Monday, April 30, 2007

Happy Anniversary GLMP! / Beth Through the Looking Glass

In April of 2006, I became aware of some 90's GL clips posted to a video-hosting site that I'd never heard of called YouTube. I liked what I saw and immediately began searching the site for more. There were a few that were really exciting, but about 99% of what I came across were clips of Reva & Josh, Gus & Harley, Jon & Tammy, and Michelle & Danny. I was frustrated that so few characters from GL's long history were represented on the web. I remembered that I had a few clips already on my computer that had been made available for public download by a former GL watcher sometime in 2005 and there was one Holly clip in particular that I was very anxious to share with people. And so I did... on April 30, 2006. That was the day I posted the clip to YouTube and started a thread about it on the message board that I'd considered my online home for years (this was before that board became the pit that it is today.)
I immediately went in search of more video material and it was less than a month before I made the acquaintance of raven1970a who'd begun a lower profile but more extensive project of her own. Recognizing two great tastes that taste great together when I see them, I worked out a deal with Raven whereby I obtained the exclusive rights to YouTube posting of her ever-expanding collection of clips. By June, various procedural kinks had been worked out and Raven's clips had their own specially named section in the (still not formally titled) project: "classicGL".
By November, the stormy (and often unpleasant) climate of the GL online posting community created a situation where it was no longer workable keep my project going at the rapidly declining message board where I'd been and so the GUIDING LIGHT Memory Project blog was created and later in the same month, the GLMP message board.
Today, GLMP is host to over 1000 (yes, one thousand!) GL clips, the vast majority of which come from Raven. YouTube viewership for our clips numbers in the many, many hundreds of viewers. The GLMP message board has become a safe haven to dozens of people shell shocked by the violence and decay of most of the other GL message boards on the web. The GLMP blog has been visited and complimented by no lesser person than Ms. Marj Dusay herself who sent a lovely message to me via her fan club in response to the Woman of Mystery blog entry.
What started as a defiant mission to increase the presence of Holly and Beth on YouTube became a consuming passion to document and share as much of the 70 year history of GUIDING LIGHT as I could and to make being an online fan of the show into the edifying and joyful experience that I know it should be. It's been a strange year for a lot of reasons and I've been very surprised, both positively and negatively, by many things I've experienced as this project has progressed. I wish I could say I've enjoyed every minute of it, but I will say that every minute has taught me something. And it all began with one clip called No Love.
The project is far from over and I'm just bursting with anticipation over some of the fantastic clipsets we have coming up over the course of the next several months. If the preceding paragraphs sound like I was breaking my arm patting myself on the back, so be it. I'm very proud of what I've done, but I'm also grateful for the tremendous support and encouragement I've received along the way.
But enough about everybody else and back to me: I decided that the very best way to celebrate the one year anniversary of this project would be with a really nice present for me (LOL!)-- a monster of a clipset commemorating one of my favorite GL storylines ever: Beth's time as Lorelei Hills.

And thus, I present to you Beth Through the Looking Glass, a mega-clipset detailing the entire Lorelei story in unprecedented detail with 60 clips. This 2001/2002 storyline brought Beth Chamberlin to brand new level of performance, challenging her as it did with its requirements of three completely separate characters: fun-loving, sassy Lorelei; sensitive, conflicted Beth; and (perhaps most astounding) Lorelei pretending to be Beth.
Chamberlin is magnificent in this storyline, but it also features amazing work by Grant Aleksander and especially the truly brilliant David Andrew MacDonald as Lorelei's partner in crime (the "Eddie Ivories" clips alone are a magnificent treat in and of themselves!). Watching Edmund and Lorelei slowly fall in love in the midst of this dangerous yet madcap adventure was one of the best experiences I've ever had as a GL viewer and I love being able to use this king-sized record of it to celebrate a full year of paying tribute to this very special show.
Beth Through the Looking Glass
clip 25 , clip 25a (previously posted), clip 26 , clip 27 , clip 28 , clip 29
__________________________________________________
To you readers and viewers and supporters, thank you for coming on this journey with me. It's not over, as I said, but this date is significant for me and it's as good a time as any to ponder the enormity of this undertaking. It only gets better from here.
GLMP: Follow the Light backward in time and forward into the future...
---ivnkplng

2 Comments:

Blogger Jane said...

Oh I'm going to like this! Thanks Ivn. I missed the beginning of the Lorelei. I've just begun, but the first clip was great!

9:30 AM  
Blogger Jannet said...

Congrats on such a great board! I am glad to see someone take the history and remind us of how great soap writing could be.

3:51 PM  

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