YouTube Digger

America did its flag-waving gushing-with-pride thing yeasterday at the inaugeration of President Obama. Although I’m glad that a black man can now get to the White House, let’s not kid ourselves by assuming the American Dream is alive. It’s still comatose because of the treatment of Native Americans.
(more…)

Happy Sunday everyone, and welcome to this edition of “Today in History” for July 20th.

Happy 61st birthday to rock guitar legend Carlos Augusto Alves Santana who was born on this day in 1947 in Autland, Mexico.  In this clip taken at Woodstock (1969), Santana performs “Soul Sacrifice”:

(more…)

I made it out yesterday afternoon to see the much-hyped The Dark Knight – the latest entry in the multimillion dollar Batman franchise.

This is not a film for people who want to see the bubblegum pop culture version of the bat, instead Christopher Nolan took things in a much darker and more sinister direction, and one that focused less on Christian Bale’s impeccable second round as Batman and more on Heath Ledger’s  near certain Oscar-worthy performance as Joker.

I can’t help but wonder if the film would have had the same impact had Ledger not died so soon after shooting, but the flick is worth the money nonetheless.

(more…)

More than anything else, the availability of blogging can reinforce the truth that we human beings do not all think alike. More than just cultural differences, which can be vast, the variations we find in our own communities, from people who look just like us, are as many as the leaves in a teabag. I should probably never be surprised by what people say or think, and yet, I am frequently baffled by what comes up.

The latest in this series of “Pam is baffled” is an interview of a blogger who covers family and parenting topics from a highly personal point of view. Heather Armstrong, who runs dooce.com, is a popular blogger who has managed to turn her website into a family business with annual profits that are enough to support the family. Pretty good job, I’d say, for any small business.

She’s now also published a book, which led to the interview on Good Morning America. The piece begins with a taped report on the phenomenon of “mommy blogging,” and then goes to the studio for an interview with Anderson. What baffled me about the interview was that the pov of the two interviewers was totally bogged down in “how could you do this to your kid and family?” Anderson was very articulate, very engaging, and very intelligent in all her answers, despite the fairly accusatory nature of the questions. Basically, the interviewers seemed offended that Anderson makes money writing about her daily life with her daughter.

It’s certainly not unique, nor even new, that parents can make a living from their kids. Child actors are exhibit number one. It’s also not new for parents to write publicly about their kids - Erma Bombeck, anyone? The permanent nature of the internet is not anything new either - films certainly live a long time and so do published books and even newspaper columns. So I’m at a loss to find any coherent reason for the “concern” shown about blogging on your kids.

But, here are my top possibilities for non-coherent, non-sensical reasons for the “concern:”

1. Unlike most print publications, blogs are not subject to editing, feedback, or review before they are published, which can lead to rash and unconsidered posts if the bloggers are not careful.
2. Women are not supposed to make money from traditional or exclusively female activities (after all, what else explains the fact that you can sell sperm but not eggs)
3. Some people just don’t get it.

See what you think about this story.

I’ve never been a real big candy person; coffecake and doughnuts are more my weakness. But my kids, of which I have way too many, love candy beyond all reason. So we make candy sometimes, spending long hours pouring through recipes and deciding on a project, then plotting the exact variation we plan to make, and debating various “improvements” we might add to the chosen sweet. Candy making day sees my kids reach their giddy peak, although I confess I have sometimes assigned separate projects to the kids rather than all work on the same recipe at the same time. It greatly cuts down on the sibling arguments.

For all that, though, our candy making is fairly rudimentary. Candy making is a fine art, one that requires precision and care. Which is why fine candies are so very intriguing.

The video below shows a true “lolliologist” at work, making a wonderfully unique hard candy with words written in the middle. You’ll be amazed at how they accomplish this.

There’s actually more to the title of this video, believe it or not. The full title is “Dancing Man Wearing Horse Mask Cooks Wild Mushrooms.”

It is a classic piece of insanity.

