Skip to content

Thoughts from Places: The Tour

2012-01-17 · letter vlog · John · 2:28 · watch on YouTube

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

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

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

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

  • ★★ 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 · Hanklerfish
  • ★★★ 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

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

  • ★ Hank Sock: 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
  • ★★★ 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

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says the song people dance to is 'Shake-a-Booty' from Hank's 'great album' Ellen Hardcastle, with a store link. — video description

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.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Tour de Nerdfighting

Also: People: Charlie McDonnell

Works: Doctor Who · Hanklerfish · I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) (“this freaking song”) · The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Wikipedia

Concepts: anglerfish

Characters: Hank Sock

Products: Xbox

Only in the description or credits: Ellen Hardcastle · Shake a Booty · Thoughts from Places

← Previous: TFiOS PARTY! · Next → Thoughts on SOPA From New Orleans