YouTube Pick of the Week #BEDN

It's been a while since I've done one of these but as the Blog Every Day in November theme for today is video, I thought I'd share some of the YouTube videos I've enjoyed recently.

I enjoy listening to the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast and the videos they put up on their YouTube channel too. This video is the first in a new series from them called Stereotypology, where Cristen explores the origin and promotion of certain stereotypes by Hollywood. It's interesting and helpful as we need to stop encouraging stereotypes.

It's a well known fact that the situations in Ironic are far from Ironic. James Corden and Alanis Morissette update the lyrics for a 21st century feel.

There's so much that I love on the WOWPresents YouTube channel but the Fashion Photo Ruview is possibly my favourite! They toot or boot looks from RuPaul's Drag Race and other events. They did season 6 and 7 as it aired each week but now they've gone back and done season 4 and have started season 5. If you're a fan of RuPaul's Drag Race but didn't know about the WowPresents channel then you're in a for a treat!

Whitney Adams works in the wine industry and has some great videos about wine on her channel. She also has a series called Alco-Hauls, where she tries random things she finds in her liquor store. I love this series as there has been countless times I've seen things on shelves and wondered either A) if it's any good or B) who the HELL thought that was a good idea?! Whitney makes me laugh and it makes me want to go find some weird things to taste.

I've mentioned Caitlin Doughty and her Ask a Mortician series on here before but she's started doing other types of videos as well. This video was her take on monthly favourite videos on YouTube but with her own death themed spin. Death can be such a taboo still these days but Caitlin's videos are fun and informative. And not as morbid as you might think!

I don't watch X Factor any more and haven't for a while. I had heard of Fleur last year but I first heard her new song on an Asda ad during the week! This X Factor performance from last weekend is the only proper version of the song on YouTube so I've been listening to it and annoying my boyfriend by doing an impression of the sax part.

As a lover of The Muppets and crumpets this is just perfect!

YouTube Favourites #BEDM

I realised I hadn’t done a regular YouTube favourites in a while, so I thought I’d take a chance to show you some of the videos I’ve enjoyed in the past few months.

 

Who can resist a dog that does parkour? Especially one on a skateboard?! Not me anyway.

 

I was a HUGE Crystal Maze fan as a child and this spoof made me laugh, it’s perfect, right down to the harmonica!

 

I spoke about how The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite films in my favourite decade post and when I saw these Threadbanger shoes the other day, I fell in love!

 

Thought Marmite’s Love It Or Hate It philosophy was just for humans? Think again! Big cats in a sanctuary were given small samples of Marmite and I just love their reactions. Especially the ones who make a face after as if to say ‘WTF?!’

 

SPOILERS! DO NOT WATCH UNLESS YOU ARE UP TO DATE WITH GAME OF THRONES! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

My Favourite Decade #BEDM

I actually didn’t see this topic the first time I looked through them all and had planned to write something else today but I read over all the topics the other day and thought ‘How on earth did I miss this? It’s right up my alley!’.

I had debated doing the 90’s, as that’s the decade I mainly grew up in and it would be full of nostalgia. But I knew that if I asked anyone what my favourite decade was, they’d look at me crazy and say ‘Why are you even asking, the 80s of course!’.

Ah, the 80s. I must admit I have a soft spot for it. I do love a lot of 80s things. And of course my childhood through the 90s was influenced from time to time by the 80s. Like these toys.

      

And this awesome keyboard with an even more awesome demo! I think Wake Me Up by Wham! is one of my all time favourites and this keyboard is probably why! Other 80s music I like include Duran Duran, Madonna, Bananarama, Blondie, Elton John, Jimmy Sommerville to name but a few!

The 80s produced two of my favourite films. One that I was obsessed with during the 80s (The Little Mermaid, apparently I used to watch it on video at least once a day) and one that I discovered much later (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). Special shout out to the Annie movie too, I still love that!

