Man dances in public, videotapes self for 366 days straight "to do something new"
Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger.
Meet Mike Long, a Canadian performance artist from Hamilton, Ontario. Mike freaky danced and taped himself doing so for 366 days straight, mainly in his hometown, but he includes NYC, SF and various European locales in his work. He has great taste in music and some of these videos are hysterically funny, reminding me a lot of Spike Jonze's classic Fatboy Slim video. Here is his interpretation of the lover's rock classic "Uptown Top Ranking" by Althea & Donna:
Althea & Donna - "Uptown Top Ranking" from Mike Long on Vimeo.
Mike says "I made a dance video, almost always in public places, every single day for an entire year. I am only here to make you smile and hopefully change the way you think about 'genres,' and show you what honest reactions to music look like.' He added "And to do something new."
Mike told me that he next plans on releasing twelve books in one year. Three are already complete. When asked what he's writing about, Mike says, "Everything and nothing. Being and living. Wit and lowbrow culture. I will write about every topic I can think of." He seems to have a lot of energy! I believe he'll do it.
Thanks Tara McGinley!
Black Sheep "E.F.F.E.C.T." (NSFW, but hilarious)
Captain Beefheart "Zig Zag Wanderer"
Toots & the Maytals "Pressure Drop"
Brainiac "Nothing Ever Changes"
Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You"
UPDATE: Some evil troll at YouTube narc'd on Mike and he got his account yanked. I changed the videos here to ones hosted on Vimeo, let's hope they're cooler than YouTube. I mean, what this guy did is truly hilarious. He meant NO DISRESPECT to any of these artists. Clearly he LOVES the music he danced to... but someone had to go and be a jerk.
Here's a link to Mike's Etsy page
the latest
latest episodes
Ha!
Quantity over quality. What a great idea!
And "to do something new"...guess he's never seen Where The Hell Is Matt?
This is exactly the type of charming, disarming display that drives the ladies wild. You can't imagine how much casual sex this guy is getting.
Ha! Chgoliz I was thinking the same thing :)
The link is here for Where The Hell is Matt?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
Amazing video :)
P.s have done this Anon as I don't have time to make an account!
Elara xx
All of human art comes down to a mating display anyway. If it works, it works. I still prefer the displays of cute ukulele girls though.
Great music taste! Some of my faves for sure.
Knocks'em dead. It doesn't hurt that he has great taste in music, either.
I like to imagine that the bystanders can't hear the music at all.
Something "new"?
2007 just called. I expected them to say that they wanted Where The Hell is Matt back, but they said we could keep him.
In fact, they insisted.
Awesome!!!!
Cunning@3: "You can't imagine how much casual sex this guy is getting."
I dunno. I can imagine a lot of casual sex. I can also imagine a lot of better moves and a much more exciting video to watch, but, hey, whatever rocks your socks. How about someone taping 366 days of casual sex with different partners, a sort of "Where the Hell Is Matt's Penis" kind of thing..? That sounds more like something worthy of writing 12 books about, imho.
Mike Long's first dancing video was in April of 2007, predating Where the Hell is Matt.
Who remembers The Danceman ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGYMJbTiwuE
Anon@11: ...And what a Long strange dance it's been.
It appears that the rest of the populace is on thorazine. Not only do they ignore him, but a whole family almost walks into him as if they had never seen non-linear movement before and didn't know how to swerve around him.
Well he's no Tehching Hsieh.
This made me smile more than the nom nom nom song. I would like to meet this guy, and maybe he could teach me some of his moves.
Next!
@10
well, i don't dance. but i do learn to fight, then don't fight. and those looked like some pretty slick moves to me. i bet i could get stoned with that guy and not feel weird. and that's saying kind of alot. ("alot" needs to be one word, dammit.)
also: disarming, vulnerable, honest, intelligent, and sweet has gotten me more loving pussy (sorry to be crass, girls, but i mean what i say) than anyone I know. and almost more pussy period. only the cool stoner jock has gotten more. and now he laments to me on the phone, over his lack of love. i comfort him quietly. he is my friend.
I'd forgotten about that Delta 5 single, I bought it when it came out (?1980) and saw them supporting Gang of Four. Memories!
Liked it a lot, and since I can't dance, I was rather impressed by his moves.
Is it just me, or is Performance Artist just a fancy new word for Attention Whore?
For the video in the post... love the music, hate the vocals.
People who wear black polo T-shirts tucked into nice black work slacks with a belt and black shoes, always seem to be in a hurry to somewhere important.
