Just because postmodernism tends to leave me feeling like I've been served a Xerox copy of a 5 course meal doesn't mean I'm above a little po-mo hyper-reflexivity and self-referential shenanigans every now and then.

Like Friday, when -- as part of our house party celebrating YouTube's birthday -- I staged photos of each housemate in front of their wall-sized video self and then all of us under the projected image of our street sign -- all of which came from the party invitation, itself a YouTube video (itself featuring our favorite YouTube videos in ironic homage to its power to deflate authentic community). This anemic Zen koan of visuals proceeded, it should be noted, an entire evening of projected YouTube clips on continuous play -- said clips being favorites submitted in advance and in real time by the aforementioned-video-invited guests.

My stakes-raising plan to shoot video of the party (including these metaportraits) which I could then upload to YouTube, choose as a favorite and integrate into the continuous play for showing on the very same wall fell prey to a strong Shakers-and-OJ . . . and a stronger desire to (as they say) interface non-asynchronously with the ontological agents at hand in their temporal totality.

PS: By popular demand, here's a link to the 96 submitted video clips. And because I believe in the po-mo concept best expressed as the presence of the absence, here's the video invitation itself: