The DU Lounge

Probably my most-viewed videos are live performances by bands or artists I enjoy. I've "gone" to more historic concerts that way than I can count.

Reaction videos of naifs experiencing classic music of the 60's and 70's are often fun. The quality varies, though, and while some reactors are a pure joy ("Finding Hannah" on the Beatles, for example), others make me wince at their combination of stupidity, condescension, and arrogance.

Videos of people playing games I'll probably never get around to or cannot run on my laptop are also fun. Although a lot of the people who do those are making a living at it and have personalities I just cannot stand. My core group of game-players may not have the hype and views of some of the larger and more popular ones, but they are much easier for me to take. Indeed, my favorite gamer used to say *nothing* during his games (because his English was sub-par), but lately he's been talking after several people whined that silent playthroughs were boring.

Some of the historical videos on YT are truly excellent. Well-researched, understated, and usually pretty lengthy. There are, however, a crap load of terrible AI hype channels who produce garbage videos that can usually be easily recognized by their titles ("Why the Germans were terrified of this plane!!!!!" ), even though the channel names seem to change on a random basis. There are sports channels that are similar -- AI narrated crap. Well, YT has a ton of AI narrated crap, that's a given.

Last is videos of baseball and football games from the dawn of recorded time (ie, the 50's, 60's, and 70's). Even though the outcome is always known to me, and even though the video quality is often pretty poor (why, some of these games are even *gasp* in black and white!), I simply find them more enjoyable than any sport as it is played and broadcast in this century. The advertising, the hype, and the brainless announcers who must fill every second of dead air with their questionable wit and insight, to say nothing of the bullshit rules on the field, make both sports, which I used to love, unwatchable for me in the present era. I'd much rather watch Gibson in the World Series again than the superstar-du-jour pitch his six innings and out today.

-- Mal