YOUTV

So YOU wants to be rock stars. Local musicians Nick Niespodziani, Alyssa Finke, Peter Olson and Matt Sonnicksen are beat bouncing on television this week with a brand new music video. Here's the catch: most likely, only Bloomington residents will see the debut.\nYOU banded together to make the most of public resources by creating a music video of "Random Option," the first single from Better Live, the local act's sophomore CD release. But the video isn't headed for TRL -- these musicians will be dancing across the screens of channel 3 (41 in the residence halls), otherwise known as Bloomington's Cable Access Television Services.\n"I think part of the fun of it is that because it's for cable access, we don't have to take it too seriously," Sonnicksen says. "We're doing the whole 'Wayne's World' thing."\nYOU got together with local multimedia company Minerva Media for the production. "Random Option" is the first music video that director Daniel J. Geduld has worked on. The band came up with its own ideas and put together a quirky and upbeat clip. \n"This song is kind of about still living close to home and kind of feeling like you're still living at home," Niespodziani says. "So we kind of tried to play on the local Bloomington theme kind of thing."\nYOU's video is now poised to become part of the extensive video collection at CATS, which houses many tapes of local music events. The Gizmos, the Last Cadmium Orange basement show, a tape of David Baker from 1979, Johnny Socko from 1991 and clips from the first Rhino's show are just a few members of the documentary collection that calls CATS home.\n"I've always enjoyed the diversity of the Bloomington music scene," says former CATS employee and local music aficionado Eric White. "There's no real Bloomington sound." \nWhite has participated in the local music scene for7 20 years and has produced multiple tapes for CATS, from season-long series to tapes of local concerts. One musical video under his belt is the "History of Bloomington Music," produced in 1993. "History" traces Bloomington bands through their inception and death, with concert footage and a musical family tree. \n"There was such great music being played it was important to document it," White says of the CATS collection. He hopes the stations will receive a grant to make the collection more permanent, as some shows are still on reel-to-reel or three-quarter-inch tapes, and all are vulnerable to being destroyed or eaten. All of the tapes are in various stages of quality.\nCATS operates two channels that let the public get their hands on the first amendment via television. Channel 12 runs government business while channel 3 plays everything in the video collection. CATS employee Adam Stillwell says the station creates an opportunity for individuals to step up on his or her own digital soapbox as long as they avoid portraying pornography, hate speech and violence.\n"We are not so much a filter. If people are willing to take the time to make something, than we are willing to put it on," Stillwell says.\nThis, it seems by looking at the video archives, has been a good thing for local musicians who want to represent their music on TV. From years of Lotus Festival tape to punk rock to YOU's "Thriller" cover show last year, the 'M' shelves of CATS's collection are brimming with an eclectic electronic portrait of Bloomington's music scene. And anyone who has the gall can head to the Monroe County Library, 303 East Kirkwood Ave., to check the collection out.\nCATS has two viewing rooms in the library and anyone can request dubs. Requests must be filed two weeks before needed, and for every tape to be dubbed, it costs only a new video tape to copy onto and a Hi-8 tape for use by the public. \nWith dubs, viewing rooms and public TV -- even if the music is better live -- CATS's can show YOU the Bloomington Scene.