This year was super busy, so I didn't have a huge amount of time for writing, but I still managed to do a few reviews for the Rotoscopers. As always, I'm linking them all here for future reference.
It's been way too long since I posted one of these, and I don't have nearly as many articles to share as I normally do. I was so busy with my job and my internship last year, that I probably didn't even get half as much written for the Rotoscopers as I usually do.
Since I didn't have as many articles as normal, I elected not to do first half/second half of the year posts like I have been doing, and just do one update for 2019. And I actually meant to share this at the end of last year, but I guess I was so busy I forgot. I just found it in my drafts and figured I'd better get it up.
So anyway, these are all the articles I did last year for the Rotoscopers! I am closing in on the end of my internship though, so hopefully I'll have more to share next time.
Interview with Leslie Iwerks, director of The Imagineering Story
(Includes a link to the interview as a bonus episode of my podcast!)
Frozember - 'Let it Go' 10 Different Ways
In honor of the release of Frozen 2, the Rotowriters contributed to a series of articles celebrating Frozen. This was my contribution.
This year has just been flying by, and I keep forgetting to make one of these posts. I'm glad I decided to just cut these back to whenever I feel like making one, because between work, and everything else I've had going on, I have not had time. And then the past month I have been putting it off because I said I wanted to make a new graphic for every post. I haven't had time for that either. But tonight at work, it was slow, so I decided to just go ahead and make the post, and then maybe I'll be more incentivized to sit down and make a logo when I get home.
For those curious, it took me six days between writing this post and making the logo. 😆
So to begin with, I updated a previous post with a new video, so if you are a fan of Studio C's Lobster Bisque series, then check that out, the new video is at the bottom. And if you've never seen Studio C's Lobster Bisque Series, then check out the post and watch all the videos! 😆
Next we have a video from Poppy, which is just about everything I love about her. A smidge of weirdness, a dash of fake innocence, and whole lot of biting sarcasm presented as sincerity. 😆
This video from Walk off the Earth is so good, but rather bittersweet, considering it was one of the last videos they shot with Beard Guy before he passed away at the end of last year.
Another amazing video from World Order! Side note, is this their first song in English? I feel like their songs have all been almost exclusively in Japanese up until this point, save for a word or phrase here and there. Either way, I loved this video.
One of my favorite "Genres" of Peter Hollens video is when he does Disney songs, and his villain songs are always great. This one of Be Prepared from The Lion King is no exception.
One of my other favorite Hollens genres is Middle Earth music. This one is amazing.
Postmodern Jukebox recently did a jazz version of the theme song for Pinky and the Brain, featuring the real Pinky and the Brain, Rob Paulsen & Maurice LaMarche!
In February, Mike Tompkins covered one of my favorite Panic! At the Disco songs!
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was one of my favorite movies from last year, and a bit of what made it so great was the music. Kurt Hugo Schneider arranged an amazing version of Sunflower to promote the home video release of the film, which I have to say, is one of the best examples of a brand integration video I've ever seen! I wish more studios would take this approach to marketing their films!
And then we got another Kulning video from Jonna Jinton. I don't care how many of these videos she makes, they blow me away every time.
This next video from Pomplamoose was one of my favorites, and it was only made as a ridiculous April Fools post. 😆
One of my favorite things is when a Muppet character shows up on a late night show, especially when it's a Sesame Street character. Oscar the Grouch appeared on The Late Show with Steven Colbert to promote his new book. And it worked. I bough a copy. 😆
We'll end on a high note, with my favorite music video so far, this amazing cover from Pentatonix.
Yeah, this is late. I've got a lot going on. So much great music this month! Let's kick this off with Peter Hollens, doing a collab that I am kind of shocked hasn't happened before now, with Chester See!
And we'll follow that up with a video from Peter's wife! Evynne is singing one of my favorite Celtic/folk songs, and it is amazing!
I saw this next video on Reddit, and I knew I had to include it here. This is an utterly genius bit of editing work, they took Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" and set it to Michael Jackson's Thriller video, which features zombies. It was such a brilliant joke I about died laughing at work. 🤣
Next we have a video from Pentatonix's upcoming Christmas album, which I considered saving for my eventual holiday post at the end of the year, but as you will see, the song is from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the video leans a little more toward Nightmare than Christmas. 😜
And speaking of The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Hound + The Fox covered a song from that movie this month as well!
