Tag: YouTube
0 Adam’s Weekly Video Picks – Vol. 4
Volume 4 comes a bit later in the week than I would like (very busy week, no time to post until now), but it’s certainly worth the wait! This week, we’ll hear a fairy tale re-told in Shakespearean language, learn about what the internet is doing to our brains, find out what lengths people will go to for free gas, see a modern-day samurai cut through a speeding bullet and iron, and hear a great song Dan picked out for you. Onward!
1. The Three Little Pigs – John Branyan
I love this – I’m especially astounded by the numbers he gives in the beginning about our current average working vocabulary. I certainly hope I have a working vocabulary higher than 3000!
2. What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains – Epipheo.tv
Eye-opening, isn’t it? Dan found a browser extension that coincides nicely with this theme of de-cluttering and minimizing distractions; you can find it here: http://clea.nr/
3. Pumpcast News – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
I’m not a huge Jay Leno fan and this video has a few more hits than those I like to post, but this is too great not too share.
4. Modern Samurai – Isao Machii
So it’s a BB, but that’s still super impressive – especially to a guy who has tried to block Nerf darts with a lightsaber. Quite the impressive weapon and wielder.
5. Flat Random Noise – Hurricane Dean
This is Dan’s song pick for you this week. Pretty catchy!
That’s it for now! Thanks for checking out this week’s video picks! More to come next week.
0 Adam’s Weekly Video Picks – Vol. 3
Welcome to volume three of my weekly selection of hand-picked videos for your viewing enjoyment. This week, we’ll gain some cosmic perspective, learn what the “Q” in Q-tips stands for, and then we’ll stand and testify. Onward:
1. OVERVIEW
This one is in HD, so full-screen it. Absolutely fascinating. Someday, I hope I’ll get the chance to look at Earth from space, too.
2. 56 Acronyms and Initialisms – Mental Floss
This is a well-delivered video full of useless but interesting information. Funny!
3. Rage Against The Machine – Live in London 2010 (Full Concert)
If you don’t stay for the whole concert, at least watch the story at the beginning. Awesome! Power to the people.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for watching!
0 Adam’s Weekly Video Picks – Vol. 2
Hello again, friends! Adam here, back with another set of videos handpicked for your viewing pleasure. This week, we’re gonna run all over the place. We’ll see a dramatic death, a brain-scrambling music video, the natural beauty of Yosemite, the forging of a Lannister sword by a master smith, a bit of comedy, and I’m also including one humorous video on behalf of Producer Caity. Here we go!
1. Worst Movie Death Scene of all Time
…Or is it the best movie death scene of all time? I can tell you this for certin – the best comment on this video: “Legend has it, that to this day he is still being shot and dying.”
2. Melt Yourself Down – Fix My Life
WARNING: If you’re prone to seizures, don’t watch this. If you aren’t, set this to full screen, stare in the middle, and have a seizure anyway! I also really dig the song.
3. Yosemite Range of Light
Absolutely gorgeous footage shot at Yosemite National Park. Figured you’d need a brain-cleanser after that last one. Watch in full-screen on HD to get the full effect.
4. Man at Arms – Forging Game of Thrones Sword (Jaime Lannister)
This is an excellent new series I’ve just discovered. I was having a lot of trouble deciding which one I would post, so I went with the first one I saw. It’s informative and just plain cool to see how this is done. Check out the channel to view the other weapons he’s made!
5. Russians are Scary – Dan Soder Stand-up, 1/7/2013
A little comedy for you. He’s onto something, here!
6. Kobayashi vs. Giant Bear (A Hot Dog Eating Contest)
This is Producer Caity’s video pick for you this week, in all its hot dog-devouring glory.
That’s all for this week. See you next week for more!
0 Adam’s Weekly Video Picks – Vol. 1
With Dan’s recent admission that there is quality content with great production value readily available on YouTube that deserves our attention, it seems only right to commence a new weekly series featuring choice picks from the YouTube-verse and similar sites for your viewing and listening enjoyment. Part of my objective in this venture is to bring you content you haven’t seen before, which means skipping over the super-viral videos that everyone’s already seen and doesn’t care about anymore (I’m looking at you, Harlem Shake) in favor of the diamonds in the rough. This week, I’ll be featuring 3 fantastic music tracks with great visual accompaniment, a super cool new gadget from Japan, and an inspiring message from Ze Frank. Here we go:
1. Can’t Hold Us – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Your Podcast hosts love Macklemore, so of course this is a great place to start. Fantastic song, amusing video. Listen to this first thing in the morning to get your day started right. This video was shot using RED cameras, the film industry’s favored camera.
2. Samuel Truth – Let Me Breathe
This is a Japanese animation from 1929 set to music by Troy Samuela, AKA Samuel Truth. He’s an experimental hip-hop artist who hails from Auckland, New Zealand. If you like this, you should hear his other tracks on soundcloud! Watch for the little pop ‘n’ lock move the man does when he gets out of the tree.
3. Bonobo – Cirrus
This one’s just trippy.
4. Spherical Flying Machine
Cooooooooooooool! How soon until I can buy one at Brookstone?
5. An Invocation for Beginnings – Ze Frank
Speaks for itself. Ze Frank has been creating funny, inspiring works for years and years.
That’s all for now! I hope you enjoyed the first installment.
0 Episode 79 – Katie Best & Bennett Wadekamper
Katie and Bennett stop by to chat with Dan and Adam about cruises, Pandora, “Mad Men” on Netflix, “The Artist”, and more! Dan continues to discover worth-while content on YouTube, so he mentions that too. Then, they play a round of “Movie Bluff”.
Taped at The Wheels Brewing Co Studio, Minneapolis, MN on April 9, 2013.
