Video a-go-go

If there’s one thing that people can’t seem to get enough of in Asheville, it’s community media. One of the newest players in the local community media scene is Asheville FM, a nonprofit, volunteer-based, grassroots radio station. Well, not exactly “radio,” at least in the traditional sense, as the station itself broadcasts exclusively online. Who better to report on the station than another local online media project, AshevilleNow?

 

In a town known for novelty acts and eccentric, eclectic performers, local “irritainer” Cookie LaRue is in a niche all by herself. Or himself. It’s tricky to phrase properly, because LaRue is a comedic drag act by local actor Michael Sheldon. And if you’ve never seen Cookie LaRue, you don’t know what you’re missing. So here’s a LaRue performance at Asheville Vaudeville.

 

Last week, the Found Footage Fest came through the Grey Eagle. If you’ve never heard of it, the idea is pretty simple. The group finds weird videos at “garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters across the country,” edits them together for humorous effect, then shows the resulting short films to live audiences. If you couldn’t make it out to the show, here’s a sample of what you missed.

 

The Jewish community has a long, rich history of shaping and contributing to local culture in Asheville. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not room for improvement and growth within the local Jewish culture itself. So, at the HardLox Festival, held in downtown last October, Marty Gillen asked the following question: “What do we need in Jewish Asheville?” The resulting answers are documented in this video.

 

We close this week’s roundup with a song by Black Mountain-based Floating Action from all the way back in August of last year. (The performance isn’t new, but the video only recently became available online.) The song is called “Don’t Stop Loving Me Now.”

 

Each week, dozens upon dozens of interesting local videos are uploaded to YouTube. It’s a lot to keep up with. Did we miss a particularly interesting, recently uploaded local video? Share it by leaving the videos URL (but not the embed code) in the comment fields below. Also, please mark it Not Work Safe if there’s any controversial content to the video.

 

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