BEDA 22: Videos of the Week

Despite the fact that many of my friends are fairly active in the YouTube community, and the fact that I met some of the most important people in my life (including Graham) through some combination of the Nerdfighter and Harry Potter communities, I don't spend that much time on YouTube. I still keep up with my friends' videos and subscribe to a few other various channels, but I find myself distracted whil watching videos and generally prefer textual blogs.
 But man, sometimes YouTube reminds me why I love the internet. Here are some videos that made my week:

An Excerpt from the Royal Ballet's 1959 Production of Swan Lake 

Lately, I've been spending too much of my free time watching clips of the old great ballerinas, particularly Fonteyn, Tallchief, and Pavlova. While their training and style is so different than what you see today, they have a quality that I think so many of today's ballet "stars" lack. They dance with such abandon and passion. I don't want to bore anyone with my play-by-play analysis of Fonteyn, but . . .gah, I love her. I also love the little swans in this clip. Their feet aren't great, but they're so incredibly precise and synchronized and I've never seen the variation attacked like that before. Swan Lake is one of my least favorite ballets, but this video made me happy. Old school Royal Ballet, ftw.

This is Hip Hop

   Thanks to my fellow In-Sight-ers for introducing me to this work of art. We've pretty much been quoting it in rehearsal all week. Now that I know the secret to hip hop is just bad posture and turn-out, I should be able to unlock my inner gangster.

Nerdfighters Never Surrender 

This is one of my favorite vlogbrothers videos, from way back in the early days of Brotherhood 2.0. In less than four minutes, John Green discusses the steadfastness of nerdfighters in our mission to decrease World Suck, and reveals an embarrassing photograph of brother Hank Green . I particularly enjoy John's assessment of the character and habits of English literature nerdfighters.  If you don't know what nerdfighting is, you will soon enough.

Also, this isn't a video, but Nancy Werlin's guest post on Libba Bray's blog contains some wonderful thoughts about The Hunger Games trilogy as we gear up for the release of Mockingjay. If I have time, I'll post my last-minute predictions and speculations before I get the book at midnight tomorrow!

Books Read This Week:
Thin is the New Happy by Valerie Frankel (Funny at times and honest, but mostly a good example of how not to write a memoir, in my opinion.)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (last reread in preparation for Book 3. . .)