Tricky Dick's Purdie Shuffle

Our assignment for FINA-A399 was to download video clips from YouTube and create a remix or database video that reveals new connection, new perspectives, new commentary on the material we choose to download.

I chose the Nixon "I am not a crook" speech and remixed it over a clip from The Original Purdie Shuffle. The Tricky Dick story is one wrought with covert shades of grey and bold faced lies and presented to us in the typical arrogant American fashion. Most people will simply dismiss it as either political bullshit or tout it as a divine truth (to each his/her own, I'm impartial), but what's so terribly sweet about it, though, is the political shuffle, or delivery technique, if you will. It's not a hard cut per say, but rather a culmination of subtle components that make up a political speech, position, or ideal. So... I wanted to lay it down over something else that was terribly sweet, yet subtly complex. Enter the Purdie Shuffle. Bernard Purdie is a nutter, no doubt, but he's also rhythmic genius. His ability to layer so many rhythmic components (licks, timing signatures, etc.) into his "Purdie Shuffle" is absolutely astounding and even more so to hear. But the beauty to me is in the breakdown, which is what his video is about.
So I set out to play, interspersing and dissecting the Nixon speech over the Purdie Shuffle excerpt. I just let Bernard do his thing instead of taking a clip from his explanatory phase, which let's us focus more on Nixon's speech. And in typical Josh fashion (that's me), I go ahead and cut out the word "not" from Nixon's speech. Political Speaking 101: anytime you use the word "not" in a speech, you decrease your credibility/truth value with each use. And in retrospect, we can now accurately ascertain the facts of the matter, so let's just say that I'm doing old Tricky Dick a funny favor by helping him clean up his shuffle.

How do these videos speak to the Internet, the people that are posting, and our video culture?
Y'know, I'm not really thinking that this is strictly an Internet discussion, it's more of a analytical comparison of 2 videos that just happened to be obtained from the Internet. And that will more than likely be a very similar case for everyone else. Truly "original" internet video content is bound by a very short, very recent time span. And even that is limited, considering the majority share of Internet video is either some for a media translation from an pre-existing external format (as my two source videos are) or remixes thereof (either like my remix video or others that might potentially be interspersed with original Internet video content).
As far as the people posting them, the Nixon video uploader's playlist is loaded with political clips, so it's probably fair to say that he finds something of either personal or greater social value in this clip that he feels is worth re-sharing with the masses, in respect to politics. The Purdie Shuffle video uploader's playlist is also chocked full of similar clips, with drumming being the focus, so there again I'll have to say that he finds something of either personal or greater social value in this clip that he feels is worth re-sharing with the masses, but in respect to drumming.
As far as video culture itself is concerned, I'm going to simply say that seeing isn't so much believing, but rather reinforcing. The utilization of the audio media alone would be enough to sell both of the original source videos, but the visual imagery gives us more sensory perception, and thus a greater depth of material for reception and interpretation. And in the words of the digital generation, more is better. I personally disagree with that statement, but that's a discussion for another time...

Source Videos:
Richard Nixon - "I'm not a crook" [HIGHER QUALITY - FULL VERSION] 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh163n1lJ4M
The Real "Purdie" Shuffle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8DsNo4KB6Y

Also, Vimeo wouldn't embed my remix video on this blog; it either just gave me just the link (as below) or a bunch of html code that never integrated into the code level.  Also, Vimeo downloaded my video into a widescreen setting, so there are nasty black bars on the sides of it.  I'm hoping that the embedded post from my Youtube account will suffice, but if not, this is the link to the Vimeo post:
https://vimeo.com/50452260