It's finals week, what a week. Do you know what happens around finals week? Well, a lot of things, a lot of time consuming things that eat time like Augustus Gloop scarfs sweets. May I say one thing? The year is over and I'm not prepared. Time snuck up and swallowed the semester and now we're literally hours from summer vacation.
INCREDIBLE.
So, because of permitting time, I'm going to show you three fun videos. Next week, I'll show you some of my work from the semester, but not this week, because time has other plans. I could also talk about time because time is remarkable, so remarkable that the whole world revolves around it, the axis and time.
Three fun videos, right.
The first is great. Mr. Drew Eccleston posted this a bit ago and I was, in a word, intrigued. I don't know if this was the intention of the video, I think it might be, but this music presents what American English sounds like to a non-English speakers. You have doubts going into it, but as it plays through, you realize it actually does sound like English and you actually can't understand a word they're saying. It's quite surreal.
The music video is quite interesting too. That choreography is off the hook.
The next is decently comical. So California's claim to fame, the In-n-Out Burger, opened it's first set of doors in Texas recently. Texas went ape. Check out this video. The tears are pouring.
Lastly, this video rocked my world. Just recently, on May 22, there were some terrible storms in the Missouri area. They really sent those communities for a loop and forced some heavy lifting from the surrounding areas. This video was taken while the tornado was ripping through Joplin, MO, it was taken as the tornado was ripping through the store these people were in. This video is INSANE.
On that note, CARPE DIEM. Seize the day. You never know what's around the corner.
What you see above is my WEDNESDAY PUDDLE PLANK and HOMEWORK STATION PLANK. What is planking? Well, let me tell you:
Australia knows how to start the party. My good friend Mr. Stuart Weir and his pals at his house in La Mirada viewed this Australian video and took a look around the the US of A. No planking to be seen. Mr. Stuart Weir and his pals spread the disease, QUICK. Before long, planking was all I was seeing/reading about on the facebook and pictures were popping up like Whack-A-Mole. I think it's great, relatively safe, except for the gentleman that died planking (I guess it's only safe if you want it to be safe), and it's hilarious. I stated earlier in the week that my first PLANK would be Wednesday. Today is Wednesday. SO BEGINS.
In other news, Mawwiage Films (http://mawwiagefilms.com) has been busy! I now introduce to you Matt & Emily Mongeon, tying the knot April 9, 2011 in San Diego, California. Let me tell you, you're in for a treat. This wedding was OUT OF CONTROL, so much energy, so much heart, so much FUN! I've never seen the dance floor erupt like it did at this fantastic wedding.
And here's something: you may have seen last week our wedding video from Scotland (If not: mawwiagefilms.com/ichikawa). Well now, I present to you, our Mawwiage Films documentary. Throughout the trip, we took footage of anything and everything, documenting this trip in the fullest. This is what came out of it. WORD TO THE WISE: it's kind of long, almost 18 minutes. Think of it this way: you'll be going from California to Scotland and back in less than 18 minutes. That's flyin' folks. Plus, our trip was NUTTY, so definitely worth the experience.
And that's it, friends. Little writing, lots of watching. I hope you enjoy it. You may have already seen it, if that's the case, I'm pumped. If you haven't? I'm pumped too because now you have the opportunity to see it. You're the best.
What a week it's been! This post is going to be short for two reasons:
Finals are approaching and oh, there's much work to be done.
I wrote a surprisingly long post the other day about the viral video phenom that is "High Five for First Kiss." If you haven't read that, you need to, it's definitely worth the read: "High Five for First Kiss: The Birth of a Viral Video."
Since I wrote that post, the video has gained a few million more views and has (along with the families) appeared on Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel Live, as well as graced the homepages of Youtube, Yahoo, among others. I still can't believe it. I think it's super watching from the inside. Even though I can't take any credit and have no affiliation with the video, it's been a trip watching the chaos ensue from the beginning. I'm a fan.
I've got exciting news:
Coming straight from the United Kingdom, Jonathan and Carrie exchanged vows on April 2, 2011 in St. Andrews Scotland. Mawwiage Films is proud to present the brand new Mawwiage Films Moment! Sit back, relax, and take a trip to Scotland!
What a beautiful wedding and what a trip! I'm still in shock that this trip even happened. Be on the lookout: Isaac and I shot a short documentary-esce about our trip to Scotland, it'll be finished soon. It's WILD.
Here's one more video, imagine that!
Here's a really well done commercial I stumbled upon. I dig it. I think it's clever. I think it's daring. I think it's funny. I think it subliminally advertises it's product well. I think it pulls off advertising two completely different products. I dig it.
And that's the story folks, that's all I have for you today. Here's the deal though, you got a bonus, and I already told you about that. HOORAY!
Have a mightily pleasant day today, you should go make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, grab a crisp apple, and eat it. Delicious.
This is one of those times, this is one of those times where a crazy story is just waiting to be unleashed. This week, I experienced something I never thought I'd experience, I'd never imagine I'd experience. What happened? Well, let me tell you.
