BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum

The World Beyond BetterMost => Anything Goes => Topic started by: Peter John Shields on June 17, 2013, 11:19:08 am

Title: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Peter John Shields on June 17, 2013, 11:19:08 am
Men who love eachother:




Hope you like this!  Happy Father's Day!!
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on August 30, 2013, 04:39:21 pm
For all Queer as Folk fans:  You have got to check out YouTube's <QAF - Brian & Justin "Chiquitita">.  This is a gorgeous and loving 5-minute+ video that matches QaF clips to the words of the Abba song.  (This song, you will remember, ended the Pride sequence in season 2.)  If you know the QaF show you will realize how well it does this.  Even if you don't, you will still love it. 
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: CellarDweller on August 30, 2013, 09:08:05 pm
I call this one "The Caught Kitty!"



[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At1iqlBnR1E[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on August 31, 2013, 08:14:05 am
I have a couple more YouTube suggestions, which I should have put on my first time.  I see that some people can move the videos from Youtube directly to here.  I don't know how to do that, so I have to rely on telling you about them so you will go there.

The first is Jack I Swear done by BayCityJohn.  It is the Steven Robinson song with skillfully selected clips from BBM.  This is the most powerful BBM song I have ever heard, and BCJ does a beautiful job with it.  There are a few versions of the song on YouTube, but his is by far the best.  If the end of BBM still makes you cry, you will cry here too.  BayCityJohn has done many excellent videos on YouTube; look for his name when you go there.  He is, by the way, a BetterMostian, and would probably appreciate a personal message of thanks if you like Jack I Swear--which I am sure you will.

My second suggestion is The Man I Love by John Alcorn. (Play the one with his face on the album cover.)  I discovered this song on Queer as Folk.  Alcorn is a gay jazz singer in Toronto (my city).  I don't know how a straight woman would react to hearing it sung by a man, but to a gay man (at least this gay man) it has resonances and depths not there when hearing it sung by a woman.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: milomorris on August 31, 2013, 10:05:59 am
I have a couple more YouTube suggestions, which I should have put on my first time.  I see that some people can move the videos from Youtube directly to here.  I don't know how to do that, so I have to rely on telling you about them so you will go there.

The first is Jack I Swear done by BayCityJohn.  It is the Steven Robinson song with skillfully selected clips from BBM.  This is the most powerful BBM song I have ever heard, and BCJ does a beautiful job with it.  There are a few versions of the song on YouTube, but his is by far the best.  If the end of BBM still makes you cry, you will cry here too.  BayCityJohn has done many excellent videos on YouTube; look for his name when you go there.  He is, by the way, a BetterMostian, and would probably appreciate a personal message of thanks if you like Jack I Swear--which I am sure you will.

I have seen some of BCJ's videos, but not this one. He does have a knack for matching images from the movie to the lyrics and rhythms of the songs he uses.

I did a little digging and found this from Steven Robinson:

"I wrote this from a poem that a friend wrote for two dear friends of hers...Further inspired after she saw the movie, 'Brokeback Mountain'"

My second suggestion is The Man I Love by John Alcorn. (Play the one with his face on the album cover.)  I discovered this song on Queer as Folk.  Alcorn is a gay jazz singer in Toronto (my city).  I don't know how a straight woman would react to hearing it sung by a man, but to a gay man (at least this gay man) it has resonances and depths not there when hearing it sung by a woman.

Great voice!! Maybe the reason the resonates so well in a man's voice is that the tune was originally written by Gershwin to be sung by a male character. The original title was "The Girl I Love."
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Penthesilea on August 31, 2013, 11:37:34 am
I see that some people can move the videos from Youtube directly to here.  I don't know how to do that, so I have to rely on telling you about them so you will go there.


Hi X-man and welcome to BetterMost (in case I missed you so far)! :)
This is a little off-topic here, but I like to post technical tips on the board instead of PMs from time to time, so more than one person can see them.

If you want to post a youtube video directly here on BM, look for the little youtube-icon on top of your text box when writing a post.
The first row of icons directly above the text box are our cowboy smileys. In the next row above the smileys is the youtube icon, second from left.

Click on the youtube icon and you will get this (without the spaces):

[youtube=425,350 ] [ /youtube]

Paste and copy your browser's adress line of the youtube video, and then insert it between the square brackets.

