The good folks behind the web site Open Culture recently did a story on the surreal 1933 animation of Snow White (shown above). The only thing more fascinating than the story of the video is the video itself. Once you see it, you’ll never forget it.
Highly recommended.
Why this, the Official 2023 Sufjan Yule Log video, containing all of Sufjan Stevens’s Christmas music:
Almost 5 hours of seasonal songs to accompany a lovely fire. Perfect to get you in the spirit of Christmas.
Someone posted this occultation of Saturn and I am taking a chance and sharing it on the blog because it’s too cool not to. (An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer.)
I say “take a chance” because I have so many broken Youtube links on my blog, rendering many posts useless as a result. (Word of advice: don’t post Youtube links of songs or movies.) I’m hopeful this one will stay up.
Here are the Tenors performing White Christmas:
Regardless of whether your Christmas is white or not, like them, I hope that your days are merry and bright.
There are lots of videos on Youtube of scenes like this. Some are good for white noise, others are good for acting as a screen saver.
Ocean Waves at night:
Ocean waves in the day:
Snow fall in the forest
Snow storm in the street
Night rain sounds
Rain fall sounds
It’s well known that Drake has suffered alot of mockery for his dancing in the video for Hotline Bling. This is too bad, because for whatever criticism you can raise for Drake’s dancing, he is no worse than most major pop stars when it comes to dancing. So what’s the problem?
The problem, I see it, is in the directing. Here is the Hotline Bling video. Count the length of the average shot. When I did it, it was in the 5 to 10 second range.
Compare that to Ariana Grande’s Focus video.
Count the length of each shot. The longest is usually no more than 3 seconds: the rest are 1 to 2 seconds. Is she a good dancer? It’s hard to tell. If you go to around the 3 minute mark, you seen alot of dancing, but the shots are still short and the camera is constantly moving. Any short coming in the dancing can be made up for in the editing room. And I’d argue that the Focus video is typical of most videos: very short cuts with lots of camera movement.
Now, it’s possible the director wanted the longer shots due to the changing nature of the lighting. But there is a similar use of dramatic lighting in Justin Timberlake’s Let Me Talk To You/My Love and he comes across well with no loss to the lighting effect
And like Ariana Grande’s video, this video has the performer do well defined step in a 1-4 second shot and then cuts away. This is typical of many music videos. (Yes, JT does have an extended dance routine at the end of My Love, but most of the video is all quick cuts….also, he has been dancing since his early days as a Mouseketeer :))
Drake would have been better off with shorter cuts and simpler dance moves, the kind of thing you find in most other videos.
Perfect music for a melancholy Friday Fall evening.
There’s lots of great videos of PHOX on YouTube. I like this one:
If you do too, search them out and you’ll find many good ones, including on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.
It’s rich music that is deceptively easy listening.
In the winter, I think one of the nicest forms of white noise is a fire. It’s not the same as having an actual fire, but if you have a computer or big screen you can Chromecast this to, I recommend this video:
I’ve watched quite a number of these videos, and this one is my favorite so far: really good sound, and it looks realistic. (Oddly, this matters to me, even though I know it merely a video).
If you want the feeling of being warm and cozy inside while it storms outside, I recommend this video for white noise:
So for those of you who say, “Hey! We were promised jetpacks!”…well, like the future, they are hear but just not evenly distributed.
For this videos and more on this, go here: This Man Flew Over Mt. Fuji on a Real-Life Jetpack, and It’s Absolutely Breathtaking – Mic.
It’s no fluke: if you watch the whole thing, you can see he is into it!
Crows are remarkable. Via YouTube and someone on twitter….I can’t remember who though. Thanks, whomever you are!
I love this: wonderful cover, great musicians, loads of fun.
If you wish you could go out tonight and can’t, watching this could be the next best thing.
P.S. Thanks to Blake E. for this!
Ridley Scott made Someone to Watch Over Me in the 1980s and somehow it perfectly encapsulated the 80s. If you love the 80s, New York, or this song, you will love this.
This is a really well done video on the importance of cloud computing. It’s 5 minutes long, and well worth it.
Obviously, I would argue that your best bet for Cloud Computing services is from the company I work for, but otherwise I highly recommend this.
As mentioned on Kottke, it appears that the entire documentary Eyes On The Prize is now on YouTube. You can find it here: Eyes On The Prize – YouTube.
For those of you unfamiliar with this documentary, it was, to quote Wikipedia, “… an American television series and 14-hour documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States….”. That’s an understatement. It’s a great production about a great event in world history.
Highly recommended.
When you are Bill Gates, you can get some PRETTY powerful people to show up in a spoof video of you. The video is funny, but the underlying message is: hey, I am Bill Gates, and look who I can get to show up.
Watch and see:
I stumbled across this demo of how to pick a master lock #175. There are alot of these videos! If your lock is in one of them, you should get rid of it.
That said, it is impressive to see some of these videos. It’s hackers for hardware.
I really enjoy Pavorotti and James Brown’s singing. While not everyone will like the idea of singing together, I do, and if you do too, check this out:
Stephen Hawking – who appeared on the Simpsons – talks about being on the Simpsons.
