My video quality has definitely improved. I'm not sure my dance moves have.
July 19, 2012 7:27 AM Subscribe
"I think it's simultaneously the best and worst idea I've ever had." When she was 17 years old, Alex Danis recorded herself lip-syncing to the song "“Aaron's Party". Three years later, she did it again, now at 23 she has done it one more time and put all three versions together in the fantastically charming 17-20-23.
Her hope is to continue doing this every three years and documenting the enthusiastic and infectious ridiculousness.
[via]
Her hope is to continue doing this every three years and documenting the enthusiastic and infectious ridiculousness.
[via]
I can't wait for 41!
posted by tittergrrl at 7:41 AM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by tittergrrl at 7:41 AM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
If this trend continues she will be a super hot at 26.
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS I SAW A POSITIVE YOUTUBE COMMENT. Unicorns are real!
posted by psoas at 7:45 AM on July 19, 2012 [6 favorites]
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS I SAW A POSITIVE YOUTUBE COMMENT. Unicorns are real!
posted by psoas at 7:45 AM on July 19, 2012 [6 favorites]
Her video quality has definitely improved. I'm not sure her taste in music has.
Thankfully, Jedward weren't around when she was 17.
posted by delfin at 7:48 AM on July 19, 2012
Thankfully, Jedward weren't around when she was 17.
posted by delfin at 7:48 AM on July 19, 2012
I think if I tried this, I'd end up doing the same choreography in every video. Also, given my lack of long-term commitment to most projects, the timeline would probably be more like "July 17 - 20 - 23".
posted by owtytrof at 7:51 AM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by owtytrof at 7:51 AM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
Actually, I found this video by the same woman to be a lot more interesting. :-)
posted by smidgen at 7:51 AM on July 19, 2012 [7 favorites]
posted by smidgen at 7:51 AM on July 19, 2012 [7 favorites]
I thought we agreed to knock it off with all the Mormon posts.
posted by Anoplura at 8:00 AM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Anoplura at 8:00 AM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm not qualified to guess at her Synesthesia being a real or imagined thing (and I do not understand what she says), but does anyone know if her patterns (5/0, 2/4/5, 3/6/9 etc) are standard with synesthesia? Because they strike me as learned facts.
posted by Mezentian at 8:00 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by Mezentian at 8:00 AM on July 19, 2012
Yes, numbers have personality!
posted by infinitewindow at 8:04 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by infinitewindow at 8:04 AM on July 19, 2012
Michael Apted looks on, passively unimpressed.
posted by phong3d at 8:11 AM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by phong3d at 8:11 AM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
Metafilter: July 19, 2119... Charming great-grandmother puts out holo of her lip-syncing to an old song from the early days of the internet, called "Aaron's Party, 17 - 20- 23 - 26 - 29 - 32 - 35 - 38 - 41 - 44 - 47 - 50 - 53 - 56 - 59 - 62 - 65 - 68 - 71 - 74 - 77 - 80 - 83 - 86 - 89 - 92 - 95 - 98 - 101 - 104 - 107 - 110 - 113 - 115 - 118 - 121 - 124 - 127 - 130!" It's most definitely the worst idea I've ever had.
posted by crunchland at 8:24 AM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by crunchland at 8:24 AM on July 19, 2012 [4 favorites]
Based on the first five seconds of this, I'd marry this person.
posted by cmoj at 8:27 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by cmoj at 8:27 AM on July 19, 2012
So, idiot that I am, I missed the numbers in the opening frames (or didn't have the sense to correlate the placement of the numbers with the age of the image behind it). I watched it a couple of times trying to figure out which version was her at 17, 20, and 23.
Either she's aging backwards/not at all, or, as I've always suspected, I am incapable of determining the age of a person based on their appearance.
posted by HuronBob at 8:29 AM on July 19, 2012
Either she's aging backwards/not at all, or, as I've always suspected, I am incapable of determining the age of a person based on their appearance.
posted by HuronBob at 8:29 AM on July 19, 2012
Interesting side note: Alex was a finalist for MSI's first "Month at the Museum" contest, back in 2010. I got to meet and hang out with her backstage, before the main event... as I was a finalist too (self-link).
posted by avoision at 8:29 AM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by avoision at 8:29 AM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
OK I watched it again, and 5 seconds makes a somewhat unfortunate implication. make it ten seconds.
posted by cmoj at 8:31 AM on July 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by cmoj at 8:31 AM on July 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
At 26, she's going to look exactly like The Office's Ellie Kemper. Calling it now.
posted by estlin at 8:42 AM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by estlin at 8:42 AM on July 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm not qualified to guess at her Synesthesia being a real or imagined thing (and I do not understand what she says), but does anyone know if her patterns (5/0, 2/4/5, 3/6/9 etc) are standard with synesthesia? Because they strike me as learned facts.
