Ryeberg Curated Video » Ryeberg

Roger Scruton says you can find consolation closer to home, and from consolation, happiness. He also doesn’t mind providing an answer to one of the enduring questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbV66wO2D_o

VPROWinkel, “Roger Scruton” (Of Beauty & Consolation, 2000)

9) The Fun Machine Is Going Down, Follow It

Other sources of consolation and happiness are available. Here’s some on this sidewalk in Boston. Except really, you probably do not want that person back

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EPwRdVg5Ug

Lake Street Dive, “I Want You Back” (2012) — thx M Rowe

10) Watch The End Of Fellini’s Film

Now it’s late at night and the people you love are asleep. You’re tired, the lamps are floating. You can’t tear yourself from the computer. Then, au hasard, you get to this, and it’s enough to bring a close to the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_Xc4Uz17I

Federico Fellini, “Nights Of Cabria” (1957)

Are you crying ‘cuz you’re happy? Or sad? Answer: Happy.

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Ryeberg Live Vancouver 2013

Ryeberg — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:59:20 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWdZJobpCTc

RyebergCuratedVideo, “Ryeberg Live Vancouver 2013: Trailer” (January, 2013))

It happened at Club PuSh, social hub of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and dream venue for Ryeberg Live. At the door, each attendee received a copy of Geist Magazine — Geist 87 to be exact (it’s a good one) — and Stephen Osborne, Geist publisher (demonstrating his customary wit and intelligence), kicked off the evening with a few words about PuSh, about Geist and about Ryeberg.com.

Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg editor, played the role of emcee. He reminded the audience what they were there to see and told stories of Rudolf Ryeberg, the man who gave his name to the website. Caroline Adderson was the first Ryeberg curator of the evening and she set herself the task of “re-enthralling” motion pictures via the four elements: For a short while, we all lingered in the chambers of the sea. Kevin Chong searched YouTube for the 100% perfect video adaptation of a work of literature by high school students. He asked: Can video teach high school students to read? Not a rhetorical question. After intermission, Steven Galloway showed that even the finest magician’s prestidigitations can be spotted, named and reconstructed. You may prefer not to draw back the curtain, but be thankful that magicians are not actual wizards with supernatural powers. Finally, Maiko Bae Yamamoto, self-proclaimed child of a weepy land called “Nostalgica,” had us wiping away our own tears with a series of shamelessly sentimental video clips. Here’s a tip: If you need a hit of homecoming and grief, YouTube is a reliable dealer.

The photos were taken by Tim Matheson.

Club PuSh, Performance Works, Granville Island, Vancouver

Norman Armour (centre), Push Festival Executive Producer

Stephen Osborne, Publisher Geist Magazine

Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg Editor

Caroline Adderson, “Re-Enthralling The Image In Motion”

Kevin Chong, “Man Versus Camera”

Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg Editor

Steven Galloway, “Magic, Cupcakes & Infinity”

Maiko Bae Yamamoto, “Nostalgica”

Warmest thanks to Stephen Osborne, Mary Schendlinger and everyone else at Geist for supporting both Ryeberg.com and Ryeberg Live. Warmest thanks to Norman Armour, Tim Carlson and Veda Hille for inviting Ryeberg to take part in their classy, cutting-edge festival. Warmest thanks to Minna Schendlinger, PuSh Festival Managing Director, David Kerr, Kara Gibbs, Dani Fecko, Cameron Mackenzie, Marijka Asbeek Brusse, Emma Lancaster, Robert Wilson, Lucas, the whole PuSh staff and all the volunteers who helped out. Cheers to Scout Magazine, The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Courier, Sheryl MacKay at CBC’s NXNW and all the other media outlets for giving attention to Ryeberg. Big wide world, for imperial hospitality, get you to Vancouver. Until the next!

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Ryeberg Playlist: Happy Holidays

Ryeberg — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 14:30:18 +0000

1) No Need To Hang Your Stockings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZqz94ODz18

TheYahsInitiative, “Miracle On 42nd Street” (December 2011)

Oh yeah! That’s Alex Karigan and Zac Hammer — members of the Amy Marshall Dance Company — giving the gift of dance, with a whole lot more exuberance and joy than we could possibly ask for.

2) Daddy, Thanks

A reminder then, that life doesn’t always follow your careful choreography, and that not all your heroic efforts will be suitably recognized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPHEUb-Q-Aw

Louie CK, “Louie” (Ep 313, Season 3, 2012)

3) Warm Brand New Fleece, World Peace

There’s a lot of hype about Santa Claus this time of year, but as liberal as he is with the gifts, he can be a rude, unappreciative guest, even when visiting his biggest fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Ek2iKl0Pc

Amy & Amy Show, “Christmas Cheer with Amy and Amy” (December, 2011)

4) That Anger Not Tear Us Apart

Chanukkah precedes Christmas this year. During a holiday concert back in 1988, Peter, Paul & Mary performed their wonderful song about the significance of lighting candles. Don’t let the light go out, let it shine through our love and our tears…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yZ1zxtbOJE

Peter, Paul, & Mary, “Light One Candle” (Holiday Concert, 1988)

5) Light Your White Candles

Rudolf Ryberg‘s countrymen light a lot of candles around this time of the year. In fact, Swedes are well into the holiday spirit by December 13th — St. Lucia’s Day — when children dress up as angels and star boys and sing carols, most notably a beautiful old Neapolitan song. Of course, the Swedish lyrics are not about the beauty around Naples; they talk about candles in the house, about light taking the place of darkness, and about Saint Lucia, saint of light, clad in white (Saint Lucy, remember, is the pious young Sicilian who the Romans — under Emperor Diocletian — were unable to kill by burning, and so had to resort to the sword).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2-Q_ObdE-4

Lucia Tradition, “Sankta Lucia Sweden”

If you’re the lucky girl, you play Lucia and and wear the big crown made from Lingonberry branches and rounded with white candles. Then everyone drinks coffee and eats Pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies) and Lussekatter (saffron-flavored buns with raisins), provided there is butter available. Eventually the teenagers spill into the darkness in their virginal costumes to get drunk and find other, more potent pleasures.

