I Tamed the YouTube Algorithm...

and now have these 17 videos to share

It’s hard for me to believe that Google and YouTube are part of the same company.

Google is driven by an obsessive desire for centralized control, and repeatedly ignores users—manipulating and deceiving them endlessly. Yet their colleagues down the hall at YouTube are cool cats. They showcase indie creators, pay them lavishly, and attentively serve the needs and desires of the audience.

Maybe the sourpusses at the search engine should learn a few tricks from their sister company.

As you may have noticed, I’m hard to please—but YouTube gets one of my few endorsements. That’s especially true now because I’ve trained the algorithm. For a long time, I was getting garbage recommendations, but I set up a separate account and spent hours introducing the algorithm to high quality videos.

Believe me, friends, I gave that algo a taste of high culture. It was like My Fair Lady—only without Audrey Hepburn. (Sigh!)

The pain from that domain would drive my brain insane. But not anymore.

The results are impressive. YouTube now alerts me to the good stuff, and keeps the muck and rubbish far away from the street where I live.

So today I’m sharing some of the results with you. Here are 17 of the best recent videos you will find online.

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He went from sharing the bandstand with Miles Davis to playing in the subways of New York.

He was once a rising star—praised by Anthony Braxton as the next John Coltrane and even earning a tryout with Miles Davis. But drug problems and incarceration derailed Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre’s career. In his later years, he was most often heard playing on the streets or in the subways of New York.

This documentary, uploaded on YouTube a few days ago, tells his sad tale.

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Why are so many Oscar-winning filmmakers broke?

The director of The Brutalist—nominated for ten Oscars this year—recently admitted that he made “zero dollars” on his last two films. He pays his bills by directing TV commercials.

How is that possible? I know many artists struggle to get established, but how can you get to the top of your field, and still worry about paying next month’s rent on a tiny apartment?

Is this is the new normal for indie talent in Hollywood? Luc Forsyth dishes the dirt in this new video.

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Guitar for an archaic ritual

Who Is Antoine Boyer?

He first gained acclaim as a rising star of French gypsy jazz. But then he shifted his attention to classical guitar. From there he went on to collaborating with flamenco stars. And then he’d turn around and do Bill Evans on solo guitar—with total authority.

Now he’s playing an emotionally charged music that operates beyond genre labels. It’s harmonically complex, but hides its depth behind a melody that lingers in the ears like a hymn for some archaic ritual.

He’s releasing his new album on YouTube, one track at a time. Listen and enjoy!