Writer’s Workshop: Still More YouTube Channels

I always like when this prompt comes up, because invariably I’ve found more channels to hype. This time Kat wants six. Here they are.

FredFlix

Yet another nostalgia channel, the difference being he actually takes the time to tell you how old he was at the times he’s remembering. He’s another big old TV commercials guy, such as his most recent post, “Stores No More: Commercials for Circuit City, Blockbuster, Record Bar, Montgomery Ward, etc.”

MusicProf78

I do a lot of music here at The Sound of One Hand Typing, much of it from before the current era, and MusicProf78 is my source for a lot of the music I feature here. He has recordings going back as far as the 1930’s, and I’ll bet even further back than that, from practically any genre of popular music. Here’s Faron Young with “Hello Walls,” from 1961.

MicroJow

MicroJow collects commercial breaks and sign-ons and sign-offs from 1980’s and earlier television. Here’s a good one, from KABC-TV in Los Angeles, “KABC-TV Channel 7 Los Angeles CA/The Saturday Night Movie Closing/Editorial/Sign Off News.” The date is October 12, 1976.

Angelina Jordan Cover Channel

I can’t say enough about this young lady. She’s twelve years old and sings a lot of standards and old jazz tunes in a mature and lush voice. Here she is singing the Henry Mancini-Johnny Mercer standard “Moon River,” in honor of what would be my dad’s 86^th birthday. (Angelina is one of the contestants in today’s Battle of the Bands, by the way.)

Lari Basilio

This woman just knocks me out with her guitar playing. Here’s her latest video, “stratovibez,” no doubt celebrating her getting a new Stratocaster.

Crazy Russian Hacker

Here’s that guy you don’t want to leave unsupervised. He delights in putting products to the test and asking “what would happen if I…?” For example, “what would happen if I drop two pounds of dry ice into a sinkful of hot water?” He has another channel under his real name, Taras Kul.

So, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoy these channels. Do you have any favorites?

Ten Favorite YouTube Channels (Writer’s Workshop)

Another mashup with The Thursday Ten!

Every time this prompt comes up, I do it, because YouTube is a great resource, and it seems that whenever I get this prompt I’ve found a few new channels. I’ll try not to repeat too much, so the other times I’ve done this prompt are here, here, and here.

Strange Mysteries describes itself this way: “Unexplained & Unsolved Mysteries of the World. All about ghosts, ufo’s, spirits, aliens, legends, paranormal activity & phenomena from magic, science, facts, and tales either real or some fake hoax.” Here is one of their latest, “7 Mysteriously Lost Great Cities.”

Today I Found Out is a channel dedicated to answering some of life’s greatest mysteries, including “Why Do Rice Krispies Snap, Crackle, and Pop?”

Looper describes itself as “the go-to source for the movies, TV shows and video games we all love.” Not that I actually care about movies, TV shows, and particularly video games, but occasionally they have a pretty interesting video, such as “Creepy Things You Never Noticed In Classic Christmas Movies.”

AllTime10s tells us “we aim to bring you the most informative, fascinating and engaging top 10 videos on YouTube.” For example, “10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Christmas.”

News Be Funny Videos makes me laugh. They publish video collections of news bloopers, including crazy interviews, funny video bombs, double entendres, wardrobe malfunctions, demonstrations that don’t go as smoothly as one would hope, animal funnies, newsreaders in hysterics, etc. Here is “Best Live TV News Bloopers, 2016 (Part 1).” Part 2 is here, if you’re interested.

Techquickie features Linus Sebastian and presents topics of a technical nature, such as “What Happens To Discarded Electronics?”

NativLang‘s proprietor says “I’m animated about language! The history of written and spoken languages amazes me. I use stories and cartoons to bring linguistics to life.” Here’s “What Latin Sounded Like – and how we know.”

Langfocus‘s creator, Paul, says he’s “sharing [his] passion for languages and reaching out into the wider world.” Here he explains “What’s The Easiest Language To Learn?” And, for the record, Dutch is a very easy language to learn, but as he says, the Dutch speak very good English, so it might not be necessary. And the Netherlands, or as I call it Holland, is a wonderful country.

TopTenz creates a Top Ten list every day that’s available at 6 PM Eastern Time. For example, “Top Ten Awesome Things You Can Do With Household Objects.” Notice that Simon Whistler hosts both this channel and the “Today I Found Out…” one.

I used to play the bagpipes. While I no longer do so, I still enjoy listening to Scottish and Irish music played on the piob mhor. So, I love Jim Ramsay‘s channel. He has a number of videos of homecoming parades for troops returning from Afghanistan. Here is a video he took of massed pipe bands, most of them amateur, walking down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, from Edinburgh Castle to the Scottish Parliament building.

Yes, I have some rather eclectic tastes. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour through my brain as seen though my favorite YouTube channels.

This Month’s Top Ten YouTube Channels

As hard as it’s been to get into Mama Kat’s prompts the last couple of weeks, this one’s easy:

List the top 10 YouTube channels you’re loving most this month.

So, we also have a Thursday Ten!

Notice that a big percentage of what I watch on YouTube fits into the category of “nostalgia.” I enjoy watching old documentaries, travel films, educational films, and especially old commercials from TV. I also really enjoy fingerstyle guitar, and have a couple of channels of some of the better players.

Jeff Quitney’s channel: Jeff’s channel is an eclectic combination of old commercials, training films, and documentaries. Here’s a commercial for Sanka brand coffee, circa 1965.

Classic Airliners and Vintage Pop Culture: This channel has a lot of videos of planes taking off and landing, and also has some documentary footage and vintage airline commercials from around the world. This is a 1970 Aeroflot promo spot.

Tommy Emmanuel: The amazing guitarist Tommy Emmanuel keeps his channel filled with new videos of him playing and offering his sage advice to other guitar players. Here he is playing Doc Watson’s “Deep River Blues.”

David Von Pein’s JFK Channel: David has an incredible channel of radio and TV clips, mostly dealing with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Here’s one of his more recent videos, a (relatively) short recording of JFK and his brother Robert presenting medals to three young Americans on June 8, 1962.

Jamie DuPuis: Jamie is a fantastic fingerstyle guitar player and singer with whom I’ve just recently become familiar. He also plays the harp guitar, as seen in this video of him playing Coldplay’s “Amazing Day.”

The Best Film Archives: A lot of documentary videos, mostly about military and war-related subjects. Here is a “Private Snafu” cartoon, created by the crazies at Warner Brothers, with the voice of Private Snafu (and several other characters) provided by Mel Blanc, about the importance of keeping your gas mask available.

Val73TV4: More documentary videos, mostly from before 1960, about a wide array of subjects. A lot of educational films, including this one, “Dating Do’s and Don’ts,” from the 1940’s.

Tolly’s Old Films: This looks like a new channel. Documentaries, educational films, and movie trailers. Here’s a health film from 1947, “Joan Avoids A Cold.”

TV Toy Memories: Vintage TV commercials from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Here’s Bullwinkle for Cheerios.

Captain Bijou: This is actually on Dailymotion; apparently the YouTube folks got tired of having to deal with all the copyright infraction complaints. Most of what he has on his channel has been well out of print for some time, but… anyway, more old TV and commercials here, as well as some short films like this Superman short George Reeves did for Stamp Day 1954.

https://dailymotion.com/video/x3reqmj

I hope you enjoy these channels as much as I do!