Not every Halloween-themed video this month was based on this Disney classic though, we also got another song from Pomplamoose and Tessa Violet, mashing up The Monster Mash, with several other thematically appropriate songs. And also some really random choices, like the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bell-Aire? But somehow it all works SO well!
It has been awhile since I've shared a World Order video, but they just released a new video, and it was everything I expect from them. I just love watching them... Dance? Move? Slowly move their bodies completely in sync with each other and the music. 😜
Next we have another amazing video from Jonna Jinton, which is different that any of her videos before! I love this! It's such a great idea for a video!
Thanks to the release of a Queen biopic last month, another trending musical genre beyond the usual October/Halloween, was covers of Queen songs. (Does that count as a genre?) I picked out what I thought were the two most creative examples of the trend, this one from 10 Second Songs:
And this massive musical mashup from Peter Hollens. We'll end with this one, which was probably my favorite song all month. I have replayed it SO many times! It's just so good!
It's time for another Rotoscoper's Roundup! As I said in my last one of these, I was going to start putting these out every six months. So here is everything I did between January and June of 2018!
World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts: Short Film Review
So many videos this month. And so many comedy videos! Usually music videos far outnumber the rest, but this month seems a lot more even than normal! I guess a bunch of these are parody or funny songs, so they're kind of in both categories, but still, comedy has a huge presence this month. :)
The first video is another amazing song from Pomplamoose, covering an amazing song by La Roux! I was transported back in time almost a decade to 2010, when my brother Joel and I would carpool to school, and listen to La Roux's album. This was always my favorite song. :)
Next we have a hilarious, and weird, video from Studio C! This sketch was almost as if the writers of the Twilight Zone decided to try their hands at comedy. And I loved it!
And now for something completely different, this was probably something I saw on Twitter, I don't really know, all I know is that I had never seen this guy before this video, and I subscribed immediately. In case you didn't know, this is a song from homestarrunner.com, one of my all-time favorite web series'. I never knew how much I needed a vocally enhanced rendition of Come On Fhgwhgads!
This is probably my least 'fun' video this month, but I loved it so much I had to include it. It's just a simple cover of a recent Ariana Grande song, but there was just something about it that I loved.
This video was not from May, but I discovered in in May, thanks to my cousin Mandi sharing it on Facebook, so I say it still counts. :p I thought it was hilarious, and I watched it multiple times, as well as showing it to everyone who would watch. I just don't get tired of it. It's so funny!
Okay, before you watch this next one, I just want to give those of you who might care, a dark humor warning, as the song is framed around a chorus about an adorable, but suicidal muffin, and the entire song revolves around death. So, if you think that might be too much for you, feel free to skip it. :)
This is a song by the Gregory Brothers, using lines of dialogue from Tomska's ASDFMovie series. As I said the last time I shared something from ASDFMovie, I don't share many of these because they are slightly more adult-y than my usual videos, but I loved this song so much I couldn't not include it. If you've never seen any ASDFMovie cartoons, it is likely that this song will make absolutely no sense to you, as it is comprised entirely of lines and jokes from the series. (I'm mainly including it for my future self to watch later, years after I've forgotten about it. :p)
Steven Universe, as I've said before, and even made anentire postabout, has great music. In the most recent set of episodes we got yet another great song, which of course was immediately covered by a bunch of artists on YouTube. This one from Video Game Remixes was my favorite. :)
And here's another Studio C, just as weird and hilarious as the first, but less Twilight Zone-y. :p
Peter Hollens teamed up with Malukah again to bring us another amazing song! I personally have never played Skyrim, but that doesn't stop me from loving this song so much! It's just fantastic!
I don't think I've ever shared these new Mickey cartoons here, even though I do really enjoy them, however, this one really stood out to me, because it was just such a deliberate callback/loving parody/nod to Disney's Fantasia. As most of you probably know, Fantasia is one of, if not my all-time favorite movie, and this short captured the feeling of that film so well. I just loved it. :)
And finally, what might be my favorite song of the month, Mike Tompkins covering Toto's Africa, completely acapella. It is just as amazing as it sounds. :)
I feel like the busier I get, the later these posts are going to be. They went from the last day of the month, to the first day or two of the month, to within the first week, and now it's just like, whatever. I'll do it when I have time. I've been super busy lately, so my online projects have been delayed recently. I'm planning to do a 'life update' post about why soon, so stay tuned. :)
In the mean time, here are my favorite videos from last month!
