OK, so this is how the internet works.
My friend Forrest sent me a link to the new Barenaked Ladies video, where the invited a whole bunch of people who became “famous” with their YouTube videos to lipsynch to their new song. Problem is, I’m out of the YouTube loop so I didn’t recognize a single clip. BNL was nice enough to include links to all the contributors, and I was intrigued when I saw the guy dancing in the crowd, which led me to Wherethehellismatt.com.
Then I found myself actually moved by his video. It’s this awesome major-key inspirational worldbeat thing playing behind this goofy white guy peacefully doing a poor approximation of a jig. As he goes from place to place, random strangers join him, or rare animals hop into view, or whatever. It was just one of those weird moments of clarity you get when you see how big and varied and awesome this planet and all its cultures are, and you realize, hey, maybe the whole world won’t end up like Detroit.
So, you know, if you actually get me on an emotional level, I need to find out more about you. I click his FAQ and it mentions what he did for a living before he started traveleing the world and dancing.
That’s right, he’s a videogame designer. And I reviewed at least one of his games, maybe more. Never mind which one, and never mind that I gave it a bad review. But I realized, oh man, I could totally walk into a game demo with this guy, or do an interview with him someday, and how could I even tell him that being himself was pretty damned inspirational?
So that’s how the internet works. You find something cool out there, it inspires you, and then you find out it’s way closer than you think. When someone asks, use that definition.