You Tube for me equals a way that my friends and I would promote what we do and ourselves. Or at least it was that way before I came to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Since that time It’s more where I store work for the professors to watch at their own convenience.

When living around and about, crashing at different spots and places, I would work with various Club Kids, Fetishist, Drag Queens, Trannies (not Trans), All ages show types, later day D.I.Y. Punks and other types of subculture people. I would make videos of them going about their daily lives and then post them on one of my four You Tube channels. Though none of the videos every went “Viral”, the channels did get a loyal following. With some of the content being so over the top, it was surprising that none of the videos ever took off in viral popularity. Could be luck of the draw on that, as some videos break years after being posted. I also may have not had the most interesting keywords. The videos not going viral meant more to the people I filmed than to me. I was just looking to capture a moment in time.

I looking to capture moments in time I also taped my neighbors, friends and relatives just being themselves. I taped the look and sounds of the apartment I grew up in after the death of my parents and the landlord asking me to leave it. I knew, as the building is older and could be torn down or just due to the fact we have no legal claim on it, that I would never experience those simple sights and sounds again. I placed them on You Tube for safe keeping and also to access them whenever I feel nostalgic or lost for not having any home.

For schoolwork, some of the professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst ask for us to post videos of our work on the internet. A couple of them have warned us not to however, fearing intellectual theft. I usually do post the videos of my classwork on the internet to share with people who know me and to receive their feedback. It’s a way of keeping in touch with people I do not regularly see anymore.

Like most people, I listen to music on You Tube. Listening to music already known and learning new music. I do this much less since coming to the the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The reason being is use the schools computers as my main computer due to lack of laptop. So I am not usually alone long enough on the schools computer to just sit back and relax and go through all the various music links. I also, once watched various new and old TV shows I could find. This too I do much less since coming to the university. In an odd way I had more alone time, especially on computers, when I was a street kid crashing about than I do on a giant campus filled with computers.

The Top 15 playlist below represents videos of people I know, videos I made for class, music I sometimes listen to and odd and ends I’m interested in.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNRy47V6Su8o0FveR8sxciPU_yVEzIHwT