Top Three Thursday – *Guest Spot* Video A-Go-Go

Video A-go-go Vol. 1: Surviving the Amazon

Just this morning I finished a seasonal gig at Amazon where I worked ten hour shifts from 6:00 pm to 4:30 am in what I believe is called the pallet dock. Essentially, pallet dock workers take care of all the product that arrives in trucks at Amazon’s “Fulfillment Centers” (read: warehouses). We unwrapped, sorted, scanned into inventory, and then properly re-plastic wrapped product such that boxes couldn’t plummet onto and smush any of the lift operators and robots (yes, robots!) that stowed pallets on three-story shelving units.

Leadership understandably considered headphones a safety hazard as pallet dock works closely with very fast fork lift cars I only ever heard called “pits” piloted by crew who must beep twice at each pedestrian. Bleary-eyed, we instead toiled to the dulcet tones of plastic wrap ripping, pits beeping furiously down the line, wooden pallets crunching and creaking on the floor, boxes plopping on pallets, and the low, vague, omnipresent whorl of colossal industrial ceiling fans. So we workers made our own music when we could.

Today, we decided, would not be the day that we survivors, we who had dubbed ourselves “The Suicide Squad,” would give up. Too late to walk out, we went into the dead plastic spider web forest head-first. Work became a scavenger hunt, wads of eviscerated cellophane were hurled ala fireballs– Hadouken!— stacking turned into Tetris, and, between the stacks, we reveled in everyone’s eccentricities. 4:25 am came too soon. Leadership had to call us out of the stacks and cut us off from making further pallets. Gathered at the sign-out station, a different kind of quiet passed between us that did not sing of exhaustion but rather accomplishment and appreciation for one another.

When Xochtil asked if I’d like to do a guest-spot on When Apples Are Oranges, I didn’t quite know what that would look like. I’ve settled on two things I enjoy, music videos and writing about stuff, to convey that sense of synergy my cool coworkers and I shared this last night shift at Amazon. It was impossibly late/early, we were punchy, folks got real zany real fast, and we kicked a lot of metaphorical ass. Combine the auras in these three videos and you’ll hopefully get a feeling of the groove we got in. Enjoy!

3) The Avalanches- Because I’m Me

Have you ever really tried to impress someone? With the astonishing, absurdly, chest-poppingly enormous brass band enthusiasm they make you feel for an otherwise mundane, brick-and-mortar world!? Because I’m Me’s protagonist, who recalls the innocent panache of Jackson 5 Michael, really tries. His efforts explode reality . . . and yet, still the world is unimpressed. SMH.

2) Forever (Pt. II)- Snakeships ft. Kaleem Taylor

This selection’s title is misleading. True, Taylor lends his smooth vocals to lots of tracks and Snakeships probably was behind any of the remixes you liked from the likes of Bondax and The Weeknd in the last two years. But give credit where it’s due. The title should read: Forever (Pt. II)- Snakeships ft. Kaleem Taylor AYABAMBI ARE THE REAL STAR!!!

Veritas. The dance duo exude Tokyo cool in every last frame with killer isolations and a vogue game that cuts, cuts, and keeps cutting. Apropo since their big break came on a Madonna video whereon they met Alexander Wang who then signed them to a big project in 2015. Since, they’ve modeled and danced in several shows, videos, and a stellar collaboration with FKA Twigs’s choreographer on the MOVEment project (which you really must see sometime). Dazed calls them a power couple. They are. Enjoy.

1) Dance Off- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Idris Elba

Yes, you read that correctly. Everyone’s favorite Bond candidate plays Shang Tsung to a series of very constructive solutions to several unfortunate conflicts between overly competitive individuals.