Sunday, May 2, 2010

A good sign of the First of May

Stephen Torrence is one-third of the gents at the Bad Philosophy podcast. He's also a, well- let's let his twitter bio tell the story:

    Renaissance geek, philomath, Texas Tech Philosophy Major,
    Jack of all Trades, Jonathan Coulton fan, and ASL songsigner


And yes, that's all true, interesting collection of attributes that it is. Also? Philomath. Steamy!

I should have listened to my gal, the incomparable Adele McAlear when she first told me about Torrence. She had to tell me a second time. I should have known better. [Adele, forgive me.]

Let me get to the point—and I do have one. Yes, I know we're a few days into the month, and yes, I had already referenced this song on May Day, and yes, I'm one of those people who can't get enough of Coulton's music, but you really must check this out.

It's Coulton's “First of May” in American Sign Language. You can choose to watch the video with captions—which is very cool since it's not only the lyrics, but the sign transcript as well.



Now tell me that you don't have a crush on this fellow.

Caution: No, this is not safe for work. And it's still kind of risky if you turn off the sound. You never know what your boss's skill set might include.

Addendum: Adele left an interesting note in the comments. You might want to check out Torrence's ASL version of "Re: Your Brains".

8 comments:

Frank said...

That song is freakin awesome. Wow...he's my new favorite artist. Very fun. And I learned some ASL, too.

Podblack said...

*snap* Blogged it myself, had a few people email me and say 'it's actually even funnier with the signing!' :D

Brickgrrl said...

Frank- ha! I'll bet you did learn a few things. Me, too!

K is for Kat- It *is* funnier with signing but, as with anything, I think it depends who is signing. Torrence has great style and a sense of comic timing. Also rhythm.

Tracy Lee said...

Awesome...fucking outside awesome.

Now...to find someone.

Wait? Did I just say that aloud?

Brickgrrl said...

Hey Trace- You can say it all here. Out loud and proud.

spellwight said...

That was excellent! Thanks for sharing.

Brickgrrl said...

Omigosh! A Deb sighting! Thanks for stopping by.

Adele McAlear said...

I met @storrence at SXSW where he attended the last session of the interactive conference on digital legacy (my special research project). He added to the discussion and later introduced himself as a philosophy student and podcaster. It was only later that I discovered that he'd done the ASL song work. He's got a wide range of songs (including Miley Cyrus), but he's definitely a Coulton fan (there's a video of him performing 1st of May with Coulton live on stage). Here is one of my favourites - Re: Your Brains http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQYjZc7gKXc

Glad you liked him - I knew you would :)