#YouTube recs

[balkanradfem]

favourite female youtubers/podcasters please?! im starting my journey into separatism and need recs....

Here is a big masterlist with people adding their faves in replies and comments, you can also click here for my youtube tag with all the women and videos I shared recently! I don't think any are true separatists but if you just need female content to watch, there's plenty.

[fandomhype]

Part Two of The Ink Black Heart (TV's Version) is up.

I continue to gush about these characters, struggle to speak like a normal human and most importantly have a good laugh! <3

[vaguely-concerned]

playing a souls game means that I am watching a lot of long form youtube vids on the side once more, and it has allowed me to remember in full force that sinclair lore is one of the best -- perhaps the very best -- channels on youtube. come for the excellent fromsoftware game analysis*, stay for the deep dives into some of THE weirdest corners of pop culture that you didn't even dream existed but will carry in your heart and mind forever now. I am currently working my way through their playlist about niche and frequently bizarre 80s/90s anime, and I was laughing so hard it almost made me fuck up the last two hits in my final triumphant fight with the dancer of the boreal valley.

basically this channel is the epitome of the sentiment of 'it makes no sense. compels me, though' as a celebration of strange and uncategorizable (and perhaps initially off-putting) art everywhere, and I think that generosity and genuine curiosity of gaze is needed in our media landscape now more than ever. whenever sophie goes 'it's just so fucking weird!!' in tones of glee and intense fascination an angel gets its wings. sin's undaunted dedication to the art she likes and disinteres in what she doesn't, regardless of how it's popularly received, inspirational. the youtube algorithm is not kind to them because it sucks ass, but!! if you want some quality Soulsborne lore that can break out the lens of queer theory when it's called for, videos about cryptids to fall asleep to, the only postmortem of Madam Web you'll ever need and didn't know you wanted (you do tho), 3 hour breakdowns of comparative cosmology of the fromsoft games that rock actually, honest engagement with and appreciation for dark souls 2 (my beLOVED), horror game let's plays and recaps, the oddest anime you ever saw discussed in great depth and with passion, the history of bloodborne -- I won't even say fandom, I think this qualifies as scholarship frankly, GORGEOUS pixel art backgrounds to rest your weary gaze upon, elden ring stuff? they gots elden ring stuff for ya, and to laugh like a dumbass every step of the way... look no futher. join the snack covenant 2day. some specific video recs based on what your interest might be under the cut!

*shoutout to them and TBSkyen (whose 'Boss Designs Of [Soulsbornering]' series is also absolutely excellent, second rec on the rec post! Here's the Bloodborne installment of the series, and my personal fave is predictably the Dark Souls 2 one) for being part of the few channels who actually explicitly use the tools of literary and art analysis to look at those games. I love a lot of the lore community but for god's sake will someone actually look into the actual overarching themes and ideas at work instead of trying to forensically break down the order in which events happened like it's a real world crime scene or site of archeology, not a deliberatly constructed story made with human hands or go source: it's a berserk reference and move on. and these champs go 'yeah we got you. let's talk about aldia's whole deal in depth' and I for one am so grateful

If you're into bloodborne, may I suggest: Laurence, the Worst Vicar. your one stop shop for understanding just how badly this guy sucked, as well as a lot of the Themes ticking away in the background of the game.

I have literally never thought about Warhammer 40K a day in my life before and I'm not about to start now, but this conversation about how oops as a franchise you were so mysogynistic back in the 80s it looped all the way around and now space marines may all be kind of trans actually?? is one of the best things I've watched in ages!

I know nothing about the anime they are discussing here but this whole vid had me rolling with laughter. they just don't make dubs like this anymore folks. the fuck counter triumphant

[fuckyeahfightlock]

Time for another list of YouTube channel recommendations you didn't ask for and probably don't care about!

I was about to say these are in no particular order, but looking at the list in my notebook here it does seem they're clumped up into semi-related groupings so in some semi-random order, here's what I've been watching lately (in addition to zoom court, car crashes, public freakouts, and fails).

NOVYMPIA are Nova and Olympia, two 30ish drag queens who are also a couple. Their videos run the gamut, but they do a lot of trying (snacks from around the world, etc), tier lists (teenage celeb crushes, the crisps options with meal deals, UK chocolate), monthly "faves and shitters," and some hilarious and spot-on parodies of famous folks from TV and YouTube. They also do travel vlogs (not in drag) and other personal vids. Last year they did a lot of reaction to Eurovision. Always fun and funny; they make me smile.

LUXERIA is a trans lady, makeup artist with a biochemistry degree (she's a scientist, girls!), UK expat living in Spain with her partner and her cute mini-dachshund Mr Biscuit. Hers is mainly a reaction channel, watching reality and competition TV like America's Next Top Model, Botched, Glow Up, and Don't Tell the Bride, plus reactions to unhinged makeup/beauty TikToks. Her second channel, Luxeria Labs, is all about tech pertaining to photography; her work is lovely and she is a natural teacher so if you're interested in photography I recommend that channel, too.

