Let's Talk About Armpit Smell 

Well, if you want to title a video so that it pulls viewers and gets peoples' attention so that you can make a point about something that you think is emblematic of how the human race has lost its way, you can't do much better than this.

 As this video opens we see Robb Greenfield, its creator and star, placing his nose in his own naked armpit and taking an audibly deep inhalation, He then opens with the  provocative, although seemingly reasonable query "(sniff), Ah... Armpit smell! Something that most of us don't want to talk about - something that most of us like to hide!" And yes, I confess, I'm part of the 'most of us' that he's referring to. But I'm already hooked by the blatantly straightforward and outrageously candid invitation implied here - that he's going to take us someplace that's uncomfortable and enlightened and for which I may be a better person for having followed him to. And considering that the video 'player' shows that this entire adventure will only take 2 minutes and 21 seconds, a few of which have already passed, I figure "Hey, what have I got to lose?" Let's see where this goes!

 

Over the next 2 minutes Robb makes some good points. "Who came up with this idea that we're not supposed to smell?" he ponders out loud and points out that everything in this world has a smell, so why not us?" And then he queries "What is the purpose of that smell?" I don't think he answers that one so well, but he does point out that the sweat that makes the smell needs to come out and we should understand and honor, and certainly not impede this. And,  he leave us pondering the nature of our own aroma and our unconscious desire to deal with it -  as well as our common practice of dealing with it by using deodorant, and on and on. By the way, he makes sense through all of this and comes off as a reasonable and intelligent man.

But now we come to what I feel is the core value of this video, this series that is, not this particular video in isolation. If it were just this one video we'd be tempted to see Robb, the creator, as just another armchair philosopher. This isn't the case, I realized, when I got a look at his armchair!

Actually, his entire house which is a 50 square foot, little, teeny tiny house-like shelter on wheels (I think that makes it legal, something it surely wouldn't be if it were not on wheels and classified as  a permanent dwelling). He lives in what appears to be a converted gardener’s tool trailer. I think I recall him relating in other videos of his I've watched that he has it parked in someone's back yard. In fact, he runs all of this down in is video titled  Off the grid, tiny house living, in the city!

This video is a mother lode of thoughtful, free thinking, contrarianism at its finest. Robb Explains that he has gone from a traditional life style, living in a regular house, holding down a regular type job, and, as a standard, debt and rent encumbered individual, sacrificing his time and well being, both physical and spiritual to a set of values and beliefs that he offers us he has happily left behind."It wasn't always this simple, though. I had half a dozen credit cards, a fair amount of debt, and wanted to be a millionaire." he states while looking out at us from his small scale haven of rugged individuality and independence from group think, in the yard he inhabits somewhere in San Diego.

He goes on to explain that "Now my life is all about happiness, health, and living for the betterment of the Earth, my community, and myself!" And although one might reflexively want to invalidate this, considering that his way of living and being logically invalidates our version, his beaming visage and rational and sincere manner of speech seem to nip that in the bud quickly. This guy clearly isn't crazy or stupid and doesn't seem to have a hidden agenda anywhere. Which is a good thing, because his home and wardrobe are so far cut back to the bone that one can't imagine where he'd hide it, anyway. He finishes his intro up, saying "I'm largely able to do this through simple living and today I'm going to give you a tour of my simple place."


I very much recommend that all of us, every man, woman, child, hedge fund manager, cosmetic surgeon, and haute couturiers, all of us take this man's tour. And in the case of high performance luxury car salesmen, gambling casino managers, and Donald Trump, perhaps set this video to play on an endless loop, handcuff yourself to chair in front of your screen, and after saying your prayers have one of your servants hit the "Play" button. And even if we don't change anything in our lives, we will all be more conscious about important aspects of life that most of us insist on staying blessedly UN-conscious about.

As Robb shows us around his place, he points out that he's 'Off the Grid.' He explains "What does that mean? It simply means not dependent on public utilities. Here, I'm energy and water independent." And it's true, he shows us the miniscule solar panels he has on his roof that power the few things he has that require a little electricity and he shows us his outdoor kitchen and washroom with hyper water efficient sink (he harvests rainwater) and composting toilet. He does not show us a shower or bathtub anywhere. Interestingly, and clearly, living this way requires some effort and some physical labor that probably contribute to what appears to be this guy's brimming health.

