Skip to content

Nerdfighters, They Named a PLANE After Us

2010-04-26 · letter vlog · John, David Levithan · 2:44 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Personal update · tags: on location, self promotion, guest or collab, civic or action cta, community lore

In a deadpan voiceover of a Will Grayson, Will Grayson tour day (airport, flight to San Francisco, hotel), John says he misses his family and writing but feels lucky to meet readers and thanks Nerdfighters; he relays Lemniscaat's Looking for Alaska cover-design call and says the fourth Nerdfighter/HPA-funded plane to Haiti is called the SS DFTBA.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Hundreds of Nerdfighters said hello yesterday; voiceover of today: getting ready, meeting David, the airport security line John was not allowed to film

  • ★ John opens with hundreds of Nerdfighters saying hello to Hank, which was yesterday; the video is about today. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John narrates his day: he met up with David, went to the airport, and tried to film the security line until the government objected because it is apparently illegal. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:39 — Overpriced sandwich, the gray-speckled wall; Lemniscaat is re-releasing Looking for Alaska in Dutch and wants readers' cover ideas

  • ★★★ John's Dutch publisher Lemniscaat is re-releasing Looking for Alaska ('Het Grote Misschien') and wants readers to design cover ideas; a liked idea could become the cover in the Netherlands. — 00:00:39 · Looking for Alaska (novel)

00:01:09 — A reader cover could be used in the Netherlands; back to the voiceover: the scary flight, San Francisco, the hotel

  • ★★ After a flight (John likes airplanes except in the sky), John and David drove into San Francisco and checked into their hotel, where John looked at pictures of Henry, whom he misses. (playful) — 00:01:09 · Henry Green

00:01:38 — Pictures of Henry; John misses Sarah, Henry and writing but feels lucky to meet readers tonight; thanks Nerdfighters for the tour; Haiti planes

  • ★★★ John misses Sarah and Henry, is tired and misses having time to write, but in a couple of hours meets hundreds of readers of the book he wrote with David, which makes him feel like the luckiest guy in the world. — 00:01:38 · Sarah Urist Green, Henry Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson
  • ★★ John thanks the Nerdfighters for making his day possible and the tour such a blast. — 00:01:38 · Nerdfighteria

  • ★★★ Nerdfighters with the HP Alliance raised enough to fill four planes with medicine and water for Haiti; the fourth and final plane leaves Thursday, and Partners in Health calls it the SS DFTBA. — 00:01:38 · Nerdfighteria, Partners In Health, DFTBA

    “The SSDFTBA”

00:02:15 — The fourth and final plane to Haiti leaves Thursday and Partners in Health calls it the SS DFTBA; sign-off; outtake with David about Tiny Cooper songs

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description asks readers to email cover designs for Het Grote Misschien ('The Great Perhaps' in Dutch) to John, who says he will forward them to Lemniscaat. — video description · Looking for Alaska (novel)

Humor (significant)

  • John narrates showering and changing but cannot show it. — 00:00:00

    “I worry that the blinding beauty of my naked body might result in nerdfighters getting retinal damage.”

  • Back to the voiceover: they board the airplane. — 00:01:09

    “I like airplanes, except when they go into the sky.”

  • After sitting against the airport's gray-speckled wall, John lands at another airport. — 00:01:09

    “The airplane took us to a different airport, although you couldn't tell it was different from the wall color.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: DFTBA · Looking for Alaska (novel)

Also: People: David Levithan · Henry Green · Sarah Urist Green

Works: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Organizations: Lemniscaat

Places: Haiti · Netherlands · San Francisco

Characters: Tiny Cooper

Only in the description or credits: Partners In Health · The Harry Potter Alliance

← Previous: VidCon: User Generated Conference · Next → Who's in Your Hug Bucket?