Summary:

I want to see respectful conversations between people on various sides of issues relevant to the Smithsonian, Re-usable content (pictures, video, audio) on a Creative Commons like license, Behind the scenes of the Smithsonian

(Sorry, the sound quality stinks and I'm sporting a shadow. When inspiration strikes, I apparently can't be bothered to make things perfect. :)

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It can be difficult to tell people what my typical day looks like. This video is meant to clarify this some for people. Admittedly, we crammed a lot into my day. The video captures some of the highlights of a few different days over the course of a week. Missionary visits, website work, fixing copiers and answering various missionary questions through the use of email, skype, bomgar and face to face pretty well sums up the majority of my tasks in a day.

Rachel did a great job photographing the stair sequences and some other things. We hope you enjoy it.

A higher res version is available at http://vimeo.com/925991.

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We can look good and clean when the lighting is right but sometimes a tragedy, experience or personal failure can cause us to see ourselves in a different way. When the blacklights go on, our hidden dirt is illuminated and we are broken. When we accept that and give it to Christ he takes it all away, leaving us truly clean. Words are forever but there is a way to be free.

"My life was great
Clean, in control, I had it all
My fresh shirts and new shoes
Smelled like success and power
Each hour I dedicated
To getting ahead
Had it all
Everything I could want
Or need
But in the back of my mind
A seed
A thought
A growing suspicion
That in the deepest part of my heart was malnutrition
I was starving inside
Shriveling up
my soul is a corpse
still clean still fresh
full of success

until

the lights went out.

One moment changed it all
When the lights came back on
They were different
The world was still same
But hidden words now appeared
Scripted, written covering everything
The real message of my life shone forth
It was written there all the time
My dirt and guilt
Written on my skin
My face
My whole body
My clean fresh feel was gone
Ruined with filth and words
And secrets
Glowing like a neon sign
It was there the whole time
I didnt have eyes to see
Ears to hear
Wasnt interested in digging this deep
Too much fear
About what I might find
But now its all out
For the world to see
But most painful of all
For me.

Its a beautiful and terrible thing
To come undone
To have your secrets dragged out
Under a blacklight sun
MY dirt and guilt and fear
And anger
My lust, rage, bitterness
Self-hatred
Gossip
Hiding

Its a beautiful and terrible thing
To come undone

Theres no going back now
Whats clear is clear to all
But what am I going to do
With my shock
With my dirt
With this permanent writing?
Its on here for good
I cant help adding new things
I need new skin
A wash
Sandpaper my flesh off
Till Im clean

To be broken is a beautiful thing
I let go
Said take it all
I cling
Stand back
Drop my defenses
Anything to turn the lights out or be clean or free or something
The wash came
It wasnt at all what I expected
This burden is nothing compared to the hiding
To be exposed is a fair trade for not dying
I stood back
Looked up
And with blood and tears
Let go
Its gone now
Words transferred to the One who took them
My arms and legs are clean
Face free
And Im flying

It was there the whole time
I didnt have eyes to see
Ears to hear

To be undone is a beautiful and terrible thing"

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"Web 2.0" in just under 5 minutes.
http://mediatedcultures.net

This is a slightly revised and cleaned up version of the video that was featured on YouTube in February 2007.

I considered releasing it as an "eternal beta" in true Web 2.0 style, but decided to let it stand as is and start working on future projects. Many of my future videos will address the last 30 seconds of this video (the "rethink ..." part).

Thank you all for the helpful comments on the earlier draft. It has been a great experience to connect with so many people interested in
similar issues.

Once again, there are higher quality versions available for download:

Windows Media File (55 MB):
http://www.mediafire.com/?2wnm py2ibz1

Quicktime File (96 MB):
http://www.mediafire.com/?axhb jnmw4yn

Mojiti Version (for comments, translations, etc.):
http://mojiti.com/kan/2743/598 4

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Shar e Alike 3.0 License. So you are welcome to download it, share it, even change it, just as long as you give me some credit and you don't sell it or use it to sell anything. I received many more positive comments than negative about the song choice (great work Deus!), but if you are one of those who does not like the song just download the video and change the audio track to your liking.

The video was created by me (Michael Wesch), working alone from my house in St. George, Kansas. I used CamStudio for the screen captures and Sony Vegas for the panning/cropping/zooming animations. Someday I might make a video tutorial for those who are interested.

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Now playing on ChromeShorts.com...Chicken or Egg? A simple query takes our hero on a wild rollercoaster ride through the Internet, where chicken links to feather, feather to pillow, pillow to tooth fairy, and so on. Fasten your seatbelts. A Chrome Short by Superfad. http://www.superfad.com/

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