Check out photos and this week’s bonus tracks by clicking here.
Click here to listen: Episode 79 – 04/09/13 feat. Katie Best & Bennett Wadekamper
0 Episode 78 – Connor Boran & Jeff Priesmeyer
Connor and Jeff join Dan and Adam for their APRIL FOOLS episode. They recall the antics they experienced this year, and also discuss crowd funded entertainment like the upcoming “Veronica Mars” flick. A round of Movie Bluff is also played.
Taped at The Wheels Brewing Co Studio, Minneapolis, MN on April 2, 2013.
Check out photos and this week’s bonus tracks by clicking here.
Click here to listen: Episode 78 – 04/02/13 feat. Connor Boran & Jeff Priesmeyer
0 We’ve Opened Our Hearts to YouTube
First off, I’m going for the royal ‘we’ with the headline. Adam has been on-board since Buffering came to be. I recall discussions as we began put the show together, and I was incredibly stubborn about keeping YouTube out of our scope due to the large majority of crap, cat videos, and crappy cat videos, but I have learned.
Yes, the crap is still there, but there are legitimate production values driven toward YouTube viewers, and I’m here to provide those I have binged upon, thus far. In a way, I hope this becomes a discussion vector where you can also provide additional insight, but I’ll get the ball rolling.
And before I start my list, I thought it’d be worth-while to provide you with my context of “production value”, in terms of YouTube videos. I’m referring to the videos with sets and filming locations, with audio editors and camera operators. No videos filmed by someone talking to their webcam in their rumpus room. There are a number of artists on YouTube that produce said ‘living room’ style clips, but there is a burst of QUALITY videos that have hit the scene, and are freakin’ FREE, that you should check out. Seriously.
To start, I’ll mention a YouTube program that has made its way on to the podcast many a time: Nerdist presents All-Star Celebrity Bowling. It’s fun to mention this program specifically, as AMC is looking to produce the show on the real-deal televisions (read about it here). To me, this show (as well as the next program on my list) is fun and interesting because it holds a similar charm to those celebrity poker programs of the early 2000’s. It didn’t read like a reality show, where there’s unnecessary drama that is produced, but, instead, just one liners from every participant for the entire game. Picture that same vibe, but in a bowling alley predominantly populated by comics. It’s comedian Chris Hardwick, plus two to three of his Nerdist compatriots, paired up against movers and shakers in the entertainment biz, be thay celebrity chefs, or the casts and show runners, respectively, of “The Walking Dead” and “Mad Men”. The over-arching concept for the show is that one to two thousand bucks are on the line, where the challenging team will receive $1k (for a charity) from Nerdist if said challengers are defeated, but that same challenging team will win two grand for their charity if they win the match. It’s fun to see who is good, it’s hilarious to see recognizable figures bowl worse than you, and it’s all for a good cause. Win-Win … win. Check it out.
My next program follows that ‘celebrity acting candidly during a relatable activity’ flow, but uproots the venue from the bowling alley to the fictitious basement/game room of Wil Wheaton. That’s right. I’m talking about TableTop, produced by Geek & Sundry (Felicia Day’s channel). My friends and I are getting back into board games, with a lot of credit going to this program. Buffering guest Connor Boran was my infection vector to Ticket to Ride and Elder Sign, as well as to TableTop. Since watching (and repetitively re-watching) each episode, I have purchased two games featured on the program (Dixit & Small World [for the iPad]), which gives a bit of credibility to the level of quality when it comes to featured games, and the variety of guests gives it a hearty re-watch value. It’s a mess of Wheaton’s friends from the worlds of Internet video, TV, movies, music, and nerdery. And don’t worry if you don’t know how the games work. Time is dedicated in each episode to give the gist of the rules. Definitely check it out.
To change gears, my next YouTube feature is a scripted comedy program, produced by Cracked. Yes, the magazine that runs in the same circles as MAD. But before you shun me and skip this paragraph, they’ve really stepped up their game to become a near-‘CollegeHumor.com at its peak’ site. Nerdy, funny, and in snippets rather than long-format. After Hours is a four-character adaptation on the “Star Wars/Contractor” conversation from “Clerks”, if that off-beat approach comparing pop culture to reality was applied to additional nerdy topics, such as the Sexism in Star Wars, why Indiana Jones Sucked at his Job, why “Back To The Future” is a REALLY creepy movie, and more. The four characters impart a number of viewpoints on each topic upon viewers (like how I learned that “Sex in the City” is the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” for women), combined with somewhat stereotypical mannerisms relating to said character (jock, nerd, screwball, and “the girl”). That last part sounds like it’s a slam against the show’s approach, but it really does work. The quirks aren’t heavy-handed, and balance well as breathers between each argument. Check it out.
Finally, we end our tour with a bit o’ music. It’s A.V. Club’s Undercover Project, the two-year-old YouTube program that features musicians stopping by The Onion‘s Chicago offices to perform in a small circular room in the A.V. Club department. The catch is that they are playing covers of songs suggested by A.V Club readers, so, through this program, you’ll see The Polyphonic Spree playing Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold”, They Might Be Giants playing Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumper”, and Young the Giant playing R. Kelly’s “Ignition (Remix)” and so many more. I’ve found it to be somewhat hit and miss, as you’ll see when you check out GWAR’s cover of Kansas’s “Carry On My Wayward Son”. There are also plenty of reinterpretations when it comes to executing some of the songs, so it’s good to watch videos with a grain of salt, as you may go in expecting a perfect rendition of a familiar/favorite song and walk away crushed. But, it’s still definitely worth your time. Check it out.
I’ll continue to search for quality programming within the muck of YouTube, and I’ll report back with more in the future.
The Buffering Podcast 