[Video] What We Watched: Fun Clips from the Past Week – August 3-9, 2020

WHAT WE WATCHED: August 3-9

While we’re all staying at home, a lot of us are watching things online. With the plethora of videos available, and more being created every day, it’s an enjoyable way to pass the time and bring a little fun into our lives. Some of these may be brand new, some may be older, but here are a few of the videos I enjoyed this week.

When he’s not featuring the latest in tech, geeking out over behind-the-scenes effects of his favorite movies, or taking us through his patented One-Day Builds, maker extraordinaire and former Mythbuster Adam Savage will do livestreams in which he answers fan questions or just talks about what’s on his mind. In this livestream from April, Adam tackles topics such as why we love tiny things, how Mythbusters got him over his fear of bees, the difference between his dog Maggie and his late dog Huxley, and how even he has dealt with imposter syndrome.

This has to qualify as one of the coolest (or hottest, if we’re going to be literal) jobs on the planet – collecting lava samples from an active volcano. This video from 2015 shows the first-person perspective of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist Tim Orr collecting samples of lava from Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano. Orr quickly scoops up chunks of lava and tosses them into a bucket of water to cool so the samples can be transported back to the lab for analysis. With a job like this – the floor literally IS lava!

Samuel Kim Music has a YouTube channel full of “Epic Orchestrations of the Greatest Film, TV, & Game Soundtracks,” and this week I came across his playlist of Medieval style covers of Star Wars. Not only does he recreate songs from John Williams‘ iconic scores for the movies, but he covers the title sequence for The Mandalorian, Admiral Thrawn’s theme, and more. I listened to a few of them this week, and I have to say that Kim’s version of the Imperial March might just be my favorite.

Speaking of Star Wars, if you’ve seen The Mandalorian, you know what an incredible job composer Ludwig Göransson did scoring the series. In particular, the main theme lends to the spaghetti Western feel of the show. In the video below, Göransson performs the main theme on various instruments while on sets from The Mandalorian.

This week I finished bingeing the animated series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power over on Netflix, and I have to say this it is an absolute delight. I’ve definitely been leaning toward more light and cheery shows, and while things certainly aren’t always easy for the heroes, it has a wonderful message of friendship, standing up for what’s right, and protecting the ones you love. There is also a diverse cast of characters, fantastic redemption arcs, and some very good twists. As with any good animated series, there are quite a few hilariously over-the-top characters and a couple musical numbers! While there are 5 seasons, it’s a fairly quick watch as each season is between 6-13 episodes, and each episode is less than half an hour.

What fun videos have you watched this past week?