the sea was calling...

so we answered.

This week's Trends: tornadoes, weddings, and saxophones

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:

• We saw incredible and dramatic footage from tornadoes this week in Alabama and Missouri.
  
  
• We looked back at the 10 most watched NBA highlights from the 2010-2011 season on YouTube.
  
  
• We discovered three little girls you would NOT want to pick a fight with who had trending videos.
  
  
• We asked if George Michael's "Careless Whisper" has become the cover song of the month.
  
  
• On the day of the Royal Wedding, we looked back at 10 popular Romance and Wedding videos from the month of April.
  
  
• And we asked how one duo's switch to hip-hop covers helped make their videos some of the most shared this month:

Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Jersey Shore Gone Wilde."

Party with NFL Rookies - on YouTube

Football fans will have the chance to get an up-close look at the new crop of NFL rookies this Saturday, April 30, live on YouTube. We’ll be hosting an exclusive live stream of the 2011 NFL Players Association Rookie Debut party, beginning at 10pm ET live from Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. The live stream will be on the NFL Players Association’s YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/nflplayers

Former Pro Bowl running back/kick returner Brian Mitchell and three-time Super Bowl champion linebacker Willie McGinest will host the party, with appearances from dozens of football players from the past, present and future - including St. Louis Rams running back and Super Bowl champion Marshall Faulk.

Some of the expected attendees (and high draft picks) include: Blaine Gabbert, Patrick Peterson, and last year’s Heisman winner running back Mark Ingram of Alabama and linebacker Von Miller of Texas A&M.

Check out the live stream during the event for exclusive backstage access, interviews and performances - then return to the channel later for plenty of on-demand coverage of the event.

Enjoy the party!

Andrew Bangs, sports manager, recently watched “Epicly Later'd Dylan Rieder (PT 1 of 4)."

The Beatification of Pope John Paul II to be Live Streamed on YouTube

This Sunday, May 1st, at 1:00am ET / 9:00am CET, people across the globe will be able to attend the Beatification ceremony of Pope John Paul II via a live stream on YouTube. The live stream of Pope John Paul II’s Beatification will be available on YouTube’s Live browse page at (www.youtube.com/live), a YouTube channel created specifically by the Vatican to celebrate the pontiff (www.youtube.com/johnpaul2). The channel contains hundreds of videos documenting his pontificate. The stream will also available through the Vatican Player (www.vatican.va/video) which will be on several other Catholic sites that link to it.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the Beatification ceremony in person in Saint Peter’s Square. In addition, the YouTube live stream will enable an online audience across the globe to hear and see the ceremony at 1:00am ET / 9:00am CET.

At 2:00am ET / 10:00am Pope Benedict XVI will preside over Holy Mass, culminating in the Beatification of Pope John Paul II. The live stream will end at 4:45am ET / 12:45 CET with the weekly Marian Prayer, where Pope Benedict XVI will give a personal message that focuses on the Beatification of Pope John Paul II.

When the stream has ended, the entire ceremony will be uploaded on www.youtube.com/johnpaul2, giving both those who missed the beatification, and those who saw it, a chance to witness the ceremony on YouTube.

The YouTube Team

rolling pin stamps

I am always trying to find easy ways to incorporate layers of pattern into my surface design when I am making hand painted paper and fabric.

My favorite way to incorporate pattern is by making my own stamps and wood blocks. But after buying a few mini rolling pins, I had the brilliant idea to create some rolling pin stamps that I could use to create quick layers of pattern.

I started with mini rolling pins (and for the life of me I can't remember where I got them!) but you could also use full size rolling pins.

Originally I thought I would carve patterns with my wood carving tools into the wooden rolling pins but I ran out of time! Since I use craft foam for a lot of my own hand carved stamps, I have a lot of it on hand! I decided to use the foam to cut out shapes- it is flexible and very easy to use with paint.

I cut out lots of shapes from the foam

and then with hot glue, I glued the shapes to the surface of the rolling pin.

It is not necessary to use craft foam- you really could think outside the box and use just about anything that could be glued to the surface and create a unique pattern.

After the entire surface of the rolling pin was covered I used a brush to add paint

and then I rolled it across the surface.

I was able to roll it across the surface about three or four times without adding more paint.

This is MUCH easier than stamping or using a wood block where you often have to add paint or ink after every transfer to the surface.

I got creative and used all sorts of different shapes cut from the craft foam

and even carved some simple details with my wood burning tool.

tip- a wood burning tool will carve (or burn away) texture from the surface of the craft foam.

