[HN Gopher] Sesame Street Pinball Number Count [video]
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       Sesame Street Pinball Number Count [video]
        
       Author : cameron_b
       Score  : 57 points
       Date   : 2023-09-23 13:54 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | throw0101b wrote:
       | Somewhat related, but their "Geometry of Circles" was written by
       | Philip Glass:
       | 
       | * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWwOzEDGss
       | 
       | * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9467zZV0Lc
       | 
       | * https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Geometry_of_Circles
        
         | pierrec wrote:
         | That's amazing and I'm now wondering if it influenced the
         | demoscene. In fact I'm specifically thinking of "Intrinsic
         | Gravity" by Still, which has fairly similar concepts going on,
         | especially at the end. It's also one of the best executable
         | demos I've ever seen.
         | 
         | https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=64756
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZxPhDC-r3w
        
       | JKCalhoun wrote:
       | Wut? The length of the video is 12:12.
        
         | jayknight wrote:
         | There are 11 of them all strung together 2-12 each got their
         | own segment with a different solo section.
        
       | quickthrowman wrote:
       | Venetian Snares did a breakcore remix of this song around 20
       | years ago, released on the _Infolepsy EP_ in 2004:
       | https://youtu.be/AqN53CBb9to?si=wzHFA06T6N-6fxiV
        
       | dylan604 wrote:
       | All I needed was the title, and could immediately hear the tune
       | in my head. This is one of those videos that I turn to as
       | evidence on how we were being groomed to be trippy little stoner
       | kids. Oh, and all of the Sid&Marty Krofft shows too.
        
       | shannifin wrote:
       | Something about that rolling marble is so satisfying. Haven't
       | seen or even thought about this animation in decades, and yet
       | it's completely familiar. It's amazing to think about memories
       | just lying dormant in the brain for so long, consciously
       | inaccessible without the proper stimulation. What other random
       | stuff is hidden up there?
        
       | ramesh31 wrote:
       | Why was TV so great in the 70s? What happened?
        
         | ThinkingGuy wrote:
         | Deregulation had a lot to do with it.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | The drugs of choice changed in the 80s. In the 60s/70s, it was
         | lots of weed and psychedelics. In the 80s, it switched to
         | cocaine, then crack in the 90s. And as we all all know, crack
         | is whack!
        
         | sleepybrett wrote:
         | Republicans. They defunded PBS.
        
       | ravenstine wrote:
       | HOLY CRAP
       | 
       | For practically my whole life I've had this recurring memory of a
       | 1-12 song with this exact rhythm and couldn't remember where it
       | was from. The older I got, the more I wondered if it was
       | manufactured purely by my imagination. I'm pretty sure this is
       | it. Even though it was made before my time, it must have either
       | been re-run in the 90s or some teacher might have played it off a
       | VHS tape.
       | 
       | Also, gotta love how the video is 12 minutes and 12 seconds long.
       | :)
        
         | cameron_b wrote:
         | It ran until the early 2000s
        
       | ianbicking wrote:
       | I loved the ramps and movement of this video as a kid... and the
       | mysterious and abrupt holes that apparently send the ball to one
       | of many levels of this strange contraption/world.
       | 
       | I got the same feelings with Commander Mark and The Secret City,
       | the PBS drawing show:
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_City (also on YouTube,
       | though the video quality is disappointing)
        
       | halfcat wrote:
       | Always liked Pentatonix rendition on Sesame Street
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/0b-v-wMR69k
        
       | wodenokoto wrote:
       | Link links to a better version at:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7l3V1nhWc&t=0s
       | 
       | Consider updating the link.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | I'm actually surprised that someone paid to have the SD source
         | clean up and uprezed to HD. Must have been a pretty clean SD
         | source, maybe some 1" that was only used a couple of times and
         | definitely not someone's broadcast tape.
        
           | kencausey wrote:
           | I'm just guessing but it seems highly likely that the
           | original production was recorded to film and not to tape.
           | Given access to the original film would make it easy to
           | transfer at a higher quality than the original broadcast.
        
         | drivers99 wrote:
         | Much better. Especially the aspect ratio.
        
       | sleepybrett wrote:
       | I had no idea this track was sung by the pointer sisters. Wild.
        
