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Thoughts from Places: The Tour

2012-01-17 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · personal update

John narrates a day on the 2012 tour, from van drives and signing books to the evening show, saying that writing is solitary but a room of people unembarrassed by their enthusiasm and intellect is its magical opposite, and that he is grateful for his readers and his brother.

What is said

00:00:00 — Mornings: 'Five Hundred Miles' in his head, the van, the Xbox

  • ★ The description says the song people dance to is 'Shake-a-Booty' from Hank's 'great album' Ellen Hardcastle, with a store link. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ On tour John wakes every morning after a few hours of sleep with 'Five Hundred Miles' stuck in his head, packs up and drives 500 miles or so in the van to the next place. — 00:00:01 · Tour de Nerdfighting
  • ★ The van is comfortable, with neck pillows, but impossible to sleep in: it isn't a bed and it has an Xbox, so the brothers play against each other. (playful) — 00:00:14

00:00:25 — Signing books and Hanklerfishes; the crowd arrives with shirts, book cakes and tattoos

  • ★★ They arrive in the early afternoon to lots of books needing signatures and Hanklerfishes, which takes a couple of hours. — 00:00:25
  • ★★★ Then many people arrive, wearing John's face or Doctor Who shirts, bringing book cakes, some with things he wrote tattooed on their bodies; John finds it amazing, beautiful and completely terrifying. — 00:00:43 · Doctor Who

00:00:59 — Hank Sock backstage; writing is done alone, the show is its opposite

  • ★ Before the show the brothers meet Hank Sock, who says he is backstage, a little nervous, and can see a lot of people through the crack in the curtain. (fiction) — 00:01:01
  • ★★★ John tells Hank writing is something done alone, a profession for introverts who want to tell a story without making eye contact, and the live show is on some level its exact opposite. — 00:01:19 > «a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact»

00:01:37 — The show: reading, songs, questions, tutu, the shocker; a room unembarrassed by enthusiasm

  • ★★ At the show John reads and talks about The Fault in Our Stars, Hank sings, John answers questions, Hank wears a tutu, and in joint questions whoever is talking when the timer goes off is shocked with Charlie McDonnell's 'patented shocker'. — 00:01:37 · The Fault in Our Stars, Charlie McDonnell
  • ★★★ John says it feels magical and otherworldly to be in a room full of people who feel unembarrassed of their enthusiasm and intellect. — 00:01:57

00:02:10 — Five hours of signing, hotel at 2 a.m., gratitude for readers and brother; sign-off

  • ★★ After the show they sign for five hours, reach the hotel around 2 a.m., and John sleeps a few hours before it starts again. — 00:02:10
  • ★★★ John wakes grateful and astonished to have the readers and the brother he has lucked into. — 00:02:19 · Hank Green

Humor (significant)

  • John explains why the comfortable tour van is impossible to sleep in. — 00:00:20 > «all we ever do is beat the holey living crap out of each other’s pixels.»
  • Anticipating Hank's correction that the plural of anglerfish is anglerfish, John answers. — 00:00:39 > «Wikipedia it!»
  • John explains why he won't show much of the five hours of signing. — 00:02:10 > «the only thing more boring than standing in line, is watching other people stand in line.»

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