Annual WeTube Awards

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/10/2006 (7177 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IF you weren’t familiar with YouTube Inc. before this week, you’ve undoubtedly heard of it now.

Google Inc. made headlines by forking over $1.65 billion US to buy YouTube, a 20-month-old Internet site where users upload, view and share video clips.

More than 20 million people visit YouTube every month. As many as 100 million clips — everything from network-sanctioned promos of hit TV shows to amateur recordings of baby’s first steps — are screened daily. It’s like do-it-yourself TV, except on computer screens.

Since we all know that isolated, weather-battered Winnipeggers spend too much time in their basements being creative and quirky, it’s not surprising that locals have been quick to jump on the bandwidthwagon.

Type “Winnipeg” in the search box at www.youtube.com and up pop more than 1,200 videos. You get even more hits if you search via regional phrases such as the Guess Who, Assiniboine Park or cheese nip.

(Results aren’t always relevant: type in Sam Katz, for example, and you get a grainy eight-second clip of a like-named Colorado youth, feeding a banana to an elephant at his hometown zoo.)

The first YouTube entry to showcase Winnipeg was added a little over 12 months ago. Titled Brazilian Dancefighting in Winnipeg — pt. 1, the 29-second vignette features members of a local martial arts group kicking up their feet on Corydon Avenue last summer.

With so many Winnipeggers now youtubing with abandon, we knew it was time to separate the wheat from the chaff. So without further ado, we present the First Annual WeTube Awards. The envelopes, please…

(Note: number of views listed for videos reflect their cumulative totals at time of writing.)

HAIL MARY AND / OR MILT AWARD

The Catch: Milt Stegall (00:26)

Added: Aug. 13, 2006 Views: 607

MILT Stegall’s against-all-odds July 20 TD reception versus the Edmonton Eskimos can be enjoyed by Bomber faithful time and time again, thanks to Big Blue fan Victor Jarman.

“When there were four seconds left I was wishing for a miracle play,” Jarman says. “I can’t remember the time but I know it was a bit late — my daughter was asleep and my scream woke her up. It was an awesome game and the Play of the Century — I downloaded the whole game and edited out that one play.”

I’M LOVIN’ IT AWARD (tie)

Winnipeg McDonald’s Adventure, Parts One and Two (06:32)

Added: Sept. 14, 2006 Views: 170

THREE students visit every Winnipeg McDonald’s — that’s 43 restaurants and one regional office — in one day.

“And we bought something from every location,” confirms co-conspirator Shane Curtis. A spreadsheet detailing the trio’s adventure is available at Curtis’s personal blog (www.angelfire.com/blog/shaneomac17). The entire escapade cost the trio $113.78, he says, including gas. (No, not that kind of gas.)

Paul Stanleys:

The McDonald’s Incident (03:50)

Added: Jan. 28, 2006 Views: 15,988

Winnipeg KISS tribute band the Paul Stanleys get supersized and more at a Portage Avenue McDonald’s.

“The video was made about three or four years ago by Jeff Bromley,” says Mark Kellner, who uploaded the piece. (Bromley can now be seen on Shaw TV, hosting the music program Signal to Noise.)

“The McDonald’s video is starting to get noticed — I just did an interview for the Calgary Herald,” says Stanleys band member Kelly Fairchild. “It was really the brainchild of our singer, Justin Seguin. He’s the real star of the video — next to the poor guy behind the till.”

SALLY RAND AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FAN DANCING

Dancing Gabe (01:15)

Added: March 10, 2006 Views: 1,656

WHEREIN Winnipeg’s No. 1 sports booster gets his considerable mojo working. Posted by “artvandelayyy,” this vid is a Letterman-type countdown of Dancin’ Gabe’s top five moves, The Fist of Fury and The Tornado among ’em.

Special note: This clip should not be confused with a separate YouTube entry, Gabe Dancing, which features a fellow from Pennsylvania busting a few moves to Soft Cell’s Tainted Love.

JOHN RITTER MEMORIAL AWARD

Improvision: Roommates! (01:19)

Added: June 18, 2006

Views: 88

Two’s Company, it seems. Local improv favourites Alan MacKenzie and George McRobb star in the intro to a sitcom that doesn’t exist. Yet.

“George (Alan MacKenzie) and Alan (George McRobb) move to downtown Winnipeg to become the world’s biggest improv comedy stars,” says MacKenzie when pressed for a synopsis of Episode 1. “Because of the high cost of apartment rentals, they have to pose as a gay couple to live cheaply above the garage of eccentric VPW-TV producer Henk Cunningham (Jeffrey Tambor).”

“We won?” asks McRobb excitedly when told the good news. “When does our flight to L.A. to collect our reward leave?”

