YouTube and Me. Part 2: Self-Curated Content; what does that mean to me?

The first experience I remember with television: Spring and summer, 1953, happenings in the British Royal Family such as the death of Queen Mary and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I clearly remember news coverage of those events on our own TV set. I was 5 1/2 then. Before that, I remember weekly news and feature magazines like Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post. We were Post subscribers.

Ours was a family that mainly watched news programs and some evening shows my parents liked. Groucho Marx, Burns and Allen etc. You had only to choose from what was offered (it wasn't much and it was in black & white), but people liked it. My Father of the one who liked TV, Mom: not so much (so no Soap Operas or game shows).  Kids? We played outside.

Our family experienced a "TV drought" in 1959-60 when we lived in West Germany. No American TV: we listened to the radio--literally, old American radio shows like Amos and Andy. We woke up to The Breakfast Club from Cedar Rapids, IA!  Sometimes you could listen to the Russians trying to "jam" the broadcasts of Voice of America and Radio Liberty! Of course, there were music shows--from classical to brand new American Rock and Roll on Armed Forces Network.

Popular American movies were available on our base; saw most of them. Again, in college, I saw every $1 feature film shown on campus; and well into the 1970's. Maybe because I was young then, but movies today are so poorly made, it makes me sad. Why bother?

On our return to the States in 1961, I probably binged on TV for the next 5 years, through high school. But a sudden, mindful change was about to happen: when I went away to school, I vowed to myself that I would "live my own life, not let TV and popular movies live for me."  (That's what Books are for!) I never went to the TV lounge at the dorms.  That was 1966-thru the present, mainly.

It seems that "more options" became available beginning in the 1980's with video recorders, players and content available for loan or rent. Seems like yesterday.   Cable TV? the novelty came and went for me. I don't enjoy being "trapped" in other peoples' media selections; watching some packaged program.

Mostly, if you've seen this Blog, you know, I read Books. You can pick up the book and put down. If you like the content, you can finish the book. If not: put it down and donate the book.  Find another Book, read it, organize my thoughts and enter it into the record (Blog).  Self-crated content.

It Starts with "Several Years Ago, We "Cut the Cable"...". YouTube and Me: Part 1.

Separating ourselves from Cable TV seemed "edgy" at the time. We were tired of the ever increasing bills vs. the declining quality of information and entertainment available.  We can rent or borrow DVD's for movies.     Hubsy misses sports offerings somewhat, but not much.

I can't remember precisely when or how we began to lean heavily on YouTube for diversion and information: probably it was the content available during the eruption of the Hawaii volcano in 2018; we were "glued" to the reports from USGS and the stunning videos of gushing lava every evening as we ate our dinner.

We expanded our Nature viewing to other volcanoes, wildlife, undersea, etc.  This was in the days when we mainly watched together on a pretty good screen in the basement. I don't usually mind watching something Hubsy will enjoy--"togetherness, etc."

At some point, Hubsy visited relatives and Colorado for a couple of weeks; on my own, I began to shop the vast amount of content available on YouTube. I like crafts and sewing tutorials; I like to watch people refinish old furniture---but I prefer a less scripted approach than the usual "canned" presentations you see on Public TV or Cable. I like to see "real" people doing things they are passionate about, in their own way.

News, Current Events and expanded discussions!! Podcast shows! All by myself, as a little old lady in a suburban basement, I found Joe Rogan: he's edgy, many of his guests I don't care about; but when his program is interesting, I am glued to it. His podcasts are 3 hours long!  Many national and international news networks have live, 24-hour a day content. Take your pick.

Not long after that, we got a much better TV to replace an old clunker in the bedroom. A new era in entertainment, education and escapism! 

I'm shocked at how many people my age are still harnessed to "newpapers", "magazines", cable TV and so on. They either complain about it or choose to "die on that hill".      I am also aware that the Blog that I maintain is an antiquated format; only 10 years old and who reads blogs anymore??? I was not raised with a video camera in my face; I am not comfortable seeing myself on the Sam's Club video. I could never perform a YouTube!

