Video a-go-go

Given the rarity of presidential visits to Asheville, it should be of little surprise that a great deal of the recent video content uploaded this week was all about the Obamas’ high-security vacation to WNC. There were videos of their landing at the Asheville Regional Airport, their motorcade, their late lunch at 12 Bones in the River Arts District and even a little sneaked footage of Mr. Obama playing golf. Clearly, Asheville is thrilled to have the nation’s leader paying a visit to the city.

But what about all of those other videos from the week? You know, the ones that don’t feature POTUS chilling out, Asheville-style.

Let’s start with a video that gets as far away from the formality of the executive branch as possible. By that, I mean the dark, erotic, saucy, cabaret-like charm of one of Asheville’s second-generation burlesque troupes. Here’s the promo video for the Bootstraps Burlesque show The Laudanum Express. Although there’s no actual nudity, there’s plenty of flesh on display, which might make it not safe for work. Watch at your own risk.

On the other end of the spectrum, comparatively wholesome local video blogger Supermom may have been busy making a birthday cake and watching her kids, but even she wasn’t too busy to talk a little about the Obama visit.

Earlier in the week, Asheville Transit System driver Ralph Dowdle blacked out while driving into town on College Street, crashing into the Mediterranean Restaurant, Stella Blue and Spa Theology and seriousy injuring a pedestrian. Even though the accident was later found to be caused by a previously undiagnosed medical condition, it’s hard not to be curious about exactly what happened. This split-screen video from the vehicle’s own camera system sheds a little light on the accident, and clearly shows Dowdle losing consciousness as the bus barrels towards pedestrians and College Street businesses.

Moving on to a lighter topic, it’s strange to think that there was a time—only a year or two ago, really — that something like this would have happened and no one would have rushed to upload it to YouTube. Here are a pair of dancers doing a brief tribute to Michael Jackson at Asheville School.

Do you love the beans and rice at Rosetta’s Kitchen? Would you like to learn to make it the Rosetta’s way, straight from owner Rosetta Star herself? The stars have aligned for you, it seems.

When possible, I like to wrap up the week’s video roundups with a song. Here’s more-or-less local group Acoustic Syndicate performing at their recent Earth Day gig in Asheville’s Martin Luther King Park.

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.