Paying it Forward (all by myself)

When I look at my YT subscriptions, I can see the story of my life...or the last five years of it. I'll begin at the beginning.
I was a BIG Myspace fan.
The biggest. There wasn't a CSS or URL I couldnt manipulate, or hack and modify.
I found hand knitted monster toy makers profiles, wonderful band profiles, kindred spirits in Japan, Jamaica and Birmingham.
Mostly, however, I would look at my own profile. Tinker and position, make the font so tiny even I had trouble reading it. I never put real people in my top 16...just tattooists I admired or bands and companies. I would join friend trains and groups and post bulletins to my thousand friends and I generally thought I was the S**T. I made band profiles called mixtapes and would post songs I loved (mainly The Early November and Sigur Ros...yes it was that sort of era)
I would have been some cynical faceless corporations wet dream to sponsor and exploit.
I would have done it too.
Yes, buy this lipstick, this mascara, this, this is the hair shampoo I use! Buy it, buy it now.
I would have done it, because I needed the money. And I was younger then. But even though the dry, confusing days of Murdoch and his soul destroying money wringing machine were a little way off, one might say a dark cloud hovering on the happy 6pt font horizon, I never expected more from Myspace than to be a place to show off basically.
See how funny and self deprecating I could be. See me being sexy. See me knowing who these cool guys are way before you. See me blogging and reviewing and showing all these sides to me you don't know about.
Along with 15,000,000 other registered users.
Then the stormclouds broke, and Murdochs aquisition took something purely and wonderfully set up just to show off, buzzing with a million egos to pit yourself against, a million ideas typed off into the night,and turned it into a ghost town of forgotten dreams, crashed pcs, spam mail and sad adverts.
We tuned out, and headed to Facebook in our millions.
Leaving behind all that self taught HTML and code, and Powergen (sob) without so much as a lookback. And we jumped in..proudly posting 'I'm all about The book of Face' headlines with a link to our shiny new lives and wondered why those fake friends we had nurtured so long on MySpace never followed us there. With no backgrouds and tables to tinker with, we had only each other to concentrate on.
It wasn't long before hater groups started up, swarms of despair, virally multiplying around whatever the awful news of the day was.
Baby batterers, racists, class war, trolls, and spam hackers followed us into our haven.Even with much denial and censorship, we were left essentially with only real life problems and friends and family to impress. It wasn't enough for a new generation of computer savvy, creative and socially hungry networkers.
Enter YouTube.
A channel page you could semi customise, strangers to watch..Hallelujah and you could, as long as you had the technology, soon be on your way to reaching those people again in Japan, Jamaica or Birmingham.
The drawback..if you're broadcasting, its hard to edit yourself pretty. We all knew the Myspace ideal pose for any opportunity was camera held high over your left side, wide enough to get in fabulous shoes and whittle a waist and double chin far away enough from reality.
Those I see try and replicate this for filming fail epically. It is impossible to angle a cam in this way and still show enough content that your viewers will stay with you.
Secondly, voice issues. Just as video killed the radio star, many Myspace stars fell by the wayside after realising their voices translated not to breathy enticing tones, but waivering, Northern 'nanna on the phone' speak
Me included.
So to all those that were in the trenches, and made it through to the other side, and never forgetting those that fell so that new feet could step into their shoes, I salute you.
Here are my recommendations.
The FUNNIEST guru on the tube..Glowpinkstah
Just when Ruth Crilly couldn't get any better, she shows us this CAT
Audfaced, darkly wonderful talented fx makeup ARTIST
dope2111, chameleon and mistress of the contour
HauteFuture, interesting young'un, with a refreshing honesty and a bright future
itschriscrocker, about to go MASSIVE, never dull, open and authentic.
JennaMarbles, clever, funny, aware.
KatiePuckrikSmells, witty creative rich descriptions of perfumes, good and bad
KlairedelysArt, consistently creative, calm and inspiring
LisaFreemontStreet gives us vintage tips from a gal who lives it
LittleKiva is a no-nonsense, no hype kind of girl...if you want a clubbing or extreme look, she's your girl.
robinmosesnailart gives detailed portraits and professional nail art demos..awesome
thesamspostyle is at uni in US now so no new vids, but a thoroughly sweet funny girl.

And special commendations to

ME! Shameless self promotion is my thing...no new tricks, i just enjoy the process.