Tying the two videos together, is Robb's statement in the second that "It might come as a surprise that I actually have gone 2 years without showering.... I had been any every day showering dude. But I learned that you don't need to shower every day. Instead I go for a swim in a natural body of water. And I learned that I don't need soaps and shampoos and conditioners and body washes and colognes and all that. My body functions just fine as it was intended to do!"

To the list of people I enumerate above I'd like to add students. Yes, I strongly believe that every kid should see this, be guided in wrapping his brain around it, reflect and share his thought with colleagues and then write or produce a video or a poster or whatever to concretize and then share with the world his opinions and thoughts and more about this. And if you are a teacher and are reading this... well, why wouldn't you want to do this? This is about as relevant as curriculum gets! No?

PS - The above assignment is for students who live in the United States and Europe and other countries around the world who have or who aspire to a life style similar to theirs. I will excuse students from the "Other Group", about whom the United Nations points out (See: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/food/vitalstats.shtml )

• Nearly half the world’s population, 2.8 billion people, survive on less than $2 a day.
• About 20 percent of the world’s population, 1.2 billion people, live on less than $1 a day.
• Nearly 1 billion people are illiterate and 1 billion do not have safe water.

Weird Fruit Explorer

Yew Berry & Oregon Grape - Weird Fruit Explorer Ep

Laying there in bed at night, exploring the far reaches of human consciousness expressed through YouTube by the light of my iPad, I make some interesting discoveries. Weird Fruit Explorer is a good example, I think. I'm a subscriber to this channel and have been following Jared, the fruit explorer's videos for some time. There's something so... what's the word I'm looking for? something so ECCENTRIC - yes, that'll do, about this series - that I find very appealing.

Here's some of the information this video producer has provided for his audience:

"My name is Jared Rydelek. For a living I am a contortionist, fire eater and sword swallower; naturally, it gets boring…. On my channel I will be posting videos reviewing exotic fruit and the weirdest places I can find. Why fruit? Finding exotic fruit that is unavailable to the rest of the world is a bit like a treasure hunt… Some of the fruits I find are tasty, some are disgusting, some are dangerous to eat, but all of them are interesting. Why strange places? Well, the world is full of amazing sites that few people, even travelers, get to see…" 

I've followed this guy's explorations in places like Malaysia, Laos, South Florida, and (Yikes) Ohio. By the way, I agree with him, we Average Joes simply don't run across fruits like the Paw Paw, the Finger Sop, or the Feijoa in the produce sections of our neighborhood A&P, or even the Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe’s down the road from it. These fruits truly are exotic and interesting, and if we can believe the over the top expressions this guy sometimes makes as he cautiously places some of them in his mouth, their flavors are unexpected and unlike fruits we are familiar with.

By the way, I’m not a complete stranger to, what for a former New Yorker, seems like exotic fruit, I’ve sampled Durian in Thailand, Rambutan in Costa Rica, Dragon Fruit in Singapore, and Cherimoya in my wife’s native Ecuador. And these have provided interest and a tad of culinary adventure. As a kid, I collected fruits that have no commercial viability, but that can be found in wild places throughout the US; things like Mulberries, Osage Oranges, and Elderberries. But the Weird Fruit Explorer has done videos on things that make these seem tame. He’s introduced me to the pleasures or revulsions of fruits like Jujubes, Kousa Dogwood Fruit, and the Monstera Deliciosa. How are those  for weird?

In this particular episode of his series, a video titled Yew Berry & Oregon Grape, we see our hero scouring the wilds of urban public parks in the state of Washington, where growing wild and in full view of high rise dwelling neighbors, he finds those two fruits in abundance. These are certainly new to me, and even though his review of these discoveries characterizes them as: just kind of alright… nothing to write home about… has a little bit of a bitter after taste, I enjoyed the video. I appreciate his delivery, which is sometimes dead pan, sometimes almost sarcastic, sometimes mildly enthused, but what seems to me as always authentic. And I guess it’s something about the mix of who this guy is, the things he shares in the videos, and the way he shares them that appeals to me. Even though the level of his expressed excitement is on the low side, his passion for discovering and introducing to the rest of us things that seem to him to be truly noteworthy, comes across. And what better use can any of us put YouTube to?

"Oh my god, I wanna give him a hug!"

