Even more niche is Tech Time Traveller, concentrating on hobbyist computers of the 70s and home computers of the early 80s. Surprisingly the guy is in his late 40s - basically my age. I'd assumed he'd been at least an older teenager in the mid 70s as he comes across as very knowledgable about the hobbyist scene of that time.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Sunday, 16 May 2021 15:28 (two years ago) link
people playing RPGs and/or wargames.
― ian, Sunday, 16 May 2021 19:47 (two years ago) link
Live streams of Sotheby's contemporary art auctions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZceMlPw_2o
― Maresn3st, Monday, 17 May 2021 10:02 (two years ago) link
found this on Twitter originally, but these "car vs. giant bulge" videos are oddly soothing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeIbmocfrk0
not only that, but my 7 year old son absolutely loves them
― frogbs, Monday, 2 May 2022 20:58 (one year ago) link
Lol that’s pretty funnyReminds me of the races in GTA online. But more realistic
― calstars, Monday, 2 May 2022 21:03 (one year ago) link
That is so strangely funny.
"Cars vs. Giant Pit" is great too.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 2 May 2022 23:02 (one year ago) link
I mentioned this a while back on the severance thread.
Kane Pixels, a teenage guy who is in the middle of making an analog horror series based on the 'Backrooms' meme, appears to do everything himself, and god damn if it isn't really well done and super watchable. Oh and creepy as f.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4dGpz6cnHo
― Maresn3st, Monday, 2 May 2022 23:12 (one year ago) link
Woah. House of Leaves + Primer + some dark twisted version of Borges library. I'm profoundly in.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 3 May 2022 17:04 (one year ago) link
I love watching this guy solve impossible sudokus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKf9aUIxdb4
― nate woolls, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 22:29 (one year ago) link
Love that Sudoku guy, great content
― hrep (H.P), Tuesday, 3 May 2022 23:43 (one year ago) link
very soothed by this no-narration street food account
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEyskuDemx0
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 20:17 (one year ago) link
obsessed with this lovecraftian alt history story told through creepy 3 minute videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUCvy8pKYXA
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 5 May 2022 17:17 (one year ago) link
Big fan of "person with 4K camera and good audio walking around somewhere" channels. Two of my faves are Nippon Wandering TV and Pro Walk Tours
Tokyo Shinjuku, Night Walk In The Cold Autumn Rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_363NRzyXBI
Cairo, Egypt Evening Walk - Khan el-Khalili Market at Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY3kolw6mNI
(watch full screen with headphones)
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 24 May 2022 02:04 (one year ago) link
OK here are some of my YT subs. Some of it is _really_ niche, some of it not so "niche" but folks here may not know about these channels.
Free The Kinescopes! (6.66 subscribers at present) has, well, uploads of old kinescopes. You want to see old episodes of Johns Hopkins Science Review or Studio One? This is the channel!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCiT9CboW4R
Cereal Time! A man of Cape Verdean heritage talks about different cereals. I particularly enjoyed this video, which is a bit outside his usual format, where he talks about Royal Lunch Milk Crackers.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u26wFpGI-kQ
These two great channels full of live performances of Carnatic music:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCaqo36k2FIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShriramVasu
For Western classical music live music performances, I enjoy ADGO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AntonioDGO
And if you're looking for a more in-depth musicological approach to classical music, check out this channel on Early Music Sources:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videos
Or maybe you're more into in-depth musicological analysis of video game music. There's this channel:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bitMusicTh
More videogame music? GST makes great themed mixes showing off various types of music on classic video game systems, along with videos highlighting classic game composers. Here's a ten minute mix of 90s acid music for the SNES:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdtqSNw8mec
More video game videos? Here's a channel that combines video game maps with videos of speedruns to provide a zoomed-out view of old games. Hard to explain. Here's a video of a 100% run of Bionic Commando to see it in action:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb16BvLUuEc
Sharopolis specializes in videos highlighting games that push the technical limitations of their respective systems. Who knew Jurassic Park for the SNES was such a great technical accomplishment?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sharopolis
Techmoan and LGR are great for showing off weird hardware, but Ben Minotte's Oddity Archive has been a dependable channel covering things like the early history of UHF broadcasting:
Some completely random folks playing songs on Youtube. This lady plays songs on the banjo:Willard Losinger plays left-wing songs in the ukulele. Here he is playing Phil Ochs' "Love Me I'm A Liberal":Gary Peters played guitar in the short-lived early '80s avant-jazz group Stinky Winkles, and now uploads videos showing him playing pedal steel guitar:
Here's a channel that does nothing but upload different recordings of Jesus Christ Superstar:
Obsolete Video is a slightly odd channel that transfers various old video recordings, some of which they upload to YouTube. A lot of the old clips on Youtube come from OVS uploads (as you can tell from the distinctive lower right corner bug).
