas’ on http://www.youtube.com/watchv=jT6JkceQ9FU&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Sam Lanin's orchestra also played Yes! We Have No Bananas in 1923 on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTTrXAE7OPU&feature=related
Sam Lanin had many great musicians playing for him such as Phil Napoleon, Miff Mole, Jules Levy Jr. and Red Nichols, as well as Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Manny Klein, Jimmy McPartland, Bix Beiderbecke, Eddie Lang, Bunny Berigan, Nick Lucas and Frankie Trumbauer.

Sam’s brothers, Howard and Lester, were also band leaders. Lester was aware of the perilous situation of the world. He consoled himself in remarking that the world was dancing on the edge of a precipice, but at least they were dancing to his music.

Back to the archives for “Journey to the Center of a Triangle” http://www.archive.org/details/journey_to_the_center_of_a_triangle The feature shows the four centres of a triangle – circumcenter, centroid, orthocentre and incenter. Great presentation.

Congruent Triangles is another mathematical feature on http://www.archive.org/details/afana_congruent_triangles The congruent triangles covering and uncovering the screen reminded me of Busby Berkeley’s chorus formations.

May we all live to see the demise of rock and roll along with the Second Coming of Cole Porter, another Hoosier.

Dear davidf,

Thanks for the posts.

The piece on the triangles was riveting, sort of like getting whispers of a 'Godly' language.

You are obviously a fan of the less contemporary of our musical history but I think you might enjoy this. In fact you have no soul if you don't. In this TED talk (TED talks are my favourite podcasts for downloading), the conductor Eric Whitacre talks about the challenges in getting together a Youtube choir. The result is spectacular.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eric_whitacre_a_virtual_choir_2_000_voices_strong.html

The first one referred to in the talk is linked here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs&feature=related

The second, recently completed is here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WhWDCw3Mng&feature=player_embedded

Full screen it and make sure you have some decent speakers.

As a poster remarked; “A positive side to living in the matrix”.

The final image is of triangles.

Dear csteele,

I looked up your reference. Eric Whitacre talked about once wanting to be a rock star. In my early days the only rock star I had heard of was Roy Chapman Andrews, the geologist, who discovered dinosaur fossils in Mongolia. That was before rock had anything to do with music. The idea of a virtual choir is very exciting. Eric Whitacre has surpassed technology. He is not a semiconductor. He is a superconductor. Maybe my resistance is low.

Unfortunately I can’t get an uninterrupted performance as there are pauses for the input to be buffered in.

Even though I don’t have a soul being nothing but mind and body eventually consigned to oblivion I enjoyed it greatly.

The clips were marvellous, and I bookmarked TED.

I went to see the ‘greatest TED talk ever recorded.’ It was by Morgan Spurlock. I shut it off as it seemed an exercise in self-aggrandisement, and I did not want to give him any more of my time. Nevertheless there seem to be many great things in TED, and I will investigate it further.

You wrote:

“Full screen it and make sure you have some decent speakers.

As a poster remarked; “A positive side to living in the matrix”.

The final image is of triangles”

I had to make do with the speakers in the computer. What does ‘living in the matrix’ mean? Didn’t see the final image of triangles.

Mathematics can be a never ending source of joy. If you are one of those who revel in it I recommend two books “Induction and Analogy in Mathematics” and “Patterns of Plausible Inference”. Each chapter deals with some aspect of mathematics. At the end of each chapter are a series of problems based on the chapter ranging from simple to those the greatest mathematicians have never solved.

Dear davidf,

Rather than a case of low resistance may I suggest a high capacity, especially for the new, might be the issue.

As to 'living in the matrix' I think you would have to have seen the film 'The Matrix'. Certainly evoked it for me. I suppose it is one of those pop culture references.

You might not consider yourself as being equipped with a soul but there would be a number of long-time OLO's who would claim otherwise. Considered it afflicted on you from the outside.

Speaking of soul I'm wondering if I could bother you for an 'insiders' opinion.

I am hardly jingoistic but I do have a serious weakness for the Star Spangled Banner, especially when done well, which I gather is not the easiest thing to do. My favourite for a long time was Whitney Huston's version at the 1991 Superbowl;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE

But Marvin Gaye's version just blows me away, really gutsy to attempt such a reworking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvVzaQ6i8A

Wow!

Do you think many American's would have felt uneasy with this treatment given the anthem's place in the culture?

Finally the language of mathematics to me is the closest I can think of to a 'God speak' and this is coming from an atheist. I am however chained to the cave wall scanning shadows as my mathematical knowledge is limited. I do however have a deep sense of what I might be missing. Paul Erdos the Hungarian mathematician talked of all the proofs being written in “The Book”;

“in which God had written down the best and most elegant proofs for mathematical theorems. Lecturing in 1985 he said, "You don't have to believe in God, but you should believe in The Book." He himself doubted the existence of God, whom he called the "Supreme Fascist". He accused the SF of hiding his socks and Hungarian passports, and of keeping the most elegant mathematical proofs to himself. When he saw a particularly beautiful mathematical proof he would exclaim, "This one's from The Book!". “ Wikipedia

Thanks for the references.

Dear csteele,

Living in the matrix could mean being one of a rectangular array of terms which compose a matrix. ‘Matrix’ comes from womb (cf the Greek metra) so we all began our existence in the matrix.

I find the Star-Spangled Banner inspiring. However, although I am a devoted watcher of the Superbowl I resent the presentation of it with warplanes flying overhead, pop singers mouthing our national anthem and appeals to those who drive 100, 000 miles a year and spend the rest of their time consuming enormous quantities of beer. I start watching when the play starts and skip the halftime show. I was glad the socialist team won last year. The Green Bay Packers are the only team owned by the municipality they play in. When they play the Philadelphia Eagles I am in a quandary who to root for.

When I went to Lake Placid High School we sometimes played games with Canadian high schools to our north as the opponents. Before the games the bands would play “God Save the King” and “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The crowd would sing both anthems. That was great! IMHO anthems are not something to be sung by commercial performers.

I knew Erdos (May the Supreme Fascist rest his soul) when I was a graduate student at Syracuse University. His girl friend, Johanna Brunings, taught quantum mechanics. The first class meeting she shut the door, leaned against it and looked at us for a while. Finally she spoke, “If I were an electron I might be on the other side of the door by now.” I would occasionally join them for a meal in a restaurant. Erdos was a natural deadpan comic. One of his bits was to pick up a menu and pronounce the items as though they were written in Hungarian. His rendition of pineapple upsidedown cake was most memorable.

One beauty of Polya’s books mentioned in my last post is that you do not have to have extensive mathematical knowledge to appreciate them. You will acquire considerable knowledge in going through them.