My web playroom
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0:00 - 0:03Every presentation needs this slide in it.
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0:03 - 0:05(Laughter)
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0:05 - 0:07It's beautiful, isn't it?
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0:07 - 0:09Do you see?
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0:09 - 0:11All the points, all the lines --
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0:11 - 0:13it's incredible.
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0:13 - 0:15It is the network;
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0:15 - 0:17and in my case, the network has been important in media,
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0:17 - 0:20because I get to connect to people.
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0:20 - 0:22Isn't it amazing?
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0:22 - 0:25Through that, I connect to people.
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0:25 - 0:27And the way that I've been doing it
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0:27 - 0:29has been multifaceted.
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0:29 - 0:32For example, I get people to dress up their vacuum cleaners.
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0:32 - 0:37(Laughter)
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0:37 - 0:39I put together projects like Earth Sandwich,
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0:39 - 0:41where I ask people
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0:41 - 0:43to try and simultaneously place
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0:43 - 0:45two pieces of bread
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0:45 - 0:47perfectly opposite each other on the Earth.
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0:47 - 0:50And people started laying bread in tribute,
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0:50 - 0:52and eventually a team was able to do it
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0:52 - 0:55between New Zealand and Spain.
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0:55 - 0:58It's pretty incredible -- the video's online.
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0:58 - 1:00Connecting to people in projects
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1:00 - 1:02like YoungmeNowme for example.
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1:02 - 1:04In YoungmeNowme, the audience was asked
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1:04 - 1:07to find a childhood photograph of themselves
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1:07 - 1:10and restage it as an adult.
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1:10 - 1:22(Laughter)
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1:22 - 1:24This is the same person --
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1:24 - 1:27top photo, James, bottom photo, [Jennifer].
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1:27 - 1:29Poignant.
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1:29 - 1:31This was a Mother's Day gift.
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1:31 - 1:33(Laughter)
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1:33 - 1:35Particularly creepy.
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1:35 - 1:37(Applause)
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1:37 - 1:39(Laughter)
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1:39 - 1:41My favorite of these photos, which I couldn't find,
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1:41 - 1:44is there's a picture of a 30 year-old woman or so
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1:44 - 1:46with a little baby on her lap,
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1:46 - 1:49and the next photo is a 220-lb man
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1:49 - 1:52with a tiny, little old lady peaking over his shoulder.
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1:53 - 1:55But this project changed the way
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1:55 - 1:57that I thought about connecting to people.
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1:57 - 1:59This is project called Ray.
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1:59 - 2:02And what happened was I was sent this piece of audio
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2:02 - 2:04and had no idea who generated the audio.
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2:04 - 2:07Somebody said, "You have to listen to this."
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2:07 - 2:09And this is what came to me.
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2:09 - 2:11Recording: Hi, my name is Ray,
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2:11 - 2:13and on yesterday my daughter called me
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2:13 - 2:15because she was stressed out
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2:15 - 2:17because of things that were going on on her job
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2:17 - 2:20that she felt was quite unfair.
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2:20 - 2:22Being quite disturbed, she called for comfort,
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2:22 - 2:24and I didn't really know what to tell her,
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2:24 - 2:27because we have to deal with so much mess in our society.
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2:27 - 2:30So I was led to write this song just for her,
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2:31 - 2:33just to give her some encouragement
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2:33 - 2:36while dealing with stress and pressures on her job.
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2:36 - 2:38And I figured I'd put it on the Internet
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2:38 - 2:40for all employees under stress
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2:40 - 2:43to help you better deal with what you're going through on your job.
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2:43 - 2:45Here's how the song goes.
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2:45 - 2:51♫ I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
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2:51 - 2:58♫ Oh, I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
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2:59 - 3:03♫ Oh, if you don't leave me alone, ♫
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3:03 - 3:06♫ you gonna have to send me home ♫
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3:06 - 3:11♫ 'Cause I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
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3:11 - 3:14Now you might not be able to sing that out loud,
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3:14 - 3:17but you can hum it to yourself, and you know what the words are.
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3:17 - 3:20And let it give you some strength to get the next few moments on your job.
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3:20 - 3:23All right. Stay strong. Peace.
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3:23 - 3:25Ze Frank: So -- yeah.
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3:25 - 3:28No, no, no, shush. We've got to go quickly.
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3:29 - 3:31So I was so moved by this --
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3:31 - 3:33this is incredible. This was connecting, right.