First up we have a video from animator Rebecca Parham. Normally she does animated skits and stories, but I really loved this video she did to celebrate finally hitting a million subscribers. I knew she had a great voice, but after this I really want her to keep doing animated music videos. :)
As seems to have become tradition, we have another video by Joe Jeremiah. This month it's a medley of 80's songs!
Pomplamoose is back! I haven't featured them here since January of last year, (!) but they're working on a new album, and I am loving the new songs! This video is an absolutely genius mashup, every song incorporated is one that has the word "Bad" somewhere in the title! From Taylor Swift to Micheal Jackson to Lady Gaga! For some reason this just works so well! I love it!
As Owl City's new album inches ever closer, the new, amazing songs just keep coming!
And I kow this next one isn't really a video, but I loved this song too much not to share it. I really hope it gets a video treatment in the future.
Disney seems to put together new albums every few years, featuring popular genres of music. When I was a teenager they were doing pop with Disneymania albums, then later they did a couple country ones, a few years ago they tried their hand at EDM with Dconstructed, and now they seem to have caught on that doing a capella covers of Disney songs is huge on YouTube. So I guess the obvious thing to do is jump on that trend. I mean, they own the songs after all. :) Here's the
This wasn't the only song they put out last month, they also covered Fall Out Boy's Immortals, from Big Hero 6, which you can find HERE if you're interested.
Now on to something a little more sober, as you may be aware, Avicii, one of the world's most prolific EDM artists died last month. He was one of my favorite artists of the genre, and his loss sent shockwaves through the music community, especially since he wasn't even 30 yet. As usually happens when a huge death in music occurs, online artists put out tribute videos covering one or more of their songs. I wanted to share a few here today from people I follow.
And finally we have an amazing medley from Peter Hollens, featuring guest vocals from Anna Brisbin, AKA, Brizzy Voices! In March, Peter put out a medley of music from Harry Potter, which, if you're familiar with the music from that series, it's all orchestral music by John Williams and other great movie composers.
Now, I don't mean any offense toward Peter himself, but when the video finally came out after he'd teased it for literally years, I was actually a bit disappointed. Yes, we had the great John Williams themes done in Peter's signature style, but over top of the music were lyrics incorporating a ton of internet fan theories about the franchise. And again, no offence to Peter, I just really love non-lyrical a capella music, and I had assumed that's what this was going to be. I guess that's on me for assuming. However! I shouldn't have worried, because he delivered anyway! And it was just as amazing as I knew it would be!
Okay, so, even though that was the last music video, I still had one other video from this month. However, like last months post, this video was a Studio C sketch featuring an established character that I thought you might want some more context for. So, instead of adding that video to this post, I will make a second post featuring that video, along with other sketches featuring the character. That post, plus my 'life update' post will be coming soon, so stay tuned! :)
I really didn't think I was going to have a lot of videos this month, but January surprised me. I thought it was going to be a slow month, but there was actually a rather diverse and lengthy selection of content that I just loved and had to share!
Let's kick it off with a video from Studio C! Ursula has always been one of my favorite villains, and Studio C's take on her was genius, and so hilarious!
Speaking of Disney, Evynne Hollens did an amazing version of Friend Like Me from Aladdin!
And of course Peter had some great music this month too, I especially liked his take on Shawn Mendes' There's Nothing Holding Me Back.
As most of you know, I write for the Rotoscopers, an animation news/reviews website, but you probably don't know anything about the people who started it. Let me at least partially remedy that by introducing you to Chelsea Robson, one of the co-founders of the site. She has a very cool day job, as you will see.
And now for something completely different. I had no idea who Candide Thovex was before I watched this video, and I'm not generally a sports fan, but I can't help but be in awe of something like this. I wish all sports could be this awe inspiring! And also, how cool is the name Candide Thovex? Is he like an alien or something? I love it!
And now for something completely different! Again! I don't think I'm even going to intro this video, I'll just let you watch it yourself. I'll just say one thing. Heavy metal chicken screams.
I am so excited that we're getting a new Owl City album this year! He released a new single from the album this month and I loved it!
