My treasure hunt on YouTube, for videos to convert to MP4s and upload to the Zune, has hit an unexpected snag.

Go to YouTube right now and search for "Manilow". In order to locate actual footage of The Man, The Myth, The Legend, you will have to sift through a truckload of other people's videoke renditions of his songs, multiple parodies ("Bury Manilow" and "Scary Manilow" being two names I can recall), and several zillion photo montages/slideshows created by people who have used a Barry song as the background music. There's even one photo-montage tribute to Barry that was made by a Manilow fan who, for reasons I don't entirely fathom, used a Britney Spears song as the background music. But who am I to judge another person's artistic expression?

I hasten to add that I did pick up a few video gems. The 1975 Midnight Special appearance was one, and a song from the TV movie Copacabana was another. But doggone! I never realized there'd be so many non-Barry Barry videos on YouTube!

I also picked up the two videos on the Phantoms website that do homage to the Phantoms' 2005 Championship run. Now I can watch them anytime I want. Life is goooood. :o)