YouTube Stars!

Hello YouTube lovers! I would like to introduce you to our newest Guest Blogger, Kayleigh Levitt. Kayleigh was introduced to me by my dear friend and popular guest blogger, CelestialSam. Kayleigh is a creative young lady with a real talent for writing. In her first Guest Blog for YouTubeStars, she writes about Artist and Filmmaker Andrea Dorfman. We're proud to have this talented young lady who can sometimes be found in a tree singing and playing guitar as our newest Guest Blogger!

But first, The News!

This week's Featured Video on our Top 100 and Top 200 Charts is a great music video for an awesome cover of "Grenage" originally by Bruno Mars, sung by Tiffany Jo Allen! Tiffany is working on her 4th CD and you can download her older material here. Enjoy Tiffany's very cool cover of Grenade. Watch the video right here; click on the thumbnail of Tiffany and Bruno Mars!

We have a NEW Featured Video every week on our YouTube Top 100 Chart. If you missed any of our Previously Featured Videos, you can still watch them here.

Check out our Top 100 and Top 200 Charts of the Most Subscribed YouTube Channels every week! Go and Bookmark the Top 100 YouTube Chart at YTChart.com right now!



Speaking of YTChart.com - there is a new YouTube channel called YTChart! They have 12 videos so far which give weekly updates on the top Music Videos on YouTube. You should subscribe to that; I just did!



Congrats to Katie Belle Akin for winning the Ark Music Contest! Here's what Katie recently told me: "UP TO ME video, won with over 5100 votes cast for the ARK MUSIC FACTORY VIDEO CONTEST, there were 40 approved entries, it was a tough competition but my fans, friends came through with the votes, THANK U to all who voted!!! recording new music in Nashville this weekend and next stayed tuned for more, www.katiebelleakin.com"



Now, here is Kayleigh's article about Andrea Dorfman.




Andrea Dorfman is an artist and filmmaker based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She confronts the way society shuns the idea of loneliness. She brings it into an endearing and familiar light. She whispers words of comfort to the heavy head that hits the pillow at night thinking the same thoughts it did the day before. She makes loneliness into a friend instead of an enemy.

If we do not want to hang out with ourselves, what makes us think anyone else will want to? Company starts with us, when we are alone. Constantly we play this game of social interaction. The goal seems to be to get as many companions as possible. Being alone is not frightening if we like ourselves the way we are. Andrea Dorfman suggests it is time to seek love within instead of from others.

We all break down to atoms vibrating at different frequencies. We all break down to human beings who breathe the same air. We all break down to people who want the same thing. Connection. And we already have it. We are all connected by our desires. We are all connected by the nature of our humanity. We are all connected at the soul of our being. We are not alone. We are ALL ONE.

She mentions the miracles that happen when we let ourselves be alone. Serendipitous conversations may fall into our lap at the most profound moments. We may let ourselves dance with wild abandon. Maybe we can let our lives be a testament to the heat among the freezing moments.

In knowing this, there is nothing to fear about being alone. We just need to re-learn how. We need to make it okay again.






Andrea Dorfman helped Sook-Yin Lee produce this music video called “Beautiful” for the CBC radio website for her show Definitely Not the Opera. She says “I was lost, and I’m still lost, but I can’t deny the feeling It’ll be okay my friend.”

Being lost is a part of finding our way back to ourselves. Being lost is not a waste of time like most people think; it is actually a highly productive part of life.

At a certain point people gain this sense of self. It is the point when the question “Who am I?” changes to “What am I going to do with who I am?” It is called the Finding part of the journey. We whistle along through our day to day activities, happy to know who we are finally and everything begins to fall into place. Certain assets come with knowing who you are. Things like steady jobs and living situations and cats that you have had for over a year.

This steadiness passes though. It passes with the time it takes for a breeze to circle the earth. It passes like all things pass. Lost and found. We were found; now we’re lost again.

Everything we thought we knew begins to shake from underneath our steady feet. At first it’s a quiet rumble that can be ignored if you try hard enough. After a certain point, the rumble becomes an earthquake that can’t be drowned out. One day, the same ole’ same ole’ just doesn’t satisfy you anymore. Humans need change as much we say we are creatures of habit. It is in our nature to grow and expand like this infinite universe. As we grow, we have to lose the old idea of who we were so we can find the new person we are becoming.

In knowing that being lost is a gift in disguise, we can see that as Sook-Yin Lee says, it is beautiful. And that if I am still lost, I can’t deny the feeling that everything will be okay, my friend.






Andrea Dorfman helped make another music video for Tanya Davis entitled “Art”. In this video she is questioning what it is worth to be an artist in today’s world. She asks if telling her stories to the world will keep her healthy and well. She wonders if people will get something good out of her expression and be glad she made art because it made them feel inspired.

Then she watercolors out an Art Manifesto. One of the lines says, “A broken heart makes great art.”

Art is a conversation between the artist and the person experiencing the art. There is something about taking the broken pieces of something and making it beautiful again. It extracts the essence of the struggle and then transforms it. The person experiencing the art and the artist both feel a satisfactory triumph at the ability to transform what was broken. Art is about the resilience of spirit despite the human condition.

So follow your bliss. If you are an artist, it is a gift to the world. People are not made out of atoms, they are made out of stories. Each strand of DNA tells a story of the human that came before it. And we get to add on another chapter to the odyssey of our lineage. The plot thickens far too often to feel like we are alone on this journey. We need to resonate with each other. We need stories to be expressed through art to remind us that there is a common thread that runs throughout everything. That thread is simply that we are humans with hearts.

Labels: "Andrea Dorfman", "Kayleigh Levitt", andyradorfman, Katiebelleakin, Kayleigh Levitt, TiffanyJoAllen, YTChart

posted by KennyCrane at 9/24/2011 10:32:00 AM