Studio C had a great January, and I had to share another one of their videos. My cousins and I love their 'Organic Vlogger' characters. Every time they release a new video, we end up watching it multiple times with anyone who will watch it with us. This one was no exception.
And now for someone I haven't featured in years! Literally! I was obsessed with Lettice Rowbotham for awhile, thanks to Britain's Got Talent, but she kind of disappeared for awhile. However, she is back now, and she is making new music! And she's not just doing electric violin covers of popular music like she was, (Though I wouldn't complain if she was, I loved those,) she's actually making her own music now! I can't wait to see where she goes! I hope she's back for good!
And now, I think we'll end this post with another amazing track from Joe Jeremiah. This time he's mashing up two of my favorite styles of music, into something totally amazing!
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.
It's been quite awhile since I last updated you guys on my work for the Rotoscopers, so here is everything I've written there from the end of May through December! In the future, I think I'm going to try to do one of these updates every six months. We'll see if I remember. :)
This Month's TMI is going to begin the same way the last one did, with a new video from Avriel and the Sequoias. The EP is out now and it is so good. I can't wait until he puts out a full album.
Next we have another Peter and Evynne Hollens duet! This time they are doing a song from one of my childhood favorite movies, At the Beginning, from Anastasia.
One of my favorite artists from years ago, Lights, just released a new song, and it sounds like the perfect fusion of the way her recent music has sounded, and the way she sounded years ago when I first discovered her. I love it!
And speaking of old favorites releasing new music! Owl City just released a new song! The music isn't his normal electronic sound, but I like it, and the acoustic sound just goes so well with his voice. There will be plenty of time for electronic music when he releases his next album. I can't wait!
And for a completely different kind of old favorite, here is Rob Paulson, voice of Yakko from the Animaniacs, singing Yakko's World, absolutely perfectly, more than 20 years later! I don't know how he managed to memorize this thing, but I suppose it's one of those things that once it's in your head, it's there forever.
The premise of this sketch by Studio C is kind of dumb, but the over-the-top performances by the cast, as well as some of the hilarious, ridiculous lines, just make me laugh so much that it somehow became one of my favorites. "Tell my roommates, I hate them!!!!"
Puddles just released a new song. It's amazing.
And in case you were missing Postmodern Jukebox in Puddles' video, here's their best song from the month. It is amazing. Especially considering that I used to hate the original song with an unreasonable and unprovoked passion. (Don't ask me why, I'm not even sure young me knew why.) However, I absolutely love this version.
The only thing I don't like about this latest Disney medley by Voctave is how terribly short it is. I just want them to sing every Disney song ever, for hours on end.
We'll end this with another Disney medley, Peter Hollens recently collaborated with another YouTuber, Whitney Avalon, on a Disney villain medley, and it was one of the best things he's done in a very long time. And I love everything he does, so you know this one's amazing.
What the heck, internet? I wrote this post the night before it was to go up, June 29th, and I wake up this morning, June 30th, and apparently half the internet had decided to save their best videos for the last day of the month! So, I am sorry Peter Hollens, you are no longer my grand finale!
First up on this bonus half of the post, Puddles is back with another David Bowe cover!
Nataly Dawn covered the BeeGees.
And Walk Off the Earth just released their first original song in ages! I absolutely love this song, and it is literally the best song I have heard all month. Hands down, no contest. I love it so much, I will probably be playing this on repeat until I can't listen to it anymore. Yes, it is that good. This will now be the final video is my post. What a way to close out the month!
Awhile back I mentioned that I had started a new YouTube channel. I have had one before, a channel where I posted some personal projects, school assignments, some videos I'd done with my friends, etc. I'll link to that channel HERE if you're interested.
Anyway, I have wanted to make YouTube videos for ages now. I've thought about it off and on since probably 2011, 2012, ever since I'd really started getting into watching YouTubers on a regular basis. The problem was, I never had time, I was always in school, I had work, I had a lot of reasons why I never started.
And of course there's also the issue that I never felt like I would be any good at it, so I just didn't. I've let that feeling stop me from doing a LOT of things over the years, and I am working on getting over that.
When I started getting closer to the end of my time at Iowa State, I started thinking about it again, a bit more seriously this time, so I brought it up to one of my fellow writers at the Rotoscopers, Rachel Wagner, and she asked me if I wanted to co-host an episode of her podcast/YouTube show with her. Eventually we decided to review Doctor Who, and every week since then we have been talking about the new episodes of season 10 as they air. I'll link you to the latest one here so you can see how that's going.