YouTubers React to Fine Bros Trademarking REACT 

I've got to start this piece off by stating that until I saw the video above, "YouTubers React to Fine Bros Trademarking REACT" I never heard of the Fine Brothers, nor of their hyper-successful YouTube video "brand" called REACT. And this, no doubt, makes me a YouTuber wannabee, a naive, a Johnny Come Lately to the world of YouTube. I confess!

This video is actually a bit of commentary about some recently dropped news bombshell that clearly matters to some YouTube insider cognoscenti: news that involves the Fine Bros overstepping some kind of boundary - a boundary that I think they had made in an unspoken way with their very large audience. And  thanks to this video, I think I'm caught up on what obviously was years of videos and millions of views... videos that conformed to and exploited a format that the Fine Bros came up with: provide a prompt, a YouTube prompt, and make a video that shows how a certain group of viewers, reacts to it. So maybe, after all, I didn't have to be there to witness (as it happened) all of that video posting  and  other peoples' entertaining reactions to things on the REACT videos just to get the all important context.  That's good because I didn't really much care about whatever this flap is all about. I just wanted to find some of these guys' videos to watch and enjoy.

I generally feel obliged to do my due diligence about things I investigate. And so I used the YouTube search function to find a few examples of these guys' REACT videos. I mean, I just had to know. Many were offered to me by the search engine, but choosing one was simple, I just HAD to see what kids would say as they reacted to The Beatles. And you know what? I got hooked on this whole meshugenah idea immediately. This is some great stuff. Who woulda' thought that in this hyper-sophisticated, hipster dominated age of high tech media nonchalance, that something as basic as watching other people react to something they are unfamiliar with – their being so human in their opinionated, un-self conscious way, would be so enchanting? What did I know? It turns out this stuff really grabs me!

 

And, I've got to hand it to those Fine Bros. I mean, what a great set up. Gather a few smart and camera friendly kids of various ages and have  them react to The Fab Four by, you guessed it, showing them YouTube videos of old footage of them. There's their appearance way back when I was still in high school, a mere gazillion years ago, on The Ed Sullivan Show. And there's one of their groundbreaking music videos from the Psychedelic 60s. Remember them? And by now I must have heard a thousand times already how The Beatles anticipated MTV and music videos by decades, and it's true, they did.

But man, let me tell you, watching this video of the kids watching The Beatles is psychologically loaded. Honestly, it's difficult for me to reminisce about and confront this stuff from the perspective of my advancing age. These are things I cared about and that resonated for me deeply back in the day. And it’s difficult to acknowledge how naive I was, we all were, back then when we were young. It's agonizingly wonderful to relive how much The Beatles moved us, how much we loved their music and loved them and how hurt we were when they broke up, had petty squabbles, moved on to do other things, when John was shot and George died of cancer. Bittersweet memories of good and bad times gone... all gone, now! Never to be relived! Youth and fond feelings lost!

 And here we have these Fine Bros rubbing salt in those sentimental wounds by asking kids to react to John, George, Paul, and Ringo. And what do you expect them to say, guys? That The Beatles are cool like Justin Bieber? That their costumes rival today's Hip Hop fashions? That their music sounds better than Thrash Metal?

But actually, some of the kids’ reactions came as pleasant surprises. They didn't dismiss the Beatles completely and out of hand. They had heard some of the songs before, if even only second hand from their parents - and I wouldn't doubt that their parents, themselves, heard it second hand from older siblings, at that. But some of it clearly, they just couldn't appreciate on any level and sad to say, I have to admit that I can't imagine any reason why they would. It's just, too....... you had to be there when it WAS cool to think it cool now. And while I'm reluctantly admitting things that I'd rather not, YES, these kids are right, "I Am The Walrus" just plain doesn't make any sense at all, even though John and Paul, I guess, end up being ‘one up’ on the kids because they understood, as the kids can't, that it wasn't supposed to be understandable, and the fact that it doesn't make sense, is part of its appeal and value... I think! :)

But then again, it really is fun and charming for a croaking old Hippie like me to see the smiles and pleasure on these kids' faces as they sing along with Hey Jude - and it's clear that they know and enjoy that song... kind of. It gets better, though; these kids actually brag about knowing who The Beatles were and explain to those of us who are ignorant about them that they are "Classic"... "Legendary" And they approve of them, too... "my kind of guy"... "pretty cool cat"... "Oh my god, I wanna give him a hug!"... "I LIKE Ringo" Hey, they even have favorites. Yeah!

