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Listed below are a few of my observations and musings as I meander through the video sharing website and cultural phenomenon that is called YouTube.
1. Watching the late, great Dean Martin sing Merle Haggard’s I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am is delightfully creepy, zany, fascinating, and repulsive…all at the same time.
2. Watching naked vlogs is an experience that is delightfully creepy, zany, fascinating, and repulsive…all at the same time.
3. You don’t have to be a fan of opera or Luciano Pavarotti in order to experience the sheer joy of him singing Nesun Dorma. His performance will take you to another place that transcends this physical realm.
4. If you are a celebrity, be very careful what you say or do. Because if you say or do something stupid, chances are someone has videotaped it and it will be played over and over and over and….(Just ask Michael Richards, Tom Cruise, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Don Imus to name a few.)
5. I’ve discovered my three year old has a strange fascination with Tom Waits and his song I Don’t Want To Grow Up.
6. Those 60’s Grand Prix Formula One race cars were indeed the coolest!
7. While revisiting clips from Spalding Gray’s Swimming To Cambodia, I’ve come to the realization that this film might be one of the greatest of our time. The magical and madly beautiful thing about it – its one long rambling monologue!
8. If you’re running for president and your only media outlet is YouTube, then your campaign is in all likelihood doomed.
9. Occasionally you will come across someone performing something you wrote. This will produce exhilaration or nausea.
10. There are way too many videos of elderly Filipina grandmothers eating crabs, washing dishes, ironing, etc. Someone needs to tell their grandsons to find another subject. I don’t think Spielberg started out this way.
11. I must be the only one to fully appreciate the comedic talents of Mickey Dolenz and the Monkees.
12. Movie fan trailers are often better than the official ones the movie studios produce. Isn’t it odd that some guy working from his laptop in Lodi, California can create something far superior than the all mighty studio?
13. YouTube provides the opportunity to view forgotten legends and performers in their prime – folks like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Lord Buckley, Nina Simone, Lester Flatt, Phil Ochs, Warren Zevon, and Warren Oates. If you’re not familiar with these performers, you owe it to yourself to check out their work.
14. YouTube has reinvigorated and provided a much needed platform for short film.
15. What can I say? Christopher Walken 24/7. I’m eternally grateful.
16. I’m amazed by the number of singers covering old television theme songs. For instance, if you like the theme from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, there are several versions available.
17. One can catch Salvador Dali the eccentric showman/madman/genius painter in top form in any number of appearances and performances.
18. There are way too many clowns on YouTube. Clowns of every stripe and disposition. Clowns, clowns, and more clowns. Happy clowns, sad clowns, vulgar clowns, rodeo clowns, and clowns who scare other clowns. Enough with the clowns.
19. President Eisenhower’s much dissected and discussed military industrial complex speech should be required viewing. It is more compelling, revealing, and instructive today than it was when he delivered it as his farewell in 1961. When you listen to this former military general speak about the evils of the collaboration between the military and industry, your jaw will drop. And it will keep dropping.
20. While it seems I have quite an infatuation with YouTube, my favorite website is still Scene4.
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