       | drblast wrote:
       | I never realized the extent to which The Children's Television
       | Workshop must have been fueled by psychedelics.
       | 
       | But now Big Bird is making a whole lot more sense.
        
         | viraptor wrote:
         | This style reminds me of the opening animation of Soul Train
         | https://youtu.be/y3FNXkeXhOc and a bit of the Beatles animated
         | movie.
         | 
         | Does that style of animation have a name?
        
         | milesvp wrote:
         | Maybe. I never got the impression Jim Henson needed
         | psychedelics though. It was certainly in the zeitgeist of the
         | time if you were counter culture which I think sesame street
         | was certainly trying to be at the time.
        
         | MichaelMoser123 wrote:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcZUPDMXzJ8 Dumbo's dream is
         | from 1941, so it must have been ahead of its time!
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | And Big Bird's imaginary friend was always high a kite.
         | "Heeeeyyyy Biiirrrrrrrd". At least they didn't make him a pink
         | elephant.
        
         | jahnu wrote:
         | I absolutely adored the psychedelic stylings of the pinball
         | number count as a kid and still do. The kids tv stuff from that
         | era even in conservative Ireland was well weird and funky.
         | Check out the into to this mainstay of children's tv I grew up
         | with:
         | 
         | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6hKsyebZUrA
         | 
         | Tell me they weren't dropping acid when they came up with that!
        
       | notamy wrote:
       | A related video I saw recently:
       | https://youtu.be/TMtGImlEmu0?si=hXBBVi19WZBg_KYI
       | 
       | > This song teaches counting but is INSANELY hard to count
       | 
       | It goes into the theory of how the song works; to me as a
       | layperson it was fairly educational.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | This guy has so much (too much?) youtube energy. It's
         | exhausting. Do people act like this in person, or is it solely
         | their youtube persona? what makes this silent movie over acting
         | level of over the top something that is such a thing on
         | youtube?
        
           | milesvp wrote:
           | For the record. I get like this when I'm really geeking out
           | over something. I also know that I can be exhausting to
           | listen to when I'm like this, and try to tone it down
           | depending on my audience. Though, if I was a youtube
           | personality I would probably try to lean into it slightly.
        
           | pkdpic wrote:
           | George Lucas (half a century ago): "Faster, more intense!"
        
           | petercooper wrote:
           | There's an adage in producing video or being on TV that you
           | need to act 2x "more" than your usual self to appear mildly
           | engaging due to the limits of the medium. Some people go a
           | bit further than that, but the idea of being far more intense
           | and full-on than you would ever be in real life is pretty
           | standard in modern video production. Makeup, lighting, and
           | other factors will often be dialled up too.
           | 
           | I've seen plenty of shy, geeky folks who've become YouTube
           | famous talk about the necessity to do this as they
           | progressed. You can see it for yourself, too, if you find a
           | successful channel and go back to the oldest videos. The
           | energy and style of talking will ramp up over time. Quite few
           | folks will talk, act, and look entirely as they might
           | naturally.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | This is actually not the case in credible acting class. No
             | acting teacher will tell you to act like a buffoon for the
             | sake of being engaging unless you're trying to be a
             | children's programming buffoon. Even then, if you look at
             | what's popular for longer than a hot minute in children's
             | programming, the people don't act like that. The people on
             | TV that act like that are usually trying to sell you
             | something. People believing "over the top == good" probably
             | grew up liking JarJar Binks.
        
               | petercooper wrote:
               | This is more an idea around _presenting_ than acting, but
               | I wasn 't talking about being a buffoon, as such, but
               | using more energy to overcome the limitations of the
               | medium and to, ironically, appear more "normal" on
               | screen.
               | 
               | If you watch a lot of popular YouTubers' early vs later
               | videos, you can see it in effect. It's common to see
               | radical developments in elocution, projection, and energy
               | from their natural state, and it's nearly always for the
               | better.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | If you think this doesn't make them look like a buffoon,
               | then you are much more generous than I.
               | 
               | "always for the better" that's definitely a matter of
               | opinion, and I'm not buying it. it's just another in the
               | long list of reasons why i don't spend a lot of time
               | watching these types of "creators"
        
           | IndySun wrote:
           | > (too much?)
           | 
           | Yes. Coming across whilst browsing, or being recommended,
           | anyone that talks 'like this' (overacted, yes, overreacting
           | too), plus is edited so frenetically, is a turn off. The talk
           | is deliberately longer than it needs to be. Feels like being
           | doorstepped.
        
