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January 22, 2019 - Image 6

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Tuesday, January 22, 2019 — 6A

I think I was in third grade
when my mom received a call
from the mother of one of my
friends. This particular mom
sounded
nervous.
“Do
you
think there’s any chance Joey
might have, um, introduced
Nick to ‘YouTube?’”
Well, that was certainly
possible, my mom replied. Joey
laughed a lot at those online
videos, after all, and had even
showed his sister some of his
favorites. No issues there.
There
were
issues.
Nick
came from a Mormon family.
Forget about even uttering
a curse word; these folks
(among the kindest and most
compassionate I’ve ever met)
were intensely devoted to their
religion, which meant they
were altogether prohibitive of
anything that might corrupt
their children.
Well, maybe it worked. Nick
definitely didn’t turn out as
poorly as the rest of us. In 2019,
however, I think I’ve begun to
scratch the surface about why
my entire generation ended
up in our collective medley
of
fuckedupness:
YouTube.
Could it be? You’re probably
wondering how you got here,
too, so do join me on this
journey
of
spirituality.
In
order to figure out what you’ve
become, you need to rediscover
your origins. Here’s what your
first YouTube video says about
you.

Evolution of Dance

On the surface, you form
your strongest relationships
didactically,
dominating
hangouts with news of the
latest Twitter beef (and having
fun hyping it all up). But look
deeper. There are layers to
you. Under your Twists and
technical perfection of the

Thriller
dance
exists
your
sensitive
being,
one
who
dances not for some soul-
fulfilling form of expression
but for instant gratification
from others. You understand
that, while you’re only as good
as your best Milly rock, your
true worth is founded in who
you share those Milly rocks
with. So Milly rock all you
want; just make sure there’s an
audience.

Numa Numa

You’re incredibly ready for
the real world. In fact, you are
the real world. So much of life,
it turns out, depends on your
mastery of the clout chase, and
Numa Numa makes up the very
foundation of Clout. It’s true:
just exercising your ability to
bring this dance staple to life
equals relevance in university
and professional circles. At
the very least, being able to
keep these moves in the back
pocket
most
definitely
led
to a total domination of Bar/
Bat Mitzvah or school dance
circuits, and that charisma
counts for something.

Nyan Cat 10 hours (original)

You’re a sadistic dirtbag. No
one forgot about all the bad
jokes you made just as everyone
was about to fall asleep at
sleepovers in 2009, no, we most
certainly don’t care about your
Fushigi, and yes, of course
we’ve seen your super dope
mix-every-fountain-drink-
in-one-cup move. Find a new
slant, Mendeleev.

Boom Goes the Dynamite

Testosterone. Testosterone?
Testosterone.
That’s
you.
Testosterone! Testy Testy. Test,
Test, 1 2 3. Testosteroneous
Rex.

Liam Kyle Sullivan

I think I heard cuts from
“Shoes” at more than one club
in Berlin during my four-
month stay there, which, if it
doesn’t say enough in itself,
should signify how freaky this
stuff really is. First, I guess, I
commend you for your bravery.
More importantly, I laud you for
your elevated consciousness.
If something like “Muffins”
launched you into the world
of online entertainment, that
means you probably learned
what postmodernism was in,
like, sixth grade. Big stuff.

Daft Hands – Harder, Better,
Faster, Stronger

My first thought upon first
seeing this video: who could
possibly have had the gall to
steal a Kanye West sample?
My second thought: I’m a
dummy. My third thought: oh
shit, mom made pizza rolls
again.
Everyone
else
who
was introduced to YouTube
through this video: hold my
fanny pack, time to Festival
Shuffle for no one in particular.

Leeroy Jenkins HD 1080p

I’m entirely positive that
this video is the sole reason for
Twitch-streaming
celebrity
Ninja’s existence. Shame on
you,
then,
for
watching—
and
thus
cultivating—this
country’s
most
dangerous
cultural
sensation
since
Smosh. Speaking of-

Smosh

I’m sorry for you.