6) Don’t Believe In Stars

Here’s a poem — a jul budskap — written by that brilliant Swedish writer, Stig Dagerman, in 1950. If there is freedom, it is in our brothers’ eyes.

Don’t believe in stars. Stars are distant things,
that don’t dispel the darkness over any Bethlehem.
They were not lit for us. They burn for themselves.
For people, eyes shine bright. Let us follow them.

Don’t believe in kings. They think themselves wise men.
They don’t journey through the desert to new life.
They live in a desert that separates us from them.
A sword is their gaze and their hand a sharp knife.

Don’t believe in angels. They will not soon descend.
They find space empty and cold. They find the road too long.
If it is song we seek, if light,
seek the light in our brother’s gaze and in our own throats the song.

Don’t believe in stars. Stars are burnt out things.
Long gone; dead grasses on the steppe of the universe.
Beacons beam and sparkle much closer to the earth.
Toward the eyes of others, people should steer their ships.

Don’t believe in kings. They themselves are filled with doubt.
What is life and death for us, is their idle play.
Believe only in shepherds, who know and tend to lambs.
To their belts, we attach our lives without fear.

Don’t believe in angels. They are merely prisoners,
dragging their wings as shackles of lead.
If there is freedom, it is in our brothers’ eyes.
If freedom sings, the song will be heard in our blood.

Ryeberg wishes you much happiness in the final moments of the year. Get yourself a big hug!

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Coming Soon: Ryeberg Live Vancouver

Ryeberg — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:25:22 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWdZJobpCTc

RyebergCuratedVideo, “January 27, 2013)

Ryeberg Live is returning to Canada’s west coast! This time as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. It’s thrilling for Ryeberg to be involved with this classy, cutting-edge festival, and it’s always a joy to spend a few days among the beautiful people of Vancouver.

Mark your calendars: Ryeberg Live Vancouver 2013, PuSh Edition, happens at 7PM, January 27th, 2013. Writers Caroline Adderson, Kevin Chong, Steven Galloway, and theatre artist Maiko Bae Yamamoto will present and appraise their own selection of YouTube videos, live onstage. Feel free to expect a unique and unforgettable evening. It’s Ryeberg Live as you know it, with the usual spectacular lineup of curators.

How do I get tickets?

Buy your tickets online by clicking here (or click here for group rates).

Or, if you prefer, buy your tickets in person at the Tickets Tonight booth, 200 Burrard St, Plaza Level, inside the Tourism Vancouver Visitor Centre (10:00am – 6:00pm daily) or at the Satellite Visitor Centre, Robson St at Hornby St, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery (10:00am – 2:00pm daily).

When’s the show again?

7PM — Sunday, January 27, 2013

Where is the show happening?

Club PuSh, Performance Works
1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3R9

Club PuSh, Performance Works Theatre, Granville Island, Vancouver

What is Club PuSh?

Club PuSh is the Performance Works Theatre transformed into a less traditional and more informal performance space, in other words, the ideal venue for Ryeberg Live. It’s also the social hub of the Festival and the best place to grab a drink, hang out with other festival goers and brush shoulders with PuSh Festival artists. You can host a table for you and your buddies and get the royal treatment; info here. Be 19+ to get in.

Tell me more about the PuSh Festival.

PuSh is a three-week performing arts festival that brings together artists from all over the world to showcase original, acclaimed, genre-blending work. The festival’s mission is “to engage and enrich audiences with adventurous contemporary works in a spirit of innovation and dialogue.” 2013 will mark the 9th installment of the PuSh Festival. Last year attendance reached over 23,000. These are the people behind the festival. You can read more at the PuSh website. Here’s a PuSh Festival video trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8DEZ7LPrz4

Michael Sider, “PuSh Festival Promo 2013″

Remind me again: What is Ryeberg Live?

Ryeberg Live is what happens when Ryeberg.com goes offline and onto the stage. Imagine YouTube clips in a darkened room full of people, this uniquely twenty-first century activity that we usually experience alone. Guest writers are there in person reading their essays and showing their personal selection of YouTube videos up on the big screen. Think of it as an elaborate “show and tell.”

Who did you say would be part of the lineup?

There will be four performers and one host at Ryeberg Live Vancouver PuSh 2013.

1) Caroline Adderson is the author of three novels — “A History of Forgetting,” “Sitting Practice,” “The Sky Is Falling” — and two collections of short stories — “Bad Imaginings” and “Pleased To Meet You.” She’s she’s won Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement, and has been nominated for all the big literary prizes. More here.

2) Kevin Chong has published four books, most recently a novel entitled “Beauty Plus Pity” and a memoir named “My Year of the Racehorse.” He’s also an editor at Joyland Magazine and he teaches creative writing at UBC. More here.

