Ron Petke wrote this week’s column. I’ve been busy getting ready for a little trip. Ron graciously offered to help out.
I can’t imagine what the 21st century would be like without computers. Life is so much easier with them–cut and paste, instant spell check, no need for dictionaries. They even have a thesaurus built in to make us look brainy.
And then you have the Internet, or as it originally was called, the Super Information Highway.
If you haven’t experienced YouTube, you haven’t lived yet. It’s a Web site where users upload video clips and share them with millions of other people.
A couple of months ago, I put a clip up called “Petke and Bell Dog Surgery.” We’ve had 90 hits so far. Some people have too much time on their hands. But I think that’s a big part of the Internet. You google a subject and up comes thousands of sites. You’re fascinated by them all but then you forget what you originally started searching for. And a really popular subject like Paris Hilton gets you a huge number of Paris sites (or is it parasites).
The best thing about YouTube is the entertainment (and I don’t consider “Pizza man getting hit by car” entertainment). It’s actually better than cable television. Don’t tell Paul Allen I said that (Mr. Allen is the owner of the company I work for, as well as one of the original founders of Microsoft).
If you’re nostalgic for the 1950s, there are hundreds of clips. Want to see the original opening of “Huckleberry Hound” with the Kellogg’s rooster? It’s there. And what amazes me are the tens of thousands of people who view, save and comment on these clips. But you better look now, because it may gone tomorrow. That’s because copyright laws may have been broken by an unsuspecting uploader. The clip in question is a 1929 Vitaphone short of ‘Lil Jack Pepper. Never heard of him? The uploader said he was married to Ginger Rogers (the infamous hoofer who danced just as good as Fred Astaire but backwards). Jack told a couple of jokes and then played the ukulele. He was great, then all of a sudden, poof! He was gone.
I drive friends crazy with YouTube, sharing with them strange clips of Spike Jones (infamous Polytechnic High School alumnus) or modern things such as locally famous banjo player Katie Cavera who performs at Curley’s on Wednesday nights, along with her tuba playing partner, C.J. She’s been away lately performing in France but she sends e-mails regularly. One recent e-mail directed fans to YouTube to view Cavera playing at a vintage guitar store in Paris.
Maybe if YouTube hears about this article, I’ll get that free t-shirt I’ve been bugging them about.