           | usea wrote:
           | It's a youtube persona. One of the most effective ways to
           | increase your chances of success in modern media is to be
           | loud and emotive. It's way past trend phase and is now
           | endemic on all platforms among content creators who hope to
           | have any younger viewers.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | My concern is that people will actually start acting this
             | way in person every day. I've known a few people that are
             | larger than life over the top whenever they do anything,
             | but they luckily have been rare. These type of people would
             | definitely make me refuse to RTO if my coworkers were like
             | this.
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | Wait until you hear about Blippi...
        
         | smrq wrote:
         | Warning: I saw this video three days ago and I had this damn
         | song playing in my head even before I saw this link today.
         | It'll never leave.
         | 
         | (It's a great song, at least...)
        
       | xpe wrote:
       | Why should I go watch this on YouTube? What is the angle that's
       | interesting?
        
         | xpe wrote:
         | To phrase my question another way: why is this on-topic?
         | 
         | > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.
         | That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to
         | reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that
         | gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
         | 
         | > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports,
         | or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new
         | phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal
         | pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-
         | topic.
        
           | cameron_b wrote:
           | The link shared by notamy is part of it, the musicality is
           | phenomenally technical, but also the collaboration and
           | creativity in the production ( the top-of-their-craft
           | musicians and animations ).
        
             | krapp wrote:
             | The link by notamy should have been what was posted, then
             | we could have an interesting discussion about music theory,
             | maybe.
             | 
             | But pure nostalgia-bait is exactly the kind of vapid
             | content we're supposed to avoid around here. There little
             | if any intelligent discussion happening here, it's just
             | member-berries and posturing cynicism. Even the subthread
             | by notamy is just griping about the way the youtuber
             | presents himself.
             | 
             | Flagged for brain cancer.
        
         | milesward wrote:
         | As a musician who also works in tech, it's a little like a post
         | mortem of a particularly novel and elegant architectural
         | response to a challenging use case, a bit like Carmack's
         | Reverse. Our expectation is that a song in 12 will sound
         | disjoint and clunky, this one is catchy and funky. Masterful!
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Since you're not going to watch it, I'll tell you it's about
         | the 12 seconds left on the timer before the bomb goes off, but
         | the Bert & Ernie buddy cop team comes in and disarms the bomb
         | at 1 second, and the older buddy cop says "I'm too old for
         | this" and something about only having two weeks left before his
         | pension.
        
         | kolanos wrote:
         | If you grew up in the 70's or 80's it is nostalgia porn.
        
           | madcaptenor wrote:
           | Yes but it makes me mad that Sesame Street is a shadow of
           | what it used to be, and (HBO) Max doesn't have the old ones
           | to show to my kids.
        
             | esaym wrote:
             | Torrent.
        
             | bluesounddirect wrote:
             | Sesame Street changed in the early 2000's . They started to
             | invest in digital animation, the issue I had with it was
             | too much energy was put into the production of the medium
             | and not enough into the quality of the content . The last
             | years of pbs before it went to hbo were odd , but my kids
             | aged out of it then too . But good memories none the less .
        
         | xpe wrote:
         | I asked pretty much the same kind of question in response to
         | another post, and it was recognized as being very valuable.
         | 
         | This one was perceived differently. Based on the unusually high
         | number of downvotes, I have some explanations that may explain
         | them: some people have little awareness / appreciation for
         | (some combination of):
         | 
         | - the importance of signal to noise ratio on HN
         | 
         | - YouTube, for many, is an unwelcome rabbit hole --- and so a
         | lot of people don't want to go there without good reason
         | 
         | - the value of asking "what do you get out of this" questions
         | 
         | I am genuinely curious about other people's brains work. I'm
         | also acutely interested in building better awareness and even
         | mechanisms for collaborating and discussing.
        
       | PDTao5Q2TMaTp7U wrote:
       | Thats the Pointer Sisters
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Number_Count on vocals
       | there.
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-23 23:01 UTC)