Video-a-Go-Go: The local video roundup

This week, I thought we’d start with one of the most rewarding videos I’ve yet run across in searching the depths of YouTube for locally relevant content. Here we have a clip from the 1964 documentary Bluegrass Roots, featuring Madison County-based husband-and-wife duo The Winters performing the song “Blackjack Davey.” And as an added bonus, 82-year-old Bascom Lamar Lunsford looks on. (If you’d rather watch Lunsford and his wife Freida singing on their porch, click here, and many more related videos can be found here.)

It’s hard not to long for a simpler time when this whole “economy” thing wasn’t dragging everybody down. What if there was a system of formalized, locally based barter system where people could swap goods and services without ever having to produce cold, hard cash? That’s the premise behind the Asheville Local Exchange Trading System (LETS), and in this video Kila Donovan explains how it all works.

After all that talk about local trade, I’m getting a little peckish. Anyone else feeling in the mood for a pizza? Here’s a cool little video showing a behind-the-scenes of Asheville’s Mellow Mushroom.

“It’s like a farmers market on steroids.” That’s how sarandabeth13 see the WNC Farmers Market. Of course, it’s less the produce they’re interested in, and more the candy and the hats, but I guess you’ve got to start somewhere when it comes to supporting the local economy.

Last week, we brought you the promotional video for the Jubilee Summer Orchestra’s silent-film adaptation of Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus, along with expressing a vague hope that we’d be hearing more about the project in the future. Well, thanks to this fantastic information culture we live in, the entire performance is available to watch online. Part one is below, and if you like what you see, check out the JSO’s YouTube page for the rest.

We end this week’s Video-A-Go-Go with the hunt for a missing turtle. But not just any turtle, mind you. “Jimmy Irwin” is an Eastern Box Turtle having his shell-bearing life documented by the Earthshine Lodge conservation and research project right here in WNC. As the video explains, “Jimmy was moved to the outdoor holding pen while the mowers cut the fields a few days ago. He escaped or was let out and …” You don’t want me to ruin the ending, do you?

Of course, this is a mere handful of the dozens of interesting local videos uploaded just this week to YouTube, and a mere fraction of the Asheville-related videos available on the internet. 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.