There’s an old fiction writing exercise that involves the task of taking a random list of objects and working them into a story. A friend of mine who throws great parties told me the secert to a good party is to invite a mix of people from disparate worlds. The cable show “The Surreal Life” took this concept and created a whole series out of it - take random people from different walks of life (only requirement being that they have some sort of celebrity status), make them live together in close quarters for a while, and see what happens. Road movies are all about the premise of putting mismatched couples into a situation where they have to work together, and waiting for the story.

My point is, as bizarre as this video is, it really isn’t that different from many, many other creative works that people have created. It’s weirder, no doubt about it, but not really that much different. Does it work? Well, I found it oddly compelling. Not seven minutes worth of compelling, but I found myself, after the initial open mouthed puzzlement, smiling at the joy in the dance. Is it really all that different than the secret dances you do in your bathroom, or even in the kitchen when nobody else is home?

Here’s another weirdo for you.

Well, if this guy hasn’t mastered it all, I don’t know who has, I mean, Completely ! Everything from jumping off of roofs to jumping onto roofs, he’s got all of the moves you’ve ever wanted. Watching this video may convince you to believe that you can do it yourself.

I actually want to give it a try and just do one of the things that this guy does. Its my goal to do a backflip off of a wall, meaning that I run up a wall (in theory) and do a backflip as I (theoretically) jump off the wall. The only thing I need to do to complete my goal is to practice practice, practice :!:

I hope you enjoyed by little banter here at Youtube Digger, hope to see you next time :D

Technorati Tags: Urban Ninja, Youtube Videos, Urban Ninja Youtube

The economy is wobbling. Middle class jobs are shrinking (tried to find a factory job in the US lately?). So while some job experts are preaching the opportunities available in home based businesses and entreprenuerial projects, I’ve discovered some folks who’ve been able to forge a career out of what David Letterman would no doubt call “Stupid People Tricks.” I suppose it’s not too surprising that someone thought to try doing a hula hoop while standing on their head, but to then go out and turn it into a whole act is sheer brilliance. Or, rather, it’s sheer vaudeville. Vaudeville is alive and well in this country, it’s just on cable TV and YouTube instead of the theaters of Main Street.

This video shows a battle between two street dance crews on some kind of organized event, but I thought the two primary dancers were exceptionally good - especially the guy in white.

He’s the first guy that dances - and the guy that does most of the dancing - is amazingly springy. I want springs on my feet, too. I wonder if they’re stick-ons or if he had them surgically implanted?

Wandering around youtube to discover that such a cute baby existed wasn’t to hard for your average joe, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the video shown is going to be an average joe video. Well, whatever it is that makes this video good, maybe its the laughter of the baby, will definitely make you smile when you see this.

I believe its a well stated situation in Psychology that when you see another person laugh, you are just as likely to have a happy thought when you see that person laugh, I don’t know if its entirely true for you, but when I see this video, its completely true to me.

Well, here I am off once again to find some more videos that catch the interests of my inner-self, I’ll keep posting as long as long as I can find things, and believe me I will find them, because, of course, it is the large database of Youtube that I am search. (Not to mention metacafe, and megavideo as well…)

Technorati Tags: Laughing baby, Youtube Videos, Laughing Baby Youtube Videos, baby Ding

As a soccer player myself, I’ve found it hard to hit the top post of a soccer goal even 2 times in a row. I’ll be able to get it once if I’m really really lucky, but chances are, as most novice players find it, that the ball will go over the post. So, how does Ronaldinho hit the post not 3 but 4 times :!:

That deserves the credit that it is getting, its one of the most viewed videos on youtube and now I know why ! I applaud this guy who has made the most viewed videos on youtube only because he is a professional at what he does and wouldn’t be there if he couldn’t do what he does.

I hope you enjoyed the daily video here at Youtube Digger. Hope to see you next time :D

Okay, so I am simply pre-occupied with this one because I’ve been playing guitar for a couple years now, and still have no idea how this guy learned this so fast and could play this so well. Of course, I can try to play the intro to this on my acoustic, but it still doesn’t sound the same as how this guy does.