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3:33 - 3:35This was, at a distance,
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3:35 - 3:37realizing that someone was feeling something,
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3:37 - 3:39wanting to affect them in a particular way,
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3:39 - 3:41using media to do it, putting it online
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3:41 - 3:43and realizing that there was a greater impact.
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3:43 - 3:45This was incredible; this is what I wanted to do.
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3:45 - 3:47So the first thing I thought of is we have to thank him.
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3:47 - 3:49And I asked my audience, I said, "Listen to this piece of audio.
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3:49 - 3:52We have to remix it. He's got a great voice.
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3:52 - 3:55It's actually in the key of B flat.
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3:55 - 3:57And have to do something with it."
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3:57 - 4:00Hundreds of remixes came back -- lots of different attempts.
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4:00 - 4:02One stood out in particular.
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4:02 - 4:05It was done by a guy named Goose.
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4:05 - 4:12Remix: ♫ I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
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4:12 - 4:20♫ Oh, I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
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4:21 - 4:25♫ Oh, if you don't leave me alone, ♫
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4:25 - 4:29♫ You gonna have to send me home ♫
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4:29 - 4:35♫ Cuz I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
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4:44 - 4:48♫ I'm about to whip some ♫ --
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4:48 - 4:50ZF: Great, so it was incredible.
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4:50 - 4:53That song -- (Applause) Thank you.
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4:53 - 4:56So that song, somebody told me that it was at a baseball game
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4:56 - 4:58in Kansas City.
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4:58 - 5:00In the end,
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5:00 - 5:02it was one of the top downloads
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5:02 - 5:04on a whole bunch of music streaming services.
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5:04 - 5:07And so I said, "Let's put this together in an album."
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5:07 - 5:09And the audience came together, and they designed an album cover.
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5:09 - 5:12And I said, "If you put it all on this, I'm going to deliver it to him,
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5:12 - 5:15if you can figure out who this person is,"
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5:15 - 5:18because all I had was his name -- Ray --
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5:18 - 5:20and this little piece of audio
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5:20 - 5:23and the fact that his daughter was upset.
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5:23 - 5:25In two weeks, they found him.
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5:25 - 5:27I received and email and it said,
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5:27 - 5:29"Hi, I'm Ray.
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5:29 - 5:31I heard you were looking for me."
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5:31 - 5:33(Laughter)
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5:33 - 5:35And I was like, "Yeah, Ray.
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5:35 - 5:38It's been an interesting two weeks."
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5:38 - 5:40And so I flew to St. Louis
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5:40 - 5:42and met Ray,
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5:42 - 5:44and he's a preacher --
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5:44 - 5:46(Laughter)
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5:47 - 5:49among other things.
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5:49 - 5:51So but anyways, here's the thing --
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5:51 - 5:53is it reminds me of this,
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5:53 - 5:56which is a sign that you see in Amsterdam on every street corner.
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5:56 - 5:59And it's sort of a metaphor for me for the virtual world.
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5:59 - 6:02I look at this photo, and he seems really interested
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6:02 - 6:04in what's going on with that button,
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6:04 - 6:07but it doesn't seem like he is really that interested in crossing the street.
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6:07 - 6:09(Laughter)
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6:09 - 6:11And it makes me think of this.
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6:11 - 6:14On street corners everywhere, people are looking at their cell phones,
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6:14 - 6:16and it's easy to dismiss this
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6:16 - 6:18as some sort of bad trend
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6:18 - 6:20in human culture.
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6:20 - 6:22But the truth is
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6:22 - 6:24life is being lived there.
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6:24 - 6:26When they smile --
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6:26 - 6:29right, you've seen people stop --
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6:29 - 6:31all of a sudden, life is being lived there,
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6:31 - 6:34somewhere up in that weird, dense network.
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6:35 - 6:38And this is it, right, to feel and be felt.
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6:38 - 6:40It's the fundamental force
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6:40 - 6:42that we're all after.
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6:42 - 6:44We can build all sorts of environments
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6:44 - 6:46to make it a little bit easier,
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6:46 - 6:48but ultimately, what we're trying to do
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6:48 - 6:51is really connect with one other person.
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6:51 - 6:53And that's not always going to happen in physical spaces.
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6:53 - 6:56It's also going to now happen in virtual spaces,
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6:56 - 6:58and we have to get better at figuring that out.
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6:58 - 7:01I think, of the people that build all this technology in the network,
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7:01 - 7:03a lot of them aren't very good
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7:03 - 7:05at connecting with people.
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7:05 - 7:07This is kind of like something I used to do
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7:07 - 7:09in third grade.