Why do I care about this so much? I don't know, but I feel relieved that this turned out in a way that will let me face myself and the world, still. And please... indulge me - let me say it one more time... Thank you Paul and Ringo... Thank you! And if, after some years, you two see your fallen band mates, John and George, again, please tell 'em that I thank them, too...

KIDS REACT TO THE BEATLES

 

Watsky?

Watsky - Sloppy Seconds in the Online Lounge 

This Watsky guy is all over YouTube. His videos draw reasonably big numbers, and I never even heard of him! First, I gotta say that I absolutely hate it when I find out that there is a cultural phenomenon in progress, I mean a significant one, and I am not even aware that it exists. Makes me feel out of touch and old. And then, when I realize that there are things like videos for me to view and ponder and learn about these things I feel better because  then I'm dealing with something I can get some kind of a handle on. And it becomes even better after a few views and some reflection, because sometimes I feel like I'm actually on the inside, one of those who is (at least in a small way) in-the-know about this thing that I just discovered's been going on without me. Amazing how the mind works, isn't it?

Watsky is a good entity for me to focus on. He is young and I'm not. He's big into Hip Hop and I most definitely am not although, lord knows, I've had many years to warm up to it. He wears plaid shirts and I don't. And while I can be good with words and talk it up, this guy is in some kind of a class of his own in that respect. But there's more...

 

Although, clearly I'm clueless about Hip Hop and the inner lives of the generation that spawned it, I'm kind of like a little, old Margaret Meade about it. You know, a sociologist/anthropologist who's dropped in out of the sky to visit with a niche of life here on planet Earth.... and I am busy figuring it out. In my fantasy life, at least, I feel that somehow I'm equipped with enough brains and life experience to do so. At least I hope I am because there damn sure are some real things going on here and I'd much prefer to, at least, understand them, then not...

Here goes... It seems to me that The Rapper, already an entertainment/cultural icon, if you peel a few layers away - you know, the stupid ball caps and neck chains and swagger in walk and talk - underneath all that you come to an idealized, self-styled, 'hero' who,  due (what he acknowledges in himself) to great inner strength and extraordinary insight, not only understands that it's Him against The World, against Society so stupid and unjust, but has the strength  and wherewithal, he's got the game to win in that struggle.  How am I doing young people? I mean those of you with vocabulary and language sufficient to understand what the hell I'm on about in these reachings?  

In the case of Watsky, we see the self portrayal of an urban poet, but not a dumb one, in fact a very smart one. Still, he's a trash talkin' truth teller, but also a bit of a sensitive, erudite, educated guy. But no pussy, mind you - skinny, weak arms or not, Watsky is worldly wise, understands the streetness of the world, and in his extreme cynicism he is coping with the unfair way of the world. And he's here to fix all of that... for himself at least. You know, just on a personal level so that he can live and breathe free, free of the bullshit Rat Race, the trap of buying into Society's false promise. And you, too, if you become one of his fans, you can feel like you are on top of the shit, as well -beyond the reach of 'The System' or whatever it is that keeps people down. At least that's how this young gentleman's message seems to me.

OK, OK, OK, Yes - it's very much a young man's thing. An illusion, delusion, silly fantasy trip, but one that's a reaction to a real, nasty world that really will swallow young people up if they can't somehow rise above it. And from my 67 years of age I have to admit, that if you change the trappings, it's a fantasy-fueled understanding that we who came of age in the 60's can relate to, that is IF we can get past the trappings... which is NOT so easy.

Did I make it look in the paragraphs above like I actually believe I have some idea of what's going? I did, but then I went and watched Watskys music video Never let it Die. What? This one's way different - Bitter Sweet with children singing in the background, kind of like Pink Floyd's The Wall, and Watsky appearing as characters in paintings hanging on a museum wall. First, as an old Masters' portrait, maybe a Rembrandt character, and then as a Mondrian and then a Jackson Pollack that come alive, but to a Hip Hop track in the background.  I'm still working on that. 

But thanks for the quick, furtive sneak peek into something other than my reality, Watsky. And, truth be told, I have to admit. I like your videos, really like them!