I kind of figured everyone in the world had already seen this video, but it cycled back around to me again today, and makes me smile every time, so even if you have seen it before, it’s worth the grins.

Matt Harding did this project on his own in 2003, then did a much expanded, sponsor-driven (Stride Gum) version in 2006 that was completed in 2008. That second one with a larger scope (and more dancing with others as opposed to solos) is here.

I just love the look into the world through joyful eyes that it provides.

…and I’m pretty outraged that this guy got my job!

well done, Matt

132. Where the Hell is Matt?: Dancing Badly Around the World by Matt Harding (2009)

Length: 228 pages

Genre: Non-fiction

Started: 24 October 2009
Finished: 29 October 2009

Where did it come from? Amazon.
Why do I have it? Well, it was on my wishlist because Matt’s videos make me happy every time I watch them (and every time I listen to Praan, the song from the third video)… but to be honest, the book was a total impulse buy when I was ordering something else.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 19 October 2009.
Verdict? Keeper.

Dance like nobody’s
watching… except for all the
people on YouTube.

Summary: I think by now pretty much everyone has seen Matt’s videos, but if you haven’t, do yourself a favor and go watch them. It takes five minutes of your life to watch one of the best things the internet has ever produced, and if it doesn’t make you grin like an idiot while simultaneously tearing up a little bit, you should see your cardiologist to find out how your heart got replaced with a lump of cold dead stone.

Anyways, the story in a nutshell: Matt Harding was just an ordinary guy who decided to quit his job in order to travel – and started taking videos of himself doing a goofy dance in front of various tourist landmarks. He cobbled those together into a YouTube video, which attracted the attention of a corporate sponsor, who funded his further travels to make two more videos, during which he made the shift away from dancing in front of things to dancing with other people all over the globe.

This book is a memoir-cum-travelogue, moving roughly chronologically through Matt’s travels. Each 2-3 page chapter tells the story behind one of the video clips – travel adventures, how the shot was filmed, backstory, anecdotes, etc., complete with a map showing each location and many of Matt’s photos. It doesn’t cover every clip, but I’d say it hits at least half of the clips from all three videos. And, along the way, Matt describes how the dancing went from a running gag to a worldwide sensation, and a statement about humanity’s inherent joy and silliness and brotherhood all over the world.

Review: I had two worries when I started this book. First, concepts that work on the internet don’t always pan out in book form, and in this case, Matt was translating not only from internet to tangible book, but also from video to text. Second, and relatedly, the videos are so wonderful in and of themselves that I was worried that explaining the stories behind them would leach away some of their magic. Luckily, I needn’t have worried on either count; the book complements the videos without competing with it, and knowing the stories and significance of the clips actually makes the video more meaningful, rather than less.

The book itself is also physically lovely – full-color maps or photos on every page. It does seem like the production was bit rushed: in several places the typesetting wasn’t quite right, and the map showing Kuwait City located in the middle of Iraq is an unfortunate mistake that someone along the way should have caught. Still, the book is a nice addition, providing information and context for the quick glimpses of far-flung locations that we can see in the videos.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Harding’s got a strongly-developed snarky sense of humor, can tell an anecdote well, and has a good sense of cutting right to the important bits. The book is not laden with detail – each chapter and each location only gets a few pages (including pictures) – but each chapter contains enough to give you a sense of the flavor of the place, something in there to make you giggle, and occasionally something to make you a little bit misty… so, exactly like the videos. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

And it’s not just structures that have passed away. Over two thousand people danced in the third video, and in the short time since it was recorded, I’ve been informed that several are no longer with us. And it goes without saying: that number will steadily approach zero.

It sounds strange to suggest, but I think a lot of us are at our best in those moments when we’re willfully, unselfconsciously ridiculous. And for me at least, I think it’s a pretty great way to be remembered. (p. 188)

Recommendation: Lovely, funny, and surprisingly moving. I think anyone who liked the videos would probably get something out of reading the book, and it’s pretty enough (and in short enough chunks) to be accessible to almost every world-traveler, wanderlust-y geek, and unselfconsiously bad dancer out there.

This Review on LibraryThing | This Book on LibraryThing | This Book on Amazon

Links: Matt’s Videos, Matt’s Blog

Other Reviews: Have you reviewed this book? Leave a comment with the link and I’ll add it in.

