ONLINE VIEWING

With a certain amount of nostalgia, I can recall when my home computer had no graphics capability so that—when I sat down to write—I actually wrote, conjuring images in my head, finding just the right words to write the right picture. These days, like so many others, I cut to the chase and divert myself away from authorial duties with quick and ready online clips. There is, of course, the ubiquitous YouTube where you're encouraged to "broadcast yourself." I remember when Dave Hudson at The Greencine Daily first exposed me to YouTube and we bantered about its future potential. Little did I know that would involve pressing right up against publishing deadlines because I . can't . quite . pull . myself . away . just . yet.

So in hopes that I might be able to rid myself of this diversive disease by giving it to others, here are a few of my recent fave raves in online viewing.

YouTube is completely unmanageable without The Daily Reel, which not only culls out the best from that continuously evolving morass of clips, but actually offers some fine commentary on same, reminding me that—okay, you can watch things on line—but, you can write about them too. The Daily Reel isn't limited to YouTube; they go all over the Internet looking for choice clips, offering a weekly top ten.

In the last week, I have gone completely gaga over Spike Priggen's sister sites, Bedazzled and Scopitones. Although Spike is much younger than I am, he has managed to zero in (no doubt out of retro fashion) to the tender years of my formative youth. Here are the musical t.v. appearances on Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett, The Smothers Brothers and The Dick Cavett Show that kept me bopping in front of the t.v. trays. Let alone, before that, the Cheerios commercials (in nostalgic black and white) that had a wimp like me longing to "rustle up some muscle" to combat black knights and alligators, let alone refuse feminine advances (even then I knew something was up). Bedazzled is one of those blogs that has me methodically dipping into archives, month by month, post by post, to scoop and download the clips when media mattered most.

Spike has also reintroduced the world to classic Scopitones from the U.S. and abroad. I finally bit the bullet and bought all 14 of his dvd compilations just so I wouldn't have to use up computer memory downloading clip after clip from the site. These are wonderful pre-MTV flashbacks with buxom bikini-clad lovelies with one foot in the 50s and the other in the swinging surfboard 60s. Sex was so naughty back then! Certainly now the kitsch is thrillingly contagious.