Butt Cams and Boob Tubes
Happy September. This is the twenty-first issue of Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit — it’s just like all those other email newsletters, except, seriously, it can’t even right now.
A toothache is giving me a headache, I’ve been going through a month-long writer’s block at work, and the Red Sox continue to sputter away their playoff chances. So it’s just a bunch of YouTube videos this month because that’s about all I can handle.
Butt cam
My birthday month is starting off with a bang, including the previously mentioned toothache, which is actually a gum-ache, which portends a trip to the periodontist and likely gum surgery (don’t google it), which is a thing that happens to me every couple of years, despite diligent flossing. But the medical fun doesn’t end there this month.
The day after my birthday I’m scheduled for my very first (and long overdue) colonoscopy — which will actually be an endoscopic twofer, owing to some reflux issues that have gurgled up — so the doc will be examining both ends that day, and I’ll largely spend the day before clearing out my lower pipes to make sure the camera gets a clean shot at all the plumbing. So, happy birthday to me. Not the most festive celebration, but it strikes me as an appropriate way to mark nearly five decades in this (ill-maintained) sack of meat and bones.
In the other important news for the month, it’s unlikely there will be any Red Sox baseball in October (despite optimism from the veterans), so enjoy it while you can. And, FYI, Rich Hill’s nickname is “Dick Mountain”, because of course it is. Now let’s watch some YouTube.
Boob tube
I get sucked into watching stupid crap on Instagram more than I’d like to admit. The crap I get sucked into watching on YouTube is usually less crappy. Here are three from last month’s viewing history.
The Crazy Engineering of Venice
I’ve been to Venice a couple of times in my life, and enjoy getting literally lost in its maze of narrow alleys and poorly marked streets. It also always looks great in movies, whether it’s fancy art movies, like Don’t Look Now and Summertime, or glossy action flicks, like Casino Royale and Dead Reckoning. But before watching this video, somehow I had never really grokked the scope of the engineering required to turn this network of islands into the beautiful, doomed city that it is.
Why Rear Window Was Shot from Exactly One Position
These geeky cinephile videos are all over YouTube — the best of the genre is the long defunct and very recently revived Every Frame a Painting — but the vast majority of them are very bad. They’re often just stolen DVD special features that have been re-packaged into sensationalistic slop — superficial, reductive, and obnoxious. This guy’s channel is new to me, tho, and it seems pretty good. He’s very into exactly what camera lenses were used for which shot, which mostly goes over my head, but it lends a distinctive (and informed) POV to his takes.
The Sad History of GI Joe: The Movie
The channel that produced this video is basically chum for geeky Gen X-ers. The algorithm recommended the channel to me after I rewatched the Daicon IV opening animation for the millionth time, serving up their video about the backstory for the cult animated short. I was the bullseye for Hasbro’s target market back in the day, so there was no way I could resist this other video about the G.I. Joe animated movie.
Other rabbit holes
DEI ROI. Ford and Lowe’s join Harley Davidson, Jack Daniel’s, Tractor Supply, John Deere, and Best Buy in corporate cowardice, caving to the online whining of Robby Starbuck. Kevin T. Dugan in New York’s Intelligencer:: “The problem for Starbuck, though, is that his crusade is showing exactly the opposite of what he is arguing and that at the very most, DEI policies are benign and have no effect on how much a company makes or how well it does.”
Red Sox star Jarren Duran “directed a homophobic slur at a heckling fan”. Alex Speier in the Boston Globe notes that, despite being one of the first in MLB to introduce a Pride Night, the Sox have not been doing the LGBTQ+ community proud the last couple of years. (The heckler’s heckle?: “Tennis racket! Tennis racket! You need a tennis racket!”)
Red Sox relief pitcher Liam Hendriks “has spoken out for LGBT causes before, and believes Jarren Duran will learn”. The Globe’s Peter Abraham writes: “A major leaguer for 13 years, Hendriks is a five-time nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award for community service and has said in the past he would not sign with teams who do not have a Pride Night…. Baseball, he believes, has changed for the better during his time in the game.”
And that’s it for this month’s edition. Have a good one.
jf