     

The 80s crept into my reading when I was child, as I particularly love the Sweet Valley series by Francine Pascal. If you haven’t read Red Lemonade’s Sweet Valley Revisited, I highly suggest you do. The first few books have been reviewed and they are very funny.

Of course, you can’t mention the 80s without talking about the fashion! Yes, some of it was truly awful but a lot of it is very popular right now. Especially jelly shoes, they are a big trend for this summer.

 

Primark jelly heel; Forever 21 nailing jelly shoes with another 80s classic, neon

Primark also has a lot of kitchy t-shirts featuring 80s favourites like My Little Pony and Carebears. Though it’s not just high street fashion that’s currently loving the 80s. Crimped hair was spotted on the runway of Giorgio Armani for AW 2014.

     

Primark outfit; Giorgio Armani AW 2014

I could wax lyrical for hours about all things 80s. Rubik's cubes, androgyny, men wearing make up, shoulder pads, the crazy make up, Girl Just Wanna Have Fun, jelly bracelets, legwarmers, Super Mario Brothers. I’ll leave you with this picture of me dancing with a friend at an 80s party I once helped organize.

Favourite Beauty Vloggers #BEDM

So further down the topics for Blog Every Day in May is a blogger shoutout, which I’m looking forward to, but for now I decided to shout out some of my current favourite beauty vloggers, mainly because I’ve really enjoyed watching some of their videos in the last few months. Most of these will probably be Irish vloggers too. I’ve tried to keep to people who mainly talk about beauty things rather than people who mainly do make up looks.

First up is Emma from Fluff and Fripperies. I love Emma’s voice! (which probably sounds weird and creepy but it’s not, honest). She has lots of great videos and this one is one of my recent favourites, as who doesn’t like saving some money when it comes to foundations!

Next up is Lovely Girlie Bits. Karen and Joanne have me in stiches when they film together, I especially loved the Jelly Bean Challenge they did, couldn’t stop laughing at it. In this video Karen shows off the new Essie summer range and manages to make me want all of them.

I only started watching the Dolly Rouge videos this year but I love seeing these videos pop up in my feed. Kat is so knowledgeable when it comes to ingredients in products and the scientific side of things. This video is on pick me ups for when you’re looking sick or hungover.

Adoreabubbles is next. Sarah is just so bubbly, smiley and lovely, watching her videos will put you in a good mood. This is a review of the NYC Beautifying Blushable Creme Stick, which just looks gorgeous!

I only just discovered MissHollyBerries last week but I’m already hooked. She’s the only nail vlogger I’m subscribed to, but I think I might go look for more! This is her most recent video with her April Favourites but I’m really loving her colours of the rainbow series (focusing on each colour and her favourite polishes in that shade) and looking forward to more.

Sali Hughes is a beauty journalist and I LOVE her In the Bathroom series, where she goes to bathrooms of famous women to have a root through their makeup and beauty products. Caitlin Moran was the first one and the video I’ve chosen but she’s also gone to Gizzi Erskine, Brix Smith-Start, Mary Greenwell and Charlotte Tilsbury. She also has some other great videos too.

Ok, I know I said I was doing more vloggers than make up artists but I couldn’t resist not adding Lisa Eldridge. She does fantastic make up looks but she also does more vloggy videos, discussing skincare and other things. This one is all about face masks and which ones are suitable for different skin types.

Since I was adding in Lisa Eldridge, I thought I’d also add in Letzmakeup. Siobhan does get make up looks but often does vlog videos too talking about products. This one is a recent favourites from Essence.
And that’s it! If you have any vloggers I’ve missed out, especially Irish ones, let me know in the comments below!

Animal YouTube Pick of the Week

So after last week’s geeky theme, I decided to put all the animal videos I had together in one cute and cuddly post!

I love this channel, Jupiter the Cat never fails to crack me up. And the voices and timing are always brilliant in their videos and this one doesn’t fail to deliver either!

Here’s my otter (I will always call him *my* otter!) Oscar/Ollie being fed!