First Line: “Hey, stand over there and do that dance you do. I’ll record it on your camera.”

Cover Thoughts: Very eye-catching, and representative of the production quality throughout the book, I think. I particularly like the little dancing silhouettes in the borders – the same silhouettes that are in the lower right corner of each odd-numbered page, making a flip-book.

Vocab: (see the whole list)

• p. 71: “We stopped at a small coral bommie growing on the hull.” – A shallow isolated piece of reef located a distance offshore.

En gammal youtube-klassiker (ja, på youtube är 2008 års hits klassiker redan 2009)

Enjoy;

This was a video that was shown to us at our Kiva training in San Francisco:

Warning: This is where the blog gets potentially self-important and emo.  But really that video is one that strikes a chord with me.  Really, all that Kiva is trying to do is to connect people on different parts of the world for a common interest.  Now, they way they are attempting to do it is a little less light-hearted, but I think that the similarities between Kiva’s mission and Matt’s are there enough to post this video.  What is more inspirational than people connecting and coming together for something they believe in?  Also, anyone who knows me (okay, maybe only some people know this), knows that I think dancing is a perfect way to both express yourself and connect with other people.

And now my impression:

Dance with me guys.  Loan to entrepreneurs on Kiva.

I wanted to add this to my blog simply because its epic.  Plus, if this doesn’t make you want to travel then nothing will.   Going through the video I think I could check off about six of the places he was at.   But I want to go to more!!

Check out the guy’s website here.

Se calhar alguns de vocês já conhecem o Matt, eu ainda não conhecia até que hoje estava na conversa com um amigo e falávamos de publicidade viral e do quanto é eficaz. Foi então que me mostrou o vídeo do Matt.

Matt tem 32 anos, em 2003, fartou-se da sua vida, despediu-se do seu trabalho e decidiu gastar as suas poupanças numa viagem pela Ásia, fez um site para que os seus amigos e familiares o acompanhassem nesta viagem e soubessem onde ele andava. Certo dia, nessa dita viagem, um dos seus amigos disse para ele fazer a dança para ele filmar. “A dança” era portanto a única que o Matt sabia fazer e temos de ser realistas, a dança é má…mas tem piada! Dois anos mais tarde alguém descobriu o vídeo na Internet e mostrou a alguém que por sua vez mostrou a outro e por aí adiante, o que chamou a atenção de uma marca de pastilhas e perguntou se o Matt estava disposto a viajar à volta do mundo fazendo a sua magnífica dança com tudo pago, é escusado dizer a resposta. Deixo-vos com o vídeo onde Lisboa teve direito a uns segundos.

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Jag älskar denhär videon!

[Här kan man se Matt berätta hur han gjorde för att få folk att dansa med honom]

Man mag über Youtube ja denken was man will, aber hin und wieder entdeckt man doch schlichtweg geniale Videos. Das Folgende ist eins von dieser Sorte. Da bekommt man doch gleich ein bisschen Fernweh…

I am impressed with simple businesses that deliver for customers that for which they paid, as well as for the business (profitability).  I firmly believe both can be achieved. There is no shortage of non-web 2.0 businesses (billboards, construction, specialized manufacturing) in addition to well known companies like REI, COSTCO, Zappo’s etc… that lead by example.  I am also impressed by the one or two person entrepreneurs that developed a business based on an idea or their passion that is so simple or so fun that you watch and wish it was your idea or why didn’t I think of that?

For the last year I have subscribed to a daily free email service called HARO or Help a Reporter.  The concept is simple – reporter’s send their requests for experts or story ideas to HARO which in turn distributes a simple text based email three times each day to over 100,000 subscribers.  In all I receive anywhere from 60 – 100 story requests from media outlets that I would never have known about if it wasn’t for HARO.  Most do not apply to my clients because of the are of expertise the reporter is looking for or the part of the country they are targeting, but if I have a client or prospect that fits the request I can contact the reporter directly and if the two match the reporter will follow up with the source.  It is extremely targeted and efficient and what started as a Facebook page is now its own successful business.   While I sometimes roll my eyes with his style and self promotion, kudos to Peter Shankman the founder.