*We didn’t forget about you,
Potter Puppet Pals, Grape Lady
falls, Charlie Bit My Finger
or (sigh) Charlie the Unicorn.
Maybe you ended up best of the
bunch. Maybe you didn’t.

An origin story for any
millennial online

DAILY HEALTH & WELLNESS COLUMN

There are shows we turn to for
unswerving excellence, there are
shows we love because they never
make any discernible attempts
at quality and somewhere in the
murky middle, there is NBC’s
“This Is Us,” which shuffles across
the spectrum like a chameleon on
roller skates. “Oh, you thought we
were good?” the show sneers at its
audience each Tuesday night. “No,
how silly of you, we’re actually
quite bad.”
But then, at the precise moment
you make your peace with the
show as a weepy melodramatic
trainwreck with no hope in
sight, the ghost of “This Is Us”
will re-emerge and cry in faux
disbelief, “What are you talking
about? We’re inventive and layered
and structurally brilliant with
knockout performances!” I think
this is what people these days call
‘gaslighting.’
This
surely
is
the
most
frustrating fandom, the uniquely
painful kind that shaves years
off one’s life. It requires both a
boatload of faith and an equal
amount
of
distrust.
It’s
the
equivalent of that year Sandra
Bullock won the Razzie for
Worst Actress and the Oscar for
Best Actress in the span of one
weekend. It’s like watching Russell
Westbrook chuck brick after brick
every night and finally tucking
your Thunder jersey away in the
attic only to head back downstairs
in time to see him drain the clutch
game-winner. How can something
so good be so bad? How can

something so bad be so good?
The drama’s third season has
served up some lovely, pitch-
perfect episodes and some blah
misses. After a midseason hiatus,
“This Is Us” made its return last
week in the most “This Is Us” way
possible: The mediocre acting
was
frequently
groan-worthy,
occasionally moving, and all in all,
perfectly average.
A year ago, it seemed impossible
that the weakest storyline on
“This Is Us” could be Randall’s
(Sterling K. Brown, “American

Crime Story”). He and Susan
Kelechi Watson’s Beth (“Louie”)
have frequently saved the show
from descending into Sad Sack
City, anchoring it with charisma
and chemistry and a rare, totally
functional onscreen partnership.
But Randall’s campaign for a city
council seat in Philadelphia, which
once seemed like the show’s way of
teaching him a tough lesson about
his excessive righteousness, has
now swallowed him whole while
indulging the character’s worst
tendencies.
Fortunately for him, Randall
lives in a bizarro universe where the
electorate is won over by spirited
oratory. (Aaron Sorkin called. He
wants his naïve worldview back.

Also, he made some Gilbert and
Sullivan reference I didn’t quite
understand.) Never mind that
Randall is a Philly resident by
technicality, and actually lives in
Alpine, NJ., which is about as far
away from Philadelphia as you can
get while still being in NJ.
It’s equally surprising that
Kevin Pearson (Justin Hartley,
“Revenge”) has emerged as the
third season’s strongest character,
deciding to learn more about his
father’s experiences in Vietnam
while pursuing a relationship
with the sometimes closed-off,
“complicated”
documentarian,
Zoe
(Melanie
Liburd,
“Dark
Matter”). His portion of “The
Last Seven Weeks” works nicely
as a link between both of these
processes,
culminating
in
an
earned,
moving
moment
of
character-growth. Kate (Chrissy
Metz, “American Horror Story”),
finally pregnant this season after
struggling to conceive, is sidelined
with a C-plot this episode, a zany
quest to retrieve her husband’s
Star Wars action figures after
accidentally donating them, but
Metz makes the most of it.
So where does “This Is Us” go
from here? Who knows. There
are still several loose ends to tie
up, a flash-forward mystery yet
to be resolved and, from Kevin’s
Vietnam
digging,
a
potential
long-lost family member waiting
in the wings for his story to be
told. All that’s certain is that the
remaining episodes of this season
will be a little excellent and also
a bit terrible. So let’s buckle in:
After all, this is a show that killed
a character via Crock Pot, and did
so beautifully.