[ youtube=425,350]insert adress of youtube video here[ /youtube]

That's it! :)


With links it works the same way, you just use a different icon. The Hyperlink icon is two to the right from the youtube icon. Gives you this (again without spaces)
[url ] insert adress of link here  [ /url]


Same way with pictures, which is the icon between youtube and hyperlink icon in the same row:

[img ] insert adress of picture here  [ /img]



In the case of John's BBM video, it looks like this:

[ youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBlK4apIuKg[ /youtube]


And if I now erase the spaces, you can see the video:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBlK4apIuKg[/youtube]


If you have more technical or otherwise questions, feel free to PM me or any other moderator of BetterMost. We're happy to help! :)
Title: Re: Great YouTubes I Need Some Help
Post by: x-man on September 09, 2013, 07:28:14 am
I am hoping someone can help me track down a song, perhaps on YouTube.  It is in Episode 5 of Season 4 of Queer as Folk.  A line keeps repeating, "Doing what you want, and doing what you want me to do."  Putting this quote on YouTube didn't get me anywhere, so perhaps that is not the name of the song.  (Practically everything from QAF is on YouTube, it seems.  I would be very grateful.  Thanks.

Also, where in BBM do we hear the Wings portion of the score?  I watch the film all the time, but never hear Wings--I only hear it on BBM Radio.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips 2 More
Post by: x-man on October 15, 2013, 08:58:07 am
(1)  <You're Gone - Diamond Rio (w/lyrics)> done by mniicoleex3
I first heard this song on BBM Radio, and was so startled I just sat there for a while after it was over.  You frequently hear songs that catch your situation very well, but you usually have to ignore some lines and alter others--not with You're Gone.  Every line, every word, is a knife to the heart.  The comments on youTube, posted below the window told me that everyone else was affected by the song as I was.  You can imagine Ennis singing it to Jack.

(2)  <BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE - Lover's Spit>
The video done by Luisa Lloyd is basically still shots of buildings, but the sound quality is especially good.  The luna6 version is the official video.  We get to see Kevin Drew, the scruffy, sweaty, hot, lead singer enjoying the song very much.  The song is weird but great, and might tell you more about the mechanics of sex than you want to  hear--lines like "All these people drinking lover's spit, sit around cleaning their face with it," and "Swallowing it while giving head, but it takes some hand to get used to it."  The gritty lyrics work well with the dreamlike music of the song.  Just take a chance on YouTube and try it.  BTW, this is the song that plays in QAF when Justin and Brian reunite after Justin's disastrous affair with Ethan, and the two make love in Brian's office.   :)
Title: YouTube Suggestions - John Grant
Post by: x-man on October 16, 2013, 11:55:17 am
A few more suggestions.
YouTube introduced me to John Grant and his first major album Queen of Denmark.  When I got the CD and played it for the first time, I just thought "I really wasn't ready for an album like this."  It is by far the best gay album I have ever heard, and Grant will appeal to Brokies, both M and F: lost love, regret, a few chances taken, difficult backgrounds, etc.  No tracks are on BBM Radio, I suspect because it does not have a rural flavour, and it can be rather grim.

Grant is well represented on YouTube--songs and interviews with him where he is very outfront about himself and what he is trying to say in his music.  You really owe it to yourself to get acquainted with him and his work.  And listen to the words.  The two songs at and near the end of the film Weekend are Grant's, and are two of the ones I am recommending to you here.  On YouTube:

<John Grant - T.C. & Honeybear> done by keytoucher
This is a beautiful, bittersweet love song that shows Grant's vulnerability and trouble reaching out to others.  Grant is nothing if not honest in his lyrics.  This is my favourite track from the CD.

<John Grant & Midlake - I Wanna Go to Marz> done by positive viber
From what I know about Grant, this seems to be about his teenage years in a small town (Parker, CO to be exact).  He contrasts the cloyingly sweet "malt shop" young, straight love scene with his real desire to "go to Marz" where "your sweet 16 is waiting for you after the show...where you'll get your heart's desire...(and) I will meet you under the lights."  If you know the small town highschool scene and its alienation, you can relate to this song, particularly if you are gay.

