Tired of clicking around YouTube and iTunes for online videos of substance? Search no more! The Observer has your weekly handy guide to what’s worth watching on the Web.
Haunting imagery of the Cameron Todd Willingham case – In last week’s issue of The New Yorker, David Grann’s piece about Cameron Todd Willingham, the man who was executed for allegedly setting a fire that killed his three daughters, was arguably one of the most circulated articles on the Web. This video features photographs and footage of the fire wreckage and experiments from fire investigators. Mr. Grann “discusses the flaws of the original investigation and explains how a test fire conducted by authorities may have proved Willingham’s innocence,” according to a blog post on The New Yorker‘s site.
Mad Men in 60 Seconds on YouTube – Is anyone else bored with this season of Mad Men? This lightning-fast review/parody of the show’s major characters and themes lightens things up. Amateur comedy outfit The Landline seems to have done better than SNL‘s attempt last year.
Preview the Beatles Rock Band Game on Hulu – A new version of Rock Band just hit stores yesterday, on Sept. 9, to much fanfare, including a huge New York Times Magazine piece last month. Here on Hulu, you can see whether you really want to spend the big bucks on the game ($53.99 for the software alone on Amazon) by watching the The Beatles: Rock Band trailer, demos and more.
Dan Savage on YouTube – Dan Savage, the syndicated writer of sex and relationship column Savage Love, has a YouTube channel featuring him speaking at various engagements, seemingly at college campuses and whatnot. Some videos have him answering letters live, others include him answering questions from the audience. You probably either love or hate Dan Savage, but if you’re in the former camp, some of the videos are amusing. The most viewed ones include talks about the weirdest letter he’s ever received, how many partners are too many, and “the price of admission.”
DJ AM Memorial Video on Mag.ma – According to the description, this is the video put together for Adam Michael Goldstein’s memorial service, which was held at the Paladium in Hollywood on Sept. 3. The famous DJ was found dead in his Manhattan home on Aug. 25.
Birds on the Wires on Vimeo – Jarbas Agnelli was reading a newspaper, O Estado de São Paulo, and saw a photograph of birds sitting on powerlines. “I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes,” he wrote in his description of the video on Vimeo. “I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.” He sent the music to the photographer who took the photo, Paulo Pinto, and eventually was interviewed for a story about the video in the same newspaper. This is his bird song.