Wednesday Night: May 4th, 2011. I was perusing Facebook, as usual, and my news feed was fuming. My eyes scanned the headlines, stopping on a video Ms. Tiegra Boots had posted a minute before. Most videos make me stop, this video got me to click the "play" button. I opened up the video in YouTube and immediately noticed it had only 32 views. 32 views? That's pretty mightily small. I laughed and proceeded to watch the video. I watched. And I watched again. And again. I realized something. This video was GOLD, I had stumbled upon something special, real special. This short video simultaneously shone brilliance, caught my heart off-guard, finally defined the word "cute," and excited me, very much so, to the point where I began sharing little Elliott and Bowie's first kiss. This was the video:
Now, my first reaction was to share. So I did. I showed a lot of people, a lot of Internet people. I posted it to my Facebook, I posted it to my wedding videography business' FB (Mawwiage Films), and I made my way onto Reddit.com, a social news website with a MASSIVE fan base and proceeded to post the "high five for first kiss" video under the title "I don't care who you are, this is the CUTEST EVER." People began commenting, people began voting it up, people began enjoying it. I watched as the video that had 32 views upon my initial viewing made it up to 1000+ before I went to bed. I was pleased, I posted something that was getting views!
I woke up in the morning to see it have around 4000. Wow! Tripled overnight! People must have shared it! I'm impressed! The day went on, views started climbing. I noticed a spike and went to investigate: Super Blogger Perez Hilton (link to post) had posted the video on his blog! WHHHAAATT! I'm pumped. Can't wait. This thing's ERUPTING. By the end of the night, the video had well well over 100,000 hits. I went to bed, who knows what's going to happen while resting in slumber.
I wake up, take a look at the comments, and upon investigation, find this little gem:
My main man, Mr. Justin Bieber, checkin' the interwebs, findin' something he likes, and posts it to all 9,000,000+ of his followers on twitter (here's the link to JB's post/twitter).
My friends, at this point, I am simply awe-struck. There I sat, 2 short days earlier, watching this 32-hit-ridden video. There I sat on May 6th, looking at Justin Bieber twitter, thinking to myself "Woah, this is the real deal ladies and gentleman."
I'm going to use the famous idiom: THE REST IS HISTORY.
"High five for first kiss" broke the milestone 1 million views on the 6th, and now sits at (the time of writing on the 8th) a lofty 3,913,298 views.
This my friends is what going viral looks like. This video about a cute little boy and a cute little girl being all flirty and teasing, eventually leading to a short kiss, their first kiss, in which the little boy, Elliott, proclaims to the entire world through loud cheers that he has in fact kissed Bowie on the lips; this short little video took the planet by storm and will continue.
If I am this excited over this video going viral, I can't imagine what the families of both Elliott and Bowie are feeling right now. I literally can't imagine, because I have nothing to base it off of. I know one thing though: they are having the times of their lives. I'm excited to see where this incredibly opportunity leads you.
This has been an incredible journey. New surprises arise every day and it's likely not to stop here, it's going to go, go, go. I learned something big: CONTENT IS KING. Why does a video go viral? Because people like the content and they share it. Yes, the initial plant and who sees it first, getting it into the hands of the right people, all that jazz, it sorta matters, it matters to get it started. But the real jet fuel is the people of the world sharing the video with their friends. You see a video, you like it, you share it. If the content is not sharable, your video's not going to be seen by millions of people. Content is everything.
So what's next? Get one of my own videos to go viral. That's likely not to happen, but hey, it's the next step. Sometimes next steps aren't attainable, and sometimes that's a good thing.
Thanks for reading, have a great day, and always be on the lookout for anything and everything, you never know when something like this may happen.
One last little fun snippet: I realized later that someone had posted the same video on Reddit before me. The difference was his video did not get very exposure because he posted it in an apparently obscure sub-genre of Reddit while I just posted it in the "video" category. Check it out:
Connor, if you're reading this, you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say "similar story." Thanks GRVeee2! I can't thank you enough. And I'll repeat it, sorry to steal your thunder! I'll just let you know, I've thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout this whole ordeal.
Okay, okay, okay. This is the final push. Okay? This is the final push of my second year of college and it is WILD. There's so much to be done, so little time to do it. So here's the deal, this blog has been lacking as of late and I apologize. It's going to be lacking for the rest of the school year simply because, well, there's more important things to do. That sounds horrible. But hey, at least I put SOMETHING up.
I registered for next semester's classes yesterday, want a look?
I'm pretty excited. It's going to be a very different semester, there's no doubt about that. I'm going to have more time on my hands, I'm not going to occupy 99.9% of my time with work and .1% of my time establishing and nourishing friendships. We'll see how it goes, that's the goal though: more time to CHILL WITH PALS, GUYS AND GALS!
I've got a few videos for you.
First, these guys take living to the limit. Not only do they take living to the limit, they jam some pretty krill tunes. I can dig that. (Disclaimer: there may or may not be a tiny bit of questionable wordage)
Second, here's an oldie but goodie (at least in youtube terms): Ms. Jayme Dee simply pulls off an incredible rendition of MGMT's "Kids." I'm a fan. This should have made it onto the blog a long long time ago.
Third, the pendulum swings. The pendulum swings in waves. This BLEW MY MIND! Is this really how physics works? Boy, the wonders of the world, PROFESSIONAL.
And that's the post and I apologize. It's good stuff though, at least it's not just a few apologetic words. It's just maybe lacking on the stories. This summer, it'll get good, especially because I have nothing prepared, this summer will be freeform'd and I'm excited to see what comes about. You'll hear about, here, every Wednesday.
Yes, yes, yes. Have a nice day, drink some lemonade.
And jam to some old school Relient K. Self-Titled.