Rick Steves is another.  Host of a well known travel show on public television, Rick has travelled the world for years with a videographer and audio person to highlight fun and out of the ordinary places to go, accommodations that are off the beaten path and interesting things to see.  It’s a bit of work as he needs to write and produce each episode, but calling it work isn’t fair.  How is filming eating dinner and drinking wine in a small town on the Amalfi Coast work??!!  Over time he has turned his little venture/passion into a highly successful series of travel books, luggage and DVD’s.

There are others that have captured all of the available free tools available on the Internet to market an idea, business such as the guy who wears your t-shirt for a day and charges for the privilege.  January 1st costs $1.  December 31st, $365.   December is a good month.  Fail Blog or I Can Has Cheezburger have also become Internet sensations with business models that appear to be sustainable and profitable.

Even more impressive to me are guys like Matt who have combined a bit of luck, their passion and a business model.  Matt began doing his own really bad dance in interesting places around the world in 2004 for fun.  A few years later someone found the video on the Internet and sent it to a friend, and so on and so on…  Eventually the video of Matt dancing became a YouTube phenomenon.  

Following his first video, the folks a Stride Gum asked if he would be interested in having a sponsor and doing another tour.  How long did it take to say yes???!!!

In 2006, Matt took a 6 month trip through 39 countries on all 7 continents – badly dancing along the way.  In 2007 Matt went back to Stride Gum and suggested a new video of Matt dancing in places all over the world with people from these places in the video.  

Surely his now rabid community of followers would show up at the appointed time and place to dance with Matt.  He was right.   Matt not only has travelled the world several times, twice on Stride Gum’s dime, but he has a string of videos on YouTube, writes a blog on his travels and has his own book that was recently published called “Where the Hell is Matt?”.

Just watch the videos and the places he’s travelled then try to convince me that this isn’t the coolest idea yet.

Atunci cand alegi s-o simti si s-o traiesti asa cum e ea. Atunci cand in loc sa te simti inamicul public numarul 1 te simti viu si privesti cu ochii mari la lumea din jurul tau – cat de multe avem de reinvatat de la copii in acest domeniu. Am avut un mic schimb de replici cu Tara Duveanu pe tema de mai sus si am cotinuat sa rontai putin ideea. Astazi am revazut acest clip si iarasi, ca de fiecare data, m-a facut sa ma simt fericit ca exist, ca existam, ca existati, ca lumea este atat de plina de viata si de nou. Ca nu avem nevoie de cuvinte sa spunem - viata e frumoasa

Mai multe detalii despre Matt si calatoria lui gasiti si pe YouTube.

Gogol Bordello - Tribal Connection

I wanna walk this Earth like it is mine
And so is everyone in our funlovin’ tribe

No siempre ser malo para algo resulta mal. De ello puede dar fe “Matt” un joven de 32 años, natural de Connecticut llevo a cabo la idea “Where the Hell is Matt”.

Con paciencia, constancia (eso si sin nada de vergüenza) y sin mucha pretensión Matt empezó simplemente a bailar, mientras un amigo lo grababa . Con los meses, gracias a la magia de internet y de la gran cantidad de personas que andan sin mucho por hacer, su video fue visto una y otra y otra y otra vez. Así hasta que Matt se volvió cuasi famoso como “ese man que baila en Internet”.

Hace trés años, grabo este video visto cerca de un millón y medio de veces:

Con el tiempo el mal bailarín capturó la atención de “Stride gum“, quienes le propusieron hacer otro viaje alrededor del mundo para hacer un nuevo video.

En el 2006, Matt viajó durante 6 meses a través de 39 países de todos los 7 continentes viaje en el cual simplemente se dedico a bailar, mal, pero a bailar al fin y al cabo.

Después de esto, en el 2007 desarrolló con Stride una nueva idea. Volver a viajar e invitar a bailar a todos aquellos que se habían puesto en contacto con el por e-mail.
Matt vive ahora en Seattle, Washington con su novia Melissa y su perro Sydney. Bailar mal no lo hizo rico. Simplemente lo llevó a través de los 7 continentes desde el 2003 hasta el 2008.

Baila mal, pero tal vez esto es lo que lo hace su idea tan buena. Bailar mal pero lo hace terriblemente bien.