Well, the question of whether the properties of numbers are "learned" or "innate" opens its own philosophical can of worms, but leaving that aside, I'm not sure why her synesthesia would be any less "real" if it were based on "learned facts." That is, she has a synesthetic experience if she consistently perceives the number 9 as deep red whether or not she would have done so had she been raised in a culture with a base-8 numerical system.
posted by yoink at 9:00 AM on July 19, 2012
Well, the question of whether the properties of numbers are "learned" or "innate" opens its own philosophical can of worms, but leaving that aside, I'm not sure why her synesthesia would be any less "real" if it were based on "learned facts." That is, she has a synesthetic experience if she consistently perceives the number 9 as deep red whether or not she would have done so had she been raised in a culture with a base-8 numerical system.
posted by yoink at 9:00 AM on July 19, 2012
Also by the age of 26, it's probably pretty likely more people will know who she is than remember Aaron Carter's career.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:01 AM on July 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:01 AM on July 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
Oh, and I wanted to say that the linked video project is utterly charming and that the synesthesia video is fascinating.
posted by yoink at 9:01 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by yoink at 9:01 AM on July 19, 2012
That song owes a great debt, and most likely royalties, to Young MC.
posted by Panjandrum at 9:10 AM on July 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by Panjandrum at 9:10 AM on July 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
Your best friend Larry has a brother Harry, in five days from now he's gonna marry...
oh wait, wrong song.
posted by stormpooper at 9:10 AM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
oh wait, wrong song.
posted by stormpooper at 9:10 AM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
@Panjandrum you beat me to it
posted by stormpooper at 9:10 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by stormpooper at 9:10 AM on July 19, 2012
No, peoples, the best Young MC song is "Know How'.
posted by Edison Carter at 9:31 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by Edison Carter at 9:31 AM on July 19, 2012
This is so great! She's most confident and unabashed at 20; 23 is "isn't this a little silly?", and 17 is "I'm not sure if this is cool." Neat.
posted by Buckt at 9:32 AM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Buckt at 9:32 AM on July 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
Synesthesia, previously.
Queen Sabium: What is is called when letters or numbers have a gender (or personality)? 2,5,8, and 9 are all female. 1, 3,4,6,7 are all males. However, 2 can be male if I imagine it as blue.posted by Zed at 9:33 AM on July 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
benk: Although I've met more than a few people with synesthesia, I've never met anyone else who imbued numbers with gender and personalities like I do (9 is the school quarterback who always gets lots of girls but it's because he's nice as well as handsome). This form of synthesia is called ordinal-linguistic personification.
I never watched Sesame Street. I had the worst time learning how to add because a gender + gender wouldn't add up to the right "gender" sometimes, i.e. 3 + 9, both males, add up to 12, a very feminine number. I was so relieved as a kid to hear about transsexual/transgender individuals because suddenly math was logical again.
Jelly: No, Queen Sabium, you've got it all wrong - numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 0 are male and the numbers 2, 4 and 8 female. Like benk, I've never met anyone else who did this before, and somehow I'm finding it extremely disturbing to think of someone assigning different genders to numbers than I do - I actually flinched the first time I read your comment!
crunchland: sorry, double-post. - You're right. I forgot the "(previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously) (previously)."
posted by crunchland at 9:46 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by crunchland at 9:46 AM on July 19, 2012
Neat idea, but maybe a little bit too early in the process to really be interesting yet (a 23 year old dancing to a kind of cheesy, not all that old pop song isn't enough of a contrast from her 17 year old self doing the same). Would be more interested in seeing a video of someone closer to my age doing a similar montage of them dancing to New Kids on the Block or Color Me Badd over the years.
posted by The Gooch at 10:52 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by The Gooch at 10:52 AM on July 19, 2012
No no, it's totally normal for YouTube comments on woman-posted or -featuring videos to focus entirely on the appearance of the woman. No unicorns here.