That sort of let me test the waters before I fully committed to making my own channel and after a few weeks, I just decided to go for it. I had no more excuses. I was out of school, at the time I wasn't working because I was preparing some projects in order to apply for more internships, I had (some) free time, plus this would be a very good way to practice video editing, which I had been needing to do, so one day I just spontaneously decided to record a video and I put it up. And the next day I put up another one. A couple days later I did another.
I've now been putting up at least one video a week for over a month, and I am very close to being happy with them. I am of course, still self critical about most of it, but I think I am slowly improving, which is what I wanted. I still don't care for my on-camera presence very much, but I think a lot of people feel that way, and I just need to get over it.
Right now my channel is mostly movie reviews, I love reviewing things, as you can tell from all the time I've spent working for the Rotoscopers, however, I am open to experimenting with different kinds of videos. I just need ideas. The main reason, other than the fact that it's fun, that I am doing it for now, is to practice different video editing techniques, so the more things I do the better. Right now, the reason I have been so consistent with my output, is that I've started a series called Wonderland Wednesday. Every week I look at a new version of Alice in Wonderland, and there are a LOT of versions, so I have plenty of material.
When I first started thinking about this project, I really only thought there'd be like, 10 versions out there, but when I went to make a list, I found that there were far more than 10. However, I am a huge Alice in Wonderland fan, so instead of feeling daunted, I thought it would be a lot of fun to review them all.
This series started with me reviewing the 2010 live action Disney version of the story, because Rachel Wagner does not like it at all, and I do. She suggested that I review it to explain what I like about it, so I did.
The next version I decided to do was the 1999 version, because ever since I was a kid it has been one of my favorites.
After I did those two, Rachel told me that she really liked the 1933 version of the story, so I did that one next.
As you can tell from that video, I reference watching it with my cousin. Sarah is also a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, so I had decided that I would watch some of them with her before I reviewed them. However, the next week we watched the 1903 version of the story, and she absolutely loved it, so much so, that I asked her if she wanted to guest host the next episode with me, and she agreed!
We actually had so much fun that she agreed to keep co-hosting as long as we had versions she wanted to watch. We filmed two more episodes the next week, but due to computer cord issues, I had no power to edit with for a few days, so I filmed a quick review with my phone that week, and uploaded directly to YouTube. I am actually almost proud of that video, because I managed to make it through with very few stumbles, and I did it all in one take, with no cuts or edits. As you can probably tell from my other videos, I usually am normally heavily editing myself.
This week's video is another one with Sarah, but after my issues the last time, I ended up losing the micro SD card that I had filmed the other two videos on. So on Monday we got back together, and refilmed both of them. Then I stayed up until 4 this morning editing it to get it done in time. The first one here is the 1910 version, and the 1915 version will be out next week.
So that's what I've been up to recently. Am I a YouTuber now? I don't know. I make videos for YouTube, but I only have 6 subscribers, and one of them is me, one of them is my mom, and one of them is Rachel, so really it's more like I have three. :p I'm not sure what "Being a YouTuber" means, but if I'm not one now, I might be someday. Right now I am having a lot of fun with it, and I am getting a lot of practice in editing videos, as well as in Photoshop for the thumbnails. And since being a video editor (and graphic designer) is one of the jobs on my list of "Things I want to be when I grow up," I think the time I'm spending on it is time well spent. :)
If you have a YouTube account, I'd love it if you'd subscribe. I'm not one to ask that in every video, but since I'm mostly talking to friends and family here, I thought I'd ask this once. It would be nice to have a few more subscribers so it doesn't feel like I'm shouting into the void. :p You don't have to if you don't want to of course, but hopefully you'll get some sort of entertainment out of them. And if you like them, feel free to share them with your friends! Okay, now I am sounding like a real YouTuber so I'll stop. :)
I probably won't repost every video to my blog, but I'll probably do an update post every once in awhile to let you know how it's going. Right now it's going well, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes me!
It's been a while since I've done an update about my work at the Rotoscopers, last November to be precise! But I have written quite a few stories in the last six months, here is a list of all of them!
Announcement of the long awaited third season of Young Justice.