<John Grant - Sigourney Weaver> done by Mr.Tappis14
This appears to describe Grant's feelings the day after he learned he was HIV positive.  The Sigourney Weaver title refers to Alien, the great AIDS-metaphor film.  His is a stark view of his situation, and in an interview Grant talks about his "not having a future."
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on November 09, 2013, 09:55:10 pm
The famous cat herding commercial.  It is the West.  It belongs in BetterMost.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on November 10, 2013, 10:52:41 am
John Grant's TC & Honeybear from the Queen of Denmark CD.  
This song is in the middle of the film "Weekend," when the two guys are staring out the window.  Grant admits that he does not have much luck in the love department.  According to him, TC was in his life for a while, then gone.  Other songs in the album are sung to him.  The song is more about Grant's vulnerability and insecurity than it is about TC.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn31Jc8LMFM[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: CellarDweller on November 10, 2013, 08:29:20 pm
The famous cat herding commercial.  It is the West.  It belongs in BetterMost.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8[/youtube]

Never saw that one before!  LOL
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sophia on November 11, 2013, 04:41:43 am
A little step further...

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6QOLBHPF18[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on November 11, 2013, 11:14:10 am
Sophia, the Dave & Chris video could only appeal to a sick mind---I LOVED it. :)

What I offer here is the  Prom Scene, which ended Season 1 of QAF.  I may be the only QAF freak in BetterMost, but my grizzled, old, far-too-romantic heart beats faster when I see it.  Don't worry about the sad ending--Justin recovers and all is well.  As they dance, watch the expression on Brian's (the older man's) face--hot.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9u_Y2u2ZAk[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sophia on November 11, 2013, 02:09:26 pm
Time for some hardcore. : )


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNc3Z_cvydY[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sophia on November 11, 2013, 02:15:27 pm
LOL...


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfCp1QKzOSs[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sophia on November 11, 2013, 06:22:27 pm
Sophia, the Dave & Chris video could only appeal to a sick mind---I LOVED it. :)

What I offer here is the famous Prom Scene, which ended Season 1 of QAF.  I may be the only QAF freak in BetterMost, but my grizzled, old, far-too-romantic heart beats faster when I see it.  Don't worry about the sad ending--Justin recovers and all is well.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9u_Y2u2ZAk[/youtube]

Hi X-man

Havn´t seen QAF before...looks very interesting. I will check it out, when I get  my senses back to normal. Until then enjoy Dave & Chris the deluxe version, with a speghetti Western theme.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssw-mPYRSZs[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on February 02, 2014, 02:17:57 am
This is Tom Rush's Driving Wheel from the 1970 album, and is the best version of the song there is.
Imagine your lover is away, and is going to be delayed getting back to you, and then the phone rings.  This is everyone's ultimate fantasy phone call:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyyCAU_TZ28[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on February 02, 2014, 02:59:05 am
<John Grant & Midlake - I Wanna Go to Marz> done by positive viber
From what I know about Grant, this seems to be about his teenage years in a small town (Parker, CO to be exact).  He contrasts the cloyingly sweet "malt shop" young, straight love scene with his real desire to "go to Marz" where "your sweet 16 is waiting for you after the show...where you'll get your heart's desire...(and) I will meet you under the lights."  If you know the small town high school scene and its alienation, you can relate to this song, particularly if you are gay.  This is the song which ends "Weekend."

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83iPcpY3TPg[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on February 03, 2014, 11:50:51 am
<John Grant - Sigourney Weaver> done by Mr.Tappis14
This appears to describe Grant's feelings the day after he learned he was HIV positive.  The Sigourney Weaver title refers to Alien, the great AIDS-metaphor film.  His is a stark view of his situation, and in an interview Grant talks about his "not having a future."  It is not an easy song to listen to if you are HIV-positive, or have spent time with your HIV-positive brothers and sisters.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iWtIFJ-og[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on February 07, 2014, 10:48:23 am
1950's Education on "Homosexuality"
Imagine you were there in the school audience watching, and that you know you are gay, but you pray that no one else finds out.  I was there; I know how it felt.  Stuff like this is why I tell my younger LGBT brothers and sisters to be very grateful you missed this sort of stuff.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmqNiFJyI28[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: CellarDweller on February 08, 2014, 01:33:58 am
a sickness of the mind.

A part of me thinks some of this is funny, given the society we live in now, but there are people who still think that way.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips--Moscow Flash Dance
Post by: x-man on February 08, 2014, 08:44:24 am
I have always been a fan of flash mobs--they surprise and bewilder spectators, then captivate them.  With all the dark news coming out of Russia these days, I come to think of them as an uptight, conservative bunch.  Then I see something like this, and realize there may be hope for them yet.  Enjoy.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgoapkOo4vg#t=307[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sason on February 08, 2014, 12:38:28 pm
^^^^^^^^

I love flash mobs. This one is quite spectacular!

