What is art and what is criticism? How long must something exist to
deserve a critique? Can great art take root and persist in an ephemeral
medium? Must the creative act reside in a form that can be carried,
shelved or eaten by the dog?
Ah, philosophy. I've been watching a lot of YouTube lately and there
are certain associations that one acquires from clicking there. Time
waster, Internet addict, lay about. Maybe so, but great art can spring
from the sandiest of soils, or in the case of Internet video,
re-planted. What follows are some notable items I’ve recently found
online. Some were born on the Web, some achieved Webness and others had
the Web thrust upon them. Possibly, by the time you read this article,
some may have been removed for breach of copyright or other infraction
against the Terms of Use, but I'm here to tell you each of these pieces
got me through a tough day in this nutty world of ours, which gives
them some value. If you first saw any of these a year ago and are
thinking that I'm hopelessly behind the curve, calm down and remember
I'm in for the long haul. Oh, and I'm not a critic, these are just
recommendations for a few things I like.
1. The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat
Bananas, bananas, bananas!!! My friend Stanley had this selected as the
sole video on his YouTube channel and I thought for a moment he was
coming on to me, then I remembered that we hadn't spoken in about
eighteen years. Whatever. This allusively libidinous clip from the 1943
Busby Berkeley movie “The Gang’s All Here” is a jaw-dropper from its
pointy tip to its traction-defying peel. Thrill to the banana hats.
Dance the banana samba. Women wave giant bananas at other women
clutching even more of the giant bananas. Organ grinders, MONKEYS! Man,
that's a lot of bananas. One of the very nice things about Web video is
that forgotten items from days gone by are circulated in a new context.
A clip like this enhances our collective memory.
2. RV Bloopers (NSFW)
This is a blooper reel of a Lomanesque everyman failing a thousand
attempts to record a passable take for a recreational vehicle
commercial. He’s angry, he’s funny, he’s sad. The RV’s are funny and
large and sad. There's a lot of cursing here, and maybe my taste just
runs to the puerile, but I feel that his deep frustration set to
prolonged iterations of vulgarity extends the conflicted agonies of the
protagonist to an almost tantric level. The editing is also swell.
3. Hometown Baghdad
Great journalism can be found on the Web. Created by Chat The Planet,
these Webisodic videos ran from March to June of 2007 and remain both
on YouTube and on chattheplanet.com. They are short documentaries
describing the day-to-day lives of young Iraqi people. Each episode was
shot in Iraq by an Iraqi video crew, capturing the subjects’
experiences with an openness that is missing from material obtained by
foreign crews. Some stories portrayed are mundane, some terrifying, but
each successive episode shines more light on civilian life during war.
The subjects go to school, have dinner together, drink sodas, play
guitar, go swimming and try out the consumer camcorders that they point
deep into their own personal lives. One student says goodbye to friends
leaving the country, another writes heavy metal music to accompany his
frustrations and another tries to sleep at night over the percolating
thuds of nearby gunfire. It's especially striking to hear reports of
young Iraqis in their own words, a simple act that is so useful and
obvious it makes me wonder why this sort of reportage has eluded so
many channels of media. Let's see more stuff like this. If I had to
guess where the future of essential newsgathering lies, it would be in
things like Hometown Baghdad.
This clever advertisement for a much-needed action figure was made for
the Austin Film Festival, I think in 2006. I'm embarrassed to get some
of these jokes.
5. Bar Fight
Not everybody can appreciate the careening redneck humor of this
hilarious and egregiously violent animated masterwork, but not
everybody has been assaulted in a parking lot for refusing point-blank
to play Free Bird while fronting a progressive rock band. This piece
makes me want to drink a lot of beer, and I don't even like beer.
6. Jimmy Carter Says Yes
A musical tribute to the past president of the U.S. This version - yes,
there is more than one version of this song - is performed in
authoritative baritone by Brian Dewan wearing a nice jacket, playing an
electric autoharp with enthusiasm. The George Orwell quote at the top
of the piece is provocative (or depressing) and the video banding that
manifests in the first half of the song adds a warm VHS charm to it
all. I defy you to watch this video and not hum the hook for a week. I
can't wait for the Giuliani version of this.
7. Kung Fu Vs. Yoga
Which is more powerful, kung fu or yoga? I've always wondered this when
I wasn't asking "chicken or beef?" This clip from an Asian action film
answers that mystical question. It's twice as long as it should be, but
you can always just hit stop after absorbing its many lessons. I won't
give away the ending, but the dialectic of strength versus flexibility
provides something for all of us to ponder.
8. La Grua y el Girafa
I was thinking of making an animated movie and went to YouTube to do a
little research. I typed in "animation" and this short by Vladimir
Bellini was the catch of the day. This cartoon made me an animator. The
beauty and simplicity of it grabbed me right away; I love the giraffe
falling for the cargo crane and vice versa. What is mechanical and what
is alive, and can harmony of physique, bridge the divide? Maybe it just
suggests that pickings are slim for the tall. It's better for me to
look for the answer in poetry, and this piece is a beautiful poem.
9. Jesus Was a Baby
This one isn't really a review, because I made it. I created this
animated gospel Christmas card to spread a bit of holiday spirit. I
recorded the song initially by myself and then added some musicians I
really like. I storyboarded the piece in Flash and pretty much just
drew it on the computer. I can't figure out whether it's film, video or
some other thing, but it was a lot of fun to make. Someday I'll learn
to draw hands.
Carmen Borgia is the head of audio services for DuArt Film & Video
in New York City. He oversees a post production sound department that
provides mixing, sound design, restoration, transfer and printmastering.
His department caters to independent projects in all formats from mono
optical up to digital 5.1.
Nine
YouTube Video Reviews