First Star Trek, then the Simpsons: Hawking gets on all the best shows. 🙂
The good folks @ 
do a great job of presenting information on Web 2.0. They have presentations on RSS, wikis, blogs, social networking, and other topics. If you want a nice example of how to explain this information, go to their site:
Common Craft – In Plain English
P.S. Here is a YouTube version of one of their presentations.
I love this movie: great direction, story, actors, and without a doubt, great music.
As the actor says: that’s some mighty fine pickin’ and a singin’!
You can find out more about the movie here
Robbie Dingo has produced this fantastic video using Machinima software and Second Life to recreate Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting. It is impressive.
Thanks to Aaron Kim to pointing this out!
I came across this site when reading about Facebook being banned in Iran. There are a number of other articles on the site talking about persecution of bloggers and others pursuing free speech and civil rights in the Middle East. See more at
The C.R.I.M.E. Report – August 29, 2007.
As I was click on the links, I came across this clip of dress code enforcement on Iranian women:
The incredibly beautiful and talented Lauren Hill juxtaposes Doo Wop and Hip Hop wonderfully in “Doo Wop (That Thing)”, and the video drives that point home. (Great tune – great video). See: YouTube – Doo Wop
P.S. It’s not that old a song, but already it is shaping up to be classic, as can be seen in this live version performed by Amy Winehouse:
P.S.S. I know, I post alot on Amy W…..what can I say…she’s great.
FP has the story of how YouTube is making life difficult for Iranian politicians. Clearly no politician is safe anywhere these days. And this is not a bad thing. See:
Mohammed Khatami’s macaca moment | FP Passport
P.S. Some of you might think: whoa! what did I miss? Read the article in FP for the details. (It’s all relative.)
I have seen this clip on a number of sites recently:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww]
While I agree her answer is poor, I think everything has to do with context. Anyone asked such a question might have a tough time answering it without saying something obvious (and negative) like: the US education system is lacking. Or the people who can the survey did a poor job. Plus you are on stage, you have a set period of time to answer it, and some of the questions you may have been preparing to answer don’t come up.
So why the popularity of the clip? I think it is because of the context. I think it allows people to vent such things as envy or disgust or anger at the Miss USA pageant, and to do so in a simple way: displaying the clip.
One of the dark sides of Web 2.0 is the ability for anyone to create propaganda. Now this clip is a fairly benign example, but it is part of a recent trend of people trying to shape political messages and spread them via YouTube and other means. Just recently it was about using YouTube to expose the truth. Now it will be about using YouTube to shape the truth.
Why is YouTube freakin’ great?! Because you can see Billy Strayhorn play his “Take the A Train” with Duke Ellington and his orchestra anytime you please.
Apparently Manhattan has 171 Starbucks in it, and this man decided to try something in EVERY one in less than 24 hours. Not something smart people I know would do, but interesting to watch…see
YouTube – 171 Starbucks
The next time you are in a (good) video store, try and rent “Down by Law”. It is smart and funny and very cool. It’s been ages since I have seen it, but it still has stayed with me all this time. It has great lines , great scenes and great music. Check out the trailer for a taste:
What do you get when you cross The Beatles with Zombies? (Well, Beatlemania, yes…but…). You get this fantastic mashup! See:
A Hard Day’s Night of the Living Dead
My friend Alina sent this very intriguing video, which manages to capture the interconnectiveness of the world. It ‘s related to DaDa, but without the irrationalism (perhaps).
Check out:
YouTube – Royksopp – “Remind Me”
Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
Well, this mockumentary explains it all.
If you need any proof that (good) 70s music is coming back, check out Amy Winehouse
Or the superb Gnarls Barkley, who not only have great videos, but one of the best albums in a long time in St. Elsewhere.
It is interesting that on Reuters web site, there is this article
Risque EU defends Internet orgasm clip
with a link to the YouTube video from the EU (it is not explicit, but it is NSFW).
The same article more or less on CNN.com:
Orgasm clip spices up EU meeting
has an image of the video but not a URL link to it.
I guess the software that CNN uses to make their web pages wasn’t working properly. 🙂
Here it is:
judge for yourself.
You might think: that is insane?! MS Paint. The same MS Paint on my Windows machine that’s hasn’t changed since 1985!
Watch the video. It is amazing. I think Leonardo would approve.
I have been impressed by this song and the video that goes with it (there is a yearning in the woman’s eyes, and a symbolic Victorian suppressed sexuality to it, I think): YouTube – the postal service – such great height
How great is the video? Well, Apple, who has known to make pretty good commercials, thought it was good enough to steal. The proof is here:
YouTube – Apple – Intel vs. Postal Service
While the video is great, the song is superb too. Here are too very different versions, showing the potential of the song:
What I find remarkable about this talk by Ken Robinson is how it manages to be insightful and very funny. You can watch it just for the humour and have a good laugh. But like any TED talk, you will also gain alot by the ideas presented. Goto YouTube and see:
Do schools today kill creativity? (Ken Robinson, TEDTalks)
It’s also a Master class in how to present.
When I watch this video, I feel like two different parts of my brain are working at the same time: one part comprehending the beauty and another comprehending the terrifying content. See it yourself:
Smart People I Know 