I created all kinds of papers,

I added the patterns to the top of canvas that had been painted

and even rolled pattern right over the top of hand dyed muslin.

Such a quick and easy way to add pattern, layers and texture to your surfaces!

NYLON Young Hollywood Comes to YouTube

This May, NYLON’s Young Hollywood issue comes to YouTube for the second year in a row. Visit the NYLON channel for coverage of the hottest young stars including Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Chloe Moretz, Lucy Hale, and not one, but two Harry Potter witches. Check out exclusive interviews only seen on YouTube and behind the scenes footage from the NYLON photoshoot, and here's a video to get you started:

For their Young Hollywood issue, NYLON magazine visits film sets all over the world and shoots the newest screen stars just as they're beginning to blaze. With NYLON + YouTube's Young Hollywood videos, you can:

• Learn about Scream with Emma Roberts
• Get a boxing lesson with Rory Culkin
• Go behind the scenes at a fashion shoot with Chloe Moretz
• Howl with the cast of MTV's new show Teen Wolf
• Go backstage at The View with Hayden Panettiere
• Watch Lucy Hale try out some of Spring's biggest beauty trends

From Harry Potter's Nataia Tena to Mad Men's Kiernan Shipka and The Vampire Diaries Kat Graham, you'll see the next generation of stars like never before - up close, personal, and with a killer rock 'n roll soundtrack. The Young Hollywood issue is also on stands now!

Lee Hadlow, Ad Programs Associate, recently watched "YOUNG HOLLYWOOD 2011 - HAYDEN PANETTIERE."

Bringing Brazil’s Carnival to the world

Our consumer marketing team here in Brazil has a slogan: Go where the passion is. And in Brazil, there are few things people are more passionate about than Carnival—an annual spring festival that incorporates parades, music and dance in an enormous, nation-wide celebration. This year, our team of five decided to tackle a huge challenge: take the party global by launching a Carnival channel on YouTube and live stream a full six days of coverage to the entire world.

When we began the project in October 2010, we knew we had to work quickly and efficiently if we were going to have this ready five months later—especially since we were such a small team with big goals for a brand new project. One of our biggest obstacles was figuring out how to bring the true Carnival music experience to YouTube—not just a few shows here and there, but really capturing all of the celebrity performances, parades and spontaneous street dances that occur all over the state of Bahia during the six days of celebration. We quickly realized we were going to need a lot of support on the ground in order to coordinate all of the logistics, such as camera placement, so we enlisted the help of more than 100 freelance professionals. Another challenge was orchestrating video translations so people in other regions could share in the excitement in their native language, which we did by asking Googlers to put their 20 percent time toward the endeavor.

On more than one occasion, I thought we were in way over our heads, but when I saw the famous Brazilian singer, Ivete Sangalo, streaming live on YouTube in a performance broadcasted to more than 15,000 cities in 200 countries worldwide, I knew we’d connected the world with the passion of the Carnival.



Despite the chaos involved in organizing the live stream, the results of the project were well beyond our expectations. During the six days of Carnival, people from 200+ countries watched more than 11 million views of the live stream and 21,000+ subscribed to the YouTube channel. As a small team with big goals—and the resources and freedom to achieve them—we aim to remain as nimble and efficient as we were during Carnival, with people’s passions as our guide to projects that will have the biggest impact.

Posted by Lauren Pachaly, Consumer Marketing Manager, Brazil, recently watched "Harmonia do Samba's Carnival performance of Uma Chance."

a peek inside my sketchbook

Even when I am strapped for time- I make time to fill a couple pages of my sketchbook with drawings every day. Sometimes all I have on hand for inspiration are the everyday things that are right in front of me :)

The Slow Mo Guys are April’s “On The Rise” winners

Congratulations to The Slow Mo Guys, who took an early lead and went on to win this month’s edition of On The Rise, the program where you decide which up-and-coming YouTube partner gets a spot on the homepage. The Slow Mo Guys will be featured on the YouTube homepage today, thanks to your support and votes.

A quick history on The Slow Mo Guys: Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy have been experimenting with high-speed cameras since 2004. Whether documenting birds of prey swooping, droplets colliding, or the effects of taking a ball to the face, these friends take on the world at a slower pace.



