Parking lots are everywhere and nowhere

[@rueleed]

What's so great about that? The return of these videos, that's what's great!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hehehe

[@ranzu3138]

The ending song really hitting hard! Now I want to hear the full version!!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha thank you!

[@SacchieILU]

same tho

[@pookage]

How the hell do you manage to do this so consistently?! You just made a video about car parks poetic as fuck. Mad skills. Great work! 🙌

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, there's poetry in everything if you overthink it for 6 months 👍

[@Guruc13]

This is the only essay to ever mention this scene from Fried Green Tomatoes, a scene from a movie I've never seen, but one I have pictured my entire childhood whenever my mom brings it up. Thank you for showing it to me for the first time. It is both less and more than I "remember."

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Ahh, I've never seen the movie either but my mum talks about this scene all the time!! 😂 So of course I had to include it

[@Guruc13]

@@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat Ahahaha! Small world!

[@scoob6505]

Honestly if I overheard someone say they were going to go to a parking lot in daylight to soak in the atmosphere I'd think they'd figured something out that I haven't. The excellent and strange things you do to express yourself can be truly something!

[@QualityCulture]

Happy to see you back! I've always associated parking lots with extreme heat (temperatures in the American South have never been very kind), so I'm always eager to leave them. But maybe next time I'll think of them differently. Love your ability to discuss topics like this in such an intriguing way, thanks for making this!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@deactivated148]

Apparently the titular "big yellow taxi" is a reference to police wagons in Toronto, where Joni lived, not literal taxis.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Oh shit, I did not find this in my research! Ah well, still fits I think

[@buickboy92]

This sent me down a wormhole, and I find it so strange that Toronto had (has?) bright yellow cop cars, I found several photos of an older 50s Chevy that has "Accident Squad" written on the rear, it seems like something from a mystery novel or tv show; then I discovered 'Blinky' the talking cop car, which is wow, what a face. As an American, this is all mildly fascinating.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

@@buickboy92 Excuse me while I fall down this wormhole

[@dravarian26]

You make exactly the kind of content I wish I could. I love the amount of references and tie ins. It's like when I read Wikipedia and find link after link of interesting related topics

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, I like that analogy

[@Aidan_Cousland]

I just love your sense of humor and writing style. And editing style.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hehe thank you :)

[@VamshiOhgs]

Your ability to present any benign topic or subject matter in a interesting fashion will continue to impress me, glad to have you back!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@mutedcrow]

i've been looking forward to seeing one of your videos again 💚 , your video essays are always so intriguing and interesting.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@brenmoi]

Me browsing KZbin, then discovering What's So Great About That? new upload: Sheer joy, transcendent elation, body leaving this mortal plane in ascension- I'm genuinely always so excited to see a new video from you when you upload. Such great, engaging stuff.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha thank you! :D

[@theprince5573]

Your videos always show me different perspectives and give me a new way of thinking about everything. Plus your humor and more relaxed approach makes the whole thing so much more fun and feels inviting. In short and simple, i get a huge dopamine boost with your uploads, thank you yet again for another great video!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you so much! :D

[@3liaNav]

Omg, I missed your videos so much. I'm glad you are back!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@scottsaunders9905]

Fantastic to see you back - best essay channel on KZbin!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Aww thank you :D

[@DasPuppy]

Wait.. where did you come from? How am I subscribed to you already? This is awesome!

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

I don't remember either but am pleased nonetheless great big back catalogue to go through

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, when the video essay signal lights up in the sky, I appear

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@arthurkassabian2528]

Welcome back!! seeing a new video essay from you really made my day. I've noticed that carparks depicted in media often has some link with the perils and frustrations of consumerism and how it entraps people. The Seinfeld episode you showed is a great example of this, so is the scene in Fargo when the villain is charged a fee at the carpark despite not using it.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, yes!

[@themysterfox8695]

babe,wake up! new what's so great about that video just dropped!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hehe :D

[@LJLvids]

Oh man i was just rewatching a couple of older vids being slightly worried you hadn't uploaded in a while. So glad you're back!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, that's always when I reappear!