Yet another Oscar/Ollie one, this time having a bath. Isn’t he adorable?!

This was my favourite video to come out around Shark Week!

The look on this cat’s face is priceless. PRICELESS!

Finally, typical cat!

All Hallow’s Read

I don’t know how I actually came across this video, but considering I like to read, love browsing GoodReads, watch various booktubers and follow some bookish accounts on Twitter, it’s not surprising that I did. In this video, author Neil Gaiman wants to start a new tradition around Halloween called All Hallow’s Read. He wants people to give or lend scary books to people for Halloween, be it buying the books new, from 2nd hand shops, gifting on Kindles, lending books or having them being borrowed from libraries. The idea is to get people reading age appropriate scary books around Halloween and hopefully it’ll become a tradition.

Being a big time reader and lover of Halloween, OF COURSE I love this idea! I’m going to try and give some suggestions now, though not being a big horror or thriller reader, some of these are based on hearing what friends have said about books.

 Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Decided I should start with a book by the man himself. Coraline is a book perfect for children around 10ish, however I still found it creepy when I read it earlier this year! And there are loads more Gaiman books that I’m sure also fit the bill, both children and adults.

 

 

 

 Goosebumps series by R.L.Stine

I was never a massive fan of these growing up but my friends and siblings loved them and my teacher friend’s students read them now, so they are obviously still relevant! There’s also Point Horror too, the more teenage version of Goosebumps.

 Stephen King novels

I’ve only ever read one, Dolores Claiborne, which I really liked but it definitely falls more under thriller than horror. For horror, classic King novels like Carrie, The Shining or IT should be perfect! And I really want to read Joyland by Stephen King, which according to GoodReads is a ‘whodunit noir crime novel and a haunting ghost story set in the world of an amusement park’. Sounds fantastic!

 The Children of Men by J.D. James

Ok, I haven’t actually read this book but I’ve seen the film. And the film’s themes of a bleak, dystopian land creeped me out WAY more than a ‘typical’ horror or slasher film, so if the book has the same feeling of creepiness as the film, then this would probably give me the chills too!

 

 

 

 The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Another book I haven’t read but I’m adding this because my cousin studied it in school and found it so creepy that she was a bit scared to go see the film adaptation of it!

 

 

 

 

 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

This follows the story of Jean-Baptise, born in 18th century French slums and his extraordinary scene of smell. This book creeped me out, Jean-Baptise gave me the heebee jeebees! Even thinking about it makes me shudder. I’ve seen one review call him a ‘smell vampire’, that he hunts down and must ‘own’ any scent he likes, regardless of the consequences, and this of course builds up to him having to have the scent of one young, beautiful virgin that drives him to distraction. A very unique book, I must read it again!

 

 NOS412 by Joe Hill

This book only came on my radar because 2 other friends read it and loved it. I can’t even describe the synopsis as well as GoodReads can, so check it out here. I will say the line that pops out and creeps me out the most is ‘Charles Talent Manx has a gift of his own. He likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2’. Shudder!

 

 

Classic gothic novels

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Dracula by Bram Stoker. Edgar Allen Poe. Sherlock Holmes and the Hounds of the Baskerville. As well as many more, all available for free as well on sites like Project Gutenberg.

Of course, the All Hallow’s Read website has loads more recommendations, even some by Neil Gaiman himself. And seeing as I’m not that well versed on these genres, what would you recommend yourself? Leave a comment below and let me know!

(Slightly Geeky) YouTube Pick of the Week

I feel like it’s been forever since I did one of these! And I have a stack of videos piled up that I want to share. So, let’s begin!

Simon Pegg playing Drunk Ron Weasley, wishing Harry Potter a happy birthday? Tickles the geeky side of me!

Speaking of geeky side, I really enjoyed this Super Mario Brothers real life parkour video. It left me wanting to desperately play some SNES Super Mario games!

The music, along with the clips chosen, just cracks me up! Classic 80s montage! It’s worth watching even if you’re not a Game of Thrones fan, I think non fans can appreciate the humour too.

