I took a little break from reality today to go down to Gasworks Park so I could be a tiny spec in an upcoming video. I first saw Matt Harding’s second video shortly after it came out. My oldest brother sent it to me and said I’d like the last location in the video. I loved the video. After running across it several more times, I looked into it further. That’s when I found out that was the *second* video. The first video was made without sponsorship awhile before.
Most interesting to me was probably the three part lecture series he did in Vermont. I highly recommend it if you have an hour+ to kill. He has a very dry sense of humor and provides interesting insight into places he’s been, how the videos came to be, and talks about certain clips in the video.
He also released an amusing outtakes video last year and announced his plans to travel around again and this time to include others in the video. I signed up right away to be notified. It felt a little weird. He lives in Seattle. He’s here a lot. Still I assumed he’d want to continue his tradition of including a Seattle clip. The first clip had him dancing with his oldest niece at Pike Place Market. The second had his then two nieces at the Troll.
Well, he just wrapped up traveling around this big blue marble once more. He got back into town from South America yesterday and had invited everyone down to Gasworks to film the last clip to close out the next video. As usual I took pictures. While there, I met one woman up from Olympia wearing a Mutant Enemy t-shirt who had gone down to help picket during the writers strike. She marvelled at walking the picket line with Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, etc. Then she asked if I could direct her to the Wayward since she was up this way anyway. 
I also spoke with another young woman who has done a lot of travelling herself. She’s been to all seven continents and has spent a lot of time on several of them with the peace corps, teaching English, etc. She was very impressed that I brought up the Macedonian naming controversy when she mentioned having worked there. Sometimes it does pay to be up on current events in far flung places of the world.
But the main purpose of the event was to dance with Matt. I showed up about 5 minutes before he did. When I first got there, I saw a big group, all in costume. I wondered if I’d missed the memo about dressing funny. I quickly surmised these were cosplayers. Apparently they were there for their June photoshoot. I made my way to the place marked with an arrow in the email. Some people were milling about, but it was hard to tell who was there for what purpose. When Matt, his girlfriend Melissa, and a few others connected to them came around the corner it became clearer. He came over to each person, “Are you here to dance?” “Absolutely.” I introduced myself to Matt and Melissa and then let them get set up. There were various other family members and friends of both of them scattered about as well. They started registering each of us. Release form, picture, wrist band. KING and KOMO were both there as well. The cosplayers all went to set up for a shoot on the hill. Afterwards, many came over to see what was up and ended up registering. So, it’s going to look like Seattle is full of people in costumes… Hmmm…
Sadly, Waldo did not opt to be in the video. 
Matt’s newest niece made it into the world just in time for the third video. She’s 6 weeks old. So, all three of them will be specs in this one.
He said he thinks this is the most people to come out from anywhere he’s been in the world. (I have to wonder if that would have been true if not for the cosplayers…) We were told the boundaries of the shoot and spread out to fill up the shot. I was pretty close to the middle. Sure enough, when Matt and his family types moved in, they took over the spot I had inhabited. Instead, I stood between his mom and the cosplayers. Interesting.
We did a few dancing clips and then broke up. He said he’d stay around for pictures and stuff and also reiterated not to hesitate to ask him to dance. So, I did. I think I was the last of the day.
Edit: WordPress apparently doesn’t like flickr video and stripped it out during the migration. Here is the link to the video of dancing.
Plus a plain old picture too.
The next video is due out June 21st, though it may come out a day earlier.
He mentioned plans to go back to the South Pacific. Looks like he’s off to get the rest of the Afunakwa story. I’m so relieved!
