The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Ain’t there one damn youtube clip that can make me break down and smile

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My eldest apropros of nothing sent me an utterly brilliant youtube clip of (presumably) Dutch local TV in which an old man demonstrates how to park a car 58 inches wide in a garage 60 inches wide. While very funny it also harks back to a vanished golden age of ‘Fenton’ and other clips before memefication, conspiracy nutters, Mark Goldbridge shouting, and all the other stuff that youtube now consists of. So please post your old-school youtube faves (Fenton, Old Man Parks Car and any others I can remember in the comments). No Downfall or other memes, I’m after the OG clips to bring a smile to all our faces in a troubled world. Two minutes or less (again the original youtube spirit).

ATM: Paedophile hunters. WTF?

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At the beginning the year when I was recovering from an injury my YouTube meandering led me to an old episode of the American series “To catch a predator” from 2008 or so. The general gist is that they lure paedophiles to a camera-kitted house then do a ‘big reveal on them that invariably leads to them tackled to the ground by local law enforcement as they try to leave. It’s strangely satisfying, addictive and often unintentionally hilarious (Perp: “Honest, it was my first time”. Host: “We have your police records. You have three previous convictions”. Perp: “OK. Honest, it was only my fourth time.” etc).

Anyway, perhaps retaining the vestige of this viewing, YouTube has started putting a bunch of ‘predator-hunter’ videos in my in-tray. These usually consist of a gang of hunters (their term, not mine) rounding on some poor, hapless paedophile who has been lured to a location by an online decoy. They then proceed to abuse the shit out of them (verbal, not physical, although it is obviously implied) for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour until the police arrive and arrest the paedophile, with the support of the data presented by the hunters. » Continue Reading.

Two new McCartney songs!

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Just like that. You can find both new songs on Spotify and probably other places too, possibly even a record store (I KNOW!) at some point.

Both Home Tonight and In A Hurry sound like they could have been on Egypt Station, which is good news.*

So what do you think? Good? Bad? Something in between? Nothing at all?

* Other opinions are most likely available

What will you drop everything to watch?

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A Matter of Life and Death was on BBC2 this afternoon, so of course I watched it. That makes perfect sense because it is the best film ever made, but less sense considering I already own 3 (maybe more) copies, I must have seen it at least 10 times, and last time I looked it was on YouTube and I could have watched it any time I wanted to even if I didn’t have a hard copy.

Is there anything that you will watch when it was broadcast even when you don’t need to wait? A film that will stop you in your tracks as you channel hop despite having a copy on a shelf a few feet away?

What’s the deal with misleading YouTube live footage?

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We had a jolly time at Folk by the Oak yesterday, which is a terrific day out if you like your festivals over and done with in a single day so you can be in your own bed by midnight. This morning I went looking for clips on YouTube and found the same thing I have found after other recent gigs – videos which claim to be of that event but are patently fake, and loads of them too.

I don’t click on them because they are so obviously bogus, but what’s the deal here? Would I be sent to a link where I would be asked to enter my bank details to watch or something like that? And as this is, I’m assuming, some sort of scam, or at the very least sneak advertising, why does YouTube permit it on such a scale?

Money for nothing

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On another post I was added a Buzzocks YouTube video, and it occurred to me that I haven’t given them any money for probably 25 years (though I can sing every word of their first dozen singles, and play mp3s of their CDs. Got me thinking – if I want to channel (a tiny amount) of money to my favourite struggling artists, what gives them the best return? Should I stream them on (Free) Spotify, Amazon Prime, Googleplay, or YouTube? And on YouTube does it have to be the official channel for them to get money? Any one know?

And here is one of my favourite struggling artists on what I think is his official channel. https://youtu.be/VnEryrw4-G8?list=PL4S3FyuYt-BHIXTfH1O4CJLgATwr4rQY9

Elis Regina, the Blue Peter Elephant and the Invisible Girls:Totally Tubetastic!

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The remarkable thing one finds on YouTube, especially when you’re not looking for them!

A few days ago I stumbled across a TV show clip of Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls. Today, to my delight, while looking for a track from one of my favourite Brazilian albums, Aquarela de Brazil, I found some clips of Elis Regina and Toots Thielemans performing live together. And then of course there’s the Blue Peter elephant having a poo.

What unexpected treasures have you found lately?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lMEozMLOF0