Perfect. Just perfect!

I read Divergent at the beginning of the year and really enjoyed it. I have yet to read Insurgent, but I think I’m going to wait to read it around the time the 3rd books, Allegiant, comes out, so I can read the two together. I really liked this teaser trailer, I’m looking forward to the film coming out!

Finally, amid all the news that Ben Affleck is to play Batman, I came across this Honest Trailer for Batman and Robin. I just love Honest Trailers, they hit the nail on the head every time!

YouTube Pick of the Week

It’s been too hot to really concentrate on writing blog posts (coupled with being so busy that I completely forgot to mark the blog’s 3rd birthday passing!). But now that there’s a bit of rain, there’s a bit of relief so it’s not too bad. Onwards with some video picks!

I’m not sure where I stand when it comes to these Dove videos. They do have great messages behind them but at the end of the day it’s still advertising right? This one did resonate with me though as in the past year I’ve seen my 12 year old sister change from someone who would instantly smile when a camera was produced to someone who shies away and tries to hide. She does love to take selfies now though! I don’t think it’s as simple as ‘When did you stop thinking you were beautiful?’ but it’s still an interesting and cute video.

So cute and incredibly catchy!

Judging from this, I’m more of the 30s mind set and always have been! But it’s funny nonetheless

This video for this is hilarious, I love Macklemore and how he just has fun in his videos.

You could easily put Russian in the video instead of German! Angry sounding languages

Finally I don’t think I could describe this any better than the video title itself ‘Foxes Jumping on my Trampoline’. Very adorable!

YouTube Pick of the Week

It’s been a while since my last one and I have so much I want to share with you!

I loved this spoken word poem by Hollie McNish, about the mathematics of immigrants. I hate seeing people giving out about how immigrants are taking people’s jobs and women! This video helps you see there’s much, much more to that, how life is much better and richer when you stop being a xenophobe.

This video had me cracking up, because I think I suffer from the opposite, the ‘Please talk to me and ask me things’ face. I have a face where people will start randomly talking to me on the bus, asking me for opinions on clothes they are wearing in changing rooms, and approach me on the street either asking for money for charity or trying to give me a flyer. Once when I was in holiday in Spain, I was sick and tried of being given club promotional flier so I tried to adopt a bitch face. It only made it worse, I had guys saying ‘Oh cheer up!’. I do know people with what we call ‘serious resting face’ but I think I prefer bitch face!

I love seeing videos of strangers coming together to make the best of a worst situation. In this video, passengers have been stuck waiting to take off for 5 hours and so they decided to have a bit of a uplifting singsong!

I have NO idea how I didn’t come across Honest Trailers before now but they are seriously funny. I can’t even put into words how funny I found this one, just watch it!

Get Lucky is probably the biggest song for this summer. This video does the entire song but starts from musical style of 1920s and works it way through the decades. Super fun idea.

Last two videos come from Jimmy Kimmel, seriously he makes some funny videos! First video is a piss take of the Blurred Lines video (which I’m not a fan of, but Jimmy had be laughing in this one). The second one is call (I Wanna) Channing All Over Your Tatum, with Jamie Foxx and (you guessed it) Channing Tatum. Parodying innuendos and has a habit of getting stuck in your head!

And that’s it! I probably could have posted a few more but I’ll leave it at that. Have a good week!

YouTube Pick of the Week

Here we go again!

This isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste but hear me out! I’m a bit of a London Underground nut, it fascinates me. The above video is the 1st part of a 6 part documentary done by BBC last year called The Tube. Each one focuses on a different aspect of the The Tube (the above is all about what the Tube is like at the weekend, the highs and lows. The others in the series are Revenue, Emergency Response, Upgrading the Tube, Rush Hour and Night). It shows drivers, engineers, fluffers (they go into the tunnels at night and dust and clean them!), people who work in the ticket offices and so on and so forth. I think it was fantastic and if you’re any bit curious about how the Tube works, then it worth a look.

