dance monkeys dance
Ernie Cline says . . .
Dance Monkeys Dance began life as a slam poem that I wrote in the fall of 2000. It was largely inspired by the work of two of my heroes, Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. I included the poem on my first spoken word CD and also made it available as a free download on my website. It became one of my most popular recordings, and a lot of people emailed it to their friends and posted links to it on blogs and message boards.
In March 2005, a college student named Paulo Ang used my audio recording of Dance Monkeys Dance to create a flash animation for a class project he was doing. He did this without my knowledge or input and then posted the animation online. It became a popular Internet meme. A lot of people emailed it to their friends and posted links to it on blogs and message boards, and it eventually led to the poem being featured on NPR.
I enjoyed Paulo’s animation, but I also thought some of the images used in it might lead viewers to misinterpret the poem’s meaning, or infer a subtext I never intended. I eventually felt inspired/compelled to create my own visuals for Dance Monkeys Dance.
I decided to rework and expand the original poem to serve as narration for a faux educational filmstrip, like those I grew up watching in grade school. I completed the Dance Monkeys Dance Filmstrip in December 2005 and made it available on my website. The filmstrip has since become a popular viral video. A lot of people email it to their friends and post links to it on blogs and message boards. And over the past year, fans around the globe have translated the filmstrip into 17 different languages. Harkle.com has also been kind enough to add closed captions for the hearing impaired.
The Internet is a strange and powerful thing.
One final note: I know Homo Sapiens belong to the family Hominidae, and that we’re technically “great apes” and not “monkeys.” This error in taxonomy was wholly intentional. For my purposes, I felt that the cadence and connotation of the word “monkey” worked far better than “ape” or “anthropoid.” Also, Webster’s Dictionary defines a “monkey” as:
1. a nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers; especially: any of the smaller longer-tailed primates as contrasted with the apes.
2.a. a person resembling a monkey
b. a ludicrous figure : a dupe
The author’s own version:
What a downer. I went to see if Vonnegut is really that negative, and it would seem so by most of the quotes found. (I have read some of his works, but years ago.) Here is a thought of his that I can live with:
“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan
BTW, I didn’t mean to put down your post — it just made me sad. Probably others will think it’s funny.
Hey Hey, we’re the Monkeys, people say we monkey around, but we’re too busy DANCING to put anybody down.
Hey, hey, Kired – your comment cheered me up, inadvertently or otherwise. Or perhaps it was the fact that you didn’t mock me.
Ernie Kline’s Bio is funny.
Oh! I know a monkey dancing story!
Once upon a time there was a happy little monkey who discovered a dancing monkey that she admired very much. This dancing monkey was an entertaining, singing, dancing monkey who gave much enjoyment to the monkeys. He became well-loved by many of the other monkeys because he was so talented.
But something terrible happened to the dancing monkey. Because of a constant stream of bananas promised to him by some show-business monkeys, he started performing, on-demand, an intolerably silly and goofy new monkey dance. Over, and over, and over, he continued to perform the very silly monkey dance, until it became the only thing the dancing monkey did anymore.
This was very diappointing to the little monkey — and to many of the other monkeys who had loved the dancing monkey’s originality. But some of the monkeys were so in awe of the dancing monkey that they loved anything that he did, so they continued to admire and applaud the dancing monkey. This pleased the dancing monkey, and he turned his back on his true talent to continue performing the silly monkey dance.
The little monkey became very, very sad.
It’s a tragic story. I’m afriad there may not be a happy ending.
Methinks you should look for a new dancing object. Perhaps a banana?
LOL
I give up - I still can’t come up with anything to follow a dancing banana - and believe me I’ve spent some insomnia time trying !
Found this oddly fascinating at 2 AM though . . . . . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7_05NklsSc
Enjoyed the dancing pots, AH. I just finished most stressful annual project, 55% larger than last year with same turnaround time expectation, and unwound a bit looking for a dance of joy. Here are four that tickled me:
Dance of Joy, Perfect Strangers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sruUodh5DLc
Dance of Joy, SOAS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrG-nfeE7Ck
Dance of Joy in the Himalayas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zSuhhn8i4g
Numfar Does the Dance of Joy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycFqzNxiTwY&feature=related
‘just saying’, now that’s a clever story. I remember someone else writing “Dance Monkey Dance” on a long ago blog. We monkeys like to dance. Some more than others.
You know chimpanzees can be warring and brutal beasts. Interesting, they are labeled as being the closest related to humans, of the primates.