Yellowknife (Jan 10/07) - Winter nights must be getting long when surfing youtube.com becomes one's pastime.

Started in February 2005 by some California kids, the Youtube website became an overnight sensation by allowing anyone and everyone to post and download video-footage -- homemade or bootlegged -- all for free. A year and a half later Google purchased the site for $1.65 billion.

While Google is hammering out the legality of providing bootlegged posts, the best stuff on Youtube is of the homegrown variety.

After downloading scores of former tennis pro John McEnroe's infamous on-court outbursts, this reporter searched for Yellowknife-produced entertainment. Surely our creative capital could deliver some fun?

And yes, there was a veritable, er, gold mine of video posts by Yellowknifers and Yellowknife-lovers on the famous website.

Posts include everything from a helicopter tour over the city, to a Folk on the Rocks mini-documentary to the obligatory "Northern slide show."

But after a review of most of the more than 70 posts, credit must be given where credit is due.

"How to harness a Canadian Eskimo dog," in which an enthusiastic Yellowknife gentleman promises a 15-second harness demonstration, deserves some recognition on the homegrown humour front.

"You can tell you're getting better at this, honey," shouts the man's spouse around the one-minute mark while the dog jumps all over him. The appearance of subtitles, necessary to highlight dialogue over the yelping dogs, definitely gives this effort a comic-touch.

Viewer comments for this post, often as funny as the videos themselves, include one from MikeSch0815: "Show us how you harness a complete team!"

A series of b-ball escapades featuring local youths kickin' it out large, titled "Chillin'N'illin" are full of sweet moves edited to sweet sounds culminating in an epic trampoline slam dunk exhibition. Nicely done, kiddies, especially since there were no apparent injuries in the making of these short films.

In a somewhat more serious-yet-no-less-cool sports post, Weledeh school's boys 2006 basketball and indoor soccer successes are featured in a highlight reel set to hip-hop.

They're nice memories for these guys and they're now available for all the world to see.

Several peeks into "Life in the Woodyard" are also available including "Inside Ryan's Shack" in which we learn that he has "got two propane tanks now." No need to double-long-john it now, eh Ryan?

Want something hipper? How about the "Royal Rave" in which viewers get a sneak-peek into Tony "SnowKing" Foliot's snow palace during a disco dance?

I could go on and on but why not check out www.youtube.com, type "Yellowknife" into its search engine and see what you're missing.