It’s an unseasonably warm and rainy January here in Warren, where warm actually means daytime highs of about 30 degrees and ’seasonable weather’ would be closer to zero. The point is that it’s the worst possible winter weather: the rain ruins the regular winter activities, and it’s still too cold to take up summer activities. Perhaps that’s why I take such comfort in this video of Ashton, even if it is the video that killed my Clie.

Context: August/September 2005, Atlanta.

Facts: My Clie shoots video. Kids were meant for video. Pools were meant for kids.

Plan: Put Clie in Zip-Lock bag, shoot video underwater.

Problem: Zip-Lock bags aren’t as waterproof as one might expect.

Result: great video of Ashton in the pool, a soggy Clie. Eventually: replaced with a Treo 650 (the Clie, not the kid).

The great thing about lo-fi video like this is that it gives kids of today the opportunity in 30 or 50 years to look back at images that are as strangely colored, grainy, and jumpy as the home movies our parents had. Videos of our youth are just filled with VHS smear.

Music by Bonobo, also at Amazon.

kid, kids, cute, pool, clie, palm, video, ashton, soggy, waterproof, lo-fi

I can’t really pass as an undergrad anymore, but they still let me in to Friday Night Rock to see The Mountain Goats.

MP3s: This Year Commandante Going to Bridlington

tags: dartmouth college, friday night rock, goats, john darnielle, lo-fi, mountain goats, mp3s, music, show, undergrad