Recent Stories with tag youtube

And now a video preview of what you're likely to see tonight, once the roads ice back up. People, charge your cameras! If you're driving, a safety tip: Avoid really steep hills. 

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It's viral and virile, isn't it? Here's the enigmatic set-up: "A few weeks ago, the 2010 AquaSox pitching staff decided to grow mustaches. Slowly but surely the mustaches have crept on to the faces of over a dozen players. Can you match the man to the mustache?"

Hardcourt bike polo. Bikes and mallets. Three on three. A new short documentary about Seattle's hardcourt bike polo history says it was born from the fact that there was an empty parking lot across the street from Kozmo.com headquarters. While waiting for deliveries, the bike messengers got a few games in. Kozmo came and went, but bike polo lived on.

"For fun," the Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold is opening for Joanna Newsom, just a few times, on her tour, Pitchfork tells me. I don't see Seattle anywhere on that list, so it's nice the Pecknold has added this video to his YouTube channel. Never satisfied, Pitchfork would like a duet.

I am not unbiased about this Falstaff at Seattle Opera (it runs through March 13). In fact, I am counting the hours until tonight's performance.

Previously, I saw the production performed by the Opera's Young Artists, also directed by Peter Kazaras, and was absolutely blown away how Shakespearean it was. That, I realize, sounds strange, but it's a Verdi opera and if you saw Seattle Opera's production of Verdi's Macbeth, you realize the latitude a director has. (I didn't love Macbeth.)

Drama is about choices, and Kazaras chooses wisely. Bernard Jacobson, in his Seattle Times review, goes all out. Jacobson is a thoughtful critic, and more immune to gushing than many. But he likes what he likes: "Kazaras' genius is to use genuinely original ideas to set the true message of an opera forth in a new and utterly arresting light."

The YouTube title says it all: Otter Cuteness for Valentine's Day!

As with most holidays, the Woodland Park Zoo will be giving the animals special treats to celebrate, but the otters got theirs early this year.  What they're snackin' on above is a "heart-shaped ice pop made with a splash of fruit juice, a handful of smelt, a sprinkling of carrots, and a whole lotta love."  Uh, yum?  Other critters will get honey, strawberries and cranberries, herbal bouquets, and heart-shaped steaks for the carnivores.

The zoo claims this break in routine, like Confuse-A-Cat (or Bewild-A-Beast, for that matter), keeps the animals alert and stimulated.

Full zoo Valentine's Day treat schedule after the jump.

• Golden lion tamarins 10:00 a.m.
• Snow leopards 10:30
• Otters 10:30
• Orangutans 11:00
• Goats 11:00
• Pigs 11:00
• Willawong Station 11:30
• Sloth bear 11:30
• Jaguar 1:00 p.m.
• Gorillas 1:20
• Penguins 1:30
• Lemurs 1:30
• Keas 1:30
• Tiger 2:00
• Elephants 2:00
• Red pandas 3:00

One day in seventh grade, I was waiting for the #14 bus across from Washington Middle School when three teenage gang members approached this kid in my class. One gang member, who was wearing brass knuckles, suddenly punched the kid in the temple, knocking him cold.

A few teachers came out to check on the kid, who soon came to and staggered down the alley leading to Odessa Brown Childrens' Clinic, vowing revenge. No Metro security guards were there. No hidden cameras caught the scene. And so KING-5 didn't cover it. The Seattle Times was likewise silent.

Which is why you haven't heard about that beating until now, unlike that of a teenage girl in the bus tunnel, which occurred in the presence of Metro security people who did nothing to stop it, and a surveillance camera which caught the whole episode on tape. That sickening beating has sparked a fresh round of city-wide Metro-targeted outrage.

But consider this--if Metro hadn't deployed security to the bus tunnel, would a fight between teenagers even be a story? If Metro didn't have video surveillance, would the TV news be reporting it? The bad publicity Metro's getting stems from the agency's attempt to do the right thing.... (more)

The 30th annual Sundance Film Festival is in full swing in Park City as of last night, so I've been deluged with emails all week about upcoming films, press lines, happy hours, and luncheons with Barbara Boxer and Wilmer Valderrama.  (I wish the latter wasn't true.)  I'm heading out to the fest on Sunday, so check in here all next week for my Sundance recaps.

