In 2012, Ze Frank (zay, not zee) started a second YouTube series called a show. This show was a follow-up to his influential first series, the show, a prototypical vlog circa 2006 that basically defined vlogs as a concept. I didn’t watch the show because in 2006 I lived in a small town in Iowa. My process for watching videos on the internet at the time involved opening a video and leaving to eat dinner while it buffered.
Today, you might know Ze Frank for the “True Facts” series, or for doing a couple of TED Talks, or for narrating cat food commercials, or for being in charge of BuzzFeed Video for a while. Life is long and strange, and the internet made the 2010s feel longer and stranger.
The first video for a show, and my introduction to Ze Frank as a person, is called “An Invocation for Beginnings.”
It’s a weird little video. I watch it when I start things. It’s a guy, who did a thing that became unexpectedly popular, trying to start a new thing without carrying all the baggage from the old thing into it. It’s inspirational without feeling contrived. It’s maybe the most honest thing ever put on the internet.
So, here I am, at the beginning of a decade, trying to let my mistakes and failures in the last one stay there. Trying to do the work without treating it as a stepping stone to something else. And, where it is, becoming fascinated with the shape of the stone, and letting that fascination guide my path.