An Hour With Everyone

Brooklyn, Sunday April 5th, 2015, 3:30 PM

A small girl, maybe 3 years old, wearing a pink dress and purple shoes, with her hair in a comical ponytail pointing straight up, is opening presents with family and friends on the couch in the living room. Someone pokes their finger at the ponytail and it flops back and forth.

Friends in Italy are eating a dinner out at a loud restaurant. A man with glasses nods that his meal is excellent. Medium, maybe medium-rare steak. Lots of red wine. An argument about Colombia. A close up on some long, elegant earrings.

In the middle seat in a nice SUV, man with a totally reasonable beard is speaking with a friend. Making hand gestures imitating people talking to each other. One of the comments is repeated to the camera, joyously.

A young woman in a white sweater with blue eyes looks tired, by herself, she speaks directly to the camera, laughing and smiling at some of the comments, asking people what she should talk about tomorrow? She decides she will show everyone around Moscow.

A baby, maybe one or two years old, is sitting in a colorful bouncy baby thing. Television is playing basketball in the background. The man with the camera is encouraging the baby to bounce. The baby pauses, then smiles whenever it bounces, with its mouth wide open.

A brief glimpse, a few frames of a family in a field sharing Easter together before the stream ends abruptly.

Close up of Black Forest bacon wrapper in a well lit kitchen. “What’s under there, people?” The broadcaster asks the camera. Pan and zoom to bacon sizzling in a skillet. “They have bacon in California, yeah they do. Where are you from?” he tells the commenters. Pan back and forth between the four slices of bacon as they sizzle. Comments about the duck eggs that will be cooked next. He shuffles the bacon in the skillet.

Walking by vases in a museum, they look Greco-Roman, they are behind glass. Someone off camera is pestering someone else, “Let go! Stop!”. The walls of the museum are a deep red.

Clarinet practice by a girl maybe 7 or 8 years old. Her family is just out of the frame, watching from the couch. She announces what she will play next: “Appalachain Hoedown”. It’s very repetitive but no one complains. She taps her toes very gingerly on the carpet. One person watching wears loafers, the other person has black socks or leggings. Television in the background just above the girl’s head is showing golf.

3:45

A teenage boy is listening to music with earbuds. Someone asks him to take off his shirt and he repeats the question deadpan. He looks tired and wipes something from his eyes. He’s laying in bed and there are books on a shelf behind him.

Walking down the boulevard on Coney Island. The sky is very cloudy and the broadcaster walks with the camera sideways. The camera is flipped around for a moment, and the broadcaster appears to be an unshaven 20-something man with sunglasses on his head and a blue t-shirt. Someone tells him to flip the video vertical. He starts responding to comments: “Just enjoying some springtime weather in New York.” Camera flip. A big toothy smile.

Flying kites on the beach. The older man guides the young girl’s kite “right into the sun”. “It’s a stunt kite!” he says. Excitement. It’s incredibly windy and the girl’s hood completely engulfs her head. “There it goes! Recover, recover!” And the broadcaster runs to the kite to relaunch it after a crash.

On a swing, a teenage girl is being pushed by a man behind her. Woodchips on the ground. The swing is incredibly squeaky. A moment of fear believing that the swing is falling apart, she switches to a new swing. Laughing when she is pushed for the first time on this swing. Her friend hops on the other swing, “Oh, so you can get on the broken one?”

Teenagers walking down a boardwalk. Bright night city lights. She’s holding the camera like she’s going to take a selfie, staring at the camera the whole time while she is walking. Monologue with the camera about the evening.

“Three filet of fish, large fries, double cheeseburger.” He’s ordering food at McDonalds. Gray and balding with glasses. He’s reading comments: “Disgusting. Sugar me. Love it. Fuck you. My favorite restaurant. Fuck you. Where’s the McRib. Handsome middle aged guy.” To this last one he asks the camera: “Is that you or is that me?” He keeps reading, “Ignore the mean people. Fuck you.” He asks the camera again: “How do you get rid of the weirdos?”

Teenage boys in matching white and black football jackets with his friend in the backset of a car. Checking his suave black hair in the camera. Friend looks over, seemingly interested, but then goes back to doing something else. An exchange with some laughing and incredulity.

Close up on fabric with white polka dots against a black background. “It’s my blanket!” She says. Then again, “It’s my blanket.” after someone asks again.

4:00

New broadcast from folks on the beach with the kite. Just staring straight up at the blue sky and white kite. The wind is roaring and whistling. The beach is very wide. No clouds. The kite seems pinned to the sky.

Middle aged man with an eyebrow piercing holds the camera to his face and counts up until 45 viewers are listening, then flips the camera around. “Alright you dirty rat! Aluminium.” He’s reading the things people ask him to say. Two young women and a middle age man are sitting in lawn chairs outside at night, drinking “tea, cherry coke, Budweiser, Fosters”. The weather is terrible, he says. Pan up to a small star in the sky that’s barely visible, implied to have been featured earlier in the stream. Slurping the beer. “Why are we outside? Because we like to be outside.”