3) Steven Galloway is also a professor at UBC’s Creative Writing Department. He’s published three novels, most recently “The Cellist of Sarajevo.” You can read his work in over 30 languages, if you’re up to it. More here.

4) Maiko Bae Yamamoto is the Artistic Director of the Vancouver-based performance company Theatre Replacement, which she co-founded in 2003 with fellow artist James Long. Theatre Replacement presents work all over the world, and the company is all about finding innovative ways of presenting ideas to audiences. Her many theatre and performance works include Dress Me Up In Your Love (2011), WeeTube (2009), Train (2008), Yu-Fo (2007), BIOBOXES (2007), and Sexual Practices Of The Japanese (2006). More here.

5) Erik Rutherford is Ryeberg’s founder and Editor. You can read a few Ryebergs by Erik here.

Please also note that our friends at the ever-thoughtful Geist Magazine are a PuSh “Community Partner” for this event.

To see pictures from past Ryeberg Live events, follow the hyperlinks to Ryeberg Live Toronto 2010 or Ryeberg Live Toronto 2012. And don’t forget Ryeberg Live Vancouver 2012.

See you on the 27th!

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Ryeberg Home Movies: Campanology In Mexico

Ryeberg — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 05:50:35 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We0q4n5j_X8

Ryeberg, “Ryeberg Home Movie: Campanology In Mexico City” (2011)

One evening, Ryeberg spotted a human silhouette in the Western bell tower of the Metropolitan Cathedral de la Asunción de María, Mexico City. Look! Quasimodo! Turns out it was the bell ringer. He (or she) laboured over five minutes before slumping over, hands on knees, heaving for air. Bell ringing is hazardous and it’s heavy work; in that same bell tower, a novice bell ringer moved one of the bells from beneath and it swung back and struck him on the head; he died. The clapper was removed and the bell came to be known as la muda until 53 years later, in 2000, when it got its clapper back and was silent no more.

The Metropolitan Cathedral dates back to the late 16th century, but the thing took 250 years to build. Today it’s the largest in the Americas. Hernán Cortés himself is thought to have laid the first stone, so it’s no accident that the cathedral sits right on top of the Templo Mayor, the Aztecs’ most sacred site. Diego Rivera’s famous mural in the nearby Mexican National Palace depicts early Spanish-Aztec relations.

Diego Rivera, “Colonisation, The Great City of Tenochtitlan” (1945-52)

In the 1970s, a city block was cleared away to expose some of the old Aztec city, which was called Tenochtitlan. The ruins are not the only evidence of a lost culture; it’s common to see curanderos performing Aztec healing rituals in the public spaces all around the cathedral. See the healer in this video burning herbs to chase away the malevolent spirits from the body of this young woman in the blue t-shirt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKyBx65dnN8

Ryeberg, “Ryeberg Home Movie: Aztec Healing Ritual” (2011)

*Click here to read more about Ryeberg home movies.

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Ryeberg Home Movies

Ryeberg — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 05:46:03 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQKwkPCZftE

Ryeberg, “Ryeberg Home Movie: Bologna Piazza Maggiore” (2012)

Ryeberg’s first playlist — “Hail YouTube!” — celebrated the video-sharing website that has so radically changed our experience of moving images. With YouTube, everybody’s got their own video broadcasting outlet along with instant worldwide distribution. No big deal.

From the beginning, the three YouTube founders — Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim — imagined that video clips uploaded to YouTube would be embeddable in other websites. Well done. They allowed YouTube content to circulate, which meant countless new forms of “cultural production” and plenty of creative communities. Content mobility, and all the reframing and remixing that goes with it, enriches our cultural and political discourse (understatement alert). Ryeberg and many many other websites and blogs owe a whole lot to YouTube.

YouTube’s original stated mission, as it appeared in 2005, before it became part of Google Inc., read like this:

Show off your favorite videos to the world.
Take videos of your dogs, cats, and other pets.
Blog the videos you take with your digital camera or cell phone.
Securely and privately show videos to your friends and family around the world… and much, much more!

In tribute to that somewhat vague founding mission, Ryeberg has decided to feed the YouTube archive with its own home movies, all shot with “digital camera or cell phone.” After all, Ryeberg is a heavy user, and should participate in dealing a little of its own video material. Not many of these videos will include dogs, cats, and other pets, but they will offer glimpses of the world out there, as Ryeberg sees it, and they will be modestly produced shorts, as befits the early days of YouTube. Remember the first ever YouTube video? Jawed Karim standing in front of elephants at the zoo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw

jawed, “Me at the Zoo” (April, 2005)

Each Ryeberg home movie will be accompanied by a few words of explanation or description. Watch the first Ryeberg home movies here. To see a complete list of Ryeberg home movies, click here or here. Here’s more dancing, and another Ryeberg home movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvVqlR3xH28

Ryeberg, “Ryeberg Home Movie: Lyon Opera House” (2012)

Know what a Ryeberg playlist is? Answer.

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Ryeberg Playlist: The Greatest Olympic Moments

Ryeberg — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:00:34 +0000

1) Swifter, Higher, Stronger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd67PMryIT0

SamuraiK7, “Michael Phelps — Butterfly” (2012)

If you’re looking for citius, altius, fortius, Michael Phelps is your man. He’s the kind of athlete that makes members of the IOC wet their pants. The guy does honour to Zeus. He’d outdo Hermes of Praxiteles any day. Michelangelo spent his years sketching out strong, swift fantasy men who looked just like him. We can only stare in wonder as he flaps his way through the heavy water (Make an exception for Mark Spitz who says he’d have beaten Phelps. Why doubt a man who won all those gold medals while sporting shaggy hair and a moustache? Respect).