I've been so busy with school that It's been months since my last Internet Awesome post! I'm close to the end though, and I've gotten enough done that I finally feel like I can breathe a bit. Last night I actually wrote an article for the Rotoscopers, just spur of the moment, and today I just up and decided to blog! I love it when I feel like I can just spend some time on writing for fun without feeling like I should be doing something else. :)
First up we have a video by the always amazing Evynne Hollens. I loved the movie Anastasia as a kid, so I was very happy to see it covered here.:)
Tessa Violet is infectious. Her voice, spirit, joy, everything.
This next video is a painting by Mary Doodles. I was so absolutely impressed when I figured out what she was painting that I actually left a comment, which I never do.
I've been waiting four years for Peter Hollens to do another collab with Alaa Wardi! It's finally happened! :D
He also recently collaborated with Tim Foust of Home Free, and that was also amazing.
A capalla Science is back at it again, this time with an awesome and brilliant spin on a bunch of songs from the movie Aladdin! And not only that, but one of his collaborators is the French YouTuber, Trudbol, who was one of the first a capella artists I ever followed on YouTube!
We'll end this post with another amazing song from Lindsey Stirling. Not only is the music amazing, so is the video! I just love her imagination.
That's all for this post, but I'm actually working on another one that I'll probably release tomorrow. I had enough videos that were released in April, that I think I'm going to start a new series looking back at the month. Maybe that'll force me to keep on top of them. So be on the lookout for that. :)
This video post is going to be a bit different than my past ones, all these videos are ones that I have chosed because they just made me feel good. Whether I had a bad day and a video lifted me out of it, or it was just a video that made me smile and feel better about the world, these are all the videos I've watched recently that just made me happy.
I thought of the idea for this post the other day and I liked it so much that I decided it was worth making a logo for. I might even turn this into a series.
This first video just happened a couple days ago. I watched it, I loved it, I almost died. In a good way! This little girl is the physical incarnation of everything that is good and pure and innocent in this cold, dark, brutal world. Who knew a broken water heater could bring one so much joy?
This is a music video from the group World Order. I've liked them for years, but this video, a team-up with fellow J-Pop group SKE48, just totally brightened my who day when I watched it. It's just so infectiously upbeat!
This next video is just a clip of an adorable dog getting a new toy, but it's just so cute that I can't help but melt. It also doesn't hurt that the new toy is one one of my favorite characters from childhood. :p
Lindsey Stirling always brings a smile to my face, but this month it seems like she's been working overtime! She has put out two videos in a row that are just pure happiness.
The first one is a medley of songs from Beauty and the Beast, but the simple way that she chose to put it together, just filming herself and her crew as they set up while they were on tour, and then just completely goofed around, just set it apart. I especially love her costume choice for the end. Who else would choose a giant puffy teapot costume over Belle's iconic yellow ballgown? It was just too brilliant. :p
The second video made me smile just because of how brilliantly silly it is. For years Lindsey has played this weird character named Phelba on her second channel. Phelba is supposed to be the lead Stirlingite, Lindsey's biggest fan who is completely obsessed with her. She's always just been something she did for fun, like in vlogs and goofy videos, nothing serious, but in this video, her oddball alter ego makes her music video debut, and I loved every second of it.
I also loved that Lindsey chose to include four of her best friends in the video including a few other people from YouTube that I enjoy watching. I'm not that familiar with Blogilates, but I do watch Lilly Singh from time to time, and I my cousins and I usually end up binge watching iJustine and Rosanna Pansino videos every time we get together. It was just a lot of fun to see them all make cameo appearances. :)
This next video I'm sure you've seen, I shared on Facebook the day after it hit the internet, and it absolutely blew up. I know it sounds like I'm a hipster, but I am proud to say I say it when it only had a few thousand views and I said that it was going to go viral. I was so completely right. The video currently has over 23 million views, and these interrupting kids, their deadpan dad, and their frantic mother are pretty much internet sensations at this point.
Lastly we have a couple of videos from Cookie Monster and friends. They've been making a few appearances around the internet lately, and these videos were just so hilarious. Especially Cookie Monster. I loved how upset he got when people kept asking the dreaded "Veggie Monster" question.