Manicured suburban front yard with yellow green grass and a small tree. A teenage boy is holding the camera while he tries to climb a tree. “Let’s find a good place to start?” Someone asks him and he repeats: “Have you heard the good news that Jeebus got risen from the dead today? I’m going all the way up to that top branch. Actually you know what this tree isn’t doing it for me.” Camera flip. He’s got glasses and wearing a dark hoodie, short brown hair. Finds a new tree, “I’m going to make it to the top. This is for Dick Cheney. Dick I love you. I always have you on my mind. I love you baby. Oh shit.” He falls out of the tree.

Walking around the kitchen and checking out various dishes and ingredients. Family is chatting in another room, laughing, something about Cinderella. The food is already eaten and the kitchen is an absolute mess.

Watching TV in the living room. The carpet is floral. The broadcaster flips the camera for a moment. She’s a young woman with long brown hair. Someone says something that makes her laugh and look disgusted simultaneously. The TV makes noise in the background while she tells her friend what she’s reading. More looks of disgust and interest.

Two teenage girls at some venue at night with colorful lights in the background. Reading comments and chatting with the viewers. Giggling while pop rock music plays in another room.

Walking down the street alone with the camera pointed towards himself. “Happy Easter, I’m in my Easter colors and stuff. Remember this is all about Jesus raising from the dead, saving us all from Hell and stuff like that.” He laughs. He’s chatting with the viewers, encouraging us to follow various people he knows. He just reached his front door and says bye.

View of a city skyline over a medium sized body of water. The sky is overcast with some lower clouds. Ducks quacking, birds singing, traffic in the distance. Looking down briefly, this must be at least 6 stories off the ground. Panning left and right over and over. The road below has a bike path. A car honks. A bird flies by below. Broadcast ends.

Close up on an Apple computer for Danielle Bellasio, it’s booting up. The user icon is a basketball. The background after it starts is a field with some industrial metal machinerey. Launchpad view, an app is selected. Facebook appears. Paolo Bottelli has the most recent post on the timeline

4:15

Woman and a man are laying in bed together watching a TV at the foot of the bed. They’re under the covers, no lights except the TV. On the TV it looks like a movie or show with two people on an island. The woman pans the camera to the man, he leans over and whispers something. She replies, and lets out a long chuckle with no response from him.

Young man with a mic is rapping in his bedroom over some minimal beats. The broadcaster is smoking an e-cigarette and asks everyone what they want his friend to rap about. Starts rapping about “Mac and Cheese”. He’s really mixing it up with the timing. The rapper’s voice cracks and they both laugh. Broadcast ends.

Young woman is looking into camera reading the comments, playing with her hair. She rests her head on her palm. She laughs at the comments. The walls behind her are yellow and white with a green poster or flag on the wall. Really heavy dance music plays very quietly. She’s reading and replying to all the comments with a big grin on her face.

Stopped at a light, looking out the right side of the car at the driver in the next car, who is applying makeup. Camera flip, our broadcaster is a young woman in the passenger seat with huge black sunglasses and a floppy black hat. She’s singing with Nelly on the radio “where the Bacardi at?” She just parked the car, there’s no one else there. She’s been driving and streaming the whole time. She’s at a gas station, enters her credit card PIN into the gas pump: 6511… pan away. Card is declined. She heads inside to pay at the register instead. Back to the car, waiting for the tank to fill up.

A night out with some 20-something friends at the bar. There are a few beers on the table and a no smoking sign in the background. Everyone gathers in front of the camera. A man with a formidable mustache makes a gesture like he’s going to bite the camera. They’re cracking up at the comments and keeping the camera on the mustachioed man.

“Caitlin say hi!” A huge dog is wearing a really small party hat in the middle of the living room. “I don’t know how he’s keeping it on, normally he doesn’t keep it on this long. Caitlin, you’re totally Easter-bombing your Easter baskets.” The broadcaster waves the camera around to two young girls then to the dog, asking them each to say bye, then flips the camera on herself. She has dark red hair and long cyan earrings with some sunglasses on her head. End broadcast.

Teenage friends or family at a table together in someones home. They’re accepting “G Rated” questions from viewers. Pan over to a boy on a laptop, they ask “Ham or bologna?” He gives a peace sign and they chastize him for not answering the question. “I think it’s frozen? Yeah it’s frozen.” End broadcast.

4:30

View of the NYC skyline from across the Hudson. It’s windy and overcast. They’re leaning over a railing. I know this spot, it’s in Greenpoint. One or two other people are on the pier going for a walk. Spinning around without any clear direction. Pan up to the sun shining through the clouds. Someone asks them to hold the phone vertical and they do. If I left now I could find this person. End broadcast.