Seemingly invincible demi-Gods like Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt are, you know, fine and all that. But the true Olympic Moments, the ones we remember, are more about scraping a medal against the odds, snatching a surprise gold; about sacrificing oneself for the team, wincing courageously through the pain; about failing gloriously.

In the words of Pierre de Frédy (aka, Baron de Coubertin), one of the men to whom we owe the modern Olympics: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

2) The Essential Thing

English runner Derek Redmond came into the 1992 Games as one of the favourites to win a medal in the 400m, despite ongoing injury problems. He ran the fastest time in the first round, and claimed victory in his quarter-final race. In the semi-final, he made a strong start. Then his hamstring snapped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nifq3Ke2Q30

living4HIMmedia, “Derek Redmond Crosses Finish With His Father” (Barcelona, 1992)

3) I Had To Do It Anyway, For Me, & For The Team

Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto had already injured himself — a fractured kneecap — when he stepped up to perform in the final two events of team competition at the 1976 Olympics. He kept the injury to himself. “The competition was so close and I didn’t want the team to lose concentration worrying about me.” Through shooting pain, Fujimoto got up on the pommel horse and scored a 9.5, and then the rings, one of his strongest disciplines, and scored a 9.7. During the dismount, a triple somersault, he dislocated his already-broken knee and tore the ligaments. “How he managed to do somersaults and twists and land without collapsing in screams,” said one physician, “is beyond my comprehension.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj535O4ZJxM

aingefan22, “Shun Fujimoto” (Montreal, 1976)

Not to forget American gymnast Kerri Strug, who did a Fujimoto at the 1996 Olympic Games, heroically performing a last vault on a twisted ankle so that her team could get the points it needed to win.

4) Five? Don’t Be Ridiculous

Rowing is one of those especially gruelling sports that involves absurdly long cardio vascular workouts and punishing resistance training, not to mention unwavering discipline at the dinner table. Slacken off for a moment and you’ve lost your edge. So get this. In 1996, Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave CBE DL and 2011 BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, took gold in his fourth straight Olympic Games. That’s right, he’d already won gold in 1984 and 1992, and bronze in 1988. This is a man who for years battled severe back pain, ulcerative colitis and other anti-sport infirmities, including diabetes mellitus type 1, diagnosed in 1997.

As you’d expect, with a fourth Olympic Games under his belt, and Brits going gaga over his successes, he was ready to move on to other things. “Anyone sees me go anywhere near a boat, you’ve got my permission to shoot me.” Yet four years later in Australia’s Penrith Lakes, he could be spotted in a coxless four, lining up for one final medal attempt.

A medal was anything but a sure thing. At the World Cup Regatta in Lucerne a couple months before the Olympics, his team had lost to the Kiwis in the semi-final and come fourth in the final behind Australia, Italy, and New Zealand. Pre-final races had not been all that convincing either.

The Italians established an astonishing 44 strokes-per-minute pace. Surely there was no way a human being — a 38 year-old diabetic human being — would find the strength in himself to become an Olympian one more time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zzz37IsRUU

kers80bhp, “Steve Redgrave & Matthew Pinsent” (Sydney, 2000)

5) The Sad Colussus

Another diabetic athlete who overcame personal hardship to claim victory in the most glorious and moving fashion is weightlifter Matthias Steiner. Steiner went into the clean and jerk stage of the 2008 weightlifting competition in fourth place. He did poorly in his first attempt, failing to lift 246kg — to date, his personal best. He made the lift on the second attempt and moved into third place. But then his Russian opponent Evgeny Chigishev took a seemingly unassailable lead with a 250kg lift. To overtake Chigishev and win gold, Steiner would have to make a 258kg lift, 12kg more than he’d ever lifted. “I was fairly certain I could do it, but there were some doubts… I was going to go for it at all costs, even if it meant breaking all my bones.”

Know that Steiner’s wife Susann had died in a car accident only one year earlier. In his grief, Steiner lost 8 kilos and a whole lot of his focus before battling back to get fit in time for the competition.

You can watch his gold medal lift in the home video below. His exultation is cut short, but in that first instant witness sorrow and joy pour from him in equal measures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn73_fb_eOs

damojkelly, “Matthias Steiner 258kg Clean & Jerk (Beijing, 2008)

Standing on the gold medal podium, Steiner kissed a photo of his wife. “Beijing was her dream too. For me it was only right to have her at my side during that moment.”

6) Surprised By Victory

Surprise victories are always lovely, and it’s all the more charming when the victor is as surprised as anyone else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5aTxlQpZdA

ntujavelin, “Women’s 800m Final” (Athens, 2004)

Kelly Holmes has her own story of personal struggle. Training for the 2004 Games, she was managing a severe depressive disorder along with a series of injuries, and at one point considered suicide. Medical help and non-banned herbal serotonin tablets got her to the games where she’d planned to compete in the 1500m. Once in Athens, a few people talked her into running the 800m as well. Good job they did. She got gold in both races!

