I was out and about making the vid of the day, the FilmSpill, and it just so happened that as I started to head home, All Things Considered came on the NPR at the top of the hour. Normally I would listen to the five minutes of headlines (listen churlishly and without grace I might add), and only listen until I parked in front of the hacienda, flipping it off with no regret.

We have history, NPR and I. This is where I first heard of people like Scott Carrier and Joe Frank. They were who I wanted to be, in the old days. I worked for affiliate stations. I even interviewed once at the mothership in DC. But of late I’ve mostly hated them for what they’ve become.

Today, though, they thrilled me like they used to thrill me routinely. On this episode of ATC, they said, we’re devoting the whole hour to some interesting questions about democracy, and specifically the question: “Why is it that things most Americans want, like some form of gun control, and some form of Medicare expansion, never seem to have any chance of being legislated into existence?” …

Okay … you corporatist toady bitches … you have my attention. For the hour. Proceed. With caution.

(I drove around, the back ways and the long ways, instead. That turned out to be fruitful too. But not germane here.)

The good news is that they’re asking that kind of question at all, in contrast to their usually doofus fake feelgood stories about, oh hell, banana bread, heartwarming spiritual anecdotes; how busy our lives are, how all of we thoughtful normies support Ukraine and vaccines and Murica and wacky old Uncle Joe.

The good news is that they did it old school and long form.

The good news is that I learned a few things. So that’s a lot of good they did, for a change, and I admit it, without rancor.

With rancor, I have a critique too, which is that they tried real hard to make this about bad and backward Republicans versus noble Democrats (like “us”). Also, about redneck flyover country versus sophisticated liberal urban elites (like “us”).

I reject that premise or that tacit conclusion or whatever it is.

Listen, my PMC media darlings. Just because I’m the very opposite of a conservative, that doesn’t make me into a liberal, much less a Democrat. The definitions of those kinds of words has been warped over time to mean pretty much nothing.

You might say that Chuckie Schumer or Nancy Pelosi is a lib. You might claim that Justin Amash or JD Vance is the far right wing, and therefore the problem. You might even say, well, that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that Squad oh boy, well they’re the progressives, and our great hope for the future.

But in point of fact, all those supposed champions or enemies amount to the same old shit that is sending the empire into decline, enriching only the rich, and quite possibly putting an end to civilization as we would like to imagine it. They’re a pack of venal careerists, and even if they didn’t start out that way when they were running (here’s looking at you, AOC, and Bernie too), they quickly became entangled in the foul Game and sold off every scrap of integrity to the highest bidder.

The same can be said, at least day in and day out, about anyone who succeeds at NPR, particularly inside the Beltway.

That is why listening to “national public radio” (as opposed to state-run media?) generally just pisses me off now.

But it was also why I was so shocked and pleased today, that they were at least starting, appearing, to make a real effort.

More of that, please.

For me, for yourselves–for the children, my dears. You do love you some children, ennit?

***

Alright. Cameras. I’ve mostly pretty much sorta made up my mind.

The Canon M50 Mark II is $595 for the camera body only, and it is the exact middle of the path from consumer grade on up to really professional equipment. In other words, it’s the cheapest thing I can start with and still have some feeling of seriousness and credibility.

Make no mistake–I could get by with the GoPro Hero 9, or even the ancient Flip I used to record today’s video, and you could argue reasonably that I should–because the content is much more important than the production value. I take that argument very seriously indeed. But I am going to spend the money anyway, to … lay down a marker of sorts, inside myself.

By the way, the nearest competition in my mind to the M50 was another Canon product, very similarly priced, called the SL3. In not buying it, my one serious regret is that it has on-screen audio levels, where the M50 does not. But: the M50 shoots in 24 FPS. The M50 is more portable. The M50 gives composition feedback in real time through the viewfinder. So on balance, it wins. (I would also say that if you ever find yourself in a similar place, you should check out the Sony ZV-E10 as well. It is, in many ways, a ‘better’ camera, especially if you think you will live long enough to be worried about ‘future-proofing’. I don’t have that worry.)

The external microphone will cost me 50-150 more. The semi-pro tripod, thirty. A couple more accessories, maybe, in that same range. The only question left is what lenses to buy at the same time to start with. Right here right now, I’m leaning toward the 18-55, a solid but inexpensive midrange lens that is a slight upgrade from the one Canon wants to sell you by default in a kit for a hundred dollars more, with the camera.

I’ll make that choice quite soon and send off my thousand to the Bezos right away, even though sending off to the Bezos is part of the problem too. There is no local camera shop any more. I looked and checked for real. I would have gladly paid a little more if there was. And even the wicked walmurt doesn’t sell anything quite this nice. So we gonna fish or just cut bait, Mr. Vairtere?

We gon fish, my darlin’.

Compromises will be made. It’s the way of the fallen world.

I want to alert you to the presence of two other YouTubers who helped me a lot in making these choices in videography. Both because they deserve credit for the help, and because they represent two different ways of being a “YouTuber”, or preferably a anarcho-belletristic ‘content creator’, and I’m thinking a lot about those ways and what my own will be.

The first is Mark Wiemels. He is the smart, no-nonsense Expert that I will never be. I believe he says at one point that he’s also a business consultant type for ‘creatives’. His videos ooze confidence and reassurance and production value at every turn.

Here’s a dump list of his videos that I still have up in the alternative youTubery browser right now. (If I list them here I can finally close those tabs.)

The Best Prime Lens for the Canon M50, Canon M50 Mark II, and Canon M6 Mark II

My TOP 10 Accessories for the Canon M50

My 16 Best EF-M Lenses for the Canon M50 and Canon M6 Mark II

THIS is the BEST audio you can get on a Canon M50

How to make your Rode VideoMicro sound PRO

Mr. Camera Conspiracies is a quirky and episodically Weird Canadian who is much closer to my own style. Only I intend to be even more profoundly and maybe even uncomfortably strange. I’m only listing two videos for him even though I watched quite a bit more, because I took what I needed from him and closed the tabs right away. Usually.

Sennheiser MKE 200 vs Deity D4 Duo vs Rode Videomicro: In Depth Comparison

I’m Not Like You

Honorable Mentions

Tech Gear Talk

That ‘How Much We Make from a Million-View Video” video I talked about the other day.

Vairtere For Sunday