WOKE BRANDS by hbomberguy on Youtube

"Can a product be truly progressive? How can I free my skin? Let's discuss!" A video that doesn't say anything new if you've heard that Corporations Aren't Your Friends before, but it's an entertaining and clear explication of 'brand activism'. And wow, I didn't know quite HOW MUCH money Nike made by pissing off conservatives. I guess I have to admire the hustle.

Mikey The Macaw || London Tourist (Official Music Video) - YouTube

"London Tourist is the 2nd Parrot Music Video starring Mikey The Macaw." (It's catchier than the other one, though. I keep singing it more than a month after first listen...)

Marlene Mc'Cohen - TOP 5 My Parrot Vinny Talks with subtitles (Talking Bird Compilation) - YouTube

This galah cockatoo, Vinny, is without a doubt the weirdest and most hilarious talking parrot I have yet learned of during my time in parrot fandom. These subtitled clips give an idea of his manner, which is weirdly like he was raised on The Sopranos and The Godfather???; his quirks, such as being ready to throw down about cardboard boxes; the surprising degree to which he understands what you're talking about; and his hilarious, croaky little cockatoo voice.

Epicurious's Price Points series on YouTube

This now 20-strong series started with "Cheese Expert Guesses Cheap vs Expensive Cheeses" and "Meat Expert Guesses Cheap vs Expensive Deli Meats" and has included hits like coffee, pickles, ice cream, hot sauce, beer, vinegar, and most recently whiskey. But it really doesn't matter whether I'm familiar with the thing they're talking about or even interested in it; it's always fun and fascinating to watch an expert explain their speciality to you with real excitement. I was thinking it would be great to have a fandom parody of these, like "Doujinshi expert guesses cheap vs expensive doujinshi" and "High School AU Expert guesses cheap vs expensive high school AU" (although in that case I'm not really sure what 'expensive' would be code for... popular? old? long?)

The Hurdy Gurdy | Down the Rabbit Hole - YouTube

All the history of the hurdy-gurdy that I never knew and never knew I wanted to know. For a brief time in there I was seriously thinking about how likely it is that I can arrange to touch one in person. (I have heard one in person, but it was on a stage mixed with a lot of other instruments at the time and I didn't really realize quite how strange it was.) Also I can't help feeling like my grandmother's medieval folk music ensemble was a bunch of posers for not including one.

A few months ago I was suggested a random video of a balcony full of screaming kookaburras on YouTube and posted to ask my Australian flist if that is a normal or expected Australian occurrence, and from the amusing things they kindly told me about Australian bird life I got interested and did a number of searches on YouTube to see the birds in question...

...and since then YouTube's algorithm has been showing me more and more content related to parrots, in a really delightful instance of the same phenomenon that radicalizes people, I assume. (I'm still not really sure why the original screaming kookaburras showed up, though.)

So far, I have hardly seen anything boring related to parrots in any way, so it's all good! I've learned a lot:

• that budgerigars, cockatiels and cockatoos are all members of the parrot family


• that cockatoos and budgies talk too, but the smaller the parrot, the weirder it sounds, and the more like you're hearing someone with a throat injury or through a walkie-talkie


• that cockatoos are amazingly similar to five-year-old humans and they don't just reproduce speech randomly, they use language to communicate, but in a hilariously weird way that is not the way people (or, say, grey parrots) do


• that even budgies can learn enormous vocabularies and construct novel sentences by recombining parts


• that kakapos are parrots too but there aren't nearly enough videos of them

I wouldn't say I'm exactly in parrot fandom, but I'm definitely enjoying watching a lot of parrot content at the moment (which is good, because I've been trying to knit and I have not felt emotionally equal to investing myself in the fates of more fictional characters in dramas).

We got the animal blood tester out today, wanting to try to draw Snookums's first 12-hr blood glucose curve, but only then discovered there was a fourth component we needed to have bought separately (a test solution to calibrate the tester with) and didn't. It should be here in a couple more days.