Mary Spender’s Church Bells

(Click on the video above to play)

Monday morning, crack guitar player, singer, songwriter, and videomaker Mary Spender takes us behind the scenes to her castle, as she gives us a backstage explanation of how she put together her Romeo-and-Juliet influenced music video with zero crew. A really fascinating look at what talent and resourcefulness can do. Oh, and add camera drone operator to that list.

More at Mary Spender

A Trip Through New York City: 1911

 

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An extraordinary video with corrected speed. The poster did a great job of adding ambient sound to enhance the overall effect of the video. I was surprised to see the Flatiron building and the intersection where it is located so recognizable over a hundred years later. How many locations do you recognize?

Thanks to YouTuber guy jones

Sin of Self-Love

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I hope the title for this post does not refer too much to my posting my 2016 Shakespeare Sonnet Slam video here. My excuses: 1) the producers did an excellent job capturing all the performances on video; 2) it’s edifying to watch a video record of oneself  in order to see if the external reality lined up with what the internal experience had been;  3) theater and live performance can be a frustratingly ephemeral experience—it’s nice to have a tangible artifact of the occasion for one’s mental (and virtual) scrapbook.

My previous analysis of the sonnet is here.

You can follow along, including my flub in line five:

Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye,
And all my soul and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp’d with tann’d antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
   ‘Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
   Painting my age with beauty of thy days.

 

 

Movie Magic King

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Not since Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton has there been such an inspired movie trickster as Zach King. While most of the magic I put on this site contains no camera trickery whatsoever, Zach King’s clever YouTube videos are nothing but inspired bits of camera conjuring.

My favorite gag: the dinner invite.

Thanks to YouTuber AWESOME

God Only Knows

Paul McCartney once called Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows” the most beautiful love song ever written. I found the version above to be very intriguing. The performers are from several different genres and generations of music. I kept watching this over and over to identify all the performers, to catch all the visual detail in the imaginative creation, and to re-live the beauty of the song.

Performers:

Martin James Bartlett – celeste

Pharrell Williams

Emeli Sandé

Elton John

Lorde

Chris Martin

Brian Wilson

Florence Welch

Kylie Minogue

Stevie Wonder – vocals, harmonica

Eliza Carthy

Nicola Benedetti – violin

Jools Holland – piano

Brian May – electric guitar

Jake Bugg

Katie Derham – violin

Tees Valley Youth Choir

Alison Balsom – piccolo trumpet

One Direction

Jaz Dhami

Paloma Faith

Chrissie Hynde

Jamie Cullum

Baaba Maal

Danielle de Niese

Dave Grohl

Sam Smith