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7:09 - 7:11(Laughter)
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7:11 - 7:13So here's a series of projects
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7:13 - 7:15over the last few years
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7:15 - 7:18where I've been inspired by trying to figure out
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7:18 - 7:21how to really facilitate close connection.
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7:21 - 7:23Sometimes they're very, very simple things.
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7:23 - 7:25A Childhood Walk, which is a project
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7:25 - 7:27where I ask people to remember a walk
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7:27 - 7:30that they used to take as a child over and over again
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7:30 - 7:32that was sort of meaningless --
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7:32 - 7:35like on the route to the bus stop, to a neighbor's house,
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7:35 - 7:37and take it inside of Google Streetview.
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7:37 - 7:39And I promise you,
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7:39 - 7:41if you take that walk inside Google Streetview,
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7:41 - 7:43you come to a moment
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7:43 - 7:45where something comes back
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7:45 - 7:47and hits you in the face.
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7:47 - 7:49And I collected those moments --
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7:49 - 7:51the photos inside Google Streetview
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7:51 - 7:53and the memories, specifically.
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7:53 - 7:56"Our conversation started with me saying, 'I'm bored,'
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7:56 - 7:58and her replying, 'When I'm bored I eat pretzels.'
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7:58 - 8:01I remember this distinctly because it came up a lot."
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8:01 - 8:03"Right after he told me and my brother
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8:03 - 8:05he was going to be separating from my mom,
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8:05 - 8:07I remember walking to a convenience store
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8:07 - 8:09and getting a cherry cola."
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8:09 - 8:11"They used some of the morbidly artist footage,
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8:11 - 8:13a close-up of Chad's shoes in the middle of the highway.
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8:13 - 8:16I guess the shoes came off when he was hit.
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8:16 - 8:19He slept over at my house once, and he left his pillow.
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8:19 - 8:21It had 'Chad' written in magic marker on it.
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8:21 - 8:23He died long after he left the pillow at my house,
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8:23 - 8:25but we never got around to returning it."
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8:25 - 8:27Sometimes they're a little bit more abstract.
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8:27 - 8:29This is Pain Pack.
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8:29 - 8:31Right after September 11th, last year,
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8:31 - 8:33I was thinking about pain and the way that we disperse it,
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8:33 - 8:36the way that we excise it from our bodies.
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8:36 - 8:38So what I did is I opened up a hotline --
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8:38 - 8:41a hotline where people could leave voicemails of their pain,
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8:41 - 8:44not necessarily related to that event.
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8:44 - 8:47And people called in and left messages like this.
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8:48 - 8:50Recording: Okay, here's something.
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8:52 - 8:54I'm not alone,
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8:54 - 8:56and I am loved.
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8:56 - 8:59I'm really fortunate.
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9:00 - 9:03But sometimes I feel really lonely.
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9:04 - 9:07And when I feel that way
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9:10 - 9:13even the smallest act of kindness
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9:13 - 9:15can make me cry.
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9:15 - 9:17Like even people in convenience stores
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9:17 - 9:20saying, "Have a nice day,"
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9:20 - 9:24when they're accidentally looking me in the eye.
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9:26 - 9:28ZF: So what I did was I took those voicemails,
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9:28 - 9:31and with their permission, converted them to MP3s
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9:31 - 9:33and distributed them to sound editors
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9:33 - 9:35who created short sounds
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9:35 - 9:38using just those voicemails.
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9:39 - 9:42And those were then distributed to DJs
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9:42 - 9:45who have made hundreds of songs
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9:45 - 9:48using that source material.
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9:50 - 9:52(Music)
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9:52 - 9:54We don't have time to play much of it.
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9:54 - 9:56You can look at it online.
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9:56 - 9:58"From 52 to 48 with love"
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9:58 - 10:01was a project around the time of the last election cycle,
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10:01 - 10:03where McCain and Obama both,
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10:03 - 10:06in their speeches after the election, talked about reconciliation,
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10:06 - 10:08and I was like, "What the hell
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10:08 - 10:10does that look like?"
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10:10 - 10:12So I thought, "Well let's just give it a try.
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10:12 - 10:15Let's have people hold up signs about reconciliation."
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10:15 - 10:17And so some really nice things came together.
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10:17 - 10:19"I voted blue. I voted red.
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10:19 - 10:21Together, for our future."
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10:21 - 10:24These are very, very cute little things right.
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10:24 - 10:26Some came from the winning party.
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10:26 - 10:29"Dear 48, I promise to listen to you, to fight for you, to respect you always."
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10:29 - 10:31Some came from the party who had just lost.
