What’s yours’s? My latest is Thailand condos for rent. It’s just unbelievable the condos you can get for about $500 a month. High rise in a newer building with rooftop infinity pools and gardens. And the most amazing cityscape views. Some have ocean views. Most have small balconies. The plate glass industry must be huge in Thailand because there’s giant windows everywhere. And the city is crazy clean, from what I’ve seen. Parts of Bangkok look positively Jetsonian in its modernity. And there’s food stalls everywhere. Really gets the imagination going. Social Security could go a long ways there. Just about the biggest criticism I’ve seen of the cheaper condos is how small they are. But they are all clean and modern and come fully furnished and have really nice fixtures. Just really amazing.
For me, for the last year or two, it’s been two things*. BBC panel/game shows and ‘disaster’ type videos.
There’s a thread around here about the BBC shows, but it’s a lot of Taskmaster, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Would I Lie To You, QI, Big Fat Quiz etc.
As for the disaster videos, I’m not talking about (at least not exclusively) natural disasters, just things going horribly wrong. Factories exploding, oil refinery fires, subway trains derailing, that kind of thing. There’s quite a few good channels that focus on them. Plainly Difficult is a really good one, Tragedy Tales, Dark History etc. But one that’s oddly well done is USCSB (United States Chemical Safety Board). It’s a government agency that investigates chemical accidents. As such, the videos are very dry, very straight forward and often go back and forth between animations of the incident and investigators speaking about what was found during the investigation.
However, they’re really good and somehow, especially keeping in mind most of these videos are quite old, they animations are really good. It’s sometimes hard to tell if it’s an animation or video. Honestly, it’s like if the government was trying to copy Pixar. Here’s a good example. They do a really good job, not just explaining, but showing (via the animations) exactly what happened and why it caused the problem it caused.
Along the same lines (disasters), Mentour Pilot and 74Gear do a lot of general (large/commercial) aviation videos, but they also do a lot of videos about airplane accidents and incidents. I also like Green Dot Aviation and Mini Air Crash Investigations.
And if you really want a rabbit hole, check out Periscope Films. They’ve been uploading tons and tons (like thousands upon thousands) of old 50’s/60’s/70’s videos like those half hour documentaries you used to be able to catch on TV. Here’s a USMC hand to hand combat training video and here’s one about diesel engines.
*To be clear, I watch a ton of other stuff, but a lot of has been this.
Since Mrs. solost and I haven’t been on a vacation in several years for various reasons, I’ve been watching a lot of traveling videos. Van life vids, where people kit out box trucks and panel vans into full living spaces and travel all over (I think the movie ‘Nomads’ may have first gotten me interested-- as non-glamorous as the movie depicted the lifestyle, I still thought “I could do that”).
Train travel videos. Japan and Europe have the best train setups for long distance travel, but I was pleasantly surprised by a journey from Chicago to San Fransisco by Amtrak- it was higher-end than I would have thought.
Various boating life vids- people who live on and travel the world in a sailboat. Not too interested in taking a cruise, but a guy who works on a giant cruise ship has ‘behind the scenes’ vids of employee areas off-limits to paying guests that’s kind of interesting.
Various types of winter camping- from ‘bare essentials’ winter survival camping to ‘hot tent’ camping, where a lot of gear is hauled in on a little sled and the camping is surprisingly cozy with a little wood-fired stove in the tent.
Other than traveling-- cooking videos, comedy, musical performances, and science / physics vids that explain things like 'What is the nature of time?" on a layman’s level.
Oh yeah, I’m a sucker for ‘nostalgia’ type videos-- “where are they now” from old TV series, videos of TV commercials from the 60s and 70s, stuff like that.
I’ve always liked magic. Of late I’ve found myself much more interested in the how-to-do-it aspect than being amazed and entertained. It is the mechanics of a trick that fascinate me. There are plenty of magic trick revealers on the Tube of You.
A rabbit-out-of-the hat hole, if you will.
mmm
Dashcam videos. I can and have watched that shit all day. Something about other people being morons that is endlessly entertaining.
I used to watch a lot of those too. In fact, it was part of the reason I got a dashcam. Not that I was hoping something would happen, but it’s easy to see how often “our” driver would appear to be at fault if it wasn’t for the dashcam (ie getting backed into at a red light).
But the one takeaway I had from all those, especially the russian ones, was how many accidents could have been avoided if they weren’t driving so effin close to each other. Yeah, it’s a fluke that a tire came off the car in front of you and hit your car, but if you weren’t following 10 feet behind, you could have avoided it without much trouble.
Reaction “first time watching” videos, both to some of my favorite movies from my youth (Airplane!, Terminator 2, Princess Bride, for example), and classic music. It gives me a bit of the feeling of watching/hearing again for the first time.
I especially appreciate the “self-working” card and mentalism tricks. Occasionally fun to trot out when company is over. Amazing and amusing how readily folk will miss something incredibly obvious!
My personal rabbit hole is acoustic/oldtime music. I am in a band and play in jams, so am always looking for new tunes to work on. You find one band you kinda like, then listen to all their songs. If they cover someone or list someone as an influence, you listen to THEM. Then everyone who covers them and THEIR songs…
You might like Josh Turner Guitar, for a bunch of 20-somethings, these guys have more talent than than you’d expect.
Cameras from around the world. In an hour I can visit Venice, Sydney, Bar Harbor, Santa Claus Village in Norway, Waikiki, Jackson Hole, Key West and London. I have shortcuts to about 130 of them. Another time killer is using Google Maps to find the camera. The cameras in Jackson, Wyoming is why my wife and I are pulling our travel trailer there in a few months.
Not a very deep rabbit hole, but it had that local touch as we followed the exploits of our own Rhode Island gangster rappers Warraq. It’s pure comedy, although never clear if these morons are serious or not. In one video they pretend to be somewhere in the Florida or something but are clearly at a waterfront here in RI. They worked on upping their gangster image until eventually crossing the line when the police accused them of inciting looting at the Providence Place mall. They are so good at being bad that it seems to be intentional comedy, but also they could be serious and clueless along the lines of Karate Guys from AGT. Unintended comedy can be very good in a way unattainable otherwise.
Cat cam videos.
Where the camera is mounted on the cat. And you get to ride along with him in his adventures.
(Basically outside farm cats. So it’s a little more interesting than an inside domestic cat)
Cooking videos. Too many good channels to list all.
The Wolfe Pit https://www.youtube.com/@TheWolfePit
schnell lecker https://www.youtube.com/@schnelllecker
among my favorites.
Also try the videos where they put a camera on a half-feral community cat in an urban area. It’s interesting how for the most part, those cats all get along splendidly.
I love those, too. Especially if they are a place I will never visit, or maybe I might visit. Either way, I want to see what I am missing or what I will experience. I also like Railfan, though I think it isn’t for everyone. I like trains, and I have a train track near my house. I like it when the trains come through (on Railfan). So often, the tracks look lonely, since trains do not often show up. Sometimes, a vehicle crosses the tracks or a cyclist or pedestrian. It can be calming before bedtime, believe it or not.
I like Railfan too. I like to find the locations on Google maps just like the other camera sites.
There are an amazing number of videos of tiny kittens sleeping and playing with ducklings. Cuteness overload.
There’s a large number of British railway training films from the days of steam. Learn how a train fireman should shovel coal and then look out the window to check the color of the smoke. (No mention how to do this at night).
I vacillate between vintage “stuff” restoration and machinist videos.
for example.
Do they say what the different smoke colors denote?