7) The Last Of The Flying Finns

Two middle-distance runners collide and fall off the track during the 10,000 metre final. One stays down, his race is over; the other gets back up, catches the pack and wins gold, breaking the world record. That second runner was Lasse Virén of Finland, a man who entered the 1972 Munich Games as a dark horse and left a legend, with two gold medals around his neck (he also won the 5000 metres). In this video, you see an older Lasse Virén fidgeting as he relives the most glorious moment of his athletic career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkXsjfVnG0k

miniilo, “Lasse Virén, 10,000m Final” (Munich, 1972)

8) As If The Accident Had Never Occurred

That’s the kind of grit we like to see, getting up after a fall. Or after a knock to the back of the head. In the preliminary rounds of the 1988 springboard diving competition, Greg Louganis whipped his head into the diving board during a reverse two-and-a-half somersault pike. He suffered a concussion and had to have his head sewn up. 22 minutes later, he stepped up to do a similar dive to the one he’d just failed to execute: a reverse one-and-a-half with three and a half twists. Ballsy. He went on to win gold. A couple days later, he won the platform competition as well, but only by executing the “dive of death.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojtCgqqgfPI

gregorylouganis, “Greg Louganis: 16 Days of Glory” (Seoul, 1988)

9) They Sent Me To Finish The Race

Ryeberg has strayed a little from “failing gloriously.” The marathon — flagship sport of the Olympic Games and always the last event on the athletics calendar — provides us with plenty of examples. Think of Mexico City, 1968. The winner had crossed the finish an hour earlier. The closing ceremonies were over and most people had left the stadium. In hobbled John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania, bandaged and bloodied. He’d fallen at the 19km mark and badly hurt his knee and shoulder, but he chose to carry on to the end. Tearful applause please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq3rOMnLGBk

abundanceteachers, “Finish The Race: Personal Story Of Courage” (Mexico, 1968)

10) Decorate This Arch With Triumph

Abebe Bikila joined the Ethiopian Olympic team just as the plane was about to fly to Rome for the 1960 Games. Ethiopia’s marathon runner Wami Biratu had broken his ankle playing soccer and needed a last minute replacement. So they called up Bikila, who also happened to be a bodyguard for the the Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie. Bikila didn’t have running shoes. His plan was to pick up a pair in Rome from the Adidas shoe stand (as sponsors of the Games, Adidas was providing shoes for athletes), but there weren’t any left that suited his feet, so he decided — the story goes — to run the way he had always trained: barefoot. Fellow runners scoffed, and you can only imagine how derisory local Romans found this barefoot running. Bikila won gold. In this beautiful, cinematic footage, see the great runner reach Rome’s triumphal Arco di Constantino.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrtJxknbO24

History Channel, “Abebe Bikila’s Barefoot Win” (Rome, 1960)

The post Ryeberg Playlist: The Greatest Olympic Moments appeared first on Ryeberg Curated Video.

Ryeberg Live Toronto 2012

Ryeberg — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:45:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiujJYGBzU0

RyebergCuratedVideo, “Ryeberg Live Toronto 2012: Monday, 19 March, 2012″

After the good times in Vancouver, Ryeberg returned to home turf: Toronto. Many fine people descended into the Drake Underground, lights dimmed and brightened, and the show got started. Sean Dixon performed the first Ryeberg of the night, using a few video clips to illustrate his thoughts on the decision by Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to ban niqabs and burkas for new Canadians taking the citizenship oath. There will come a day when you know what is right. Lynn Crosbie took a tour of duty through the maternal heart of darkness, showed us what was bad about good moms, and good about bad moms. After intermission, Nick Mount had everyone in the room whistling her name: Lana Del Rey. Consider us converts. Jowita Bydlowska revealed the snarling wolf within and a great deal more. In the life and death of self-portraiture, she is a leading protagonist. The evening’s photographer was Thomas Lee. Here’s an idea of what it felt like to be at Ryeberg Live Toronto 2012.

Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg Editor

Sean Dixon, “Banning The Veil“

Lynn Crosbie, “Pop Takes A Tour Through The Maternal Heart Of Darkness”

Nick Mount, “Lana Del Rey, Meet Your Boyfriend“

Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg Editor

Jowita Bydlowska, “Life And Death Of Self-Portraiture”

Many thanks to everyone who came out and made it such a warm and engaging evening! Thanks also to Mia Nielsen, Culture & Communications Curator at the Drake Hotel — best venue in town. Thanks to Steph Bonic, who helped get the word out. Thanks to Stephane Monnet, Agnes Wong, and Georgia Toews for their hard work on the night. Thanks Thomas Lee for the excellent photos. Most of all, thanks to Jowita Bydlowska, Lynn Crosbie, Sean Dixon, and Nick Mount, the evening’s Ryeberg curators. See you at the next Ryeberg Live!

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Talking About Ryeberg #2

Ryeberg — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:21:34 +0000

Ryeberg’s been around for almost three years now! So much has happened since “Talking About Ryeberg #1” (and since we launched back in 2009): we’ve published over 250 Ryebergs by more than 65 contributors. Along the way we’ve received many kind messages from people all over the world, praising Ryeberg for maintaining its quality, rigour, fun, interest, variety, curiosity… Nice, thanks. Encouraging words are always welcome here at labour-of-love Ryeberg.com. Cheers also to the people who’ve talked generously about Ryeberg elsewhere in the cybersphere. A few mentions…

Open Book Toronto, the online hub for the all things literary in Toronto, helped spread the word about Ryeberg Live Toronto 2010, saying “If you haven’t already checked out Ryeberg, we recommend you do. It is a fantastic concept and a fantastic site.” They also posted a Q&A with Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg Editor. Here are a couple highlights.

Open Book: Toronto:
Hello! Tell us all about your project, Ryeberg Curated Video. What, when, why, where?