There are plenty versions of Canon Rock played on youtube, but this one is by far the best of them all. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you can never see this guys face, so its all mysterious and whatnot. Anyways, another noted Youtube video has been noted, so now on to more Youtube Videos! See ya next time on Youtube Digger :!:

I’ve been reading the Harry Potter series lately. Far too late, according to my daughter, who is currently in an intensely obsessive phase around anything and everything Potter. While she is thrilled that I am finally reading the entire series, she is still sorely disappointed and, frankly, befuddled, that I didn’t do it sooner. My protestations of the need to feed and clothe her and her siblings, while simultaneously driving them all over town on an hourly basis, seem only to confuse her.

Her obsession extends to collecting pictures of favorite characters off of the web. She has large photo album files of various characters, ranging from shots of the actors in and out of character to cartoon and odd anime versions of the characters. And she also spends hours combing YouTube for homemade video montages of the series. There has sprung up a huge community of amateur film editors producing music videos, parodies, memorials, and all kinds of other “things” based on Harry Potter, all of it available on YouTube. Here are some notable bits.

Harry Potter scenes with South Park voices dubbed in.

The Harry Potter Rap

Wal-Mart invades the Magical World

A Memorial

Okay, not everyone loves Sesame Street, but everyone has seen it. You’re either a kid, have a kid, were recently a kid, or have grandkids, and any of those things means that you’ve seen Sesame Street.

When my kids were little, the Street had started to have guest appearances from some very big celebrities, including many musicians and bands. They always perform one of their big songs, but with some sort of Street twist on it. Many of them have been extremely clever, but none more so than REM’s Street rendition of “Shiny, Happy People,” originally released on their 1991 album “Out of Time.” The Street version is called “Happy Furry Monsters (having fun).” The whole band performs it in the midst of a crowd of happy (wait for the twist!) bouncing muppet monsters. Keep your eye out for guitarist Peter Buck, here on banjo, trying not to laugh while a big yellow muppet cuddles up to him.

I’m not sure why I found this video so charming, but it probably has something to do with the wind-that-wasn’t-a-tornado that came through my neighborhood several years ago. One evening, in the midst of a big thunderstorm, there was a “wind event” that destroyed major swathes of trees through our town, neighborhood, and very own yard. I have an acre lot that is mostly wooded, and by my best count, we had twenty trees completely uprooted, four more cut down by the utility company that was trying to untangle major power lines from our downed trees, and at least six more severely damaged trees that had to be dealt with by the tree people.

We also had one of the panels of our front door blown out and down the front hallway, while the garage door, a mere twenty feet or so to the right of the front door, was sucked out of it’s frame and into the driveway. Fortunately, we had no roof or other damage to the house.

There were trees down and debris blown all over the area. It certainly looked like a tornado. But the TV weatherman that night explained it had been a downdraft, which is a sudden blast of air from a thundercloud that shoots straight down to the earth at great speed, and when it hits the ground the wind moves outward from the point of impact until the energy finally dissipates. Whatever. It did much the same damage a tornado would do, and we had far fewer trees in our woods than we had before. It took the utility company two days to repair the line that ran along our property (and therefore two days to move their heavy equipment out of our driveway), and another three days or so for the army of tree people to cut and chip all the trees in our yard.

This video documents the removal of a very large oak tree which was felled by a tropical storm.

Spring arrived last week. Some of us have flowers, others will in the next couple of months, but sometime in the Spring, everyplace will show out their native flowering beauty. I spent the first decade or so of my life in North Carolina, which absolutely explodes in the spring with azaleas and dogwoods. Mature azaleas in North Carolina are large bushes that flower with pink to purple hued blossoms of the most delicate and gossamer like kind. The bushes grow in groups, so that when they are in bloom it looks like great, fluffy purple and pink clouds. And not far overhead the dogwoods bloom similarly delicate flowers in white with a light pink shading.

I later lived in Maryland, where the spring show was not quite as spectacular, but much more welcome after the bleak and gray winter. Now I live in Texas, in the part which is dry and western enough that azaleas grow only with difficulty and not very big anyway, but we have something that we are proud of (which kind of goes without saying - if it’s in Texas then Texans are proud of it). And that thing is Bluebonnets. Wild flowers of many kinds pop in fields all over central Texas in the spring, but the most beloved of all is the bluebonnet.

And finally, here’s a little flower silliness.