Accented Cinema does some really cool essays on cinema, particularly Asian cinema:
Matt Baume specializes in video essays on the history of LGBT+ network television:
Finally, Hazel does these really interesting deep dives into obscure anime. I don't even watch anime, but I love the way she puts together a video.
This is perhaps the only post I'll ever make here that doesn't directly mention trans shit. Mark your calendars.
...actually, wait. No, no, wait. I forgot about the Finntastic Mr. Fox, I love this guy's videos and he has hardly any views. Got to his channel from a recent Jessie Gender video on non-binary pirates, in which Finn guested and looked extremely hot in his pirate getup:
― Kate (rushomancy), Tuesday, 24 May 2022 02:57 (one year ago) link
Well, dammit those links all broke. Fuck it, I just turned it into a blog post:
https://www.alanauch.org/wtob/2022/05/24/some-youtube-channels-i-subscribe-to/
― Kate (rushomancy), Tuesday, 24 May 2022 03:00 (one year ago) link
Gates Wildlife Control is a no-kill wildlife control company in Ontario, Canada - most of their channel is removing raccoon and skunk families from inside people's houses. Lately they've been visiting an abandoned house in Ontario that's become a home for turkey vultures year after year. For the last couple of weeks they've been checking in on some baby vultures since they were born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7VWzC48O4s
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 07:22 (one year ago) link
I'm surprised - perturbed - that Steve1989 hasn't been mentioned. Perturbed because I don't want to blow my hard-won Ilxor credibility. Is he too mainstream? He has been profiled in the Financial Times. I don't want to post something too obvious. The point of threads such as this is to show off. I'm not going to win points by posting links to something that's too obvious. And yet the concept of his channel is decidedly niche:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMte4yguZw
He reviews old military meals. Despite having lots of subscribers he still has a cheap-looking set. The key things in his favour are his obvious love of the topic, his sincerity, his big manly arms, the strangely comforting sight of junk food, the "binge-watching at 3am" factor, the fact that he doesn't appear to be a massive arse etc. It's like mukbang but nice. And the odd vocabulary ("prevalent" as a compliment). Is he too obvious? Not niche enough? He prompted me to finally buy some MREs from eBay and see what they were like. I remember reading about them during the first Gulf War. It took me that long to actually sate my curiosity. In summary Steve is fr fr no cap, as the kids say nowadays.
The other thing is Regular Car Reviews, which isn't niche at all. He's a gonzo car reviewer who tries to explain the sociological impact of cars from the 1970s and 1980s. It goes over my head because he talks about US car culture, but occasionally he shouts HOT DICKS for several minutes and that's funny. HOT DICKS! It's funny because he has a degree in English but he says HOT DICKS. Imagine Stephen Fry saying HOT DICKS. My reaction would be KEKW, which is another young person thing. I have no fucking idea. The kids like it though.
What else? The bloke who restores Apollo guidance computers and old Xerox Alto machines etc. The Xerox Alto demonstration is astonishing because the machine is from 1973:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H79_kKzmFs
It has the first ever implementation of Ethernet, plus a predecessor of TCP/IP, and it has a screen resolution of 800x600, which was still good in the mid-1990s. The machine comes across as a more advanced Apple Macintosh, but from 1973. And I mean yes it probably cost $20,000 a unit at a time when $20,000 could buy a house but humour me. What would you prefer to live in? A house, or the future?