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10:31 - 10:34"From a 48 to a 52, may your party's leadership be as classy as you,
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10:34 - 10:36but I doubt it."
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10:37 - 10:40But the truth was that as this start becoming popular,
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10:40 - 10:42a couple rightwing blogs and some message boards
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10:42 - 10:44apparently found it to be a little patronizing,
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10:44 - 10:46which I could also see.
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10:46 - 10:49And so I started getting amazing amounts of hate mail,
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10:49 - 10:51death threats even.
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10:51 - 10:54And one guy in particular kept on writing me these pretty awful messages,
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10:54 - 10:57and he was dressed as Batman.
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10:57 - 11:00And he said, "I'm dressed as Batman to hide my identity."
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11:00 - 11:02Just in case I thought the real Batman
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11:02 - 11:04was coming after me;
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11:04 - 11:06which actually made me feel a little better --
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11:06 - 11:08like, "Phew, it's not him."
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11:08 - 11:10So what I did --
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11:10 - 11:12unfortunately, I was harboring all this kind of
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11:12 - 11:15awful experience and this pain inside of me,
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11:15 - 11:18and it started to eat away at my psyche.
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11:18 - 11:21And I was protecting the project from it, I realized. I was protecting it --
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11:21 - 11:24I didn't want this special, little group of photographs
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11:24 - 11:26to get sullied in some way.
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11:26 - 11:29So what I did, I took all those emails,
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11:29 - 11:32and I put them together into something called Angrigami,
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11:32 - 11:34which was an origami template
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11:34 - 11:36made out of this sort of vile stuff.
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11:36 - 11:38And I asked people to send me beautiful things
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11:38 - 11:40made out of the Angrigami.
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11:40 - 11:45(Laughter)
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11:47 - 11:50But this was the emotional moment.
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11:50 - 11:53One of my viewer's uncles died on a particular day
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11:53 - 11:56and he chose to commemorate it with a piece of hate.
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11:56 - 11:58It's amazing.
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11:58 - 12:01The last thing I'm going to tell you about is a series of projects
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12:01 - 12:04called Songs You Already Know,
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12:04 - 12:06where the idea was,
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12:06 - 12:08I was trying to figure out to address
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12:08 - 12:11particular kinds of emotions with group projects.
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12:11 - 12:13So one of them was fairly straightforward.
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12:13 - 12:15A guy said that his daughter got scared at night
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12:15 - 12:17and could I write a song for her, his daughter.
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12:17 - 12:19And I said, "Oh yeah,
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12:19 - 12:21I'll try to write a mantra that she can sing to herself
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12:21 - 12:23to help herself go to sleep."
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12:23 - 12:25And this was "Scared."
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12:39 - 12:43(Video) ♫ This is a song that I sing when I'm scared of something ♫
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12:43 - 12:47♫ I don't know why but it helps me get over it ♫
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12:47 - 12:51♫ The words of the song just move me along ♫
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12:51 - 12:54♫ And somehow I get over it ♫
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12:55 - 12:58♫ At least I don't suck at life ♫
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12:58 - 13:02♫ I keep on trying despite ♫
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13:02 - 13:06♫ At least I don't suck at life ♫
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13:06 - 13:09♫ I keep on trying despite ♫
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13:09 - 13:13♫ This is a song that I sing when I'm scared of something ♫
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13:13 - 13:17Okay, so I wrote that song, right. Thank you.
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13:17 - 13:20So the nice thing was is he walked by his daughter's room at some point,
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13:20 - 13:22and she actually was singing that song to herself.
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13:22 - 13:24So I was like, "Awesome. This is great."
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13:24 - 13:26And then I got this email. And there's a little bit of a back story to this.
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13:26 - 13:28And I don't have much time.
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13:28 - 13:30But the idea was that at one point
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13:30 - 13:32I did a project called Facebook Me Equals You,
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13:32 - 13:34where I wanted to experience what it was like
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13:34 - 13:36to live as another person.
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13:36 - 13:39So I asked for people's usernames and passwords to be sent to me.
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13:39 - 13:42And I got a lot, like 30 in a half an hour.
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13:42 - 13:44And I shut that part down.
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13:44 - 13:46And I chose two people to be,
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13:46 - 13:48and I asked them to send me descriptions
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13:48 - 13:50of how to act as them on Facebook.
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13:50 - 13:52One person sent me a very detailed description;
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13:52 - 13:54the other person didn't.
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13:54 - 13:56And the person who didn't, it turned out,
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13:56 - 13:58had just moved to a new city and taken on a new job.