Thanks for posting it, x-man.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sason on February 08, 2014, 12:39:29 pm
(http://bigtengirl.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/6a00d8354f1fb569e20120a8ebe2c0970b.jpg)


Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: CellarDweller on February 08, 2014, 04:04:01 pm
putin on a ritz
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: morrobay on February 08, 2014, 06:47:24 pm
  :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: serious crayons on February 09, 2014, 10:11:40 am
I got curious about the production company behind Boys Beware. Turns out Sid Davis has a Wikipedia entry, and that he was famous for his scare-tactic "educational" films. He died about a year after Brokeback Mountain came out.

Filmmaking career

In November 1949 Linda Joyce Glucoft, a six-year-old girl in Los Angeles, California, was molested and murdered by a man named Fred Stroble. The story made front-page news in the Los Angeles Times for a week as police and the FBI searched for Stroble. The story was picked up by Time Magazine and other national media, and led to a flurry of reported rapes and attempted rapes. Some media began to speculate that the supposed epidemic of rape was simply media manipulation of public perception.

Davis stated that the tragedy particularly disturbed him because his then-six-year-old daughter Jill did not seem to pay attention to his warnings about strangers. Davis talked to John Wayne saying that a film about this should be made, and Wayne suggested that Davis make the film. Wayne gave Davis $1,000 ($9811.19 when adjusted for inflation) and used the money to make his first film, The Dangerous Stranger,[5] a film he would remake at least twice over the next 30 years. The film tells the story of several young children—some of the children are kidnapped and eventually saved, others are kidnapped and never seen again. Davis used schoolchildren and police officers instead of professional actors. Peter L. Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[t]he film was a success among schools and police departments".[5]

Davis sold copies of the film to schools and police departments, reaping a $250,000 profit. He used the money to make more than 150 films over the next few decades. Davis' films are typically 10 to 30 minutes long; he prided himself on making each one for $1,000, a minuscule film budget even at that time. Due to the content of his films, people referred to him as the "King of Calamity".[6]

His films cover topics such as driver safety, marijuana use, heroin addiction, and gang warfare. Live and Learn (1956), a fairly famous Davis film, features Jill cutting out paper dolls in her room. When her father comes home she jumps up to greet him, trips on the carpet, and impales herself on the scissors. Other children in the film are equally unlucky—falling off cliffs, being run over by cars, or losing vision in one eye from flying shards of glass.

One of Davis' most notorious films, Boys Beware (1961), produced with the cooperation of the Inglewood, California Police Department and the Inglewood Unified School District, warns boys of the perceived dangers of male homosexuals. The film includes the line "What Jimmy didn't know was that Ralph was sick—a sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious—a sickness of the mind. You see, Ralph was a homosexual: a person who demands an intimate relationship with members of their own sex." The same year, Davis made Girls Beware, warning girls not to put themselves into situations where they would be defenseless, a topic that Davis had covered at least 10 years earlier in his film Name Unknown, in which a man used a gun to accost a couple in isolated surroundings, forcing the boy into the trunk of the car and raping the girl.

Also in 1961, Davis made the film Seduction of the Innocent, targeting teenagers with the message that marijuana use leads to heroin addiction, a message that many marijuana activists dispute as an example of a slippery slope fallacy. The film follows a teenage girl through her experimentation with "reds", "pep pills", and 7-Up, to her first puff of marijuana, to experimentation with and addiction to heroin, to her fate as a prostitute arrested on her twentieth birthday, "lost to society". The film promises that "she'll continue her hopeless, degrading existence until she escapes in death."

In 1964 his company Sid Davis Productions distributed his film Too Tough to Care, aimed at undermining teenage resistance to anti-smoking education. The film used satire and humor, in a short story with no narration, to illustrate the misleading claims of cigarette advertising – an unconventional approach for its genre. The film garnered positive reviews in the mainstream press as well as coverage in academic journals.

Davis' work is consistently about a relatively small group of themes: that strangers must be treated with caution, that the world itself is an unfriendly place, regardless of the presence of strangers, and that children must think before acting. His films typically feature monotonous narration suffused with what Mental Hygiene author Ken Smith calls a "sledgehammer morality." His work is anecdotal and unsupported by evidence, and is notorious among social guidance films because Davis covered topics that scholarly film producers such as Coronet Films and Encyclopædia Britannica did not address. Coronet, Centron Corporation, and Britannica typically had teams of scholars with PhDs in sociology who guided development of their films. Davis, when he used consultants, rarely used anyone with a degree in a relevant field, instead he used policemen and detectives for their anecdotal advice.