As part of this year's festival, Sundance has teamed up with YouTube to allow the dissemination of movies via YouTube's new film rental service.  During the fest itself (now through the 31st), you may rent three films (at $3.99 apiece) appearing as part of this year's Sundance--in the fest's new Next series, spotlighting low-budget films--as well as two favorites from last year.  The highlights include local filmmaker Linas Phillips' road trip comedy of errors Bass Ackwards and Louie Psihoyos' dolphin fishing doc The Cove, which I would call 2009's best documentary, as well as 2009's best horror film. 

Full press release after the jump.... (more)

If you own an iPhone, you've run up against the downside of dominant market share. Local software company Adobe is responsible for Flash, which, besides being a terrific way to annoy site visitors as they wait for landing pages to load or as they scramble to turn down music that blares suddenly, has become the default way to display animation and video on the internet.

But Apple has so far refused to allow Flash to play in the iPhone's Safari browser. They have their reasons. Adobe has responded to the more technical variety, but perhaps sensing that Apple wouldn't be happy with anything less than iFlash, they have been hammering and sawing on Flash CS5. (They're foregoing a public beta, in fact, to roll out the software faster.)

CS5 contains a packager that "will automatically convert any Flash app into an iPhone app," reports the Washington Post. (A Hulu app, that's what that means! Or it should. Get on that, Hulu. Oh, good.)

But the delay has already given Adobe (and Microsoft's Silverlight, for that matter) a competitor they weren't looking for.

Yesterday YouTube announced it's supporting HTML5 video players, which (currently) work in Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer. Today it's Vimeo. ReadWriteWeb explains that, "An HTML5 video player will allow videos to be viewed without Adobe's Flashplayer plug-in, videos will load faster and developers will be able to build all kinds of other intriguing features into a media delivery scheme based on the next version of HTML."

You can sign up for an experimental HTML5 video player here.

I am not backing a particular horse here--my hope is simply to maximize the streaming video I can watch via iPhone, as a way of paying AT&T back for their unlimited data plan pricing. Flash, HTML5--I just want to play Lawrence of Arabia in high rotation until a data center buckles.

With the holidays almost here and a Senate healthcare bill in the bag, everybody's precious Rachel Maddow devoted a large segment of her show last night to some very important newz:  dueling viral lip dub sensations made by two rival Seattle high schools, Shorecrest and Shorewood.

Over at the Big Blog, Monica Guzman has been doggedly covering this beat for a while now.  So if Shorecrest responds to Shorewood's backwards gauntlet with a new video, you can bet Monica will be the first to know.

Had enough of those treacly "Christmas in the Northwest" lyrics? Here's a change of pace.

Yep, that's a real (twisted) take on "The Twelve Days of Christmas," released exclusively to L.A. radio way back in pre-grungesploitation 1990. (And the voices are those of some of the show's actual cast. Can't mistake Kimmy Robertson's squeaky pitch.) The North Bend- and Snoqualmie-shot Twin Peaks clips are a more recent addition, but they remind us what a head-scratchingly wonderful present David Lynch gave us—courtesy of quaint, sleepy, sometimes creepy Northwest locales—all those Christmases long, long ago.

The Twin Peaks legend limps on in North Bend's Twede's Cafe, worth a visit if you're in the area during the holidays. They still offer a damn fine (well, mediocre, really) cup of coffee.

For my money, CHS has said it best: "Depending on where you fall on the Grinch spectrum, Seattle Santarchy either means a surreal experience watching a group of Santas invade bars and have a holly, jolly Christmas--or an irritating experience watching a bunch of douchebags make asses of themselves in holiday costumes."

However, it's hard to begrudge the rogue Santas playtime in a public park, and I'd like to thank YouTubers Sonny Kwan and cadabeso for sharing the moment with the general public. It really warms my heart to see Santas ice skating and scoring goals in soccer.

This video of drug dealing was shot around First Avenue and Cherry Street in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, just a few days ago. The great part is that I think that's the theme to Australia hit soap opera Neighbours that's been added as the soundtrack.

Hey, it's the digital leaked music age! Latest evidence: One week ahead of Them Crooked Vultures' (Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones, Josh Homme) eponymous debut release, the whole thing is available (and legally so) on YouTube.

Of course you can "preorder the future," too; the iTunes version includes two bonus live tracks. Which of these dirty, huge-riff tracks will we hear at the Paramount November 21? All of them, I expect. And perhaps some Foo Fighters, QOTSA, and Zeppelin covers? Hope so.

What the hell, people? Tickets are still available.