Ha, yeah, I've seen this guy on you tube, basically because of his music taste (I was looking for videos on reggae /dub stuff) and I really laughed at him... well, with him, I think is funny... ok.
Anyway, I don't think this is the same as "Where the hell is Matt?" ...I feel that way at least; I see this "dipsetmuthafucka" as a more underground thing. And he dances better. heheheheh.
Ho-ham.
Here he is dancing to one of my favorites:
Sweep The Leg Johnny - Transit Must Suffer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFfwB4h3Mik
If you haven't heard Sweep you should definitely check them out. I love that it's Transit Must Suffer and he's dancing in a subway tunnel. He's dancing to headphones. Everyone must think he's crazy. Loves it.
This reminds me of Gene Lee in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago a couple years back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM39OJCJq3A
he didn't record himself, but could often be found dancing on the street with or without music
I totally adore Delta 5, awesome music choice makes this a win, attention whoring or not.
EeyoreX at #8 writes:
> Something "new"?
>
> 2007 just called. I expected them to say that they > wanted Where The Hell is Matt back,
More than just Where The Hell Is Matt, I was thinking how long I've been reading about "art projects" where people have decided to photograph themselves every day for a year, or the like. Maybe since about 1996? Sometimes the projects are interesting enough, but it's one of those ideas everyone has sooner or later.
where the hell is matt = a tourist jogging to muzak
(mostly)
dipsetmuthafucka = a hometown guy dancing to music
(mostly)
I prefer the latter by far.
I find it saddening that the fact that "Where the Hell is Matt" is so widely known somehow translates to "nobody else should do anything similar". I also find it saddening that people need to justify either side by finding out who did it first. It doesn't matter who did something first, and it also doesn't matter who can do it better or more popularly. It only matters that it gets done.. if it's worth doing in the first place.
Not to say that I actually approve of people dancing to "Mind your own business", since it really is not very good as far as musical compositions go.
I danced with Matt of "Where the Hell is Matt?", he was pretty awesome! http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/2824448718/
I wonder how the music in this vid was synced afterwards, since it sounds like the clean original recording, not a boombox blasting out into an urban environment? Did he overlay both, match the waveforms, then mute the track with the natural ambience?
I tried to share this with BB when Mike Long first started!! Glad you posted it!
Mike Long you made that year of mine really awesome!
It was taken down!
"This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
they're all gone! bummer!
Not only is the video down as #34 pointed out, but apparently his account has been suspended too, as far as I can tell.
This sort of takes the joy out of embedding videos, and the internet's interconnectedness in general. It used to be that copying an image or video to your own site was ripping off the original, but it's looking more and more like the only way to share stuff.
Reminds me of Venetian Snares "Dance like you're selling nails" video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHKO3Cnh8Zg
Horrible that it's pulled down. But I will let Boing Boing readers know the following: Delta 5's "Mind Your Own Business" is awesome! And I hadn't heard it in years. And I didn't realize that Kill Rock Stars had issued a compilation of their scant releases. Perfect reason to go to iTunes and now buy my first DRM free album thanks to Apple's new policy!
So seriously, this video did indeed lead me to make a real purchase.
Now the video is gone.
This guy made not one cent off of his work and basically promoted others. For someone tired of music videos this appealed to me.
Now it's gone.
At least let him have his account back and post videos from small labels. If that's even possible?
I wonder... the work of RIAA pus-bags...or an assassin?
TOS my ass.
#34: "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
It's the rule #34 of youtube - anything worth watching will be removed sooner or later.
captcha words: enjoy before
I love this guy, I discovered him looking for some old songs on youtube. My favorite WAS this song ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziDPLHtGR4Q ) but suddenly it has been removed for a terms of use violation.
Regulation like that is a crime. I really hate how shortsighted and ignorant record companies are.
Damn, I was really looking forward to ripping the low quality music from that video and using it instead of going out and buying high quality versions...
How sad! In the meantime, here's some mike long dance lessons for y'all.
Guess I shoulda watched this yesterday :(
"This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
Now, instead of my day being improved by some energetic nutter, my heart is filled with bile and hate for the music industry.
@Slamorte
Amen to that!
"Give me little bass and me wind up me waist"
Great lyric, I always loved that song.
I only watched one, but yes it made me happy.
Don't you just love all the false courage on the internet? I'd love to see what everybody who's complaining done... oh and a year of typed out opinions on the internet doesn't count SUCKAZ!