The Asheville Mural Project’s work on the I-240 overpass has been a popular topic of community conversation since well before the first brush touched the concrete. But it may also soon become the focus of academic discussion—both as an example of art and of local culture—thanks to videos like this one for the TeacherTube project.
If there’s a secret to making a visual story that tugs at the heartstrings, it’s this: Star an animal as the protagonist. From childrens’ literature to a significant portion of animated movies, putting an animal in a human situation often helps to change our perspective on the topic at hand. Even without the original audio (blame YouTube, not the filmmakers), this short, silly film about a homeless dog building a house is quite effective.
Now that it has been discovered as a mainstream sport, it’s easy to forgive people who find mountain biking to be less exciting than it used to be. These thrill-seekers need something more; something that takes the whole “wheel” and “wilderness” thing to a new level. Like, say, mountain unicycling. Here’s some video from Muni Fest 2009. Enjoy it while it lasts, though. It’s only a matter of time before some soft-drink company decides to lauch a “municycling”-centric ad campaign, and mountain pogoing becomes the new extreme sport for the true die-hards.
“I actually love the fact that there are so many things that we do here that, taken out of context, would probably be judged pretty harshly and scare people,” says a person on the following video. What is this seemingly scandalous activity? Well, for something so simple, it’s actually kind of hard to explain. Maybe it’s best if we let this “contact improvisation” group tell their own tale.
It’s always good to end on a song. Here’s Cantaria, the gay men’s chorus of Asheville, performing at the first ever Blue Ridge Pride Festival.
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.
The video makers of the dog video should consider using Vimeo or Exposure Room, or even Photobucket. When WMG whacks the audio from one of my You Tube videos, I upload it to one of them, and so far have not had an issue with deleted audio.
I have been boycotting WMG (Warner Music Group) and am not purchasing music from them.
I understand the rationale behind YouTube’s policy, but I can’t help but think WMG is shooting themselves in the foot over this. Instead of basically having tens of thousands of free ads for their songs, they’ve opted to enrage tens of thousands of people who are just trying to share a cool video.
What’s not to understand is that this ‘spiritual vortex’ video is nothing like it’s advertised. The first minute or so talks very generally about ‘ley lines’ etc. The rest of it is a Christian attack video on the Rainbow Gathering, and how kids need to accept Jesus & escape the life of drugs, anarchy, and hedonism which the ‘Rainbow Family’ supposedly represents. As someone who has attended Gatherings for over twenty years, I am really offended by this gross misrepresentation.
Some of the most serious, hardworking, ‘moral’ people I have ever known are longtime Rainbows. The environment there encourages ‘interdependence’, respect, and self-reliance, not ‘Anarchy’. While there is ample soft drug use there, there are also camps that focus on 12-step recovery, Christian camps next to Wiccan camps next to Jewish camps next to Krishna camps, etc. The sour vision presented in this video is from people who don’t understand the Rainbow Gathering, and simply see it as a recruiting (or “rescuing”) ground for their hierarchical church structures. What they can’t stand is when people reject organized religion in favor of a more humanist environment.
In any case, the video had nothing to do with Asheville being on a ‘spritual vortex’. The best case is that Steve simply didn’t watch this video at all. But which is worse, that he posted this video without watching it, but claimed that he had, or that he’s not been truthful about the content?
I hope that MtnX does the right thing & explains how this bait & switch happened, and how this grotesque Christian ‘Rescue’ video was offered as a “good-faith attempt” at anything educational.
…and Paul? “TELL US WHERE THE BOMB IS!!!!”
This “spiritual vortex” video is pathetic. I’m really disappointed that Jon and Steve decided to repost this, after acknowledging that they hadn’t even watched it past the first minute or so, and that it really doesn’t have anything to do with a ‘vortex’ or ‘ley lines’, as it claims.
This video is a deceitfully packaged attack on a group of people and a lifestyle known as the Rainbow Gathering. It’s really unclear why a video supposedly about Asheville launches immediately and completely into an attack on Rainbows, but there it is.
I have been going to Rainbow Gatherings for 25 years, and I can tell you that it isn’t “heathen idolatry, rampant drug use, and anarchy” like one of the interviewees claims. As I suggested in my earlier post, it’s an experiment in a more cooperative, respectful, non-hierarchical living situation. That’s the part that these “Rescuers” can’t stand – the non-hierarchical part. If something is open to all faiths, and Jesus isn’t King of the hill, then it’s time to start tearing down that hill. They would have to confront the hundreds of fellow Christians that have been setting up large, peaceful camps at Gatherings for many years, and winning converts by actually emulating Christ: service, humility, and love, not “you’re going to hell unless you renounce Rainbow”.
Rainbows have been subject to attacks from various groups over the years, including a well-publicized police riot two years ago during which children were peppersprayed and had federal agents point assault rifles at them. This video is just another slander by bigoted and ignorant people claiming to be preaching Jesus’s love.
The producer of this video is Cornerstone TV, a missionary and evangelical group based in Pittsburgh. Whoever posted this video on youtube very carefully edited off the opening credits, which show it clearly to be a program about missionaries. I guess they thought it would make it more generic and appealing to casual viewers. THIS IS CALLED DECEIT. They also edited off the final few minutes, where the host tells us that the Rainbows are going to hell. You can watch the whole thing at their video archive:
http://www.ctvn.org/archive.asp
(It’s in the section right after the “Origins” documentary series arguing that the Earth is only a few thousand years old)
I’m disappointed in MtnX for reposting this. What was the compelling reason to feature this religious recruiting video on your website AGAIN, after acknowledging it wasn’t what was advertised?