So my buddy Trey gave me the idea to make a harlem shake video... and I was already making videos of my friends and I messing with Brother Jed... so naturally this happened.
Surprisingly though, the event I made on FB for it got nearly 500 people going and it became this huge thing.
So before I go on an even bigger rant, here are some of the videos:
My Cut:
The Kid in the penguin suit's cut:
Random other cut:
So this whole thing has caused quite a bit of buzz lately, There's currently a 500+ comment flame war raging on the event page between Brother Jed's family and supportes and random UA kids due to the now infamous 'Penguin Incident' (partially seen in the 2nd video) Also It's been getting some media coverage as well. I've been on the cover of UA's newspaper 2 days in a row now, I was interviewed on UA's radio station, and various news websites have been reporting this event too:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/freethought-arizona/2013/02/11/bring-out-your-jed-brother-jed-returns-to-the-u-of-a/
http://azstarnet.com/latest/article_f6cc818c-76ce-11e2-b780-001a4bcf887a.html
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/blogs/Post?basename=flash-harlem-shake-mob-surrounds-evangelist-on-ua-campus-penguin-pays-the-price&day=14&gpt=1&id=TheRange&month=02&year=2013
http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2013/02/ua-students-steal-brother-jeds-stage-with-harlem-shake-and-silent-disco
It's on Reddit as well:
http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/related/18hdn2/harlem_shake_university_of_arizona_edition/
Harlem Shake Videos:
http://harlemshakevideos.com/harlem-shake-university-of-arizona-edition-475
Finally: I posted this response on my facebook, and the Event page's wall too:
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Finally got through all of the notifications and news articles and comments.
Overall, I'd say mostly positive reviews. I've gotten quite a few handshakes yesterday and today, support from people watching the video and reading about it so all I can say is thank you and no, thank YOU 
I'd also like to address the criticisms of the whole event, just so people can know my thoughts and get some definite answers.
The Penguin incident comes up quite a bit, which is typical for media these days. It definitely was a moment of drama and tension, but in the end I think it's safe to say that Jed, Andrew, and myself are all fine with what happened / each other. Jed and I shook hands after the whole thing. The giant flame war in the event page was still going as of tonight at over 500 comments. At this point it looks mostly like my friends / random others trolling haha. But seriously, nothing has become of this incident, nobody was sued and, as far as i know, nobody has intension of suing anybody. I'm glad to hear this because I personally believe that in a day and age where people will sue each other over the stupidest shit, this demonstrates good character in all parties involved. Yay us.
The other thing that came up a lot was freedom of speech. Mostly people saying we were a bunch of brainless college kids, following the mob revoking an innocent man's rights. To that I just have to say that I believe this was a massive demonstration of freedom of speech. It was a non-violent protest, combined with a silly social gathering. To all the people who were upset by it (one guy even said he wants to punch me in the face for being so disrespectful) ...it seems your jimmies have been compromised. It must suck to have something like this upset you. If you're going to say that we were in the wrong for disrupting a preaching because it's disrespectful then you must also admit that telling people that they are going to be tortured for eternity for being gay, or listening to the wrong kind of music, or not believing something. I'd even say the latter is more extreme. In the end it was two opposing parties, each with somewhat controversial views and statements who (mostly) peacefully coexisted. The fact that the police onsite didn't have to get involved was pretty cool if you ask me.
The other criticisms were about the videos themselves. All I can say to that is the video turned out WAY different than I originally imagined it. In the end, this video was mostly just for fun. Making youtube videos is a hobby of mine and I like how it turned out. Even though I expected 30 - 60 people originally to be in it, the fact that so many people got behind this is really cool, and I can't thank you all enough. To address the criticisms in image quality - The reason the video doesn't look 1080p (it was recorded on my GoPro Hero 2 which shoots in 1080) the image quality had to be sacrificed to remove camera shake. The original plan was to not have anybody on the hill, but there were so many people that was impossible. We had to have someone hand-hold the camera from a tree to get a decent angle and because of that I had to do a LOOOT of shake reduction. To do this, the image must be zoomed and cropped, which is what ultimately lowered the quality. Even then, I'd say this still isn't bad for somebody who planned this in less than 5 days between work and classes. If I were to do it again I'd probably make the event invite - only or had moved the location to get a better angle, but then again hindsight is always 20/20. (But looking' back is still a bit fuzzy)
So overall, I'm pleased with the whole thing, the discussions it's sparked, and the responses I've been getting from people, despite, or maybe, including the controversy.
TL;DR:
My reaction to the Harlem shake:
The penguin incident was nbd.
I think this was a successful, non-violent demonstration of free speech for both Jed and The rest of us.
The video did not go as planned, but it was still fun to do and that's why I did it in the first place.
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