Last YouTube Pick I had the 3rd in this series and then a few days after this one came out! So I had to add this next one. They are just so funny.

The Great Gatsby is all over the place. But what if Disney did one? With animals? Well, look no further! The audio of the Gatsby trailer has been used with clips from The Aristocats to give us The Great Catsby. Genius.

They Actually Made That is a new YouTube channel, there are only 3 videos so far, but I’m enjoying them. The channel is so far showing toys that have been produced. In this video there’s an array of Playmobil sets, some of them are just unreal!

Sticking with toys, we move onto Lego. This is the beginning of Casino Royale done completely with Lego, with the audio added on top. It’s incredible!

Last up is a video from Charlieissocoollike for YouTube’s Comedy Week. It’s a trailer called The Tea Chronicles and looks a bit creepy to me!

YouTube Pick of the Week

Another week, another YouTube pick!

This video of some ceilidh music and dancing on the Dublin-Galway train amused me. Not sure I’d be too happy if I was in that carriage at the time but it sure is entertaining!

I’ve definitely posted the previous videos of this Celebrities Read Mean Tweets series Jimmy Kimmel does. I really love this idea! And how some celebrities respond back basically saying ‘Up Yours!’.

While I don’t watch it religiously, I do enjoy catching Republic of Telly every now and again and do watch some of the videos online. This one had me cracking up, it’s hilarious!

I know I posted one of the animated Stuff You Should Know clips last week but there’s a part in this from 2:50 onwards that had me in stiches, I love the clever word play and the animation that went with it.

My boyfriend watches the vlogbrothers and often sends me videos. This one was amazing, I love the cat, the squirrel and the pine martin. I didn’t really pay attention to what was being said, I just liked the animal clips!

Finally, I heard this on Tuesday and it’s been stuck in my head ever since! Don’t worry, this is the relatively SFW version! I’m loving all these things Pharrell is involved in recently, needless to say I also love Get Lucky with Daft Punk. Pharrell is too cool for school, I can’t believe he just turned 40!

And that’s it for this week! What have you been watching? Leave it in the comments below, I’d love to know.

YouTube Pick of the Week

Hello! Yes, I'm still alive! I haven't posted in what feels forever because my computer decided to go nutso on me and it's off being repaired. I should hoepfully have it back by the weekend. Since I write my blogs with Windows Live Writer, I was a bit hesistant about using Blogger's writer but I've decided to woman up and give it a go! And start with something simple, another YouTube Pick.

This College Humor video sums up exactly what it's like for me when it comes to starting a new TV series. My boyfriend is always harassing me to start one with him (at the moment it's Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad).

I went to see Labyrinth in the Prince Charles Cinema in London when I was there last moment and it was amazing! I love this Behind the Scenes video for Jareth juggling the crystal balls. Don't watch if you don't like watching these things though!

I love love LOVE the Stuff You Should Know podcast by Howstuffworks.com, it's amazing. They now have their own website, their own TV show and have started a YouTube channel too. It includes this amazing animation series, using clips from their podcast to explain interesting things. This one is about starting your own country.

I love Natalie from communitychannel on YouTube. One of her recent videos covers the subject of people saying things like 'I've had enough popcorn, don't let me have anymore, stop me if I try' and what it's like to be in that situation. It's so true!

Simple tutorial here from Secret Life of a Bionerd for making a make-up brush cleaner and hence saving you loads of money by not buying that ridiculously priced jumped up oven mitt that Sigma sells as a brush cleaning mitt.

I was talking to Lorraine at John, It's Only Makeup! the other day on Twitter and 'Email My Heart' from Britney Spears' first album came up. It reminded me of this video!

That's it for now,  hopefully my laptop will be back soon!

YouTube Pick of the Week

Another week, another YouTube pick!

