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Brotherhood 2.0: June 22: The Senator

2007-06-22 · letter vlog · John · 2:18 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Books & writing) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: on location

Flying to Washington, D.C. for the ALA Annual Conference, where he will accept a Printz Honor and share a panel with Judy Blume, John gets a haircut at a barbershop that cut Bill Clinton's and Willie Nelson's hair, and jokes that hair shows political position.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — In an airport again: after moving to Indianapolis, John goes to Washington, D.C. for the ALA Annual Conference

  • ★★ Two days after moving to Indianapolis, John is in an airport again, going to Washington, D.C. for five days. — 00:00:10 · Indianapolis
  • ★★★ John is going to the American Library Association Annual Conference, the huge librarian conference of the year. — 00:00:10

00:00:31 — At the conference: Printz Honor for An Abundance of Katherines and a panel with Judy Blume; needing a haircut and fearing the senator look

  • ★★★ At the conference John will accept the Printz Honor for An Abundance of Katherines and speak on a panel with Judy Blume. — 00:00:31 · An Abundance of Katherines
  • ★★ John promises to report back on the conference on Tuesday. — 00:00:31
  • ★★ Needing a haircut before the conference, John worries D.C. barbers will give him the 'senator look' he had at about 12, which didn't work for him. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:31

00:01:13 — The haircut at Louie's: Bill Clinton and Willie Nelson, hair as political position, a cut for a liberal who is not a 'real liberal'; thanks and sign-off

  • ★★ John got his haircut at Louie's in D.C., whose barber had cut the hair of Bill Clinton and Willie Nelson, figures John admires but whose hairstyles he doesn't want. (playful) — 00:01:13
  • ★★ John claims hair indicates political position: right-wing Republicans have the senator haircut, big-time lefty hippies long hair. (playful) — 00:01:13 · Republican Party
  • ★★ John asked for a cut between Willie Nelson on the far left and Bill Clinton in the center, describing himself as a liberal but not a 'pot-smoking, tax-evading' one. (playful) — 00:01:57
  • ★ John is happy with the result, a good haircut for a liberal young guy but not a 'real liberal young guy', and thanks Hank for his good wishes during the week's cross-country travel. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:57

Humor (significant)

  • John opens by asking Hank to guess where he is. — 00:00:10

    “You'll never guess where I am, unless you guess an airport, in which case you'd guess right.”

  • Hair shows political position, so John told the barber what he wanted. — 00:01:13

    “I wanted a cut that was somewhere between the Willie Nelson on the far left.”

  • John explains why his cut should stop at Bill Clinton in the center. — 00:01:57

    “I'm a liberal, but I'm not, you know, like a pot-smoking, tax-evading liberal.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: ALA Annual Conference · Washington, DC

Also: People: Bill Clinton · Judy Blume · Willie Nelson

Works: An Abundance of Katherines

Organizations: Louie's · Michael L. Printz Award · Republican Party

Concepts: modern liberalism in the United States

Places: Indianapolis

Also centred on ALA Annual Conference: June 26: The American Library Association Parties · Live from LAX · Book Nerd PARADISE

Also centred on Washington, DC: Project for Awesome and Thoughts from DC · Attacked by Squirrels and Neoclassicism: Thoughts from Places, Washington D.C.

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