I really enjoyed putting this post together, it even inspired a spin off post that I will publish tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that. Digital Zoloft will not replace my Internet Awesome posts, but I think I will bring it back occasionally, especially if I suddenly collect a whole bunch of videos that made me really happy like I did this month. :)
Disney's Moana has become a huge hit, and it has a bunch of great songs, but the most popular seems to be "How Far I'll go." So many people on YouTube have been covering them, so I'm going to limit myself to just a few, but they're all great. I love how each one puts their own spin on it. :)
Evynne Hollens:
Mike Tompkins:
And Nick Pitera.
After the death of Debbie Reynolds, Evynne Hollens posted a tribute to her, and it was so good, especially considering she did it in one take, with none of her usual production values.
I posted a video similar to this before, but the artist, Jonna Jinton, has posted a new, longer version, and it is just one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.
If you are a child of the 80's/90's who grew up watching An American Tail, you need to watch this video by Peter Hollens.
Pogo is magic, and he makes Disney magic.
Let's end this post with a bang. (Or a tap. :p) I love Postmodern Jukebox, but when they do a tap dance number they reach a whole new level of awesome. :)
Let's start this post out right with one of my all-time favorite Pomplamoose songs, Bust Your Kneecaps. Yes, it's about exactly what the title says. :p
Evynne Hollens is back with another classic Disney song, this time from one of my recent favorites, Tangled. With her son Ashland as my favorite Disney animal sidekick, Pascal the chameleon. Too cute. :p
One of my favorite songs, by one of my favorite artists, covered by one of my favorite a cappella artists. I love it when things come together like this. :)
This I'm sharing just because it made me laugh. :p
This next song is currently a very popular song, that I don't particularly like. EXCEPT for this version by Walk Off the Earth. There's just something about their version that sets it apart from any of the others that I've heard. It's probably the kazoos. :p
A cappella science is back with another amazing science song!
In my last post I shared a weird video by the artist Poppy, which you can find HERE, but I thought maybe you'd like to see a video where she wasn't being unnaturally odd. Or at least, what she does for a career. Which is also weird in its own way. She's just weird all around. Which I'm totally fine with. :p As you can tell, she is just as much of a parody of celebrity culture in her music videos as she is in her shorter, weirder videos, like the one I posted previously.
We'll end this post with three videos from my personal YouTube trinity of awesome, Pentatonix,
It's my last post of the year! And as such, I decided to make it almost twice as long! No special reason, except that I still have a ton of videos saved that I need to use in posts. :p
Let's start off this final post with another Hollens Disney song. They are just magical together. :)
Leave it to Kurt Hugo Schneider and Kina Grannis to come up with something like this. I already loved this song, but this unique spin on it is just so good.
This next video is an utterly amazing rendition of Danny Elfman's Spiderman theme done spectacularly by Lindsey Stirling and Lang Lang. It is so incredible. It makes me nostalgic for the days when we actually had memorable themes and scores in movies.
I have a bit of a confession. I have never really liked the song Danny Boy. I've always thought it was way too schmaltzy, and even years ago when my favorite artists like Charlotte Church or Celtic Woman covered it, I just wasn't that impressed. I don't think it's a bad song, I just never cared for it. I actually cared so little for it that when Peter Hollens announced he was starting an email newsletter and giving away an exclusive track to anyone who subscribed, I was so disappointed and actually did not subscribe when I found out that it was Danny Boy. Then he released a video. I couldn't believe it. For the first time in my life, I LOVED a version of Danny Boy. How foolish I had been. I immediately went and signed up for his newsletter to get the track. :p
Pentatonix's Scott Hoying and Mitch Grasi, who have been best friends since they were little kids, have had their own YouTube channel for years now, Superfruit, on which they normally post vlogs and challenge videos, but lately they've been putting out some great stuff, including this cover of a Katy Perry song. Hopefully they keep this up! As entertaining as they can be when they aren't busy as part of Pentatonix, they are at their best when they are singing.
Recently there was a Disney movie called The Queen of Katwe released in theaters. It is about a girl from Africa who becomes a chess champion. It sounded really unique, and I wanted to go see it, but I pretty much never have time to go to the theater. However, Disney released a song from the movie on their Vevo channel, and it is amazing. I was tempted to buy the soundtrack based on this song alone. I didn't, because I like to see movies before I start buying their merchandise, but still, how great is this song!? Now I need to see this movie!