Here’s one which was all over social media this week. Chris Stark has been sent to do his first proper interview with an A List star, not knowing who he’d be interviewing at first. What started off as a joke at Chris’ expense thanks to Scott Mills, it quickly turned into how  much of a LAD Chris is and what a good sport Mila Kunis is, chatting to him about soccer, eating pies and going out drinking with the lads. Mila is clearly enjoying the change from normal, boring interviews!

The Oscars were last week and Halle Berry introduced a visual Bond tribute celebrating 50 Years of Bond, followed by the legend that is Dame Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger. I didn’t think much of the Oscar’s visual, I much prefer this one.

Speaking of the Oscars, Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook. There are so many great moments to pick, from here claiming on the red carpet that she’s ‘starving’, to the fact she fell while going to collect her award to her amazing backstage press interview where she answers some the questions in such a blunt matter. Though this is my favourite, where she’s being interviewed by ABC and Jack Nicholson wanders into the conversation. I love her reaction to talking to him, the fact she’s so quick off the mark to quip back and I love the way she jumps when he wanders back over again and almost scares her. Such a girl crush right now!

While I’m not a huge fan of the original song (it just got sooooooo overplayed!) I do like this rendition using old school computers and other equipment.

My boyfriend and I often send videos to each other, this is one he sent to me. My favourite is the last song!

I love cat videos. LOVE THEM! This video had me in stitches, they can be such brats at times!

YouTube Pick of the Week

It feels like it’s been ages since I did one of these!

First video is a Breakfast Club/Avenger mash up. I’m a sucker for them and love this one!

I’ll admit, the very first thing that popped into my head when the Pope said he was going to retire was this old Gift Grub Pope Idol sketch!

Here’s VSauce’s defence for Comic Sans. I can’t help, part of me really likes it! (don’t hate me, please!). However I do realise that it’s not completely appropriate for every occasion. I thought this video on the history of Comic Sans was interesting. Now I’m off to watch Helvetica to redeem myself!

This Heineken interview video stuck out to me. It was a very interesting concept. And also reminded me of a story my English teacher always told about interviews, that there was company that used to keep a knocked down brush outside the door of the interview and kept note of how many interview candidates took the time to pick it back up. Not sure if it was true but it’s stuck with me for all these years!

Stumbling around Tumblr one day, I came across a GIF for the scene above and searched for it on YouTube. It’s one of my favourite’s from Toy Story. After watching Toy Story 3 on TV last weekend, I must rewatch the first film again.

Finally, the last video is a piece of old Irish music nostalgia, Sunburst by Picturehouse. So happy and uplifting!

YouTube Pick of the Week

I’m back! Thought I’d ease myself in with some YouTube picks.

Oh how I laughed when I heard R. Kelly was bringing out a book called ‘Soulacoaster’. And how I laughed even more when I watched this video of Gary Oldman reading about a time R. Kelly had a conversation with 2Pac.

If you’re Irish and haven’t seen the clip of newscaster Aengus MacGrianna caught applying make up before broadcasting the news, then your head must be in the sand! Of course, the clip immediately brought Anchorman to mind and someone has rather cleverly put some Anchorman clips in a video along with some of Aengus MacGrianna’s other bloopers.

Another video doing the rounds in Irish internet land is the Pulp Fiction video dubbed with thick Kerry accents. In this clip, Graham Norton shows Quentin Tarantino the video and we get to see his response.

This video is the first in the Ask a Mortician series done by Caitlin Doughty from Order of the Good Death. Caitlin’s aim is to bring realistic discussions of death back into pop culture and this series is perfect as she answers some questions without it being too morbid. I personally find it fascinating anyway!

If death isn’t your thing but music is, CDZA might be something you’d like! They’re a group of musicians who post different interesting videos, from a History of Whistling (songs that contain whistling), to playing songs under street signs of famous musicians to this, the Human Jukebox, where people donating money dictate what is being played.

Biggest lesson learnt from this video? Never trust a woman who has never seen the inside of a cake tin.

Finally, in honour of tomorrow’s Super Bowl, I present ‘The NFL: A Bad Lip Reading’. Enjoy!