Mexico Medical Student |

This is true–although their existence has been known for some time now, the data is finally confirmed that these two entities are indeed black holes, the most powerful physical phenomenon in the known universe. The gravitational force exerted by a black hole is so massive, that not even light traveling at velocity of over 186,000 miles per second can escape. The two entities are currently named MySpace and YouTube. If light can’t even escape, imagine the crushing power exerted on one’s time!

But seriously, I have enjoyed YouTube ever since it came out, but like most people, only to watch little ditties people forward me and get a good laugh. I had no idea that there were soap operas and all sorts of things broadcast via people’s webcams–like I care about the dating life of some chick who’s known only as “T1f4nny.” Please. However, I discovered a phenomenal thing that has been sucking up all my time recently–vintage classical music videos and other rare performances. (yes, this is where you guffaw mercilessly at my geekiness) I’m talking rare footage from the 50s or 60s of Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, or David Oistrakh not previously seen outside the (then) Soviet Union or, on the other side of the spectrum, pristine (as much as YouTube can handle) footage from a live concert in Japan last year of Arcadi Volodos from someone’s camcorder. 99% of you have no idea who these people are, and that’s OK–trust me when I tell you that these are giants of their respective instruments (and yes, they are all Russian, but that’s usually the way I roll, musically).

To see what I mean, go here to watch a clip of Volodos from somebody’s frickin’ living room for crying out loud, playing Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” from A Midsummer Nights’ Dream (arranged by Vladimir Horowitz and Volodos). All those words will mean nothing once you hear the first few notes, but please keep watching at least past 1:20 because that’s when the fireworks start. Now what kind of chance would I ever have had to see Arcadi Volodos in the first place much less be privvy to a private performance?! Thank you Internet, thank you YouTube.

As for MySpace, up until a few weeks ago, all I knew of it was “where the kids hang out online” and that it was always associated with various pedophile scandals since, obviously, that’s where the “kids” hang out. After hearing enough comments from some people in class about what they read, I finally logged in expecting to see nothing but teenage crap. Oh. My. God. 1/4 of the planet has a profile on MySpace, and now I do too (which is pretty irrelevant considering I never go there, but you need to create one to see much of anything). I think perhaps HALF of my medical school class actively maintain their MySpace profile, and within a week of signing up, I got a random email from a person who went to my high school asking if I remembered him (I didn’t). I had no idea so many “older” folks actively frequent MySpace. I have enough problems keeping up with blogging and emailing, so I’ll leave the MySpace to others, but from what time I did spend on there, it was obvious it had complete “black hole” status, following so-and-so’s friends, comments, etc. It’s similar to blogging in a kind of LiveJournal or Blogger way in it is a pre-built community, but SOOO much deeper and bigger. And far more hideous. I swear people’s MySpace profiles look like a scary glimpse into a schizophrenic mind.

As much as finding/following profiles of pathetic pop star wannabes on MySpace is loads of fun, I’ll stick with YouTube.