Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: The Revolution will be YouTubed

facebooktwitterreddit

Revolution isn't for the impatient. Of course, there are days that signify an irrevocable fissure in time—Crispus Attucks' getting shot, Johnson's signing the Civil Rights Act—when one era gives way to the next. But the real work of a revolution is prelude. It takes place in the innumerable tiny acts of defiance that occur in the months and years and decades before that day. And it is in this spirit that I bring you this week's column. No longer content to have my postings always make sense or be "about" something, today I'm just going to throw together some videos that make me happy. Why, I'm sure you ask yourself, must your work always have a thesis or a reason to be (as the French say)? The shackles, the chains, the grueling strictures of the quotidian (as the French also say)...why? Wherefore? Isn't chaos as natural as order? More so? Isn't it time we came to grips with the hormonal unpredictability of existence?

Well, it starts now. First, with an old Thighmaster ad from 1991:

And next with a Spike Jonze-directed Adidas ad with a beautiful song by his girlfriend and Yeah Yeah Yeah frontwoman Karen O.:

Here's a 100% rocking reenactment of Tony Romo's season-ending snap hold. Why? Because I feel like it. That's why.

Remember when Nixon was footloose, fancy free, and completely adorable? Well, of course not. But this footage of him playing the piano on the Jack Parr Show is fantastic.

Now, the happiest day of Michael Jackson's life, wherein he actually gets paid to dance with children.

Guess what? Octopus time!

And lastly, for no discernable reason whatsoever, Marion Berry, dancing:

Who's got two thumbs and feels alive and bursting at the seams? The YouTube Hunter, that's who!