Last Month Online (December 2017)

I already used a lot of December's videos in a Christmas post, but there were quite a few more videos this month than JUST the holiday ones, so they will get their own post. Some may be tangentially related to Christmas, but unless they were directly about, or related to the holiday season, they got saved for this post.

We'll start this off with a Studio C video, because I actually have two to share, and I'll save the other one for later. If you've watched a lot of Studio C, then you probably know who "Aww Yeah!" is. If not, click HERE. Anyway, this weirdo is one of my favorite Studio C characters, and I was so glad that they brought her back.



Next up we have a video from Nick Pitera, in which he recreates his very first YouTube video, which I actually remember watching! I doubt it was right after he uploaded it, but I'm pretty sure it was still the first video of his that I ever watched. His voice is still just as impressive today.



Then we have an amazing video from Peter Hollens, where he does a medley of songs from one of my favorite groups, ABBA! I can't believe it took him this long to cover them, but it was worth the wait!



I wanted to hate this next video, I really did. Some memes can be funny or entertaining, but I get annoyed by a most of them. They always seem like a creative way to be as un-creative as possible. But I could just be an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn. Either way, it's a testament to Joe Jeremiah that he could take so many memes and make them fresh and fun again, enough so that I actually really liked a 7+ minute video of them, and that I actually watched it multiple times, and am now sharing it on my blog.



Lindsey Stirling released a lot of videos in the last couple of months, but most of them were Christmas songs, so they ended up in my Christmas post. This one however, while it was a Christmas song, was not specifically a Christmas video, so I saved it for this post.



Likewise, this Studio C sketch, while based around 'The Holiday Season,' was not an outright 'Christmas video' so I saved it for this post too. And like the previous sketch in this post, the starring character was also from a previous sketch, which you can find HERE.



Poppy is back with another insane music video and I loved it! The weirder the better! Also it is now one of my life goals to be an elderly backup dancer in a Poppy video. I mean, she's basically an ageless robot, right? I'm sure that by the time I'm 87 she'll still look right around twenty... three?



Every year Kurt Hugo Schneider and Sam Tsui do a musical mashup of all the biggest musical hits of the year, and put them together it the most epic way possible. This year they did the whole thing backwards!



We'll end this with another amazing Melodysheep video. December was the one year anniversary of Carrie Fisher's death, as well as the premiere of her final film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This video was the perfect tribute.

Last Month Online (November 2017)

I have a LOT more videos than usual this month, so let's just jump right into them!

Biggest news of the month: OK Go is back!!! MY jaw dropped to the floor and stayed there through the whole video. I am in absolute awe of their creativity. This would be an amazing video if they had shot on green screen and built all the effects with CGI and animation, but the fact that this is all practical effects, created with PRINTERS, and more specifically, PRECISELY TIMED printers, is just utterly astounding.



And speaking of people being back! Owl City is back! The first music video for his upcoming album dropped this month, and I love it! :D



Superfruit (Scott and Mitch of Pentatonix) have been putting out some extremely catchy music recently, but this video is one of my favorites. It has just the right amount of weird, random, creative catchiness. My favorite part is definitely the old granny mannequin/morph-suit person. :p



And speaking of Pentatonix, they have bumped up their content in the last couple of months, however most of it is Christmas music, which I am saving for a Christmas post later this month. This one, even though it is used as a Christmas song, is not traditionally a Christmas song, so I decided to include it here, and save the others.



I've never seen Steven King's It, and I don't really plan to, but this parody, starring everyone's least favorite Star Wars character, Jar Jar Binks, just absolutely cracked me up.



I don't think I've featured Alex Boyé in awhile, let's remedy that with his epic new cover of Imagine Dragons' Believer!



I. Love. Melodysheep.



I honestly never thought I'd feature this song on my blog. It was everywhere this summer, and I was kind of sick of hearing it, but leave it to Kurt Hugo Schneider, Sam Tsui, & co to come up with a version I really liked. :)



I'm sure you've never heard of Adler Davidson, he's a very small YouTuber, but he deserves to be bigger. I absolutely loved this video he put out, I've played it on repeat so many times. He is such a weird, hilarious genius.



Side note: I've actually had a customer get wildly, and furiously, offended at me for saying, "Have a nice day," before, because "It's none of you business what kind of a day I have." So that part actually made me laugh for more than just that it sounds ridiculous. It may be ridiculous, but it's also true. I don't know if that's hilarious or sad. Maybe both.