[@jsf120]

This will always be my favorite channel

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:3

[@patricksmith7450]

Not only do I love your videos and the cover you did here, I’m always appreciative that you cite everything at the end so that I can treat your work as a watchlist of sorts. Always love being exposed to new things and I’ve added several news movies to my queue just today.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Nice :D Don't consider every inclusion an endorsement haha, sometimes it's just a useful scene, but if you haven't seen Happy Death Day then I highly recommend

[@mekarum]

0:55 "Bad puns aside"? I almost lost a part of my lunch from laughing at that, haha. Thanks for the video, it is super good! I think Rugrats had an episode about crossing a lot (or a street?) that was all desert-themed and made me think of how they might look to small critters like lava fields do to us, a vast expanse of hot, dry, brittle blackness D:

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hehe, thank you! :D

[@dc526]

hell yes. probably the best video essay about car parks i've ever watched

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, wow, high praise!

[@dc526]

@@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat lol fr though the editing and script are both extraordinary on this one. fantastic work 💪

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

@@dc526 🥰

[@robertdochter277]

I saw that you posted a new video, and had to do a double take. Ya know, just to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating! Glad to see that you are still making awesome videos!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

I always pop up when you least expect :D

[@MuteCircle]

Ambient Parking Lot is now on my to-read list. This sounds ridiculously up my street (which street incidentally has ample free roadside parking space [no council permit required])

[@supersophnz]

The most distinct? car park memory I have is from after the 2011 earthquake when most of the CBD had been demolished (either during the quake or in the time after for structural issues) and the tall-ness of the city was replaced by block after block of grey gravel. This uncanny uniform flatness of paces that used to be places I cared about. And then the parking meters popped up.

[@Ladyknightthebrave]

Amazing! I'm happy to see a new video from you!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@anthonymigash583]

Stellar video. Always love to see another upload from you!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@siliconvalleygirl6595]

Beautiful and ever relevant :) i so enjoy your ready blend of media references. Also sneaky!! I liked your cover of Big Yellow Taxi and would like a full version pretty please

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hehe thank you! Maybe one day I will do full song covers

[@xenonglow4047]

I can't even express how phenomenal this is on every level

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@pavarottiaardvark3431]

When I was a kid, I used to spend hours cycling around a parking lot near my house. I grew up in rural Scotland, and when the lot was build it was so *different*. At the idea of a totally flat, open space with brand new asphalt was new and bizarre. It's a weird memory but it's a nice one to hold on to because it reminds me so much of the artificiality of even ubiquitous things.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Yeah, I love how so many people have childhood carpark memories

[@thecatlike2125]

I Heart Huckabees: "You don't plant no tree in a parking lot!"

[@framemygaze]

Such a gorgeous video essay. So well-edited, and has such cool animations. Love the breadth of media you use. Subscribed!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@eoincampbell1584]

It's a banger every time with you.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D ❤️

[@nickpotter4780]

Islands and Pamela Lu? You always have the best collection of sources.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@hellothere3930]

hahaha this is weird, the 1st episode of Atlanta season 4 has 2 characters lost in a parking lot, its so good 100% recommend. the perfect example for this video

[@mixiekins]

Oh, same. In my case it was a similar episode on Rocko's Modern Life. My husband says for him it was the Dim episode of Dexter's Lab, where he has to be driven from suburbia to get a light bulb. He said that it was a shockingly foreign concept, since he's from a country without suburban sprawl, and that if Dexter's situation had happened to him, he'd simply walk to the corner store. Having to be diven everywhere and being in a sea of parking lots gives him panic attacks like folks who are afraid of the ocean, but that fear is in tirn foreign to me. Guess I've been desensitized since kids are highly adaptable, so spending time in suburbs as a kid gives you memories to lean on, like cutting across properties and expanses where no road is, finding your own shortcuts, and getting accustomed to the sheer emptiness.

[@JakeBainbridge462]

"Now remember, we're in the Existential Crisis Lot" - Homer Simpson, some vapourwave playlist, probably

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚 '𝙫𝙖𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 ' 𝙡𝙤𝙩

[@ShubhamGupta-gk2nt]

I love love LOVE every one of your essays. You have an amazing ability to make everything sound so poetic, yet existential.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@robsnow4818]

I push shopping carts in a parking lot so this has been on my mind recently.