Aside from his social warning films generally known for their bleakness, inaccuracy and simplistic presentations, Davis made some police training films such as Shotgun or Sidearm? (explaining which situations call for which firearms) and military films such as LAPES and PLADS (explaining delivery systems developed to allow planes to drop supplies onto exact locations in generally hostile territory in Vietnam).

Two atypical films in his social warning film canon are Gang Boy (1954) and Age 13 (1955). Both were written and directed by Art Swerdloff. In Gang Boy, Mexican and Anglo gangs in southern California declare a truce and begin working together to make a better world for their younger siblings. The film was based on a true story that happened in Pomona, California in the 1950s.

After a few years of directing films, Davis continued as a cinematographer for his company, Sid Davis Productions, hiring others such as Art Swerdloff, Robert D. Ellis, and Ib Melchior to write and direct. Later he hired cinematographers to lens the films as well as office workers to distribute them, and spent his time enjoying his hobby of mountain climbing.

Davis became involved in the real estate market in Los Angeles during the 1950s, at a time when it was booming due to development resulting from the influx of people to work in the defense industry. Through income from his films, work as a stand-in, and real estate investments, Davis became a multimillionaire.

Later in his life, Davis became famous among mountain climbers, securing the world record for climbing California's Mt. San Jacinto, climbing it 643 times over his life, the last time on September 1, 1998, at age 82.

Filmography

Margalit Fox of The New York Times said "Mr. Davis lost count of all the films he made, but there seem to have been at least 150, perhaps as many as 200."[4] Fox, in the year 2006, said "[t]o modern audiences, Mr. Davis's work can look like high camp. Some of his films have aged strikingly badly, in particular 'Boys Beware,'[...]"[4] Rick Prelinger, a historian specializing in nontheatrical films, said that some of Davis's works had, in 2006, artistic merit, citing Age 13 and Gang Boy.[4]




Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on February 09, 2014, 12:32:59 pm

One of Davis' most notorious films, Boys Beware (1961), produced with the cooperation of the Inglewood, California Police Department and the Inglewood Unified School District, warns boys of the perceived dangers of male homosexuals. The film includes the line "What Jimmy didn't know was that Ralph was sick—a sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious—a sickness of the mind. You see, Ralph was a homosexual: a person who demands an intimate relationship with members of their own sex." .... "[t]o modern audiences, Mr. Davis's work can look like high camp. Some of his films have aged strikingly badly, in particular 'Boys Beware,'[...]"[4]

Thank you for posting this.
I really hope straight people, i.e.,the huge majority of people in power, in the Western World can look at these films as "high camp...aged strikingly badly."  I have been doing a lot of thinking since the Dallas Buyer's Club debate, and I am beginning to loosen up.  There is indeed no reason to, as you put it, "borrow trouble" when confronting the future.  Maybe things for LGBT people really are permanently getting better, and I must try to see my own situation as having one foot in the bad old days (as in the film), and the other in the Now--rather than my being imprisoned in the past.  To some extent this is a leap of faith.  To say all this in BetterMost is perhaps preaching to the choir.  It has taken me a long time to realize this.  Thanks to all of you who have helped me along the way.
 :)

sc,  thanks for the linking tip.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: serious crayons on February 09, 2014, 08:36:30 pm
Thank you for posting this.
I really hope straight people, i.e.,the huge majority of people in power, in the Western World can look at these films as "high camp...aged strikingly badly."  I have been doing a lot of thinking since the Dallas Buyer's Club debate, and I am beginning to loosen up.  There is indeed no reason to, as you put it, "borrow trouble" when confronting the future.  Maybe things for LGBT people really are permanently getting better, and I must try to see my own situation as having one foot in the bad old days (as in the film), and the other in the Now--rather than my being imprisoned in the past.  To some extent this is a leap of faith.  To say all this in BetterMost is perhaps preaching to the choir.  It has taken me a long time to realize this.  Thanks to all of you who have helped me along the way.
 :)

sc,  thanks for the linking tip.

All good news, x-man! And yes, I would say that the huge majority of straight people in the Western world, in power and otherwise, would see it as badly aged at best, or even more likely a shockingly offensive eye-opening reminder of how far we have come in 50 or so years. Even right-wingers and homophobes don't sound like that these days. (Most current homophobia, IMO, sounds like "I'm not a homophobe, but ...")