This is probably the least weird video that Poppy has ever made. But I still loved it for the song, despite the video's relative normality. It still had a semi-creepy face-less mop creature playing an electric guitar, so at least it had a little something extra there for me. :p



This extremely short video showed up online out of nowhere this month, and I fell in love. I've lost count how many times I've watched it and showed it to people. Who knew that a spider could be so adorable!?



This was originally an animation test by an independent animator, starring his nephew Lucas as Lucas the spider, but he has since rebranded the channel around the character and made another short! I hope he keeps going! I need a steady supply of Lucas in my life!



I already loved this song by Selena Gomez and Marshmello, but as usual, I think I like Mike Tompkins' version better.



I will never not be utterly amazed by World Order's (Dancing? Acrobatic? Choreography?) skills.



We'll end this post with another hilarious Studio C sketch. I never watch Saved By the Bell as a kid, but I loved this sketch. It perfectly captured the cheese of the era, and added heaping helping of Studio C's hilarious brand of brilliant weirdness.

This Month in Internet (May 2017)

Let's start this post by getting the bad news out of the way first. Remember in my last post how I was so excited that Avi Kaplan was starting a side project in addition to Pentatonix? It isn't a side project. He is leaving the group. I should have known, but I didn't think it was possible. As long as they find another bass as good as Avi, Pentatonix can survive without him, but it won't be ever quite the same. Anyway, here's the next song from his new EP. It's amazing. As sad as I am about PTX, I know Avriel & the Sequoias is going to be amazing.



Okay, let's lighten the mood a bit, shall we? Here's a sketch by Studio C that has me in stitches every time I watch it. And I've watched it quite a lot. :p



You haven't lived until you've listened to Steve Urkel as remixed by the amazing remix master extraordinaire, Melodysheep.



Here's something quite a bit different. I recently discovered a YouTuber who goes by the name Peter Draws, as that is what he mostly does. However, there is no drawing in this video, but it's one of the best videos he's ever made. And make sure you watch until the very end.



Lindsey Stirling has been busy. She released several videos and a full length documentary this month! This was her best video of the month, a thematic sequel to her Shatter Me video.



And then The Piano Guys came back with a bang! This is their best video in ages!



And the trifecta is complete with an amazing new Peter Hollens video! You're Welcome, from Disney's Moana, with Andrew Huang!



Then Blimey Cow released a new Homeschoolers video, several points of which were, as usual, uncomfortably real. :p



And speaking of real, this video from Glove and Boots, BEAUTIFULLY explains my social media policy. It uses a little more language than I myself would, so, fair warning, but the sentiments expressed are exactly how I feel.



Next, we have a brand new video from the other remix master extraordinaire, Pogo!

Next up we have an AMAZING video from Funny or Die. However, unless you and I share a similar taste for absurd humor, you are unlikely to find this as side-splittingly hilarious as I do. Side note, have I ever mentioned how much I love Louie Anderson? The man is a treasure.



And finally, we have a brand new, amazing video from Puddles Pity Party. Normally when I feature the most amazing clown in the universe, it's with Postmodern Jukebox. Not that he's not good on his own, it's just that he's usually at his best with the musical styling of Scott Bradlee and Co. Well not this time! This video was (mostly) on his own and it's amazing!!! Side note, P³ is on this season of America's Got Talent! I am so excited! I hope he goes all the way!



And that was May! There were a few more videos than I normally put in one of these posts, but it's probably going to vary from month to month, depending on how many great videos I see. This month we had a lot of great ones! I'll see you again in June!

More Music 2!

I've been so busy since school started I've kind of been neglecting my blog. And it will probably be that way for awhile. I've been saving videos on YouTube you make these posts, but I haven't taken the time to put a post together since before I went back to Ames.

For this post, I will be posting one video each from some of my favorite YouTube artists.

First up, the best group on the internet, Pentatonix, covering Ariana Grande's "Problem," which I have already shared here because I liked it so much. But, as much as I love Ariana Grande, I think Pentatonix' cover is even better.



Next up is the Gregory Brothers with an AMAZING cover of Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive." I grew up on bluegrass as that was almost all that my dad played in the house, and while I don't listen to it much now, when it's done this well, I'm obsessed. I LOVE the weird choice of turning "Radioactive" into a bluegrass song.



