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Because We're Here

2017-11-03 · letter vlog · John, Hank · 3:50 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life, Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay · tags: heavy topic, song or performance, calendar ritual, self promotion

As the Turtles tour ends, John recalls watching Hank perform since 2008 and tells how, during a 2005 depression, Amy Krouse Rosenthal turned the WWI soldiers' song 'We're here because we're here' into a proclamation of togetherness and hope, which he believes is the correct response to history.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — The tour ends in Los Angeles; John's memories of watching Hank play since Grand Rapids and 8/8/08

  • ★★ John says their tour ended last night (2 November 2017) in Los Angeles; almost every night for the past month he watched Hank's set from the side of the stage. — 00:00:01 · Los Angeles
  • ★★ John says he loves Hank's music and loves watching him perform it, and that it also brings back memories. — 00:00:08 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John recalls the first time he saw Hank play in front of a crowd: 45 people in Grand Rapids, Michigan, almost a decade ago (May 2008). — 00:00:13 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John recalls other nights of Hank's music: Edinburgh, the first VidCon, and 8/8/08 in Chicago, when Harry Potter fans sang his songs louder than his voice. — 00:00:18 · VidCon, Chicago (city), Harry Potter (book series)
  • ★★ John recalls hanging out with Amy Krouse Rosenthal later that night in 2008, his friend who died earlier this year (2017). — 00:00:30

00:00:36 — Amy Krouse Rosenthal's 2005 reading: depression, the WWI song 'We're here because we're here', and hope

  • ★★★ John tells an Amy story from his tour: in 2005 Amy, a children's book writer, memoirist and professional seeker of wonder, invited him to one of her readings. — 00:00:38
  • ★★★ John says he was then in a period of intense unwellness, losing himself to intrusive thought spirals, with a chest-crushing depression: nothing enjoyable, struggling to get out of bed. (hedged) — 00:00:47
  • ★★ John says that depression was at once absolutely excruciating and completely boring. — 00:01:02

  • ★★ Susan Sontag (quoted): John cites Susan Sontag: depression is melancholy minus its charms. — 00:01:06

    “depression is melancholy, minus its charms”

  • ★ John says he hates audience participation: sometimes the audience doesn't deliver, and he paid to be entertained, not to be part of the entertainment. (playful) — 00:01:21

  • ★★ John relates Amy's account that in World War I British soldiers, not understanding why they had to fight and die for tiny patches of ground, sang 'We're here because we're here' to Auld Lang Syne. — 00:01:37
  • ★★ John calls the song a recursive lament acknowledging there was no why, that life in the trenches was meaninglessness all the way down. — 00:01:57
  • ★★★ John says that night Amy transformed the song for him without changing its words: we were here together, never really alone, part of a vast, deeply interconnected us. — 00:02:05
  • ★★★ John says we are here, if only for a while; maybe we'll never know why we are here, but we can still proclaim in hope that we are here. (hedged) — 00:02:23 · meaning of life, hope · also in: Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed, We're here because were here., John's Review of Auld Lang Syne
  • ★★★ John says Amy made him understand that hope is not foolish, idealistic or misguided but true, and he really believes hope is the correct response to the arc of history. — 00:02:29 · hope

00:02:43 — 2017 has been a long year, but we're here; sign-off

  • ★★ John tells Hank 2017 has been a long year for him, good and bad, difficult, amazing, joyful and terrifying, but we're here. — 00:02:43

00:03:00 — 2008 Grand Rapids footage: Hank performs Accio Deathly Hallows

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Pizzamas continues all next week (week of 6 November 2017) with weekdaily videos. — video description · Pizzamas
  • ★ The description says the closing footage is from Hank's first time playing in front of a big audience, in 2008 in Grand Rapids, with a borrowed guitar. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Amy Krouse Rosenthal · hope · We're Here Because We're Here

Also: People: Susan Sontag

Projects: VidCon

Works: Accio Deathly Hallows · Auld Lang Syne · Harry Potter (book series)

Concepts: depression · meaning of life · obsessive-compulsive disorder

Places: Chicago (city) · Edinburgh · Grand Rapids, Michigan · Los Angeles

Events: World War I

Only in the description or credits: Pizzamas

Also centred on Amy Krouse Rosenthal: A Video about Videos · Positive Pranking: The TP Edition · The Terrible Burden of Destiny: Chicago and Waupaca · SIGNING MADNESS · Beckoning Lovely · Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed

Also centred on We're Here Because We're Here: Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed · We're here because were here. · John's Review of Auld Lang Syne

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