I am sure that others like me have found Youtube to be a thoroughly remarkable source for so many things to help us through Lockdowns etc.
Yesterday almost accidentally I found that I had given myself an ‘Opera Day’ whilst searching for a song ;
That was ‘Song India’ in the Rimsky Korsakov Opera ‘Sadko’. I had never seen the opera, and was delighted and enthralled to find a full video by the Moscow Opera, which was not only stunning but also carried subtitles (it is sung in Russian). I then followed this up by Puccini’s Il Triticco which I had first seen in Hungary. The aria of Seur Angelica is still a tearjerker.
I am trying to find the Franz Erkel opera Bank Ban, which is another stunner.
My wife is taking Art Classes, and I have also embarked on a Course of Chinese History which is absorbing to say the least.
Three Cheers for Youtube? Are you following any studies or subjects?
There isn’t much you can’t find on YouTube. But it’s easy to get distracted. I once spent an hour watching videos of crazy DIY tree surgeons. A complete waste of time, but I did come away with a clearer understanding of why some communes have banned the use of chain saws! But you can also see serious professional videos demonstrating the correct way to fell a tree. In fact it’s a great resource for finding out how to do, or fix almost anything.
There is also a lot of rubbish. Who needs an out-of-focus video of someone explaining how to fix a computer problem? I need that in writing, so I can print it out and have it beside me as I follow the required steps.
As Norman says, there is some great music of all kinds and hopefully some people will be inspired to purchase the CD - direct from the artist where possible, please.
I found a lot of help with swimming and I guess the same applies with any sport skill. But the big surprise was the discovery that the US Navy Seals swim side stroke, something that is rarely seen, because it is not a competitive stroke. I was teaching myself that when the lockdown began. Eagerly awaiting the reopening of the piscine!
I’m attempting to learn how to use Adobe Animate but I find videos either too slow or too fast! I’m using a combination of trial and errors (lots)+video tutorial+reading some explanatory text.
PS Crazy French pilots are good to watch when one is bored.
Maybe not quite what you have in mind Norman, but YouTube is my “go-to” for anything DIY. There are just some brilliant videos out there. My latest? How to replace old putty round our ancient windows.
Yes to all the comments, and certainly a lot of the movie videos are poor quality, but I understand a lot of that has to do with Copyright problems, which always amuses me on films that are now up to 80 years old, and I usually finds from reputable sources (archive.org is a good one for old films, and IS an American site).
I am hopeless at DIY and can only say when I try it, I usually ony find ways of donating blood (plus bits of skin). But I have found out a lot of the uses for Bicarbonate of Soda which I never knew - and which DO work, and removing the Mafia black windows of my car when the Law changed - would you believe by hairdryer? So yes even the most hapless amongst us can find useful info.
For the moment at least it also seems to be one place where one can escape the relentless Covid 19 depressing coverage!
Oh yes, I DID find my video of Bank Ban I was looking for, but as you say Mike one can easily digress, as I also found myself watching an Opera by Tchaikovsky that I had never heard of - called Mazeppa. A bit long, and although I don’t call myself anything like an expert it seems to be the only opera I have ever watched that doesn’t have Tenors and Sopranos in it. Wonderful Russian chorales though and the Kyrov ballet section was also unusual and enjoyable.
I will be back to my researches after my part lawnmowing plotted for this morning. That will replace the bike ride today.
YT. Where would I be without it? I don’t have broadcast TV and all my DVDs have been round twice.
Apart from ‘how to do’ practical stuff, I’m viewing a series on how to use a digital audio workstation [recording software] called Reaper, [ie how to deal with audio once recorded] - be your own George Martin, without spending mi££ions on kit.
Various vids on recording technique [ie audio from instrument into Reaper]
" How to Use Fender Fuse in 10 minutes" …[an app that instructs a 40W Fender Mustang guitar amplifier to sound as if it is David Gilmore’s entire rig as in “Live in South America”] hahaha! I’ve watched this several times and 100 minutes is not enough.
The ‘Live in South America’ video is one of Pink Floyd/Gilmour’s best. "This was one of the few times I’d ever been to South America, and I was quite excited," says Gilmour “The venues were vast — we were playing 50,000 a night.”" The audiences are incredible. They know all the words. Both men and women can be seen weeping with emotion at the music.
A wee Scotsman in Auld Reekie is providing blues harmonica tuition, an amazing Dutchman in Rotterdam, with over 1.5 million subscribers, guitar tuition, ditto an amiable picker in Nashville, Tennesee.
A whole side branch of guitar playing is slide guitar. Anyone not familiar with this will hear a supreme example played by a master if they watch the excellent Wim Wenders movie, “Paris, Texas”. A haunting sound, redolent of the desert of the American S.W. Otherwise, search for it on YT and you will hear extracts of the sound track. I’m addicted. I have to hear it at least once a day. Ditto his music for a Southern Comfort ad - but no ad, thankfully. Just the music of Ry Cooder.
I have watched numerous vids on how to produce crispy calamari rings but with 100% failure so far. What I have learnt from a live Italian is that I should not defrost frozen ones…
Hi Norman and thank you soooooo much for the archive.org link! It’s excellent 
As for YouTube, yes! It’s full of amazing videos on just about everything and anything.
I’ve used it to make my ‘Hugelkulture’ planting beds, for videos on English language learning for my trainees, for music, and when I need to learn a new IT skill too, like Fleur on Adobe. Equally for cooking and like Mike, endless DIY tips….
I watched it on Arte very recently. Excellent film. Great Ry Cooder music, relaxed pace of the film, vast landscapes.
Louise if old books, reports,autobiographies etc., are of interest, then The Gutenberg Project is also one I use a lot. Printed materials only though. Working on my current (three years so far!) book on ‘A History of Propaganda’ this has been an amazing source of Copyright free material.
Then, of course, there’s vids on fly-tying.
I have found some excellent resources about watercolour painting on Youtube, amongst an awful lot of dross, so I am going to give it a go. Your tube also can lead to some serious websites full of good information. It is important to discard whatever doesn’t suit you or seems trite.
With apologies for responding so late, if you are interested in rather unusual operas, I wondered if you had seen Tiefland by Eugen d’Albert. It is on YouTube. There was a production at the Capitole in Toulouse a few years ago. D’Albert was not, as he sounds, French but born in Glasgow with an English mother and German father. He spent most of his adult life in Germany. He was much married and had the idea of having as many wives as Beethoven’s symphonies. He died in Riga on the way to sort out his sixth divorce. The music is actually rather good - a bit like Strauss ® who was a friend.
thanks for that; and i confess to never havin heard of it, so having just been released from my painful six days in brive hospital, i am just returning to single finger typing i will check it out;