What else? Synthmania / Paulo, a synthesiser enthusiast who, uniquely, makes demo tunes that are Italodisco and techno. Instead of e.g. nondescript dark ambient / analogue glitch music, which the vast majority of Youtube synthesiser people churn out because they want to be different. He's endearing because he looks like a New York Taxi driver / Mafia don, but he's a shit-hot musician who could probably churn out a SNES game sometrack in real time:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWJidyE_sTg
― Ashley Pomeroy, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 19:10 (one year ago) link
AudioPilz, a musician from Austria who reviews "bad gear" - uploads a new video every Friday evening.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 19:22 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efmjwEu73u0
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 19:24 (one year ago) link
the comment that inspired this video is amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5J8j9SG3MQ
― Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 4 March 2023 18:37 (one year ago) link
pls to explain colours of nose
― emil.y, Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:40 (one year ago) link
this person restores old objects and makes them look brand new. not something i'd ever have the tools, knowledge, skill, or patience to do, but very satisfying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vXIA-65QNohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L232PR3_5JA
― z_tbd, Sunday, 5 March 2023 00:36 (one year ago) link
if i had a channel like that, every single video would end with me not being able to put it back together, and loads of dog hair all over the place
― z_tbd, Sunday, 5 March 2023 00:49 (one year ago) link
Azerbaijan couple show you country farm life with zero talking, just cooking and rural living
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QW7YFfyu9c
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 10 March 2023 09:16 (one year ago) link
niiiiiice, thank you. i've been watching the japanese versions of those recently - both street food and also "most expensive sushi in tokyo" kind of stuff. the no talking genre is the best
― z_tbd, Friday, 10 March 2023 16:04 (one year ago) link
I got really into Japanese micro camper vans for awhile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGqMsPvjjh0
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 10 March 2023 18:01 (one year ago) link
I've watched this video of a wood-fired bakery in the mountains of Japan several times - it's that good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOK3nS4t7_Y
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 12 March 2023 01:36 (one year ago) link
Wait there are people that haven't seen that woman from Azerbaijan cooking? How did you survive the pandemic
― official representative of Roku's Basketshit in at least one alternate u (lukas), Sunday, 12 March 2023 03:02 (one year ago) link
My favorite "repair guy" is the guy from My Mechanics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLj2ASDWAeg
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 12 March 2023 04:03 (one year ago) link
hazel ranks anime denny's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5OWj6EJdvU
lady emily goes into the history of the gorillaz' _plastic beach_ for 90 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozBnh3eAQUg
― Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, 19 March 2023 15:07 (one year ago) link
Yeah I loved that hazel video. When I went to Japan and asked for restaurant recommendations ppl would always ask "family restaurant?" and now I get it.
I'm a fan of Lady Emily but 90 min on Gorillaz is a pass.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 20 March 2023 10:22 (one year ago) link
Been getting into educational ASMR in the last year or 2. The French Whisperer is the cure for insomnia, his stuff knocks me out in under 10 mins without fail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toIz0E6LYnQ
― The field divisions are fastened with felicitations. (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 4 April 2023 06:14 (one year ago) link
This woman reads nonfiction books, often for kids, especially cartography and Nat Geo type things. Her delivery isn’t my favorite but the material is so “my thing” I love ASMR & sciencey books about animals for kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekvOyt_R1KM
― The field divisions are fastened with felicitations. (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 4 April 2023 06:32 (one year ago) link
Keen On Keys combines 80s/90s consumer tech with repairing stuff and music.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RjDv-0NPUQUnfortunately they only upload a video every 2-3 months.
― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Saturday, 8 April 2023 18:29 (one year ago) link
Simon The Magpiehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80mroZ598GE
― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Monday, 31 July 2023 19:11 (eight months ago) link
Alfonse, who uploads music made almost entirely with the kind of 'toy' Casio/Yamaha keyboards you would see gathering dust on the shelf in a charity shop. Often the videos are made entirely with just one keyboard plus effects, like this one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXIpU5phKI8
― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Saturday, 23 March 2024 10:07 (one month ago) link
The Lock Picking Lawyer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY
Beardy academic invites you into his study, talks about pipes, smokes a pipe, reads you some Tolkien or CS Lewis, v soothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvFbX8k_gMc
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 23 March 2024 23:21 (one month ago) link