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Brotherhood 2.0: January 19th

2007-01-19 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:35 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Books & writing) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: song or performance, on location

Hank copies John's morning walk in an empty Missoula park, keeps his yearly friends-and-family survey tradition by reading John questions 7 to 30 on video, and teases John with a 'Lady, lady, lady' song after finding his book on the young adult romance shelf at Barnes & Noble.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Inspired by John's walk around Manhattan, a morning walk around an empty Missoula park: no nannies or rich kids for that game, so 'picnic table park bench'

  • ★★ Inspired by John's morning walk around Manhattan, Hank walks around Missoula; with no nannies or rich kids for John's game, he plays 'picnic table park bench' in an abandoned park. (playful) — 00:00:09 · Missoula, Montana

00:00:34 — Hank's yearly survey to friends and family, answers posted online; it is text-based, so he can't send it, but won't break the tradition

  • ★★★ Hank says that every year around this time he sends a survey to all his friends and family, who answer it, and he then puts the answers online. — 00:00:34
  • ★★ Since the survey is text-based he can't send it to John, but refusing to break the tradition, Hank gives it in video form, skipping questions 1 to 6, which are unchanged and whose answers he already knows. — 00:00:34 · No textual communication

00:01:03 — The survey in video form: questions 7 to 16 and on (Hank and Katherine, what John is doing and why, best book, perfect day, human extinction, Ambrozzo)

  • ★★★ Hank's questions for John include how long he has known Hank and Katherine, what he wants from them, what he is doing, why, and for how long, what he wants to be doing, what's next, and the best book he read this year (2007). — 00:01:03 · Katherine Green
  • ★ Later questions turn whimsical: how humans will go extinct, feelings about kids these days, what Ambrozzo tastes like, which cliché he would be, invisibility or time travel, what's wrong with the world; the last asks to post the survey online. (playful) — 00:02:05

00:02:35 — Last questions (first concert, invisibility or time travel, what's wrong with the world, can I post this); the Barnes & Noble game: John Green on the young adult romance shelf and the 'Lady, lady, lady' song; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank plays another game, going to Barnes & Noble to see who is on the young adult romance shelf, and finds John Green, whom he serenades with 'Lady, lady, lady'. (playful) — 00:02:35 · Barnes & Noble, John Green
  • ★★ With mock reassurance, Hank teases John that there is nothing wrong with his being shelved right in the middle of the 'Tales of Love and Romance' end cap, 'among giants'. (joke) — 00:03:07 · John Green

Humor (significant)

  • Hank copies John's morning walk around Manhattan, but in Missoula. — 00:00:09

    “Turns out there's no one here. No nannies and no rich kids, so I can't play that game.”

  • At Barnes & Noble, Hank checks who is on the young adult romance shelf and sings. — 00:03:07

    “Lady, lady, lady, lady, lady, lady, lady, lady, John Green.”

  • Having found John's book among the romance titles, Hank reassures him. — 00:03:07

    “There's nothing wrong with that. That's great. It's great. You're among giants.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Barnes & Noble · Katherine Green · Manhattan · Missoula, Montana · No textual communication · young adult literature

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 10 videos, 2007-01-01 – 2007-02-06.