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Terraverse Over Everything: Thoughts from London

2022-10-18 · letter vlog · John · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Sports, Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, recurring series

After a Harvard speech, John's family visits London, where AFC Wimbledon loses at fan-built Plough Lane (still a victory of community) and the Frieze art fair's landscapes send them outside; John coins 'the Terraverse' and says the internet complements the physical world but cannot replace it.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Elevator joke to Sarah, greeting, Harvard speech, first visit to Plough Lane, double rainbow and a 1-0 loss

  • ★★ John says that on Friday he gave the 'theologiest' speech of his life at Harvard's Memorial Church, then flew to London. (playful) — 00:00:00 · London
  • ★★ John's family saw Plough Lane for the first time: a stadium built by its fans for AFC Wimbledon, a club owned by its fans. — 00:00:00 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★ The match's highlight was a double rainbow in the second half; Wimbledon lost 1-0 and never much looked like scoring. — 00:00:00 · AFC Wimbledon

00:00:39 — His daughter's verdict; Plough Lane as what a fan community can build through solidarity; the trip to the art fair

  • ★★ John expected his daughter to call flying all that way to watch the Dons lose a fourth-tier game a bummer; instead she said it was amazing. — 00:00:39 · Alice Green, AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★★ John calls Plough Lane the physical embodiment of what a community can accomplish when it sticks together and has a shared purpose. — 00:00:39
  • ★★ Getting Plough Lane built was not easy: volunteers worked for two decades on everything from fundraising to planning approval. — 00:00:39
  • ★★ John says the work was hard, messy and full of setbacks, but when work is grounded in solidarity and love, it is incredible what can be accomplished. — 00:01:20
  • ★★ Wimbledon lost on the day, as on many recent days, but John calls Plough Lane itself an extraordinary victory. — 00:01:20 · AFC Wimbledon

00:01:49 — Frieze London: landscapes by five artists, 'touch grass', autumnal London, the opposite of a metaverse

  • ★★ John calls the Frieze London art fair perhaps the snootiest event ever held in a tent, but says it had lots of great art. (playful) — 00:01:49 · London
  • ★★ John was drawn to landscapes: Lucas Arruda's paintings, Byron Kim's abstracted landscape, Didier William's underseascape, Yoan Capote's plaster-and-metal landscape and Sam Moyer's stones-and-canvas painting. — 00:01:49
  • ★★ The show seemed to tell John to touch grass, so they went outside into an autumnal London, much like Indianapolis this time of year. (playful) — 00:02:19 · touch grass, London, Indianapolis

  • ★★★ Thinking about how to talk about this world with grass, John asks what the opposite of a metaverse is and proposes 'the Terraverse'. — 00:02:19 · Terraverse

    “The, uh, Terraverse?”

00:02:47 — The Terraverse: the internet as complement, not replacement; going outside while recovering from labyrinthitis; sign-off

  • ★★★ John loves the internet, where he made wonderful friends and had deep, real experiences, but says it is a complement to the Terraverse, not a replacement for it. — 00:02:47 · Terraverse
  • ★★ John tells viewers that wherever they are, the light outside is more vivid and the trees more alive than they can ever be on YouTube. — 00:02:47 · YouTube
  • ★★ Recovering from labyrinthitis, John was told by his physical therapist to go outside daily; relearning balance, his brain relied on visual cues and was easily overwhelmed. — 00:03:16
  • ★★ John still sometimes gets vertigo when the quantity of visual information gets too high. — 00:03:16
  • ★★★ John says he needs to be outside, in the world, and to remember that he is of it. — 00:03:45

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description links John's Harvard speech, which he meant to link earlier but didn't because he was exhausted and uploaded nine hours early. — video description
  • ★ The description calls Plough Lane the only London fortress that matters, currently not very fortressy, but says Wimbledon's time is coming. (playful) — video description · London
  • ★★ In a channel comment John says light roasts and decaf are coming to the Awesome Coffee Club next month (November 2022). — video description · Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★★ In a comment John says 'we' is the only correct pronoun for Wimbledon: supporters literally own the club, elect its leaders, own its stadium and write the players' checks. — creator comment · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ In a comment John says ocular/vestibular physical therapy really helped him, though different people get different results from different treatments. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: AFC Wimbledon · Plough Lane · Terraverse

Also: People: Alice Green · Byron Kim · Didier William · Lucas Arruda · Sam Moyer · Sarah Urist Green · Yoan Capote

Works: Stairway to Heaven (“escalator to heaven”)

Organizations: Harvard University · YouTube

Concepts: fan ownership · Internet · labyrinthitis · metaverse · Vertigo

Places: Indianapolis · London · Memorial Church (Harvard University)

Events: Frieze London

Memes: touch grass

Only in the description or credits: Awesome Coffee Club · Thoughts from Places

Also centred on Plough Lane: That's the way.

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