Hacking YouTube
My significant other thinks I've been indulging in a little navelgazing, this past week she's walked by several times as I've been reading my very own blog. But I'm not, of course. I just can't stop watching that Spirit of Truth public access preacher video. I know it's everywhere on the internet now, but I keep coming back to replay it.
I've watched it so much that I've discovered a strange little YouTube hack. Well, maybe it's more of an artifact of how the video streaming process works via Flash:
1) Let an embedded video or a video on the YouTube site load completely. Keep it paused until the mediun grey line loading the data is all the way to the right.
2) Hit play.
3) Click and hold on the moving tab that shows how far along you are in the video.
4) Move that thing back and forth repeatedly. Don't be shy. Whip it left and right with gusto, holding the mouse button down all the while.
5) Let go of the mouse button. Now, click again and hold on the moving tab. Rather than pausing directly on a single frame, it should oscillate between two adjacent frames, creating a back and forth stutter step. Sort of a poor man's loop.
The Spirit of Truth preacher man makes for a great introductory example, because the static background accentuates the looped head spasms happening in the foreground. But try other YouTube videos, you can get interesting color stroboscopy and weird pseudo 3D effects. None of this is very new, I remember seeing a Ken Jacobs video at a past Whitney Biennial that created a much more effective pseudo 3D effect through a patented two camera process. And then there was the work of a video artist named Granular Synthesis, his frame looping installations produced similar unnerving quivers. It had a very complicated technical framework behind it, but it essentially looked like a YouTube loop.
The other thing that kept bringing me back to this video and what really torques up the insanity level, is the rendition of "One Nation Under a Groove" playing in the background as he preaches. I had to dig a while to figure out which version it was, obviously not the original, and there are dozens of covers out there. Perhaps it would have revealed itself as G-funk if the low bottom hadn't been stripped away on the video.
Ice Cube - Bop Gun (One Nation)
**Buy it on Amazon**
I picked up these Bose Triports about a month ago. Sort of a little gift to myself, got sick of listening to music on tinny cheapo headphones. To measure their bass response I used this Zongamin remix, among other tracks. The dull thuds that this track produced assured me these headphones were up to snuff:
Zongamin- Bongo Song (Jacko's Bongo Thong Remix)
**Buy it from Juno Records**
The bass levels on this Dabrye/MF Doom collaboration are just ridiculous, it pounds like an IROC-Z pulling into a Dairy Queen. I haven't listened to MF Doom for some time now, the dextrous wordplay is still there and Dabrye turns a corner with grainy synth overlays.
Dabrye feat MF Doom - Air
**Buy it at Boomkat**
Permalink
My significant other thinks I've been indulging in a little navelgazing, this past week she's walked by several times as I've been reading my very own blog. But I'm not, of course. I just can't stop watching that Spirit of Truth public access preacher video. I know it's everywhere on the internet now, but I keep coming back to replay it.
I've watched it so much that I've discovered a strange little YouTube hack. Well, maybe it's more of an artifact of how the video streaming process works via Flash:
1) Let an embedded video or a video on the YouTube site load completely. Keep it paused until the mediun grey line loading the data is all the way to the right.
2) Hit play.
3) Click and hold on the moving tab that shows how far along you are in the video.
4) Move that thing back and forth repeatedly. Don't be shy. Whip it left and right with gusto, holding the mouse button down all the while.
5) Let go of the mouse button. Now, click again and hold on the moving tab. Rather than pausing directly on a single frame, it should oscillate between two adjacent frames, creating a back and forth stutter step. Sort of a poor man's loop.
The Spirit of Truth preacher man makes for a great introductory example, because the static background accentuates the looped head spasms happening in the foreground. But try other YouTube videos, you can get interesting color stroboscopy and weird pseudo 3D effects. None of this is very new, I remember seeing a Ken Jacobs video at a past Whitney Biennial that created a much more effective pseudo 3D effect through a patented two camera process. And then there was the work of a video artist named Granular Synthesis, his frame looping installations produced similar unnerving quivers. It had a very complicated technical framework behind it, but it essentially looked like a YouTube loop.
The other thing that kept bringing me back to this video and what really torques up the insanity level, is the rendition of "One Nation Under a Groove" playing in the background as he preaches. I had to dig a while to figure out which version it was, obviously not the original, and there are dozens of covers out there. Perhaps it would have revealed itself as G-funk if the low bottom hadn't been stripped away on the video.
Ice Cube - Bop Gun (One Nation)
**Buy it on Amazon**
I picked up these Bose Triports about a month ago. Sort of a little gift to myself, got sick of listening to music on tinny cheapo headphones. To measure their bass response I used this Zongamin remix, among other tracks. The dull thuds that this track produced assured me these headphones were up to snuff:
Zongamin- Bongo Song (Jacko's Bongo Thong Remix)
**Buy it from Juno Records**
The bass levels on this Dabrye/MF Doom collaboration are just ridiculous, it pounds like an IROC-Z pulling into a Dairy Queen. I haven't listened to MF Doom for some time now, the dextrous wordplay is still there and Dabrye turns a corner with grainy synth overlays.
Dabrye feat MF Doom - Air
**Buy it at Boomkat**
Permalink
posted by Miguel
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