-- Robinson Jeffers, "The Eye"
YouTube "channels / accounts" usually reveal an aggregate of the user's interests or life. Sometime over two years ago, the amount of hours of video available on YouTube exceeded the total number of hours broadcast on television worldwide since the invention of television itself. It's now a global video library of our shared experience. Much is repetitive and even more is banal. But every so often....
Last night I came upon a small account from a person in Japan. It had two videos only, and yet it summed up the combined experience of the Japanese over the last month.
The YouTube account is called YouTube - momophoto1's Channel. It has two videos. One shows you an owl in a pine tree. The other shows you the end of the world.
One month ago. 545 Views
One day ago. 576,386 views
[NOTE: Original has been taken down. This is a repost hence the count is gone.]
We've all seen more than our share of Tsunami horror videos. After a bit they all seem to repeat themselves, like relentless waves swelling our impression of the disaster until we think.... we tell ourselves that we think.... we get it; that we have some clear picture of what happened. But we don't really, do we?
What we don't understand clearly is the sheer relentlessness of the great wave. With this video, we do. The alarm sirens. The amplified voice repeating "instructions." The rushing and rumbling of the rising waters. The push of the wave as it scrapes structures away and slams them against taller buildings -- yes, those dots at the top of the building across the torrent are others wondering just how high the waters will rise and just how firm, finally, are the foundations ....
Somewhat OT and less profound: NPR this morning did a story on the US military response to the Japanese disaster, and referred to the great emergency supply and rescue work of "The USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship that had once fought Japanese forces in the Pacific..."
Jesus wept.
Posted by: sherlock at March 27, 2011 11:27 AMI acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
Psalm 32:5-7 ESV
Rising horror beyond belief. Are all those bobbing black bobs in the water people? Terrifying.
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) at March 27, 2011 12:37 PMI've seen a couple of other ones, where first the water comes in, then you see cars floating by, then buildings. But this one has more of a "bird's-eye" view of the whole thing.
Posted by: rickl at March 27, 2011 12:49 PMAt 2:45, he says "Hey, hey, there are people! People!" and points into the river. His phrasing is not "bodies", but "people", so he seems to have thought they were still alive.
Posted by: Daniel K Day at March 27, 2011 2:04 PMAlas, video no longer available.
Posted by: Casca at March 28, 2011 4:12 AMWhat an amazing video. I too wondered if those little black dots were people - they were so uniform in size. Considering how many died, it's rare video that shows anyone actually caught in the water. Perhaps because anyone who filmed this and survived had to be standing quite far away in order not to be carried away too. Mostly I've just seen big wreckage - cars, boats, broken buildings. People would just be dwarfed by such debris, if not crushed underneath.
I kept watching and thinking, "What would I do if I were on the ground and this was coming at me? Where would I go? The roof of that breezeway at the bottom...no, that washed away almost immediately. The light standards - if you could climb up, they'd be strong...no, they're rocking and now they've fallen. That big green-roofed building looks stable...eventually it lifts right off its foundation and washes up against the large building on the right. The building on the right of the parking lot...the cars wash up and start ramming it until it too collapses. There's nowhere - except where the cameraman was standing and the other big one across the parking lot. I kept looking down into the waves at details, but eventually would sweep my eye across the whole picture, and was stunned by the end to realize that EVERYTHING was gone; those 2 buildings were just standing like islands in a violent torrent.
Posted by: Dr. Mabuse at March 28, 2011 2:29 PMToo bad that the owner closed their YouTube account, so it is no longer available. I wonder whether he/she felt uncomfortable with the attention?
Posted by: Grizzly at March 28, 2011 9:50 PMThanks for noting that. I've replaced it.
Posted by: vanderleun at March 29, 2011 11:26 AMHannity showed it this evening --
Posted by: buddy larsen at March 29, 2011 9:39 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.
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