Skip to content

Behind the Sides

2017-10-13 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:28 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Personal life, Books & writing) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location

Touring the backstage of the McGlohon Theatre in Charlotte, Hank argues that backstages are dingy but reveal the hidden workings that make things function, and that we should strip away some of the magic to appreciate the beauty of function: a backstage is as beautiful as a stage.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — At the McGlohon Theatre in Charlotte on tour; Hank wants to see the backstage first

  • ★★ Hank says they played, or are about to play, at the McGlohon Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina, a beautiful theatre with a dome, red carpet and stained glass windows. (hedged) — 00:00:05
  • ★★ On arriving at a venue, Hank most wants to see the backstage: how weird and different it is and how it works. — 00:00:17

00:00:29 — Backstages are dingy, but they show the hidden things that make the world work

  • ★★ Hank says backstage lacks the glamour that backstage passes suggest: it is usually dingy and gross, with utility sinks. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Every venue is much the same from the front, just a stage with chairs, but the layout of the backstage is always completely different. — 00:00:46
  • ★ At the McGlohon they walked down three flights of stairs to the green room; backstage at VidCon looks and smells like a high school cafeteria. (playful) — 00:01:00 · VidCon
  • ★★★ Hank says one reaction to a backstage is that the glamour is gone; the other is that the things that make the world work are hidden from us, above drop ceilings, behind the scenes, under the hood. — 00:01:11
  • ★★★ We instinctively hide pipes, wires, servers and ducts to create a shiny, glossy, beautiful thing that looks like magic. — 00:01:35
  • ★★ Being able to see and start to understand the magic is a big reason Hank loves backstages, which don't pay for drop ceilings. (hedged) — 00:01:51
  • ★ Hank, obsessed with this as his tour vlog from last year (2016) shows, tries to get into places here and fails: the secret room is locked. (playful) — 00:02:02

00:02:05 — Hank tries to get into the theatre's locked secret rooms; his love of little doors

  • ★ Hank loves little doors: any door smaller than a full-height man intrigues him, he doesn't know why. (playful) — 00:02:37

00:02:51 — We hide hard work too well; the beauty of function

  • ★★★ Hank thinks we are sometimes too good at hiding the hard work that goes into making things function. (hedged) — 00:02:51

  • ★★★ Hank loves beautiful design but wants the magic stripped away a little so we can appreciate the beauty of function: a car engine is as beautiful as a car, a CPU as a phone, a backstage as a stage. — 00:02:57

    “a backstage is as beautiful as a stage”

00:03:15 — Sign-off; the tour bus has a problem

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Charlotte, North Carolina · McGlohon Theater · VidCon

Later videos replying to this one