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME AWARD

For all of my life… (03:25)

Added: Jan. 10, 2006

Views: 41,179

“Wow! Is my video really the most viewed of all Winnipeg videos?” asks Boni M, a.k.a. “Bonigirl.” Yes, it is! To date, Bonigirl’s whispery rendering of Filipino pop group MYMP’s For All of My Life has received over 41,000 hits.

“The song was recorded on my webcam with a really low-quality mic,” says the singer/guitarist. “I’ve never performed in a public setting and I don’t have any recording plans as I’m still in school.”

“…AND THE FORESTS WILL ECHO WITH LAUGHTER” AWARD

Stairway to Heaven (04:09)

Added: April 23, 2006

Views: 264

Somewhere in town, an unidentified father and son pair up for a rec-room rendition of Zeppelin’s anthemic Stairway to Heaven. The duo joins Frank Zappa, Pat Boone, Dolly Parton and the London Philharmonic Orchestra as the latest in a long, long line of musicians who have felt compelled to get the Led out.

SPIRIT-ED ENERGY AWARD

Winnipeg Haunted Hotel (01:44)

Added: Sept. 12, 2006

Views: 54

Boo! Connie Walker and Marcia Connolly tackle rack rates and things that go bump in the night in this clip, recorded during their stay at the spectre-friendly Fort Garry Hotel.

“Some weird things did happen but I don’t know how much of it was us freaking ourselves out or actual ghosts,” Walker says from her home in Toronto. “While Marcia and I were talking about ghosts, the TV turned on and off. And in the morning, I woke up and two pillows had fallen from the closet.”

HATE ME, HATE MY WINNIPEG AWARD

Weakerthans — One Great City (03:00)

Added: Aug. 21, 2006

Views: 322

Hometown heroes the Weakerthans perform their signature tune — the one with the infamous “I hate Winnipeg” chorus — before an only-too-happy-to-sing-along crowd in London, England. Dan Trombley from Dayton, Ohio, was at the show and posted the clip on YouTube. “I almost want to apologize for being so audible singing along,” he says. “Often when I play One Great City on the guitar, I sing ‘Winnipeg’ but I can’t help think, ‘I… hate… Dayton…'”

BY THE TIME WE GOT TO WOODSTOCK, WE WEIGHED HALF A MILLION POUNDS AWARD

Freedom of Speech Tour (00:41)

Added: July 20, 2006

Views: 1,373

Rock mega-heavyweights Crosby, Stills and Nash join Neil Young on the ex-Kelvinite’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart. The clip was recorded by “kelseyw” during the band’s July stopover, from what appears to be the MTS Centre’s upper balcony.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SKATEBOARD PARK IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Fun Times in Winnipeg (02:56)

Added: Sept. 8, 2006

Views: 682

“We were visiting from Red Deer,” says sk8t-boarder Logan J. “We drove 14 hours straight in a minivan packed with 14 or so guys.”

The frenetic video — filmed in ollie-o-rama — was put together in and around The Forks’ hot new attraction.

“We were all blown away,” says Logan J. of his group’s reaction to the local skateboard plaza. “Bigger than anything we had ever skated and laid out so well — it was an awesome trip, just some best friends heading out to do what we love.” (Backing track, incidentally, is the Black Keys’ 10 a.m. Automatic.)

INAUGURAL C’MON DOOOOWN CERTIFICATE OF MERIT

This prize goes to Jason Sheps, a.k.a. RetroWinnipeg, for his tireless efforts to preserve and promote local TV commercials. Drawing inspiration from last year’s documentary feature Kubassa in a Glass, Sheps has posted almost eight dozen clips edited from old VHS tapes.

“Upon telling some friends one day about my new YouTube passion, they gave me a whole batch of tapes to look over,” Sheps says. “While I originally had tapes that were as old as 1986, these were even rarer — going back to at least 1983.

“I have found new appreciation for the Landau Lincoln Mercury Merry Christmas jingle. And if you remember the exploding ‘BLITZ’ from the old De Fehr Home Furnishing Centre commercial, you can see the ‘advanced’ special effects the store used in the 1980s.”

THE END IS NIGH…AND FOR SALE ON EBAY AWARD

Go to eBay to learn about the MOST EXPLOSIVE VIDEO CLIP EVER (05:15)

Added: Sept. 15, 2006

Views: 554

Local entrepreneur Jon Mushey is looking to cash in on the YouTube craze — literally. Last month, Mushey and a couple of friends became the first people in the world to auction off the finale of a YouTube clip on eBay (the auction ID number is 190040195898).

“We were basically trying to get as much money as possible to finish the video; in return we’d flash a company’s logo at the end,” he says. (The clip’s title alludes to its two chief props: combustible tire foam and a match. Guess what happens next.) And how many bids did Mushey et al. receive?

“We got a couple but nothing crazy,” he says. “I still think it’s a lucrative idea so who knows, we might give it another shot.”