That also occurred to me, but I award minor points for at least recognizing that someone can become more attractive as she matures. Youtube comments. Small victories.
posted by psoas at 11:04 AM on July 19, 2012
That also occurred to me, but I award minor points for at least recognizing that someone can become more attractive as she matures. Youtube comments. Small victories.
posted by psoas at 11:04 AM on July 19, 2012
Would be more interested in seeing a video of someone closer to my age doing a similar montage of them dancing to New Kids on the Block or Color Me Badd over the years.
Much to the chagrin of my girlfriend and neighbors, I have been continuously performing Motown Philly since middle school. The Internet can thank me later that I never recorded any of it, let alone shared it online.
posted by carsonb at 11:07 AM on July 19, 2012
Much to the chagrin of my girlfriend and neighbors, I have been continuously performing Motown Philly since middle school. The Internet can thank me later that I never recorded any of it, let alone shared it online.
posted by carsonb at 11:07 AM on July 19, 2012
> Panjandrum you beat me to it
You want to post first when I'm in my groove?
Now you know what to do g, bust a move!
posted by Panjandrum at 11:14 AM on July 19, 2012
You want to post first when I'm in my groove?
Now you know what to do g, bust a move!
posted by Panjandrum at 11:14 AM on July 19, 2012
I've never heard this song before, so can't compare, but I still think her version is better than the original.
posted by -harlequin- at 11:25 AM on July 19, 2012
posted by -harlequin- at 11:25 AM on July 19, 2012
She seems happier and more confident with each iteration. I hope she keeps up the series and the good feelings.
posted by Kwine at 12:11 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by Kwine at 12:11 PM on July 19, 2012
What I'm taking away from this is that you're cooler when you're twenty than you are when you're seventeen, mostly because you move away from that small town and make new friends and get over your hormones and my hairdresser is amazing you should really go see him. It's pretty much all downhill from there.
posted by tigrefacile at 1:04 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by tigrefacile at 1:04 PM on July 19, 2012
What I'm taking away from this is that every small town 17-year-old girl had those damn masks on her wall!
Seriously though I find her dancing charming. I hope she continues this.... "project."
posted by AmandaA at 1:11 PM on July 19, 2012
Seriously though I find her dancing charming. I hope she continues this.... "project."
posted by AmandaA at 1:11 PM on July 19, 2012
Ha! Someone pointed out this post, and she tweeted: "I may have just fallen in <3 with MeFi. "Utterly Charming" Who are you and what have you done with the usual internet commenters?"
posted by inigo2 at 2:10 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by inigo2 at 2:10 PM on July 19, 2012
It's pretty much all downhill from there.
Except in this case, where the young lady is clearly improving like a fine wine.
posted by tigrefacile at 2:21 PM on July 19, 2012
Except in this case, where the young lady is clearly improving like a fine wine.
posted by tigrefacile at 2:21 PM on July 19, 2012
Who are you and what have you done with the usual internet commenters?
Oh, we're just a nice bunch of lovely folks.
But don't dig under the basement floor. Even if it smells funny.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:27 PM on July 19, 2012
Oh, we're just a nice bunch of lovely folks.
But don't dig under the basement floor. Even if it smells funny.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:27 PM on July 19, 2012
I'm going to skip past the "hella cute" comments (although I think she is extremely cute RIGHT NOW) and go on to the "I think she would be most cool to hang out with as she is smart and extremely self-confident and apparently full of SCIENCE!" comments then.
posted by Samizdata at 9:10 PM on July 19, 2012
posted by Samizdata at 9:10 PM on July 19, 2012
So, idiot that I am, I missed the numbers in the opening frames (or didn't have the sense to correlate the placement of the numbers with the age of the image behind it). I watched it a couple of times trying to figure out which version was her at 17, 20, and 23.
You have to look at the setting. You can distinguish "bedroom in parents' house" from "institutional college dorm room" from "cheap apartment."
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:38 PM on July 19, 2012
You have to look at the setting. You can distinguish "bedroom in parents' house" from "institutional college dorm room" from "cheap apartment."
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:38 PM on July 19, 2012
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I'll make no comment about “Aaron's Party" Vs Beyonce since they both suck.
posted by Mezentian at 7:34 AM on July 19, 2012