[@Wright_Thoughts]

god I'm so glad this channel is back

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@MedlifeCrisis]

This was just beautiful. And where the hell is that Ninja Warrior warped wall car park?! Car parks are probably the cheapest way to make money out of land, almost no outlay needed, income guaranteed. Land ownership, exploitation, money, encouraging fossil fuel use. All other video essayists wouldn’t have made it past the first thirty seconds without mentioning capitalism and yet you resisted! Incredible work.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, I don't think I even mentioned the C word this time! I used up my buzzword on 'liminal'.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

best car park in fiction has to be the one from that Thunderbird episode, where a single collision led to an uncontained fire that brought down the largest building on earth

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Damn, I'd have probably worked that in if I'd known about it lol

[@Resuarus]

It's amazing how much time we spend in parking lots without really seeing them or thinking about them.

[@brennadelowery3]

I missed your videos! I just had to watch them again! I love your essays 💗

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@ziademad4707]

Welcome back , Amazing analysis , please do more videos

[@NaamahTheia]

Ooh one of my favorite video essayist is back! Amazing video :D

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you :D

[@justinpark7622]

Don't mind me...just feeding the algorithm for a criminally under-appreciated creator.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

nomnom

[@tammy-0]

as an urban european, my notion of car parks is like "aesthetic exotic americana thing"

[@nickl9317]

I have missed these videos. Thank you!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@LitosoPHie]

That was so good. You somehow managed to transfer the "relatable" trope of online comics and memes into an very poetic analysis of the human experience in capitalist modernity. I think. But... how?? I would love to see an Video about your writing process.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! The writing process is very chaotic haha, but that is something I've thought about

[@thescariestthing3027]

Thank you so much for these videos! I love every single one.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@FatMarlonBrando]

Excellent, as usual. I’d love for you to do a slightly meta video about research(ing). I’d be fascinated to get a glimpse of your research methods/process, and what philosophical perspective you’d come at it from.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

I think I have talked about this somewhere... my Q+A video, or the talk I did that's also up on my channel, or the episode of The Video Essay podcast I was on... idk I could be wrong about all of those haha

[@FatMarlonBrando]

Oh great, in that case I’ll watch those then!

[@padraigosiochru6918]

I was hoping to hear Custom Concern or Convenient Parking with every second of the video that passed. These essays are always so wonderful. I went for a bike ride into the countryside one night, and on my way back into town I took a detour through a large parking lot. They can be beautifully uncanny and unmooring spaces outside of their normal function. It was pitch dark and I had almost ridden right into a parked car before I realised it was there. There was a middle aged man sitting inside, and I simply swerved around and continued on my way, but my mind was racing with the implications. Though I have no idea who he was or why he was sitting there alone, I presume to know everything he felt. There aren't many natural landscapes that can illicit that.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Ah I don't know those songs. Nice car park story :D

[@NathanielBarlam]

Now remember, kids, we're parked in the Itchy lot. (great video as usual)

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Damn, can't believe I left that one out!

[@Jms-b93]

Glad to see you back!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Glad to be back! :)

[@karlnykwest4199]

Fantastic and thought provoking! Thank you for making this!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! :D

[@andresgonzalez407]

I've always LOVED parking lots so much. I find them super mysterious and strange but people don't see them like that. I don't feel like a wacko anymore thanks to this video!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hahaha I'm glad!

[@RezValla]

Flowers in the asphalt minus flowers

[@christopheratkins9677]

Where have you been, lady?!!! We missed you!! Welcome back!!!😊

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Underground :)

[@she-is-nobody]

Anywhere we can listen to the full cover of Big Yellow Taxi that plays at the end? It's gorgeous sounding!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Sadly not, I didn't record the whole song, just enough for the credits. But thank you! :D

[@amandabc]

Thanks, Universe! I needed this awesome video. And just yesterday I was talking to my boyfriend about parking lots. What a "Douglas Adams sort of" coincidence.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, they're everywhere!

[@ShubhamGupta-gk2nt]

Also can you please release the full version of your Big yellow taxi cover 🥺

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

I'm afraid no full version exists :(

[@BlaineGreenway]

"The young don't think of being young, it's something that comes with the old." Fascinating- I actually don't find that to be true anymore. I think the young now HAS a fascination with being young and coming of age.

[@celsient]

yess!!!!! i absolutely adore your essays :D

[@Manus7100]

You made it, you made me emotional over parking lots

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

They're emotional places

[@noelxd5845]

Seems like you could do a video about the movie Koyaanisqatsi. It delves into a lot of the same issues about modern technology that you addressed on your channel.

