Oh me too!!

I LOVE the internet, I really, really do.



~

Still dancing

Matt Harding: the guy whose life's work it has become to turn the whole world into a Disney musical.

Still regretting having missed him in Rome...


Oh, and Matt? Word to the wise?

Don't tease the North Korean military guard. OK?

Just don't.

~ * ~

Also, go check out his blog. In it, he does some really top-notch travel writing (I've told him when he's tired of being the dancing guy, he should seriously be a travel writer)

and shows us some of the truly weird-ass shit out there.


It's a gold vending machine. It vends gold.

Seriously: "You swipe your credit card, it spits out a slice of gold as if it was a Snickers bar."

Yes, it's in Dubai, land of the weirdly over-rich.

~ * ~

My host in Tokyo was taking me around the city and he asked me what I wanted to do.
I said show me something uniquely Tokyo-ish.
He asked if I wanted to go to a Meido coffee shop.
I said, "what's that?"
He said, "It's a cafe with girls who dress up like french maids."
"And?" I said.
"And they talk to you."
"And?" I said.
"And they play board games with you."
"And?" I said.
"That's it. Just talking and board games."
I said, "Okay, you better take me there immediately."

~

Matt's making another video

And I missed my chance...Dang!


I was signed up to get the email telling me when he was going to be in Rome and it came a few weeks ago telling all his Rome fans that he was going to be in Piazza del Popolo on October 23rd. Just as bad luck would have it though, that was the weekend Vicky and I went to Florence. Florence was awesome, but I was really sorry to have missed him.


Cause, I'm a giddy fan...

Dang!


Here he is doing his thing in Talinn, Estonia.


Aaaand in Zürich

A fun thing to do when he makes his clips is to do your own personal mini Matt video. I totally would have loved to do this. Oh well...

Dang!



~

Matt learns to dance

sort of.

The guy with the best job in the world

Here's some more happy.


Matt has made a VISA ad, apparently in Japan.

I wish I were Matt.

Need a smile?

Weather in Rome today is pretty grey and dismal. It was freezing in Orvieto, but sunny and so pretty nice, for Jan 31.

But today, it's heavy overcast. The sort of day one wants to stay home, drink hot beverages and take a lot of naps.

Too bad about that whole working for a living thing.

Here's some more from Matt:

Not freaking out

Nope.

Not one little bit.

And I am definitely not watching Matt Harding "Regular-Bloke-Makes-the-World-Smile" videos over and over again to make myself feel less freaked out.


Not even a titch.


How to get people to dance badly around the world.

The man with the best job in the world.

The outtakes are pretty good too:

Time for some happy

I've exchanged a couple of emails with Matt, and he's a standup bloke.

If you're looking for a good place to waste some time in the internet, I'd suggest reading his travel diaries. They're incredibly interesting and surprisingly well written for someone who is under 40 and went to public schools.

The man knows how to use an apostrophe.

Here, read this instead

"Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"

ROME in the footsteps of an XVIIIth century traveller


...

this just in:

...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hilary White
> Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 3:00 PM
> To: Matt Harding [matt@wherethehellismatt.com]
> Subject: but
>
> What I think I appreciate about you most, Matt, is that no matter where
> you've been, you seem to remember how to use an apostrophe.
>
> Universal brotherly love, joy and friendship are all very well, but to
> meet a guy, who is world famous no less, who knows the difference between
> 'they're' and 'there', and lo! even 'their', 'its' and it's, 'your' and
> 'you're' is a wonder and joy to behold. And you're under forty!
> Astonishing.
>
> It must be because you've never been to university. Nothing like college
> to entirely ruin a person's ability to think rationally and use
> punctuation.
>
> HJW


Thanks so much for noticing, Hilary (and I even caught the one 'l' too).

I can't tell you how much it means to have someone compliment my grammar.
Seriously.

-Matt

Are you OK?

Feeling worried? A bit overwhelmed?

Thinking about the impending end of western civilisation and all good things? Worried you're going to end your days in a gulag for your Christian beliefs? Worried that you won't have a pension and will end your days in a scene reminiscent of a particularly grim Philip K. Dick novel?

Thinking about the ozone layer (remember that?), the rising ocean levels, the mass extinction of cute furry animals?

Worried about the demographic collapse and the inevitability of civil war in Europe over who gets to keep Chartres Cathedral? Wondering if your children will live a long happy life in a free society with lots of cheap Spanish oranges to eat or if the Peak Oil crisis is going to plunge us into a global economic tailspin that will launch us all into a permanent state of third-world misery and perpetual want?


Well, take a look at this. It will cheer you up.



Matt Harding is a regular guy who made a video of his travels in Asia and got very very lucky after that.

Matt reminds me a little of me, especially the part about being a bad student, but except for the part about living with his girlfriend in Seattle. I don't live with Matt's girlfriend and I live in England.

Matt lives in Seattle, Washington with his girlfriend, Melissa, and dog, Sydney. He hasn't had a real job since Stride [the company that pays him to travel around and make videos] called him up. Matt doesn't mind working, but he doesn't much care for having to show up at the same place every day.

Matt is not rich. Matt also doesn't have some magical secret for traveling cheaply. He does it pretty much the same way everybody else does.

Matt thinks Americans need to travel abroad more.

Matt was a very poor student and never went to college. When he got older, he was pleased to discover that no one actually cares. Matt doesn't want to imply that college is bad or anything. He's just saying is all. There's other ways to fill your head.

I love the internet. I truly do. I'd live in the Matrix in a second.

If I could get it implanted directly into my brain, I'd be happy to pay the price,

even if it meant my brain getting taken over by aliens.

As it normally does.



H/T to John Jalsevac,
who told me about it via Messenger
and who also loves the internet.