Tag: Lost In The Pond

Late Night Rabbit Holes

You know how it is. It’s getting late, but it’s not that late.

You’ve either streamed everything you currently find interesting, or you’re totally overwhelmed by too much choice. Reading seems like work. It’s a little too late to start playing music and wake up the rest of the house (who are quite sensibly sleeping at this hour). You could just go to bed, but you’re just not quite ready yet. Housework is out of the equation completely. So where do you turn?

YouTube. And you’ll stay there for hours. Apart from the standard dog/cat/cute kids/AFV-type rabbit hole, the possibilities are pretty much endless. We’ve all got our favorites, of course, but in case you’re looking for something new to check out, I’d like to share some of my go-to channels with you.

Okay, so these are actually all pretty well established, but chances are you may not be aware of all of these channels. If any are new to you, why not give them a chance? If you know them all, maybe check back in on your YouTuber friends. They probably miss you.

LOST IN THE POND
-Laurence Brown discusses the differences between American and British culture. Sometimes this pertains to linguistic differences, sometimes the differences in how we live our day to day lives, holidays, cultural (and pop cultural) differences, and more. Laurence is a native Briton, but has been living in America for years with his wife, and has recently become a full fledged citizen. Being a bit of an Anglophile myself, I very much enjoy this channel, both for the information and the humor. Or, humour. I read that last sentence in Laurence’s voice just now in my brain, and if you’ve ever heard him speak, you did too.

ASHLEIGH BURTON (AKA Millennial Movie Monday)
Ashleigh (or awkward Ashleigh as she is known on social media) is a Millennial who watches older movies for the first time, reacts to them and discusses her feelings about each film. The reactions are recorded live, but heavily edited due to copyright laws. I know some people don’t like reaction videos, but I do IF the subject is interesting, and IF the person(s) doing the reacting is likeable and fun to watch. This channel has plenty of both. Ashleigh is very much at home in front of the camera (sometimes a little too much-but in a fun way) and is very good at verbalizing her thought process and emotional reactions. She covers all sorts of movies from cult classics to blockbusters, and while I don’t watch any reactions to movies I have not seen myself, when I do watch I have a good time. Movie buffs, check this one out.

LOST IN VEGAS/ROB SQUAD REACTIONS
This is a two-fer, since the channels are both fairly similar. Both channels are run by African Americans reacting to a wide variety of music.

Lost In Vegas tends to be a bit more extreme in their musical choices, and have more of a “street” vibe (you have no idea how old I felt typing that). Thee guys also tend to break down the music a little bit more from a critical point of view, and can be a little harsh when they feel the need. Yet they virtually explode with delight when they find something they love and it is a joy to watch. George and Ryan are awesome.

Rob Squad is kind of the other side of the coin. Hosted by Jay and his wife Amber, these reactions tend to be a little more positive overall. While they do still break the songs down both musically and lyrically, much more credit is given to the vibe of the song and how it makes them feel. The goal here is to spread positivity through sharing musical experience and I am here for it. They also do some movie reviews, if you’d like to investigate those.

THE TRY CHANNEL
A rotating cast of Irish people try food and drink from around the world. It goes pretty much how you’d think. While I don’t always agree with their opinions on the American foods, the reactions are often hysterically funny. Watch enough of these videos and you’ll find your favorite TRY channel personalities (Dermot Ward and Justine Stafford are mine), and, maybe, some new foods to try yourself.

DAVE’S ARCHIVES
I’ve mentioned before how I like to watch old commercials at night before bed, partially for the nostalgia, but also because it helps clear my mind before bed and has a calming effect. Well, there are quite a few channels to choose form, but Dave’s Archives is the most expansive. It’s fun to see how many commercials in a given collection I remember, how many I don’t, and how many I had forgotten about until they come back to life on my screen. It’s also neat to see some big time actors before they were famous hocking burgers and soda. Thanks Dave, if that is your real name, for keeping the memories alive.

There are plenty more channels out there, of course, but this is a pretty good group of channels to keep you busy for a while. As for me, it’s late as I type this and I need to go to bed soon. Maybe jus a little YouTube before I drift off…

Thoughts On HRH

Like many around the world, I have been thinking quite a bit about the passing of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II over the past few days. Being an American, the actions of the Royal Family have minimal effect on my day to day life, but I must confess that I have a bit more than a passing interest in what goes on in the United Kingdom.

Firstly, I do try to keep up with major world events, even if it’s just to go online and skim the headlines. When I do watch reported news I usually find myself watching PBS shows, and the BBC World Service that follows. I even have BBC News programmed into my Sirius XM satellite radio presets. As you can imagine, the news of Queen Elizabeth’s passing has taken up the majority of air time this week.