Next up in Lindsey Stirling with "Master of Tides."



She filmed that live, in ONE take, and no one there was expecting it. It was basically a flash-mob situation. These people certainly were in the right place at the right time!

Next is Rhett and Link with a video about going on vacation, and they released it while I was on vacation. I was briefly obsessed with this song, and I think I listened to it more than once every day while we were on vacation. Mild warning, if you strongly dislike either fake blood or zombies, don't watch it, as it has both.



Rhett and Link are masters at taking a strange concept and turning it into an extremely catchy song. And this is yet another example of someone doing zombies that I DON'T hate. Not many people can do that.

Next we have a YouTuber I've never featured by name before, Melodysheep. He was responsible for many of my previous posts though. He was behind all of PBS Digitals "PBS Remixed" videos. I never credited him there though, so I've gone back and at least tagged all those posts with a Melodysheep label. If you need a refresher on what else he's done, click the Melodysheep label at the bottom of this post and it will bring up all my past posts with videos by him.

Anyhow... This video is a tribute to the late, great Robin Williams. I had it on repeat for days after he posted it. I think I should just go ahead and buy the track.



Perfect.

Last but definitely not least is another video by Peter Hollens with an artist I had not heard of till this video, Malukah. This is so good. Definitely a new favorite.



And that's all for now. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get another blog post up.

Mr. Rogers

John Green recently did a Mental Floss video about Mr. Rogers, and I thought I'd share it here. Mr. Rogers was a big part of my childhood, so I'll always have a soft spot for him and his show. :)



And just because I still love this video, the PBS remix video of Mr. Rogers.



Mr. Rogers was one in a million. The world would be a better place if more people lived life like he did.

Reading Rainbow Remix

PBS just released another remix, and it is just as good as the previous 3. :)



Reading Rainbow was one of the main shows I watched as a little kid. I was always a reader, but this show reinforced not just my love of reading but learning as well. I was exposed to so much more information about that world thanks to this show. I hope kids today have a show this good to spark their imaginations, and foster a love of learning.

Julia Child

I knew this was coming!

After the Mr. Rodgers and Bob Ross videos, I thought to myself, what other PBS icons did I grow up watching that would make for a good remix video? The FIRST one that popped into my head was Julia Child. Lo and behold, that was the very next one. :)



Julia Child was another person I loved to watch when I was little. She was just so friendly, and she seemed to have a similar outlook on life as Bob Ross. Always positive and encouraging. Shows like hers are what made me love to cook.

So, what might PBS remix next? What I REALLY want to see is a Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop video. Marty Stouffer's Wild America would also be awesome. Whatever they do I'm sure it will be great. Hopefully it will be something that will bring back good childhood memories. :)

Bob Ross

You might recall about 2 months ago when I shared THIS video on my blog.

I posted that because it was just a perfect little bit of childhood nostalgia, and I loved the message in the song. Today that channel, PBS Digital Studios, released a second video. This one is just as full of nostalgia as the previous video.



When I was little, Bob Ross was scheduled viewing at Grandma's house. Every Saturday we knew that she'd be watching Bob Ross, and we'd be right there watching with her.

I'm not an expert on psychology, or any sort of analysis of the mind, but if I had to guess, I would say that Bob Ross is at least one of the reasons that I love art so much. His consistent message that "Anyone Can Paint," is something that I firmly believe in. Bob Ross showed me that anyone can be an artist. You just need to take the time to learn, and develop your skills.

The people who claim to not be able to draw, or paint, or whatever, simply don't take the time to learn. Their lives would be so much richer if they just tried.

Bob Ross may not be considered a "Master" on the scale of DaVinci, or Michelangelo, but to me, he is one of the greatest artists of the last century. Not just for his works, but for his inspiring attitude, not just about art, but about life itself.

6 / 26

When I was 6, life was simple.

When I was 6, people were nice.

When I was 6, life was easy.

When I was 6, everything was amazing.

When I was 6, Mr. Rogers was awesome.

I'm 26. Life is complicated.

I'm 26. Not everyone is nice.

I'm 26. Life is hard

I'm 26. Most things are still amazing.

I'm 26, and Mr. Rogers is still awesome. :)