Title: Re: Great YouTube clips--Rembrandt
Post by: x-man on February 09, 2014, 09:10:47 pm
This is the only other flash mob I will post.  It doesn't have the splash of the Moscow Flash Mob, but the concept and cleverness of its execution are, perhaps, more interesting.  You have to know of Rembrandt's "Night Watch" to fully appreciate it.  The Dutch people watching it happen certainly did.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6W2ZMpsxhg[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips-- Dorothy
Post by: x-man on February 11, 2014, 02:18:33 am
DOROTHY -- sung by Judy Collins from HARD TIMES FOR LOVERS

Some may say that my YouTube song suggestions are bleak, speaking only of regret and desolation, and are aimed at those whose lives have not turned out as they planned, and those for whom love has not been their frequent friend.  Well, I like sad songs.

Think of "Dorothy" as Judy Collins singing not only about Dorothy in Kansas, and about the people I described, but especially about Ennis some years after he loses Jack, and is thinking back to the summer on the mountain, to "the single moment of artless charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives."

{Living in Kansas, a life alone,
she never married, she's hardly known.
She stares out the window, far away,
looking for another windy day.

Dorothy was a fool to leave;
she could have stayed.
She held it right in her hands, she had it made.
She could have had it all for keeps, she was afraid,
she could have stayed.

It seems like only yesterday,
but 40 years have up and slipped away,
since a lovely, black-haired girl
was taken for her one and only whirl.

Dorothy was a fool to leave.........

Same old bluebirds flying high
over rainbows in the Kansas sky.
Why oh why?
Oh why?

I guess it only serves her right
for trading all that colour for black and white.
All her sorrow, all because
there ain't no way to stay in Kansas when you've been to Oz.

Dorothy was a fool to leave......}

What makes this song so poignant to me is that life teaches that Dorothy could NOT have stayed in Oz, that the summer on BBM was bound to end, and the snow had to come.  But do we have to trade all that colour for black and white so quickly?  That is a savage reality to have to face.




[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKW38w8gJfE[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sason on February 11, 2014, 04:29:42 pm
What if....

homosexuality were normative, and heterosexuality was nonstandard?

Here's a well made reverse take on things.


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOJgDW0gPI[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on February 12, 2014, 02:51:19 am
What if....
homosexuality were normative, and heterosexuality was nonstandard?
Here's a well made reverse take on things.

I watched this clip here, and then went to YouTube to see what the comments were to the film.  They were wide ranging, but I wonder if many of the people got the message.  What do you think?

Sason, do you know whom this film is aimed at--is it for anti-bullying in schools or for adults to think about?  I do think that asking kids, or many older people, to see themselves in the characters in the film will not be all that successful without a lot of guidance--however heavy-handed it must be.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sason on February 12, 2014, 04:01:43 pm
I don't know the story behind the video, or whom it's aimed at. I picked it off Facebook and posted it here.

Maybe it's a bit blunt, but I think it's an interesting and innovative take on the subject. Maybe it can provide food for thought for people who aren't completely rigid.

A bit like the novel from the 70s, Egalia's Daughters by Gerd Brantenberg, where the gender roles are completely reversed in every little detail, even the language.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on March 04, 2014, 12:54:53 pm
LOOKING FOR AN ECHO by KENNY VANCE AND THE PLANOTONES

This is a sweet and poignant look at the highpoint of R&B.  If you're old enough, this song is a about a lot more than music.

At Erasmus Old High School we used to harmonize,
me and Danny and Ira, and two Italian guys.
We were singing oldies, but they were newies then,
and today when I play my old 45's, I remember when

We'd practice in a subway, in a lobby or a hall,
crowded in a doorway singing doo wops to the wall,
and if we went to a party and they wouldn't let us sing,
we'd lock ourselves in the bathroom and nobody could get in.

'Cause we were looking for an echo, an answer to our sound,
a place to be in harmony, a place we almost found.

And the girls would gather round us, and our heads would really swell.
We'd sing songs by the Moonglows, the Harptones and the Dells,
and when we sang "Sincerely" we really sang it high.
Even though it was falsetto, it almost reached the sky.