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13:58 - 14:01So, you know, people were writing me and saying, "How's your new job?"
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14:01 - 14:03I was like, "I don't know.
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14:03 - 14:05Didn't know I had one."
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14:05 - 14:08But anyway, this same person, Laura,
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14:08 - 14:11ended up emailing me a little bit after that project.
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14:11 - 14:14And I felt badly for not having done a good job.
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14:14 - 14:17And she said, "I'm really anxious, I just moved to a new town, I have this new job,
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14:17 - 14:20and I've just had this incredible amount of anxiety."
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14:20 - 14:23So she had seen the "Scared" song and wondered if I could do something.
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14:23 - 14:26So I asked her, "What does it feel like when you feel this way?"
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14:26 - 14:28And she wrote a sort of descriptive set
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14:28 - 14:31of what it felt like to have had this anxiety.
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14:31 - 14:33And so what I decided to do.
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14:33 - 14:35I said, "Okay, I'll think about it."
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14:35 - 14:38And so quietly in the background, I started sending people this.
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14:42 - 14:44(Audio) ♫ Hey ♫
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14:44 - 14:47♫ You're okay ♫
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14:48 - 14:51♫ You'll be fine ♫
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14:51 - 14:53So I asked people
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14:53 - 14:56whether they had basic audio capabilities,
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14:56 - 14:59just so they could sing along to the song with headphones on,
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14:59 - 15:01so I could just get their voices back.
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15:01 - 15:04And this is the kind of thing that I got back.
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15:06 - 15:09Recording: ♫ Hey ♫
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15:09 - 15:12♫ You're okay ♫
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15:13 - 15:16♫ You'll be fine ♫
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15:16 - 15:18ZF: So that's one of the better ones, really.
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15:18 - 15:21But what's awesome is, as I started getting more and more and more of them,
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15:21 - 15:24all of a sudden I had 30, 40 voices from around the world.
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15:25 - 15:28And when you put them together, something magical happens,
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15:28 - 15:30something absolutely incredible happens,
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15:30 - 15:33and all of a sudden I get a chorus from around the world.
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15:33 - 15:36And what was really great is, I'm putting all this work together in the background,
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15:36 - 15:39and Laura sent me a follow-up email because a good month had passed by.
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15:39 - 15:42And she said, "I know you've forgotten about me.
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15:42 - 15:45I just want to say thanks for even considering it."
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15:46 - 15:49And then a few days later I sent her this.
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15:51 - 15:58(Audio) ♫ Right now, it feels like I forgot to turn the light on ♫
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15:59 - 16:03♫ And things that looked so good yesterday ♫
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16:03 - 16:06♫ are now shades of gray ♫
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16:06 - 16:10♫ And it seems like the world is spinning ♫
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16:10 - 16:13♫ while I'm standing still ♫
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16:13 - 16:18♫ Or maybe I am spinning I can't tell ♫
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16:18 - 16:20♫ And then you say ♫
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16:20 - 16:23♫ Hey ♫
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16:23 - 16:26♫ You're okay ♫
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16:27 - 16:30♫ You'll be fine ♫
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16:30 - 16:33♫ Just breathe ♫
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16:33 - 16:35♫ And now the words sing ♫
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16:35 - 16:38♫ Hey ♫
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16:38 - 16:41♫ You're okay ♫
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16:41 - 16:44♫ You'll be fine ♫
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16:45 - 16:48♫ Just breathe ♫
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16:48 - 16:50♫ Now everybody sings ♫
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16:50 - 16:53♫ Hey ♫
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16:53 - 16:56♫ You're okay ♫
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16:56 - 17:00♫ You'll be fine ♫
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17:00 - 17:04♫ Just breathe ♫
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17:05 - 17:07♫ Hey ♫
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17:07 - 17:11♫ You're okay ♫
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17:11 - 17:15♫ You'll be fine ♫
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17:15 - 17:18♫ Just breathe ♫
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17:19 - 17:22♫ Hey ♫
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17:22 - 17:25♫ You're okay ♫
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17:26 - 17:29♫ You'll be fine ♫
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17:29 - 17:32♫ Just breathe ♫
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17:32 - 17:34Thank you.
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17:34 - 17:38(Applause)
- Title:
- My web playroom
- Speaker:
- Ze Frank
- Description:
-
On the web, a new "Friend" may be just a click away, but true connection is harder to find and express. Ze Frank presents a medley of zany Internet toys that require deep participation -- and reward it with something more nourishing. You're invited, if you promise you'll share.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 17:39
TED edited English subtitles for My web playroom | ||
TED added a translation |