Here’s more from The Slow Mo Guys themselves:

"I have loved watching stuff in slow motion ever since I was a kid. I used to watch fight scenes from movies frame by frame on VHS so I could see all the action. When I got the opportunity to work with high speed cameras I saw this as my opportunity to film as many things as possible in super slow motion. I have been doing it for about 6 years now as a profession, but only recently got a computer powerful enough to deal with such massive files for my own show! Looking at things in slow motion makes you realise what you actually miss out on when you see things at "human speed". Sometimes you see something completely unexpected, sometimes can see how stuff works and sometimes stuff in slow motion just makes you laugh! It has been a great honour to participate in YouTube's On The Rise contest. I would like to thank everyone who voted for us and to welcome all our new subscribers!" Gavin Free

If you’re enjoying our monthly blog series and want to see more rising YouTube stars, head over to our “On The Rise” channel and check out our playlists on the browse page. Check back next month, as your channel may be the next one featured!

Devon Storbeck, Account Manager, recently watched "The Slow Mo Guys - Fly Eats Fly in Slow Motion."’

World View heads to Africa: Rwandan President Kagame takes your questions

YouTube World View has traveled to North America, Europe and the Middle East to offer you the chance to interview the most powerful leaders in the world. Today, we’re introducing our first World View interview with an African leader, Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Starting now, you can submit questions to President Kagame on any topic, like Rwanda’s economy, technology policy, how the country has grown over the 17 years since the genocide or the issue of regional integration. You can also ask questions as wide ranging as issues related to the future of Africa and its young people. Go to www.youtube.com/worldview to submit your question via video or text, as well as vote on your favorites. You can also tweet in your question - make sure to use hashtag #askkagame in your tweet, and it will automatically be added to the World View queue.

On May 5th, the President will sit down for a special interview with Khaya Dlanga, a YouTube partner and one of South Africa’s leading video bloggers. During the interview, President Kagame will answer a range of the most popular questions submitted by you. The deadline to submit your question is May 3 and the final interview will be available on May 7.

Ory Okolloh, Google Africa Policy and Government Relations Manager, and Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics Manager, recently watched “Karim Massimov: A Question for World Leaders”

new online class- watercolor bliss!

I have been hard at working planning and creating new online classes for the months to come- I've got some fun stuff coming in the future! And the next online class that I will be offering is called Watercolor Bliss. A class dedicated just to watercolors (with my messy, simple and easy twist on the techniques and inspiration)

Registration will open up on Monday and I will be announcing all the class details and even giving away a few free spots in the class. So if you are interested in working and playing with watercolors check back Monday for all the details!!

important note on all my online classes-

All of my classes have unlimited access- once you register you can create and access at any time and work at your own pace. Whenever I "release" a new class- I always structure it in a five week format. Many people who want to work in this format, as the lessons are posted each week, enjoy working at this pace but once the five weeks are up there is unlimited time to access everything.

I have found that some people prefer to work along with the five week format when I release the class while others will wait months until they have the time, money and the schedule to register for the class. Either way works- just know that once you are in- there is no deadline or pressure to create :)

Live from space: You talk to Commander Mark Kelly and the Endeavour Crew

Update 5/18: The interview time has been moved to 6:00am ET on Thursday 5/19, and can be seen on youtube.com/pbsnewshour.

UPDATE 5/13: Pending the launch of STS-134 on May 16 at 8:56am ET, this interview will be conducted on Thursday May 19 at 7:24am ET. Check here for more info.

UPDATE 4/29: NASA has scrubbed the launch attempt today due to a technical problem. We'll provide an update here on the live streamed launch and live interview, and you can follow NASA updates here.

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog.)

We’ve always jumped at the chance to bring the wonders of space a little closer to home. We’ve announced a Moon office, a Moon race and an expedition to Mars, and brought many nooks and crannies of the universe to Google Earth—Sky, Moon, Mars, NASA images and a Hubble tour, to name a few.

On Friday, April 29, the crew of STS-134 will launch into space for the final mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour and we want to give you the chance to connect with them. On May 2, NASA Commander Mark Kelly and his crew will take your questions live from space on YouTube. PBS NewsHour will live stream the interview from its YouTube channel with veteran space reporter Miles O’Brien curating and asking your questions to the crew.

Starting today, you can visit www.youtube.com/pbsnewshour to submit a video or written question for the crew of STS-134 to be used in the live interview and vote for your favorite questions. You can also submit questions on Twitter with the hashtag #utalk2nasa. Don’t be shy—if you’re most curious about how to prepare for a spacewalk or wondering if the astronauts have a speech prepared for an extra-terrestrial encounter, this is your chance to find out. Here’s a video from PBS and Miles O’Brien to inspire you:



A few suggestions before submitting your questions:

• Video questions are preferred, and should be a max of 20 seconds long
• Speak clearly and film in a place with minimal background noise. Keep the camera as still as possible and ask the question directly to the camera
• Look through NASA videos on YouTube about STS-134 to learn more about the mission and crew

You have until Saturday April 30 at midnight ET to submit your questions. The top ranked questions will be used in the live interview on Monday, May 2 at 2:15pm ET / 11:15am PT.