CLUTTERBUG is a nice Canadian lady with ADHD who is a professional organizer that won't add to yr overwhelm. She has a 30-day, five-minutes-a-day decluttering challenge, lists of items you can declutter quickly, tips for how to keep a tidy house with ADHD, etc. She's not a beige millennial and she's not going to pour an avalanche of info on you. And her tips are helpful! MIDWEST MAGIC CLEANING is a funny guy who owns an extreme cleaning company (think hoarding/serious household neglect). He talks a lot about his own autism, as well as how he cleans homes for neurodiverse people in need of his help for free with donations from viewers. Very satisfying cleaning content, some tips, and a witty presentation by a nice guy.

For horror and other disturbing movie recs, I love spookyastronauts; she always shares informative, thorough lists, and gives enough information that you can decide whether to check out a movie--but craftily never spoils them. POSSESSEDbyHORROR reviews and discusses all things horror, mostly movies and books but also meta-discussion of topics in the genre and of particular works. For real life horrors (dark corners of the web, videos before tragedy, mysteries and weird death), I love LAZY MASQUERADE and TRAGEDY TALES. EXPLORE WITH US shares police interrogation and bodycam true crime videos in a deep-dive, newsy style.

EMMA CRUISES is what it says on the tin: a nice English lady goes on lots of cruises (mostly Europe, but she's also done Japan and recently did an Atlantic crossing) and reviews them, sharing every bit of info from cabin tours to excursions in port cities, to food, entertainment, and pricing. I have no intention of ever going on a cruise but I love her channel! SARAH SPACEMAN is another person who does something I don't and never plan to: she's a cosplayer who attends LOTS of anime cons and I think she is fairly well known. I watch her for con reviews, stories, etc. She knows her stuff and I always like looking at cosplay, even when I don't know the characters (it's all so impressive!), which she films a lot of. Gossip about milieus of which I'm not a part also has a certain appeal so videos like "the worst con I've ever attended" and other cosplay controversies interest me.

CECILIA BLOMDAHL lives on the island of Svalbard, the northernmost inhabited land on earth (I think). The international seed bank is located there. Cecilia makes videos of life on Svalbard, in the polar night, taking snowmobile trips, renovating and decorating her home with her partner Kristoffer (she's Swedish, he's Norwegian, they're cute), as well as their most recent project--an off-grid, isolated cabin for snowy adventuring (just seeing how they received a huge IKEA order by boat, and transported all the boxes to the cabin by pulling trailers behind snowmobiles is really something!). She's sweet and genuine, has a cute dog, and holy crap, she basically lives at the north pole!

Another unique home belongs to KRIS ATOMIC and her partner Andrew, who live on a narrowboat full time, cruising the canals of England and mooring at various places. She's witty and artistic, and of course life on the canals, every few weeks moving on to another village, is interesting (they have a cat, too), but man alive is their footage beautiful to look at! It will make you fall in love with the English countryside. I said to my husband, "If we liked our stuff less and each other more, I'd say this is how we should spend our retirement!"--only because these films are so magical to look at. A real stress-soother of a channel.

[dresshistorynerd]

Do you have recommendations for dress history youtube channels? I'm a very bookish person, an amateur historian of literature, and i want to understand the practical side of how clothes were made and worn. the pictures in my books only go so far.

Sure! There's some books that also go into the historical construction of clothing, most notably Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion series, which is an invaluable resource. Here's my most recommended YouTube channels who do historical costuming and talk about dress history in general:

Nicole Rudolph Abby Cox Morgan Donner Cat's Costumery Snappy Dragon Bernadette Banner priorattire Adelaine Beeman-White Karolina Żebrowska Samantha Bullat

[infinitysgrace]

Watch this.

[alelelesimz]

she continues to be the funniest person on the internet

[wingamy24]

A video essay about Mixology Certification

I personally don't think it's the best, but this is a great video regardless.

[thatkaseyjames]

Melkor might’ve corrupted entire realms. Sauron had his moment.

But Aku? Aku ruled undisputed for thousands of years.

I just dropped a video unpacking why Aku’s reign might be the most successful villain run in all of fiction. It’s a little nostalgic, a little nerdy, and full of love for Samurai Jack.

[mileenaxyz]

I need more reactors to stop playing with my emotions and react to this damn show. 😭

[radioregine]

Hi! Thanks for the reblog! 🤗 You mentioned being into writing that explores the "meta part" of fanfic - YES!! Are there other people who do this/fics you can recommend?

yes indeeeed. below are works surrounding this topic i've really enjoyed over the past decade:

-> TRAD PUB. BOOKS

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell [link to NPR review] this came out when i was finishing high school + starting to get disillusioned w HP (for story reasons & 'the author is Unforgivably Shitty' reasons lol) so i was very intrigued with how this book worked as a metacommentary abt HP (seriously, it felt like the book was deconstructing a lot of the issues fans had with the o.g. canon) while being a cute fantasy in its own right. i haven't checked out the sequels yet

New Waves by Kevin Nguyen [link to LA Times review] i read this a year or two ago and enjoyed what it had to say about online vs IRL friendships, grief, hustle culture, and creative identity.

