Just for the record, my New Year's resolution is to never binge-watch YouTube videos. If somebody sends a link to me, or if I have to, then just the one. One and done.
I can never get back all the time I spent on Bugdom and Angry Birds, but there is still hope for all the time I will probably waste on YouTube in 2016. I mean, there is stuff like this on YouTube. How insane is that? That is fantastic.
Yes, I know it's hopeless. But it's something to aspire to. And isn't that what New Year's resolutions are for?
Mike
"Open Mike" is the often off-topic Sunday editorial/personal page of TOP, where we allow our editor free rein. He almost wrote about Bill Cosby this morning, so count your blessings.
UPDATE Mon. Jan. 4: Really, I am going to have to beat my own brains out with a stick some day. Why? Because I drive myself crazy, that's why. In a nutshell, here is my life: yesterday—yesterday—I said it was my New Year's resolution to stop wasting time on YouTube. So what did I turn around and do? Rather than writing the Camera of the Year post like I was supposed to, I procrastinated all day...by watching more things on YouTube that very day than I probably ever have in my life. The entire Don McCullin Canon infomercial (for the second time); an hour on "The Making of Seinfeld" (why, Mike, why?); about an hour and a half of European jazz concerts from the 1960s, which I had to watch, not just listen to, because the visuals are so great; a recap of the 1973 Indianapolis 500 (got to that because I was researching the Offenhauser engine, and I cannot reconstruct why I was doing that); and half of a marathon snooker tournament match. Among other things. It seems the best way to get myself to do things is to decide not to. To thrash the famous John Lennon quote to shreds, my life in the end will amount to everything I've done while putting off all the things I ought to have done.
Yeesh!
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Featured Comments from:
Dan: "Impossible. Russian dash cam videos are like crack...can't...not...watch...."
What ? You mean you haven't tried Russian car crashes or " Instant Karma Instant Justice " ?
Posted by: Thomas Paul McCann | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 06:49 AM
My suggestion for the videos you think look interesting is to mark them to watch later -- you'll probably find you won't want watch most of them when you check back.
Posted by: Richard Parkin | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 08:14 AM
I got a minute-forty into Thelonius Monk and then I asked, "Kurt, what the hell are you doing!?!"
[The video that spools up after that is Mingus and Eric Dolphy, if anything even better. --Mike]
Posted by: Kurt Kramer | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 09:36 AM
My non-binge faves: Samantha Bee's promo for her new show with the Trump tattoo, and Jerry Seinfeld having coffee with the President.
Posted by: Stephen Gilbert | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 10:00 AM
I struggle to sit down to watch any tv or dvd for longer than an hour, but recently found ALL episodes of "Watching", a British romantic comedy from the late 80s/early 90s, on YouTube .... some 30 hours of the stuff. I watched the lot, in sequence, in two sessions! A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
Posted by: John Maries | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 12:43 PM
I binge-watched YouTube last night despite myself. I was checking out Stones videos and I found one that accompanied some amazing still photos of the Vietnam war -- and also on the list of related videos that pops up next to it, all kinds of music with Vietnam images. Some of the photography is terrific, as is some of the music (if you're a child of the 60s.)
Google "Rolling Stones" "Vietnam" "Youtube"
Posted by: John Camp | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 12:59 PM
The first episode of "Watching" -
http://youtu.be/MtA0KAHelEc
Posted by: John Maries | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 01:23 PM
To 'Stephen Gilbert': You can change a few letters but we all know it's you, Colbert, promoting an old Daily Show cohort!
(Yes, I'm teasing *and* a dog, since it's hard to tell this things on the net.) :D
Posted by: Lynn | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 01:24 PM
Oh, this is a good resolution! I might have to incorporate that into my "better time management" - which is often undermined by youtube ;)
Posted by: John | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 01:32 PM
I use the fuji 90 mm, 23mm and 16mm every day for exec portraits, The 90 is mostly mounted on body, love the lens, so sharp. GB.
Posted by: Glenn Brown | Sunday, 03 January 2016 at 05:32 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXW0bx_Ooq4
The Chrysler Turbo Encabulator
[You're not helping, Dave. --Mike]
Posted by: Dave New | Monday, 04 January 2016 at 12:06 PM
This is why my resolutions for 2016 are to go broke and gain weight.
Posted by: Paul Glover | Monday, 04 January 2016 at 01:45 PM
The Don McCuullin videos are VERY interesting! Thanks for posting the links. (Yeah, I know, more YouTube...)
Posted by: Les Myers | Tuesday, 05 January 2016 at 12:46 PM
Just read your update, laughed, and then had to watch the McCullin video. This stuff is catching. It was fun to see, though. Love his line about shooting a dark room with film and "what spoonful of light you've been given for the day."
Posted by: John Krumm | Tuesday, 05 January 2016 at 04:37 PM
My new year's resolution is the 5:1 rule. I am not allowed near YouTube unless I've done a solid 5 hours real work, and then, only for an hour.
Posted by: Steve Jacob | Tuesday, 05 January 2016 at 11:35 PM