We've sung a lot of changes since 1955,
and a lot of bad arrangements we've tried to harmonize.
Now we've turned into oldies, but we were newies then
and today when I play my old 45's I remember when

We were looking for an echo, an answer to our sound,
a place to be in harmony, a place we almost found.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke1dV_IpSKA[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sophia on March 05, 2014, 03:53:16 pm

Amazing beutiful dance and song, worth sharing.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LifAcqepJVI[/youtube]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6ye0Kjw4o[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on March 11, 2014, 01:37:08 am
Some of you are going to accuse me of being very sick for posting this, others will learn something, and perhaps some of you will be amused.
This is the Scarfing Scene from the last episode of QAF's first season.
If you don't know what "scarfing" is, google it now (I am not going to tell you), because if you don't know what it is, you won't have any idea what is going on.
That such a dangerous practice would be treated with such lush cinematography and music is amazing.  The scarf itself is the central character.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Ene48fP4U[/youtube]
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: CellarDweller on March 11, 2014, 07:55:45 am
can't see the video at work, and from what scarfing is described as, that's probably a good thing.

:laugh:
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on March 13, 2014, 09:40:17 am
can't see the video at work, and from what scarfing is described as, that's probably a good thing.

:laugh:

Did you watch the video when you got home?
Put that scarf down immediately!
 ;)
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Peter John Shields on March 17, 2014, 09:46:17 am
Great video about the LGBTIQ community:
&feature=youtu.be
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: x-man on March 17, 2014, 09:19:28 pm
Great video about the LGBTIQ community:

A charmingly and earnestly done video.  Thank you for posting it.  I am sure all of us LGBTs will enjoy seeing it--I did.
You must be Peter.  Thanks again
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: CellarDweller on March 18, 2014, 08:41:58 am
What x-man said, great video!
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Peter John Shields on March 18, 2014, 12:48:48 pm
Thanks Cellar Dweller and x-man.  Yes it is a very good video with a great many truths.  I haven't seen the film it refers to - I am scared it will be too sad.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Peter John Shields on March 18, 2014, 12:56:46 pm
So true what Zac says about not judging people on who they love.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sason on March 27, 2014, 11:22:16 am
This is by far the best BBM video I've seen in a very long time.




Extremely well done. Brings it all back again.
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Sason on March 29, 2014, 02:33:28 pm
I must be in a very silly mood, I nearly LMAO at this:

http://slightlyviral.com/two-men-show-how-animals-eat-their-food
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips--MATT ALBER
Post by: x-man on April 03, 2015, 06:44:21 am

This is "Handsome Man" by Matt Alber, from his album Wind Sand and Stars.

I believe Alber is by far the best gay singer/songwriter around today.  On the basis of this one song I got all his albums from iTunes--and am very glad I did.  This clip if the Official Video, which I suppose, is the reason the whole clip will not appear here.  Believe me, it is well worth accessing just by the link I have provided.  The only gay singer/songwriter who approaches Alber is John Grant (Queen of Denmark), but Grant is so grim and darki.  With him it is always love gone wrong and unhappiness--of course he does it extremely well.  With Alber it is love gone right.  He said in an interview that he was aiming at "lovey-dovey." I suspect Alber's music--like Grant's--will appeal to an older, more thoughtful crowd.

Besides being a fantastic gay singer/songwriter, Alber is a conservatory-trained countertenor, and performs all over the world with choirs and a chamber orchestra.  At the end of this clip, as YouTube often does, it shows a screen filled with little photos of other songs by him.  One of them shows him in a tux, as a soloist with a symphony orchestra performance of Messiah.  This classical training shows in the quality of his voice--and in the sophistication of the orchestration around his gay songs.  I suppose he used his orchestra and friends for the back up.  Also, Allber was invited to give 4 performances at the last Bear Week in Provinance Town.

The video of Handsome Man is so incredibly sweet.  It is Alber with (I suppose) his lover getting up in the morning.  Alber is the one in the light-blue muscle shirt.
Both are bears in their 30's.  The obvious love between the two as they interact is the key to the video and the song.  A  line from the song is "We've both been loved and we've both been kissed" meaning that theyy are both older and have been around.  Yet the lyrics of the song are of young love unrestrained by reality, and point to how the singer feels about his lover.  It reminded me of the dialogue between Anthony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare--the dialogue between them is unreal in that they are too old for it, it is seemingly appropriate more for younger people for whom reality is not so important.  Instead the words--in A&C and Handsome Man show us the depth of the love between them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8uocNOr7a
Title: Re: Great YouTube clips--THE WATER IS WIDE
Post by: x-man on April 05, 2015, 01:32:27 am
This is Steve Goodman's version of The Water is Wide, an old Appalachian folk song.  The melody is simple, as Appalachian folk songs often are--it is the lyrics that are subtle and profound.

