Saturday, April 12, 2008

Stuff We Like


How is it that with the infinite amount of sites out there, we all end up reading the same blogs and watching the same YouTube videos? A friend of mine in Okinawa tells me about this funny YouTube video that people keep sending her, and it turns out it was just a little (& hilarious) dance video created by my good friend Judy in her LA cubicle. Not only had my friend seen Judy's video several times, but her friends back in Texas loved it so much that they performed the video and re-shot it for YouTube.

For those of you over 40 reading this post, and getting a little lost....let me break it down: Let's say you come up with a funny joke and tell it to your neighbor. They you fly to Chicago for business 2 days later only to have a cocktail waitress in the hotel bar tell YOUR joke back to you. Later that night in your hotel room, you hear John Stewart talking about your joke on The Daily Show, and how Bush tried to tell your joke at the White House correspondent's dinner, but messed up the punch line. It's a little eerie, and gives the impression that you have your finger on the world's pulse. Well, I should say, Judy has her finger there.

Some viral blogs take a little longer to reach us over here in the sticks....at least 36 hours longer. But we catch on eventually. It helps that I have some...er...time on my hands to surf the net.

Most recently I was alerted to this site called "Stuff White People Like" which has apparently gained a rush of popularity. Ironically, I was alerted to this website by a podcast (SWPL #40) of an NPR show (SWPL #44) talking about viral blogs.

Hoping my blog will one day become viral, I was intrigued. Apparently, I like a lot of the stuff white people like. And so does my husband. In fact, this website is reading like a list of our monthly itinerary. As I read the list to John, he thinks I am making it up to frame him as "whitest white man alive." I start to ponder. I glance down at our coffee table, strewn with Netflix (SWPL #39) of our favorite TV shows. #38 and #85 (greatest show ever). This freaks me out a bit, so to calm my nerves, I reach for my cup a joe (SWPL #1) but since it's cold, and it's already 2pm on a Sunday, I just go for the vino (SWPL #24) The wine starts to get me paranoid and my mind starts to wander in two directions.

Either A: I am so white and so predictable that I in fact contain not one original bone in my body and only really THINK that I like the things I like after years of forming opinions, and really, I am just a carbon cutout of every other white person in my age and socio-economic group.

Or B: The entire website is an elaborate ruse cooked up by Judy to freak me the heck out. I'm really hoping it's the latter.

1 comment:

aviva5271 said...

So classic, Jen. That video is PRICELESS! How did Judy put those two things together? Like chocolate & PB.... tastes great.

And the SWPL blog just kills hubby & I. (they just added New Balance shoes, which I was walking in today....) We love The Wire, Netflix, coffee, wine, and sushi. And most recently for us #9.

Did you know that #35 (The Daily Show) has #8 (Obama) on this week? And because we're living in #58 (Japan), we need to keep an eye on our husbands so they don't get too much into #11 (Asian girls).