-> FANFIC PROJECTS

running after two hares by chaparral_crown on ao3 this is probably my favorite fic of all time. no exaggeration. i have the whole thing printed out on 200+ pages of copy paper bound with comically large binder clips. and it's not even finished! there's this fanon concept called HEU (Hannibal Extended Universe) where people consider all of the different characters that the main actors played outside the show (in other shows, film, etc) to be connected to the showverse. for some reason i've never been able to suspend my disbelief enough to get into a lot of HEU content. i'm picky about fic just as i am with any other creative writing i engage with -- i have been for most of my life. THEN. i come across this author's insanely popular HEU fic, and i've read non-HEU stuff from them before that i adored, so i figure 'why not' ... and this 'crack treated seriously' quickly became one of my fav things ever. the prose alone is so masterful. and it's such a DENSE read, like, you really gotta slow down to appreciate all the introspective asides and jokes and commentary about the text (show) and metacommentary about how unusual pairings thrive, inside and outside of fiction.

Starsky & Hutch Virtual Season [link to Fanlore wiki] i got into S&H fandom in 2012. i remember how intrigued i was at the concept of the Virtual Season, which had its heyday a decade before i got into the online fandom. this kind of fan activity is the precursor, imo, to stuff like people calling installments of their webnovels 'episodes', the concept of a 'dream season' (ex: how hannibal ppl talk about how season 4 would play out if the show hadn't been cancelled), etc. people weren't just writing serialized fic, they were cultivating a really unique Experience

-> COMMENTATORS / ESSAYISTS

Shipper's Guide to the Galaxy (has not updated their channel in years but has such a huge backlog of thoughtful content about the relationship between media and its fans, including entire segments dedicated to fic recs)

Fionapollo (discovered them recently! i used to watch a lot of art commentary channels that preceded this one, and i'm obsessed w this channel because they focus more on the philosophy of creative practice & cultivating community between fans and media, rather than feeding into toxicity for views. they cover negative topics sometimes, yeah, but not in a sensationalist way at all. super refreshing)

[fandomhype]

After being in copyright limbo for ages! anyone who is interested in hearing me talk nonsense about the OG Buffy movie can do so in a few hours :)

EDIT: - It is now live! I fought the law fox studios and I actually won!

[balkanradfem]

For your female youtubes ask, I don't know if Gutsick Gibbon has been mentioned, she does videos on Human evolution according to her description, though I've only watched a video where she talks about geology, paleoclimate and paleontology, which she seems to know quite a bit about too!

Hey, I'll check her out! Would love more knowledge on evolution, thanks!

[micewithknives]

MUSEUM NEWS MUSEUM NEWS MUSEUM NEWS

( @museeeuuuum has a new video and segment on museum news and i am loving it)

[koreanbibliophilegirl]

I have GOT to recommend joshuacooksthendraws to everyone.

He's(I haven't found pronouns yet, but I think he's a he?) a cooking YouTuber who sketches the dishes he cooks, & uses them as thumbnails/posts them on his community section.

I've only been able to watch a few of his videos yet, but everything he cooks look absolutely mouthwatering, and the vibes are so calming. He hasn't been making videos for very long I think, and he calls himself out on his little mistakes- but for someone whose oldest video is 11 months old, I'd say he's doing amazing!

He mostly makes Korean food(which is definitely a plus point for me personally lol😂🇰🇷), desserts, and healthy meal options(at least, that's what I think he focuses on). I was eating dinner while I watched today, thank goodness for that cuz otherwise I would have gotten so hungry.

The ingredients he uses & the quantity of each are in the video descriptions as well as the videos themselves, and he links the recipes he uses- his own blog in the case of original recipes!- below each video.

Go watch joshuacooksthendraws guys, please, that guy deserves more recognition-

[alelelesimz]

as the anon that asked for youtube recommendations, i say DO continue!!! i watched most of the vids you recommended and i really enjoyed them! it even made me discover claire saffitz had her own channel lol

so yessssss, all the recommendations you want please 🤲

THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!!!! i'm glad you enjoyed them and that you found out about claire's channel! i love that she's showing her own recipes and recreating snacks in her own way without worrying too much like she did in BA, you can tell she's having fun now 🥹

i got more vids!!!

in that one post the other day i shared a drawfee video, they're my favorite guys on youtube they have the perfect sense of humor for me lmao. here's a video that made me cry laugh, also their speed draws and drawtectives are 100% some of my fav stuff on youtube

probably everyone on tumblr dot com knows who brian david gilbert is but this particular video changed my life you wouldnt believe how much i reference it constantly

you suck at cooking makes totally normal cooking videos that i love!!!!

juno birch of course the queen of the universe, i keep rewatching this one bc it makes me laugh really hard

elliotisacoolguy is a graphic designer that really gets me bc he likes making stuff that looks cool but have no meaning lol he USED to make videos and i hope he comes back bc he's great!! this one is crazy

if you like essay type of vids you should watch madisyn brown's videos, she's so great!!!

karolina makes videos about historical fashion but also she's incredibly funny!!

oki that's it ily thank u for letting me ramble about random videos i watch 🫂