Perez Hilton mistakenly congratulated students at my Canadian alma mater for producing a lipsync to Hey Soul Sister. Nevertheless, it was Universitat de Vic students that created the original and garnered over
1. Adding a call to action at the end of the video offering the URL for donation;
2. Coming up with another group activity. Lipdub is a bit Team Cyprus 2008 and at this point because TMobile has already helped play out the genre there may be easier ways to go viral;
3. Choosing more contemporary music. Michael Buble and Rick Astley are not cool; and,
4. While it’s been more than 10 years since I’ve attended this school, they could’ve been a little less bonkers and preppy. This isn’t a school for keeners and Gleeks.
MY MEMORIES…
The UVic I knew and loved was a place where Joey Ramone was god, where feminist film studies was best chased with a rusty nail and where the Engineering Lab Wing (featured during the Rickroll segment) was just a place to sleep, smoke and take off your Doc Martens if you got evicted. It was full of angst, dudes wearing eyeliner and Aleister Crowley zealots. I’m going to assume that in order to make this lipdub happen, they either got a hugely potent shipment of mushrooms or that campus services released early parking passes to those who participated.
THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS…
It’s not all bad though. I do appreciate the fact that there’s a donation section to the United Way and Children’s Hospital. The United Way of Victoria in particular helped fund all of the city’s homeless shelters, contributes to the sobering center, and is a huge supporter of the assisted living services for active intravenous drug users. When I last worked for the shelters there were 900 homeless people in a 20 block radius with 60% of them having concurrent mental illnesses and addiction. On second thought, maybe it’s good to project a preppy image to students.
To donate to the project and the United Way, click here