Erik Rutherford:
I first had the idea for Ryeberg in early 2007. Friends and I were gathered around a laptop and showing YouTube videos to each other. We started to feel a little self-conscious about it. As a joke, someone quoted the Ginsberg line: “I saw the best minds of my generation…” It got me thinking about how video-sharing was becoming a habitual part of our lives. What significance? What if I invited a whole lot of smart, distinguished people from different backgrounds and disciplines to choose YouTube videos and write about them?” A year later, I got round to building the site.

There were already a few video aggregation sites ranking and categorizing clips. With Ryeberg I wanted to put the emphasis on the contributors, to let their enthusiasms and interests guide the way. A kind of show and tell for writers and artists.

I was also very careful about the look of the site – about what font to use and so on (and a lot of credit goes to Monnet Design). Text is generally not very respected in Internetland; good writing can feel as evanescent and disposable as everything else; it gets decontextualized, washed away. Pasha Malla puts it really well in a recent curated video (“Among Little Instruments”):

“With the internet there’s always that nagging urge to get on things quickly, because they expire so quickly: something interesting pops up and prompts a sudden, always fleeting rush of attention—if you have anything to say, say it fast!”

I wanted Ryeberg to preserve that sense of intent that you feel with a printed magazine or a book. I hope the way the pages are organized, you feel urged to read and watch curated videos in the order given by the author, and not too easily drawn away. There are hyperlinks of course, but I hope pages are not too porous and you feel a little cosseted from the frenzy of the rest.

Why? Online video doesn’t speak for itself. Let’s make use of it, surround it with intelligent discourse, figure out what it all means…

OBT:
The project is named after your great-grandfather, Rudolf Ryeberg. Tell us about him.

ER:
Rudolf appears in plenty of old black in white family photos, usually with accordian in hand and women and children gathered round. As a kid, my sisters and I would dance as he played for us. He worked in a metal factory most of his life, but was known for his distinctive style. He dressed above his class so to speak. I suppose it was his special distinction that made it feel right to take his name. Good name too.

The crown in the logo comes from the Swedish coat of arms, and it is not only to signify that Ryeberg is slightly upscale within a universe of flashpan pop. It’s an oblique reference to the fact Rudolf wrote to the Swedish king for permission to marry Anna Hansonn. He was 17 at the time (she 19), and anyone under 18 was not allowed to marry. He got what he asked for.

OBT:
Current Top Ten Wishlist for curators (dead or alive)?

ER:
There are so many! Well, here are ten.

Andy Warhol
Sigmund Freud
Bob Dylan
Edith Wharton
David Cronenberg
Miranda July
Slavoj Zizek
Ricky Gervais
Kenneth Clark
Christopher Lasch…

Read the complete interview here. Soon after that first Ryeberg Live show, Erik did another interview with Toronto photographer, Eugen Sakhnenko, for his Atlas blog, a series of profiles with “interesting individuals involved in cool undertakings and careers.” Eugen has since removed Atlas from his website, but you can still see the profile he wrote and photo he took here on Ryeberg Speaks.

Over at Influency Salon, a very fine Canadian poetry website, writer Eric Foley said that Ryeberg could be of interest even to poets: “Charles Olson would sometimes visit Ezra Pound at St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital; finally, due to Pound’s fascism and anti-Semitism, Olson decided he would not go back. That night Pound visited Olson in a dream and said: “Of rhythm is image, of image is knowing, and of knowing, there is a construct.” I heard this story from R. Bruce Elder, who heard it from Stan Brakhage. I’ve never been totally sure what it means, but I think that the visual and its many rhythms are of interest to poets. We can discover amazing things by chance, but Ryeberg is an opportunity to allow some of our viewing to be guided by smart, creative people who have a vested interest in thinking about what they watch and in writing about how they feel about it.”

Ryeberg contributor and super artist, Margaux Williamson, mentioned Ryeberg in her 2011 year-end roundup of “art things I thought about this year, that I can remember today, in order of remembrance,” at Back To The World, a culture-talk blog she created with Chris Randle and Carl Wilson. Ryeberg, she said, is “really interesting,” one of the websites that is “figuring out how to talk about or organize the massive amounts of videos out there.”

At Scrawled In Wax, Nav published a short essay titled “The Unending Flood, Hipsterism and Hope” in which he talks about Russell Smith’s Ryeberg “Die Hipster Scum.” He asks, “What place do you want to carve out for yourself: the person who critiques the hipsters?; or the person who abandons themselves to hope?” Russell’s antipathy to hipsters is challenged by Carl Wilson’s essay “A Spectre Is Haunting Culture: The Spectre Of The Hipster.” Worth checking out if the hipster thing is still of interest to you.

Ryeberg has just returned from Vancouver where Erik Rutherford, played host at Ryeberg Live Vancouver 2012, held at the Waldorf Hotel and featuring Charles Demers, Stephen Osborne, Miriam Toews, and Michael Turner. Ryeberg appreciated the many plugs in the local press — at Scout Magazine, BC Living, Vancouver Is Awesome and elsewhere. Vancouver is awesome. Hey, and it was good fun for Erik Rutherford and Miriam Toews to talk with Rick Cluff on CBC Radio‘s Early Edition. A second live show is upcoming at the Drake Hotel in Toronto, March 19th. This time it will Jowita Bydlowska, Lynn Crosbie, Sean Dixon, and Nick Mount performing their “show and tell” of YouTube videos. Should be great!

