An amazing COSMOS Talent Show performance by Daniel Hughes and Ben Worley!
Video by Lauren Liu
List of Demands
As requested by Daniel Hughes, the aforementioned backflipper, here is a list of various fulfilments for his ten conditions under which I (web designer Celina Chen) was permitted to use this video in Macrocosm:
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” —Jack Handey
#carrotcake
A few poems about the performance:
a guitarist and gymnast walk into a bar the bartender says "hey it would be really funny if you guys did a talent show performance together at the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science where you [the gymnast] do backflips while you're [the guitarist] strumming the guitar" —Celina Chen
i am in a dim crowded room with no friends. i have slept nine hours combined in the past two days. i am falling asleep in my chair and i could be anywhere else. as they say, if you're only here for a month, you should make the most of it. as they also say, you can lead stem students to a talent show but you can't make them drink. and what are talent shows to me but a baseball bat to the brain about my own unremarkability? the show goes on. and on. and on. and yet . . . something twinges in my charred, blackened, long-dead soul at the next act. the two performers enter left, radiant like angels. i will perhaps never know why they chose to bless me (and roughly 293 other students and residential advisors (minus a few due to the recent coronavirus outbreak (my condolences to those who were infected and forced to return home))) with the vision of hope that our world so desperately needs. one. the thump of shoes meeting the floor accents the silence that marks the lives of roughly 294 students and residential advisors being changed. two. i am a pilgrim at the amphitheater of heaven's gate, witnessing the drama of celestial beings. three. i am a mere human to achilles. four. my exhaustion melts away, dispelled by the bright, clear vibrations of the guitar strings. five. i am captivated by the trajectory of the backflip. six. the performer soars as if propelled on wings. seven. my eyes are opened to the beauty, the incredulity of our existence. eight. a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion atoms aligned to make this single performance possible. nine. it astounds much in the same way a record-setting marathon does—it stuns me, the capability of humans for magic. ten. i behold the power of angels. the applause of roughly 294 students and residential advisors feels like building, distant thunder and fills the room like clouds. is it really possible? is it possible that i have witnessed the next major historical event inside the university of california santa cruz’s college 9/10 multipurpose room? they exit left, the two angels. they are gone. and yet, i carry the divine light of the 2023 cosmos talent show with me wherever i go. i see it everywhere. look, there it is—in the halation of streetlights at twilight, in the formation of supernovae in black space, in the rays of sunlight through a dark forest. —Celina Chen
In a talent show's magical embrace, A gymnast and guitarist found their place. Ten backflips soared, defying space, A duet of wonder, a captivating chase. —ChatGPT
Beware of the College 9/10 dining hall's wet floors.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a 1992 independent animated musical fantasy film. The feature directorial debut by Bill Kroyer, FernGully was scripted by Jim Cox and adapted from the "FernGully" stories by Diana Young. The film is an Australian and American venture produced by Kroyer Films, Inc., Youngheart Productions, FAI Films and 20th Century Fox. It stars the voices of Samantha Mathis, Tim Curry, Christian Slater, Jonathan Ward, Robin Williams, and Grace Zabriskie. FernGully is set in an Australian rainforest inhabited by fairies including Crysta, who accidentally shrinks a young logger named Zak to the size of a fairy. Together, they rally the fairies and the animals of the rainforest to protect their home from the loggers and Hexxus, a malevolent pollution entity. Wayne Young, the film's producer, said the film was "blatantly environmental" though made an effort to avoid "preaching" (Wikipedia).
This video was made possible by Sir Coach Gavin James Devoss De Boss De Baby The CEO of Nintendo Nigerian Prince Professional Indian Tech Support and King of the Chickens.
Thank you to Vaishal Karpuram for his support of Ben in this performance.
#antigoonsquad
Works Cited
Wikipedia. “Ferngully: The Last Rainforest.” Wikipedia, 18 July 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FernGully:_The_Last_Rainforest. Accessed 29 July 2023.