I have listened to many versions of this song, and there seem to be 2 variations.  In the first, sung by women, it tells of her sadness at finding out that her true love has been false to her, then goes on to sing of the futility of expecting him to love her in return.  In the second variation as sung by Goodman and other men, the song begins the same way, but then, by subtle changes in wording, shifts into the recognition that what is at fault is his own inability and capacity to love.  This leads to a dark meditation on the nature of love itself.  This second variation is a far more profound understanding of the matter.

I offer you the link to the second, deeper version here.  If you have the chance, compare it to the versions sung by women you will find on several YouTube offerings.

Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: milomorris on April 05, 2015, 04:37:02 pm
As with many Appalachian folks songs, the tune of The Water is Wide comes from a Scottish song. The tune was originally O Waly, Waly and dates from the 1600s. It appears in some hymnals, including the Presbyterian hymnal, with different lyrics.
Title: PANCHO AND LEFTY--WHAT'S THE REAL MEANING?
Post by: x-man on April 07, 2015, 09:49:53 am
This is the Townes Van Zandt rendering of Pancho and Lefty.  Van Zandt wrote the song, and explains a little about this before he begins to sing.  You all know the song very well.  I am posting Van Zandt's version here because you may not have heard it, and, after all, he is the composer.  I am NOT posting it because I buy into the BBMRadio political correctness pose in banning Willie Nelson.  The Nelson-Haggard version is clearly better, but we all know it very well.  BTW the whole question of banning music because you don't like the politics etc., of the performer or composer is very problematic—think banning Wagner because of his Nazi associations.  (Actually I will not listen to Wagner because of this very reason, but although I am proudly LGBT I DO listen to Willie Nelson because his rendering of a song—at least in this case—is the best, and I am not so naive as to believe that other versions are being sung by gay-friendly singers.  Dylan?  With his fundamentalist religious views?  Give me a break.)  Back to Pancho and Lefty.

I also check out the SongMeanings website.  Everybody and his brother has posted there about P&L.  They all say the same thing—they think the hopelessly obvious, and think that they were the first one to notice this, that Lefty turned Pancho in to the Federales for money, went back to Cleveland where he now leads a desperate meaningless life because he was such a rat to turn in his friend for money.  Hello?  That is obviously the meaning of that part of the song.  I suggest that is not the real question about the song.  NOR do I wonder if Pancho and Lefty were more than friends.  That is gay wishful thinking.  Of course Pancho is good and noble, handsome and sexy and probably fantastic in bed, but that isn't the issue.  So what is the issue? you ask.

If you are aware of the techniques of literary analysis, you notice immediately that the song is in two parts.  The actual Pancho/Lefty story is the second part.  The real issue is the relationship of the 2 parts of the song.  It is there that the meaning will be found, and that question is still open.  So, wade in, people.

The first part is this:

Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

The Pancho/Lefty narrative is the dream.  The song seems to be about a third person, who the singer refers to as “my friend.”   I offer 2 possibilities for the relationship between the 2 parts of the song.    1)   The “friend” began life with optimism and his own Hollywood -style Western movie certainties about life being morally clear and easy to confront, only to realize how, at least for him, it ends up in compromise, uncertainty and emptiness.  The P/L story is then an illustration of this—the “friend” started life out as Pancho and ended up as Lefty.  This is the interpretation I think most of you will adopt.

I am wondering about another possibility.  First of all, let's ignore Vn Zandt's “simple awh-shucks Texas cowboy” pose and grant that his lyrics are more sophisticated than he is letting on.

When I first heard the song I was immediately reminded of Conrad Aitken's short story Silent Snow Secret Snow.  In that story a boy, confined to bed, probably schizophrenic, each day listens for the footsteps outside of the postman approaching his house.  At first he hears them from far away, gradually he only hears them as the postman is closer, and each day closer, until at the end he cannot hear them at all, and he loses all connection with reality.  With the song we have an analogous situation with the son gradually changing from a person open to the world to one losing touch with reality and slipping into a dream—the dream of what life should be like, where good guys wear white hats and bad guys wear black ones





Title: Re: Great YouTube clips
Post by: Front-Ranger on April 07, 2015, 09:58:02 pm
x-man that is a really deep interpretation of the song. I will have to listen to it often to understand.

It's really interesting how many of the songs I like turn out to be ancient Scottish songs. Recently I obtained the book Wayfaring Strangers written by Fiona Ritchie with an introduction by Dolly Parton. It talks about how songs made their way from the Highlands of Scotland to Ulster, Ireland and ultimately to Appalachia. It's a wonderful book, and has a CD as well, but it doesn't devote enough space to RObert Burns, IMO.