Awesome Work From Home

While sheltering in place, Bay Area alt-folk group Thao & The Get Down Stay Down used the now ubiquitous videoconferencing service Zoom to create a music video for their track “Phenom”. But they didn’t just point webcams at their faces, and instead used the opportunity to do something truly creative with the medium.

Skier and filmmaker Philipp Klein was preparing to go on a trip to the mountains when shelter-in-place orders hit his country. But instead of complaining, he decided to do some freeride skiing right in his living room, with the help of some props and stop-motion to capture the snowy action.

Facing confinement at home, musicians continue to look to streaming video as a way to get their music out to audiences. Like other orchestras around the world, the National Orchestra of France did their part with this energetic performance of Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. The music starts at 0:49.

Golden-throated, big-hearted Josh Groban raised his voice and spirits with a free bedroom performance. He also raised $15,000+ for Meals on Wheels America, on the front lines of the pandemic, so thanked fans by singing “You Raise Me Up” in his shower. (Fully clothed, though he has said the song should be used for Viagra ads.)

There are many things you can do while staying at home, but we didn’t think parkour was one of them. Freestyle ski champ Andri Ragettli proves us wrong as he performs a variety of balance and training exercises on his “floor is lava” indoor parkour course. Did he just use his laptop as a step?

Like most of us, Conan O’Brien and his team are doing their part to prevent the spread of coronavirus and staying at home. With that in mind, his talk show has switched to an even lower-budget approach than usual, using webcams to conduct his interviews. Here’s a clip from his first ever work from home episode.