A couple months ago I discovered a British show called Yonderland. It is about a 30-something mother of two that gets sucked into a portal in her pantry to a magical land where she has to fight monsters and save the world. And also it's full of songs and puppets. It's like they made it for me. :p This song was one of the best parts of the show.
Pogo has been one of my absolute favorite electronic remix artists for years, and this video is everything I love about him.
I heart Tessa Violet.
I love it when my favorite things collide into one giant mashup of awesome! Twenty One Pilots, Kurt Hugo Schneider, and VoicePlay!
This song is literally everywhere, but thankfully everyone seems to put a new spin on it, and the Piano Guys are no exception. :)
Technically Pentatonix did this song for their new Christmas album, but I've never thought of this song as a Christmas song, so it didn't go in my Christmas post. Either way, they killed it. :)
Everything that Bad Lip Reading does is incredibly stupid. But for some reason I can't help but love it anyway. This song was one of my favorite things they have done in ages. It's so dumb, but so catchy. Also, I almost died laughing at "That log had a child!"
We'll end this with another amazing video from Lindsey Stirling. And she's themed it around Alice in Wonderland. This video is everything! :D
This semester I took a poetry class. It was, by far, my favorite class of the semester, probably my favorite class I've had in at least the last year, if not two years. Probably since my first creative writing class. I ended up writing a lot, some of which ended up being a lot more personal than I intended. But I'll save those for later. The longer, more personal ones will probably each end up in their own post some day. Today I just wanted to share some of the shorter, more ridiculous ones. These ones have no deeper purpose, I just wrote them to write them.
This first poem came from me thinking the phrase "Gargantuan Orangutan," for some reason, and wanting to use it in something. That's pretty much it.
Gargantuan Orangutan
Gargantuan Orangutan,
Oregano and Mint.
I’ve no idea what this is,
I’m making up this Blint.
I even made up that word, Blint,
Cause not much rhymes with mint.
Rotoscope and Gyroscope,
Zoetrope and Quill.
This poetry means nothing now,
And it never will.
I’ve no clue why I’m writing this,
It’s just a messed up mess.
Enunciate, Pronunciate,
Exfoliate and Krill.
I think my rhymes repeat themselves,
Because Krill rhymes with Quill.
But then again they both don’t rhyme,
With Mint, so now here’s Thyme.
Macaroon and Camaroon,
A bug’s Cocoon and Lint?
I think I’ve brought it back around,
Since I rhymed Lint with Mint.
But now I think I should be done.
This made no sense but I had fun.
This next poem came from me having written nothing the night before the poem was due, and deciding to write about that. Funnily enough, several other people wrote poems on the same topic later on in the semester. And that was just of the ones that were read aloud in class. Who knows how many were turned in without reading them aloud. It seems to have been a popular topic.
A Last Resort
Writers block, this is it.
I cannot think, not one bit.
The night before, this poem’s due,
What the heck, am I to do?
I've thought about this, all weekend,
But I've had no luck, for days on end.
I've no idea, what to write about,
Anything I could crank out.
Oh poem gods, help me please.
I'm begging you, I'm on my knees.
Suddenly, the answer’s here!
Write of writer’s block, it’s clear!
It’s a card I can only play once, that’s true,
And it’s a cheap cop out, that’s true too.
But desperate times, or so they say,
I must do what I can, to get through the day.
Well, I guess that’s it, I’ve finished now.
This poem’s done, I’m through, somehow.
This last poem was another one written the night before it was due. I could not think of anything to write because I was too busy writing a bunch of other things, one of which was my Disney Canon Countdown review of Fantasia 2000 for the Rotoscopers. So I decided to write about that. :p
Fantasia 2000
Abstract butterflies.
Bats?
Chaos in flight.
Titans of the deep.
Supernova!
Titans of the stars.
Classical Jazz.
New York.
Rhapsody in Blue.
A soldier’s love.
Music box.
Something in F Major.
Carnival of yoyos.
Flamingos?
Rhapsody in Pink.
Classical wizardry.
Disney magic.
The Repeated Apprentice.
Donald’s ark.
Tragicomedy?
Pomp and Circumstance.
Beauty and life.
Fiery death.
Rhapsody in Green.
And that's it for now. Like I said, there are more poems, but most of them will get their own post in the future, or I'll pair a couple of thematically similar ones together. Either way, eventually you'll get to read them.