Por qué alguien dedica años de su vida a hacer algo así? Por diversión y ganas de vijar, seguro. Pero prefiero pensar en que fue como dijo el mismo Matt Harding hablando sobre La filmación de “Where the Hell is Matt?”

There´s some value in being reminder in the reall basic stuff we all have in common

Here is another amazing travel video…

– Michael Jackson to Paul McCartney on “The Girl is Mine”, one of only two totally unknown and wrongly unheralded tracks on the Thriller album.

I feel like the blogger who has lost her way. I started this whole thing because I’m on a journey to peace and love and understanding and then – DAMMIT! my ADD kicks in and I start bitching about my Facebook friends, and people who put signs on their cars to protect their babies and how my sister has bigger boobs. I even went so far as to be critical of the Big O herself and I’m feeling so very guilty about this on her big 24th season kickoff celebration only a few miles away.

When I took that entire 3 minutes to conceptualize my blog and sign up on WordPress, I was thinking I should probably re-tell many of the bizarre fiascoes I have managed to get myself into and swear a lot because of the pure joy it gives me. Oh, and ask all the questions that I’m not allowed to ask in real life for fear that the Soccer Mom mafia would come find me and make me bake something healthy and be in charge of the craft for the next class party as my punishment.

But its time for a positive blog entry. So I am delighting all with the little video clips that make me joyful and/or laugh my ass off. Please, enjoy.

SNL Oprah’s Favorite Things Parody

I’m on a boat AND I got my Nautica themed pashmina Afghan…

If this doesn’t fill your heart with joy, I don’t know what will…

…I wish my Hasidic neighbors were as cool as this dude. Maybe they are – they just don’t talk to me.

…and finally, how I am only one of a few hundred people to see this video and think its the bomb is astounding…my gift to you…

A while ago (2007) I was on YouTube and I have found a video of a guy that travelled the world and recorded where he was. All the recordings have him in a very nice place of that region of the world perfming a very crazy dance.

This “campaign” of videos  is known as Where the hell is Matt?. If you haven’t seen it. Take a look at its website. It’s very cool.

Do you remember Matt? Maybe you are seeing him for the first time. The indelible human spirit can shine through in spite of it all. This is definitely worthy of RISE ABOVE status. Thanks for the dance Matt.

Matt (according to his site) “is a 32-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames”.

After quitting his job back in 2003, Matt decided to explore Asia until the money he saved up ran out. During a trip to Vietnam one of Matt’s travel buddies gave him the idea to perform his (now quite famous) dance while he was filming:

The video eventually spread virally, and in 2006 the gum manufacturer Stride Gum got in touch with Matt to see if he was interested in doing another round of spontaneous dancing around the world – a trip they would pay for.

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De 32-jarige Amerikaan Matt reist de wereld rond en doet overal gekke dansjes. Met of zonder locals. U weet over wie ik het heb, of nog helemaal niet en deze synopsis doet het ergste vermoeden? Kijk gewoon naar dit heerlijke filmpje en laat ons blij zijn dat er nog collectieve zotheid mag bestaan.

Hier meer over zijn avonturen en projecten.

Met dank aan oud-collega Tom.

A Nova York et pots trobar campanyes de màrqueting molt curioses. Són campanyes que posades a les pantalles gegants de Times Square no passen pas desapercebudes.

Una d’elles és “Where the hell is Matt?”, és a dir una cosa com “A on dimonis està Matt?” (gràcies a la millor traducció aportada pel Michele Marino a través de Facebook i l’Empar Baños a través del comentari del post).

La idea és que Matt volta per món i apareix ballant a llocs populars de cada ciutat, i rep respostes un tant inesperades, sovint. Una idea simple però que, avui, bat rècords de reproduccions al Youtube.

Aquí teniu més informació sobre aquesta campanya publicitària que m’ha cridat l’atenció. Es repetia i repetia a una pantalla gegant a Times Square amb Broadway, just davant de les taquilles vermelles TKT dels musicals.

Com a curiositat dir-vos que no ha passat per Barcelona, però si que ha estat a Madrid!

Us he de dir però que descoenc l’objectiu de la campanya! Potser les formes tapen el missatge, si és que n’hi ha… XD

Font: Youtube de Pau Canals Amat