[@marcusw.4286]

Great job as always!

[@clearlakeproductions]

Oh weird, the car park episode of Tazmania was a formative experince I think of regulary too since I saw it once in 2001. That and the car jam episode of One foot in the grave really screwed with me.

[@joshfromjuniorstudios]

IBJUST FOUND THIS CHANNEL AND ITS AMAZING(also what is the song that starts at around 8:40 ???)

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hey thanks :) It's Scott Gratton - The Fourth

[@joshfromjuniorstudios]

@@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat THANK YOU🙏🙏🙏AND KEEP UP THE AMAZING VIDEOS

[@N3Selina]

i like the aestetic of car parks at night

[@jorb1903]

YESSS MY FAVE CHANNEL

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@spencerdriggs373]

She's baaaack!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Crawling out your TV and breaking down your bathroom door with an axe!

[@iamnoimpact]

GODDDD this was so great.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@dividenothing8488]

I loved this essay! How do we get your beautiful cover somewhere we can listen to it... on repeat... haha

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Thank you! I'm afraid that was all I recorded of it 😅

[@jjjm7322]

Oh my god they’re back!!!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@parasitone0814]

babe wake up, what's great about that just made an upload

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:D

[@RezValla]

I’m dealing with a breakup. I didn’t need this. Also thanks. Great work :)

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha thank you, the taxi comes for us all

[@theowinter1491]

Might I ask who does the cover song at the song? She has an exquisitely beautiful voice. Good to have you back :)

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hehe, I assume you know it's me and this was a sneaky compliment, you sneak! :D

[@chalkdust1197]

next time you see a smoggy sky, don't worry. parking lots are a sign of a society safe to live in. very fresh.

[@tedtorqueoholic3628]

Thank you

[@DjokovicIsOurLordAndSaviour]

You're a good one.

[@quil0pth723]

Great video!

[@Tokyoriot36]

What’s the music of the liminal space segment

[@RFieth]

The queen is not dead after all!

[@Littlestraincloud]

GRACE HOW MANY TIMES MUST I ASK YOU: WHERE! IS! THE ALBUM?!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

😬

[@russellfacemire]

Yes! Gone for so long and then they come right outta left field with something extremely specific and decadent. Right on, What's So!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Hehe :D

[@comrade_mikey6138]

I was waiting for the L word haha I was like “SAY IT SAY THE WORD” jokes aside excellent video, love the quotes

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

lol there's no escape

[@mesastreatexit]

Beautoful.

[@danielguy3581]

I was waiting the entire video for a reference to 'A Serious Man', and was denied. Please inform me how I may sue for emotional damage.

[@171QA]

Nice.

[@stephensotelo1094]

You need to do an episode on dreams

[@Bobossboy]

Lol, we have a rule on Diane Podcast that we can't say the L word. We break this rule all the time, much to our shame.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Haha, there's just no getting around it

[@angustin6590]

Nice

[@pseudodragon1800]

I wish I had your philosophical mind

[@tareqmahmud4315]

They just look like car parks to me

[@kefka-1994]

Saludos desde Colombia. Me gustan mucho tus videos.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Gracias! :D

[@servilleta__6075]

Just when I was starting to miss you...

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

That's always when I return 😎

[@thejohnsweeney]

Damn, now you’ve gone and made me think. Hmmmmmm. Think. Think. Think. Damn, I’m bad at thinking. Hmmmmmmmmm.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

Sorry, it's a common side effect, we're working on it

[@androgynousbutter1373]

This didnt notif for me :(

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

:'( I'm glad you found it anyway!

[@androgynousbutter1373]

@@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat me too!! i did the *ring the bell* thing now so youtube doesnt mess up again 😤😤😤

[@nightowl8477]

Don't have time to watch this yet. Betting it's about liminal space. Everyone's into limimal space right now.

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

The main thing I say about liminal space is that everyone is into liminal space right now lol. I know the title makes it sound like that's the main thing but actually I'm just bad at titles

[@nightowl8477]

@@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat - she's ahead of the game. I found time, and this expressed into words thought I didn't know I was having. Great video!

[@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat]

@@nightowl8477 Great, that's always what I aim to do! :D