Which brings us to the sweetest gesture that anyone has ever made to Ryeberg. Not long before Ryeberg’s first live show, back in the spring of 2010, this video showed up in the Ryeberg inbox. It’s by songwriting wonder, Jonathan Mann. Thanks again Jonathan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=400u4MUNih4

Jonathan Mann, “Song #511: Ryeberg” (May 25, 2010)

Dance that funky jive.

The post Talking About Ryeberg #2 appeared first on Ryeberg Curated Video.

Ryeberg Live Vancouver 2012

Ryeberg — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:00:45 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebrvC5lsNoo

RyebergCuratedVideo, “Ryeberg Live Vancouver: Tuesday, 6 March, 2012“

Ryeberg travelled to Vancouver and found its people. Sincere thanks to every one of you who packed into the Cabaret Room of the Waldorf Hotel to make Ryeberg Live Vancouver such a glorious event. Michael Turner kicked off the show by throwing a frisbee into the audience and urging us to “live in fragments no longer.” Miriam Toews followed, asking us to join 30,000 Stoke football fans in a minute’s silence. After intermission, Charles Demers showed us whose houses to raid when the shit hits the fan, and Stephen Osborne closed the evening with his own “view cone” of historic Vancouver. Everyone went home with a copy of Geist Magazine and a whole lot to talk about.

The four Ryebergs performed at the show are yours to read on Ryeberg, and here are a few photos from Ryeberg Live Vancouver taken by Vancouver photographer, Christine McAvoy.

Waldorf Hotel (1489 East Hastings Street Vancouver, BC)

Lizzy Karp, Ryeberg Live Vancouver Coordinator; Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg Editor

Michael Turner, “Frisbee: Form, Style, Competition, Analogue“

Erik Rutherford, Ryeberg Editor

Miriam Toews, “Silence”

Charles Demers, “SHTF Happens“

Stephen Osborne, “Said The News Item”

Stephen Osborne, “Facts Come To Light“

Thanks to Geist — Stephen, Ben, Lauren, Chelsea, Michal — for publishing a fine magazine and for supporting Ryeberg Live. Thanks to Lizzy Karp for initiating Ryeberg Live Vancouver and for getting the word out to Vancouverites. Thanks also to the Waldorf Hotel — Danny, Michael, Kasha, Brittney, Tom, and tech wizard Garzita. Brilliant venue. Thanks Christine McAvoy for the great pictures. Finally, huge thanks to the Ryeberg curators: Michael Turner, Miriam Toews, Charles Demers, and Stephen Osborne.

Ryeberg returned home soon after for Ryeberg Live Toronto 2012, which featured Jowita Bydlowska, Lynn Crosbie, Sean Dixon and Nick Mount. It was another amazing show. Click here to see a few photos.

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Ryeberg Playlist: Dreams Of Ourselves

Ryeberg — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:25:54 +0000

1) The New Year, Because We Expect So Much Of You!

Whatever we write or speak or are but seen
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To make our soul with arts of self-show stored,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick for seeing.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others’ dreams.

— Fernando Pessoa, “Sonnet 1″ from “English Poems” (1918)

2) A Tentative Question In Advance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSq1cez_flQ

Nancy Wilson, “New Year’s Eve?” (Z Deschanel, JG-Levitt, 2011) — thx S MacLachlan

3) Dressed Jazz Casual, Countdown To Midnight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2In5a9LDNg

The Dave Brubeck Quartet, “Take Five” (1961)

4) Dreams Of Ourselves Dancing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437oGnDasOE

WHZGUD2, “DREAMER|DUBSTEP” (Dec 2011)

5) Singing Auld Lang Syne, Think Ragtime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcRV4eGgEh8

TheWhiteHat, “Auld Lang Syne: Ragtime Fingerstyle Guitar” (Dec 2011)

6) But Before Any Hasty Resolutions…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyZHwwr7Skw

George Steiner, “Force Yourself Down Those Stairs” (“Beauty & Consolation,” 2008)

Good luck everybody! Lots of love from Ryeberg!

The post Ryeberg Playlist: Dreams Of Ourselves appeared first on Ryeberg Curated Video.

Ryeberg Playlist: Why Occupy?

Ryeberg — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:00:20 +0000

1) Why Is This What Democracy Looks Like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGfUn7EZ69w

n9productions, “Occupy Wall Street” (October 5, 2011)

Why are those people meditating together? What are they thinking about? Why does the grey-haired man in the pink collar shirt seem so sure of what he’s saying? Why does the grey-haired man in the blue collar shirt call that person a monkey? Why does the guy with the pencil behind his ear seem so sure of what he’s saying? Why doesnt he seem to be satisfied with the status quo, like those guys in the collar shirts? Why are thousands of people parading through the street chanting: We are the 99%? What does that mean? Why are so many of them carrying cameras? Why aren’t they smashing the window fronts at Starbucks? Why is the Hollywood star justifying his presence in the street? What does he mean by a place of love? Why is that crowd of people repeating everything that bald guy says? Why did the bald guy choose to get those tattoos on his arms? What’s he got in that tall coffee cup? Why are those people in the crowd shaking their hands in the air, looking like they’re doing a Kecak Monkey Chant?

2) Why Do So Many Have So Much To Say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5FQFwLH92s

thedailycal, “Occupy Berkeley Movement” (October 13, 2011)

Why did the Occupy Wall Street protests of New York spread to California? Why did Occupy protests spread to Denver, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and hundreds of other cities? Why did Abraham Lincoln say that “to sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men?” Why do YouTube films about the Occupy Movement almost always make such heavy use of foreground-background focus effects?

