Videos Of The Week #4: Glass Simpsons Street Tunes Video

Here we are again at the end of the week, so time for another selection of videos. The third in a row, so I know it might look like Videos Of The Week is taking over on this blog but I'll try and write some other stuff too, this month. Promise.

Anyway, here are some videos for you to push into your eyeballs.

I'm an idiot covered in coffee

To start us off, here are some stupid people walking into - and often through - glass. I once witnessed someone do this in the Wetherspoons in London Victoria station, carrying a tray with two coffees on it. The glass panel in question had a massive, brightly-coloured poster on it. I laughed for the rest of the day...

... Wetherspoons person was unharmed and the staff gave them two free replacement coffees, which they carried out to the table for the customer. The poster was fucked, though.

Cold hot pot 

Anyone who is a fan of Coronation Street will know that in 2014, the production left the world famous Granada Studios on Manchester's Quay Street and moved into a new purpose-built complex in Salford, complete with a bigger exterior set. The old set was opened up to the public for a short while, but in December 2015, the tours came to an end and the old set was earmarked for demolition. 

As I write this, most of it still stands whilst plans are still being finalised for the redevelopment of the plot it stands on. As you may recall from a few weeks back, I linked to a video of the abandoned Tots TV house being explored. Well this week, we get to explore the abandoned Coronation Street set. Since the tours ended, the famous cobbles have been removed, most of the windows and doors have been stripped out and flowerbeds and weeds have been left to get out of hand, giving the street a bit of a zombie apocalypse feel. There's no dialogue in this video, but if you turn the Closed Captions on, you'll be provided with details of each area as it's explored.

Spinning Heads

The next video is a bit of a history lesson. A technical one. About videotape. I still find it hard to talk about videotape in the past tense and to be honest, I miss it as a recording medium. Alright, so you can't pause live TV with it - like you can with a Sky Plus/Freeview Plus/Tivo box - but at least you can keep as many things recorded on as many tapes as you like for as long as you like. And DVD recorders are a bit shit. Anyway, as much as videotape and video cassettes are seen as things of a bygone, simple time, have you ever actually explored the workings of a VCR? If you have, then you know how amazing it is from an engineering point of view. If you haven't, then watch this video from Technology Connections and find out...

There's a nice demonstration of record speed quality in this video, as a portion of it was recorded onto VHS. I find it quite reassuring when I see a nice bit of dropout on a tape. I'm weird.

From Sega, with love

In the previous video, there's a tip of the hat towards the Techmoan YouTube channel. Indeed, it is a brilliant channel, run by a guy who demonstrates and explores old tech - some of which is super niche. On top of this he also reviews a lot of new tech, so it really is worth having a look at this channel... and you don't need to go anywhere, as the next video is from the man himself, as he was recently sent an intriguing package from Sega...

Aaaah, so much nostalgia!

VHSimpsons

Finally - and staying with the tape recording theme - an absolutely messed-up parody of the opening titles of The Simpsons. I have a really fuckled sense of humour and this is right up my street. I hope it's up yours too.

That's all the videos for this week. Toodle-pip.