Secondly, I am a bit of an Anglophile. Which means that I’m one of those annoying Americans who likes to watch British movies and television shows, listen to British rock bands, read Nick Hornby books, subscribe to the “Lost In The Pond” YouTube channel, and feel like I know a little bit about how things work over in England specifically, and the U.K. at large. It is admittedly a narrow and possibly skewed view, but one I am always eager to expand nonetheless.

This is also how I have formed my image of the Queen. I have seen her lampooned on a few comedy shows, and critiqued, vilified, and ridiculed in punk rock music. I have also seen her staunchly defended, idolized, and loved by her subjects. Sometimes, the very same people who are the loudest naysayers are also quick to claim that they like the Royal Family just fine, really.

So how to process all this? Well, it seems to me that one has to look at the person more than the title. Having never had a sovereign in my lifetime I can’t pretend to know what that experience is like or how it affects one’s life. We do have career politicians over here though, but that’s not exactly the same thing. All I can do then, is try to be as objective as possible when considering the death of the Queen and what it means.

Look, all governments do bad things. All of them. Sometimes they are done in what they truly believe is for the good of the country, sometimes not. It seems to me that in modern times, the Queen’s role was more of a mediator, or an influencer than one of any real practical power. As I understand it, most of the political power lies in Parliament and not with the Queen.

Can blame be put at her feet for some of the atrocities committed during the early years of her reign, particularly since most of these offences were begun before she officially took power? Yes, to a degree, but how many world leaders have hands that are not stained red in some way?

As far as the Royal Family itself goes, yeah, there have been some problems. The Queen did not get along with her daughter in law Lady Diana, or her granddaughter in law, Duchess Meghan. That is unfortunate, and it happens. It’s just that in this case, it happened while the world’s eyes were watching. Besides, us normal folk love to watch the drama unfold and we love to sit in judgement of those who are considered “better” or “more special” than we are. We shouldn’t be that way, but we are.

Now, this is the part where I can hear many of you yelling at your screens about classism or racism being the culprit in these particular family feuds. Maybe you’re right, I don’t know. None of us do. Perhaps it was all just multiple generations clashing. Any article you read on these subjects is likely to be highly biased in either direction and as the band Extreme said in the early 90’s, “there are three sided to every story: Yours, Mine, and Monday Morning’s.” All families bicker and fight. All families have at least one or two people that everyone else gossips about and are looked down upon in private. trouble is, when you are a Royal there is no privacy.

Which brings us to the ugly story of Prince Andrew. He’s been a very naughty man. He got caught. Look, I’m not going to go into details here, I try to keep things clean around here. Google it if you don’t know, but be warned, it’s not pretty.

Of course you can’t hold one man’s actions against the rest of the family, but you can blame the privilege his position allows. He was stripped of his rank within the Royal Family, but it took a little too long to do so. Theory states that Elizabeth was the one allowing him to stay. Perhaps. If so, then yes, she was wrong, but she did do the right thing eventually. Let’s face it though, folks, it’s hard to find out someone you love is up to some shady stuff-and I can understand why they didn’t want that info getting out. It’s a difficult situation, and one I hope to never find anyone from my family in-and I hope the same for yours too.

I do wonder about the future of the Royals. Things seem to be splintering apart. The case can certainly be made that the monarchy is an antiquated idea that has no room in the modern world, and that the money spent on Royal things could do greater good for the working classes and the poor than to be spent on pageantry. These are worthwhile points of discussion, but they are ones best left for Britain to decide for itself. A lot of Americans have an opinion, though, and there is probably just as much Anti-Royal sentiment as there is Pro.

Which I really don’t understand. As Americans we really don’t really have a say. Well, not for a few hundred years, we haven’t. Besides, we’re all still trying to figure out what’s going on with our own rich family with political power to worry about anyone else right now.

So with all that said, I can say that I am sorry to see her go. Queen Elizabeth was thrown into power at an early age, before she should have been, really. She has seen the world change immensely during her reign. As a figurehead she has needed to steer England from the “stiff upper lip” attitude of old to a more modernized, humanitarian era. She wasn’t perfect, but I think she did extraordinarily well all things considered. She presented herself with a certain stoic grace, but always seemed to let her humanity show through. Her life and her lot were certainly not easy. Through all the negatives however, I have heard countless stories of people who encountered the Queen and were treated not like inferior subjects, but like people. Queen Elizabeth made the people she encountered feel like she cared. That quality alone makes for a great leader, figurehead or otherwise.

May she rest in peace.