Brian here. Before I delve into the review of our crappy home videos (spoiler alert: they're crappy. Well, kind of.), I have some fun facts I'd like to share.

I'm watching the Wimbledon men's quarterfinal matches as I type this. Federer is playing a monstrous Croatian named Ivan Karlovic. This guy is 6'10" and has a massive serve. This is how good his serve is: He's won the last 129 service games he's played. What?! No one he's played in the tournament has broken his serve. Every time it's his time to serve, he wins the game. For 129 times in a row. That's crazy.

But here's how good Roger Federer is: In Karlovic's second service game, Federer broke him. And he made it look so easy.

This last bit of information comes courtesy of Nova Science Now: So there's this device called the reCaptcha. You've most likely used it before. It's the device that asks you to type the two words you see on the screen. It's the test to make sure you're a human and not a computer. The way it works is, the computer only knows the answer to one of the two words. So if you get that one word right, it's safe to assume you can decode the second word. Now here's the crazy cool part: That second word, the one the computer doesn't know, isn't just some random, made-up word. It comes from an old document (a newspaper, a book, whatever) that's been scanned to be digitally preserved. But the computer needs your help, since, in older publications in particular, most of the text is off-kilter or blurry. So every time you use the reCaptcha device, you're helping preserve old documents. How cool is that?

So, the home movies. As Adam said, we made them during a time when we were creative. And I'm still impressed with how creative we were, just taking a camera around and making shit up. Also, considering we never really had a script or a budget, and that we shot each segment in one take, it's decent stuff. Not great, but decent.

We filmed the first one here in Virginia. It involves us taking the camera around to local hot-spots: PetCo, Toys R Us, Dunkin Donuts. And, of course, my basement. Highlights include: a Frederick Douglass hand-puppet lip-syncing "Wonderwall"; a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire parody where I play a jerk of a host; a "making of" segment where we got my sister to do some narration that she botched several times (but thanks for your help, Laura!); and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a Nerf dart). Bloopers were fun, though the Home Shopping Network outtakes sometimes ran too long to get to the funny part where we crack up.

The second video represents a monumental leap in quality... of the transitional effects. Content stays relatively the same. But the second, third, and fourth volumes were all from Georgia. And Adam's dad had some cutting-edge (at the time) editing software on his computer, so we have all sorts of cool title cards and such. Anyway, highlights: Adam, as Steve Irwin, in search of the Moroccan Giant Duck (or the Giant Moroccan Duck -- we sometimes inverted our words [again, no script!]); touring Stone Mountain Park in search of the haunted, uh, music thing; a Blair Witch parody; segments from the first three episodes of our "B&A Records" TV show; and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a tennis ball).

Volume 3: World's Slowest Police Chases (where we followed cars around Stone Mountain Park and made shit up); a parody of Big Brother, featuring Aaron (this one is quite funny, actually); a parody of Fear Factor, also featuring Aaron; and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a coaster).

Apparently we made volume 4 in a day and a half. I don't remember this, but it definitely has a rushed feel to it. It's also our weakest one, which may explain why it was the last. From what I recall: two "guided tours of Georgia" (kind of like the Slowest Police Chases from last time, but not nearly as funny); the Dos and Don'ts of Weightlifting; the Dos and Don'ts of Tennis; another "making of" segment, sans my sister; a Weakest Link parody (where I play three characters!); and, of course, the Home Shopping Network skit (we were selling a, uh... I'm not sure what it was, exactly. Small candle holder?).

One last note about the movies: I really am audacious enough to compare our crappy home movies to Arrested Development. Let me explain. We had recurring gags/foreshadowing not only in a single volume, but also across the multiple volumes. Jokes such as: Adam always picking up Line 5; me always using a product twice; a "I feel it in my bones" line that I use one year and Adam uses another year; maybe one or two others. So, watching the four volumes relatively back-to-back, it was cool to see the continuity.

Yikes, this has been a mammoth post. Sorry about that. Bottom line: Adam, find/borrow/steal a VCR and watch the movies. They're worth it for the nostalgic factor and the occasional laugh.