Friday 26 August 2011

Ethereal YouTube Tips #2: The YouTubening

Hallo and so on and so forth,
I am currently pondering a second, and hopefully more well-researched and coherent instalment in my world building review series, and in the meantime, to stave off the malicious rumours pertaining to the death of this blog that may or may not be circulating in the imagined community of readers that I, aha, imagine that it has, I am tossing out another slew of these YouTube recommendations. So, without further ado, here come the next four awesome YT channels:

potholer54: http://www.youtube.com/user/potholer54

This channel is run by a British science journalist who's been in the game for 20 years. His videos include mostly various well-researched, pithy and thoughtful debunking of various pseudoscientific theories and so forth. He's done brilliant series on global warming, creationism and other forms of madness. Also included are some very interesting videos about the journalistic profession, and also the world-renowned Golden Crocoduck Awards series, whose coveted trophy is given, each year, to the most bafflingly cretinous creationist pundit on YouTube. Highly watchable; entertaining, educational and charmingly British!

Chomskyan: http://www.youtube.com/user/Chomskyan

This is a channel which mostly focuses on uploading interviews, debates, lectures and so forth by the great linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky. Nothing really flashy here, just a very good resource for those interested in learning more about the work of one of the premier sources of intelligent political dissent within Western Society for the last few decades. Whether one is a supporter or detractor of Chomsky, this channel is a rich and fascinating deposit of his ideas, and thus a most valuable resource.

picnicface: http://www.youtube.com/user/picnicface

Picnic face is an almost eerily hilarious Canadian sketch comedy group. They provide a blend of wit, off-kilter absurdism and deliciously exaggerated madness that it basically requires having had one's sense of humour surgically removed not to enjoy. They also have a movie in the works, Rollertown, and a website (www.picnicface.com), although the videos of all their sketches are conveniently available right on YT. Check it out, or you will vomit a wedding!

MarbleHornets: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets

MarbleHornets is the original Slender Man-themed original web series (as always, the mythology of Slender Man can always be absorbed at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSlenderManMythos), and arguably the best one. Ostensibly a young man's search for a college friend and fellow film student who's recently disappeared after suddenly shutting down production of his class project, the eponymous student film "Marble Hornets". The friend, Alex, has bequeathed the tapes from the film to the series' protagonist, who uses them as a jumping-off point to explore the strange circumstances of his disappearance. A truly frightening, uncanny and wonderfully atmospheric series, still running at the time of writing, which manages amazing feats of horror with only the barest minimum of filming equipment and crew. A DIY masterpiece of the digital age.

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