Next time, I will reveal my favorite YouTube programs and performers, not that anyone cares because, obviously, we should all be curating our own content--as we are free to do. What a world.

End of Part 1.

Once You Start Reading about Rome, You Can't Stop. My way of saying "another Rome book"

This is not a representation of Maximinus 

I have mentioned before that I live in an area rich with "second hand", "paperback exchange" and used book stores, as well as a good public library; often, I find interesting, eclectic reading opportunities free for the picking.

Such was the case with "Maximinus Thrax--From Common Soldier to Emperor of Rome" by Paul N. Pearson. (first published by Pen & Sword Books, UK in 2016).

During the 3rd Century CE, Rome switched Emperors every few years, always a bloody mess.
This is the story of one of those.  Maximinus was not Roman. He was from Thrace (Turkey); he was a 7 to 8-ft tall young man (probably with glandular condition), super-strong; discovered by the Emperor during military games in the area. Max. was inducted into the Roman army and trained as security guard (so he was near the center of power).

It's a good story. He advanced; popular with the soldiers and concerned for their welfare. A coup made him Emperor while on campaign in Germany.  His reign was short and he never got back to Rome as Emperor.

We saw the bust in the Capitoline Museum, but was not aware of Max at that time, so no photo of him from my camera.  In the Metropolitan Museum in NY, there is an 8-ft bronze found near the ruins of his troops' barracks in Rome: the Ogre of the Met, so-called. Perhaps Max; there is some evidence.          Rome. The mysteries never cease.

"Bernini-His Life and His Rome" by Franco Mormando

I needed to learn more of the life, times and context of the greatest of the Baroque artists; this volume provided the information.

What a rollicking life: Gian Lorenzo Bernini's father was a known and respected sculpture and painter who married his mom when she was only 12 years old! We would be shocked and call the police! In those days (1600-ish): on the edge but legal and not too strange. She outlived him by decades after having many children.

Gian Loranzo worked in his father's studio and seemingly was recognized as a prodigy early on.
His was Type A before there was "Type A". Hyper energetic, driven, workaholic, hardly took time to eat--but loved to eat fruit--Bernini worked those around him as hard as he worked himself. He did not collaborate well: he took the credit for the work made by his studio. He was handsome and charming with courtly manners. Early on, he was made a Knight by the Pope.

He had a younger brother, Luigi, whose skills as an architect and stone mason were needed in the studio. But Luigi was quirky, to say the least: he had sexual peccadilloes. When Bernini figured out that Luigi was sleeping with his mistress, Costanza, he drew his sword and chased his younger brother all the way from the Vatican to Santa Maria Maggiore, mindless of passersby and the cops!! He could get away with this because he was the famous Bernini, closely allied to powerful Popes.

Much later, Luigi forced himself violently upon a young man within the confines of St. Peter's; a shocking crime. He could have been condemned to burn. Gian Lorenzo, in his 70's by then, bailed him out by providing quantities of free art for the Pope and Cardinals. 

The St. Ludovica Albertoni in Trastevere was one of the pieces. There are many other amazing stories worth reading the book to learn. Bernini's sojourn in France, for example.

Wonderful book--scholarly enough but (and I have mentioned this before) written with a modern voice to inform and entertain an ordinary reader.

Bernini was buried in Santa Maria Maggiore under a simple plaque---no elaborate tomb....but when in Rome, look around: All of Rome is his Tomb Stone.

Oh. Remember Costanza? After Bernini chased his brother through Rome with the sword, he instructed one of his retainers to take her a bottle of wine----then slash her face with a knife. After that, Costanza's husband continued to work in Bernini's studio just as before, as if nothing had happened. 

On New Year's Eve--In Bed Early and Glad to be there.....

Out of nowhere...

Visions of gardens, plans for gardens, products of gardens, flowers

Bird feeders and other signs of Spring. After all, the Sun is returning to the North.