3 YouTube Channels To Satisfy Your Weird Mind

I love learning strange things. The best assignment I ever had in the 5th grade was to do a project on anything we wanted. I chose the Bermuda Triangle. Later I would go on to write papers on The Donner Party for 8th grade English and the history of prisons in AP US History. The macabre and unexplained have always gotten the most attention from me.

There are many full length documentaries that cover such topics, but what about hours upon hours of short documentaries? These are three YouTube channels that I consider to be educational, though-provoking, and entertaining. These are channels for binge watching, binge learning, and binge having my mind blown.

Vsauce

 Started in 2010 by Michael Stevens, Vsauce is a fast-paced web series that asks and answers life's peculiar questions. Michael manages to tie together biology, physics, psychology, sociology and history; going on a tangent, working from one topic to the next and amazingly coming back to the start. One of my favorite videos called, Why Do We Wear Clothes?, starts with the definition of the word "embarrassed," then to the concepts of being "likable, forgivable and trustworthy," modesty, selective breeding, feelings of disgust, why are babies so inept, and brain size vs. body size. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that it does come back to answer why we wear clothes -- in a really awesome way.

Michael is enthusiastic about the topics at hand, and it is infectious. He often adds links to his source videos within his own so you can go on another YouTube binge, learning more about the topic you're interested in. Vsauce may not always have a definitive answer, but they always ask questions you never thought of.

 

Collative Learning

If you like The Shinning or Stanley Kubrick, Rob Ager is the guy to listen to. In his YouTube channel, Collative Learning, Ager meticulously analyses The Shinning as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, Pulp Fiction, Hellraiser, and The Thing to name a few. There are more such videos under his personal channel. He also made a nine part documentary called Hidden Cinema, discussing subliminal messages in films. I'm a fan of his eight part series on The Shinning's Jack Torrance as an abusive father. He also delves into the confusing layout of the Overlook Hotel, the meaning behind the creepy twins, and something other than blood might be coming out of the elevators.

It beats the hell out of me why Rob Ager wasn't used in Room 237. His theories are just as compelling ( if not more so) as the other Shinning theorists (and he can speak into a microphone). Ager is always reminding us that Kubrick never made any mistakes, so everything has an answer behind it.



Speaking of mistakes...

 

Cinema Sins

Cinema sins is one of my favorite places to enlighten myself on YouTube because I'm a hater. I love learning about other people's mistakes, especially movie directors, and script girls. Produced by Chris Atkinson and Jeremy Scott, Cinema Sins takes all the questionable parts of a movie (5 to 10 min total) and hangs it out to dry.  They pick out all the inconsistencies, terrible acting, cliches, plot holes, and impossible scenarios. Some may say pointing out the impossible scenarios in a film is a bit picky, because after all, it is just a movie. However, I say dig up all the dirt! I will devour it (even for movies I like). There is an excellent interview by Digital Spy with Atkinson and Scott, discussing what it takes to put these together and how they manage to ever watch a movie for fun without tearing it apart. What I get out of the experience is not only a laugh or a snicker at others shortcomings. It's important to be critical and analytical; not to always be content with everything set down in front of you. Since these videos are meant to be funny-cynical not whiny-cynical, expect to laugh at movies you may have cried at.


I hope you enjoy these channels, and that they change your perspective on the world.

I Knew You Didn't Feel Like Sleeping: Happy Halloween!

There is something macabre about most of my posts, whether it's a documentary about odd people, strange phenomena, campy and nostalgic TV shows, the horrors of mother nature, history, or a catastrophe. In the spirit of Halloween I compiled the spookiest of my posts. I've dished out a bit of true crime, a bit of horror film dissection, and a touch of the supernatural. Queue up your Netflix. This list will keep you occupied (and looking over your shoulder) through All Hallows Eve. 

Room 237

This documentary attempts to lay bare the hidden messages Stanley Kubrick left in his classic horror film The Shining. I recommend watching Room 237 and then take a crack at The Shining after. See if you can spot them all, or start your own Kubrick conspiracy theory!

VBS Meets... Issei Sagawa

An interview with a real cannibal who committed a heinous crime and is free and living in Japan... Be prepared for gruesome crime photos.

Hunting for a Quality Ghost Show

This is the most viewed post on Consume+Consume. This is probably true because a lot of people are hunting for a quality ghost show by typing this very headline into Google. If you do reach this article in that manner, will your prayers be answered? Click to find out.

Nightmares in Red White and Blue

History as told by horror films. See how since the inception of motion pictures art has been imitating life on a deep psychological level.

Cropsey and H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer

Two stunning tales of serial killers from different eras, I paired these two documentaries in a post deemed a "double feature." Cropsey not only discusses the nightmarish string of murders of defenseless mentally challenged children, but also the horrors of the mental health system in the 1970s. H.H. Holmes:America's First Serial Killer tells the tale of a well respected doctor who committed murder to a scale never before  seen in the late 1800s. Whether you can stomach both at once is entirely up to you.

Sweet dreams!

Room 237: When the Director Haunts the Audience

After watching Room 237, my perception of ghosts has changed.

Room 237 is a documentary in which theorists and experts of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining share their findings concerning hidden messages in the mise en scene of the film. The Shining is already terrifying on the first watch. It is undeniably tense, and creepy, and gory. In the next watching of The Shining one might notice more creepy details; a notable turn of phrase, color themes, a missing piece of furniture.

The folks from this documentary studied The Shining meticulously. Their continuity errors and coincidences turned into theories about hidden messages from Kubrick. The messages and symbolism he hid in the film are like ghosts in and of themselves.

Repeated Native American imagery hints that they were the ghosts haunting the Overlook Hotel. "We built it on an Indian burial ground." Where have I heard that before?

A movie about a haunting is scary on the first viewing because of the surprise elements, but if there is something new to notice in the next viewing that can rekindle the same fear. It causes one to question what is perceivable. What am I missing? What demon was right behind me and I didn't notice?

This is what you get when The Shining is played backwards and forwards at the same time.

Kubrick's added touches (whether he meant them or not - but he probably did) make the avid viewer witness to a real haunting. It is a haunting of the audience by the director. The director is communicating with the audience as a ghost would to it's haunted; without words. He does it with continuity errors in the furniture, things out of place, subtle hints in the shapes of props, the colors characters wear.

Kubrick 1. was very secretive, 2. detail-oriented to say the least and 3. is dead, making these hints literal messages from beyond the grave.

Someone thought the hotel manager got a ghost boner when he shook Jack's hand. While it is undeniable, I'm not sure why it's important.

I know I'm not alone in saying that documentaries such as Room 237 are thrilling. Once you thought you saw The Shinning too many times to be scared, the people in these interviews inject more "ghosts" into it. The most interesting part is that we all know it's just a movie; the ghosts haunting the Overlook Hotel are fictional. Kubrick's hidden messages are not actually scary ghosts, yet hearing about his sly trickery, his subliminal mind teasers, will give you chills. This is because people like to be in control. That's why ghosts - if they exist - are scary; you never know when they will strike, how they will show themselves, and to what severity it will effect you. A powerful and genius director such as Kubrick has power over his cast, set, and audience, with the way he chooses to withhold and dispense information. We continue to find the specters of his cinematic message to this day.

Still, no one in the documentary explained this...