3) Why Zombie News Rooms?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAhHPIuTQ5k

CBC, “Chris Hedges Interviewed by Amanda Lang & Kevin O’Leary” (Oct 6, 2011)

Why does Obama feel able to identify the grievances of the Occupiers? Why are those “folks” he mentions resisting efforts to regulate abusive trading and banking practices? Why does Obama make it seem that he’s helpless to influence them? Why does Kevin O’Leary feel no need to disguise his true feelings about the Occupy Movement on national television? Why is he so camp? Why does the Canadian Broadcasting Company think it’s a good idea for Kevin O’Leary to conduct interviews about a movement he so virulently rejects? Why is he so hostile to the Occupy Movement? What is a left-wing nut bar? How does Chris Hedges maintain his composure? Why has he embraced the Occupy Movement? Why does he paint such an apocalyptic portrait of the future?

4) Why So Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNHXuf6qJas

nationalBAMN, “UniCal Berkeley Protests” (November 10, 2011)

Why have those policemen surrounded the students and teachers? Why do those policemen violently pull that teacher wearing the colourful scarf by her hair when she’s already offered up her wrist? What are detainees being charged with? Where are the police taking them? Why are the protestors chanting Stop being students? Why was the order to disperse the students and teachers given? Who gave the order? Why did the police obey the order? Why didn’t the students and teachers unlink their arms and go home? Why are scenes of police violence so absorbing, so stimulating, so distracting?

5) Why Articulate Our Non-Freedom?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liBjJPiglUk

sbgskf, “Slavoj Žižek@OWS–Human Mic Removed” (October 16, 2011)

Why did Slovenian Philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, travel to New York to speak to this crowd of people? What does he want from them? What do they want from him? Why is the human microphone so much fun for people? Why did the uploader of this video remove most of the human microphone from the video? Why is it easier to remember something once you’ve said it aloud? What is written on Žižek’s t-shirt? Why does he say it’s practically impossible to imagine a capitalist system of production and consumption different from the one that exists? Why does he warn the occupiers not to fall in love with themselves? Why does he paint such a hopeful portrait of the future?

6) Why So Civil? Why So Disobedient?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvnWShJp_2A

Reuters, “UC Davis Protest & Aftermath” (Nov 21, 2011)

Why are those policemen pepper spraying a line of motionless students in such a deliberate and nonchalant manner, like they’re watering plants? Why do the students sit there and suffer the boiling pain in their eyes? Why did the university ask policemen to remove the students in the first place? Why does the University Chancellor, Linda Katehi, tearfully apologize to the students? Why do the students feel so passionately angry at her for the actions of police? Why does Sophia Kamran feel at ease with standing on an elevated platform and having her fellow students repeat aloud what she says? Why do those students wait outside for hours in order to watch the university chancellor walk to her car? Why do they sit in silence?

7) Why (Not) Panic?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yg5lMW6r8Q

steve13565, “Newt Gingrich Faces The People’s Mic” (Nov 18, 2011)

Why did this man’s parents call him Newton Leroy? Why did he receive enthusiastic applause for suggesting that Occupiers “go get a job right after you take a bath?” Why do these hecklers choose sarcasm to accuse him? Why do they think the human microphone, used ironically, is their strongest attack? Why does someone say, “Get back to your tent?”

8) Why Respect One Another?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkXuezGJuOs

insightoutnews, “Occupy LA Eviction: Protesters Removed From City Hall” (Dec 1, 2011)

Why do so many protestors disregard police warnings? Why do demonstrations often resemble carnivals? Why do newly-formed carnival communities soon manifest the same class hierarchies as any other community? Why is it not surprising to see one of the Occupiers playing with a hula hoop? Why does Shane say he has nothing against authority? Why is he not really the king? Why do some of the Occupiers think prayer is going to influence events? Why does Homeland Security appear on this scene? Why does Sam Rosenfeld, the Densus Group chairman, sound a little like an Australian? Why were Fox, NBC, and ABC affiliates the only TV media allowed to cover the eviction? Why is it necessary to have four large cops standing in front of the entrance of City Hall? Why did Benjamin Constant say that “with newspapers, there is sometimes disorder, but that without them there is always slavery?” Why can’t we get this kind of journalism from the mainstream media?

9) Why Occupy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Q9lH8E5ig

nationalinformation, “Occupy Plymouth, Devon, UK” (Dec 1, 2011)

Why does the filmmaker use dramatic video-game music to bookend his video? Why did he make this video? Why do these people from Devon think it worthwhile to protest the system? Why do those people in the street show them so much sympathy?

10) Why Does Righteousness Wither Away?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUXI3O8SAaQ

AlexRoss, “Philip Glass@Satyagraha Protest” (Lincoln Center, 2011)

Why have all those people chosen to occupy the Metropolitan Opera during a performance of Philip Glass‘ “Satyagraha?” Why are police ushering the opera-patrons away from the Occupiers? Why do a few of the opera-patrons choose to walk down the stairs and jump the barricades? Why, after making his bows on stage, does Philip Glass go outside and join the Occupiers too? Why does Philip Glass read these lines from the Baghavad-Gita? “When righteousness withers away and evil rules the land, we come into being, age after age, and take visible shape, and move, a man among men, for the protection of good, thrusting back evil and setting virtue on her seat again.” Why?

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