To get the full experience of STS-134, you can also watch a live stream of the shuttle launch on Friday April 29 starting at 3:47pm ET at www.youtube.com/pbsnewshour. Both the launch and the interview will be available for archived viewing.

Houston, we’re ready for lift-off.

Ginny Hunt, Public Sector Program Manager, recently watched “STS-134: Legacy of Endeavour.”

Guest Blogger ~ "Building Togetherness"

Jordan and I have an exceedingly strong marriage. We are nearly always in tune and rarely, if ever, bicker. While I’d like to say that we simply have excellent chemistry, that isn’t necessarily the case. All marriages take work.

But we have discovered a principle that allows us to shift our perspective from merely cultivating our emotional connection toward something else entirely: we build things together.


We build,
which is to say that
we seek to undertake tasks
with the express purpose
of achieving a tangible result.


We work together. We set goals and reach for them. Large or small, they engage our individual faculties, outside of daily tasks, in ways that compliment each other. We move our relationship from the space of raising a family together to the most basic level of team building.

Because we’re a team.

And the best teams continually work toward strengthening not only their friendship and mutual affection, but also their working relationship.

How do you and your husband work on building your “team?”

Introducing our guest blogger today,
Jessica Heights...

Jessica is a passionately Christian, blissfully wed, full-time homemaker and mother of four. She is the author and founder of Muthering Heights and Other Senseless Sensibility, in which she grows alongside and encourages women as they blossom as mothers, wives, seekers of truth and conduits of grace.

She is also a co-host of Relevant and a contributing writer to Raising Homemakers, and Christmas Change.

If you would like to have Time-Warp Wife delivered to your inbox daily, simply click here: Subscribe to Time-Warp Wife

Music Tuesday: R.E.M. video premiere, Blitz the Ambassador’s new album and more

It’s Tuesday, and music fans, we’ve got a feast for you. We’re featuring one full-length album premiere and two innovative videos -- one of which is an exclusive premiere on YouTube. But don’t worry -- we’re not ignoring the great music hitting the streets this week: albums from Steve Earle, EmmyLou Harris, Of Montreal, Prefuse 73 and more. We’ll have a playlist of the week’s freshest sounds later this week; be sure to check back to youtube.com/music to watch it.

Michael Stipe and Jim McKay Pick Their Favorite Videos
R.E.M. premieres their new video “Every Day Is Yours To Win” on YouTube today. The video, a pastiche of clips found on YouTube a la Kutiman, was co-directed by Jim McKay (you may know him from his work on a little HBO show called The Wire). It’s an exercise in humanity, finding and treating with great kindness the surprisingly intimate moments uploaded to YouTube. In honor of its release, longtime friends McKay and R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe assembled a captivating playlist of their favorite YouTube videos; find it on the homepage today.



Blitz the Ambassador “Native Sun”
“Live from Accra city, that’s my city, that’s beyond what they call gritty.”
When Chuck D gives a shout-out on your record (“It’s not where you from; it’s where you at....”), you could say you’ve made it as a hip-hop artist. Ghanaian-born Samuel Bazawule may not be a household name, but if his new album “Native Sun” is any indication, he should be. “Native Sun” is one of the most organic marriages of African music and hip-hop we’ve heard -- an effortless release that incorporates Afrobeat, highlife and kora music into old-school hip-hop. It’s a warm and danceable record with a social conscience, and it speaks to anybody who’s lived between two cultures -- as more and more of us do. We’re thrilled to premiere it a week before the release date.



Jib Kidder’s “Blue”
When we read an interview with Sean Schuster-Craig, aka the audio/visual artist Jib Kidder, in which he talked about his video-making ethic as an extension of the dream world, we were hooked. (“Dreams are like a collage made by your subconscious out of the raw materials of your inner experience,” Schuster-Craig told a blog earlier this year.) His music is a collage, too: a folk-art endeavor made from the found sounds of our digital world. Both the song and video for “Blue” repurpose material from his label’s archives, and they are meticulously crafted and strangely full of heart.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Foo Fighters. Wasting Light Live from 606.”

flight patterns of the brown pelican