‘This is Us’ is uneven and
convoluted, as it usually is

MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN
Daily Arts Writer

NBC

TV REVIEW

In the week leading up
to
my
seeing
“The
Great
Tamer,” conceived, visualized
and
directed
by
Dimitris
Papaioannou, the only thing I
knew was that it contained full
frontal nudity. So, naturally,
I asked my dad to accompany
me
for
a
unique
father-
daughter bonding experience.
Unfortunately, he was unable
(or unwilling) to join me on
what promised to be “a visually
stunning production of ten
dancers that grapples with the
meaning of life and the mystery
of death.” So on Friday night, I
shuffled into my seat, dad-less
and defenseless, not even close
to ready for the self-proclaimed
“surrealist nightmare” and the
experience of a lifetime.
When I took my seat, there
was already an actor on stage.
I checked my phone. I wasn’t
late, still five minutes to show
time, but he was just hanging
out
center
stage,
looking
around at the audience. Then,
the play began. The house lights
remained on while the man on
stage slowly began undressing
himself. There was no music,
no sound, just the occasional
uncomfortable cough from the
audience. Once he was fully
undressed, he laid down on a
white sheet of what I assumed
to be plywood. Another man
appeared to cover him in a

sheet. As soon as that man left
another man uncovered the
naked man. While I was still
trying to wrap my head around
how
he
was
comfortable
enough to be fully nude in front
of an audience of 500 people,
there were murmured chuckles
from the audience as the cycle
started over. And over. And
over. By the 13th or 14th time,
the chuckles subsided in place
of a fatigued anticipation for a
new bout of action.
And action it was. Soon
enough, the stage was alive with
movement. If I diverted my gaze
to one person, two more people
would appear onstage, usually
naked, always in the midst of a
new interpretive scene. These
scenes built upon one another,
fluidly moving from one to
the next and often recurring
throughout the show. Even the
covering tarp came back once
or twice. With so much going
on, not every scene’s meaning
was apparent. In fact, very
few scene’s meanings were
apparent. I genuinely wish I
could say what the play was
concretely about, but to be
honest, I’m not exactly sure
myself.
Even calling it a play is a
stretch; there were no words
and only limited music. The
performance featured twelve
dancers who spent the hour and
forty-five minutes contorting
their
bodies
into
visually
stunning
and
unimaginable
shapes, depicting puzzling yet

fascinating — sometimes even
grotesque — interpretations of
human existence. Each dancer
was
barely
distinguishable
from
one
another,
always
dressed in black and thrown
together in various formations,
often being used as singular
body parts making up one
whole human. While many
parts of this performance were
confusing
and
disturbing,
some parts were relatable and
beautiful.
There
was
a
man
who
entered in a full body ceramic
cast. He could barely move,
needing a crutch just to walk.
When the other man onstage
realized his problem, he began
breaking the ceramic shell
off his body by hugging him.
Though they had just met, the
man in the cast had to learn to
trust his new friend quickly, at
least enough for him to put his
hands around his neck. With
this deep sense of trust, the
ceramic man allowed his friend
to break through his tough
outer shell to see the person
he was beneath. With one final
heart
and
ceramic-breaking
hug, the man was free from his
binding cast. He patted himself
down, in awe of his new body,
shook hands with his friend
and left. The friend was left
with nothing but a handshake
and a pile of broken, ceramic
hopes.

‘The Great Tamer’ shows
humanity through nudity

DANA PIERANGELI
For the Daily

‘This is Us’

Season 3 Midseason
Premiere

NBC

Tuesdays 9 p.m.

Read more at MichiganDaily.
com

EVENT REVIEW

JOEY SCHUMAN
Daily Health & Wellness Columnist

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